Chapter 3

IT TOOK NEARLY thirty seconds for my sleep fogged brain to process that I was staring at the face of a scowling Elliana.

She stood near my desk with her fists planted on her waist. She was with Terrence, who was too preoccupied with a hello kitty paper weight behind Helga's counter and Leon who sat beside me playing with a desk lamp. Turning it on and off repetitively.

"Good morning." I yawned. I stretched my aching arms and massaged my neck. So I fell asleep in the library, huh? That explains the achy muscles. "What time is it?"

"Eight-thirty." Leon answered nonchalantly.

"What?! Damn it, I'm so late!"

I sprung on my seat and ran out of the library. I didn't have the time nor the luxury to go back to my dorm room, wash my face and change my uniform. I am so late for first period and I needed to run posthaste since my classroom is located on the west wing.

Bursting through the classroom, I was out of breath though that didn't stop me from making an excuse and lowered my head to be more apologetic. "I'm so sorry for being late, Mr. Lancer. I fell asleep in the library, studying. Promise it won't happen again."

I wanted to slap myself. Of all my classes, I chose to be tardy on the class of the most terror teacher of all. Mr. Lancer isn't so lenient to his students when it comes to punctuality.

I waited for Mr. Lancer's response, or threats rather like he usually does to students who are late in his class, but heard nothing. Imagine my surprise staring at an empty classroom.

No Mr. Lancer. No students.

"What the--"

"It's a Saturday. So no class." I saw Elli leaning on the door frame with her arms crossed. A pissed off expression was plastered on her face. "Yesterday was Friday and there was a particular movie night where someone promised to show up. . .but didn't."

Everything came back to me. I suddenly remembered Elliana and the guys and the supposed movie night.

This time, I really did slapped myself - on the forehead.

"Argh! You dumbass!" I muttered to myself.

Elli arched a brow. "What did you just call me?!"

I raised both of my hands in complete defeat. "I m-meant me."

She shot me a glare before flipping her hair and leave the room.

I sighed. Now you've done it.

I rushed to Elli's side. She continued to ignore me on our way back to the library where we left the other two. Her lips were pouting and her brows all scrunched up together.

"I'm sorry, Elli." I said.

She let out an exasperated sigh. "It's fine. It's not like I was expecting you to really show up anyway. You never did."

I was a bit taken aback from the tone of sadness in her voice. She paused in front of the library doors. "What are you talking about? I had a few occasional--"

"Yes, but, things are different now. Everything feels different right after. . ." Her voice trailed off. But I know what she was about to say. It could be a wild guess but like Elli, even I don't have the courage to open that can of worms.

"Kris, I--"

The doors creaked open behind her. Leon and Terrence's head poked out of the slightly ajar door.

"You guys done with your little bickering?" Terrence asked.

"Aw, come on. Kiss and make up already." Leon teased.

Tsk. If only it was that simple. . .in another context, of course.

As if Terrence expressed not being a fan of that thought, he went to Elli's side and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. Leon rolled his eyes at that.

I straighten my wrinkled uniform. "I'm really sorry about last night, Elli. I promise I'll make it up to you. I'll do anything you want."

And like magic, the frown on her face immediately disappeared. "Anything?" Damn. Why do I suddenly feel nervous at that smile and tone?

And there was reason to be.

Ten minutes later, I found myself in the middle of the quad, wearing cat ears and a tutu with Elliana, forcing me to learn the Cupid dance trend on Tiktok. It was that or I'll do the flower dance with a red dress on. The former sounded tolerable than the latter however, I am beginning to regret this.

"Louder!" She yelled with both hands cupping the sides of her mouth for amplification. "Add more quirkiness to it!"

Terrence and Leon cheered behind her. Both held their phones up high for documentation purposes.

Damn bastards!

"This is going to be epic!" Leon grinned.

"Smile, Kris." Terrence said with a mischievous smirk on his face.

"Fuck off!" I snapped. "Elli, you're killing me. Can I stop now?"

"Hmm. . ." Elli's hand rose to scratch her chin. "I think not!"

"Yey!" The guys cheered some more.

"ELLIANA!"

"Yo, bro. Take a chill pill. It's not like anyone's gonna see you being my bitch at the moment. Have you seen anyone in sight? No."

I rolled my eyes at that. But come to think of it, she's right. Ever since we left the school library, I noticed how deserted the place was though I didn't think much of it at the time. However, as Elliana pointed it out, it somehow piqued my curiosity.

So I asked them. . .

Where is everybody?

Is there a holiday we didn't know about which made the students left school? And how about the professors and the staff? Did they leave, too?

I pursed my lips. One thing you need to know about Harrington High School Academy, is that it is one of those big shot high schools in Portland where they offer quality and high standard education for students whose aim is to get into corporate and high-end Universities like Harvard or Cambridge. They aim to produce students with impeccable credentials in preparation for college.

Majority of the students attending Harrington prefer to stay in-campus during the weekends rather than going back to their respective hometowns. Reasons why it is rare for Harrington to be absent of its usual swarm of rambunctious high schoolers.

What's more odd in this situation is how we haven't seen nor interacted with anyone after leaving the school library. Not one student or professor in sight. Not even Ali, the janitor.

As the matter finally dawned on the four of us, Terrence suggested we get back to the student dorms. We all agreed.

In Harrington, there's like four buildings for student lodgings and is a long walk from the main building. It usually takes fifteen to twenty minutes - ten if you're riding a bicycle or taking the 6 am mini bus - to get there. The student lodgings is located on the Northern part of school property. Its distinct colors of yellow and white now visible as we followed the outlines of the brick walkway.

Each building is comprised with 245 bedrooms housing almost five hundred plus students. It provides common facilities for student's comfortability. A mini library and computer room where students spends most of their study sessions, a gym, a recreation room, a lounge to relax and chill situated on the right side near the reception area and on the left is where the mess hall is, providing us delicious and nutritious meals three squares a day.

Passing through the automated sliding doors, we took a few steps towards the elevator. Only the three of us: Terrence, Leon and me. The girls' dorm rooms, which is where Elliana run off to, is on the adjacent building.

Leon and I are dorm mates and our room was on the fifth floor while Terrence was on the seventh floor which meant we were the first ones to got out of the elevator.

Once inside our dorm, we showered and had a change of clothes.

"It's weird, isn't it?" I said to Leon while drying my hair with a towel.

"What?" He asked. He pulled on a black tee which had the school's logo in the front.

"That we haven't encountered a single person today. It feels like Harrington suddenly became a ghost town overnight." I said.

Leon's brows scrunched up together and is in deep thought. "I guess our only option is to try and find out what's happening right now."

Before we parted ways earlier, we agreed to meet at the mess hall after freshening up. Elliana and Terrence are already seated in one of the tables when we arrived and Elli was quick to point out what she observed in the girls' dorm rooms.

"It was really weird. I tried to look for my girls and knocked on their rooms but no one answered. Then I realized that Stella's room was unlocked so I just helped myself and went inside." She said. "Obviously, I didn't find Stella there but sure enough, I opened her closet and checked the bathroom. All of her things are still there. Just not her."

"Anyways, I tried to check a few other unlocked rooms and found the same thing." She continued. "Their stuff are still there but the residents are no where to be seen."

I scratched my chin. If that were the case, that could only mean one thing and there's no point denying that fact. . .

The four of us are the only ones left here.

What the hell?