Chapter 8: Brave Souls

A phone started ringing. Very abnormally loudly. It took her awhile to realize, it was HER phone, laying in her pocket. She quickly ripped it out and answered it.

"Hello?"

"Help me…" Said a voice on the other side, making her shiver. "Help me…"

Suddenly, a second voice started talking. She gasped, recognizing the voice.

"Naomi, are you there?" Her mother cried. "Answer me please!"

"Mom? Mom!" Naomi cried into the phone, making Dashi and Tweak gasp with hope. "Mom! Mom! It's me! My friends and I, we're in real trouble!"

"Naomi! Please! Just let me hear your voice!" Her mother sobbed, revealing that she couldn't hear a word Naomi was saying.

Naomi gasped, looking to the Octonauts.

"She can't hear me…" She gasped.

"Keep trying!" Dashi and Tweak said at the same time.

"Please, just say something! I'm your mom, Naomi! God please! Don't let anything have happened to her!"

"Help me…" Said the other voice. "Help me… Help me…"

Naomi stared at the phone while she and the Octonauts sat on the stairwell. She screamed, throwing her phone to the floor. Dashi and Tweak stared in shock at her, completely flabbergasted by her reactions. But, they remained silent. The three of them stared at the floor, remembering what had happened after they found Seiko's body.

…

Dashi, Tweak, and Naomi stood in the girls restroom, staring horrified at the hanging body that swung slowly in front of them. Naomi started tearing up once more.

"Seiko…" She cried. "I don't understand… You said we'd make it out of here… together. Why would you kill yourself?! What happened?! What… did you see?"

"It really is a pity." Said a sudden voice by the entrance.

The girls gasped as they looked towards the voice, expecting to see another wisp, but becoming confused when they saw a girl, and not just any girl… Naho.

"Who are you?" Naomi asked as she and the Octonauts stood up.

"I'm the spirit of a girl who died here." Naho explained rather bluntly.

"Do you know what happened to her?" Dashi asked.

"I believe your friend… was afflicted."

"Afflicted?" Tweak frowned. "What does that mean?"

"It basically means affected." Naomi explained. "But… with what?"

"The curse that holds this school together." Naho answered. "Those who are touched by it slowly lose their minds to it. Some people realize this is happening, and go to great lengths to prevent it… even taking their own lives."

"Gosh, desperate much?" Tweak frowned, crossing her arms.

"Of course, others just go insane." Naho smiled devilishly. "Sometimes they start hurting the people around them. The exact response to this curse varies quite a bit from one person to the next."

"That's horrible." Naomi whispered sadly.

"Now that your friend has passed away… this school… this space… is yours alone. You are its only living occupant."

"But, we're not alone!" Dashi assured. "There's three of us! We'll stick together! Always! This school isn't gonna break us apart!"

"Perhaps for now." Naho agreed. "But, one by one, you will each die, until there is one left, and then, you will be all by yourself from here on out… until the day you die…"

"NEVER!" The girls barked back.

"We're the Octonauts!" Tweak stood proud. "We know what our mission is now, and we're not gonna stop until that mission is fulfilled!"

"... I wish you the best of luck." Naho nodded before walking away.

…

"Guys…" Naomi gasped when their flashback was over. "I just realized something."

"What is it?" Dashi asked.

"My phone… it has Seiko's number in it… and everybody else's too!"

Dashi and Tweak were wondering what Naomi was up to, what she was thinking. Before either one of them could react, Naomi got up and tried to go down the stairs to retrieve her phone. It ended up in disaster when her ankle messed up and she fell down the stairs.

"NAOMI!" The Octonauts gasped, running up to her.

"Naomi, are you alright?" Dashi hoped.

"Oh, God…" Naomi whimpered. "It hurts!"

"Ok, no more stalling!" Tweak demanded. "We need to find Peso, NOW! Her ankle is getting worse, we can't put it off any longer Dashi."

"You're right." Dashi nodded. "No more stalling. From now on, we don't do anything until we find Peso and get that leg fixed up."

"Ow, girls." Naomi gasped. "I think it's broken."

Suddenly, Naomi started to retch, bile spilling all over the floor. Dashi and Tweak stood around her, comforting her as she retched.

Suddenly, something unexpected happened. They heard the voice of Seiko speaking to them.

'Pull yourself together!' She demanded. 'You're a tough cookie, Naomi. This isn't like you!'

The lights flickered a bit, and then, they turned off completely. Naomi sniffed and shook her head.

"I'm… I'm not 'tough' at all!" She sobbed. "Seiko… I can't take any more of this!"

"Naomi, you need to relax." Dashi informed. "Getting worked up is not going to help us get out of here."

"Dashi is right, Naomi." Tweak agreed. "If we're going to make it out of this, we need to stay calm and collected. And, we need to stay together. Can you do that, Naomi?"

