The Phantom School 25 Chapter 25

"What is going on? I don't understand... Why is everyone being so tense?" Melis asked softly, sounding like she could provoke someone simply by making noise.

"Everyone is being so tense because no one wants to listen to me." Mr. Kenan said while looking around the room.

"Get away from her, she is dangerous!" someone shouted near the window.

"There is no danger, stop making things up!" I shouted back.

"She killed everyone!" The tension was increasing with time.

"Me!? I didn't kill anyone, what is going on?" Melis yelled, and broke down in tears.

"Liar!" someone else replied. "Get her!"

Two of our cla.s.smates started walking towards where we stood, while others remained hesitant. Instead of facing them, we decided to run. We didn't intend to harm anyone.

"Come!" I said to Melis, and grabbed her by her arm. I practically dragged her behind me as we ran outside the teachers' room. Mr. Kenan stood in front of the door.

"We could've chosen a softer way to recover their memories. It is too late, though..." Idil said.

"Yes, I thought that was a little too rough." I said, supporting Idil.

"I too would prefer a softer way, if we had the time." responed Mr. Kenan. "Unfortunately, we didn't have the time for that."

"How are we going to clear things up?" Onur asked.

"Stay with her." Mr. Kenan said, pointing to Melis who was crying near the wall. He stepped inside the teachers' room, and closed the door behind him.

We turned to Melis. She was undoubtedly under a lot of stress, and she was confused about everything going on. Things have escalated too quickly for her to handle. This was mostly caused by the large gap in her memory: she was under manipulation when everything important was happening. In some respects, this was good for her; but her missing memories caused a lot of confusion.

"It is okay." I said. "There is nothing to worry about."

She didn't reply, and kept sobbing. We couldn't help her, so we had to let her cry for a while.

I couldn't handle my curiosity, so I wanted to enter the teachers' room to see what Mr. Kenan was doing in there to reduce the tension. But he had told us to stay there, and after all the mistakes I've done so far by not listening to him, I could not do that.

"I wonder what's going on inside." said Idil, like she read my mind.

She leaned towards the door and tried to listen to Mr. Kenan. Unfortunately, the background noise in the building was overwhelming; she couldn't make anything up.

At that moment, I noticed Melis slowly approaching us. Although I knew she was harmless, I couldn't help feeling a bit nervous. She stopped a few meters away from us, looking down to the floor. Her hair was covering most of her face. I could still hear her quiet sobs.

"Did I..." she tired to talk, but she couldn't say the rest of the sentence.

"Tell us." Idil tried to encourage her.

"Did I kill someone?" Melis asked.

Even though it was a simple yes-or-no question, it wasn't that easy to explain. There was no clear answer. Killing people was not her desicion, and she did not have any control over the situation at the time; but it was her body that attacked us and our cla.s.smates, which was the cause of all the confusion and distrust among people. Those 'dead' people being alive only caused further confusion. We could not tell her that she had killed those people she just saw a few minutes ago.

"Did I kill someone?" Melis asked again. Her voice was the lowest she could manage.

"No." I hesitantly replied. "No, you didn't."

Idil looked at me like she wanted to tell me something. I knew it wasn't the right answer; in fact, there was no right answer to that question, but I wanted Melis to trust us for the time being. If we told her the truth, it wasn't going to help de-escalate the situation. We could tell her about what really happened after the initial panic was over.

Suddenly, Mr. Kenan appeared.

"Come in." he said from the teachers' room. We walked inside the room, but Melis stood near the wall in the hallway. "You too." said Mr. Kenan, and Melis walked inside as well. Mr. Kenan closed the door after her.

"It is time to settle things down." Mr. Kenan said. "If we don't work together, we won't make it."

I had no idea what Mr. Kenan did; but although everyone were still pretty nervous, it looked like the aggressions have stopped.

"I'm... I'm sorry." said Ata. "My memories were just... too real, and I couldn't ignore the potential danger. I'm sorry."

Apologies followed each other. The confusion had not been completely resolved, but at least people were willing to work together and listen to Mr. Kenan, which was what we needed for now. We just had to make sure to evacuate everyone in time after the final lesson. I had a moment to calm myself down.

Unfortunately, this feeling of relative comfort didn't last long. Before we could clear everything up about the evacuation plan, we were interrupted.

We heard an explosion. The floor and the windows vibrated for a few seconds. Although no one was hurt and the explosion wasn't close to us, some of us screamed in terror.

After a few moments, the fire alarm activated. This meant the school was over for today as everyone would rush out of the building as soon as possible. So much for our evacuation plan...

It was just a matter of time now. Large ma.s.ses of people were already leaving the building quickly. If we couldn't make it out in time together... I didn't even want to think of that possibility.