Chapter Text
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I could hear a ruffling noise, it started off faint, so much so that I was fully intending on ignoring it. But just as I was starting to fall asleep again, it started getting louder.
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That TV screen guy said the doors were supposed to be locked, right?
I slowly sat up on the bed, a strange sort of dread settling from within my chest.
I scanned the room. It was completely dark, only a faint glow from the small window in the front of the room. I could barely see anything.
The sound had quieted down, it wasn’t there anymore.
My breath hitched. I had completely stopped breathing. My throat was filling up with fear.
There was someone behind the window.
There was a figure standing there.
The doorknob clicked. It clicked and I could hear the door opening, it clicked and.
And it didn’t open, the front door of the classroom remained still, the darkness hadn’t moved. The figure was still-
There was a light coming from the left side of the classroom. I stumbled out of the bed, almost falling on the floor from tripping on the shoes I had left sitting there earlier, all in an attempt to see who the hell was coming into my room.
There was an outline of a small boy in the light. He looked up at me.
“Uh-huh?!” His hand flew off the door handle and landed by his side, his shoulders tensing up.
“What the?! F-... it’s you… Glasses…? ” I could hear my voice shake.
“Oh-! Oh that’s who you are! You were, uh… Red!” I could visibly see him relax for a moment, before he shot back up to look at me, “What are you doing here?”
“Sleeping? What else? Why are you even asking me that, you broke into my room?”
“I did? Wait, your room?” He seemed genuinely confused, “Oh that must- I didn’t realize that’s where this door would lead to.”
“So you’re saying you stumbled in here by accident?” I asked as I approached him, trying to see the room behind him.
“Yeah- I- I was struggling to fall asleep yet so I just thought I'd explore my room more, and then I realized this door was still unlocked even though the front one was locked, and well, this is the other side of it.”
“My room was on the other side of the door?”
“Well no, there’s a bit of a space here, do you want to see?” He said, stepping to the side to let me in.
I walked into the small, brightly lit room. It was just as he described, “a bit of a space.” It was about the size of a closet. I felt like this room was supposed to hold something, supplies maybe, at one point, but as of this current place in time, it was a completely barren space of shelving and a single camera in the corner that stuck out like a sore thumb.
Wait, it wasn’t completely empty.
I could see something sticking out from one of the higher shelves, it looked like the edge of a piece of paper.
The thought crossed my mind that it had to be something important. Why else would everything but it be completely gone?
“Hey Glasses,” I nudged him, then pointed him upwards, “Look, there’s something up there.”
“Huh? Oh wait, there is? Do… you think you can get it, I might be too short,” He said, tapping a finger to his chin with a slightly embarrassed expression on his face.
“Maybe?” I said, placing a hand on one of the lower shelves in an attempt to boost myself, “Dammit, wait, just-” I balanced on my tippy toes as much as I could, but my fingers couldn’t even brush the sheet of paper.
Glasses lips pressed into a line, “Are we going to have to wait until morning to get someone taller in here? Like maybe uh- Bowtie and, um the guy with the mask.”
I stood in silence for a moment, before reluctantly turning towards him, “No, I have an idea… I can try and pick you up.”
Glasses’ eyebrows scrunched, “I know I may be a little below average height but I'm not that small.”
“Would you rather try and pick me up?” I deadpanned.
“Ah. Well I guess not.” He dropped his shoulders.
“It’s just barely out of my reach, you should be able to get it.” I motioned towards the paper, “Come here.”
“Uhh, alright- uh- how are you-” Glasses nervously stuttered, it was clear he was uncomfortable.
“I’m sorry, you don’t have to do this if you really don’t want to.” I tried to console him.
“No, no I'm the one making it weird, just the thought of someone touching me just makes my skin crawl for some reason. But, i’ll be fine, I’m honestly much more interested in what the paper has on it.” He put on his best smile.
“Alright then, i’ll uh- i’ll make it quick?” I honestly couldn't figure out a way to make it less uncomfortable for him. It made me feel a little bad.
“Ok, I'm ready,” he said, standing between me and the shelves on the wall, a hand on his shoulder.
I figured the best and easiest way to lift him up would be to boost him up by his waist. I still hated the fact that I would be making him feel bad, but I tried to ignore it as I carefully gripped his stomach and lifted him up with as much strength as I could.
