Chapter 3: Dead Bodies

"Alright class, can anyone tell me the difference between 'your' and 'you're'?" the teacher asked, and one of my classmates raised their hand, and the teacher chose them. I sighed as I thought about the embarrassing moment...

That day...

I was running through the halls of the dorm and pressed the elevator button. "Ugh, I can't believe I'm late for my first day of class!" I exclaimed as I stomped my feet on the ground, anxiously waiting for the elevator to open.

*ding*

Once the elevator opened, I immediately got in and closed it. "Please make it faster!" I reached the ground floor and ran immediately to get to the school building on time. "God! Why am I so unlucky??!!" I shouted as I ran even faster. "Good morning, Mr. Park!" I greeted as he bowed and smiled at me before the gate opened. "Hurry up, kid!" I heard Mr. Park shout as I ran. Because I was running hurriedly, I didn't see or know where I was going. I ran until I reached the building, went to the escalator, and finally reached the classroom.

"Sorry I'm late!" I shouted as I panted heavily. The teacher stopped her discussion as she looked at me. "Hello, dear, you seem to be in a hurry," she said as she looked me up and down. "Ah... Yes..." I panted once again from my running. I noticed that something was not right; the students looked at me weirdly, their uniforms were way more different, and I looked down at myself. Yeah, my uniform was different. "Alright, dear, please come inside."

I went inside to her side. "Hello everyone, we have a new student for today. Dear, please introduce yourself," the teacher smiled at me as she said it. "Hello everyone, I'm Ella Cruz. I'm from the Philippines. I hope we get along." As soon as I introduced myself, the students looked at each other. "She's good at speaking Korean," said one of the students.

I usually don't get used to someone talking about me. I just really hope that I'll get along with them, or I really hope they don't try anything with me. "Alright Ella, go sit next to... Namjoon." Huh? Namjoon?? I looked around and saw him at the window. We were staring at each other, so wait... Hold on... DID I GET TO THE WRONG CLASSROOM?!!! I felt embarrassed the moment I noticed it. "Dear, please take a seat." God, I wanted to tell her that I'm in the wrong class! But no words were coming out of my mouth.

So I don't have a choice but to sit next to Namjoon. "You do realize that you're in the wrong room and building, right?" Namjoon leans a little and whispers to me, "Yeah... I know..." I said, feeling embarrassed.

Back to Present Time...

I shake my head just to forget the embarrassing moments. I sigh and look to the window. "Huh?" a word comes out of my mouth when I see something. There's a man pulling something heavy and dragging it to the forest. I blink and rub my eyes. Did I just hallucinate? The man who was pulling a heavy object inside the black bag... is it a human? "It happens," I flinch when I hear a voice. "Wh-what...?" I whisper. "Who are you?" I ask as I turn my head a little bit and see a young boy sitting behind me who was the one who spoke.

"I'm sorry if I scared you, but anyway, I'm Sungwoon, and that man you just saw earlier is Mr. Kang Eun-bin, the Junior and Senior High School Science teacher. He always drags something heavy, and we have no idea what's inside the bag." I look at the teacher and lean back in my seat; I can feel the sweat on my forehead as I listen. "Inside the bag is a shape like a human, but we're still not sure if that really is a human or not," he continues. "Are you saying he keeps doing that? And also... It's not the first time he has done that?" I asked, and Sunghoon nods. Then he looks out the window and says.

"Yeah, it is not the first time we saw him doing that and acting so weird. It all started three years ago when his son suddenly went missing, and the police still haven't found him." I turned my head to the window as Sunghoon continued, "And everything changed. He started to act weird; he keeps talking to himself and mumbling as well, which none of us can understand."

Thinking about it makes it hard for me to go to sleep..."That sounds scary..." I managed to let out some words and avoid shattering. I looked away from the window and looked down. "Yeah, that's why every junior and senior student is afraid of him every time he has a lecture for junior and senior students."

All students shut their mouths during his lecture because of his weird act. "I hold my arms tightly." "Well... thanks for telling me," I said, trying to focus on the English teacher. "Alright class, that's all for today. Please do your assignments and pass them in tomorrow. Goodbye, class," the teacher said before leaving the classroom.

