'Wu… wu…'
The newbie at the back of the group started shaking like a leaf again, muffled sounds of fear emerging from his trembling lips.
'Wu…'
He slapped his hands on his mouth, trying to suppress the sounds, and took a few hasty steps back. In doing so, he tripped over his own feet and went crashing towards the floor.
Just in time, John caught him by the arm, and yanked him to stand up again.
Sheila exhaled slowly, and Mason gritted his teeth so hard there was an audible crack.
'Take him back to the dorms,' Aron said suddenly. 'Or if you'd rather not, Neil and I will go do our own thing. We'll just come to the administrative building tomorrow. I'm not taking any more chances with this fucker.'
He'd just spoken for me without asking for my opinion.
I didn't refute his words, though.
I agreed with what he'd said.
Mason kneaded his brows frustratedly.
I knew he didn't care either way about having me around. The people on his team seemed to each have their own areas of expertise, and he didn't know me well enough to see where I'd fit in.
However, he probably didn't want to lose out on Aron's help tonight.
The two people who'd died on the first day were,
a panicking guy on his first instance after clearing the testing phase, and,
a newcomer who knew nothing about these worlds at all.
Ideally, that would mean that the more experienced and knowledgeable players should have a better chance of survival in the coming days, especially since a lot of the rules and limits had already been discerned.
But Mason had also mentioned that he'd never seen the survival rate cross fifty percent.
The way I saw it, that could only mean that such instances grew increasingly difficult with each passing day.
So it was no wonder everyone here hoped to somehow find all the answers and clear the instance tonight itself.
…
There was a heavy pause. Then,
'I'll wait with him outside the building,' John whispered. 'That way, I can also keep an eye on things out there, and raise the alarm if I see someone else approaching the building.'
I noticed him subtly tap his chest. There was a small, barely discernable bulge under his shirt.
Maybe he was wearing some kind of alarm, or a birdcall whistle, around his neck.
'You sure?' Sheila frowned.
'Can't leave him alone. The moment he starts getting followed, he'd wake the whole school up with his screaming.'
'But…'
John put a hand on her shoulder. 'Hey, it's better than this idiot giving us all away and getting us killed in here,' he sighed.
Mason's frown deepened.
Finally, he nodded and whispered, 'You do that then. Thanks, John.'
John nodded, and led the still trembling newbie away by his arm.
The four of us still remaining in the building exchanged glances, then carefully stepped over the tripwire and continued on our way upstairs.
We stopped right before the landing turned into the corridor.
'There were two burly looking men standing guard outside the office during the day. I later recognized one of them as the sports coach from those personnel files you nicked,' Sheila told Aron.
I pursed my lips.
If I'd correctly connected the dots, the 'curse' or 'haunting' at this boarding school was directly related to the kid who'd killed himself as a result of bullying by the director's son. That intern teacher's diary had implied as much.
More importantly, based on the notes the piercing trio had found in Eli's room, this was all common knowledge.
Even though there was no way to leave the school or contact the outside world, why were the staff members defending the Director?
Why did they seem so afraid of him?
Why hadn't they come together to destroy him, in hopes of appeasing the dead guy and putting an end to the curse that was also affecting them?
'Even without those two, there's probably still a creature that's guarding the director,' I suddenly whispered.
Mason turned to me with his brows drawn.
'That makes no sense,' he said. 'Why would Eli's curse protect the man who gave a free hand to his bully?'
I'd told them all about the teacher's diary when we'd briefly reconvened to finalize our plans before nightfall.
As far as I was concerned, I'd rather cooperate with people who were on the same page.
Aron was frowning too. He looked at me searchingly, then nodded slowly.
'Neil might be right, though,' he said. 'There's probably still some stuff we haven't uncovered. Doesn't hurt to be careful.'
'They should print that last sentence out on the instruction manuals for these worlds,' Mason groused. 'Alright then. C'mon.'
I shuffled quietly down the corridor along with the others.
My eyes and ears were straining, and every muscle in my body was tensed and ready for action.
Surprisingly enough, we made it to the office without any interruptions.
We didn't open the door immediately.
Mason fished a narrow, tube-like tool from out of one of his pockets.
It honestly looked like a dark straw with a tiny glass marble at the end.
He stuck it into the old-fashioned keyhole, and put his eye up against the open end of the tube.
After a moment, he pulled back and sighed.
'Empty.'
I raised a brow. 'Fisheye view?'
He shrugged. 'My… kid brother used to mess around with these things…' he said. 'Anyway, all clear. Let's go in.'
He carefully turned the handle, and pushed the door slightly.
Aron caught his arm, then reached over his shoulder to quietly disable a small, metal bell that hung to one side before it could start ringing.
Then, all four of us entered the main office.
Mason and Aron made straight for the main desk. Sheila walked over to the well-stocked bookshelves to one side.
I paused at the entrance.
The moment the door had opened, I'd noticed an odd, faint smell coming from within the room.
It was slightly smokey, mixed with traces of some kind of herb. There was an almost incense-like quality to it, reminiscent of places of worship.
It wasn't the kind of smell one would expect in the office of the Director of a boarding school.
To be fair, it was incredibly indistinct.
I myself didn't fully understand why my brain had fixated on it.
Even so, I decided to see if I could figure out where it was coming from.
I walked to the other side of the room, my shoes sinking into the plush carpet. That part of the room was devoid of any shelves or desks. There was a window there, with heavy drapes drawn to cover any view of the outside.
Other than a small trunk by the wall, there was nothing else there.
I glanced at the trunk briefly.
Locked.
Without John and his lockpicking skills, I'd have to look for the corresponding key.
I decided to leave that for a bit later.
That odd smell was stronger nearer to the walls.
I slowly walked along the edge of the room, pausing to examine the wooden paneling on the walls.
Was there… perhaps…?
I stopped. The smell was strongest here.
And one of the panels in the wall seemed to stick out just a little bit more than the others.
I crouched down low, lightly rapping my knuckles against the surface.
Then, I ran a finger up the length of the wood and pushed right at the top of the slab.
With a soft creak, it went in, and the lower part swung outwards to reveal a small hollow space in the wall.