Chapter 28

*Marie's point of view

We stand right next to Erin's corpse, surrounding his body. Joel and I went around the whole bathroom looking for the rest of his limbs. I had to swallow down the bile that was collecting in my throat. I'm sure Joel had to do the same. After all, we were touching our friend's decapitated limbs. We found them easily and arranged the parts where they are supposed to be. I commend Briella's courage but she couldn't help crying after about a minute. I pat her shoulder. I know this is hard on everyone, especially Briella. We stay silent with the exception of Briella's held-in cries. None of us still believes this is real. This is our reality. Shelley stands right in between Joel and Briella in complete silence. She's awfully quiet. She hasn't said or done a single thing. I had expected her to scream or gag when she saw the body but instead she went curiously to the corpse. She gasped when she recognized the face. That's it. There was no scream, no gag, no tears, just a gasp. Now we all stand together mourning.

The shuffling of contents broke the small silence. I look over to see Shelley searching through her backpack. All eyes are on her. She continues looking until she pulls out a small beautiful blue stone. She steps toward Erin's empty body and lays it on top of his heart.

"I'm sorry, my friend. May you rest in peace. Cross over safely and be happy. You will never leave our thoughts, Erin. Thank you," Shelley mutters something else under her breath then bows.

Briella cries even louder at Shelley's eulogy. Her words seems to make it even more real. He's really gone. Looking down at Erin's cut up body I am filled with more determination. No one else will die. We will get out of here.

-*Briella's point of view

I wipe my face trying to take the stickiness out. My dried tears have left a trail on my filthy face. Right now, we all are gathered at the library. After talking about what to do we decided to talk at the archives to explain some things. We felt like it was the safest place.

"So, this Sachiko girl helped you?" Joel asks Marie.

"Yup," was Marie's simple answer.

"Thank you," I sniffle.

"Thank me? For what?"

"For coming back. You didn't have to."

"Of course I did. I'm not abandoning you guys here."

"Yes, thank you Marie," Shelley smiles.

"Yeah thanks Marie." both boys say at the same time.

"Wait, why did she save you?" Lenny questions.

"I have no idea. I wasn't here first choice though." Marie tells.

"Who was here first choice?"

"Wouldn't that mean there's more people here?!" Joel exclaims.

"I don't know. She said something about a witch though," Marie answers.

At the corner of my eye, I could have sworn Shelley jumped a little at the mention of a witch.

"Witch?" Lenny asks fearfully.

"I'm hoping she was joking. Anyway, that doesn't matter." Lenny gets ready to retort back. "I found a way to get out of here." Those words stop Lenny from saying anything.

"What?!" the boys shout together.

"Sachiko told me how a group of students escaped here. We just need to do the charm backwards," Marie explains to us the steps.

"That's seriously all we have to do?" Joel responded in awe.

"That's it."

"Well, what are we waiting for?! Let's get out of this hellhole!" Lenny starts walking to the door.

"Yeah, there's a problem. It might not work."

"What do you mean it might not work?" Joel's face turns serious at that statement.

"Sachiko told me there's a shield around this whole dimension that keeps people in and people out. We first need to weaken the shield if we want to get out otherwise the charm will be useless."

"Great. How the fuck are we supposed to do that?" Lenny snaps.

"I thought we can read something in here that might be useful," Marie answers glaring at him.

I pick up a book from the floor. "You do know that the books are in Japanese, right?"

"Shouldn't be a problem for Joel. He's half Japanese half Korean," Lenny states.

"Just because I'm half Japanese and half Korean, I can all of a sudden speak both languages? That's racist."

"Please, I've heard you speak a different language."

"Doesn't mean it's Japanese!"

"Can you or can you not?" Marie interrupts.

Joel sighs, "Yeah."

"You can read the books for us then," I say.

"Read the books?!" He turns to see all the shelves against the walls filled from top to bottom with books. "All of them?!"

"Of course not all of them! We'll be stuck here forever if you do!" Marie snaps.

"Well, how am I going to find the information? It'll take a while to find it with only me."

Marie rolls her eyes and picks up a book. She starts reading. The words are unrecognizable, weird sounding to me. When she finishes she looks straight at Joel who's gaping at her.

"You know Japanese?" Joel asks.

"Yup," Marie starts speaking again the other language. Joel excitedly speaks back the same language with ease. We watch as the talk easily with each other.

"Um... any idea what they're saying?" I whisper to Shelley and Lenny.

Lenny shakes his head, "Not a clue."

"Joel is asking Marie how she learned Japanese," Shelley explains.

We both stare at her. "How did you know that?" I ask.

"My mom's friend taught my brother and me." Shelley takes a hesitant step to our two conversing friend. She starts to speak the same words. Her words are thick making it harder to understand what she's saying. Not that I can understand though. All three start to talk in what now I'm assuming is Japanese.

Lenny clears his throat loudly, "Um, hello! Two people over here that has absolutely no damn clue what the hell you're saying."

Shelley smiles apologetically, "Sorry."

"We were just talking about how we each learned Japanese," Joel says.

"That's great. But we have something to do," I kindly remind.

"Right. Shelley, you know how to read Kanji?" Marie asks.

"Only a little," She answers.

"Good enough. Joel you take that shelve," Marie points at the back, "Shelley, you take that shelve," She points to the shelf near the door, "And I'll take this shelve. You two watch the door. Tell us if something's coming."

"Got it!" Lenny and I went to the door for the patrol while the three others read the books at their respective shelves.


Chapter 28 is finally out! (for what seems like a million years) This chapter is coming a tad late. Sorry. I wonder if they will find anything in the archives? Do you? Well, you can find out in the next chapter. Thanks for reading! Until next time...

-P.V.J.