DISCLAIMER: I OWN NOTHING EXCEPT A PART OF THE PLOT!
Chapter 15 – GHOSTS IN THE SCHOOL?
On a particular day, at the field of Kingdom Hearts High School…
"Hey! Here's the ball!" A group of 7th Graders were playing catch at the field during PE lesson. The sun was about to set, and it dyed the sky with vivid red and orange. One of them caught the ball and yelled, "Here goes! Take this!" Then he leaped into the air and hauled the ball forcefully, the ball flew out of their range. A girl jumped in hopes to grab the ball, but the attempt was futile. When she landed on the ground, she asked, "Hey, what's the big deal, throwing it like that?" The boy who threw the ball answered sheepishly, "Hehe, sorry about that…" "We should probably retrieve it, or else we're going to get scolded," suggested another boy. "Alright… Both of us would go."
The two boys set out towards the direction where the ball flew, and soon they were getting further away from the field. One of them asked, "That's weird… The ball came this way. Where did it go?" "I didn't see- Ah! Is that the one?" Another one said, tugging at his companion's sleeve to grab his attention while pointing at a direction. He looked to said direction, and sure enough, the ball was on top of a truck. Just when they were about to step forward to take it, the truck suddenly came to live when its ignition was turned on. It started to speed away.
So, they began to chase after the truck, but whoever the driver was, they did not hear their calls to stop the vehicle. Instead, the truck accelerated, and after three minutes of chasing around…
"Hurry! The truck's going to turn again!" The boy who ran ahead shouted at his companion at the back. "I… I know that! Phew! Don't… run… run so… fast! Geez!" panted the one falling behind while running. The truck turned, but luckily the ball fell off from its back compartment and dropped onto the ground. But due to the slope on the ground, it started rolling in another direction. The boys chased after the ball again…
Soon, they arrived at a large building, a long abandoned one. By now, the sun had just set behind the mountains, so in the absence of the afterglow, the land was getting a bit darker, and this seemed to bring out the eeriness and gloominess of the building. The one who fell behind asked, "Are you sure the ball came this way? Don't lie to me…" His companion sighed and replied, "Do I get any money out of tricking you? I saw it with my own eyes, and we still have to get it back to stay out of trouble!" The other one said, "Yeah, but don't you think this place's like… abandoned for a long time? And it looks so creepy…" "Let's go in together, and get out as soon as we got the ball, OK?" "… OK then… *Gulp*"
They walked into that large building. Due to disrepair, besides the severe shedding of paint from the walls, nearly all corners had spider webs, not to mention dust. The illumination was poor in there, and there were windows with some torn curtains that trembled ever so slightly at times. The window glass panes were smeared with dust and unknown stains. Although there were some broken ones, the light rays entering were not much. The cement floor was coated with a layer of dust, at the end of the spacious corridor were the stairs, but someone seemed to have set up a blockade by draping some strips of cloth across the stairwell entrance.
"Hey… Where's the ball?" One of them whispered to keep the atmosphere silent, although that silent was not pleasant at all. His companion looked here and there, and he suddenly tugged at his sleeve again, whispering, "There it is!" The ball was just right at the bottom of the stairs. They increased their speed and picked up the ball. "OK, now that we got the ball, so let's get the heck out of here before the sky gets really dark!" one of them whispered, looking around him frantically. The other one nodded, standing up from his crouching position. Just then…
"… Woo….. Woo woo…" A strange scary noise came out of nowhere and slowly lingered around the corridor. It started out as a mere whisper, but it got louder eventually. And then, a cold sensation arrived, and their goose bumps fell all over the place… "W-what was that noise?" One of them asked, shivering. The other one clutched onto the ball tightly and could not bring himself to say anything. Soon, a thin, fine white mist came out, coating the cement floor. All of a sudden, some windows snapped open themselves, causing the curtains to flap and rustle. And that noise came louder again.
"AAAAHHH~~~!" They screamed their lungs inside out, and immediately adrenaline pumped throughout their bodies. They pulled their nearly petrified legs and darted for the door, and ran like no tomorrow towards the field…
"Are you serious?" I asked, about to take a bite on the Fillet-O-Fish I ordered. Demyx nodded vigorously, throwing a few French fries into his mouth. He chewed on them and said, "It's true! Recently a rumour of a haunted incident is spreading like mad in school! No kidding!" Xion asked, "How haunted is it?" Roxas also stopped staring at his laptop screen, wanting to listen to what Demyx had to say. Zexion swallowed the food in his mouth and said, "How could there be ghosts in this world?"
Axel took his tray of food and came to us, saying, "Hey, wait for me if you have any stories to share! Don't count me out." And then he sat down with us. When I saw the food on his tray, I sucked in a gulp of air abruptly; two burgers, one big glass of carbonated drink, two boxes of fries, and two cones of ice-cream, and a cup of McFlurry, with an apple pie too! I almost choked on my food, and after I took a gulp of my drink to flush everything down, I asked, "Axel, are you being possessed by some hungry ghost of the millennium today?! Why did you order so much?!"
Axel looked at his tray, and then averted his gaze at me, while smirking slyly and saying, "Well, my appetite is always great, and since someone is footing the bill today, why waste the chance? Hehe!" I pressed my forehead against the glass window beside me and groaned, "I don't want to score 100 marks anymore…" Zexion patted my shoulder and said, "I am on the same boat here… But I guess it would be hard to get a perfect score again in the future, no?" And then, Ven, Kairi and Naminé arrived with their trays full of food again. I said, "Zexion, I want you to stab my eyes with the fries as hard as you can, I don't want to see the bill…" "Um… My haunted story…?" asked Demyx, smiling awkwardly.
Now, we were eating while listening to Demyx. "A few days ago, when I was on duty somewhere near the gathering spot of the 7th Graders, I heard many of them were talking about this story. It's something about… an abandoned large building at the very far end of Kingdom Hearts Campus." Some of us nodded and some of us replied, "OK, and then?" Demyx drank a gulp of his drink and continued, "I heard that earlier ago, some 7th Graders went there to retrieve a ball they dropped, and they were scared out of their wits. When they returned, their faces were as white as paper!" "What's in that building?" asked Xion, chewing some fries.
"Initially they couldn't speak due to shock and then they said something about ghostly weeps and mist and some crap… Ah! And they said that the windows burst open on their own all of a sudden!" I raised an eyebrow and said, "So they never really saw the ghost, huh?" "If they really did, I reckon they would've fainted on the spot," said Kairi. Roxas added, "There are many possibilities. I have some latest insider news!" Everyone looked at him, waiting for his response.
Roxas was staring at his laptop screen, while saying, "Actually the large building Demyx mentioned has nearly one hundred years of history, and it's built in 19XX. It was initially used as classrooms, but then it was changed into a dorm. And then, World War II broke out and the Japanese took down Penang, this place was bombed to smithereens. Some people said the anti-Japanese army fought on that very land too!" Axel's eyes went wide and blurted, "Wow! For real?!" "Yeah, and as expected from a war, tons of casualties were reported, be it the locals or the enemies. And then people buried the bodies collectively. After three years or so, the Japanese retreated out of Malaya Peninsula and Borneo Island following unconditional surrender, and the locals started to rebuild everything. And this large building… was constructed on the very place where they buried the corpses!"
"Huh?" whimpered Demyx. Zexion stared at Roxas with a mildly incredulous "what in crap's name are you saying?" face. Naminé almost spat out her drink, Xion's left eye twitched, Kairi and Ven were dumbfounded, not daring to move. The food in Axel's mouth almost dropped out. I could only mutter, "… Whoa…" Xion gulped and asked, "Does that mean… the ghostly weeps they heard… were the voices of those soldiers…?!" "It is possible, because there are more stories after the war," said Roxas after hitting a few keys on his keyboard. "There's more?!" Demyx and Axel exclaimed at the same time. OK… this was getting creepy…
Even now Roxas shivered a little and continued reading out whatever article he found, "That large building was reused, and it served as a building solely for classrooms. At first, students were reluctant to use it, because someone seemed to spread the news about there being corpses under the building. But the principal at that time insisted them to use it, while censoring one particular story…" He stopped, taking a bite out of his burger. We were holding our breaths subconsciously, waiting for the upcoming story. Soon, he continued, "People said that during the war, there were some students being trapped in that large building and couldn't escape in time, in the end they were blown up along with the building during the air raid, and were buried along with the other casualties under that building. Even if some of them managed to escape, they were killed by the Japanese soldiers…" Now, all colours had drained from our faces, making them as white as the tissue papers in our trays. Only Zexion looked calmer than us, but his hands were as cold as ice; I accidentally touched his hands.
Roxas looked at his laptop screen again and said, "And then students started using that large building, there wasn't anything wrong with it at first, but after a few years, strange things happened one after another. First, some students suddenly stopped coming to school without apparent reason, and they didn't know what happened to them. And then some students hanged themselves, and some people even saw shadows disappearing into thin air, and some claimed they felt as if someone or something was staring at them. Finally, due to an accident in which a teacher fell down the stairs for no reason and passed away, the school administrators finally moved the students to another building, which was the main block we are using now, in attempts to calm the students down. They locked the large building away since then…"
After Demyx gulped his saliva forcefully, he stuttered, "S-so… that day when Axel and Nemix f-fell into that pothole… the ghost fire I and Roxas s-saw was…!" [Authoress: Please refer to Chapter 5 for more info.] I explained quickly without letting him finish, "Hey Dem, did you forget? That time I was using an umbrella and torchlight to create a distress signal! Don't make up stories…" Kairi added, "But… There is a large cemetery behind Kingdom Hearts Campus!"
We did not know what to say… Zexion cleared his throat and said, "Everyone calm down. How can there be ghosts in the 21st century? It could be just some unproven rumours, and we are just scaring ourselves here." I also nodded, agreeing with him, "He's got a point. I was in Kingdom Hearts Elementary for six years and nearly three years in Kingdom Hearts High School, and I still hadn't seen anything like a ghost or whatever. Relax… We are going to lose our appetite if we continue this topic, and it's nine at night already." After I had done talking, I took a bite from my burger. Xion sighed, "Geez, I was listening all this while, and my stomach is croaking now…" "Yeah, yeah whatever, I know that Nemix wants to pay the bill ASAP, right?" said Axel, with a laugh. And he blinked at me, pretending to be innocent. I was about to stuff some fries into his mouth to shut him up, Roxas already beat me to it by squeezing an apple pie into Axel's mouth. Roxas shook his head lightly and said, "Axel, just… eat, OK? And shut up for a while…" I stuck a tongue out at Axel briefly, gave Roxas a high-five, and then I resumed eating.
I could care less about this haunted story, I guessed it was only a rumour with no base to begin with. Also, my dad told me that I was very lucky in terms of oracle reading or whatever, so even if the ghosts were near me, they would have to run when they could! Therefore, I would not be able to see them, let alone fear them too much!
When we finished our dinner it was already half past nine. After me and Zexion paid for the bill (thank goodness there was someone to share the bill…), we left for our homes. Lawrence also wanted me to take out something for him, and when I got back and handed it to him, he had the nerve to ask me how much I paid… Ugh… It was only the first time I scored 100 marks, and it was already this bad, but I guessed I would not be able to do it again in the future, huh?