I looked to see Glasses hastily swipe at the paper, grasping it awkwardly in his hand as I dropped him.
He stumbled as he fell, dropping the paper from his hand and lightly bumping his head on a shelf with an audible thunk.
…That was probably my fault.
My hand flew up to my sides as my brain tried to figure out a way to help him. I blankly stared at him as he picked himself back up and gingerly rubbed his head.
“I, uh,” The sounds left my mouth before I could even come up with a proper sentence, “You alright?”
“Heh, yeah i’m alright thanks,” He held his other hand up to his head before suddenly recoiling back, "Wait where-?”
“The paper’s down here,” I went to grab it off the floor, but I stopped as my eyes glanced over the words at the top of the page, “...Cedar Torres?” I whispered, barely audibly.
Glasses heard me anyway, “Cedar Torres?” He echoed, with a strange confidence before stopping and taking a pause, “What- who- is that a name?”
I snatched the paper off the ground and held it close to my face as I squatted down on the floor.
“Introduction Sheet. Name: Cedar Torres,” I started reading out loud. The paper looked like a worksheet of sorts, one you’re supposed to fill out with your own answers, one you would give a child on the first day of school. Well maybe except for the thing right under the name, “Hopeful Ultimate Mural Painter," I read, chewing on each word.
“Is that who Cedar is? A mural painter?” Glasses said, peering over my shoulder.
“Well it seems to be Cedar was a lot of things,” I said, continuing to read down the page, “Pronouns: He/Him. Age: 15. Favorite Color: Blue. Birthday: December 5th…” I took a pause, this really was a childish introduction worksheet, why was this here? “Uhh… Family: I only lived with my mom. Likes: Painting, electronic music, ceramics. Dislikes: Speaking in front of a crowd, crowds in general.” Who the hell was this person? I put a hand in my hair, “Fun Fact: Everything I know about painting comes from my mom. My Dream: To allow people to experience art again.” I finished reading, my voice falling off a bit.
Me and Glasses sat in silence for a while, just taking in the information we had just received. I couldn't even begin to put a name to the face, and I don’t know if I ever would, but I felt like I knew this person… personally.
It felt strange, realizing that I knew more about this random person then I knew about myself at this point. I hated the thought.
“What’s the point of this?” Glasses asked, his voice partially obscured by the hand over his mouth, “Why is this here? Did they miss this when cleaning this room out? Err, well, assuming that there was something to clean out before we got stuck here.”
“It’s-” I started, trying to gather my thoughts, “I really don’t know. On one hand, I can’t imagine someone who’s planning to trap people in a school, and force them to, uh, kill, would miss something like a piece of paper, especially considering how easily it would be knocked off if other things were taken off the shelf. On the other hand, if they were to miss anything, it would be a random child’s worksheet. Or wait, nevermind, this guy is sixteen. Whatever this worksheet is.”
“Hey wait a minute?! Didn’t Min-Moni, err I forgot the name, didn’t they say that there was more stuff for us to find? What if this is it?”
I shot up, “It said that?”
“Yeah, right at the end of… the first announcement thing.”
“Alright then, why don’t we just ask it about this in the morning?”
“Well, there could still be a chance that this was just something they missed. What if we get in trouble?” He nervously curled into himself.
“It’s not like we can hide it.” My eyes glanced up to the corner of the room, to the camera I had noticed earlier. Glasses followed my line of sight, sinking in on himself when he noticed it.”
“Oh… no…”
“If it’s any reassurance, it would be complete bullshit for us to get in trouble for noticing their mistake. I’d really hope that ‘Monohorns’ guys aren’t so much up its own ass that it’d do that.”
Glasses groaned, “We’re gonna have to wait till morning to see aren’t we?” He said, rubbing his eyes and slightly skewing his glasses off his face.
“You’re going to be fine.” I said, not really thinking.
“How do you know that?”
“I… I don’t even know.” I was being honest with him, I didn’t know why I was trying to fool him, I couldn’t even begin to fool myself.
There was another bout of silence, I readjusted myself from sitting on my knees to placing my head on them and wrapping my arms around my legs. Glasses sat next to me, crossing his legs.
“I want to go back to sleep,” I told him.
Glasses looked at me, like he wasn’t expecting my words, “Uh, well I mean, that would probably be a good idea.”
Despite that, I still didn’t move.
“I really couldn’t sleep though,” he laughed dryly.