But it was hopeless. Naomi was not listening to a single word the girls were saying to her, and she laid on the floor, sobbing to herself as she cried out for her mother and, almost unexpectedly, Satoshi.

…

Meanwhile, in another closed space, Satoshi, Yuka, Shellington, and Tunip stood in a classroom together, speaking to a blue willow-wisp.

"You're doing great, Yuka." Satoshi smiled to his little sister. "I'm really impressed how long you've gone without crying."

"Uh-huh…" Yuka hiccuped, trying to be brave for her big brother. "I'm… not crying… I'm not…"

"I sense that other corporeal beings such as yourselves were brought here as well." The willow-wisp suddenly decided to speak. "Seventeen in total, eight of them which are not human. Seventeen poor souls pulled in at once."

"That would be me and Yuka… Naomi… Yoshiki… Ayumi… Ms. Yui… Seiko… Mayu… Morishige…" Satoshi started.

"Me and Tunip... Captain Barnacles… Kwazii… Peso… Dashi… Inkling… and Tweak." Shellington added. "In other words, everybody in the room at the time."

"Dammit!" Satoshi swore.

"So everybody else… is in this school… too?" Yuka shyly asked.

"Not exactly." The willow-wisp disagreed. "As I mentioned, this is a nexus of closed spaces. Your friends are scattered among them. So in essence, they are indeed all in this school… but it's not quite the same place for everyone. Meeting anyone else here may prove… difficult."

"But how difficult?" Shellington wondered.

"If you should attempt to defy the will of this school to find them, you may ultimately invoke its wrath." The wisp answered. "And that's a fate… best avoided."

"We appreciate the warning, but we have to try." Satoshi sighed. "We'll do whatever it takes to find everyone and get out of here. Right Shellington?"

"Correct, Satoshi." Shellington nodded firmly.

"Big brother…" Yuka smiled admiringly, Tunip doing the same for Shellington.

"They're all such good people…" Satoshi continued. "They've done nothing to deserve this! And I absolutely will not give up on them just because there's some nebulous curse that might strike back at me!"

"Same here!" Shellington agreed.

"It's a rarity to find such righteous determination these days." The wisp approved. "Be sure you don't lose it along the way. Your desire not to let a single person die… try to retain that noble spirit, no matter what horrors may await. And even if you can't save everyone… you may still be able to alter your fate for the better, even if only by the tiniest of margins. Just don't end up… like us…"

With that, the willow-wisp disappeared. Yuka nodded and turned to her big brother.

"Big brother…"

"Hmm?" Satoshi looked back at her. "What is it?"

"What did he mean by… the school's wrath?"

"I'm not sure…" Satoshi frowned. "Shellington, any ideas?"

"Not a clue." Shellington shook his head. "Maybe, he's saying the school has a mind of its own or something."

"At any rate, we should try to find Ms. Yui and the others as soon as possible." Satoshi ordered before looking at his sister. "And we need to get you home, too. If we come across a way out of here, I want you to take it."

"Same goes for you too Tunip." Shellington nodded. "You and Yuka both are too young for something like this. You two shouldn't have to go through something like this."

"There must be an entranceway, or an emergency exit, or roof access, or… something that leads outside." Satoshi added. "And if so, you're to go straight home, no 'buts'!"

"I want you to follow Yuka home as well, Tunip." Shellington said to the vegimal. "You two need to get to a safe place. Is that alright, Satoshi?"

"It's more than alright, Shellington." Satoshi nodded. "I'd prefer it actually. You got that, you two?"

"Ok." Yuka sighed.

Tunip nodded as well, giving a salute to Shellington.

"Good," Shellington nodded. "Now, let's get out of here."

With that, the four of them left the classroom together, heading out into the halls to look for their missing friends… and a way out. They walked into one of the classrooms, 2-A. It was dark, but the further they went in, they could make out a fresh dead body.

"UUGH!" The four of them screamed upon seeing it.

"Owwie!" Yuka cried out. "You hurt my hand, big brother!"

Yuka and Tunip looked back at the body, screaming once more before hugging onto each other.

"Yuka! Tunip! Don't look!" Satoshi ordered.

The two younger ones whimpered as they covered each other's eyes, avoiding any visual contact to the mass in front of them. Shellington and Satoshi nodded before looking back at the body.

"It's not a prop or anything." Satoshi shook his head. "It's a real dead body."

"This… is really happening, isn't it?" Shellington took a shaky breath.

"B-Big brother?" Yuka suddenly spoke.

"A dead body… an actual dead body." Satoshi shook. "Am I going to end up like this, too? Are all of us going to die here?"

"I won't let that happen Satoshi." Shellington frowned. "And neither will the other Octonauts. If our mission is to get you all out of here alive, then that's what we're going to do. No 'ifs' 'ands' or 'buts'!"