"Hey, I think you're Ella, right?" Oh, that's right; I already introduced myself here, so I don't need to worry. I looked up and saw a girl who was smiling at me.

"Yeah..." I replied. "Hey, I'm Park Rona. I became a new student two months ago. We can be friends, well, if you want." I was surprised when she mentioned "friend." I mean, it's not the first time I have a friend; I have a best friend from the Philippines. Am I dreaming? I'm having a FRIEND for the first time at school??? A new friend??? Well... it's not bad if I try. Yeah, sure," I replied with a smile on my face. "Maybe we can eat together at lunch later." Rona gasped and smiled widely at me. "Yeah, sure!" she said cheerfully.

"Attention to all students and teachers: an announcement has been made that a mysterious virus is spreading, Mr. Smith who is professor from Philippines has talked about the recent virus news." everyone stop to what they doing and look up to the speaker with interest, others who something to do listen without looking at the speaker.

Professor from the Philippines... is it Mr. Smith??? "They told us that the virus is deadly and very dangerous, so we need everyone to be careful in this matter and please stay safe because we still don't know where this new virus comes from. That's all, and thank you," the doctor finished, and the female voice took over. "Thank you, doc, and that's all, everyone. Please stay safe." After that, the speaker turned off. "Virus? I wonder where it comes from," I asked, pretending not to know what it was. "I don't know where it comes from, but whatever it is, we need to be careful." I looked down, thinking about what happened back in the Philippines. I remembered what Mel said to me earlier.

"I got a bite from a woman. Mr. Kang told me to stay in this place called quarantine. They said the result will be in two weeks, so I'm staying here for two weeks! It's really scary; it's like she was a zombie from the movies I saw. My wound on my hand is healing, so I don't think it's infected by the Z-virus."

I can't stop thinking what Mel said, could it be real? The door from our classroom opens and everyone got back to their seat.

.....

.....

*girl sobbing*

Who's crying? I hear a girl's sob from the darkness, but no one was there except me standing alone here. "Ella... Ella... What happened to me?" That voice? Is that Rona? "Ella... Am I turning into a monster? No... I don't want to; I don't want to hurt you..." I look around and then see Rona; her hair is messy, and her wrist is bleeding. "Ella... Ella..." Rona looks at me with her teary eyes. "What happened to you?" I ask, but Rona doesn't answer; she just keeps sobbing. I was about to walk to her when someone calls me.

"Ella..." I stop in my tracks. "Ella!" A faint voice keeps calling my name...

"Ms. Cruz!" I jolted and looked up to see an angry woman in front of me. "Ummm... Good morning?" "First day of school, and yet you fell asleep during my lecture!" I look down in embarrassment; I can't believe I'm being scolded on my first day here. "The next time I catch you sleeping in my class, you will go to the principal's office. Do you understand?" "Yes, ma'am!" I replied before the bell rang.

At Cafeteria

"Hey, are you alright? I saw Mrs. Cheon yell at you." Rona placed her food on the table, and I took my seat next to her. "Yeah, I am. It's my own fault that my history teacher scolded me for that," I said as I started to dig into my food. "Oh, that reminds me. My roommates told me about Mr. Kang." Once I said the name, Rona stopped eating and looked at me with wide eyes. "What...?" I dragged the tray to the other side and leaned in a little bit. "You were here before me, and I'm sure you know about him. Can you tell me about it?" I asked her in a whisper, and Rona placed her chopsticks on her food and looked around.

"I'll tell you about him since you're also new here. Everyone here is afraid of him in school. Some students say that they saw him in the middle of the night; they also witnessed Mr. Kang dragging something. They say it's a dead body, but others say it was just nothing but trash." Rona explained. It's exactly what Mia and Jungwoon told me...

This Mr. Kang is mysterious...."Where does he spend most of his time?" I asked as I sat properly and dragged my food back in front of me. "Well, mostly we saw him in the laboratory," Rona replied. "But if you are planning to go there while he's alone, then don't. You will be in danger if you do that. No one knows what will happen to you if you go there alone with him," Rona added.

"Why? What's wrong with that?" I asked again as I put the meat in my mouth and chewed it. "Well, in the past few days, Min Yuri, a grade 12 student, was missing for 4 days, and yet no one knows where she went. Her friends said that the last time they saw her was in the laboratory," Rona said as she ate her food while explaining.