And… sometimes the ones above just liked to pull your leg at the wrong times… just for their amusement… After a week…
As usual, I was in Organisation XIII's "headquarters" carrying out some duties after school. After I had done my job for the day, I borrowed Roxas' laptop for research purposes, about my new enemy, of course… I logged into the School Disciplinary Database and found what I wanted with a picture. The info was as follows:
Name: Samara Gambrilynn Rowan; Eurasian (NOT AGAIN! *Almost broke the laptop* She really was mix-raced… *facepalm*)
Age: 15
Class: K3B
Conduct: Above average (Hmm… this data seemed to favour her somehow…)
DOB: 05/11/19XX
Family: Living with parents and two younger brothers. Father: Owner of XX Company. Mother: housewife. (No wonder Kairi said she was wealthy as heck… but who gave a damn? Like I care!)
OK, basically I was up against yet another person from a wealthier class. Ugh… First was Fayra, and then Broken Nose Seahorse Sato, and now this Samara. By the looks of it, I could write a biography or something, titled "My Days against The So-Called Bigshots", and it would be about my experiences and insights fighting against them. Hmm, this would be second to none in the country, and maybe it could be the best-selling one! And because nobody would dare to write something like it, and since this would be the first book of its kind, maybe I could get a Nobel Prize in Literature, if not, maybe at least a "Best/Most Fearless New Talent of the Year" prize… Oh hohoho~ I was such a genius- [Authoress: *Slapped 207's head with an encyclopaedia* It's been only a few days since I taught you a lesson, and now your narcissism is getting out of control, huh? 207: *Holding her head* … Authoress, you're the one to determine whether I am a narcissist or not! There's a possibility that I was originally a god, and you wrote me into a human… Authoress: *Eye twitch* That's it 207, I am going to put you into the "List of Dead Characters", and then you could be your god all you want! 207: NOOOO! *Chasing after Authoress passing eighteen streets*]
Anyways… I still had to be careful, judging the reactions of students in K3B, this Samara seemed to have some influence among peers. Even when she was yelling at the prefect, no one dared to stop her. But funnily enough, why were they so afraid of her? She was also a normal mortal human like the rest of us, and she was wrong in the first place; all the more needless to fear! The sides of my lips rose just a little bit, and then I logged out, returning the laptop to Roxas. And then, I got up from the chair and stretched, saying, "Ugh… Homework is increasing lately, and time is getting insufficient." "Yeah, and the pressure seemed to increase ever since we got into K3B…" muttered Roxas, playing with a ballpoint pen with his fingers. Xion sighed and said, "And I thought life in K3B would be at least easier than that of K3A, but they are not much different from each other. Only the teachers are a little better…"
And then, Ven came in via the door, and saw us in a bored state. He asked, "What's wrong?" The three of us said in unison, "You don't want to know…" "Oh, OK-" He did not get to finish his "OK" and was knocked down by Demyx, who entered the door in a hurry and startled us. He panted heavily and said, "This is bad! REALLY bad!" Ven pushed himself up while grunting, "Say it, before I choose to kick you."
Demyx said to all of us with panic in his tone, "The Board of Prefects is going to hold the annual training camp, the one that all 9th Grade prefects must participate!" "And then?" asked Xion, prompting him to continue. And then he did, "But due to the tight budget this year, the school decided to pick out some prefects to take part, and the chosen ones are Organisation XIII, Ven, Kairi and Naminé! The nine of us!" Roxas raised an eyebrow and questioned, "So?" "Exactly how bad are you implying?" I asked, getting impatient.
"One of the activities of the training camp is an overnight stay at that haunted building!" yelled Demyx, clenching his eyes shut tightly. Our hearts crashed like a computer under viral attack for three seconds… "WHAT THE CRAP?!" "ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!" "OH MY GOD!" "HOLY BANANAS OF KINGDOM HEARTS! HOLY CHOCOBOS OF FINAL FANTASY!" We were now screaming like mad people who had just escaped from a mental hospital.
Zexion and Axel was about to enter just as we were screaming, and they stood there awkwardly outside the room staring at us, who were in such hysteric state. Axel whispered, "Should I go in and ask them what the Kingdom Hearts happened?" Zexion did not look at him, but replied just as quietly, "You are pretty much asking for your demise if you go in there like this. Is being alive not good for you?" "… Forget it, I'll ask them after they have calmed down…"
I was in my room, lying on the bed while reading a piece of paper in my hands. This was a notice, listing all details about the upcoming training camp, which I called "the most awful present the ones above sent to me as boredom relief". This was not my idea of getting rid of boredom… But why only the nine of us were chosen to take part, and it just had to include that haunted building?!
It was written like this on the paper:
To: All chosen members of the Board of Prefects
Attending the Mandatory Training Camp
In order to boost self confidence among members, the school will hold the annual training camp of the Board of Prefects. The details are listed below:
a) Date: XX/04/2010 (Friday) to XX/04/2010 (Saturday)
b) Time: 20:00 to 20:00 of the next day
c) Venue: Kingdom Hearts Campus
The chosen prefects will have to spend a night at school, so please be reminded to bring along relevant necessities. Participants may bring cell phones.
Should anyone have any inquiries, kindly call the school with the number XX – XXXXXXX.
Principal of Kingdom Hearts High School
Xemnas Inritum
Oh geez… Well, to me, staying overnight in the school did not bother me that much, and I did not think that haunted building was so scary after I had calmed down, but… I always thought the motive behind this training camp was not that simple… Although they said the school budget was tight this year and thus the school chose the participants, why did they not just cancel the whole thing? That would have saved a lot more money! Also, why in the world did they have to choose the nine of us? I did not know whether they were co-conspiring or not… And what was even worse, we were practically forced to attend, or else they would have our heads, unless there were some very good reasons, like fallen sick, caught in accidents, or the school suddenly exploded (for all I care) and whatever crazy stuff.
This was going to be an all new experience, but had its "risks". If I was not going to be present, and left the other eight of them there… to tell you the truth, I was a bit worried. Zexion was quite calm and collected, so I might not worry about him as much, but when I thought about an impulsive Axel, Demyx who had a low awareness of danger, a stubborn Roxas, Xion who had some hot-headed tendencies (but still slightly better than the three above)… Eh… Even though I was not any better, they could still get into trouble. Furthermore, Ven had migraines (I sure hoped it was not as serious as before), Naminé was very slow, therefore she was considered as the weakest among us, and Kairi could get exaggerated over some trivial things…
OK fine, the conclusion: what the hell, just go! I wished I was only being too worrisome…
We were having Geography now. I missed out the syllabus of the March test, and now I still had a bunch of things to memorise, what a headache. I could not bring myself to care whether I had memorised them or not. Since I was running out of time, I could only take notes ASAP. If I could not understand or remember when I first heard them, I just had to jot everything down first.
Actually, Geography was not all that bad, but when it came to History, I was finished. Seriously, people often told us not to dwell on the past, so why exactly were we making a fuss over things, events and people that existed so many years ago (even thousands of years BC)? Hmm… But, if those things were of my interest, maybe it would not be so bad? Hehe! [Authoress: … I seriously doubt where you stand, but I do agree with your statement.]
Soon, the long-winded lesson ended, and now school was over. I had plans with Organisation XIII; we were going to a mall nearby to buy some so-called relevant necessities. When I had packed up my stuff and walked out of the classroom with them, I happened to overhear this particular conversation, belonging to two girls walking past our classroom. "Hey, when is she coming to school?" "Yeah… That Fayra… It's almost a week. Is she sick?" "If so, why can't she just inform us or the school or something? I seriously don't know what she's thinking…"
Oh right… I totally forgot about Fayra's existence. I was planning to troll her that day, but after the episode with Samara, I ended up throwing that into oblivion. Wait a minute… She had not come to school for a week already? Wow, this was getting out of hand. My curiosity was piqued in a matter of seconds, and I subconsciously ditched my buddies and walked over to the girls. I asked, "Excuse me, sorry to interrupt, but you just said Fayra had been absent for a week? What happened?" They were surprised by my sudden appearance, but one of them still answered, "Yes. But… who are you to her?" "Huh? Oh, I am her… friend!" I also never expected them to "return the favour" like that, so I simply made up some lame excuse, but I added mentally, "As if!"
"Is that so… I just don't get her at all, we still have one big project to complete, she still hasn't handed in her work to us even if it is already overdue, and now we can't even finish our work. And there she goes, saying she lacks time and she has a lot of homework, as if we didn't realise that there was no homework these days." I thought, "Typical and predictable spoilt brat style… A leopard cannot change its spots, as the saying goes. And she hasn't changed a bit since I left…" Another girl said, "Don't remind me that, she was being so distracted and absent-minded lately, and she seemed a little depressed, her temper worsened too…"
Whoa… It seemed like I got it wrong, she had changed that much? What exactly was going on? The first girl asked me, "Oh yes, would you be able to see her these days?" I leaped out from my thoughts and said, "Nope, I wouldn't." That was the truth; I did not even know where her house was! Plus, I did not want to have too much to do with her… In order to "escape", I said, "Thank you so much, pardon me for leaving first." And then I turned to leave.
Once I got to where other members of Organisation XIII were waiting, they were staring at me. Demyx asked the first question, "What were you doing? I thought you went missing again…" "Nothing much, I just happened to hear something about Fayra Joann… Oh right, did you guys know she had been absent from school since a week ago?" Some of them shook their heads and some replied, "No." "A week… the school administrators would have sent a letter of notice to her parents or guardian," said Zexion. Roxas then urged, "Guys? We're going to be late if we don't go now." After that, we left.
Seriously… when I was not around here, what in the world happened…?
"You have got to be freaking kidding me…" said Axel with a big bag on his back, with the rest of us outside a classroom, facing an 11th Grade senior prefect. "The principal announced a while ago; due to an important activity tomorrow, we are not to use all the classrooms. So, you all are going to spend this whole night in that large building, starting now." The original plan was like this: we would be carrying out the other activities of the training camp, and then we would head to the haunted building when it was time for bed. And with the disruption from the new orders, we were going there now, even though it was only eight… The prefect said, "That is one of the activities anyway, so we are merely changing the sequence. We will carry out the other activities next morning."
According to the activity "rules", only the nine of us would enter the building, and the senior prefect would return to the main building. OK… We took a light bath, brushed our teeth and changed into comfortable clothes at the main block. And then we took off to the haunted building. We carried our bags on our backs while holding torches. The senior prefect was leading the way. This large building was situated somewhere far behind the whole campus, but it was really far away from the main block and it would take ten minutes or more by foot. Besides having to walk on narrow trails, we had to go down a slope, some of us almost fell. "Gosh, are we there yet?" asked Xion, looking around anxiously. The senior prefect in front of us replied, "Almost there… Just one more small bridge to go." He sounded as if nothing happened here related to him at all. They must have been treated like this too back when they were juniors like us, and they somehow felt indignant, so they just had to do this to us to have their fair share of fun as seniors. And the cycle went on and on… what a bad vicious cycle.
Soon, we arrived at the aforementioned small wooden bridge. Its degree of small made us cringe slightly: people could not walk two by two on it, and no railings were available. Worse still, there was this creaking noise whenever someone walked on it… In order to relax, I hummed "Clash on the Big Bridge" (Final Fantasy V) when I crossed the bridge (though the bridge was not big at all…). After that, and nearly fifty steps or so, we finally arrived at the entrance of the infamous haunted building.