"Big brother!" Yuka cried again, this time getting their attention.

"Ah! Yuka…" Satoshi sighed. "It… It's ok."

"Same here Tunip." Shellington nodded to the vegimal.

"Come on, guys. We're leaving this room." Satoshi ordered.

The others nodded and followed the boy out of the room. Once they were outside, they continued their quest, trying to ignore all the bodies they now realized surrounded them.

Suddenly, Yuka stopped.

"Yuka?" Satoshi asked her, feeling worried.

"Big brother…" She started. "Will we ever be able to go home again? Or are we really stuck here… until we… d-die?"

Shellington and Satoshi said nothing, unsure what the real answer was. Yuka started getting restless and cried out.

"It's not true, right?" She begged. "Big brother? Right?!"

"We'll be ok." Satoshi finally smiled. "We'll make it out of here, Yuka. Just like Shellington said. If the mission is to get us all out, then that's what's going to happen."

"All of us. Together." Shellington agreed. "There's no need for you to worry. After all… you've got us, right?"

Yuka hiccuped before smiling, nodding her answer.

"That's a good girl." Satoshi smiled.

Yuka sniffed before hugging onto her brother tightly, coughing a bit.

"Nerves got the better of you, huh?" Satoshi chuckled. "Poor thing…"

With that little ordeal out of the way, the four of them continued walking. They came across a pathway with a small gap in it. As they looked around for a board to make a makeshift bridge with, they suddenly came face to face with a ghost. And not just any ghost.

The girl in the red dress.

"A child… spirit?" Satoshi gasped.

"That red dress… looked pretty old-fashioned." Shellington shuddered as the girl walked away.

"Big brother…" Yuka whimpered, Tunip whimpering a bit as well.

"It's ok guys. She's gone now." Satoshi assured. "We'll be fine."

With that, the four continued searching around for a board. They walked into classroom 1-A, and saw a board lying on the other side. They left the classroom and headed over to the other side, but when they entered, the board had jumped over to the other side.

"Is it just me or is that board moving?" Satoshi frowned.

"Yeah." Shellington agreed. "It was over on this side a minute ago."

"Maybe we can… ambush it?" Satoshi suggested. "Let's try to find the exact spot where it was sitting before."

With that, the four of them took a mental picture of where the board sat now and went to the other side. Yuka and Tunip waited on that side, while Satoshi and Shellington went to the other side, ready for the younger ones to catch the teleporting board.

"Yuka! Tunip!" Satoshi called when they witnessed the board up on the other side of the room when they entered. "Can you grab that board?"

The two younger ones dove for the board, catching it before it could make another jump.

"We got it!" Yuka cried triumphantly.

"CHIBA CHIBA!" Tunip cried excitedly as the four of them left the classroom, meeting up in the hall.

"Nicely done!" Shellington approved. "I'd say we're one step closer to getting out of here now."

"You all set?" Satoshi asked the two. "Come on, let's go."

"Ok." Yuka and Tunip nodded.

With that, they set the loose board they had caught over the gap and made a makeshift bridge. Carefully, the walked over it onto the other side before continuing their journey.

"Hold on!" Yuka suddenly cried. "Wait a moment!"

"What is it Yuka?" Satoshi asked.

"I… want to give you this." She whispered shyly before handing him a little jar full of beads.

"What is this?" Satoshi wondered. "A cute little jar?"

"Well, you see… it's my secret charm." Yuka smiled. "It's full of scented beads."

"There sure are a lot of them in there!" Satoshi smiled as he looked at the jar.

"Give it a sniff." Yuka giggled.

So, Satoshi took the lid off and took a whiff, immediately getting the scent of caramel.

"Hey, caramel!" Satoshi laughed. "That smells really good!"

"Isn't it neat?" Yuka laughed. "See, caramel flavor is special. It protects you from accidents, and shields you from danger. That's why I want you to have it! If you don't mind sharing with Shellington of course."

"That's alright, he can keep it." Shellington smiled. "After all, he's your big brother."

"This place frightening you?" Satoshi smiled. "Don't worry, I'll be alright. You should hang onto it yourself."

"But I really don't mind. You take it!" Yuka insisted. "I just… I don't want anything to happen to my big brother. You're a scatterbrain. You always get freaked out so easily… and it really scares me."

"... Alright." Satoshi finally agreed. "I guess I can borrow it for a little. Thanks."

"Take good care of it, ok?" Yuka giggled happily. "Caramel flavor will keep you safe, but that's not all. Wanna know what else it does? It's a secret!"

"Huh?" Satoshi frowned. "What do you mean by that?"

"If I tell you, you'll get all bothered." Yuka giggled. "So I'm not gonna!"

"Something that would bother me?" Satoshi smirked. "More than calling me a scatterbrain?"

