3 Chapter 3: Preparation (1/2)

”What happened out there?” Alec asked.

”Upperclassmen playing another prank!” I replied

”No–not that, I mean what happened on the train?”

”That old lady was staring at us, along with that, her skin was fake and they disappeared soon after I told you to stop talking.”

He was completely drained, after coming back here from the train; we walked straight into our upperclassmen pranks.

We were sprayed with water, tied up by a rope, and chased for around two minutes before we hid.

He took off his jacket and hung it on the clothes rack. Our dorms were rather large, if anybody were to see the college's dorms they would think it was a condo or apartment instead.

After carefully placing my shoes at the entrance, I laid on the couch exhausted from all of the walking and worrying.

”Tomorrow, we're going to be preparing for the raid coming up in two days. To be honest, I'm a little excited.” He said.

”Yeah, in all honesty, I'm nervous,” I told him.

”Nervous, huh? It's not like you to openly express your emotions like that, so what's wrong?”

”...on that train, I saw two people. One was an elderly old lady, whose skin was prosthetic. The other was a middle-aged man wearing a long brown trench coat, he wore a torn brown hat, and also had filthy white gloves on.

When we began talking about the raid, I noticed the old woman look back first. The man tried pretending as if he wasn't listening to us, but the train was still moving when he disappeared, soon after so did the lady.” I told him.

”I've rather seen you this concern with something like this. Do you want to report this to the school tomorrow?”

”It will probably be fine.” or so I thought. ”I'm just curious as to who those people were.”

At that very moment, we heard a soft knock at the door. At first, it wasn't very noticeable, the sound drowned out by the sound of our voices.

But the second knock was more firm and slightly louder.

I stood back up from the couch I was sitting on and walked over to the door. Looking through the peephole, all I was able to see was a figure of a female.

Unlocking all of the locks that kept the door close, I twisted the round doorknob opening the door.

”Hey, Abis!” the female said. I looked down to see Oma, one of my other friends I met in high school.

Looking at her, I asked, ”Why are you here?” she looked up at me and moved me out of the way.

”You two got lucky being paired together in this large dorm!”

”Is your dorm any different?” Alec asked.

”Hmm, oh, no. But I wasn't paired with anyone I know. Plus the girl that I was paired with is never there, so I can't even make friends with her.”

She turned me, looking up at me she said, ”I was hoping I could sleep here for tonight.”

”....Huh?”

”Why do you want to stay here?” Alec asked.

”We used to have sleepovers all the time, back when we were still in high school. Can we not now?” I said.

”Where will you sleep? This isn't anything like high school.” I told her.

”You have that couch!” She said pointing, at our couch.

”I'm not letting a girl sleep on the couch! If you give me one good reason why you should stay here, I'll give you my bed.”

”...I feel like I'm being watched.” She told me. ”Every night when I go to lay down, I feel a pair of eyes staring at me. They feel lifeless and cold. And has been bothering for months.”

I looked at her, her story was so convincing. Her eyes spoke the truth, yet her voice did not.

At that point in time, I couldn't tell whether she was lying to me or not. Even though her voice spoke lies, her eyes told the truth. Something was bothering her, so I gave in.

”Sigh, fine you can have my room. Just let me clean up first!” I told her.

”Wait! Where are you going to sleep, Abis?” Alec asked.

I scratched the back of my, opening my door. ”The couch, where else will I sleep?”

In my mind, I knew what Alec was thinking. He too believed that whatever was watching Oma, would come here as well.

***

Arriving in class, there was already a large project set-up in the classroom. There were seats filled with strange orbs, paper with ancient markings written on them, but evermore, there were no desks in the classroom anymore.

The classroom was quite large. The room was designed to hold at the bare minimum of sixty-three students. Most classrooms outside of this university are not that large.

In fact, there were no dorms or even schools the size of the U\u0026A let alone classes.