At the moment, a gentle breeze waltzed pass, softly playing with our hair. Although it felt cool… eh… it was eerie. The senior prefect cleared his throat and said, "OK, actually this overnight activity is a courage training activity, we had also hidden a treasure in there, do remember to find it." "Treasure hunt?" asked Ven, getting interested. "Yeah, you can say so. Oh right, the rules: hand over all your electronic devices, like cell phones, cameras and anything of the sort to me." "Huh? Why?" exclaimed Roxas and Demyx in unison.
"To prevent you guys from cheating… Fear not, I will return them to you when this activity ends in the next morning. And please don't attempt to hide them, because I have a small electronic detector that will sniff out anything you are trying to hide…" he smiled while saying, brandishing out his "ultimate weapon"… Oh well, being a Neanderthal for one night would not hurt, I guessed.
I handed over my GPS device, and everyone also turned their stuff in. When Roxas handed over his laptop (reluctantly), we had anime sweat drops on our heads; why would anyone need a laptop at a time like this?! After he "confiscated" our stuff, he left, leaving us staring at his back until his shadow disappeared into the dark trail we took a while ago. "No… my MP3 player was taken away…" whined Demyx, pouting. "You can always try to… hum?" suggested Roxas. "I guess that's the only way then… OK, the first one: I like my sitar, I like my sitar. I play the sitar, sitar, wherever I go, oh oh oh~" Zexion pinched his nasal bridge, muttering in annoyance, "Dear god, this will not be a quiet night anymore…"
Luckily we did not have to hand over our torches, otherwise we would have dumped that senior prefect under the bridge. Naminé said, "OK… Let's go in." "We'd better hurry; it's going to rain soon," I said, having detected the damp smell emitted from the ground whenever a storm was imminent, with smell of grass and soil in it, and it was a little stifling. Zexion looked at the dark sky and said too, "Nemix is right, even the clouds were dark brown in colour…"
When we entered the haunted building, it was so dark I could not even see my fingers when I extended my hand. But luckily there were a few windows, letting the already weak light to enter, though it did not help much… I shone the torch everywhere and saw lots of thick dust and at the corners were the cobwebs. I said, "Hey… Are we seriously going to spend the night in this place full of dust and cobwebs?"
"What? Are you scared?" Axel spun around and asked while walking backwards. I answered, "Of course not, it's just… this place is kind of dusty, and I'm slightly allergic to dust." Xion also flashed her torch everywhere and commented, "This could be the foyer or lobby. I wonder how long this place had been abandoned…" Roxas asked his twin, "Where do you think they hid the treasure?" Ven shrugged and said, "It'd be best if we can find it soon… I hope?"
Demyx walked around and he finally stopped and called out, "I found a spot with less dust, why don't we sit down and rest up?" All of us had no objections against his proposal, so we sat down in a circle. As expected, Zexion pulled out his novel and started reading with the help of his torch once he settled down. Sigh… I wished I had brought something to do too… Well, since I had nothing to do at the moment, I joined in the discussion regarding the treasure hunt with the others. Axel said, "They didn't even tell us what the treasure is. I don't even know whether it's round or flat." After giving some thought, I said, "Since it is treasure hunting, they must have left some clues. No point in letting us rush here and there like aimless flies, right?"
Roxas nodded and said, "There must be clues, but… there are so many floors in this building, and the senior prefect didn't tell us the range of the hunt too." Kairi pointed at the sealed-off staircase and asked, "They wouldn't want us to go up there, would they? I mean, it's sealed off…" Naminé said, "Actually… I'm quite curious, is the layout here the same as the main building?" "… I don't wanna know," groaned Kairi. Just then, Ven stood up and suggested, "Why don't we take a look around here first?" "… Fine with me," agreed Axel, standing up as well.
Except Zexion, the eight of us were walking around this spacious lobby, searching for clues everywhere. I scanned the floor carefully, the clues could be on a piece of paper, still, albeit impossible, they could be written on the floor or on the walls. Since we were told that the event was only planned a week ago, so I guessed even if they were on the paper, the dust accumulated would not be too thick to obscure it from sight. Some of us checked the curtains, some went for the main door, some looked around the walls, and some searched the corners. Roughly five minutes later, we found nothing at all. Axel was getting impatient, "Ugh… where is the clue? Geez, we've been searching for ages, and we didn't even see a shadow or something!" I mumbled, "Maybe abducted by a tiger or something…"
Ven stretched and said, "Has anyone of us here found any clues?" We all shot him a "what do you think?" look at him. He laughed nervously and scratched his head, saying sheepishly, "OK, I get the picture…" Zexion snapped his unfinished novel shut and groaned softly, "Gosh, my neck hurts…" He massaged his nape and shoulders, tilting his head towards the ceiling- "Eh? Hey, were you guys not looking for the clue?"
"Huh?" We were interrupted by Zexion's voice, so all of us looked over to him. He was staring at the ceiling. We walked up to him and stared at the ceiling too. There was a paper on the ceiling, stuck on by a piece of cellophane tape. "… What? Why is it up there?!" exclaimed Demyx. Zexion reasoned, "So that is why the dust here is not as thick… I should have suspected that." "Alright, time for some teamwork!" declared Xion.
Due to the height of the ceiling, we have to form a mini human tower or something. Axel was at the bottom, Roxas was the second one and Xion was the topmost one. The rest of us helped Axel to maintain balance to prevent from getting himself squashed flat, and also prevent the two above from toppling over. Soon, Xion successfully took the paper and got down first. And then, Roxas jumped off. "So how? What's on it?" asked Roxas, switching on the torch. Xion showed us the paper and we came closer to take a better look at it. It read:
~ Congratulations for thinking out of the box and starting to see things in a different perspective. The second clue is at the third floor. Be careful and take care. Wish you all luck. ~
I groaned, "What? That's it? We busied ourselves for so long, and they only wrote these?" "Or else? You're expecting an essay or a poem?" asked Xion. Roxas said, "They could've included a 'good job' or something…" Zexion said, "Third floor…They want us to go up? Is it not sealed off?" Axel smirked and said, "Heh, maybe when we get there, they might have another message written 'Congratulations for not following orders blindly and challenging your limits'! Last one there is a rotten egg!" When he finished, he dumped us and sprinted off all by himself. Roxas said, "Even he can twist wrong to right just like that… Is that even possible?" "Axel! Stop! Wait for us!" called Demyx, and he ran off as well.
We ran after Axel too, crossing the ignored strips tied at the bottom of the staircase. Little did we know, that move was bound to bring serious consequences…
Axel dashed up the flight of stairs, being a person with overly athletic abilities, that little exercise was nothing to him. We were trailing behind, not knowing whether to run or to walk. If we ran, many echoes would be produced, and in this enormous haunted building, that would be something scary as heck; if we opted to walk, we could not catch up with Axel. I did not consider my speed too low, but running upstairs and running on a field were two different stories to me. Furthermore, even if I ran, the others probably could not keep up. When we reached the third floor, Axel was already there waiting for us. "Yo, 207, why are you so slow?" I felt like punching him upon seeing his cocky smirk, but I smiled innocently and retorted, "Well, I can't help it, 222. It's just not good to dump your companions and run all the way up here alone, right?" Upon receiving my "counterattack", he laughed lightly in a silly manner to me, which I mirrored. Typical reciprocity, huh?
Once all of us gathered, we discussed. "Where could the next clue be this time?" asked Ven. "I don't know, but I know this floor looks creepy…" mumbled Naminé, glancing around anxiously. Demyx rubbed his forearms with both of his hands and commented, "And it's getting too spooky for my liking. I wonder what would be in this locked-away third floor…"
As if on cue, a strange noise came out of nowhere, causing us to tense up immediately, and our eyes widened at least twice their original sizes. It sounded like someone was walking on a weak and unstable wooden floor in an excruciatingly slow pace, and the creepy creaking noise would not cease at all. Although it was not very loud, it was creepy enough to make the fine hairs on our necks stand on their ends like soldiers on duty. "W-what is that?" Kairi pointed a random direction whence she assumed the strange noise came from with her quivering finger, stuttering quietly. I gulped, and shook my head slowly. Upon hearing the noise, I guessed the noise came from somewhere from our right. At said direction, there was a long corridor, and only darkness lurked at its end.
Axel said, "I'll go check…" And then he went forward a few steps, glancing around. Soon, he returned, saying, "Nothing at all." Roxas said nervously, "Hey… this isn't funny at all. It's getting creepy… What are the seniors doing?" "Should we split up and end this treasure hunt ASAP?" suggested Ven, his eyes flickered between us and the dark corridor. "We'd better not…" Demyx and I answered in unison. Zexion also added, "It would be better if we go and see what is going on together. Do not forget, this is a courage training activity, the seniors could be testing us for all we know… shall we go?"
And so, we walked down the seemingly endless dark corridor step after step, towards the bottomless darkness. Holy Bananas, if the courage training activities every year were this intense, those who survived surely would have very strong hearts, even heart attacks would not even kill them, huh? Sure, being brave was one thing, but humans were still apprehensive of ghosts, even if the fear itself was very small. Furthermore, we were now in the place generally acknowledged as the scariest, creepiest and most ancient in the vicinity, with the bloodiest origin by the folks of Kingdom Hearts Campus. That did not alleviate our anxious states, but kept demanding our muscles to remain tensed. I wondered how we were going to stay overnight later.
Zexion and Axel, being in the front row, looked everywhere with the help of their flashlights; Demyx and I were looking around us too, even though we were at the last row. The ones between could not let their guard down either. Xion's hand shot out and grabbed mine, clutching tightly, both of our hands were like ice. I managed to return a reassuring squeeze, hinting that everything was still fine. That being hinted, something in my mind kept nagging me that all of the reassuring was an utter lie.
After some time, Zexion and Axel stopped, Axel waved his hand at us to signal us to stop as well. Being in such a dark place for so long, my eyes had adjusted to see some things clearly. We stopped outside a room, but we were not standing before the door, just beside it by the wall. Axel initially peeked inside via the room's sealed window, even Zexion stole a peek, but then he looked around him as well. After about five seconds, Axel lowered his tone and said, "Pretty sure nothing's here." Demyx let out a sigh, "Phew! I thought there was something…" I tried suggesting, "How about we return to where we started at this floor and sort things out?"
Just when I finished my words, that strange noise came back to haunt us all over again! And this time, it was louder. We were startled that our feet glued to our current spots, and not even dared to twitch a muscle. Furthermore, another noise joined in the fray; door-knocking, though not the hurrying type. I felt as if all of my goose bumps erupted and fell off, even the fine hairs on the back of my neck stood on their ends like when we sang the national anthem; rigidly straight. And… Xion almost broke my wrist via squeezing. My blood circulation…. "Wh-wh-wh-!" stuttered Demyx, glancing around nervously and quickly. Axel had his fists clenched tight and he readied himself in a steady pose, searching for the source of the noise. Zexion stifled an incoming shiver, Kairi and Naminé's legs were wobbly as jelly. I swore Ven's eyes went wider than my fists, while Roxas backed up to the wall behind him, leaning against it. His eyes darted from here to there, portraying unspeakable fear.
