THE 30 DAYS Remastered

A Masked Man (Part-1)

"DAY - 9"

As the night passed, exhaustion finally overtook both Ryan and Lucy, and they fell asleep next to each other, their heads resting on each other's shoulders. The early morning light started to creep into the hospital corridor when the doctor approached them, his expression filled with a hint of good news. Gently, he woke them up, and they both blinked, slightly disoriented.

With a smile, the doctor said, "She'll live, but she needs time to recover. So for now, you can't have her for interrogation."

Ryan and Lucy, still a bit groggy, exchanged a glance of relief. A moment of awkwardness hung between them as they realized they'd been sleeping on each other's shoulders, but that was quickly overshadowed by the joy of the news.

Ryan, unable to hide his excitement, grinned and said, "This is great! She's going to make it."

Lucy smiled, feeling a huge weight lift off her shoulders. But then, her mind flashed back to Clay's plan. She quickly composed herself and turned to Ryan. "I'm really glad too, Ryan," she said, her voice a bit more serious now. "But I think I need to go get some rest."

Ryan nodded, still focused on Mia's well-being. "I might stay here a while, just in case she needs anything."

"Alright," Lucy replied. She then turned to the doctor. "If anything happens, please inform me immediately."

The doctor nodded, and Lucy gave one last look at Ryan before walking off, her mind now turning to the next step in Clay's plan. She knew she had to act carefully—there was more going on, and she couldn't let her emotions cloud her judgment.

As she made her way through the hospital halls, Lucy's thoughts spiraled into a web of uncertainty. With so many students affected, she had to gather information on them—there were still pieces of this puzzle left to uncover. Reaching her car, she flipped open her laptop and began typing furiously. The sound of the keys echoed in the quiet parking lot.

She accessed the student records from Greenwood High, painstakingly collecting the numbers of those still alive. Tapping into each phone one by one, she was met with an unsettling realization: only fifteen of the students' phones were active. Confusion set in, a gnawing anxiety eating away at her. According to her records, there should have been 23 students—7 had died, but that left eight unaccounted for.

Her heart raced as she contemplated the implications. What had happened to the remaining eight? Were they in hiding, or worse, had they fallen victim to the same fate as their peers?

Without wasting another moment, Lucy picked up her phone and called in a team of officers. "I need you to find out what happened to the missing students names are David, Tom, Jake, Agnes, Rose, Andrew, Stephen & Alison" she instructed, her voice firm. "Track down their last known locations. "On it, Officer Lucy," came the quick response from her colleague, filled with urgency.

As she ended the call, she felt a surge of determination. The clock was ticking, and every second counted. She couldn't allow fear to paralyze her; instead, she would transform it into action. Lucy's mind raced with possible connections. 

After sending a team to investigate the eight missing students, she wasted no time forming another team to tap the phones of the remaining fifteen. The task felt like a race against the clock. With every passing minute, the sense of dread surrounding the mysterious messages grew stronger.

As soon as the phone-tapping was initiated, something unexpected happened. All fifteen students received the same chilling message at the same time:

  "I've changed my mind, and now it's time for the beginning of the end."