Unsolicited School

9mm (part two)

Robbie

Robbie tried to focus on the current lesson. His mind battled between the lesson and the fear that might be happening. He still doesn't know about what's inside the duffle bag. Suddenly, happy music played audibly in his ears, but it doesn't come from the intercom or even a cellphone. The song reverbs in the building.

"Excuse me, who's playing music now?" Robbie asked a student next to him.

"Music? What music? I don't hear anything,"

"Dude, don't you hear that?"

"I don't know, Robbie."

Three minutes after Robbie asked him, the music stopped abruptly. Changed by muffled steps that he heard in the hallway. But the thing that made the steps are odd was the footsteps are not from the foot. But it's more like it came from other body parts.

Robbie turned his head to the left, where he focused on the hallway like a camera. Nobody was passing there, but the steps are audible in his ears. Whether it was his ultra-instinct or other signs that came to him, he kept looking at the hallway. But still, no one's there until the sound is gone.

He looked back to the chalkboard in front of him, but he didn't focus on the lesson. His mind rumbled about the sound in the hallway. The green board that scribbled with some words on it made him focused thinking about what just happen, which that might be related to what will happen next. But, the fear inside him still swarming in his brain – making that 17-year-old boy break out in a cold sweat and shivered his fingers.

Robbie repeatedly looked at the hallway and the chalkboard again. Suddenly, a few minutes later, the whole class heard some screaming sound from upstairs and trampling footsteps. The classroom suddenly paused its lesson, and everybody looked up. The atmosphere became horribly silent as they asked about what happened above.

A moment later, a muffled bang sound was heard. The sound overclocked Robbie's brain instantly. He looked at the hallway again. He finally found the answer to the steps he heard before. Someone's crawled in the hallway to hide from everyone's sight until she reached her final stop. And about the word "9mm" that haunted him is the worst, where the bang sound was a gunshot as the sound is getting louder. That makes his pupil reacted to it, and his mouth opened like a broken latch. Oh no

"EVERYONE GET OUTTA HERE THERE'S A SHOOTING IN THIS SCHOOL!"

The sudden reaction from Robbie made the whole students looked at him for a second. After then, everyone in the class became panic and helplessly run out of the classroom and tried to reach the stairway to get out of the school and save themselves. Alas, the shooter has arrived on the third floor. It's Yoshiko-senpai. She's wearing a police vest to hold her arsenal during the shooting.

With no mercy, she pulled the trigger of the Mac-10 and spread the bullets. Some of them hit the students, and their blood gushed out of their gunshot wounds.

The gunshots also made all the students in the school went panic and rushed out of their classroom. Robbie took advantage of the students around him to cover himself while running away to get cover.

He decided to hide in a storage room on the third floor to replenish his stamina after running. The storage room is silent and clean. Unlike the hallway and the class that he knew was already full of bullet hole and blood of the innocent students.

"I... I don't… I don't wanna do this. Why she picked me?"

The voice in the room made Robbie surprised as someone's hiding there too. He walked toward the voice, where he found that girl crying. Her tears wetted her hands and her collar. Robbie walked closer to see her. He was really dumbfounded because that girl was the one who brought the duffle bag into the toilet.

"Shhhh… it's okay, don't get yourself too noisy," Robbie whispered.

"Stay away from me. I'm a monster," she replied tearfully.

"No. you're not. It's okay, pull yourself together. We can get outta here alive,"

"It's useless. I can't save them all, I don't want to do this,"

"Don't be like that. Don't be so negative about this. It's not your fault," Robbie tried to calm her down.

"Oh yeah?! It's not my fault?! Can you stop me from bringing that bag full of guns into the restroom 6 freaking hours ago?! Can you stop me from following her orders?! Can you please convince Yoshiko-senpai to the therapist?!" she scolded.

Robbie fell silent for a thousand words. He didn't believe she told everything that she was done anything she didn't want it. Robbie digests all the words into his brain until he found a question from the abyss of ignorance.

"You know about Yoshiko-,"

"FOR GOD SAKE! Can you do this all?!" she shrieked and cut his question.

"Okay, okay! Keep it down! I can't do this all, aright? I'm late. I'm so sorry about this all," Robbie felt a pang of deep guilt from the words he has spoken.

