Confidential Scheme 1

Chapter 17.1: Them Who Masquerade

Chloe's POV

"Mommy? Mommy!"

I gasped and arise from where I seem to be lying. It's a white bed. I looked around just to realize that I am inside the room I'm not familiar with?

"Chloe." I heard a feminine voice nearby and looked at where it possibly came from.

"Are you alright?" Minji walks towards me and stood beside the bed. He's with Dustin.

There's also a man sitting from where they came from which is a couch. I can't see his face properly.

"What happened?" I asked.

She glanced at Dustin and sighed. "You fainted. Your classmate brought you here. If I'm not mistaken his name is Blaze."

I tried to recall everything. I was talking to Blaze when his phone rang. Then I realized that I left my own on the clubroom so I went there to pick it up.

Then I witnessed Dustin and Lorcan arguing about something. I can't see them with that kind of behaviour and so I walk out and just continued walking until I realized that I don't even know the place where am at.

Two men started following and when I started running, they walk faster than usual and ran towards me. They grabbed my arms and put something in my nose.

I gasped. And closed my eyes for a bit. My heart is beating quite fast. I don't want that kind of experience again. I placed my hands all over the place.

I felt someone patting my back. It was Minji.

"Chloe, do not stress yourself for a while and it might help you. Just rest for now until you're feeling better."

I took a deep breath. I put down my hands and looked to the guy who is sitting on the couch alone. I can clearly see his face because Minji was no longer covering him. She's sitting right next to me.

"Did you see person's face?" Lorcan asked.

Compared before he was now calm and quite. He looked tired but still managing to sit still.

"I didn't." I replied.

It was so dark so I can't see even a single detail about their face. It's just so dark in there.

Then the door opened. It exposed Blaze who was holding two paper bags. He used his right foot to close the door back. He put it on top of the table in front of the couch.

He went by and stood beside the hospital bed.

"Feeling better?" He asked.

I shook my head "I don't know. Anyways, how did you find me?" As far as I remember, Blaze was nowhere to be found when that happened. So how did he find me and drought me here at the hospital?

"I saw you walking out the campus. Alone. I know where you live and you went the exact opposite way the direction. So I followed you."

I looked down. What happened to me is my fault. I was too baffled with my emotions that I didn't even realize what I'm doing. If weren't for Blaze, I was probably...

Sigh

"Anyways, I'll get going. Take a rest."

When he was meters away from the door, I called him. "Blaze." He looked back at me. "Thank you." He nodded.

He was about to touch the doorknob when it suddenly opened. The door hit his face. He touched his forehead due to the impact.

"OMG! Sorry." Addison did a peace sign and flashed an awkward smile at him.

Someone giggled. Dustin caught everyone's attention in the room.

"What?" He act like it didn't happen.

Blaze then walk passed Addison and left the door open.

"Sorry again!" Addison peeked shouted outside seconds later when Blaze was probably meters away. She closed the door.

"Chloe!" She ran towards me and hugged me tightly. It was a bit too much so I groaned a little.

"Sorry, sorry. Here oh fruits. Eat this all so you can get your 100% energy back. Even though you're not really that energetic!" She placed it on the table on the right upper side of the bed.

"How are you? Are you okay? Do you still remember me? Wha-"

"Addison, I'm fine." She smiled.

"Glad to hear that. Well, I kinda wanted to stay here if ever but I can't at the moment. I need to go home, It's very late." She stood.

"Make sure you those fruits, ah? That's fresh from the farm!"

"I will, Addison. Thank you." I smiled.

"Okay, bye Chloe! Rest well and keep fighting! Bye, you guys." She waved at my friends and opened the door to go outside.

Later that, minutes of silence occured. It is really awkward. Dustin was eating the foods that Blaze brought earlier. That's the thing inside the paper bags. While Minji and Lorcan is just sitting doing nothing.

From time to time, Lorcan seemed to have something to say but he's hesitating to say it.

I took a deep breath. "Guys." I caught their attention. Except for Lorcan who's looking at the floor. "We need to be honest with each other. Admit our mistakes and come closer together. We need to fix what ever problem we have."

"I'm sorry." Lorcan spoke. I didn't expect him to say anythingat all but... "I was insensitive, careless and you're right I am obsessed."

"I was carried away by my emotions and did not think well with what I'm doing. That was uncalled for."

Seconds later he was followed by Dustin, "I apologize as well. I should've considered what you feel and take it pretty easy. Sorry, I was just triggered by what we're doing."

I smiled. They accepted their mistakes and apologize for what they did because it was wrong. So I guess...

"What should we do now?" I asked.

Lorcan looked at me for the first time since a while. He stood and walk slowly until he's in front of my bed.

"We'll find the person who tried to harm you."

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

"Thanks to our annalist. We were finally gaining attention to the students around here."

I felt good when Lorcan mentioned it. This is another day after the incident that happened last night. All was still fresh in my mind.

