Book 1 Chapter 28: School of Undead Hope

Chapter 28: School of Undead hope

"This is the teacher complex, 3 stories in total…the top is the residence, the middle the office, and the bottom the cafeteria along with the lounge for them all…"

The building wasn't adorned in many things, but it had a simple and direct feel. Windows much wider then the others lined the middle section of the building, allowing people to see cubicle after cubicle of false walls. The bottom story only had two windows on either side of the door, but it was too dark inside to see anything from where the 3 stood. The top level had windows that seemed to note each different room set in the top floor. With the side that faced them having about 6 windows, or in essence 6 rooms.

The windows were blank, no soul could be seen looking down towards them. Each curtain was shut tightly as if to block the light of the sun falling from behind their backs.

"A bit quiet…" Jaeger muttered as a plume of smoke escaped his lungs, he felt a tug on his sleeve and looked to his right to find Isaiahh looking at his smoke.

With a sigh he handed it over and watched as the two old men shared it back and forth as they calmed their own hearts down. All of this might not seem strange to Jaeger who was thrown into a strange fantasy horror world, but for them this was real life as real life could be.

The afterlife was engrained in their minds, and carried on from their bones quite litterly.

"Come…" Andrew said after a while as he went further into the compound.

"This here is the teaching hall, 2 stories but a wide and long building in the shape of a U. The classes are both in the top floor and the bottom floor, but the dichotomy of the two would be the years that reside between…to make sense of that, as somehow I just confused myself…the older students are in the top floor, the younger students in the bottom floor."

"Is there a janitor space?" Jaeger asked as he relit up his renewed smoke.

"Indeed?...you don't think it was the staff…well actually they are suspect as well, we don't truly know them all apart from teacher parent meetings…and I have no child…could be." Andrew pointed off to the right, and between the faculty building and the U shaped school was a small hut shaped building that hugged the wall.

Jaeger walked forward and eyed the right wing of the school, only to find again no eyes gazing upon him. Strangely though, it felt like someone was watching him.

He neared the janitor closet like building, and with several movements of his hand popped the lock on the door.

A key skill he picked up as an investigator from his world.

What met his gaze was a lone chair set next to a work bench, with countless cigarettes piled high in a coffee container. Apart from that it was quite cramped with several sports equipment, cleaning supplies, and tools around the walls and floor.

Jaeger inspected what he could but shook his head and stepped back from the door before locking and closing it.

'Nothing' He shook his head to the two old men gazing at him from afar.

They nodded and waved him over before Andrew continued his introductions, "To the left is the cafeteria for students, a small flat building meant for about 100 students at a time."

"How many students come here?" Jaeger asked something he hadn't before.

"Uh 1,000 something…" Andrew waited for the bewildered look to fade from Jaegers face.

"Now…now I understand why those students disappearing is so bizarre and strange…so many…" Jaeger couldn't help but shiver.

"Well…you never asked, but my 'town' as you call it, is made up of several tens of thousands of residents." Andrew shrugged, if two people had 2 children, of course the numbers would add up.

"Continue…" *puff*

"In the middle of the teaching hall is a fountain, at its end is a piece of the wall you saw closing it off… ohh to the right of the cafeteria here…" Andrew lead him forward to the right of the cafeteria and revealed a playfield that made up a quarter of the compound, it was larger than a football field, as several fields meant for different sports were placed within its bounds.

Nothing caught his eye until his gaze followed the fence that lined the field to the far backside of the left wing of the teach hall.

"Whats that?" Jaeger asked curious.

"if I am correct…that is the botany house, about 40 feet by 40 feet with flowers and such inside for students that study biology to tend to…we can go check it out." Isaiahh nodded with Andrew, while Jaeger led the way along the left wing between the field and the school.

They arrived at its clear exterior, and through it could see a vibrant amount of fauna and life. The door was ajar, and so Jaeger simply waved his hand before it creaked open slowly.

"Something isn't right here…" Jaeger felt that twitch, like when he first saw the ghost woman through the display screen of his watch. It was his 6th sense, his unique one, that was telling him something was not right.

"What do you mean?..." Isaiahh and Andrew pulled out several talismans and held them in their hands.

