A Haunted School, Hidden Deep in the Woods

     ***

     Balthor slowly began to rise, looking around it seemed he was in a classroom, and lying next to him was Bylorn. Shaking him awake, Bylorn groaned and looked around.

     “What happened? We were playing with the charms and then everything went black. Where is this place?” Bylorn groggily asked.

     “I really don’t know, I had just woken up now. I think we need to try and find the others, though, this place looks deserted, and I’d rather not stick around here long if we can help it,” Balthor answered. “It looks like a school, but it seems incredibly old and falling apart. I don’t know of any schools like this in the Haunted Woods. Unless…”

     Balthor thought back to the book that the charm instructions had been in. There had been a school drawn in on the map, the Hauntedly Host Elementary School. But that was impossible. How did they wind up here, and who would have even thought the school would be real? Things weren’t adding up, but it wasn’t going to help them any by worrying. They needed to try and find the others.

     “It looks like we can get into the hallway from here,” Bylorn called out after struggling to open the door. “We just need to watch our step; it seems the floor may be giving out.”

     Balthor trudged over and slipped out of the room with Bylorn, both failing to notice the eyes at the back of the classroom that had watched them leave.

     ***

     Mayleen was dreaming; she was back home in her room and playing with her Usuki Dolls. They were going on an adventure to a sunny and warm beach. No rain clouds at all, just a bright, beautiful day. The sun was beating down on her, and the waves were crashing against the shore. It seemed like everything was perfect. But as she looked around, it seemed there weren’t any other pets. And hadn’t her brother been right here? Suddenly, the weather changed, and a storm rolled in, the waves kicking up. She tried to run, but felt stuck, her feet moving but going nowhere. She tried to scream and then sat bolt upright on the cold tile floor.

     She took a few moments to catch her breath, but the sight before her wasn’t any better than her nightmare had been. She found herself in a bathroom, but it was in a sorry state of disrepair. The stall doors were hanging off their hinges, and there were puddles of water all over the floor. Along with a constant dripping sound. She started to take larger and larger gasps of air. Where was her brother? What had happened? Where was this place?

     As she began to get more worried, suddenly one of the stall doors began to creak open. Mayleen froze in terror, unable to move. Just staring at the door as it slowly opened, and a hand pushing it open, before a face with a big smile leaned out, the rest of the features covered by a large cap. Suddenly, the rest of the body leapt into view and hovered right in front of her face.

     “Boo!”

     Mayleen screamed! Shouting louder than she ever had before, she nearly fainted again if the figure didn’t suddenly reach back and catch her.

     “Sorry about that! I didn’t think you would scream so loudly. I just wanted to have a bit of fun.” The figure spoke while chuckling. “I’m Ko, pleasure to meet you. I never get visitors in this bathroom. It seems our spirits have been forgotten about for a while now. There used to be so many children here, until…well, that doesn’t matter! How about I help you up?”

     Ko reached out his hands, and that was when Mayleen took him in. He was a Brown Techo, wearing what looked to be a very old-fashioned school uniform. She cautiously took his hand and stood up.

     “But…where is this? My friends and I were just making a charm, and suddenly we all wound up here.”

      Ko's face darkened. “You all didn’t make charms of yourselves and try to remain friends, did you?” Mayleen gulped and nodded. “Oh no, if the charm wasn’t done correctly, that means you all ended up here. There are many worse spirits haunting this place than just me. Did any of you say anything wrong? If it wasn’t repeated exactly, the charms would turn into this curse.”

     Now all the colour drained from Mayleen’s face, she had spoken wrong. This was all her fault. She slumped back down onto the floor and began to cry.

     “Whoa, hey! There isn’t time for that now. Save those tears for when you get out of here, and they can be happy ones instead! Everyone makes mistakes, but it also means everyone can fix the mistakes, too! We need to get moving if you want to help your friends.” Ko reached down and helped her back up again and began to lead her from the bathroom. Mayleen’s leg is still hurting a bit, but she found she was able to keep walking. “Leaving here won’t be as easy as it was getting in, though. You’ll need to find everyone again and do the chant again, correctly this time, to go back home. All while trying to avoid the Wonders of the school.”

     Mayleen’s head was still spinning as Ko held her hand and pulled her along. Although as she looked down, she noticed Ko’s feet were floating above the floor. So he really was a spirit. At least it seemed like he was a nice one who could help her out. She was so glad that she would be able to get help from someone so nice, especially since she had been so terrified before. She quickly followed along with Ko as they entered what seemed to be the main hallway of the school.

     Ko pointed to the main staircase and told her to avoid it. “This is one of those wonders I was mentioning. When you count the steps going up, vs coming down, they are different. It is easy to get lost on those steps and not be sure where you are going. Some pets have been trapped there for a long time. I really hope your friends aren’t upstairs. There are a few other ways down, but this is the most obvious one, and they may just end up falling for it.”

     Something wasn’t making sense to Mayleen, though. How did Ko know so much about the school? Besides being a spirit of course. As they quickly made their way down the hall, she could tell he was carefully leading her around holes and past doors that seemed to have strange shapes on the other side of the windows. His motives weren’t adding up to her. What did he gain by helping her to get out of the school?

     Finally, as they rounded another corner, she pulled back on his hand, and Ko turned around, confused. “Ko, I appreciate the help, but I don’t get it. How do you know about the school? Who are you? If my friends are all really trapped here, then why would you want to help all of us?”

     Ko looked at Mayleen and smiled. “Well, I just hate to see a beautiful Poogle like yourself so distressed. No sense in letting you cry when I could be putting a smile on that face instead! But mostly, I don’t want to see her trap anyone else here. She just can’t keep getting away with it, so I’m not going to let her keep doing it.”

     “But who, who is that? Who wanted us here?”

     “The ringleader of all of this, Sachi, the girl in red. We have to avoid her most of all. She is the one who had cursed this school. As long as I’m trapped here, I’ve decided to help grant pet’s wishes and get them out.”

     “Trapped here? How did you get trapped here yourself?”

      “Oh, had I not told you? I’m one of the Wonders.”

To be continued…