The Technique

Chapter 21: Stock Room

With the bloody answer key in my hand, I walked down the hallway to the teachers' office. I needed to tell everyone now about Greg. He needed to square up to what he did wrong. 

I took a deep breath before knocking on the door. But even before my hand touched it, I noticed some teachers walking toward me whispering to each other. "Three teachers resigned last night," one said. The other one shook her head. "It's really strange. Every week, they resign without telling on one of us." 

"Resign?" I whispered. 

They didn't resign, for sure. 

I folded the answer key. They should never see me with this. I thought it wasn't the right place. I needed to go to the director's office. 

The director's office had its own building. I quickly walked there before this bravery inside me faded. I didn't have to knock on the door since the secretary already ushered me inside. The director was silently sitting at his table. I didn't show him the answer key first. 

"What is that, Mr. Bruce?" he asked. 

"Are you..." I trailed off, gripping the paper under the table. "Are you aware of teachers resigning these days?" 

"Oh." He intentionally opened his eyes wider. "Yea, I guess you have heard of that. That's quite ordinary here." 

"Really? I heard three teachers resigned last night." 

He nodded. "Yes. Why are you suddenly interested in it?" 

"Can I know who they are?" I asked. The director paused for a moment and stared at me. Then he pulled three folders under his desk. 

"Here they are." 

I opened the folders. 

The teachers' faces last night showed up. I was certain they didn't resign. They were killed. My heart jumped when I saw their resignation letters, all signed by them. No, it wasn't real. They didn't resign. They didn't. 

I stood up and breathed deeply. "I'm sorry for being nosy. I didn't actually think about it before going here. I have to go." 

The director wrinkled his forehead. "Okay? See you around, Mr. Bruce." 

I hid the answer key under my shirt. I walked out of the office and looked up at the sky, thinking. 

Was the director involved in this? 

* 

For the upcoming parents' meeting, we were assigned to do different tasks. Kylie was assigned to the dishwashing area. Mike was assigned to put the banners and decorations to the event hall where the event was going to be held. And I was assigned to get the materials they needed. I saw Stella helping someone to hang the banner high up on the stage. They all looked very eager to help except for Mike, who had been doing small stuff. I never saw Greg. And I would never like to see him. 

Every time I walked past him, he wasn't looking either. And I guessed that was for the best. But I knew he wasn't stopping what he was doing every Tuesday night. Last week, when I looked out my window, I saw him walking alone in his hoodie. But I never bothered to stop him. I thought that if I get myself involved with him again, my whole life was going to be ruined forever and I won't be able to go back to a good mental state. I almost tried to dial the police station, but the fear of being jailed as a conspirator was always setting in. So I had stopped thinking anything about that anymore. 

I headed to Mr. David's office since someone told me he knew where to get the materials I needed. I knocked on his door a lot of times, but he wasn't opening it. He might be out, so I tried to open the door since it wasn't locked at all. Then I saw him sitting and writing something. 

"Excuse me, Mr. David," I said. 

I looked around, and the whole office was now organized. He wore his glasses and quickly stood up. "Oh, sorry. I didn't notice you. I was writing a journal. How long have you been there?" 

I looked at his desk full of papers, and I couldn't identify where his journal was. But I guessed that might be the brown and old-looking one. 

"Not so long. I was actually about to ask you where I could get some materials and decorations for the event tomorrow." 

"Oh," he said as though he had remembered something. He pulled a pamphlet out of his small cabinet and handed it to me. "They are in the party hall, and that is your guide. I think you already know that that hall is like a maze, and if you're new, you won't be able to get out." 

I didn't know if he was joking to scare me or just telling the truth. I looked down the pamphlet full of arrows, lines, and rooms' names. It was like a map. A page covered an entire floor. So basically, they had seven floors in seven pages. 

Mr. David turned the page to the fifth and pointed a square illustration saying 'Stock Room 5' "It's right here, 5th floor." 

"Thank you, sir." 

I stared at the guidebook the whole time. I was trying to make myself familiar with the rooms and hallways. From the way it looked at this guidebook, anyone would actually be mistaken it like a maze. And I swore there were lots of turns to walk before reaching the Stock Room 5. 

I entered the quiet party hall, and I suddenly remembered the horrible party. I never wanted to look back at it again, but I thought those thoughts won't be erased from my mind easily. I took the elevator located at the left end of the hall. I looked like a traveler looking at the guidebook and searching for the treasure chest as I reached the fifth floor. The only sound I could hear was my footsteps so I sort of regretted that I didn't ask someone to come with me. I followed the guidebook until I finally reached the room. But even before I opened the room's door, the other room across from it caught my attention. 

I noticed that it wasn't on the guidebook, instead, there was only a huge space next to it. I walked over to the other room and opened its door. A bunch of computers and TVs appeared in front of me. It looked like the larger version of the monitoring area in Mr. David's office. But I thought that no one was using it anymore since everything was blacked out and rusty. As I walked farther, I stepped into a piece of paper. It was folded in half. I picked it up. 

Then I heard someone's footsteps coming closer. 

I threw the paper back on the floor. I caught the shadow walking down the hallway. 

The director. 

"Hey," he greeted. "Mr. Nathan Bruce?" I nodded. 

"Yes." My eyes were wide. I didn't expect to bump into the director in the middle of this huge hall. "I'm sorry. I was told to get the materials needed for the event tomorrow, and I thought it was this room." There was no better way than lying. "And I realized I was looking at the guidebook the wrong way." 

He nodded as though he believed in every word that I said. "Okay, just go on. Top students like you are free to walk here wherever you want." He walked past me and never looked back. I waited for him to turn in a different direction and get lost in my sight before I turned the knob of Stock Room 5.