In Laboratory room

I gently opened the door of the laboratory after eating lunch with Rona. I went inside and looked around. No one seemed to be here, and it was quite too quiet. I closed the door behind me; my footsteps echoed around the room, and it gave me chills down my spine. "God, it gives me horror vibes," I said to myself. As I was about to leave, a sudden sound made me yelp and flinch.

"What was that?" I looked around, but no one was there but me alone. My eyes caught something; I went to the third-row table and saw a handkerchief under it. I leaned down to get the handkerchief and looked at it when, all of a sudden, a loud noise and faint voice were heard on the other side of the door.

I turned my head and walked slowly to the door. I was about to open it when a hand grabbed my wrist. I gasped and turned my head to see a pale man giving me a death glare. "What are you doing?" he asked as he gripped my wrist tightly, and I winced in pain. "I'm so... sorry, I heard some noise coming from this room... so I thought I would go and check it," I explained as he looked at me deeply before letting go of my wrist. I took my wrist away and rubbed it.

"Get out of here and don't say a word about what you hear or see, do you understand?" he said in a dark tone. "Y-yes, sir," I replied with a nod as he gave me a signal to get out.

I immediately ran past him and went outside. I closed the door shut and breathed heavily. What the fuck was that??? Was that Mr. Kang???? I sighed deeply as I slid down to the wall and crouched on the floor. "Ella?" I yelped at the sudden call, looking up to see Rona, who was startled. "Oh, it's you," I sighed in relief. "What are you doing here besides the laboratory?" Rona asked. I was about to answer, but I remembered what the man told me.

I felt like my words were stuck in my throat. I looked down, avoiding her gaze, but after a few seconds, I looked up with a fake smile on my face. "It's nothing, I'm just kind of sitting down for a bit, you know, chilling while waiting for the afternoon class," I said with a chuckle, and Rona smiled at me. "Hey, why don't we go around the school campus? It's still early, plus we have time to go!" Rona said as she pulled me up and grabbed my hand.

Outside the campus...

And yep, it's been 30 minutes since we've been walking around until we ended up here at the back of the school campus. Well, how did we get here? It's because we saw an abandoned gate at the back of the building. Rona decided to go there because she thought it could be fun, but I couldn't leave her alone, so I came along. But who would have thought that she'd be so talkative? "So, you met Taehyung and he guided you?!!!! My god, girl, you're so lucky! Taehyung is the most famous here, together with his hyungs! And guess what, every school girl wants to be with him, but you! Woah! So lucky!" Rona squirmed and squeezed her hands together.

"So, how does he smell??? How does he look???" I was startled by her words. "Smell?? Seriously??? Do I need to smell him, or do they want to smell him? Do they smell him every day whenever he's around?"

"Rona, I don't smell him. What does he look like? He looks the same as usual; you guys see him," I said, making her disappointed. But then she grinned and asked, "Question, do you like him like the other fab girls?~"

I stopped and looked at her with an "are you serious?" face. I was about to speak when we heard footsteps coming. "Who's that?" I asked, looking around. I heard Rona gasp. "Is someone here?" Rona started to panic, and I shook my head. "I don't know... Let's hide."

I said before pulling Rona's hand and saw a big tree, where both of us hid and quietly watched. That's when I saw a man I recognized from the laboratory. "Mr. Kang?" Rona suddenly whispered his surname, and I looked at her. "That's Mr. Kang?" Rona nodded her head as we continued watching what he was doing. Mr. Kang was dragging something with his hand, and it was the black bag I had seen this morning from the window.

Mr. Kang opens the bag, and inside the bag almost made us scream. Rona was about to scream, but I covered her mouth. "Shhh," I said. We hugged each other at the sight of what we saw. Inside the bag was a dead male body. "I failed again..." he said under his breath. Mr. Kang threw the body into the big hole. "We have to get out of here..." I whispered to her. I made Rona stand up when all of a sudden, Rona yelped when she accidentally stepped on a leaf. I turned my head immediately and saw Mr. Kang notice the sound and come towards where we were. I immediately pulled Rona, who was covering her mouth with tears in her eyes.