"Then you shouldn't come to me,"

Robbie looked down before he glares back that young lady, "Look. I wanna ask you some questions. I'm sorry 'cuz I make you mad before. But can you cooperate with me?"

She nodded.

"Are you Yoshiko-senpai's friend?"

She nodded again.

"You know about her, right? Tell me,"

"Yes," she sobbed, "Yoshiko-senpai is a carefree girl. She always positive-minded even though she's gloomy,"

"Has her attitude been different lately?"

"Yes. Her behavior had been weird yesterday," she rejoindered.

The answer from the girl made another conclusion from that third-year student. Robbie's mind immediately overclocked like the girl switch his brain to the hi-performance mode. Without thinking for too long, he got the answer.

Okay, she's not only possessed. But Yoshiko-senpai has a grudge that she kept for too long. That's also an advantage for the devil to use her as the intermediary to hunt us down. Thanks, lady.

BOOM!

The sudden blast from a classroom startled the duo like a cat, although they were sitting on the corner of the shelves. Yoshiko-senpai just bombed a class. A moment later, her footsteps are getting closer to the storage room as she shouted, "This is what you all deserve!" As the footstep is getting closer, he quickly moves some boxes to the shelf next to him to cover them from being spotted, and then he sits next to the girl.

"Shhh… keep quiet,"

Robbie covered his mouth and his nose with the left hand, followed by the girl who did the same. A few seconds later, the door was slid open, and someone walked slow into the storage room. Robbie knows it was Yoshiko-senpai as his instinct felt that grim reaper came in. Robbie can feel his blood running to his whole body as the fear kicked in. His heart pounds as he's afraid if she finds them.

Luckily, Yoshiko-senpai didn't dig the mine too deep. She walked back to the hallway and continues to seek some helpless person she will shoot. As her footsteps disappeared on their ears, Robbie walked to the doorway, where the situation is clear.

"Psst. Hey. Let's get outta here while we can,"

The girl didn't reply to him. She just sits there and continues sobbing. Robbie knows if she was so guilty about letting herself doing what she doesn't want to do. However, they had to get out of school no matter what their feeling right now.

"I know what you're feeling right now. But we need to get outta here," Robbie lends out his hand to that girl, "We'll talk about it later,"

The girl agreed, and they walked out of the storage room. Robbie holds her hand while they're making to the escape route. They kept walking in and out classroom while keeping their footsteps as quiet as possible. But just before they reach the restroom, Robbie heard the footsteps and gunshots fired behind them. Now it's impossible for him to directly walk straight to the stairway. Instead, Robbie leads her to the boys' restroom.

"Boys' restroom, quick!"

Robbie and that girl rushed into the boys' restroom and closed the door. They stayed inside for a few moments while other gunshots fired across the hallway. He stood next to the sink while the girl stood behind him. Slow but sure, Yoshiko-senpai's footsteps were heard again, and it's getting closer and closer. Suddenly, the girl walked closer to the door and risking herself.

"Hey. Get back here," Robbie whispered, "Don't go out-"

The door suddenly opened, and an unexpected thing happened. The girl tries to apprehend Yoshiko-senpai by holding her arms and trying to snatch the g*n away from her hand while shrieking, "STOP IT!" to her. But unfortunately, after a few seconds of struggling, Yoshiko-senpai managed to pull the trigger and shot the girl's neck – knocking her down. Oh, shoot! NO!

Robbie quickly raised his hands to his head level and stay back from that third-year student.

"Senpai! Stop it! This thing has gone way too far!" Robbie scolded.

"You're the one who made this too far!"

"Look! I know you've been long hurt for a long time. But killing us doesn't solve the way! What've I done to you?!"

Robbie planned to stall her from shooting the Glock that already pointed at his head. But he can't do it for too long if he doesn't want to be shot.

"Don't pretend that you don't know! You all did everything to me! You ripped my life and I had to wear the freaking happy face! You all never let me voiced up!" Yoshiko-senpai shrieked, "You've reached the dead end now. There's no escape for you."

"Think about your friend! Think about your family! Your parents! What happened if they know about this?!"

Dagnabbit, I had to say these edgy words.

