Cheese & Trap for a Creepy Rat

'Please be following me. Please be following me,' I repeated to myself over and over as I walked to Ishmael Hall.

It was far from the main building but if she was already following me then I knew she wouldn't mind walking a long distance in order to get more scoop of news.

I chose this building for one reason only; it was a building that Maya was not familiar with.

'Please still be following me,' as I entered the building.

Since lunchtime wasn't over yet, most students were still at the main building where the regular school courses were held.

A few teachers saw me walking by here and there but since it was normal for students to be walking around as interns or teacher assistants, none of them stopped me.

Rather than taking the stairs like I normally would've, I waited for the elevator instead.

As I pressed the button for the third floor, I paced around the elevator, pretending to be contemplating something, occasionally sighing.

Secretly, I was trying to see if Maya was in the elevator with me.

As I noticed strange sounds or fingerprints appearing around the glass of the elevator, I let out an internal sigh of relief.

'She's here with me. Good. Good.'

When the elevator door opened, I walked out, taking a left, heading down this hallway that was empty.

In an hour or so, all these classrooms were to fill up with students and teachers.

I stopped in the middle of the hallway, placing my hand on the doorknob. But instead of opening the door right away, I looked to my sides as if making sure that no one was around to see me enter the room.

I pushed the door open and walked in.

I took a few steps into the room when I heard a voice behind me, "What the?"

I turned around, my eyes opened wide, shocked to see someone behind me.

Maya spun her foot, ready to turn around and escape when I activated Liona and suddenly appeared before her.

Slamming the door shut, I quickly locked it.

Maya, no longer invisible, stared at me in disbelief. She was confused, startled, and uncomfortable, but most of all — she was a little scared as I stared at her with these glaring eyes.

It makes sense to be scared of me; after all, I did defeat a demon by myself.

'Through the power of plot armor aka the having knowledge from the novel... but they don't know that,' I chuckled.

"What are you doing here?" I asked her, my voice multiple octaves lower.

"I... I... I..." she began to stutter.

One foot stepped backward as if she wanted to run away but she was trapped in place.

This was most likely because this was her first time being caught using her overpowered ability.

The shock she must've felt when her invisibility suddenly turned off must've been greater than anything she's ever felt before.

"I'll ask you again; what are you doing here?" my voice got even lower and darker.

"No... no reason," she answered, nervously gulping.

"How did you even get here? Last time I checked, no one was around me," I said, placing my finger on my lip and chin as if pondering how this was possible.

"I was... already inside the room?" she said in a manner that almost sounded like a suggestion.

I began muttering to myself, pondering the possibilities, before eventually saying, "Is it possible to make yourself and your presence disappear completely?"

As I said that, her eyes quivered.

With a smile that shivered, she laughed, "Hahaha. You jest. How could that be possible?"

I ignored her.

"That's the only possible explanation. No wonder why my conversation with the headmistress was leaked. No wonder. You must be the one writing those articles or at least providing the information to them," I scoffed, shaking my head in total disbelief.

I looked at Maya who was trying to keep her poker face on but it was crumbling more and more by the second.

I told her, almost as if disgusted, "I'm schoolmates with a creep."

"Wha?"

"You've been eavesdropping on people's conversations. Intruding on their privacy. Disregarding any sense of morality or common decency," I said, shaking my head, disappointed by the revelation.

I placed my hand on my mouth, suggesting that I could throw up at any second now.

"I feel violated," I said, turning around, not even wanting to look at her.

"Wait, Bell, I can explain," said Maya, beginning to panic. Her entire double life was in jeopardy.

I unlocked the door, ready to step out.

Maya ran as quickly as she could and slammed it shut. Locking it just like I did before.

"What do you want?" I hostilely asked.

"Please stay. Let me... let me explain, please," said Maya with these puppy eyes that were starting to tear up.

Even as a badass in the novel, in the face of consequences for one's action, a person as cool and collected as Maya, the ghost of the academy, will crumble.

"Please?" she asked, grabbing me tightly by my sleeve.

I took a while, pretending to be contemplating deeply before letting out a heavy exhale.

"Fine. I'll stay here for a little longer," I answered, crossing my arms.

"Firstly, please don't call me a creep," she said, still scared but garnering a little courage.; she must've really felt insulted about what I had boiled her career down to.

