The Locked Door

Right when they were about to enter, they heard a loud swish sound right above their head, "What was that?" Carl said and looked above.

He couldn't see what it is just by looking up so he took a few steps back. "Look!" he shouted to the others who was just about to go inside.

WELCOME GRADUATES

That was the words they saw on a two vertical white banners that rolled down. "Welcome Graduates? Does that mean the school really planned to take us here?" Carl asked.

"Then was all of that a plan? This feels like a prank." Agatha said. Arneau, obviously annoyed, put his hand on his waist. "If this really was a prank, then, fucking bitch! This is not a good prank!" he exclaimed.

"Calm down, I know why you're irritated." Justine tapped him, "You're still upset about diving into Ma'am Rosa's dead body." he said and let out a sigh, "I know you love eating, but you shouldn't take away the food of flies, you know?" Justine added. He said it seriously but everyone knows that he's just mocking Arneau.

Arneau snapped at hearing his words, "Shut the fuck up, you fish!!" he yelled.

"Can't you think of another insult? You've been using that for 14 years." Justine said with a pout then moved his lips continuously to annoy him even more.

"Stop fighting, you two! That won't help us!" Mitch said. She stood between them and pushed them away from each other.

"If this is just a set up for the reunion, that still doesn't explain the dead body inside that room." Ria stated.

They all nodded in agreement and what she said made them worry even more. "Let's go inside, first." Klair said.

They all went inside but didn't go further as it was very dark, "Hit the switch, Jayson." Jocephine said.

"What am I always the one who turns on the light?" he muttered, hearing his complaint, someone elbowed him to hurry up.

"It's so dark in here. Jayson, you still can't find the switch?" Mitch asked.

"I'm trying!"

"CC, be careful."

"Ow, Bitch! Who's the bastard that touched my ass!"

"It wasn't on purpose! I can't see anything." Jayjay immediately answered.

Just as Jayson felt the switch, he immediately opened it, making the room suddenly lit up so bright.

On the moment the lights went on, Leyan saw a thread just an inch away from her leg. The sudden sight of the thread startled her, causing her to trip over the thread. "Leyan!" Klair exclaimed as she saw Leyan about to fall.

They all turned and was surprised when she didn't fall to the floor, but remained in a slant position. "Is that magic?!" Ronjay said with disbelief.

Jayjay hit Ronjay lightly on the back of his head, "You idiot, that's not magic. The threads caught her." he stated. Hearing his words, they all realized something and immediately looked at Leyan.

A little while in her slanting position, some parts of her arm and her cheeks formed a thin line, with a red liquid running down.

They all gasped and tried to free Leyan. But the thread seemed to jave been tangled in the buttons of her clothes and also in her accessories. "Don't move, Leyan." Ria said. "It'll be painful to pull her away or to pull the threads," she mumbled.

Ronjay showed his teeth, gesturing to just cut it with their teeth, "It looks stupid but it works right?" he muttered.

"It works," Lloki answered. "The threads are very pulled tight, just by holding the thread and moving it can make her bleed again. You'll have to hold the thread to bite it."

Lloki notice that Ronjay looked like he was still about to say something, so he approached Leyan, and touched the thread and pulled it lightly. "Ouch!! Lloki, stop, don't touch it!"

Ronjay closed his mouth seeing how Leyan wince in pain just by slightly touching it.

Ria glanced at Lloki because of what he said, but then the table by his side caught her attention. Fire.

Lloki noticed her gaze and reached for the candle to give it to her, "Are you gonna use this?" he asked. Ria nodded and took the candle from his hands.

Ria held the candlestick and wave it around the thread, making them severed and loose. When Leyan was about to fall over, she smelled something burnt and saw some of her hair on the ground. Keila quickly pulled her up by her clothes and pushed her back while the others opened their arms as support to catch her. Agatha and Arneau gave her a quick first aid for the meantime since they don't have any kit with them.

"Don't move." Keila warned the others while staring at the cut hair scattered on the floor. "Get me a piece of cloth."

Rica stared at the unbothered Luis, and pulled him by his necktie, "Hey!" he muttered. She took his necktie and gave it to Keila, leaving Luis with no choice but to frown.

Keila threw the tie and it instantly became sliced before it even go far across the room. "Laser?" They muttered.

"Turn the lights off again." Keila said to Jayson. He turned it off without complaint. They saw beams of laser in front of them. If they walked just one step earlier, they could've been dead by now.

Elay hit the switch on again, "What psycho will put threads and laser in a room? So annoying!"

All of them are hot headed since they were so stressed since they were still at the school. "How are we going to get by the door?" Rica asked.