Jaeger slowly felt the feeling ebb away after their actions, before he silently consoled himself with what he was about to say "I…ill need you two to leave, stay outside the perimeter of the compound and…leave me here at night. Are there any other teachers on the premises?"

"You want us to what?!" Isaiahh blurted out, while Andrew looked at the goosebumps on Jaegers skin as well as the talisman in his own hand "I understand…"

"MMm…I was wondering if you had an ability, if you don't mind me asking" Jaeger was curious.

"Eidetic memory a pretty strong form of it too" Andrew nodded before grabbing his friends arm and pulling him away, he turned around for a second only to say "There was supposedly 3 teachers that decided to stay here…haven't seen them yet, they may have already left with the others who wished not to tarnish their…reputations."

Jaeger was left alone as the wind was pulled into the botany glass house, before coming out with the sweet and sad smell of flowers.

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With a glance, the 'compound' had many aspects to it. Whether it be buildings, points to hide, or otherwise. Regardless of which it placed a sense of unease on Jaeger as he looked around with a discerning eye.

'Reminds me of back in the day…so was it a murder? With all this…it couldn't simply of been a suicide unless it was a forced one…'

*Plop*

Frog popped out from a bout of mist that whisked away in the wind. Jaeger picked him up and set him on his shoulder, somehow having a companion eased the ill feelings at hand.

'Focus'

The school grounds were made up of several complexes in total, thus searching each one by one would be the most direct solution. Jaeger sighed and turned around to the botany house and stepped forth inside. The smell of soil, flowers, plants, over all it was very intoxicating.

Row by row Jaegers eyes danced back and forth until he found in the far back left corner a certain tucked away blanket hidden behind a single bag of soil layed under a table. His hands moved over the bag of soil, and from what he could tell the weight of two bodies had compacted certain parts of the soil downwards.

With the clue of the blanket, as well as the compacted impression of two hands as well as an hour glass waist it was obvious what this space was used for.

"I'll still make note of it…things were overlooked by the staff that's for sure, and the students weren't entirely innocent."

A small glimmer caught his eye just right, through a streak of light glittering down from a window panel a small tid bit of metal was revealed buried in one of the pots under a tulip.

Jaeger dug his finger into the soil and extracted a long and wide key.

'The main gate…but why is it hidden here?'

*Ding*

"Oh fuck no" Jaeger's head slowly lowered down to his watch, with a flick a screen bloomed to life in the air.

'Boon of mystery: As you have travelled to the past, it has now become the present.

Quest: Survive the first night, find the key, and end the repeating of history'

"You son of a bitch" Jaeger cursed out loud at the watch, as the streak of light that had once fallen onto his shoulder disappeared entirely leaving a cold creaking feeling within the dimly illuminated glass house. Jaegers eyes danced by the glass house walls as the light that was once day became a pitch dark night.

'First…night?'

*whoosh*

*pat* *pat* *pat* *pat*

Rain began to strike the glass house like a cacophony of drum beats. Leaving endless trails of a prismatic lines that disappeared as one followed right behind it. One side was white, reflecting the lone lights of the outside while the right side of the trails was dark as night reflecting the shadows.

"Come on…quick…its raining…" A voice picked itself out from the noise, Jaeger watched as two hunched shadows ran by the glass wall in front of him towards the door. Without any other exit, Jaeger's bracelet whirled as 3 lightning runes came to life and glowed on his hand.

Time dilated, his head whipped around as his body moved at a speed hard to discern with the human eye.

Stacks of pots were moved to a corner in a rush, with the tallest plants obscuring the corner they hid.

*click*

The glass panel door quickly whirled open letting a roar from the sky in.

"Hahaha…" The laughter of teens filled the glass room as the door was shut behind them.

Through a crack in the dark as night cloak, Jaeger's discerning eye focused on their clothing.

'Students?' Was the first thing that came to mind seeing their outfits. However, he most certainly didn't get up to ask where they had been or why they were here.

"Come on…I made a great spot for us" A young male voice spoke confidently with a laugh. As they stepped through the glass house silently, the thin slivers of bent light from a lamp on the field ushered by their faces. Indeed, one was what looked like a 17 year old male while the other was a girl his same age.