“I could. I don’t know what that says about me.”
“Uh… that you’re tired?”
I couldn't help the exhale that escaped me, “I mean I guess,” I sighed, before saying, “I’m going back to bed, goodnight.”
“Ok. Goodnight, sleep tight,” He said just as I stood up.
I weakly walked towards the door that exited to my room, placing my hand on the door frame, “If you want to come in again, please knock.”
Glasses was already in his room, “Ah, yes, of course, sorry that was my bad.”
“It wasn’t your bad, it was mine.”
“Hmm? What?” He looed confused.
“Nevermind, just go to bed. Or try to.”
“I will, goodnight.” He said again.
I closed the door, I could faintly hear him doing the same.
I loosely carried Cedar’s introduction in my hand, so much so that it almost slipped from my fingers. I found my side table in the dark, and opened the top shelf. It was completely empty. I placed the paper carefully inside.
What a goddamn day I had.
If you’re out there, Cedar Torres, I hope you’re doing fine.
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There was the dinging of bells, as if it was introducing the following announcement.
“GO-OD MORNING EVERYONE! Rise and shine and make sure to prepare yourself for day 2 of your imprisonment here my preppy little prisoners. It is currently 7 a.m., I hope you haven’t forgotten about our mandatory meal times! I’m happy to inform you that breakfast begins every day at 8 a.m. and lasts till 8:45. I’m sure you’ll be glad to know that i’ll be waking you up an hour early every morning, so that you’ll have some prep time. That’s all I have for you right now. Monohorns signing off, and remember, ‘Give them the horns!’”
The screen was clearly on, but didn’t show anything except for a faint glow. I was already trying to get out of bed throughout it’s little speech, but something about it’s final statement made me recoil. It was a catchphrase of course, I could realize that well enough, but something about it filled me with an odd, hollow feeling.
But there was nothing I could do about it except clutch my chest and force myself out of bed. It was time to get ready for the day after all.
I looked over towards the nightstand, where I had left parts of my outfit earlier, the thought of just re-wearing it being the first on my mind.
It honestly was a really tempting thought, but then the thought of only having one pair of clothes overshadowed it.
I swear to god, there better not be only one pair of clothes in this goddamn room.
I glanced over my surroundings, trying to find a place where more clothes could possibly be stored.
Oh please don’t let it be the filing cabinet. I fear I would lose the last shreds of my dignity that way.
I marched across the room, and tore one of the cabinets open. The cabinet was full of beige button-up shirts.
Fuck my life.
I sighed, my hands dropping to my sides and my head falling backwards.
I’ll just rewear what I was already wearing anyway.
I heard a knock on my door as I was putting on my golden bracelets, I turned over my shoulder to see a bit of someone’s hair poking through the window, standing to the side as if purposely avoiding it. From the process of elimination, I could tell it was Glasses.
I quickly grabbed the Introduction sheet from the side table drawer and rushed to the front of the classroom.
I spoke as I opened the door, “You’re here about the paper right,” I closed my door behind me.
“Hey d- ok wow, at least let me make some small talk first. A good morning even?” He looked unimpressed, he was just wearing a button up shirt and a pair of pajama pants. I had no idea where he got them from.
“Morning. Now do you think Monohorns will answer us if we ask it a question?”
“Uhhhhhhh, maybe…?” He drawed out his sentence, “They kind of did earlier? When they were telling us to go to sleep. They’re obviously listening.”
“Ok, theory testing time then.” I said, turning towards the one positioned in the hall. It seemed every TV in this damned building had the pair or horns on them. They were really committing to a theme, “Hey Monohorns, are you listening?” I asked the blank screen, and waited for a response. A response that didn’t come.
“Should we ask again?" Glasses suggested.
“I think that within itself was asking again.” I said, once again waiting for a response.
The both of us sat in silence for a few moments longer. I really, earnestly, was not expecting any answer back.
It seems the world just kept wanting to prove me wrong.
“I am listening by the way,” The screen turned on, once again showing nothing but a blank screen, “But I'm not just a one-way answering machine. Why not try talking to some of your friends over a hearty breakfast, hm?” The quality of it’s voice was different this time. It took me a minute to realize it was because it was coming from the TV itself instead of an overhead speaker. Maybe that’s why it took so long to answer.
“Oh! Ok…?” Glasses had wide eyes.