"I DON'T CARE!"

Alright! You asked for this!

"Look, if no one's helping you, you can ask me. I can help-"

Without finishing his words, Robbie reflexively ducked to the left. Yoshiko-senpai directly pulled the trigger and missed the shot as he dodges it. Robbie quickly charged to the front before Yoshiko-senpai shooting at him again. He pushed that girl to the wall and seised her right arm. He punched her hand until Yoshiko-senpai lost her grip. Quickly, he snatched the Glock and punched her back head with that pistol – knocking her down directly.

Robbie looked at the hallway, there's a teacher who running to the stairway. But only to be halted by him.

"Sensei! Here! She's down,"

The teacher changed her mind and walked to the restroom to arrest Yoshiko-senpai. Suddenly, the girl called him – making Robbie turned his body to her. Her body trembled violently like she has a severe seizure. Her eyeballs show that she almost dying as she lost too much blood from her neck.

"Girls' restroom. Next room. She hid her g*n there,"

"Thanks. And don't worry. It's okay. You'll be alright, it's all over,"

He reached that girl and lifted her. Her body was now soaked in blood from his neck. But just after he Robbie put his arms under her body, she laid stiff and didn't move a muscle.

"Hey. Wake up, it's okay. Paramedics will come soon,"

Robbie called her twice and checked her veins and her breath. But unlucky, her life couldn't be saved. She lost too much blood after the gunshot wound that pierced her neck. Robbie put down her body in the hallway, lie her down, and closed her eyes. Rest in peace

He proceeds to the girls' restroom, where Yoshiko-senpai hid her guns. Robbie looked at the duffle bag placed on the sink. He finally found that bag after searching it for hours. He looked up to the ceiling. But none of them opened.

Robbie looked again around the restroom until he found the holed tiles in the toilet. He was dumbfounded. All of his theories were wrong. All the time, she hid her guns under the floor of the restroom. And what that girl said confirmed his suspicions about Yoshiko-senpai's strange behavior last night, where she was wandering around the third floor aimlessly until she stopped at the girls' restroom.

All of my theories were wrong. I can't believe it. How did she made that hole on those tiles and took it off? And how she made a space for his bag? Did she do this at night?

A few moments later, several footsteps reaching the third floor. Robbie looked back to the doorway to see who's running there. It's the police and some anti-terrorism units securing the school building. Robbie directly lifts his hand as one of the policemen came into the girls' toilet.

"It's okay. Don't shoot. I found where she hides her g*n,"

"Alright. Get out of here, get to the emergency exit," he commanded.

Robbie walked out of the school via the fire door as directed by the police. He met another policeman on the exit. He leads Robbie to the school's assembly point, where all the survivors were already there.

He stared at the wounded. Some of their injuries are visible, from the head to the feet. The paramedics were busy with their stretcher taking some severely injured students to the ambulance. Some of them were still moving, while some of them are gone and will be forgotten forever.

Robbie sits down next to Mullet while his eyes tracked to the paramedics. Suddenly, Robbie was surprised by one of the students on the stretcher. It's one of his classmates. He was severely wounded, some bandages wrapped on his b****y stomach and his right arm. He's clutching his injuries on his stomach while his blood came from his mouth. The paramedics who brought him raced to the ambulance to save his life.

Suddenly Mullet poked his shoulder with his finger – talking to him as they were a little far from the whole students.

"Robbie. This is bad, man. Will this literally keep happening?" asked Mullet softly to avoid being heard by anyone.

"Of course, man. That's what he said (the shadow person),"

"Who will be the next target? Us?!" Mullet asked.

"I don't know. But I guess if we made a bad decision, it just shortened our lives."

"How did you think so?"

"The day when I was almost got killed by my classmates, Karen told me that everything we made will affect our fate and our decision. Of course, when we made a mistake, the consequences would be downright dangerous, or even instant death," Robbie answered, "Oh yeah. One thing I wanna tell you,"

"Hmm?"

"Whether it's a theory or a hypothesis. I guess the devil is smart on choosing the intermediary – the students he used like an R/C car. The devil chose the student with potential backgrounds,"

"Potential backgrounds?"

"You know that Yoshiko-senpai did this right?"

