Chapter 17

A third body entered the room.

It was the body of one of the dead teachers we encountered in the class downstairs.

Idil gave up trying to write our last warnings to the notebook, and threw the pen at the face of Mr. Kenan's body. The pen hit the target and dropped to the ground, without helping anything.

Ata's body was trying to climb over the table. I held the heavy table from below and flipped it over, sending Ata's body back to where it was. All the office material spreaded on the floor. I was preparing to face Mr. Kenan's body next. Although we had no escape, I wasn't giving up without a fight.

As I tried to kick Mr. Kenan's body away, he grabbed me from my leg. I lost my balance and fell. He pulled me, dragging my chest on the floor. I tried to protect my face with my hands, but the wound on my left hand only made things harder. Mr. Kenan's body then lifted me from the ground upside down. At that short moment, I saw Idil staring at me in tears, without being able to help me.

Suddenly, I felt a strong force on my leg. I found myself in the air, and my back hit the wall. I was powerless. I let my body slowly fall to the side. I could no longer resist against the overwhelming force, neither mentally nor physically. This was the way I'm going to die, beaten to death. As Mr. Kenan's body was approaching me for the final blow, my life flashed before my eyes. I could no longer see my surroundings clearly. It was all dark and covered with a thick fog. I could still hear Idil yelling something, but I couldn't make anything out. I stopped trying. Even the pain was slowly fading out...

"Why?"

That was the only word I managed to say.

My vision faded out completely.

The last things I heard were my own breath, Idil's scream, a punch and things crashing - falling down everywhere.

- - -

Someone was staring down at me.

"Finally!" she said.

I was laying somewhere. I looked around, but the brightness of the environment blinded me for a while.

"Where am I?" I asked her.

"We are in the school building, still." Idil answered me. "We were lucky to survive, but not that lucky to escape."

My eyes adjusted to the brightness of the lighting, and I could finally focus my vision. Idil was leaning towards me as I was laying on the principal's room. The room was in a complete mess.

I slowly stood up with Idil's help. I saw three bodies on floor, in blood. The bodies belonged to Ata, Mr. Kenan and one of the two teachers we had previously encountered downstairs. The teacher's body had a knife on his chest.

"How did this happen?"

Idil was about to answer when suddenly, I heard some calming chimes from somewhere nearby.

"The phone is ringing!" Idil shouted in excitement.

The phone was on the ground, and it was unplugged; yet it was ringing. I didn't lose much time and grabbed the handset.

"Forgive me." someone said. "This one was my fault."

"Mr. Kenan!?" I shouted. "We thought you were gone... Thank god."

"If I couldn't bring that third body in time, you would be dead." he said. "But I was a little too late, please forgive me..."

Mr. Kenan was still trying to protect us all this time! He was in control of the third body that entered the principal's room.

"It is not your fault." I said. "We can't thank you enough for saving our lives countless times. But, how did you do that?"

"When it is just you two around, we are powerful enough to control the physical world because of our much greater numbers." Mr. Kenan replied. "This includes controlling dead bodies, as they are simply organic material with no souls in them. This should remind you to be more careful from now on."

"We have recovered the original notebook." I said.

"Great! What did you find?" Mr. Kenan asked.

"So far we only saw a bunch of phone numbers, but we are still looking." I replied.

While I was talking, Idil was turning the pages, looking a little frusturated. I walked over to see the notebook myself. Every single page was filled with random phone numbers, with nothing that points us to clues about 'the curse' of the building.

"Are we sure this is the right notebook?" Idil asked. "There are nothing but phone numbers!"

"I'm sure it's the exact same notebook we found on the teacher's body." I said. "There are no mistakes, the intact pages match with the ones we found here."

"But then... why? What is the purpose of this?" she asked.

"I have no idea." I replied.

She kept turning the pages until we saw something interesting. There was a phone number, labeled only as 'CALL ME'.

"Who do you think this is?" she asked me.

"I don't know, maybe it was about an important job." I said.

We marked the page by folding it's corner, and kept turning the pages. Yet, there was nothing else... Only more and more phone numbers.

"Maybe the phone numbers are some sort of cryptology technique." I said.

"You think so?" Idil replied.

"Maybe we can associate some set of numbers with letters, and it makes a sentence." I said.

"Are you sure?" Idil asked.

"Of course I am not, it was just an idea." I said.

We stopped turning the pages and started staring at a single page, trying to make sense out of all the phone numbers.

"Seriously, I think we have the wrong notebook." Idil said after a while. "There are no secret messages here."

"Alright, fine, but what about the one labeled 'CALL ME' with huge capital letters?" I said.

"What about it?" Idil asked.

"I have an idea." I said and grabbed the notebook from Idil's hand. I opened the page we marked, and walked back to the phone. I plugged the phone to the socket on the wall.

I grabbed the handset and put it on my shoulder. I started entering the number that was labeled 'CALL ME'. I didn't know what to expect.

"Seven... One... One... Three... Three... Zero... One..."

The phone started ringing...