And to make matters worse, Axel chose to inhale sharply at a time like this and warned, "White mist…!" Sure enough, I shone the torch at the floor and all I saw was thick white mist slowly obscuring our feet from sight, but no higher than our upper calves. Xion finally said, "Nemix… W-why do I feel… cold?" So I was not the only one… Gulp! "What in Ifrit's name…" Roxas suddenly stuttered, pointing at a nearby window with his trembling finger. We all diverted our gazes towards said direction at the same time. Somehow conveniently, a flash of lightning bombarded our eyes and a sickening strike of thunder followed. Just as the blinding light brightened everything in the vicinity temporarily, outside the window… hung… an upside-down wolf head! Its eyes were not shut off for good even after its demise!
At that very moment, all hell broke loose… Roxas and Naminé screamed their heads off, and Kairi joined in very soon. I almost fell to the floor, Demyx yelled, "STAY AWAY FROM ME!" And he suddenly picked himself up and darted off a random direction! "What?! Demyx! Come back!" Zexion was taken aback by what unfolded before him, and went after Demyx. Another lightning greeted us, and Roxas, Kairi and Naminé fled in all directions possible. I was not able to think rationally and picked a direction to escape. I did not take notice as to who was beside me, but I could make out overlapping and panicked footsteps ringing in the air.
I did not know how long it had been since we split up, but I was damn sure I did not stop running until- "Bam!" I collided with something and fell down forward, and it hurt. "Ouch…" I whined a little while pushing myself up, and I was about to unleash a quick kick upon what tripped me, and then a voice interrupted, "207! STOP!" I was quite surprised, yet I quickly regained balance and placed my foot back on the floor. This voice was… "006?" I asked, but readied both of my fists. Before I could confirm that the person before me was Zexion, being careful would not hurt. Said person seemed to sense the questioning in my tone, so he switched on his flashlight and shone it to the floor. The illumination revealed Zexion's face. And Demyx was sitting on the floor next to him; he did not seem to have calmed down yet.
"Phew! For the love of Shiva, don't ever do that again…" I released a sigh of relief and I felt the giant rock clinging onto my heart for dear life was finally unloaded. I walked towards them and sat down on a spot with not much dust. I needed to catch my breath after all that crazy sprinting. Zexion sat down as well and asked, "How far exactly did we run? Everywhere looks the same to me." After contemplating, I said, "No idea, but I remember running up a few flights of stairs… yeah…" Zexion massaged his temples slightly and groaned, "Just what we need…" Demyx gulped and asked in a tiny voice, "There's only the three of us?" I glanced around and confirmed, "By the looks of it, yes."
Zexion got lost in a deep sea of thoughts and then proposed an idea, "We would not be able to rendezvous with the other six; it would be nice if we succeeded, but more trouble would be headed our way if we were to fail. Judging our situation… we have to form a group of three ourselves, and plan the next move." I asked, "So you mean, we aren't supposed to look for them? But that doesn't sound right either." Demyx slowly participated in our conversation, "We could… y'know, leave some clues for them? I think they would… do the same." Zexion thought about this again, and finally he nodded and said, "Fine… but all of us were worn out at the moment. We rest for a short while and move out after five minutes."
To be honest, five minutes were not enough, but it was already a luxury at this rate. Even though Demyx was not screaming like before, but judging his abnormal silence and anxious eyes, he still had not calmed down completely. I gave a small pat on his shoulders and said, "It's OK, everything's fine now, at least you are not stranded alone here. Chill…" He looked at me with uncertainty, I added, "Take three deep breaths, slowly." "Oh… I'll try…" He did that and he seemed better now.
Zexion took great notice of his surroundings and looked at his watch. And then he asked, "Nemix, Demyx, can the both of you walk?" I did not expect him to present such a bizarre question, but replied nonetheless, "Huh? Sure I can, although it hurts a bit since I fell down earlier…" Demyx tried to stand, but due to a certain degree of fatigue, he could not balance himself. Zexion frowned at the responses he got, and thought again. He finally decided, "I guess I should scout out around here. You two should rest more." Although I did not agree to advance separately, I could not leave, yet I could not stay either, and since I could not possibly dump Demyx right here and we still needed to rendezvous with the others, I had to agree, "… OK. Be careful out there." He nodded, and turned to leave.
Using his flashlight, Zexion treaded carefully in the unknown dark depths of the haunted building. He would shine his flashlight around him every once in a while. At both sides of his track were old abandoned classrooms or anything of the sort. The wooden doors were weak on first inspection. Some looked as if a small push would cause them to tear off from the hinges. Everything seemed to stop at the moment, only Zexion's footsteps reverberated softly in the creepy corridors. He thought, "It looks the same wherever I walk, since it is so quiet here, they could not have been here, huh? If so, they would have called out to me…" When he stopped thinking while walking, he realised he had reached a dead end, signalling the end of his scout-out mission. "This is the end… Maybe I ventured too far. Seriously, how can there be ghosts in this century? It is not even logical," he thought, sighing softly. He paused to rest by standing, and soon, he said to himself, "Time to return." And he returned via the original route.
Zexion still could not let his guard down. Suddenly he stopped, observing around him like an alerted deer. He heard some very soft noises, very much like footsteps. His grip tightened on his flashlight, and treaded towards what he assumed to be the direction of the source of the noise cautiously. By tiptoeing, he finally stopped before an empty old classroom. He squinted his eyes to see through the glass of the window. Sadly, the cobwebs and dust accumulated over the years limited the visibility of the interior. After some time, he gave up. Zexion thought, "I thought too much again." When he was about to turn and leave, his ears picked up yet another weird noise; something landed on the wooden floor.
His body tensed up on the spot, but he soon calmed down. Slowly, he spun around, illuminating his surroundings with his torch. Nothing at all, though there was a small unknown object lying on the cold floor. He crouched down to take a good look. "What? A chicken bone?" He could not help but felt dumbfounded at his discovery, but being the cautious one, he did not voice out his astonishment. He remained in his pose, deducing, "A chicken bone out of nowhere… could this be a test from the seniors? This is a courage training after all… Maybe they could not find a thing to throw out at the last minute?"
He scratched his head and stood up. "Well, since there is nothing, I should report back to 207 and 135 and save their sanity." Just then, his stomach made a rumbling noise. "… And getting something to eat from 207 may not be a bad idea," he thought, starting to walk faster and leave. Unbeknownst to him, he did not manage more than three steps from where he once stood when he heard something like "PAZZAZZAZAZZAA!" But this time, he did not stay back to check, for he was already unconscious, lying on the floor…
"I beg you, Nemix, just one more packet of biscuits, pretty please?" whined Demyx, but sorry to say, his pleas and puppy eyes of doom wavered me not. Seriously, he did not seem to be as scared as he was five minutes ago, and now he even had the mood to pry more food from me. He had already gobbled up all of his own food. If I did not stop him, we would run out of things to eat, and how were we supposed to make it to the next day?! I was fine being hungry, but the problem was that Zexion still had not returned to us, surely he was hungry as well. What was he going to do then? Geez… No, this time, I could not give in!
I replied, "Demyx, you had already finished four or five packets of biscuits, you still have the appetite to eat despite being spooked out earlier? I don't have much left with me, if I let you eat them, can you make sure that we won't starve to death in this random place where birds don't even lay their eggs in?!" Demyx was stubborn this time as he continued, "Due to that spook, I lost all my energy, so that's why I need to eat to rejuvenate." I mentally scoffed; he said that he had no energy left, yet he still had the energy to argue with me? Did people lose all their logic when in starvation? No wonder there were cases of cannibalism in North Korea during deadly droughts and famines… "Nemix! N-" "For Bahamut's sake, shut up!" I finally got impatient and snapped at him while turning to face him. Lightning flashed and somehow illuminated my face as unnaturally scary; it was obvious from his expression. He looked like he was about to curl up.
I sighed lightly at the sight of this, and then I said after a while, "Sorry, but I really cannot spare you any food at the moment. I really don't have much with me, and Zexion isn't back yet. Furthermore, there are still six others whose fates are unknown. We have to preserve some food, so that we can hold on longer until we find them or the other way round. Sorry about that…" He said nothing, but he gave a small nod. I was about to say something, suddenly-
"Tok… tok… tok…" A weird noise rang, and it was getting louder. The both of us dared not make a sound and got slightly closer to each other unknowingly. Without a warning, I switched off our torches, Demyx was about to protest, I silenced him with a hushed whisper, "Don't let the opponent spot us first, even if they may not be from this world. Keep quiet, wait and see what happens." Although the darkness prevented me from seeing Demyx's response… since he did not stop me, I took it that he was not against my idea then? I did not dare to exert even the slightest force while breathing. I used my ears to replace my eyes and listened carefully. The weird noise was intermittent, but had a trend of becoming increasingly distinct as well as louder. If my ears were not playing tricks on me, it sounded like footsteps from a small crowd… The outcome was either the best or the worst.
I whispered to Demyx, "You stay here and don't move. Wait for my signal." After that, I slowly got up and carefully made my way to the wall opposite of him. I hid in a dent on the wall and readied my fists. As long as the opponent was human and trying to mess with us, they were going to get it!
The time was coming, the noise was getting loud and clear, signalling that I could take action anytime. But, as I was going to move, the noise stopped abruptly. The situation now was rising in tension; I could not see you, and you could not see me either, but both parties realised each other's presences… It was as if daggers were drawn and bows were stretched with arrows readied. Now it was only left to see who would make the first move.
About ten seconds later, the opponent took their first step.
Immediately, I jumped out of my hiding spot, and sent the opponent a quick punch without a word. A thud came after my fist's impact. But it seemed that there was more than one person, because someone else grabbed my right wrist. Hand-catch, huh? Fine! Have a taste of my "reverse hand-catch"! My wrist slipped like a fish and rotated 180 degrees in the opponent's grasp and grabbed their wrist, but to your disappointment, the main point was not the right hand… I still had a free left hand here. I used it to send a blow to the opponent's stomach, besides making them stagger away from me, my right hand was freed as well.
Nevertheless, victory was still a long way from me, because someone tripped me and I fell down to my left. Seriously, why had Demyx not lent me a helping hand? Luckily, after being in the darkness for long time, I could now make out a foot near my feet. OK, I could now unleash one move that I did not normally use… But I forgot its name since I did not use it often… Whatever! I twisted my left foot at the ankle to turn into a hook and hooked at the opponent's ankle. As I pulled the "hook" in, I kicked hard at the opponent's right knee with my right leg. A pull and a push like this formed a couple of torque. The "turning effect" created a net force and tripped the opponent too. Ha! We were even now! I got up immediately, picked up the long-forgotten flashlight and said, "Alright now, who are you people?" And then, I switched it on, directing it at the people I managed to fend off. But… my jaw almost fell.
