Masquerades

Chapter 08

That Friday morning, she got this newfound strength that pushed her to endure whatever obstacle that would come her way, one last time. Like the previous day, she prepared an extra uniform to change into if the pranks get a little messy.

A little messy? You wish, Calista. You’ve provoked Arcane yesterday, remember? I’m afraid today’s torture could possibly get a little… bloody, rather.

She arrived at school not too early, but weirdly enough, there was no one but her walking towards the gate and into the main building. She kept checking her wristwatch and the time on her phone, but there’s no mistaking it, it’s already a quarter to 8AM and the students were supposed to be arriving alongside her by now.

Her heart starts beating erratically as her instincts tell her that this is not a good sign. She started being vigilant with her surroundings, afraid that someone might suddenly just jump on her. The silence and the emptiness of the whole school make everything more terrifying.

Is this Arcane’s way of telling her how much power he got over the students and the school? He could command everyone except her not to show up at school for a day, and she wouldn’t even have the tiniest clue about it.

The bulletin board in front of the main hall caught her attention, making her stop in her tracks. The said board has never been empty since she started studying in Xian, but today, it is bare of the usual colorful posters and the lists of the overall rankings for each grade. Save for one small sticky note pinned in the middle, that is.

She walked towards it and was met by a precise order.

Gymnasium. 8AM. Everyone’s waiting.

The moment those words registered in her head, she wasted no time to run towards the gym.

Possibilities began filling her mind – what are the Masquerades planning to do with her now? If she understood it correctly, everyone’s in the gymnasium right now. Does this mean that Arcane will be embarrassing me in front of the whole student body? Will this be the final stage where he’s finally going to make me surrender completely?

With those thoughts in mind, she pushed the gym’s double doors loudly, causing everyone to turn back to her. She found only the seniors (eleventh and twelfth graders) properly lined up inside, as if they were preparing for the morning ceremony. But instead of Principal Huo and the faculty executives standing on stage, it was the Masquerades who were occupying it.

“Ah… our main character is here,” Declan, the one on the podium excitedly announced. “Shall we start then?”

In no time, the wide screens on each side of the stage lit up. With a plain black background, the white words stood out:

LET’S PLAY A GAME OF HIDE AND SEEK.

Cali’s breath was caught in her throat. She was frozen at where she stood at the back, waiting for the incoming doom brought to her by the devil incarnate.

WE ARE GIVING YOU AN HOUR TO HUNT CALISTA SONG.

THE FIRST ONE TO FIND HER WILL GET OUR PROMISED REWARD.

WE ARE GIVING CALISTA SONG TEN MINUTES TO HIDE BEFORE THE TIMER STARTS;

YOU BETTER START RUNNING NOW.

A ten-minute countdown suddenly appeared on the screen, but it took a moment for the words to register in her mind, so when it finally did, the students were already looking back at her again – anticipating her next course of action. Her eyes travelled towards her class, and unlike the others, their eyes were filled with worry instead.

She caught Warren’s eyes and the second he saw that she was looking, he instantly mouthed;

“Go.”

That was her trigger. It finally dawned upon her what was happening and she wasted no time to whirl around and run out of the gymnasium. She ran as far away as possible, the adrenaline rush preventing her from feeling exhausted. Fear and competitiveness coursed through her veins, giving her the fire to win.

One hour is not that long. The school is big enough for one student to hide without the possibility of getting found. The million-dollar question is – where should she hide?

The library? The auditorium? In one of the laboratories? Those places are too obvious, everyone’s going to look there first, for sure. Then should she go to Uncle Peng’s again? No, the underdogs will definitely be there. Wait, how about the gym? They won’t expect her to be so close, right? But it’s too risky… no, she can’t take any risks now.

Where… where can she hide?

How about that storage room on the rooftop? Now that she was reminded of it, did Maddox tell her about the place because he knew what was going to happen today? But can she trust him? He’s friends with her tormentors. If she’s in her right mind, she shouldn’t.

Besides, won’t the rooftop be one of the first places the others will check? And if they’re really hell-bent on finding her, it would be impossible to miss the storage room. She’d just make the rooftop her last resort then.

If she’s not mistaken, there’s another fire exit outside the main building leading to the rooftop. It was that rusty steel staircase hidden behind some trees and bushes. Once she’s certain that everyone stopped looking for her up there, she can finally go.

Now she’s left with only one problem – her first hiding spot.

She checked her wristwatch, and found that she only had four to five minutes left. Panic started to grow in her chest, making her breathing more labored. Curses filled her mind like a mantra. If her mouth wasn’t too dry for her to speak, she would’ve been singing those explicit words like a nursery rhyme.

She unconsciously faced the western part of the campus and caught sight of the chess institute. The ominous building made her still, her recent memory inside the place causing it to earn such a bad impression on her.

Then her eyes gradually travelled towards the building beside it and that very second, she finally understood what it feels like to have the ‘light bulb moment.’

Hall M?

Why not, right? No student would have the guts to enter that particular building, and the Masquerades won’t even consider she’d have the courage to be so close to them while the ‘hunt’ is ongoing.

They are using me for their own entertainment, then let me use them for my protection in return. If worse comes to worst, I could just bring chaos to their precious base and let them experience hell with me.