20 Chapter 20

"Farewell." she said, and there was silence.

"No!" I yelled, and kicked the door. Only then I noticed that the door wasn't actually locked, there was something behind the door that kept it from opening. Idil had intentionally done that. That meant I could enter the room if I had enough energy.

I was no longer thinking logically about whether it would make any difference in our fate. Something was pushing me to act with only my emotions. I kept kicking and pushing the door to open it using brute force. But it was no use... The object standing behind the door was a bit too heavy.

Just then, the building started to shake violently again. Another earthquake... 'The curse' wouldn't give us a break, even now. Although I was shaken, the earthquake helped me force the door open a little. The heavy objects behind the door moved a little backwards, and I could create a gap where I could peek inside the room.

I looked inside the room. What I saw wasn't very pretty.

Idil was preparing to cut her own wrist with a knife. It was undoubtedly a painful way to suicide, but perhaps this was the best way she could try in there. We both knew it had to be done, but still... My heart was in control of my body now, and I just couldn't let her go.

With all my strenght, I pushed the door once again. I enlarged the gap until I could slip inside the room. I rushed inside to stop her, and held her arms.

"Let go!" she screamed.

"I can't!" I replied. "I won't!"

"What is it are you trying to accomplish?" she asked me. "Just when I was brave enough, why would you stop me?"

"I'm sorry..." I told her. Deep inside, I knew she was right. She was right to be angry... But I couldn't take my control back from the intense emotions.

"I can only hope we will meet again somewhere, sometime." she said, calmly. "But let go, we can't be any helpful to people by reaching the next morning. And believe me... If I see the sunrise ever again, I will never forgive you."

My grip on her arms loosened, but with intense pain.

"Please don't look at me. I can't do it seeing your expressions..." she said.

Slowly and unwillingly, I turned around. I looked down for a moment, and closed my eyes.

I heard a deep sigh behind me.

I couldn't see her, but I could still feel her trembling.

...

The building started to shake again, but this time, it was worse than any previous earthquake we had experienced. I started losing my balance, so I opened my eyes. Suddenly, the floor was gone. I found myself weightless. The room was collapsing on to the lower floor. I bent my knees a little to soften my fall. I would try to drop and roll as I reach the lower floor, but I didn't have time to perform the manuever.

- - -

I regained consciousness soon afterwards. I was laying down on a piece of debris, and there was a chunk of cement on my chest. My chest and back was hurting badly, and I could see my body bleeding from various spots. My damaged hand had started to ache pretty badly. I lifted the cement block with my healthy hand and got up.

"Idil!" I yelled. She appeared from somewhere inside the classroom we had fallen into.

"Things just have to go the wrong way." she said. "I can't even properly kill myself."

"I wouldn't complain about that." I said.

We heard a loud explosion from the hallway. The door of the classroom was blown out of it's place. I ran outside into the hallway. The walls had been damaged, and the nearby classroom was on fire.

"Somebody really hates us." she said.

I was walking towards the classroom to take a look, but Idil held me back.

"Do you think it is a good idea?" she asked.

"You were literally trying to kill yourself a few minutes ago, and now you are afraid of death?" I replied. She looked at me, but she couldn't say anything for a while.

"Go ahead." she said in a soft voice.

I approached the classroom to take a look. Inside the classroom was a complete mess. The board was on the ground, glasses were shattered and desks were on fire. The radiator pipes in the classroom were leaking water.

"How?" I asked to no one in particular.

"I don't like this." commented Idil.

I walked away from the classroom, when we heard a new explosion. Something had happened at the bottom floor. The building started to shake again. We ran away from the nearby windows for safety. The glasses shattered, and cracks formed on the walls.

"I don't know what is going on, but perhaps this is the chance." I told Idil.

"What do you have in mind?" she asked me.

"You know... As an alternative to the sacrifice of our lives... The building could be sacrificed." I said.

"I don't think 'the curse' would let the building fall." she replied.

"I am no expert, but I don't think the building will hold together any longer." I said. "Let's test our luck while we still have time."

An unexpected sound startled us. The intercom was still functional.

"Don't just stand there, run!"

As I heard the voice, I felt a strange joy I've never felt before.

We started running towards the stairs at the end of the hallway.

"You had never really left us, did you, Mr. Kenan?" I asked, without hiding my shock and joy.

"Did you really get everything you've been told on the recording in the wrong way?" he replied. "You disappoint me."

We ran downstairs, and headed for the main exit. While we were running, a chuck of debris fell straight down to the hallway from the ceiling. Luckily, we could evade it in time.

We heard another explosion from one of the classrooms nearby. A door was blown away from it's place in front of us. But we couldn't stop now, despite the danger.

"There it is!" I said. I could see the main exit. The wall around the steel door was damaged, but it was unclear whether we could get past the door.

"Hurry, the partial transformation is going to take down the whole structure!" Mr. Kenan yelled. "I'm not sacrificing myself to get you killed alongside us!"

"What!?" I shouted, unintentionally.

"Remember when I told you that immature transformations could take down the whole building? Well, that was our last resort, and here we are." he started talking. "Since we are trapped here, who knows what would happen if the building was destroyed..."

The main exit was in front of us, and that was our last chance to escape this horrible building.

"Can we guarantee that, if we make it out... we won't be hurting innocent people after the sunrise?" I asked.

"I think so... But there's one certain way to find out." Mr. Kenan said.