There were two people on the floor before me, one facing the ceiling, one holding her stomach; they were Axel and Xion respectively. "You… guys…?" I managed to utter a few words out of astonishment. "… Nemix… why did you hit my face?" A whine came from the wall nearby, so I flashed the torchlight towards said direction. I saw Roxas being supported by Demyx. One side of his face was red due to my fist earlier. Looks like I overdid it… As for Ventus, Kairi and Naminé, they just froze on the spot some distance away…
I apologised right away, "Sorry! I heard some weird noises and got all fired up, regardless of who my opponent might be. It turned out to be your footsteps though… I didn't mean it." Demyx added in, "I only discovered their true identities as soon as they got near enough, but you got too carried away in your fight that even I couldn't stop you. So… yeah…" "… Never mind, everyone would've become extra vigilant in this creepy place, freaking out at even the slightest movement. You don't even know who you're up against…" said Xion. Axel was quiet, but judging his expression, he was not mad. Roxas was drinking some water from a bottle. The redness on his cheek still had not faded away.
After some time, Axel asked, "Only you two here?" "Eh? No, there's Zexion-" I abruptly stopped midsentence. I just realised that Zexion was not back yet… it had been about twenty minutes since he left. Demyx also picked up what was going on and said, "Zexion went to scout out the surroundings. He hasn't returned yet." "He couldn't have lost his way, could he?" Xion guessed, but her tone conveyed fear. Axel said, "Judging your reactions, he must have been away for a while. Which way did he go?" I pointed at the long corridor on my right after a second's delay. "… Let's look for him together. It's safer," Axel decided right away. Since we saw no better options, we agreed to follow him. I did hope Zexion was only lost, because some premonition was nagging at me…
This time, we were not moving slowly as we did before. In fact, we walked in a normal speed right behind Axel. There was only endless darkness beyond us. Without the torchlight, we would have fallen into some bottomless hole, had there been one in our way. Heck, we would not even know how we died. Luckily there had not been any road splits in our way, only a big turn at the corner. Soon, Axel found Zexion's shoeprints due to the thick ash and dust on the floor. This was good news… but at the same time, bad news. The good news was that at least some clue as to Zexion's whereabouts appeared; the bad news being the shoeprints were headed in one direction; no turning back. "Zexion has not returned then?" Roxas had his eyes glued to the discovery while muttering. Axel said nothing but letting out a soft sigh. He moved on soon, leading us.
After god-knows-how-long, we stopped in our tracks. There were old and broken big wooden doors on our sides, locked up by rusty metal chains. Axel crouched down, examining the shoeprints before him with his torch. I moved from my position in the middle of the group and crouched down next to him after seeing his reaction.
The showprints on the floor were strange: if I were to divide the hallway we were currently in into half, the first half (which we took) consisted of unidirectional footprints. As for the next half before us, there were many shoeprints, some forward, some backward, but most were scattered in all directions. Axel lifted the flashlight to shine on the further path ahead. And now we discovered even more; this time the shoeprints were more orderly, but one set forward and one set backward, due to a dead end ahead. So the shoeprints' owner, maybe Zexion, did turn back during his mission. But, why did he… vanish while walking back?
I kept my voice low while saying, "Zexion's in trouble, he has to be." Axel slowly nodded and replied just as low, "Anyone who did this did it skilfully. Although we can now say that Zexion had been here, it is weird that he just disappeared into thin air… without a trace." "Fishy…" Roxas popped out behind us and chimed in with a creepy tone. We were startled; Axel tensed up while I fell on my butt from my crouching position. "Roxas!" we hissed, scowling.
Upon seeing our not amused faces, Roxas went straight to the point, "No, I mean, if Zexion's disappearance is caused by human, there should be another set of shoeprints on the floor, other than his. But there is only one type of shoeprint here." …He had a point; there was only one type in this hallway. So he was saying that it was not caused by human… but occult?!
Demyx said, "Hey… don't tell me it's the… ghosts… not funny at all." I did not want to think so too… but now it was even creepier than before. I turned on my own flashlight and continued to walk along the rest of the hallway. I scanned the trail before me. Zexion must have thought that his job was done and turned around to leave. But how could he…?
No way was I going to give up, so I tightened my clutch on my torch and kept going towards the dead end, looking intently at the set of tidy shoeprints all the while. I stopped when I was five steps away from the wall, and I crouched down to stare at this worrying discovery. I mustered up my greatest observation skills and scanned the shoeprints yet again… "… What?" I blurted, my eyes widened just slightly this time. Upon seeing my reaction, Axel walked up to me, asking, "What do you mean 'what'? What's wrong, Nemix?"
I did not wait for him to arrive, instead I asked, "Say, Axel… How heavy is Zexion?" "What?" The rest of the team exclaimed, confused. While Axel did not go along with their exclaiming, he was surprised, but he answered a second later, "… His size is smaller than most of us here… I'd say around fifty kilograms to be safe. Why are you asking?" OK, if Zexion had almost the same weight as mine… Without saying anything, I placed a step beside the group of shoeprints that was headed two ways, and then another beside the messy ones. Now everyone was confused…
"Hey, hey Nemix, can you at least tell us what you are up to this time, some crazy plan?" Xion said, Roxas gently slapped her right arm, saying, "Don't mention the word 'crazy' now, seriously… Don't tell me she's going crazy again, like possessed?!" Ventus buried his face in his right palm and muttered, "Says the one who doesn't want to hear the word 'crazy'…" Naminé whispered to Kairi, "What does this have to do with Zexion's weight?" "How would I know?"
Axel remained silent, but he still wore that "what in the world are you doing?" expression on his face. I sighed and began to explain, "Before anyone of you starts making wild guesses, I am quite normal. OK guys, compare my shoeprints with these two types." After saying that, I continued to observe more, and I spotted something fishy this time. See if they could get it?
Axel took a glance, and he snapped his finger and said in realisation, "The shoeprints, no, the depths and forces exerted when they were made. They are different!" "Really?!" said Roxas, coming nearer to see, soon he said, "It's true!" I continued, "That's right, Zexion has an estimated weight of fifty kilograms, which is closest to mine. If so, then our shoeprints should have similar exerted forces, and so do the depths. But look here, while the ones near the wall are similar, the messy ones aren't." Pointing at the latter set of shoeprints, I said, "Mine look shallower than these, so this can only mean one thing!"
Roxas took the baton, "Zexion… was squashed by a ghost!"
We almost fell to the floor.
I almost fainted due to frustration at his imagination, I retorted immediately, "You're the squashed one! Damn it, I mean, someone knocked Zexion out, immobilised him or whatever, and to quell suspicion, they wore Zexion's shoes instead and created these to confuse us!" Kairi said, "You mean this is done by human, not any ghosts or monsters?" "Exactly," I said, nodding with confirmation.
Xion said, "Oh right, speaking of shoeprints, I have another theory though… Could there be someone else, wearing their own shoes identical to ours, like students?" Well, I had not given that possibility much thought… Was she implying that there were other students besides the nine of us? Our school shoes were the same after all… "I don't think that is odd; don't forget the reason we are here. This could be left by the seniors, trying to scare us, maybe?" I suggested.
Roxas tugged at my sleeve and asked, "But Nemix… Is there anyone in the Board of Prefects with foot sizes of an American Bigfoot?" I blurted, "Huh?" So I looked at where Roxas was pointing, among the messy shoeprints, there were a good few which were bigger and deeper, and looked decidedly different. I frowned involuntarily, thinking, "Don't tell me…"
Just then, Axel warned, "Everyone lookout, the mist is here again!" Sure enough, a layer of white mist quickly flooded the wooden floor. I suddenly had a premonition, but I did not voice it out. Instead, I faked a cough and said, "Ahem, say, guys, this mist is so thick, so why don't we leave this dead end for a while, since there's no way we can see the shoeprints like this…" I did not know why, but I had to get them away from here. "Oh, sure…" Some of them made verbal acknowledgements, and they turned to leave. Axel did not budge but he glanced at me, I made an eye signal to him and came over to him, saying, "There's something I have to tell you, it's-"
I did not manage to finish, and that was when we heard ghastly moaning and wailing. I shivered a bit, Axel said, "Listen…!" I forced myself to calm down and listen… It… it was "Kimigayo"! "The Japanese army?!" I stammered in panic. For god's sake, the way the ghosts moaned this song like they were rising up from death and suffering was just frightening! And to think this place was involved in rebellion wars against them…!
Suddenly, a sickening crack of wood erupted behind us, and even scarier, something grabbed my foot! I looked down, and crap, there was a bony hand grasping my left ankle! Before I can react, Axel quickly stomped on it, smashing it in the process. Axel grunted, "What was that thing- Nemix, behind you!" I whipped around at once. The floor near the wall had an enormous hole, a huge man stood in front of the hole, wearing an army uniform with armour and wielding two big swords. Blood was dripping from his mouth and his face was dead white, I could not see his irises as well; a total ghost from my imaginations. He was chanting the song, and once he noticed us, he wore a sick devil smirk and roared, "死ね!" [Japanese: Die!]
Had Axel not pulled me away in time, I would have been chopped into half in an instant. I almost petrified…! Snapping out of my shock, I sped away. The sword that was meant to strike me was embedded in the floor, the ghost pulled it out and gave chase. Axel and I ran like no tomorrow, once I saw the rest of us in front, I yelled, "Run for your lives!" I dashed past them, but they were not picking up what was going on. Behind me, Axel yelled, "Run!" And then Roxas screamed, "OH MY GOD! G-ghost!" And more screaming and escaping ensued.
Who would have thought this ghost could still run so fast despite being dead for nearly seventy years? Roxas let out a startled gasp and I turned around to see him falling down. I ran to his aid, when I pulled him, that damned sword came crashing down on me again! Oh no! I pushed Roxas away and luckily the sword hit somewhere beside me. Axel kicked the ghost's hand earlier and made him missed. "Run! I'll stall him!" yelled Axel, glaring at the ghost who was turning to face him. No way in hell was I going to leave him behind. I picked up a piece of wood and stabbed the ghost's back with all my might. Nevertheless, an old armour was still an armour, so the blow probably did not do much. But he seemed to flinch, and Axel took the opportunity and darted away to us, I was right behind him, pulling Roxas along with me.
Running ahead of us, Axel looked back and yelled, "Where's the others?!" Roxas replied, "N-no idea! We were separated again!" I could not even manage a word with the profuse panting going on. Suddenly the floor where Axel just stepped on collapsed and he fell into it. With a surprised yelp, he disappeared right before our eyes. "Axel!" I yelled, trying to examine the hole, but Roxas pulled me away while shouting, "We have to run, the ghost is coming again!" I wanted to object, but with my current exhausted state, I could do nothing but let myself being dragged away by Roxas. I could only think, "Sorry, Axel! I swear I will come back for you…!"
After more running, more turning at the corners, ascending and descending some stairs, the noise of the ghost diminished, but we did not dare to let our guards down. Unfortunately we ran into another bloody dead end. "W-what now?!" Roxas stammered, panic-ridden. He looked around for an escape. I bent over, gasping for air. My legs were aching as if they would detach anytime. When the ghost's bellowing reached us again, Roxas grabbed my hand and pulled me into a dark classroom nearby. He slammed the door shut right after we entered and hid in a dark corner. I followed suit, suppressing my gasps of breath on purpose. Time passed by painfully slowly…
After about five minutes, everything seemed to quiet down outside; the ghost should have left. I only let myself gasp for air now, and Roxas came out of his hiding spot to me. "Roxas, Nemix, are you guys OK?" It seemed that Ventus, Kairi and Naminé were hiding here as well. Axel aside, we were two people short. Xion and Demyx… wherever they were, I hoped they were safe… "If you… exclude my… heart right now… I'm OK…" wheezed Roxas, I stood up slowly, walking towards them. I was sure my eyes were adjusted to the darkness in the past five minutes, but somehow everything blacked out temporarily, only at the next second I found myself on the floor. I could not move my wrists and legs. "Nemix?!" Roxas came over with the others.