"I observed her yesterday. Go ahead, you can call me a stalker. But she has been acting weird. I saw her roaming around the hallway from the first floor to the rooftop. Her feeling also changed drastically from joy to anger. Also, the girl who brought the duffle bag told me Yoshiko-senpai is a carefree person. So she did this to vent her anger – the vengeance after too much knife stabbed her back."

Robbie took a breath before continues explaining, "In conclusion, the devil chose Yoshiko-senpai to hunt us down because she has a grudge she had been holding for a long time. That's what I call the potential background. The devil might take another student, but their background may vary."

"Thanks forletting me know, Robbie," Mullet replied after he listened to Robbie's explanation.

"Dagnabbit, what should I tell to my parents when they see these bloodstains?" Robbie sighed.

"Take it easy. Sneak to the washing machine,"

"Yeah. It's easy for you, Mr. Dense Boy. I want to go to the bookstore after this,"

Suddenly, the policeman that Robbie met in the restroom approached him and stopped their conversation.

"Excuse me, Kid. May I have a moment with you?"

"Sure," Robbie nodded.

"Excuse me, Mullet. I gotta go now," said Robbie to Mullet.

"When will you come back?"

"I don't know," Robbie shrugged, "Maybe I can't follow you home. Duh, I had to go to the bookstore to buy some thesaurus and stuff. Gotta go,"

Robbie leaves his friend on the school's assembly point and followed the policemen to the parking lot, where now it is filled by some police cars doing their job to secure the whole school.

He looked at his wristwatch, where the time shows 3:14 PM. 18 minutes after he apprehended Yoshiko-senpai in the boys' toilet. The policeman took him to one of the police vans.

"I got the witness here. Go ahead, let's satisfy our knowledge," he took Robbie into the van. Where a police inspector, an operator, and that policeman inside – listening to Robbie's information about the shooting.

"Alright kid, what's your name?" asked the inspector.

"Ryo Nakata," Robbie tells them his real name instead of his nickname.

"Alright, Mr. Nakata. Can you please tell us everything you know about the accident?"

"From the very beginning?"

"Yes."

Robbie explained everything he knows about the accident from the day before it happened. The inspector writes everything that came from Robbie's mouth with his pen, where he didn't miss any words spoken by Robbie. After that boy finished his explanation like a student presenting his project in the class, The inspector begins his QnA session, where most of his questions can be answered by Robbie.

"Here. Take a drink, kid,"

Robbie took the small water bottle from the inspector and drank it to quench his thirst. But the water that he drank didn't change his mind about the fact that everyone will forget about this accident one day after.

"Okay, Mr. Nakata. I guess we need to research this case today. Can you please go to our police station at Colonel Boulevard after school?"

"Yes, sure. I will go tomorrow," Robbie nodded while his mind tells otherwise.

It's useless. You guys will forget about this tomorrow.

Robbie's expression becomes a frown. He knows that there's no point to the police station or even tell everyone about this as people in the whole city will forget anything about the accident, and any murder or suicidal case happened in the school one day after.

As he won't linger in the van, Robbie told everyone in the van he will back to the assembly point and wait until the teacher lets all of the students go home earlier.

Robbie walked away from the bus as he reached the bus stop at the Tousou district. Where he's going to the bookstore as he told Mullet before. The bookstore itself is located 20 meters away from the bus stop. Without further ado, he picked up his pace into the bookstore.

The bookstore itself is less crowded. Only a few customers were sitting on the chair reading some preview of the books that they about to buy. The atmosphere inside is so breeze and calm, isolating any hustle and bustle from the outside world. Robbie wants to procrastinate in this store. But the time forces him to buy what he needs and go home afterward.

He shifted to the "Thesaurus" shelf, where a lot of schoolbooks and theories shelved there, waiting for its new owner to buy him. His eyeballs are traced through the book title printed on the side of the book until he found the book titled "Chemistry 101," Robbie picked the book and moved to the "Manga" shelf, where he does the same thing as before.

After he finished searching, Robbie walked to the counter to purchase his books. Suddenly, he was surprised as he saw Chiyo, who works as the cashier. It was weird for him as he knows that his friend works at the convenience store instead of the bookstore.