I pulled her to run, and both of us looked back to see Mr. Kang. "Run!" I said, and Rona went to the gate first, then me. We ran so fast that we made it to the senior building that is near the abandoned gate. The senior students noticed that we were running in the hallways. "Wait, is that...?" one of the seniors noticed us. "HEY, THE JUNIORS! WHAT ARE YOU GUYS DOING HERE?!" one of them yelled, and we kept running until someone grabbed us. "Hey! No running in the hallways!" Rona and I were panting and gasping for air; sweat was on our foreheads. "This building is not a playground!" one of them yelled. "Ella?" I looked up to see Hoseok stopping me from running. Our eyes were locked until I heard Rona sobbing and yelling, "IT'S MR. KANG...!!!!" Rona was sobbing so much that she fainted and landed on Yoongi's chest. "Hey!"

Everyone was gathering around us. Hoseok and I still looked at each other until I felt my tears on my cheek. I started to sob as I hugged Hoseok tightly. "Woah, hey, what's wrong?" he said as he rubbed my back. "T-thank God... we're... alive..." I cried. Hoseok and Yoongi didn't understand what had just happened; they shrugged. I felt Hoseok hug me back as he kept rubbing my back to comfort me. "What's going on here?" Everyone started to get out of the way. I took a sneak peek and saw Namjoon with Seokjin in the hallways.

"It's the President and Vice President!" the girl exclaimed. "President Namjoon!" So he's the president here in Senior High. I looked away and just buried my face deeply in Hoseok's chest.

"These two are from Juniors; they are running in the hallways. Hoseok and Yoongi stop them; one of them fainted, and the other is with Hoseok. I can feel that Namjoon is looking straight at me. "Wait, Ella?" I heard Seokjin call, and I pull away from Hoseok. "You do realize that there's a punishment for running in the hallways and coming here without a pass," Namjoon said coldly. I calm myself and give him my brave face. "We don't have a choice; we have to," I said, and he looked at me and then said, "You and your friend will be explaining that to the principal's office," he said before turning his back to me. I clenched my hands tightly, giving him my burning death glare.

And just like what Namjoon said, we got scolded by the principal. As punishment, she told us to clean the whole building and expelled us for 1 week.

2 weeks later....

After the incident two weeks ago, Rona and I have been silent. We never talked to anyone to answer their questions; sometimes, when they asked difficult ones, we just ignored them. Rona and I avoided each other, not knowing what to do about whether we should tell Ms. Park about what we saw two weeks ago. We were both scared of what would happen to us if we told anyone. Not until this happened...

Mr. Kang, our science teacher, came in, and Rona and I felt a chill down our spines. I could see her eyes avoiding Mr. Kang, and her body was shaking. On the other hand, I was the same; I avoided his gaze, my forehead was wet with sweat, and my face looked pale. "You two girls look pale; are you guys alright?" Mr. Kang asked, and our classmates looked at us. Rona didn't answer him out of fear. "We... I..." I stuttered, trying to say something in complete words.

"They're not feeling well, Mr. Kang," a familiar voice said. I looked at the person, and it was Taehyung. He looked at Mr. Kang with a serious face. Mr. Kang looked at him, and Taehyung took his seat. After a few seconds of silence, he nodded his head. "Alright, let's start our lessons for today."

Mr. Kang told us to take our books and open them to page 90. We took our books and opened them to page 90. Rona looked at me; our eyes were locked. After a second, she looked away when Mr. Kang started to talk. "Alright, today we will learn about force and gravity." Mr. Kang turned around to look at the whiteboard as he started to write something. A few seconds later, a horrible smell hit my nose, and I covered it. I looked around and saw my classmates doing the same. Others were almost throwing up. Rona suddenly got up and ran away. Mr. Kang stopped what he was doing and looked at the empty door.

"I'll... excuse myself, Mr. Kang. I'll just... f-follow her," I said as Mr. Kang looked at me and gave me a signal to go. I followed where Rona was and saw her in the female restroom. I heard her vomiting in the sink as the faucet was running with water. "Rona...?" My voice echoed in the restroom, and Rona looked at me with her teary eyes. "I can't... I just can't...!" said Rona through her cries. "Can't what...?" I asked as I went to her and rubbed her back. "I can't... How long are we going to keep this, Ella? Every night I dream about what we saw two weeks ago...! Every night... same nightmares...!" she said as she held her head and shook it. I looked at her and realized we're just the same...