"Push this button, to turn off the laser security." CC said out of nowhere.

"What?"

"No, I just read the words on the wall across us." she said and pointed at the sign with an arrow pointing below a red circle.

"When we came here, there were no lights but we didn't see any laser beams." Carl stated.

"Switching the lights on may have triggered the laser security. Now even if we turn it off and on, it won't go off unless the button was pressed." Lloki explained.

"How the fuck are we supposed to get to the button if there are lasers?" Arneau exclaimed. "Even a small ball won't get through that!"

At the corner on their left, Is a display of balls from different sports. While at the corner on their right is a table with candles and a bow and arrows hanging on the wall as a display.

While they were brainstorming about what they should do, Ria removed the bow from the wall and took an arrow. "Are you going to—?" Keila asked.

"I haven't trained for a while, but all I can do is try." She answered.

She put the arrow's nock onto the string and raised the bow. She gripped the handle and pulled when she felt all eyes on her. She accidentally released it without getting to aim, out of nervousness.

The arrow was sliced before it even get through the other side, "I'm sorry, I—"

"It's fine, there's a lot of arrows. You can do it again." Keila responded.

Jayson turned the lights off again so she could see the lasers. She took another arrow and repeated the same thing. She looked carefully at where the arrow will go through without getting touched or sliced by the lasers. After spotting a space, she raised the bow and aimed at the button.

She took a deep breath and calmed herself, "Don't mess up." she muttered and pulled the arrow. She released immediately after aim.

The room was dark but the light of the beam could still make the arrow be seen, the tension made it twist around and made its way through the holes of the crossed lasers in slow motion.

While the arrow was still midway, the lights switched on and they all saw it go across, intact. It went through until it hit the red button making them awed, "Woah, You hit the button!"

Keila laughed, "I guess you were just nervous at the first try, you still got your skills."

Ria smiled, shyly. Archery and Psychiatry are both her dreams, but both were impossible. The first time she tried archery is when her uncle took her to a salon, and the room at the back of the salon is the entrance to an archery training program. It was where the athletes train, but if you just came for fun, then you can pay to play.

As a beginner, the coach for players there were amazed at the shots of a first timer. She was told to come and train but her family wants her to focus on her studies. And even if they agreed, it was too expensive to buy a set of archery requirements.

Jayson turned the lights off and on to see if there was still lasers but they saw nothing. They threw a ball just in case but it was not sliced.

They all let out a deep breath of relief since they don't need to worry about getting cut. Keila went straight ahead to open the door but it was locked.

"The door is locked!"

Sebastian spotted a keyhole just below the knob, "Let's look for a key." he said. "This might be a puzzle room, solve to open the door." he added.

The others scattered around the room and searched for a key everywhere, while Leyan sat on the floor to rest with Arneau and Agatha who were still cleaning her cuts with alcohol, holding herself back to avoid screaming from the sting.

The room is very messy to the eyes since it has a lot of things. Just like the ball corner, the candles with archery display, lots of drawers and cabinets and more.

Rica paused and saw a shelf with figurines of a man in different poses and just above the shelf is a poster with people raising their arms and a person holding a megaphone, "Freedom of Speech!" she read out together with Elay.

"What does that mean?" Elay asked.

"I don't know, maybe we should give a speech to the door?" Rica answered. Elay laughed at her response, "Speech? Hilarious. And there's no microphone by the door."

Rica took a glimpse at the door and returned her gaze to Elay, "There's an intercom!" she said. Surprised, Elay looked at the door and there really was an intercom at the side, 'That's weird, why have a lock when you have an intercom system.' she looked back at Rica, "But a speech is still impossible, we don't even know what we should say." Elay stated.

Rica who doesn't know what to do spaced out. Then she noticed something at the bottom of one of the figurines, a small picture. "Look, it's sir Ericson. He's our adviser, ten years ago, right?"

"Why is the picture in there?"

Lloki, CC and Ria was near so they called them. The three approached them and they showed the picture, the shelf and the poster.

"Ericson was our English teacher, so this is probably a clue related to a topic." Lloki said.

CC pointed, "And look, the figurines are a clue and the word Speech in the poster is emphasised. It obviously means,"

"Figures of Speech." the three said in unison.

"Oh." Elay and Rica nodded, but the confusion remained, "So what, then? How is that a clue?" they asked.

Lloki and CC turned to Ria but she already disappeared. They found her in front of the cabinet, holding a book. They approached her and saw her going through an English book. "There must be a clue in the book." she stated.