Lorcan voluntarily went and find the exact location where I fainted because of two men trying to harm me. He watched the CCTV footages and find for witnesses but didn't get lucky. In short, he found nothing.

Since it's really night time and the place where it happened was really dark, the faces of the two weren't captured as much in the CCTV.

Earlier he also went to the spot himself but didn't find any clue or thing that the men leave. No traces. He apologized for not finding anything but honestly he doesn't need to.

Maybe I don't know everything about him. But I know that he's really determined to put down the culprit behind any illegal doings and crimes. If clues or breadcrumbs was left.

Thinking that Lorcan did that is crazy. The effort he put just by checking if I'm okay explains that he really is concerned about me. Despite what I did to him the past two days.

"More attention equals more people that will consult us in the future when crime has been done. Especially inside this university. We all know that most if not all of them were made by the same person."

He drew a circle on the whiteboard and wrote the letter "T" in the center of it.

"T?" Dustin asked.

"Remember the suicide case of Madeline Bayhart and Ricanne Seoul?" Lorcan asked.

We nodded. "What about that?" Dustin presented another question.

It was just more than a week ago since it happened so It's still fresh in my mind. I felt weird at this moment. I can't believe that after that, we've from case to another one. Everyday seems to be a workday for us.

"I didn't tell you about this but d-" He didn't finish it yet when someone is knocking on the door.

It was locked so Dustin have to open it for him. The girl wearing the same uniform as mine walked through the door. Left side of her hair was on the back while the one in front is the right. The difference is that she's wearing a green vest which I don't know why.

Dustin closed the door and the girl sat on one of the couch.

"Uh, I'm Nayeon Greene, a member of the mathematics department. I am also a member of an 8-member club called Arithmos Club and-"

"Let's get straight to the point, why did you came here?" Lorcan cut her off.

"I was about to say but okay. Well, there's this one member of our club who is always out of place. No matter how much we communicate and be friends with him, he didn't acknowledge even our presence."

She stopped for a few seconds. "He's also let's say, the one with the most knowledge in math. But two days ago, he suddenly just disappear."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Well, not even a single once he was absent like he's always present everyday. Two days ago, he didn't came to our clubroom. But what's worse is that we've found out, that he's also not attending his class."

That's quite suspicious. I mean it's possible that he have a fever or illness that kept him from schooling but I don't know for sure.

"So I want to know if you can help us find him. He's been texting us these numbers whenever we asked where he is and what happened to him. It's just bothering us, you know, he's also a part of our club."

She then showed us the exchanges of messages between him and their clubmates.

She's right. He's sending them sets of numbers and symbols that doesn't make any sense but what caught my attention is that every reply is just the same of the two sets that has been sent to every member.

"This might be a code." Dustin said.

"Precisely." Lorcan replied.

Minji asked for the copy of the photos and her phone number so that we can contact her about any news or updates about this case.

"We'll contact you as soon as we confirmed ourselves where he is." Minji assured.

The girl stood up and was about to open the door to leave when Lorcan followed up another question.

"Wait. You forgot something."

I looked at him to see what is he talking about. I see nothing.

"His name."

Right. Never did she mention the victim's name. I almost forgot about that. It's important.

"Trace Langston."

~~~

"Good morning class, I'm Cairo Achilles. Your new English teacher for this school year."

Said the man standing right in front of the class. Probably on his mid-30s and is wearing a graded eyeglasses. How thick the glass is explains how much he could see without it.

"Some of you maybe surprised because of my announcement. As you know, your former English teacher step down and want to focus more on his personal life. And as part of the school perseverance, we have to respect his decision. I am now here standing right in front of you to say that I'm excited to get to know you more and share some of my knowledge."

That's true. Our previous professor retired suddenly but we do not what exactly is his reason. But as our teacher said, he's going to manage personal issues that he probably didn't share and that's okay.

That's his privacy. I'm glad that he explained these things to us since some of us were confused about it.

On his first class, he just shared us a certain topic that doesn't need critical thinking at all. He also used some examples and put it into action which I think really helped us to understand more of it.

I didn't even realized that it was time already because of his discussion. This the first time that I've actually been interested in class. I mean, it's not like other subjects are not interesting but this is definitely something.

I can say that he's really an effective teacher.

"Are you fine now, Chloe?"

I looked at Blaze who was standing beside me. I nodded, "Feeling better now."

"Right. Where you going?"

"We're actually gonna go ahead and solve another case. It wasn't really considered as case but... We just need to confirm something."

He nodded. "Well then see you later."

I bid farewell and walk on my way to the clubroom. Lorcan didn't text me but I'm sure he's up to something.

"It's not just actually a series of number. It's a code. Maybe that's how the way he communicate." Lorcan explained.

"What's the results?" Dustin asked.

"Location of where he is but something isn't right." Lorcan added.

"He sent a location and he was gone for two days already. Does that mean..." Minji exclaimed.

"He was either forced to be there or pulling a prank full of effort. But I don't think it's the second one to be honest." Dustin said.

"Are you saying that he's abducted?" I asked.

"That's what we need to know."

