HELLUVA SCHOOL: THE SCHOLASTIC DOMAIN 😈🔦

THE FUGGITIVE

~ PROLOGUE ~

ITALY, VILLAFRANCA DI VERONA

JANUARY 12, 2007, 11:27 P.M.

It had all begun in a simple little town in Verona, all started by a desperate escape of a very dangerous prisoner. In the starry night sky, helicopters with noisy Police propellers scoured every narrow, dark street with blinding headlights, searching for Adrian Perez. Numerous Police cars with apocalyptic sirens were whizzing all over Villafranca, and some policemen were shouting on megaphones to citizens to stay in their homes because of a brutal convict on foot loose. There was a worrisome and tense air in that quiet and lively town, but in a small constraint the very convict was hiding. As he made sure that some Police and Carabiniers cars were far enough away from his hiding place, he jumped out of the vehicle and checked from his excitement the area where he was. He could hear the sound of helicopters in the sky, that eerie metallic hum, and he immediately lent himself to running silently toward a dwelling composed of many families. Adrian Perez was a killer with a menacing face, with a dirty white beard. His eyes were gray and piercing, his hair was black, greasy and messy. He had a scar over his left eye that furrowed his brow, a sign of previous prison fights, and several scratches on his face. He was dressed in a white T-shirt and above it a brown leather jacket. He wore black pants, dirty and torn, and wore worn and old boots. Adrian Perez reached a closed window and could see inside the building, complete darkness deeper and more paralyzing. He hurriedly decided to jimmy the window with a rusty screwdriver and, once it was open, he managed with difficulty to climb out and enter one of the private residences in the building. Adrian, with plodding steps and shaky breathing, tried to look around for something with which to defend himself, such as a gun or a knife. Without stumbling and making noise so as not to be discovered, Adrian advanced toward some drawers, touching like a damn what he could sense by his sense of touch. He realized there was a handle and pulled hard, which caused a slight creaking squeak. Adrian slipped his hands inside the drawer and found a flashlight, turned it on and pointed it around him, thus realizing that he was in a small living room. Adrian, lighting from the couch to the pictures hanging on the walls, looked for valuables to steal and possibly clothes so that he would not be recognized. Adrian wandered around the small living room for a while and found nothing except a dusty, leather fedora. He put it on and smiled at its splendor, then headed for the door to leave the living room. He listened carefully for the possible presence of sounds or noises, but he did not hear a fly fly, so Adrian slowly opened the door and an icy breeze made him shiver. That icy breeze revealed a narrow, dark hallway decorated with several period paintings. It whispered and lit up the end of the corridor, revealing more eerie wooden doors. Step by step he noticed a dusty inscription on one door, cleaned it and read "Office". Adrian, hopeful of finding luck, turned the doorknob and cast his eye to see if anyone was there, but emptiness reigned that room. Adrian rushed inside the office and locked the door behind him. He lit the room well and noticed a large wooden desk, old shelves filled with musty books and other vintage paintings, while moonlight reflected inside the window covered by white curtains. Adrian rummaged through the various drawers of the desk and, quickly opening and closing them, found nothing. Adrian began to think that perhaps he had entered an abandoned dwelling, but he discovered an inscription under the surface of the desk, some kind of photograph. Adrian tore off the tape and picked up the photograph that showed the head of a deer hanging on the wall. Adrian thought and realized it was a puzzle, but first he had to find a combination or another clue. So he went to the shelves filled with large dusty books, but he could not figure out the connection to the deer. Finally he turned over all the books on each bookshelf and, making an absurd roar and spilling everything like crazy, he noticed a drawing of a deer snout with a missing eye. Then Adrian became irritated and searched another room, making sure no one was there, and found himself in a very small bedroom. Adrian knocked over and kicked anything in order to find a red gemstone in the shape of an eye. Among the provocative mess, Adrian noticed a strange wooden alarm clock with a square slit. Analyzing it closely, he realized that what he was looking for might be in that alarm clock, so he began trying different combinations, moving the hands of the clock. Several seconds later, Adrian became angry and, defeated, went to the hallway. Deciding to go to the living room again, Adrian accidentally illuminated a picture in the hallway and noticed an invisible number. Adrian, illuminating in different perspectives, realized that the number could only be read with a light source from a perfect angle to decipherable reading. The number in the picture indicated the number 19, then Adrian illuminated other pictures and among many they managed to find a second number, which was 30. By pondering and turning the hands of the alarm clock to those two numbers on the antique dial, Adrian managed to unlock a small drawer from where a small red gem like the size of an eye popped out. Adrian took the gem and threw out the alarm clock, ran into the living room and removed a cloth from one wall, where the very head of the deer hanging on the wall with one eye missing was revealed. Adrian inserted the gem into the missing hole and, with a gearing sound, a shotgun with some ammunition was revealed. Adrian rubbed his hands with joy and brandished that shotgun, loaded it with the provided ammunition, and scoured the rest of the living room in search, this time, of riches. Suddenly, Adrian Perez was paralyzed as soon as he heard loud footsteps coming from the hallway, so slow and powerful that it made the prisoner's heart beat through the roof. Adrian aimed at the wall and fired, from his agitation, a shot that pierced the wall. The footsteps stopped, leaving Adrian to think that he might have killed someone. In fact, the convict smiled and, pointing his rifle in front of him, walked out of the living room but... there was no body lying on the floor. Adrian gasped in fear and began to seriously worry, so he ran to another door, but the handle was locked. From panic and with such strength, Adrian could not open the door and, wanting to go back, he was petrified at the sight of a dark figure with bright yellow eyes staring at him from down the hall.