They all opened books from different grade levels, then Ria looked up at the Grade ten row of subjects. She pointed at the English10 and Lloki reached for it. CC took it and opened it by quickly and scanned the table of contents, she turned to the page where the Figures of Speech are and a paper between the pages slipped out.

"Something fell." Lloki said, the three looked at the paper on the floor which was in the book earlier. He picked it up and there was nothing written in it, just a drawing.

☟︎︎︎

——

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✍︎

二

"Is it a clue?" CC asked, staring at the symbols. "This is like Ma'am March's games, where you turn them into words." Carl who was behind them, said.

"What does the finger pointing at the line means? Down? Down line?" Rica said.

"The line may mean over or under, since the finger is pointing down, I think it's under." Lloki chimed in.

CC pointed the last symbol, "How about this? It's number two in chinese, right?" she said. Lloki nodded and tapped Ria, "What the chinese word for two?" he asked.

"Èr." she answered.

They looked back at the paper, "Under the write Èr? Under the writer?" Carl asked.

Ria glanced at the symbols, "It's under the drawer, that's the clue." she stated.

They told everyone about the clue and the guys immediately went to the table with many drawers, and bent over to peek under the table. Sebastian couldn't see it well so he put his hands under and searched for the key. "There's nothing under the table nor the drawers." he stated.

"How about the insides of the drawers?" Klair asked but they just snorted, "You think we've never searched it? It was the first thing we've done in the moment Sebastian told us to look for a key." Jayjay said.

Klair rolled her eyes at Jayjay's response, she went to drawers and opened all of it again. She stopped at a drawer and found a metal rod with a 90 degree bent end. "Could there be..?" she muttered.

She turned to the guys, "Clear out all the things inside the drawers." she ordered. They looked at each other and did as she told.

"Are you going to look for a hole?" Ria asked. Klair nodded, figuring out that Ria already knew what she was gonna do.

Keila heard them and helped find a hole after the guys emptied out the drawers. After looking at different drawers, Keila noticed something and called them. "Here! I found a hole."

Klair was slightly surprised, "I wish I could have your eyes, so clear." she joked.

She inserted the rod and hooked it up with the help of the end that was bent. A plywood was lifted up and they saw a key. "So it really was a false bottom." Ria muttered.

Lifting the false bottom, they found a key with an eye-shaped head. "The owner of this building must be obsessed with eyes." Ronjay joked.

They gave the key to Sebastian, he inserted it to the keyhole and they heard a clicking sound. Must be the sound that something opened.

But when they twisted the knob, the door was still locked.

"What the hell?" Sebastian muttered. He twisted and pulled the doorknob repeatedly but it still won't budge, "It won't open!" he said to the other.

They were all confused and tired since they still haven't gotten any rest. Klair's brows furrowed in frustration, "Was all of it false clues?"

"No." They all looked at Ria, "Maybe the key was for another lock." she stated. She notice a rectangle camouflaging just below the keyhole. She touched it for a bit and saw that it moves so she slid it up and realized that it was actually a compartment.

While she was holding the sliding plate, Agatha reached for something inside.

There was another paper inside.

Inside the note, she read it out loud:

COMPLETE THE SENTENCE:

All of us are _________.

TELL THE ANSWER TO THE INTERCOM (YOU HAVE 3 TRIES.)

They tried to think of what the answer is while Sebastian was about to pull out the key, but he twisted it to the other side and he heard another clicking sound.

"Oh, I know." Ronjay said. They all looked at him, surprised. "All of us are..." he paused, giving them a cliffhanger.

"Stupid!" he yelled. Ronjay looked at the faces of his former classmates and burst out in laughter.

Jayjay kicked him while Jayson hit him in the head.

Sebastian pulled the plate up again and put his hand inside. While Elay approached the intercom, pressed the button and said: "All of us are graduates?"

She removed her finger from the button and the intercom gave out three beeps and a long sound of what they think was telling them that it is incorrect.

Sebastian pulled out the paper and opened it. It was another drawing of a circle of dots and inside was an eye. "What is this?" He said.

They looked at the paper he showed, "That looks like a bead bracelet hahaha." Jayson said.

Ria stared at it and spaced out, remembered the memory from ten years ago, when they were all circled around on the floor playing...

"M-Murder Mystery—!"

She exclaimed, "We were sitting on the floor, circled up while playing killer eye, remember?"

They pressed the intercom and tried again, "All of us are players."

There was a long pause in the intercom but it beeped again, two times. It was incorrect again.

"There's only one try! What should we say?"

Ria suddenly approached the intercom and pressed it.

"Be careful, we only have one—

"All of us are suspects." she said.

And the door finally opened.