I turned to him, “At least we know we aren’t going to get in trouble. And that we’re probably on the right track with this.” I held up the paper, it flopped between my fingers.
“What time is it? Should we be going to breakfast?” Glassess asked, his eyes creeping towards the ceiling, almost instinctively, “Oh there’s a clock there.”
“It’s 7:18, we have time,” I told him, I probably didn’t have to, “We should go try and wash our faces or something.”
“I uh, I should get dressed. I managed to find where all my clothes were stored last night. It was in the filing cabinet on the side of the room,” I couldn’t help but feel a little bad that he was probably explaining because he thought I didn’t know.
“Intresting,” I didn’t know what else to say, “Go get dressed, I'll wait here.”
“Thank you, Red.” He said cheerily, and went back to his room.
Maybe I should've put on a fresh pair of clothes.
It’s fine, I'll do it later.
I looked back up at the clock Fern had found earlier. It was 7:19 now. I felt like somebody else standing in the school hallway and staring at the clock.
I heard a voice coming from the other end of the hall, chatting merrily with someone else. It sounded like Bracelet. It seemed she was also getting ready for the morning.
I looked at the paper that was still in my hand. I don’t know why, but the thought crossed my mind that whoever Cedar was, it wasn’t Bracelet:
“Right, I'm done.” Glasses said as he stepped out of his room and closed the door behind him, “Err, did you want to go to the bathrooms? You said something about washing your face?”
“That was more of a hypothetical, but sure, let's go. I haven’t actually been in them yet.”
We turned and started briskly walking down the hall of the part of the building me and him were put in. As we were walking, I folded the paper up and tucked it into the pocket of my shorts.
I could hear more talking, more people were probably leaving their rooms by this point, and figuring out what kind of morning routine they wanted to try and set.
I saw Clips and Sweater standing besides the bathrooms. Bracelet was nowhere to be seen from her spot here earlier.
“I’d rather not go in there.” Clips said, staring off somewhere else.
“Why? Too many people?” Sweater asked, like it was the most obvious answer.
“Well, something like that.” She carefully held her hands behind her back.
“I’m just saying that because, me personally, there are way too many fucking people for me,”
“I’ve only seen about three people go in there?”
“More than one is too many, I honestly just wish I could have a bathroom to myself here.” Sweater shrugged, “I’ll just go back to my room. Sorry to bother.” She said, a little noncommittally.
“Can I come with you?” Clips asked earnestly, “Only if that’s fine by you, of course.”
Sweater looked a little taken aback, but not unsettled, “Sure…? I’m mean, it’s not like I have anything else to do right now.”
“Thank you, I just rather be with someone then with no one.” She looked grateful.
“Ok, whatever, you can come.” She said, her eyes looking in a few different directions before starting to walk off.
Sweater has a questioning, almost curious look on her face while following her.
I stood in front of the bathrooms. There were more voices coming from just beyond the doors, mainly the girl’s door but I could also hear what was probably Goggle's bossy voice schooling someone.
I couldn't tell if there was anyone past the center door, the one for the gender neutral bathroom. It was left closed.
“I think I'm going to take you up on that washing our faces offer, I feel kind of… uh well I guess I feel dry.”
“Glad I could help you with my bright ideas,” I said, a little noncommittally, then watched him disappear into the bathroom.
I didn’t follow him. Maybe Clip’s fear wasn't completely unwarranted. I didn’t quite like the idea of being in a bathroom with all these strangers either.
Unless my observation from earlier was in fact correct.
I carefully, almost sneakily, opened the door to the middle room.
I was correct, everyone had gone to either the girl’s or the boy’s, leaving this one completely untouched. It wasn’t like there was a rule against going into a bathroom that didn’t align with your gender, a rule that if you tried to step foot into the wrong room would cause a machine gun to shoot at you.
Honestly felt like a waste of an opportunity to not have a bathroom to yourself. But maybe I shouldn’t complain, as now, it’s all mine.
I looked around the space, it looked like a normal school bathroom, if a little cleaner and overall nicer. There were stalls and there were sinks and there were hand dryers. The only difference was the door I could make out in the corner of the room.
I walked over and peered my head in, before fully stepping in. I stood in the middle of a shower room, one that severely lacked privacy but looked like the standard sort of showers you’d find in a locker room. The only real oddity was what looked like a bathtub in the corner.
