66 Renewal of Madness

"Don't you know The Librarian?" I asked him, a little shocked.

"Dude, we don't have a librarian." Okan answered.

"I just literally talked to him!" I told him.

"You did?"

"Yes, why won't you believe me?"

"How was he like?" he asked.

"He was a rather old, dour man. He had glasses and a distinctive white beard." I tried to describe.

His expression changed as he tried to think of someone like I described.

"One of the literature teachers probably played a prank on you." he finally said. "Though, I must say, I don't really know anyone fitting to your description."

The bell rang, indicating the first lesson was about to begin. Okan jumped from his chair.

"Anyway, we shouldn't be late." he said.

"Later." I said and headed to the classroom. I had lots of things going on in my mind, it was definitely not going to be an easy lesson for me. I stopped in front of the classroom's door, trying to clear my mind and concentrate on my job. I looked around the mostly empty hallway and inhaled deeply.

My phone started vibrating.

"Such nice timing to call me..." I said and picked the phone up.

There she was. The ASCII heart shape was covering the entire screen. I had almost forgotten about her. I answered the call.

"Hey teacher!" Her voice was cheerful as always.

"Hey, the lesson is about to begin, so if you could just let me-" I didn't know what she was about to say, but I tried to postpone the conversation. She didn't even listen to me.

"I was really wondering, teacher... Do you have a crush on that door or something?" Of course, that was what she wanted to say. What could I expect from her? Even after her death, she came out of nowhere.

"Why won't you stop making fun of me?" I was begging her at this point.

"Just admit it, teacher; you like this door a bit too much." She kept going. "I mean, it is sort of weird, but completely acceptable compared to all the stuff I saw on the internet."

I didn't reply to her and I was about to end the call. She suddenly yelled at me.

"TEACHER!"

I sighed.

"What? Don't keep me here, I have a lesson." I said, trying to sound angry.

"I don't exist anymore, remember?" she said, and the call ended before I could say anything.

I put the phone back to my pocket and entered the classroom. As usual, I opened up the student list to check if there was anyone absent. While doing that, I read the entire list from top to bottom a few times. She was right. Her name was no longer in the list.

Without noticing it, I had wordlessly stared at the list for five minutes before I started the lesson.

- - -

After the end of the eventless lesson, I ran downstairs to the chemistry lab, without paying any attention to the students looking at me with curious eyes. I had a lot of questions to ask Mr. Kenan.

I tried to open the door of the lab, but it was locked.

"What is going on here?" I murmured. "Mr. Kenan!" I yelled. After that, I heard a few sounds inside the lab. The door was unlocked, but no one opened it. After a moment of hesitation, I opened the door myself. But just as I pushed the door open, I was pulled inside. I stumbled and fell down. I heard the door closing and locking up again.

I immediately tried to get up, but someone held me from my shoulders and pushed me against a wall behind me. I finally saw the man; he was Mr. Kenan himself. I had no idea if he was trying to attack me or protect me from something, because in both cases, his behaviour would be similar.

I didn't take the risk and pushed him away at the first opportunity.

Just then, I heard something from the room at the back of the lab. Someone else was in here.

Mr. Kenan stopped trying to deal with me and ran inside that small room, locking himself in. I tried to follow him, but I wasn't fast enough. I hit the door a few times.

"What are you doing? Open the door!" I began shouting.

I could hear metallic/mechanical sounds coming from the room.

"Whatever you are doing right now is a really bad idea!" I yelled.

The mechanical noises stopped.

"I... That's more like it." I said. "Can we just talk for a minute?"

He didn't reply to me. First, I heard a buzzing sound, and second, a scream. The scream didn't belong to Mr. Kenan, but someone much younger. I got away from the door in terror. After several seconds of thinking, I kicked the door. No matter what, I had to stop Mr. Kenan.

The third time I kicked the door, I created a crack at the corner of the door. I tried to peek inside from the hole.

I didn't have a nice viewing angle, but judging by the amount of blood in the room, I could say that Mr. Kenan had lost his mind.

I looked around the lab to find something that could be used as a non-lethal weapon, but I couldn't see anything I could confidently use. I kept kicking the door to break it open, but I was quickly exhausted.

After a while, the room got completely silent, just like my hopes of rescuing whoever was in that room.

My phone started rang. I stepped away from the door and picked the phone up.

"You are really enthusiastic about making bad choices." said The Voice.

"I no longer have a reason to talk to you." I said. "Unlike what you think, we don't have a common goal."

The Voice didn't say anything in return.

I started hearing something behind me. The sound was similar to that of boiling water, but it was very loud. I looked behind me to see what was happening. There was a bit of steam accumulating in the lab, and there was a very bright white light coming from the shelves. I approached the light to see everything clearly. There was something in one of the beakers filled with water; it was shining and outgassing. I had no idea what the chemical was, so as soon as I realised what was going on, I got away from the shelves.

"If you say so." said The Voice. "Good luck standing in our way. I hope your death will be painless."

Even though I was brave enough to say all those things, I was more than stupid enough to antagonize them right now.

Suddenly, the beaker blew up, scattering glass and chemical all over the lab. Whatever the substance was, it was really hot. It was getting much harder to breathe.

"Stop!" The sound came from my phone. It wasn't The Voice, it was Cansu.

"YOU ARE STILL HERE!"

It was the first time I heard The Voice so surprised.