This old problem just had to pick this moment… I said, "Roxas… chill, first… tilt me around… to face… the ceiling…" Roxas hesitated for a second, but he did it carefully anyway with Ventus' help. I was now facing the ceiling. Now I saw four heads hovered over me. I continued, "Roxas, check… my fingers… see if they… they look weird… that you can't… pull it…" Seconds later, he said yes. Again… geez. I breathed in some air and said, "Anyone… with a… plastic bag?" The four of them were quiet for a moment, and Ventus replied, "No, how about some water and a handkerchief?" I answered, "That would do… Wet it first."
Soon, I told them to cover my nose and mouth with the wet fabric. Not totally lying flat on it, but leaving some space between. They held the handkerchief that way, while I quickly breathed to take in more carbon dioxide. But this was strange; it only took me around two minutes to revert to normal. I needed five minutes or so under normal circumstances… how odd.
Sometime later, I sat up. "I'm alright now, thank you, everyone," I said, returning the handkerchief to Ventus. "Oh my god, I thought you were going to die… you scared the living daylights out of me!" exclaimed Roxas. I said, "I thought you are well aware of me having this strange condition already?" "No, seriously Nemix, this is the first time we see it in person," Kairi said. Naminé just nodded.
I said, "Put that aside for now, we have more important things to do." Roxas asked, "What?" "We have to find Zexion, Axel, Demyx and Xion. And also find out who is toying us around," I added, getting up. "Wait, what?" Kairi could not believe what she heard. I let out a small dry laugh, saying, "Didn't you guys see this many things wrong with this wretched place? Then let me tell you…"
Meanwhile, in a dark hidden room…
"… I'm back."
"Hmm… what's the situation like outside now?"
"Well, those kids got their crap scared out of them; they might not even dare to stay for long."
"Nice to know… but, you're still too careless, leaving such a clue for them to discover."
"…"
"Seriously, if it weren't for my close watch, we would have been discovered!"
"It's true that it is my fault, but at least they didn't suspect anything about us."
"… Forget that, since you are injured, I won't press this any further. Go and rest up, oh, and check up on that kid we captured, will you?"
"I did that before I came to see you. He is not awake yet, but as long as those meddling kids are still here, I cannot rest well… Should I go and put an end to them?"
"We'd better not… Parents nowadays are really annoying, once they know their children went missing here, surely the police are going to raid this place. We still don't have any other hideouts to go… Dump that kid outside when you get the chance and make sure to lure all of them out. Remember to blindfold him though, wouldn't want to take any chances."
"You're right… fine."
"…By the way, how's the ransom going?"
"I have yet to follow up with the old man, but I will ring him soon enough."
"The longer we take, the more insecure we become… let's finish this soon."
"So, wait, wait, hold on. So now you're saying that someone kidnapped Zexion?" said Kairi. "The mist is fake and made to freak us out?" Roxas continued. Ventus added, "Some bad guy dressed up as the Japanese soldier ghost?" Naminé chimed in, "Those ghastly moaning and wolf head earlier are all fake?" I raised an eyebrow and said, "This is the first time you guys make such good connection between statements… Yes, that's right! Everything here is caused by human. Even if this place is not as creepy as we know, someone is still creating chaos behind all these! There might be one reason…" I looked out of the door and continued, "There's something here that we're not supposed to know, or to put it better, we shouldn't be here in the first place, but we had to. And someone was not happy with that, and thus the tricks they used against us…"
Now I was starting to worry; since human was behind this, of course it did not bode well; that meant Zexion who went missing, and Axel who fell into the floor, were in serious danger. At the end of the day, humans were way more menacing than ghosts. I clenched my fist and asked, "Everyone had their rest?" Roxas answered, "Yeah." Good… "OK, we are going to look for Axel and Zexion first, but remember, whatever happens, do not scatter all around the place. Stay on the same floor, or else it'll be harder to look for you guys instead. We shall stay in one group, move out."
Roxas mused while walking, "So the mist is dry ice, and the ghost is actually human because Nemix can physically hurt him, geez… But why are you so sure that the mist is dry ice, Nemix?" I explained, "Dry ice is solidified carbon dioxide, and I had relapses whenever I lacked carbon dioxide. I recovered faster than any other time just now, and there was a lot of mist around… yeah." We treaded carefully until we reached a dimly lit corridor, due to the fading moonlight. The dark clouds were back again. Just then, a series of thuds were heard from beneath the floor.
We stopped at once, I signalled the rest to keep quiet. There were no ghosts around, so let us see what they were cooking up! Lightning flashed and illuminated the corridor. I discovered a drain hole on the floor, covered by wire gauze. I thought about it and asked, "Ven, can you lend me your water bottle?" "Huh? Oh, here." I opened the cap and poured some water into the hole while smothering a laugh. After five seconds… more noises came out, and suddenly a hand broke through the floor from below and made a hole, wriggling about before us.
Naminé was about to scream and Kairi covered her mouth just in time. Roxas almost fell down and Ven was speechless. I was surprised, but I saw something on its wrist; Axel's watch! "… Relax, Axel, it's us," I said, gently knocking the floor beside the hand. The hand twitched, and another emerged by breaking the floor. When a big enough hole was made, Axel popped out from it, but only the upper part of his body did. He said, "Nemix! Great, you're here! You guys too?" "Um, yeah…"
Axel continued, "Let's have our happy reunion later, but let me tell you. When I fell into the floor, I wasn't dead! And there is a lot of machinery in there, and loud speakers, robotic hands and dry ice. Someone seemed to control all of these here to freak people out!" "Just as I suspected, someone was behind this…" I mused. "Oh, one more thing… Why did you guys pour water in?! The space is so cramped in here, you want to drown me or something?" Axel complained. I said, "How would I know it was you down here?! We didn't know anything… But this proved that the mist made by dry ice came out from drain holes like this one." "Don't change the subject! Pull me up this instant!" "Eh, fine…" I pulled him out with some help, and he continued, "I think Zexion really was kidnapped by someone, with all these complicated machinery around, this building is not as simple as it seemed to be." Roxas said, "The problem is, we don't even know where Zexion is, and we were separated from Demyx and Xion." "Aw, goddamn it…" grumbled Axel.
He was right… but how could we find them? Hmm… Eh? Wait a minute… I got an idea! "Nemix… why are you smirking again? You hatched yet another nasty plot again, didn't you?" asked Kairi. I just grinned, and then I said, "Of course I can't do it alone; I need a team of partners in crime…"
Dark clouds shrouded the sky, and lightning flashed in an unpredictable manner, foreboding an imminent storm. At this moment, there were two people on the topmost floor, right under the clouds…
"No, seriously… I barely managed to escape this crazy place, but why did we have to end up on the topmost floor?!" Demyx wailed hopelessly. Xion groaned, "We were running up the stairs all this while… I told you to stop, but you wouldn't listen." "I was frightened to death earlier, how could I concentrate on your words? And that ghost was just scary as heck… I wonder how people survived the Japanese occupation?" said Demyx. "I would be glad if you're worrying about us now… There's no rope here, so jumping off the building is definitely out of the question," muttered Xion, massaging her temples.
Thunder roared, and Xion covered her ears. When the sound died down, she said, "Since we can't escape from here, how about we go back to the foyer where we came in?" Demyx was about to say something, when the doorknob nearby clicked; the door was opened. "Not good! Xion, get over here!" Demyx immediately pulled Xion aside to hide behind a small room that seemed like a control room. Demyx put his finger on his lips, telling Xion to be quiet. The two of them listened carefully to the door closing, footsteps, and the conversation that followed.
"It's going to rain. To prevent the machine from getting wet, check the settings in the drainage control room."
"Eh, fine… *grumbling* Haven't I done that already?"
"I will call that old man…"
Xion thought, "Someone else is here? Machine? What's going on?" Demyx wore an unbelievable expression. Let us listen some more… A metal door was being opened, and then a telephone conversation ensued.
"Hello? Madam? Hey, I hope you didn't forget that your daughter is still with me… Cut the crap, if I don't receive the five million after sunrise, prepare to arrange for her funeral!" And the conversation seemed to stop right there. "That coward passed the phone to his wife… what kind of a man is he?" The metal door closed and another voice joined, "All set, how about you?" "If all goes well, we should get it before sunrise. She loves her daughter so much, she knows too well not to inform the police… Let's go."
After some footsteps and door closing, Demyx and Xion finally came out from their hiding spot. "Dem, what exactly is happening here?" Xion still could not believe what she heard, Demyx said grimly, "I don't know, but I have a feeling that… this place isn't as simple as a haunted building… could be a facade." Xion said determinedly, "We cannot let them have it their way!" And then, she headed to the metal door beside her and went in the room after opening it. Demyx went in as well, asking, "Xion, what are you doing?" Xion said to herself, "This should be the drainage control room they mentioned earlier…" Demyx caught the drift and warned, "Xion… you sure about this? We don't know what would happen… "… Forget it! Just press whatever!" Upon seeing the many buttons, switches and colourful wires, she felt like pulling her hair out, so she defied all logic and messed up all the current settings. Demyx was staring at her, speechless.
Almost everything was not left untouched, until she reached a final big red button. Xion hesitated, but still pressed it after saying "whatever". Nothing happened… But… "Crap, Dem, I couldn't find a hole to plug this in!" Xion was holding a long piece of wire and started to panic, and Demyx smacked a palm onto his forehead and said, "I suggest you to just leave it be… Before anyone discovers us, let's make a run for it." "Oh… OK!" After some thinking, Xion tossed the wire aside and bolted for the door with Demyx. They shut the door and headed for the lowest floor where the entrance was. Little did they know… that wire was left exposed outside the door. What consequence would this bring?
"… Why is everything in pitch darkness before my eyes? I cannot even see my fingers… Wait, I cannot move my hands… why?" thought Zexion.
Zexion had his limbs tied up by ropes at the moment, and his eyes were blindfolded as well. "I remember being in a dead end, preparing to return to Nemix and Demyx… and then nothing else. Perhaps I was knocked out cold, but how long was I out for?" Zexion tried to struggle away, but the rope was too thick for him to be freed. "Damn it… just as I thought, there are no ghosts at all! I have to escape and find the others!" thought Zexion, using his hearing to make up for his blind state. No one seemed to be around… except for a steady breathing of another person. He thought, "Who is that? Shoot, is it the bad guy?" Zexion stopped moving altogether. Still, nothing happened. "Maybe not? I would not want to get caught though… if only I could get rid of this blindfold. What should I do?"
He thought, "I could find a wall to rub it off my head… so where is the wall?" Zexion inched around slowly, using his back-tied hands to feel around. After a few minutes of backing up, his hands finally came into contact with the cool wall. He leaned against the wall and slowly reeled his head backwards. He felt something hard on his head that collided with the wall. "Good, that should be the knot, now to press it down," thought Zexion. He pressed the knot onto the wall firmly with his head and slid downwards. Soon, a piece of cloth dropped. He sat up again, able to see clearly this time. "Ugh, finally got rid of it! Now-?!" Of course he was glad he did not have to make wild guesses with his ears now, but the breathing noise he heard earlier was from this girl before him. She was blindfolded, with an additional cloth tied to her mouth to silence her. She was unconscious too. The next thing he saw almost made him gasp; the girl was wearing their school's uniform!