"Why shouldn't I? You invade people's privacy and expose their secret conversations to the rest of the world. Isn't that creepy behavior?" I asked her.

She waved her hands. "No. That's not creepy. That's... that's how all major news articles are written. Does that make those people creeps as well?"

"Yep."

She was flabbergasted to hear my blunt answer of no hesitation. Her mouth opened and closed a few times like a fish blowing bubbles underwater.

A little more timid and softer than before, she asked me, "Could you please not call me a creep?"

"...Fine. I won't."

She let out a sigh of relief as if that was the most important thing at the moment. It wasn't her secret being revealed or her life at the academy being at risk that she was most worried about; it was her hobby being insulted.

"Is that all you wanted to say?" I asked, placing my hand on the handle.

"No!" she yelled, pulling my hand away from the door. "Don't go!"

I snapped.

"If I stay, will you keep wasting my time!? What!? Is it not enough for you to stalk me around like a creep!?"

Since the room was soundproof, I didn't have to worry about anyone overhearing us.

Maya had let go of my hand and like a rabbit facing off against a wolf, she began walking backward until she eventually fell down.

Shivering uncontrollably, she looked like she was a few seconds away from crying.

"Realizing" my mistake, I took a few deep breaths and cooled myself off.

Offering her my hand, I told her sincerely, "Sorry for snapping at you like that."

Maya looked surprised to see that I had suppressed the anger in me so easily but when she remembered my "good nature", it wasn't out of character for me.

If anything, getting me angry was something out of character.

That told her all that she needed to know about how terrible her actions were.

"It... it's okay," she said, wiping her eyes before taking my offered hand. "I'm... I'm also to blame."

Letting out a sigh, I told her, "Alright fine. I won't try to leave as long as you can explain how you ended up in this room with me."

She opened her mouth and like before nothing came out.

Then she finally responded, "No. Bell... you're right."

"I am?"

'Of course, I am.'

"I was following you around," she confessed.

Gotcha.

If only she took a moment to compose herself and gather her thoughts, she'd realize that all the evidence I had were circumstantial and couldn't really be used to definitely prove her invisibility power as well as her identity as a member of the secret news club.

"So you were following me," I mumbled, pinching the bridge of my nose as if I was stressed by this. "Why? Why did you follow me into this room?"

"Because I wanted to see what secret plan you had here," she responded.

'None.'

But I can't let her know that so before she could question why I was actually here, I made the sound of having another revelation.

"Wait... how do you know I had plans in this room? Maya," I called her name, grabbing her by the shoulders, "were you there in that room with me and Diana?"

Like a guilty child that was caught by the storeowner for stealing candy from the jar, she nodded her head.

"Oh... fuck. Does that mean you..."

"Yeah," she said. "I know she's a vampire."

"Shit," I cursed, slamming my palm against the door.

"...Sorry."

"No. I mean, yes, you're right to be sorry for being in our business but Diana and I should've known better. That's also our fault," I groaned, running my hands through my hair as if wondering what to do.

I continued, "Now Diana will be on the run from the authority. They'll bring the vampire hunters back just for her. They'll attack her and even use her family as hostages if they need to. I will also be punished as an accomplice. The two of us... our lives are ruined."

I shook my head, ready to fall to my knees at any moment.

"None of those things will happen. I... I promise I won't tell anyone," she said.

"How can I trust that?" I asked her. "You reveal everyone's secrets. No matter how personal or how damaging it can be to a person. You always reveal it to the academy as if it's your business to share and not theirs."

She looked taken back at how brutal I was being about what she had done but it was the truth so she couldn't even refute my words.

"I... I can make an oath on my family name," she suggested.

"That's not good enough. It's just something verbal. You could easily break that oath and nothing would come to you," I told her, rolling my eyes at the suggestion.

"Then... then let's make a real oath," she said.

"What?"

"I said let's do it for real then. A real oath."

"Are you... are you suggesting that the two of us make a blood oath?" I asked.

"Yes," she said, nodding her head as if she came up with something clever that would resolve all my worries.

She must be feeling really proud of herself.

Sadly, she'll never know that this was the answer I was trying to lead her toward this entire time.

"Are you sure? You know that your soul will be damned to eternal limbo if you break the oath right?" I asked.

"I'm sure of it," she said with a smile. "Let's do it."