Yuka smirked and laughed before they continued walking, heading down the stairs. Suddenly, the school started shaking. Loose boards and lights fell, hitting the floor as another earthquake shook the area.

"Damn, another earthquake!" Satoshi growled. "Hold on everybody!"

Suddenly, the tremor stopped, and the four continued walking downstairs. When they went downstairs, they were surprised to see another ghost there. But this time, it was the boy.

"Why ihh you kihh me?" He whimpered.

Our heroes gulped before carefully walking past him, not wanting to get involved with this troubled spirit.

"Youhh pay…" He hissed darkly, sending shivers down their spines.

Afraid of what the ghost boy meant, the four of them ran the rest of the way, heading down another flight of stairs. When they reached the second floor, the lights suddenly went out. But, as they continued walking, the lights suddenly came back on, as if nothing happened at all.

"How peculiar." Shellington frowned before they continued walking.

As they walked, they came up to another flight of stairs, this one leading up. On the ground, they found a key, but it was unknown to where it went.

"I wonder where this key goes to." Shellington frowned as he picked it up.

"You and me both Shellington." Satoshi nodded.

With their new treasure in hand, they continued up the stairs. When they got upstairs, they were standing right next to the restrooms.

"Big brother?" Yuka whimpered shyly.

"Hmm? What's up?" Satoshi asked.

"... I have to go potty." She whimpered.

"Well, the sign says these are the lavatories, so go ahead. We'll wait for you here." Satoshi smiled.

"Ok." Yuka sighed before walking away to the girls bathroom.

"Yuka…" Satoshi suddenly stopped her. "Sorry to ask, but which one is it?"

"Pee-pee." Yuka blushed.

"Gotcha." Satoshi nodded. "If anything happens, just yell real loud, ok?"

"Ok." Yuka nodded before walking away.

"Why did you need to know which one she was doing?" Shellginton frowned.

"I hate asking such a personal question, Shellington." Satoshi sighed. "But this place is full of surprises. I need to know how long to wait before getting worried."

"Oh, well, I guess that makes sense." Shellington agreed.

Suddenly, Yuka came running back out.

"Hey. Done already?" Satoshi frowned.

"I couldn't go." Yuka whined.

"Huh?" Both Satoshi and Shellington questioned audibly before heading into the girls bathroom to see what she meant.

When they entered the bathroom, they couldn't believe their eyes. The floor had completely collapsed, with no way to the stalls at all.

"Seriously?" Satoshi hissed before they walked back out.

"You weren't kidding. You really couldn't go!" Satoshi sighed. "Let's try to find another bathroom, ok?"

"Can you hold it?" Shellington asked kindly.

Yuka sniffed and nodded weakly. Satoshi sighed before looking at the boys bathroom.

"Be nice if the boys room were an option, at least." He sighed.

With that, the four continued walking. The only way they could go now was back downstairs, to the ghost boy. So, off they went. When they got downstairs, they couldn't help but look at the boy that was still sitting where they had left them. Among eye contact, the boy stood up and hissed.

"Youhh pay!" He hissed, locking eyes with our heroes.

"He's staring right into my eyes…" Satoshi shivered. "Wh-What?! I-I can't move!"

"Neither can I!" Shellington gasped.

"Come… wihh… me…" The boy ordered.

Upon the command, both Satoshi and Shellington walked a step forward, getting closer to the edge of the hole the ghost stood on the other side.

"Big brother! Shellington!" Yuka gasped, Tunip starting to freak out as well.

"My body… my legs… They're moving on their own!" Satoshi gasped.

"Mine as well!" Shellington informed.

Unable to stop themselves, the two walked another step, barely hanging over the edge.

"Big brother! Shellington! Stop!" Yuka cried.

Suddenly, Satoshi fell over, and the jar of caramel beads fell out of his pocket. The ghost, out of curiosity, walked over to the jar, picked it up, and sniffed it.

"Big brother! Shellington! Come on!" Yuka cried.

"Wait, I can move again!" Satoshi gasped.

"I too! Let's get out of here!" Shellington agreed.

With that, they both ran away from the hole, going back over to Yuka and Tunip. When they were safely away from the hole, the ghost disappeared, taking the jar with him.

"Are you two alright?" Yuka hoped.

"Yeah. Sorry though, Yuka." Satoshi sighed. "Looks like your charm's been taken."

"I don't care about that!" Yuka cried, hugging onto the two. "Just don't die you two! Don't die!"

Tunip chirped in agreement before hugging onto the group as well.

"We won't. We're sorry." Shellington apologized before pulling out a handkerchief. "Come on. Let's blow that nose."

"Thank you for taking care of my sister." Satoshi smiled to the otter as Yuka blew her nose.

"Of course." Shellington nodded. "She's just a little girl after all. She shouldn't have to go through something like this."

Once Yuka was done wiping her nose, the four of them continued through the school, unsure of what awaited for them ahead.