"Ryo-kun. Are you gonna stand there and not gonna come here?" Chiyo asked him.

"Oh, sorry." Robbie walks to the counter and put his books on it, "There you go,"

"Good to see you, Ryo-kun. I mean Robbie,"

"Yeah. Good to see you too." Robbie replied.

"Eh? What's that on your shirt?" Chiyo looked at his blood-stained uniform.

"Oh. It's red paint. Don't worry about it,"

"Are you sure? It looks like blood to me,"

"No. Seriously. The pain spurted on my shirt,"

"Okay," Chiyo smiled, whether she knew it was a lie or not.

"I wanna ask you something,"

"Hmm?"

"I saw your work at the convenience store at Kemuri district. And you work here. Where d'you actually work?"

"Oh, I actually work at both. I changed shift, you know?"

"Working at all jobs? That's crazy. No one can do that. And how about your school? You need time at home, you know?"

"Nah. No need to worry about it too much. Everything's under control. Trust me," Chiyo smiled.

"Right…" Robbie lifted his eyebrows.

"Oh yeah. Have you heard about the stabbing a few days ago?"

"What the?! Where?"

"At Fremont university. A girl stabbed at least 41 people and five of them were killed,"

Robbie was shocked by the news that was spoken by her. But not because of the incident and the casualties, but because of the news itself has similarities with the stabbing that happened four days ago. Robbie actually wanted to ask her if she knows about the school's mystery (as long the person is not affiliated with the school). But that news pulled back his mind to tell her.

"She's acted crazy back there. Laughed like a psychopath and chasing her victims. You know what? It looks like the scene from a psychological horror anime, you know?"

"Whoa. I can't believe that happened," Robbie reacted densely.

"Oh yeah! Sorry to make you wait," Chiyo put his books directly into the plastic bag and hand it to Robbie, "Here ya go."

"Wait. I should pay for this." Robbie lifts his eyebrows.

"No need to pay it, Ryo-kun. It's on the house," Chiyo smiled with her left hand on her cheek, "Have a nice day,"

"Uhh… thanks. I appreciate it." Robbie walked out of the bookstore and went to the bus stop for the ride home.

Nighttime. Time for everyone to rest themselves in the bed for the next day's activities.

Alright, dude. It's time for sleep.

Robbie finished studying as the time reached 9 PM. He prepared the books for tomorrow and saved his backpack into his wardrobe. Robbie looked at his cleaned and dry uniform in his closet before closing it. As everything was already prepared, he turned off the lamp and hit the sack for the next day.

Suddenly he woke up and looked around his room. Everything is dark like before. Now he doesn't need to be scared anymore as he knew if he got called by the shadow person again (read chapter 11). He walked downstairs to meet him again. As he expected, the shadow person was sitting there, waiting for him to come.

"I see that you make your move now. You did a good job, whether it's a good or a bad move. But it never a mistake,"

"Thanks," Robbie thanked him.

"A picture is starting to take form here. Unlike the others, you have potential."

"Potential?" asked Robbie.

"You awakened your third eye. You used him as he helps you. You are bonded with it." Said the shadow person, "There are many students who also have that third eye. But almost all of them failed to open it. You and Mullet are the smart ones who able to make your own picture for your next destination," The shadow person shows a Polaroid paper to him, where a faint image is printed on it.

"Thanks. So uh… what do you want to tell me?"

"You did a great job of finding more mysteries about the school. And you managed to stay alive this far. But, things will change for now since you made a big progression. You're now dealing with the harder stones. They will not come into your eyes again. You're on your own. It's all left for you to find out. So, all you had to do, is survive and make your way while there's still time."

Robbie didn't reply to him. He just keeps silent as he has nothing to say.

"Before you go, I leave you four questions. First, why are you still alive? Second, who are you with now? Third, With who you're affiliated with? And the last one, why are you having a conversation that you need?"

"I'll find out later," Robbie replied.

"That's all for now. I'll be in touch soon."

The shadow person stood up and left Robbie alone in a living room. The light flickered for a moment before it completely went out. And again, Robbie felt his muscle being paralyzed, and he fell to the ground. Followed by a very loud beep that deafening his ears.

But for now, things are getting harder for Robbie and Mullet.

To be continued…