The Phantom School 109 You Don't Have To Know Everything

"I would prefer not to talk about it." she said. "I don't know what I think... Perhaps you would understand me a bit better. Perhaps it needs to not go untold. Perhaps you deserve to know it. I-I-I... I don't know."

I remained silent as she began crying again. She gradually calmed down again, and continued.

"But I think have to. Something is pus.h.i.+ng me to tell you about it."

"Please do." I softly said. "Tell me. Tell me about it."

"This makes me sick." she said. "I don't even want to remember it, let alone talk about it."

"Please!" I was practically begging her. She coughed lightly and cleaned her throat.

"They had completely lost their senses, and their connection to the reality..." she said. "They weren't the people I knew; they couldn't be! I wish they weren't..."

"Who?"

"Them." she said. "Both."

Even without the names or t.i.tles, it was pretty obvious who they were. I believed her with little doubt, but at the same time, I was having a really hard time swallowing and processing everything she had just told me.

"I was so weak I couldn't even resist." She was sobbing occa.s.sionally. "They... They used me for their s.e.xual desires. I was hopeless against their strenght. They were... they were ravenous. Moving, behaving under the influence of their wildest emotions, desires, instincts... Animals!" she started raising her voice and eventually yelling, probably without knowing.

"When did this happen?" I asked.

"A day? A few weeks? I don't seem to be able to remember... I'm losing it, am I not?" she said.

"Why didn't you tell anyone? Why didn't you come to talk to-"

"Do you think it is so easy? The trauma? I'm not a cold blooded machine-like being. At least, I think I wasn't." she said. "But... but..." there was a long pause. "...someone knew it."

"Who?" I asked.

"Someone you don't know." she said. "Someone even I don't know very well... yet. Someone who had suffered from similar things in her lifetime. Someone I could share my feelings with. Someone who could truly understand me."

"Please tell me about it. Who witnessed it, and did nothing about it?" I asked. The events were getting more complex.

"Oh, they did something about it." she said. "They did something wonderful."

Thinking of it, maybe she was right... Maybe she was, in fact, losing it. 'She' had just turned into 'they'.

"What happened?" I asked.

"This. The justice. Serenity for the soul." she said.

"Do you think this is justice?" I asked.

"No." she replied. "This is not. There are a few steps left."

"Eh?" I said. "Which is?"

"I need to go." she said.

"What?"

"Kill me." she whispered.

"No!"

Just when I said that, a thunderbolt struck one of the trees nearby; burning the top of the tree and sending a few branches down to the ground, glowing red as they were falling down from the sky. The strong flash, the loud sound and a weak shockwave of rapidly expanding air had broken my concentration. One of the windows were about to break apart.

In that period, I only had a really short chance to look at the girl sitting in front of me. She was looking down, with tears flowing down from her cheeks. The blood from her own wounds were mixing together with the blood of others...

"What is your name?" I asked. I wasn't going to give up until she told me.

"Do you want to turn me in? Go ahead and call the police, I don't think I'm going anywhere anymore." she said.

I didn't reply to her question. Obviously I could no longer call the police, but if I still had a working cellphone? I had no idea what I would do. Calling the police seemed like the correct option, but I now had some weird connection to her that was clouding my common sense.

She sighed.

"Melis." she said. "...is my name."

"Oh." I said. This was a little bit of a surprise to me. Since I couldn't get an answer the previous times, I wasn't really expecting an answer this time either. "You have a pretty name." I said, as I could think of nothing else at the time. At least I wasn't lying.

"You are a first-year?" I asked.

"Was." she said. "I don't think I have much time to spend among those people anymore."

"What cla.s.s were you-"

"You want to turn me in so much, don't you?" she asked. "Well, a sensible choice, so I can't really say anything against."

"Look." I said. "I'm not going to turn you in, I'm just trying to get to know you, to understand you." If I tried hard enough, I could turn my inability to call the police into an advantage.

"She can tell you more about it." she said.

"Who is that 'she'?" I asked. "Also, why do I have to ask everything five times to get an answer!?" I added shortly after.

"Such impatience... You don't have to know everything." she said. "We still have time. It's not even midnight yet. Oh... maybe you were planning to go home?"

"I'm getting sick of playing around." I replied.

"If that's the case, you know what I'm waiting for." she said. The conversation had made another complete loop, coming back to the exact point where it began. "Kill me." I was stuck here. There was no way out of this.

After thinking in silence for half a minute, I released the knife she gave me; dropping it to the floor.

"You don't believe me." she said.

"I do believe you, but there is no logic in what you do and what you are asking from me." I said.

"So, you don't want to believe me."

"What do you want me to believe in!?" I asked, getting my voice a bit louder. She didn't say anything. The only reply I got was the sound of raindrops. .h.i.tting the windows like they were going to tear the building apart.

Suddenly, the lights on the ceiling flickered. The cla.s.sroom we were in was illuminated. I looked direclty ahead of me. She was no longer there.