Halls of Splintered Souls (Wandering Souls #1)

Chapter Six

"He actually said that? I hid behind that curtain?" Ayn asked me, laughing.

"Yeah, I almost felt bad for him," I frowned. "But I was so angry I just didn't care."

It was Saturday night and I was hanging out in Ayn's room. Her roommate, Gemma, was out studying with her boyfriend. We single ladies are stuck inside our dorms, cursed to spend the weekend watching movies and scrolling through social media. Huh. I miss the mall.

"I can't believe you thought it was a ghost," Ayn muttered, putting on her jacket, "I'm going to go see Adrien so I'll ask him about this Baekhyun guy. Will you be okay alone here?"

"Adrien?" I blinked. "Are you guys going on a date?"

Ayn laughed so hard that it felt like there was an earthquake on the couch she was sitting on. I blinked again. I was so confused. Is she on drugs? Why is she laughing? Hold on, am I on drugs?

"I wish, but we're just helping Professor Cain with grading papers," she explained.

"Uh, why are you helping Professor Cain?" I asked her, clearly confused.

She looked at me like I grew a second head. "I told you already, I applied to be her teaching assistant because Adrien recommended me to her."

"You did?" I frowned. "When did you tell me?"

She blinked a few times. "On the phone, when you called me yesterday night."

I racked my memory to try to remember if I called her, but nothing came up. I was 100% sure I didn't call her. I would have remembered having a conversation like that. There was no way I could have forgotten.

"I didn't call you yesterday night. I fell asleep right after class and didn't wake up until dawn. Padma knows, she saw me fall asleep," I tell her.

I saw Ayn's face filled with confusion, then terror. She grabbed her phone and mumbled something like I have the call records right here. But it died in her throat. She looked up at me with a terrified expression.

"The call logs are gone. That's impossible. You called me. I told you about the whole Professor Cain thing. It was about ten o'clock."

She was in utter distraught. And so was I. I didn't call her. I didn't call her. I didn't call Ayn but somehow, she talked to me on the phone.

We were startled by a knocking on the door. A steady three rhythm knock. We both stilled. Gemma has her own card key. She wouldn't need to knock. Who else could it be? We weren't expecting anyone. We stared at the door. None of us dared moving as the knock grew in frequency and became faster by the second. I jumped when I heard Ayn's phone ringing. Adrien. Her fingers trembled as she picked it up.

"Adrien?"

"Look, I don't know if you're deaf or anything like that but I've been knocking for a while now and you better open the door before I get caught."

"You're outside the door?" she asked with a sigh of relief.

"That's literally what I just said."

Ayn hung up the phone and opened the door to find Adrien pouting. He was out of his uniform and was dressed in a casual suit. Ayn practically had heart eyes looking at him. She pulled him inside and was about to yell at him when he started talking.

"I don't know why you look angry, but I swear I didn't do anything."

Ayn looked like she was about to interject but found that he was right. He had nothing to do with it. She shrugged and picked up her sling bag from the coffee table. She grabbed the back of his collar and pulled him out the door.

"Aya, I'll be back before nine. Don't do anything stupid while I'm gone." She warned me while tying her shoelaces.

"Isn't that my line? You're the one going out with him." I pointed at Adrien, who was grinning from ear to ear.

"I'm a gentleman, I wouldn't do anything to your sister," he said with a wink.

***

There were no one named Baekhyun in Adrien's year, or any year for that matter. Arce Umbra doesn't have many student despites of its size. Everyone knows everyone. Ayn asked Adrien if he knew anyone name Baekhyun earlier. When he said no, she felt curious enough that she asked around other seniors and none of them knew of anyone named Baekhyun.

Ayn fell asleep hours ago, but I couldn't. My thoughts were running miles per minute and I kept thinking about Baekhyun. Could he be lying about his name? It didn't seem like he was lying. He seemed honest and genuine.

I buried my face in my pillow. Feeling tired but restless, I contemplated doing a sleeping spell on myself. I'd fall asleep within a minute if I casted it, but it comes with a side effect of bad dreams.

Thinking about Baekhyun, I decided to do the spell anyway. Soon enough, sleep engulfed me like a wave washing over me.

***

They found the first body in one of the music room. A boy. There was blood all over the pianoforte. One of the corpse's hand was holding something. I couldn't see clearly, but when I started to move closer to see better, I caught a glance of one of the teachers.

Professor Cain?

I heard her say something about the item held in the corpse's hand. A heart? They died from carving their own heart out of their chest?

I blinked and suddenly I was not there anymore.

The second body was found on the staircase connected to the gardens. I know this place. This is the shortcut. The boy seemed to have been pushed down the staircase, resulting in broken bones and an instant death. The corpse looked mangled. It looked so wrong. I felt like I shouldn't be seeing this. Again, Professor Cain came with several other teachers and blocked my view.

The last body was found drowned in the lake. It was swollen and floating on the surface of the water. It was so painful to see all of the bodies.

As I stood near the last body. I saw a black smoke spreading from the forest to the academy buildings. And then, everything turned dark.