"… Who exactly are you?" Zexion wondered quietly.
"OK, everyone understood what I mean?" I asked, looking at the others. Ventus said, "Of course we do, I just really hope you are absolutely clear with what you are doing…" I winked and jabbed a thumb at myself, saying, "Relax, I will go first, you guys will just have to assist me, that's all." Axel said, "We're ready, you be careful on your own." I nodded, grabbed a broken piece of wooden plank and said, "I'll go to where we discovered Zexion's shoeprints, if I'm not back in thirty minutes, try to escape here, and report to the police if you can." After that, I turned to leave. It was now or never!
After walking for five minutes, I started to regret; how could I still remember where that dead end was? Clutching tight onto the wooden plank, I flashed the flashlight at the floor. To be honest, my heart was almost jumping out of my throat. But somebody had to do something, right? If that Japanese ghost appear-
My foot did not step on solid ground and I fell, but thanks to the timely support from my arms, I did not fall into the hole. That was close! I got up carefully, pointed the torch at the hole; it was the hole that Axel fell into earlier. I could still remember its shape, so that meant… the dead end was on the same floor?! "Bingo…" I said quietly. Just then my flashlight flickered a few times, and the light went out completely. Great, out of batteries… "Bingo my head…" I wanted to slap my forehead, but… something was in store for me.
The moonlight barely illuminated the floor and I saw the mist return. OK… time to beware. I saw a window nearby. Thinking that staying under the light would be safer, I walked towards it. Before I could take the fourth step, the ghastly moans came about… "If everything follows the same pattern, then…!" I thought, and "Kimigayo" rang in my ears. I turned around, facing the darkness and gripped the wooden plank properly. Sure enough, a massive shadow emerged and when the moonlight hit him… it was the ghost again! Once he saw me, he slashed the sword around, bellowing, "死ね!" I managed to evade that hit and darted to the middle of the corridor from the window. He was turning around, so I threw the wooden plank at his head. With a bang, the plank snapped but not completely broken into two and dropped to the floor. He seemed to be in pain, so I retorted, "これで どうだ?!" [Japanese: How do you like this?! Lit. How's this?!]
He was enraged and came after me, I quickly pulled my legs and sprinted. "This won't do, I have to return to Axel and the others!" I used the route I took just now, with him hot on my trail. One more turn! "Axel! Roxas! Anybody?!" I yelled. After the turn, they were not there. I looked back and stopped running. The ghost was catching up, about ten meters away from me… "Now!" I screamed, readying a fighting pose. The ghost was surprised for a second, but all it took was that momentous second and robotic hands all burst from the floor and grabbed his feet. He could not stop in time and was swaying due to inertia. Just then, Axel, Roxas, Ventus, Kairi and Naminé all sprang out from their hiding spots and landed onto the ghost's back. The total weight increased and they crashed into the floor, trapping the ghost in the resultant hole, with robotic hands and wires tangling him.
"Yes! We busted the ghost!" Ventus and Roxas gave each other a high-five and cheered. Axel reflected, "Luckily we decided to weaken this part of the floor by hitting it earlier, or else he wouldn't be trapped!" I said, "Only because you know how to control these hands to make them work for us, so that my nasty plot worked." Kairi and Naminé each had a foldable umbrella with them. One of them said, "207, you can start now." Right… after luring the snake out of the hole, it was time for intense interrogation!
I hit his head and started, "Hey, stupid ghost, where did you take my friend to?" He struggled and scoffed, "Why should I tell you?" OK then… I signalled the two girls and they smacked his back and butt with the umbrellas. He was yelping in pain, but he could not get up, so he was writhing around in the cramped hole. "If you don't fess up, I am going to stab your back!" I threatened, but I thought that was a bit too much… whatever.
Then, thunder growled lowly outside, soon we heard rain crashing down. A storm started… "… Over my dead body! My partner won't let you all go! He was watching your moves all along! Don't ever think about escaping here alive!" I was quite shocked at this point; partner? Watching?! This was getting complicated… Axel threatened, "You'd better explain yourself, or you'll be sorry!" "Oh dear, I'm so scared, but what are you going to do? Huh?!" Even if he was trapped in a hole at our mercy, he showed no signs of fear. I needed another plan…
"KABAM!" Lightning flashed first and thunder seemed to erupt nearby, like a cannon targeting us. Only loud zaps and our startled screams could be heard. Only blinding white could be seen. A few seconds passed… I opened my eyes and removed my hands from my ears, what happened before me was just stupefying; everyone was startled of course, but the ghost seemed to be twitching, along with some burnt smell… No way… was he electrocuted?! "Oh god, no… no! Forgive me! Forgive me!" I looked at Axel, his expression screamed "WTF". I decided to go along with it, "… Are you going to tell the truth?" Soon, Axel caught up and continued, "Do you want it again? I wouldn't mind though, hehe…" Roxas smacked his face into his palm, but the ghost seemed to buy it and stammered, "Yes! OK! I admit! I admit! Don't hurt me… He was at the thirteenth floor, in a hidden room! I'm not lying!" "Then… which floor are we at now?" Naminé asked. Ventus suddenly got bolder and kicked the ghost's butt and said, "Hey! Answer that!" "Ow… This is the fifth floor! Fifth floor… Your friend is in that room! Just let me go!"
I finally announced, "Let's go." Axel took the swords from him, kicked him a few more times, and left with us. We just made a turn at the corner and another round of lightning and thunder came, and the distant screams of the ghost was heard again. "… We can't do much. I have no idea why he was electrocuted…" I said. Hang on, Zexion, we were coming!
"Phew! Hey Dem, how long will it take to go down this emergency stairs to get to the bottom?!" Xion clutched onto the railings and wheezed. Demyx stopped, placing a hand onto the wall to catch a breath. He said, "Counting from the topmost floor, it had been ten floors down… but I'm not sure how many floors there are." Xion whined, "Aw hell NO…" A flurry of lightning and thunder came in unannounced. "KABAM!" Demyx jumped and said, "Don't tell me it's raining…" Xion said, "How would I know? Eh, wait… Demyx, did you smell something weird?" "Weird smell? Hmm… I think so… burnt smell?" Demyx sniffed a few times and said. Xion shrugged. "Well, this is weird."
Demyx shook his head and said, "Forget that, we can talk about it after we got out." "But… what about others? We haven't seen them after the ghost appeared," asked Xion after some hesitation. Demyx was unusually quiet for a moment, and then he added, "I don't know where to find them… How about this; we go to the entrance and split up there, you go and look for help and I return for them." Xion interrupted, "We can split up now, I head down, you go up. But I don't know whether calling the cops is a good idea now… Oh geez." "OK, let's do this," said Demyx.
"Be careful."
"Sure, you too. Hurry."
And so, Xion left for the entrance all by herself, one floor after another. "… Oh come on, how many floors left?!" Xion was getting impatient. Due to her impulsiveness, she skipped a few steps of stairs unknowingly and fell down the stairs. "OW! That hurt…" Xion pushed herself up slowly from the floor, but she realised she could not use her left ankle. "Dang it, I must have twisted it," she whispered, finally standing up with the support of the railings. She looked around and saw no more stairs that led down. "This is the bottom! Oh my god! Yes! Ow, ow…" Xion jumped with delight, but irritated her sore ankle some more. Xion opened the only door and she was in the foyer from before. Without thinking much, she rushed for the door whilst limping, but… "Bam!" She accidentally crashed onto the door, but the door did not budge.
"Crap, don't tell me the door was locked!" She was getting scared by the minute, because she could hear ghosts weeping and wolves howling, even the windows snapped opened themselves! She knocked the door with her body forcefully a few times, but nothing changed. Only then she realised, "That's it! I could use the windows! Seriously, I wasted a lot of time on the door…" She hurried over to an opened window, after looking at the situation outside, she lifted her left leg out of the window with some effort, and then her right. Finally, she fell onto a wet bush.
Xion got up and rushed down the road she remembered taking hours ago. Her limping did not help much, and she almost fell down when she crossed the small bridge because it was too wet. With this storm going on, she could not even move on without her flashlight. When she noticed that the trees were clearing up, her heart cheered, "Good! I'm almost at the main building!" This was the first time she was so excited upon seeing tar roads. She thought, "I need to inform 443, nobody would see it coming. But where is the senior prefect that took our gadgets?!" She was in the school lobby now, and she remembered; every activity held in the school would have their venues recorded on the Activities Notice Board. She limped over to the board and found out the venue was actually the Prefect Meeting Room, so she headed to the stairs.
Meanwhile, in said room…
"… Time sure goes by ever so slowly… It's only past midnight; I could use a toilet break." A prefect was waiting for someone to change shifts with him, but he went off anyway. Xion caught nobody off guard when she arrived (no pun intended). "Eh? Where's everybody? … Ah, screw that!" She went into the room and saw a bagful of gadgets on the table. After some search, she pulled out her interphone and started to contact Lawrence. "… No signal?! Geez…" she grumbled, going out quickly. After three minutes… "Why is the bag opened? Didn't I tie it up?" The prefect was confused to no end, standing at the door, overlooking shallow pools of water and dirt on the floor.
Xion went all the way up to the third floor and that was when a song came through the interphone, "いとおしい人のために… [Japanese: For the sake of my loved ones]" She cheered, "Connected!" After a fake cough, she yelled, "443! Stop watching your anime! Answer me!" After three seconds, the song was paused and he said, "What is it? I was about to continue to the next episode…"
"We're in deep trouble right now, so you'd better stop what you're doing and listen!"
"What's going on? You sound agitated."
"Of course I sound agitated! 207 and company are in danger!"
"What? Hold on, what exactly happened?"
"We're supposed to spend a night in a supposedly haunted building in our school, and we discovered a kidnapping in there, and we have lost contact with all others!"
"What on earth…? Are the kidnappers in that building as well?"
"Yes, and gods know what would happen to 207 and the others… Listen, I know this is risky, but I need you to inform the police, keep a low profile, OK? We don't want too much trouble…"
"Will do, stay in touch, but are you still in the building?"
"No, I had to escape to search for help."
"Where's your school?"
"Eh, here… *insert address here* Tell the police to meet me at the school foyer, I will lead them from there onwards."
"… No problem, keep the interphone on at all times, yeah?"
"Got it."
After Xion finished, Lawrence grabbed his cell phone beside him and dialled 999, anxiously waiting for the dialling signal to stop… after three seconds, a voice came through, "Selamat malam, ini adalah balai polis. [Good evening, this is the police station.]"
"Hi, This is an emergency, I want to report a kidnapping at Kingdom Hearts High School."
"…?"
"…? Hello? I want to report a kidnapping at Kingdom Hearts High!"
"… Selamat malam, ini balai polis. [Good evening, this is the police station.]"
"I know that! This is an emergency!"
"… Cakap bahasa Melayu boleh tak? [Can you speak Malay?]"