Everything Goggles said was true after all. It still felt odd though. What kind of school bathroom in the middle or a random hallway has a shower room attached.
I tried to think about it, and find some sort of logic surrounding the situation, but it was at that moment where I realized I didn’t actually know what a school bathroom looked like.
I could tell what sort of room I was in, I knew what it was based on just instinct. But I couldn’t actually picture one in my mind, I couldn’t remember a time where I had ever stepped foot into one.
I knew what it was but I couldn't think about what it was.
I stood in the dead center of the floor. The tiles felt wet under me, even though I knew they weren’t.
As I was about to push some of the curtains out of the way and inspect the actual showers themselves, I heard a noise from outside.
I slowly turned back and crept towards the door, trying to hear what was being discussed. I overheard a specific word being said I couldn’t quite catch all of, but sounded familiar. I racked my brain for where I heard it before, but the more I thought of it the less I felt I understood.
There were more sounds of multiple people talking over each other, there was a clear sort of confusion among the group.
I pushed the door open and stepped outside, the group was so preoccupied that I wasn’t even noticed.
I looked from person to person, trying to assess what was going on, before I spotted it. Bowtie had a piece of paper in her hand, and she was surrounded by what were probably all the girls that had gone into the bathroom.
It was then I could understand what the words were that were being tossed around, it was a name, “Jules Mitchell.” They had found an introduction sheet too.
“Let me see that!” I found myself yelling into the group, then trying to get as close to Bowtie as possible.
“Sure, but i’m not really sure what it is, I couldn't explain it to you even if I wanted to,” She held the paper up for me to see, and I quickly scanned over to try and confirm my suspicion.
“Name: Jules Mitchell. Hopeful Ultimate Valedictorian.” I stopped there, I knew I was right.
“Give me that,” I tried to grab the paper, her hands were shaking too much and it was held just a bit too far away for me to read some of the information better.
“Um, no, I want to be able to hold on to this,” She held the paper closer to her chest.
“I have one too,” I looked her right in the eye, before ducking down and fishing the paper out of my pocket, I pulled it out, unfolding it and shoving it in her face.
“You have one… too…” I could practically hear her catch up to what I meant. She came to a realization I had a moment earlier. This paper was not a one off thing, it was important.
“What the heck, let me see!” Star tried to move herself in between me and Bowtie. Bowtie uncomfortably shifted backwards and out of the way.
“Hold on, I want to see too,” Yellow also tried shoving her face in the way, a hand instinctively placed on Star’s face, causing Star to push back and creating a mini altercation.
“What the hell’s happening out here?” A new voice joined the group, it was Goggles, I looked up to see him being tailed by Glasses and Blue. I knew things were about to get very annoying.
“Wait Red! Did you find another?” Glasses practically jumped out from behind Glasses.
“You knew about this?!” Star seemed almost indignant.
“When did you possibly have time to find this let alone share it with another person?” Ponytail spoke at the same time as Star.
“Another? Oh come on, were you seriously keeping secrets?” Goggles looked over his shoulder at the boy.
“Hey, hop off, Reddie just told us about it, there are no secrets being kept here,” Yellow said, it wasn't heard as Glasses started speaking again.
I spotted movement out of the corner of my eye, I looked to see Clips and Sweater, obviously trying to see what the commotion was.
“Red, can I see the other one, is it anything Cedar’s?”
“...Cedar?” I could barely hear whispered, I wasn’t sure from where. Or from who.
There were more voices, more questions layering on top of each other trying to tie together the narrative of how we ended up with these two pieces of paper, and of course, trying to figure out what the papers were.
“Hold on! Everyone!” Bowtie shouted, still clutching the paper in her hand, “Let’s- I’ll read out the one I have and we can all sit in a circle, or um-, stand, or-,” I could practically hear her thoughts try to form together and come up with a solution. Someone beat her to it.
“Here actually, let’s all sit and you can just put it in the middle for us all to see,” It was Bracelet, “Red you can do it too- if you want of course.”
“I can go get the others if you want me to? I don’t know what it could be, but something tells me this is a group discussion,” Yellow offered helpfully, but not resisting a bit of sarcasm.
Bowtie was looking towards Bracelet, then turned to softly nod at Yellow’s request. Bowtie quickly followed the instructions gifted to her, laying herself on the floor, with the paper following her.
I did the same thing, and looked at the two papers lying opposite of each other.
Cedar and Jules.