She was cute to say the least, long black hair pulled back and dripping from rain water with his hair being stone cut to match his handsome face. If they were a couple, they sure were a good one.

The male teen reached behind the table Jaeger had looked at before and grabbed the blanket hidden there. With a flurry of steps the two topple onto the blanket layed down neatly on top of the bag of soil beneath the table. Jaeger closed the sole eye looking upon them, but his ears couldn't be shut and tightened.

"Hey…come on…"

Jaeger tilted his head to the left and pressed it silently against the glass wall.

*pat* *pat* *pat* *pat*

'No…listen more…'

*pat* *pat* *splosh* *pat* *pat* *splosh*

'steps…' with the front portion of his body enclosed to the view of the glass house, behind him was open glass wall. Jaeger finally opened his eyes, and saw 5 shadows move through the rain slowly while almost crouching. Sometimes the front hunched figure would stop and try and peer through the glass wall inside, but the rain created too much of an affect on the eyes for them to see anything.

The glass door that led inside slowly creaked and groaned, as if to usher a cry of warning to the love birds. But like blind love, they were deaf within their throws of passion.

That's when Jaeger saw them, 5 young males about the same age as the male teen who first came in.

The light like before cascaded over them in ribbons and streams, shadows hiding their figures crouched just below the tables as they made their way through the rows of plants.

'So…do I kill them? Or how do I do it silently…hmm…' A smile bloomed on his face, but soon turned into a grimace as an unimaginable seen flickered through his mind's eye.

'If I let them do what I think they will…it will progress what occurred…I'd find out more…at the cost of young teens innocence…what if one of them was the one that killed themselves…the girl…what if she was so humiliated she killed herself?'

*pat* *pat* *pat* *pat*

Mixed amongst the sounds of rain were panting sounds.

Jaeger firmly held his gun up as a silencer slowly twirled onto its body.

'I can never let that happen, id rather die.'

*pat* *pat* *Fwhoo* *pat* *pat *Fwhoo*

Several shots rang out within the rhythem of rain as bodies fell one by one onto the ground, pieces of bars and chains clutched in their hands. They meant to do true harm. A frog slipped out in the crack of the sleek cape and bound its way towards the chilling bodies sprawled amongst roses and flowers. The smell of blood washed away by the smell of floral abundance.

One by one the bodies disappeared.

One by one, Jaeger consoled himself as his mind reeled.

One step after another, fate was changing.

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"I…I think I love you" A voice rang out as Jaeger finally brought his hands down from his ears.

"I…I think I love you too" A feminine voice sung out in silent joy.

'I think…I did the right thing.' Jaeger said under his breathe.

The couple took the blanket with them, walking over the crimson earth unseen to the human eye. Walked over the graves of 5 hoodlums that bullied, raped, and killed them.

This would never be known to them, nor should it ever be. As the door finally closed, Jaeger finally let out a light breathe and lit up a smoke while still in the spot he had been sitting. A light crimson glow rubbed against the windows causing a faded red image of Jaegers solemn face to be seen looking out them.

He didn't know why he killed the five, but somehow living through the city he had and having seen the things he had…he just knew, that was his 6th sense. People had auras, and those 5 had a vicious one. Another thing was that they weren't wearing the same school uniforms of the 2 lovebirds. This could only mean they either didn't go to this school and had no reason to be here or that they once did but were kicked out for some reason.

Jaeger slowly stood up as his back stretched, a frog came hopping out from next to a potted aloe plant. Jaeger moved his cigarrete from his mouth into his left hands fingers, while his right hand swept the frog into an embrace.

"Come on little guy…we can dump them somewhere later…"

The frog seemed to pout, and hopped off his hand into a mist that cascaded down onto some flowers before vanishing.

Jaeger peaked out the windows on either side of the door, and then slowly slid it open and stepped through. He was met with a stunning sight, he was back in the glass house of plants again.

'What?...'

*pat* *pat* *pat* *pat*

The rain cascaded against his back unprotected from the elements, and as he spun around to what would've been the outside his gaze was met with the inside of the botany house again.

'No…what did I do wrong? That's why the quest started, to stop it?...right?...'