~~~

"You wanted him dead, don't you?"

I can't believe that because of insecurity, people do things that was out of hand. I thought they were so concerned about him that they consulted us just to find if their clubmate is safe or not. But that's not it.

Last night, we went to the location the person who abducted him sent to his club members. It was on the new building that didn't make it.

Minji explained that the school head wants to have one more building so they started it but wasn't finished. The number of buildings here in the university were a lot comoared to an ordinary.

It's also big as well and if we were gonna talk about the student population, it wasn't even half of the number of students in a university.

Entering the building was prohibited. Lorcan said that if if we will to go, it should be night so that less chances of getting caught. At first, I protest about but also I'm curious about Trace's condition. We don't know what had happened to him if ever he's somewhere in the building.

And so we waited for night time, and find clues and presence in the building. I remember Dustin teasing Minji about ghosts and everything but he failed. Minji seemed more focus on finding the potential missing person.

We searched for the whole building until we heard knocks from one of the rooms. When we entered we saw nothing then we heard knocks again. We tried following the sound where knocks is coming from.

We found someone lying under a professors desk. His hands were tied so does his feet. It's also tied on the table. His mouth were covered with ductape. When we removed it, the person gasped.

It was Trace. His lips were visibly dry and he looks so pale. We then brought him to the hospital to make sure he's okay. Later that night, Lorcan revealed us what he have observed.

He admit that he was not that sure for his deductions this time but that's what we need to know. So right bnow we're confronting them. The client and the culprit of the crime.

"You want him gone because you envy him. Because he's number one and you guys are always behind him that no matter how much you tried, at the end of the day, he still ended all of you." Lorcan uttered.

"You also paid someone to do it, aren't you?" Dustin asked. "Who is it?"

The members in front of us looked so guilty of the things. They're not even defending themselves with all the accusations. They really thought they won't get caught after all.

"Okay, okay." Nayeon spoke. "Someone called us... And told us that if we want to get rid of someone then we have to pay for it."

Her colleauges were looking at her. She looks like she wanted to speakfor the longest time but they're stopping her from doing so.

"The thought never crossed my mind because I don't hold any grudge to Trace at all. But... When I disagree about it, they threatened to have me killed as well alpng with him. And believe me, I never, never wamted to do that... I-" She bursted out crying while her co-members were glaring at her. Some of them are also crying right now.

"And you consulted us to genuinely know what happened to him, right?" Minji asked.

Nayeon nodded. "I was so worried. That I cannot sleep for two days. I told them that we should consult you about his disappearance so we do not look suspicious in case his family found out whatever happened to him.

"But the truth is... I did that because I want to know what happened to him. We texted the man and asked to make a code that will reveal where he is and he did." She was sniffling from time to time but she was able to say it clearly.

We were about to leave the room when someone stopped us from doing it.

"Wait. Y-you're not going to do something to us?" The girl with pigtail asked.

We glanced at each other and Lorcan faced them.

"No we'll not do anything about you. I don't know about the school head though. Same with the family's victim. They might sue all of you for threatening his life but if you want to expect the bare minimum then..."

"You might just be expelled from this university."

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

"Some of you is already aware of what wis going to happen. You see the booths, trampuline and all those colorful stuffs were specifically made because we're celebrating the Masquerade Festival tomorrow."

Murmurs and assumptions from inside the gymnasium arose.

Lorcan as usual is irritated by the situation.

Yesterday, we confronted the client and the culprit themselves. When we left the room, I asked Lorcan why didn't we report them to the campus police. They're definitely on a legal age so I think they can be imprisoned.

"Chloe, the difference from the case this time is that nobody lost. Someone was harmed but that's all. We have proofs but it's really up to the victim whether he'll sue them or make them remove from this school permanently."

"They also are harmless after all they have to had someone just to get rid of him explains that they cannot do it themselves. So if the victim refuse to take action about that thing, I don't think we should stress ourselves about that."

He's got a point. Now I'm enlightened. I just hope thag Trace will do the right thing and not be afraid to speak what's the truth. I'm on his side.

Minutes later we found ourselves walking back to the clubroom becayse there's much time left before the first class starts.

"What do you think will Trace do to those jealous b*tches?" Dustin asked.

I almost laughed when he said the b-word. So unnecessary but yeah.

"We will know about that today for sure."

Minii replied.

When we arrived the clubroom. Lorcan smelled something. I don't smell anything at all. Maybe it's just him?

"No, it's definitely in here." He said.

"Guys, what's this?" Dustin asked while he is holding a box wrapped using a gift wrapper.

Lorcan then took it from him and we saw a note paste on it.

For the ARC Club. Thank you so much.

-From T