I also have a nightmare every time I sleep at night. How long am I going to keep it...? I don't know... I don't even know what to do now... I snapped back to reality when I heard Rona vomiting again, and I was there to comfort her.

After a few minutes of Rona vomiting in the restroom, we headed back to the laboratory. Once we got inside, the smell was still the same and horrible, so Rona and I immediately covered our noses. Mr. Kang turned around to see us. "You're back; is something the matter?" he started to ask, and we nodded our heads before returning to our seats. We held on to the horrible smell in our noses as Mr. Kang started to write on the whiteboard, but then I noticed that he wrote something that was out of the topic we were discussing, and I heard him mumble some words. "This isn't right; it's supposed to be it... But why?" I looked around, and my classmates seemed to notice his behavior.

The door was suddenly opened, revealing the panting Ms. Park. "I'm sorry to disturb your class, Mr. Kang. But-" Ms. Park covers her nose when she smells something isn't right. "What is that smell?" Mr. Kang puts the marker on his table as he looks at her. "Anyways, I came here to ask... Has anyone here seen Kristel and Jeong Ri? The two of them have been missing these past few days. Has anyone of you seen them last?" Ms. Park asks as she looks around. My classmates whisper to themselves. I clench my paper notebook and look at Rona, who was hesitant.

"We're sorry, Ms. Park, but we don't know where they are," Taehyung, who was behind me, spoke up. I managed to steal a glance at Mr. Kang; his face was filled with fear of getting caught. "I see. Just call or tell me if you see or find them," said Ms. Park before leaving the laboratory. I lost the chance to tell Ms. Park the truth. I sigh in frustration and grip my hair tightly.

Author's POV

That night, Jungkook and Taehyung were walking in the middle of the night; they were walking behind the school building. "Why are we here, hyung?" Jungkook asked. "I found something," Taehyung said when, out of the blue, they heard some female voices in the forest. "Just do it, will ya!" the female junior said, and the other girl was trembling in fear. "Do we really need to? I mean, what if Mr. Kang is here?" the scared girl asked. "Oh please, no one is here. If you shut your mouth, no one will know," the other girl said.

"What if all of you will be caught by me? What will you do?" The girls turn around and saw Taehyung with Jungkook "it's the Junior president!" The girl exclaim "What the he are you guys doing here at middle of the night?" Taehyung, the Junior president ask as he cross his arms to his Chest. "We... We just want to explore" the other girl explain and Taehyung sighs, he was about to day something when a sudden voice was heard "Taehyung?" They all look around and saw Ella with a flashlight and in over hand was her roommate Mia.

"What are you guys all doing here?" Mia asked, raising her eyebrow. "Don't worry, I'll handle this," Taehyung said. "What are you guys doing here as well?" Mia and Ella looked at each other. "I actually dropped something here. I told Mia I could go alone, but... she wants to go with me, so I let her," Ella explained. Taehyung looked at both of them and furrowed his brow. "You guys should not be here; it's dangerous," Taehyung said in a serious tone. Just then, we heard a voice: "Ahhhh!" A junior high school student shouted, and we looked at her; she was on the floor, backing away.

"Geez, Sungkim, what's wrong with you?!" one of the girls said. Sungkim was speechless, scared, and trembling. Mia, Ella, and one of the girls got close. As they got closer, Ella looked at the place where Sungkim was terrified to, and her eyes widened. She gasped as she then heard Mia and the girl scream. Taehyung and Jungkook went behind them and led their flashlight. Both of them were speechless. "W... w-what... What the fuck is this?!" Jungkook panicked. "CALL THE POLICE!!!!" Mia shouted. Jungkook immediately dialed the police number, and after a minute, the police arrived.

The reason why they were yelling, scared, and speechless was that they saw a bunch of dead bodies. The police went to them to ask a question. Ella's body was trembling as she remembered two weeks ago. Her face was pale, and she rubbed her hands together to calm her nerves, but it didn't work. Her eyes glanced at the police who were examining the crime scene; one of the dead bodies seemed to be staring at her, and Ella was even more terrified.

To Be Continued...

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