Chapter 753: Mystery of Class 3-C [2]

"...Did you find something?"

Kyle pulled his gaze away from the chair and looked back towards where the noise previously came from.

All that stared back at him was the sight of the empty corridor. For a moment, the darkness beyond Zoey’s light seemed deeper than before.

He eventually shook his head.

"No."

Zoey’s light remained fixed on the corridor for several more seconds before gradually moving back towards the storage room. Nothing had changed outside. The same burned walls stretched towards the edge of the room, and the only sound that eventually returned was the faint dripping of water somewhere within the walls.

The sound seemed unusually clear now that neither of them was moving.

Whatever had made the scrape wasn’t showing itself.

"...I’m getting a weird feeling about this place."

Kyle glanced towards her.

"We’ve been through worse."

"Well, yeah. Doesn’t mean that I still don’t think there’s something odd about this place."

"Fair."

Kyle’s gaze returned to Chair 27.

The chair hadn’t moved since he had taken his hand away, but after what had just happened, he wasn’t particularly interested in testing it again. Instead, he stood and turned his attention towards the collapsed shelves along the opposite wall.

The chair wasn’t the only thing that was bothering him.

Even with his back turned, he remained strangely aware of where it was.

"Let’s finish checking the room and leave."

Zoey nodded.

Most of what remained inside the storage room was useless. Rusted tools, old containers, several boxes that had long since rotted open. The fire had damaged almost everything closest to the corridor, leaving blackened pieces of wood mixed throughout the debris.

Kyle was moving a broken shelf when something underneath caught his attention.

A metal box?

"...There’s something here."

Zoey brought the light closer as he pushed the remaining wood aside.

A small document box had been wedged beneath the shelving. One corner was badly scorched, and the handle had partially melted into the lid, but unlike everything around it, the box itself remained intact.

"Locked?"

Kyle tested the latch.

"Was."

The metal broke after a little pressure.

A dry smell came out the moment he opened it, stronger than the burnt smell in the passage. Several folders sat inside, their edges darkened by heat, while the loose papers had stuck together after getting wet.

Some of the pages made a faint cracking sound as they shifted.

Zoey crouched beside him.

"Careful."

"I know."

Kyle separated the first few sheets slowly. Most were hard to read, either burned through or stuck together badly enough that pulling them apart would’ve destroyed whatever remained.

Then a date appeared near the top of one page.

Kyle stopped.

===

15 October

Mrs. Balle came to the school today.

Apparently, she never requested Mara’s withdrawal.

Mara has apparently been missing since the eleventh. When I asked why she only brought this up recently, she said that she ’didn’t know’. How does this make sense?

I went directly to the office afterward and asked them to check the telephone record again. They have no explanation for who made the call.

I also mentioned Elon’s behaviour and the exercise book.

I was told not to encourage the children’s stories while the police are investigating.

Mr. Harlan said that everyone is already distressed enough.

I agree with him.

I think.

===

"...Zoey."

"I see it."

This looked to be the remains of a diary.

’But why is there a document here for it? This is a bit odd.’

The scattered papers with the notes were weird enough, but now there were even more? And how did nobody find this box? It was hidden, sure, but it wasn’t that hard to find if someone looked hard enough.

Kyle looked at the paper more closely.

A lot of the pages looked completely broken, making it hard to piece them in order. Several sections were filled with the handwriting Kyle recognized from other documents belonging to Mrs. Vale.

He brought the paper closer to the light.

===

12 October

Mara did not attend today. Elon says he saw her near the treeline after school and spoke with her.

I reminded him that Mara has been withdrawn and told him not to go looking for her again.

He seemed confused when I said this.

Desk 26 was removed for repairs, so Elon has temporarily been moved beside Mara’s desk.

He asked if he could sit somewhere else.

This entire thing is causing me quite a lot of stress.

===

Kyle’s brow slowly furrowed.

Zoey leaned closer.

"Read the next page."

===

16 October

Desk 26 was returned, and Elon has been moved back to his original place.

He refused to sit down until I moved his chair farther from Seat 27.

When I asked what was wrong, he said, "She doesn’t like when I sit there."

I asked who he meant.

He wouldn’t tell me.

I have requested that Seat 27 be removed from the classroom tomorrow. There is no reason to leave it there while Mara is absent, and the children have become increasingly distracted by it.

I should probably have done this earlier.

This is really bothering me.

===

"..."

Kyle looked towards the chair behind them.

It remained facing the wall.

The light barely reached it from where they were crouched, leaving the lower half of the chair swallowed by shadow.

He reached for the next paper, only to stop when he saw how badly burned it was. However, his face changed the moment he caught sight of the date above it.

===

17 October

Seat 27 was removed before lessons. The classroom was noticeably calmer afterward.

At least initially.

During arithmetic, Rachel raised her hand and asked why Mara was allowed to return without explaining where she’d been.

I thought she was making a stupid joke, but Edward said he had seen her as well.

Both pointed towards the place where Seat 27 used to be.

There was nothing there.

===

There was a short line beneath it, written more heavily than the rest.

[Mr. Harlan told me to go home after lessons and rest.]

Zoey’s expression changed.

"Two Maras?"

"I’m not sure if I have to be honest..."

Kyle read further.

The neat structure of the diary ended there. Or more like, a lot of the pages were so burned that it was hard to see what was actually written. They were only able to catch sight of a few more phrases.

===

He thinks the stress of Mara’s disappearance is affecting the class.

Possibly me as well.

I don’t know anymore.

===

Neither of them spoke.

The faint dripping inside the walls continued.

Kyle had read enough strange reports since joining the Guild that something like this shouldn’t have bothered him as much as it did.

But standing beside Mara’s missing chair made the words feel different.

He moved to the next line he could make out, trying to be as careful as possible.

===

Something else is bothering me.

The chair removed from Seat 27 was taken to basement storage this morning.

I think I’m going to go check.

===

A section of the page had burned away, taking part of the sentence beneath it.

===

I wanted... permission.

Mr. Harlan isn’t meeting me.

I’m going.

===

The writing changed again.

The next line had been pressed deeply enough into the paper that Kyle could feel the indentation beneath his thumb.

===

I saw Mara.

===

Zoey slowly lowered the light, the shadows around them seemingly taking the opportunity to move closer to them. Almost as if trying to embrace the two.

"...She saw Mara when she came here?"

Kyle didn’t reply and just stared at the last part of the diary, his expression unreadable.

He tried to look further, but the bottom of the page had been completely burned to a crisp.

Kyle stared at the remaining words for several seconds before looking towards Chair 27. Whatever Mrs. Vale had seen on October seventeenth, it probably wasn’t Mara.

It apparently knew enough to fool people who knew her.

Or was learning how.

A faint scrape interrupted his thoughts.

Scrr—

The noise dragged sharply through the otherwise silent room.

Both of them immediately looked towards the chair.

It moved. Not by much, but it moved.

But neither of them was touching it.

"...Kyle."

"I know."

Scrr—

Chair 27 shifted again, its front legs dragging softly across the concrete before stopping.

Kyle’s skin prickled.

For several seconds, the room remained completely still.

Even the dripping seemed farther away.

Then the pressure seemed to disappear from the chair all at once.

Its backrest tilted slightly away from the wall.

Kyle stared.

Earlier, he had barely been able to move it.

Now...

He reached out cautiously and pulled.

The chair slid across the floor with almost no resistance.

The sudden ease of it felt incredibly wrong.

"..."

Zoey looked from the chair to him.

"What changed?"

Kyle didn’t have an answer.