Lawrence almost crushed his phone out of desperation and frustration, but he had to suck it up and use Google Translate and the dictionary to talk…
When he finally finished, he picked up his interphone and almost yelled, "Next time, YOU make the call!"
Zexion still had not given up trying to break free of the ropes, and his wrists hurt a lot. "What should I do? Maybe I could try the rope tying my legs," he thought, so he started wriggling, his shoes fell off. But once the shoes were off, the rope did not seem too tight, so after a few struggles, one of his legs came out of the knot. He kicked the messy rope off his other foot and he stood up slowly. He walked towards the unconscious girl, trying to wake her up. "Hey! Wake up! Hey?!" He did not dare to yell out loud, for he feared to alert any bad guys nearby. "Calm down… at this rate, we could be locked up somewhere, but with my hands in this state, I can do nothing…"
"KABAM!" He did not see the lightning, but the deafening thunder caught him off guard. Soon, he heard someone grumbling outside, "What the hell… this computer just had to freeze when there's a thunderstorm! Luckily I have some emergency storage electricity… let's see what's going on… Short circuit? Wait, the topmost floor? Where's the camera feed? Goddamn it, who left the wire out in the storm?! No wonder everything broke down… for god's sake, he's at it again, that careless bum!" And with that, Zexion could hear a door opening and closing. Everything quieted down, only the sound of falling rain remained.
"Perhaps the topmost floor is so wet that the wire is wet as well, and was struck by lightning… idiot," Zexion thought, starting to glance around to find an escape. After one minute, he said, "Forget that, I need to leave before that guy returns!" And he found a weak looking wooden wall and rammed into it. After three tries, he lost his balance and fell to the floor. "That did not work… Ouch… that hurt." He could not bother to get up and started to call out on the spot, "Anyone out there?! Help!"
Was this what they meant by "desperation"?
Axel and I led the others to run up the stairs, with Axel holding both swords. I asked, "Which floor are we on now?" Axel answered, "The twelfth, we're almost there!" And Roxas exclaimed, "Here it is!" We stopped to catch a break briefly. "Right… how are we going to find this hidden room?" asked Kairi. "Hey, how about we try this one?" said Roxas, we followed his voice to see him standing before a rusty old door. Axel went up without saying anything and smashed the sword against the door. After banging it three times, Axel reeled the sword back some more and hit it again, breaking it in the process. The door was smashed open, and we heard a loud scream.
We froze. Inside the door were even more stairs, and a familiar figure… "Demyx?!" we exclaimed together. Demyx pushed himself onto the wall behind him, staring at us with widened eyes, he yelled, "Don't scare me like that! I thought somebody is trying to smash this whole place down, turns out to be you guys… Where have you all been?!" I said, "That's my question for you! Ah, no, we don't have time for that. Listen, we know that Zexion is somewhere on this floor!" "Really?! Then hurry, Xion had gone to get help, and someone is being held hostage in here, so we have to rescue two people." "What?!"
We looked around this floor for any passage while listening to Demyx's stories; he was going up the emergency exit until he heard banging noises when he just reached this floor. He told us of the whole kidnapping thing. We told him what happened to the rest of us after we got separated, he said, "No wonder there's this burnt smell, so it's your nasty plot again…" "Hey, that wasn't part of the plan at all, OK? I never expected him to get electrocuted," I explained, feeling lucky all of a sudden. Axel chimed in, "Who cares if it's part of the plan, as long as the ghost bought it!"
"Help! Somebody? Anybody?! Help!"
Wait, this voice seemed out of place… Could it be Zexion?! "006?! Is that you?!" I yelled back, trying to find the voice's origin. The voice called again, "207? I am right here, I will continue yelling, and you follow my voice!" The seven of us followed the voice to a wooden wall. Roxas said, "006, you in there?" And then he knocked on the wall three times, soon three knocks could be heard from the inside, albeit louder, and then a voice followed, "Guys, I am in here!"
Ventus could see Axel was going to smash the wall again, and he yelled at the wall, "006, back away!" After five seconds… "OK!" "Here goes…!" Axel mumbled, smashing the wall repeatedly. A few cracks and holes appeared on the wall and that was when the last sword broke off with a clang. Axel tossed it aside and grunted, "That's it!" And he kicked the wall. I added another blow to it and the wall caved in, resulting in a big hole, revealing Zexion inside.
"Zexion! You alright?" asked Naminé, I rushed in first, and saw the ropes tying up Zexion's hands, I said, "Somebody help me untie him!" Axel hurried over, accidentally hitting Zexion's shoulders. "Ouch…" Zexion gritted his teeth, Axel said, "Sorry, but I had to get rid of the ropes first…" Zexion shook his head and said, "It is nothing, maybe I rammed the wall a bit too hard earlier… Oh, right, there is another girl, somebody help her, but she is still out cold…"
Roxas and Demyx went up to her and tried to untie the knots, but failed. I said after some thought, "There's not much time, we have to escape now! Since Xion is off looking for help, we should leave as soon as we can." Zexion agreed, "You are right, that guy just went off to solve his wire problem, and will be back pretty soon… Luckily there was something to lure him away." Demyx paused to think and he exclaimed, "It's Xion! After we hid ourselves at the topmost floor, she messed up all the drainage settings and tossed the wire outside. Xion, you genius…" "No wonder lightning struck it easily," said Zexion.
Kairi said, "No wonder that idiot got electrocuted, since the machine is connected to the drainage system…" So rainwater was also led to the machine and electrocuted everything, what pure dumb luck… "Zexion, the ropes won't budge, we will bring you out now," said Axel, about to pull Zexion up. Suddenly a corner of the room lit up, I did not get a chance to see what was going on, I only heard Axel yelling, "Nemix! Zexion! Watch out!" And after some loud bangs, when I recovered from my trance, I was already on the floor, face down, so did Zexion. I felt some weight on top of us, was it Axel? "Damn it…" Axel growled. I caught a glimpse of his face; he had a red scar on his cheek, with some red lines coming out of it… blood?!
"Your meaningless struggles end here. Hold still or I will kill you all!" A rough man's voice came from the light, I squinted my eyes at the light, and there was a tall shadow with a gun in his hand. "Axel, are you OK?" Zexion tried to move and asked. Axel pushed himself up, I saw a scratch on his right arm, with a bit of blood. Roxas and Demyx were petrified on the spot, while the unconscious still remained unconscious. The gunman walked in and said, "I must say, I'm impressed that you were able to mess up my drainage controls, take down my partner, and discover this hidden room. Not bad for meddling kids like you, but our little game should come to an end now. Now get over to that corner together!"
We had no choice but to do as he said. Our chance of escaping was getting slimmer. He spoke again, "I am merely steps away from becoming a millionaire, and nobody shall take the girl away tonight!" Whatever he said, I just wished he would not kill us in the process, since we basically knew what he was up to. He seemed desperate for money though, so hopefully he was just frightening us. I casted a sideway glance at the hole we made earlier, Ventus, Naminé and Kairi were gone. It might be good this way, since they would be safer than being in here, and this crazy fellow might not get anymore arrogant than he already was. Seriously… if Xion was still not coming, it would mean game over for us, with no restart option. I could not possibly distract him and escape myself, leaving all others behind. How frustrating!
"Police! Freeze!"
I was shaken from my thoughts, and realised the police had surrounded the room, their guns pointing at the man. Xion, Ventus, Kairi and Naminé were all with them! And Lawrence too… now we were talking. "Hands up where I can see them!" One of them commanded, the man was not expecting this to happen, he had no choice but to surrender. We were escorted out, but due to the injuries sustained by three of our friends, we had to go to the hospital, our parents were panicking all along. After giving my statements to the police, our job was done. Since everyone sustained only light injuries, we were permitted to go home. I passed by a ward, I remembered the unconscious girl was sent into there, so I asked my parents if I could see her, out of curiosity. "Sure, but be quick."
I knocked at the door and went in. My jaw almost detached at the sight. The girl before me was…
"Fayra Joann?!" I could only squeeze out a few words. She was sitting on the bed. Although awake, her eyes were glazed over. She saw me, but did not seem to acknowledge my presence. A servant beside her told me, "Miss Fayra was given a high dose of sleeping drug by the kidnapper, maybe she is not completely awake now. Perhaps you can visit her next time?" I… still could not face her yet. I mumbled, "… Sure, I'll just take my leave for now."
Exiting the ward, I saw Lawrence outside, he said, "Uncle told me to wait for you while he went to bring his car to the main entrance, shall we go?" I nodded and said, "Yeah, let's go…" We headed to the main entrance of the hospital. He asked out of the blue, "Are you alright? You seem distracted." "… Nah, it's OK. Maybe I'm just tired, after going through all this crap…"
In the car, I still could not shake off the sight of Fayra earlier. And I thought the whole thing ended with everyone rescued and bad guys arrested. Her involvement just made it seemed as if there was an unknown side to it, did I think too much?
One day, I was in the Prefect Meeting Room arranging the attendance reports. Well, the mid-year exam was around the corner, and many people started to call in "sick" to stay home and study. I was the one that would show up accordingly regardless of exams, of course I would not be able to fathom why they could skip school for weeks for last minute study, especially seeing most of them still failed to get good grades (worse than mine) with my own eyes. I would not say this phenomenon was entirely bad though; at least no one was there to annoy me when I studied in class, and I could even seek help from the teachers when I was stuck… although I preferred to solve the problems myself.
Axel came in and asked, "Say Nemix, we have a lot of self-study time later, why don't we revise together with the others?" I looked at him and hesitated, but said yes anyway. I was more suited to revise alone, but since he asked, I did not know how to turn it down. "How were your wounds? Thanks for pushing Zexion and I down in time," I said, putting the reports away. While the rest of the Organisation XIII crew came in to pick up their bags. Axel waved his hand dismissively and commented, "Eh, it's nothing. Good to know you guys aren't hurt… but your reaction was too slow, don't you see?" Honestly, just one praise and you started to get cocky? Take that. I said, "Really? If your reactions are faster than mine, how could you still fall into the hole?" "You didn't fall into it?" "Of course not!"
We were still bickering when a younger trainee prefect came in. She said, "Ah… excuse me… are the members of Counter Crime Group 13 here?" We stopped talking and six pairs of eyes landed on her. She went nervous and stammered, "Um, Mr. Saïx asked me to let you guys to fill in this form and return to him ASAP." She left quickly after handing over the forms.
"Seriously, we are not going to eat her," said Demyx, distributing the forms. Roxas looked at the paper and his look turned ever so grim. "Can I just leave it blank?" "Why? What's wrong?" I asked, flipping it over to see mine. I had to use the force of my entire will to stop myself from tearing it to bits. The title of the form:
Prefect Training Camp Participant Feedback Form Year 2010
Everything dropped into silent mode… After ten minutes…
On Mr. Saïx's desk lay six pieces of papers, on them were our feedbacks: Ultimate challenge. Over-stimulating. A challenge for human limits. Huge risks and high stakes… And one more: DO NOT EVER DO IT AGAIN!
~ CHAPTER 15 FIN ~
TO BE CONTINUED
Oh yeah… finally concluded this one! I need to stop rambling and procrastinating… whatever, off to preparing the next one! (Listening to "Itooshii hito no tame ni" all this while just motivates me to complete this series!)