A crooked woman was standing behind Jess, her neck was bent on a strange angle, her eyes, dead, staring at Phil, her face had no emotion as her hands slowly moved towards Jess's neck.
Overcoming the fear that was welling up inside him, Phil pulled Jess hard. He knows that whatever the woman was, he could not win against it since he had little to no power in the real world.
Jess fell to the floor. The woman glanced at Jess who had fallen, rage painted the woman's face as he looked at Phil once more, she screamed like a banshee making Phil's head hurt.
"What are you doing Phil!"
Phil who was clutching his head heard Jess complain.
'Huh? Where's the woman?'
Phil was confused and searched the room for the figure of the horrifying woman.
"Why did you pull me, you psycho!"
"Wait Jess, I was just..."
"Shut up, I don't want to talk to you."
Jess stormed out of the room, leaving Phil confused. He was sure he had seen a ghoulish woman who was about to strangle Jess's neck. Phil ran out of the room to catch up with Jess when Mark and his gang stop him from chasing her.
"Hey wimp, what did you do to her?"
"Get out of my way Mark. I need to go and apologize to her."
"No, you need to stay here and tell me what you did to her."
Mark pushed Phil against the wall and ordered his gang to be a lookout if any teachers were coming.
"Just tell me what you did to her and no one will get hurt."
Phil winced in pain since Mark was crushing his shoulder.
"I did not do anything to her."
"Then explain why she was mad when she came out of the room huh, you punk!"
Mark hit Phil's stomach blowing air out of his lungs.
"Shoot, I swear Mark I did not do anything bad to her."
"Then explain to me why she was mad you punk!"
Mark raised his fist ready to punch Phil in the face.
"I was trying to save her from something and I pulled her hard!"
Phil quickly answered, not wanting to suffer more from Mark.
Mark laughed at Phil's answer.
"Protect her from what? You're a wimp. Look at you, you don't even have any muscles to show for."
Mark forcefully grabbed Phil's collar and lifted him in the air.
"SO TELL ME THE TRUTH OR I WILL BEAT YOU SENSELESS."
"It's the truth...ack... I was trying to save her...from a woman guuuhh...her neck was bent and she wanted to strangle Jess."
Mark's gang laughed after hearing Phil's excuse.
"Dang man, you should make up a better excuse than that."
"Hahaha, you're making us laugh here."
The whole gang laughed except for Mark. He stared at Phil and released his grip from Phil's collar. Phil stumbled down and gasped for air.
"Let's go."
Mark declared.
"Aren't we going to beat him up?"
"Yeah man, that excuse was pretty lame."
Mark's gang looked at him confused since they were ready to see how long Phil will last from Mark's beating.
"I SAID LET'S GO!!"
Mark kicked a metal trash can near him. The force of his kick made the trashcan fly towards the wall and bent into an unusable piece of garbage. His gang became wide-eyed and stared at the destroyed trashcan. They rarely saw Mark lash out like that, they saw him lash out before and beat someone near to death. They quickly followed Mark as he walked away afraid that they might provoke him in some other way.
Phil was left sitting on the ground dumbfounded on what just had happened. He had heard rumors that Mark was oddly protective towards Jess. Some say that Mark has a strong crush on Jess and that's why even though Jess was one of the prettiest girls in school, no boys rashly confess their love towards her since they do not have the confidence and strength to challenge Mark.
Phil slowly stood up and patted the dust away from his shirt.
'What terrible luck am I having today, tsk.'
He thought as he made his way towards Seth's office.
'But what was that woman I saw behind Jess? I'm sure she wanted to hurt Jess, and what was that reaction from Mark? Hmm, I think he knows something.'
Phil's thought was cut off since he arrived in front of Seth's office. Phil knocked at the door to the office.
"Come in!"
A voice answered inside the office and Phil opened the door.
"Ah! Phil, come in."
Seth was delighted to see Phil as he smiled and pointed towards the chair in front of his table.
"First things first, thank you for permitting me to browse how to decode those symbols you wanted Miss. Samantha to transcribe."
Seth slightly bowed his head towards Phil as he pointed towards an open folder on his desk filled with formal papers detailing how to decode the symbols.
"No, please don't bow your head to me, Teacher Seth. I was just curious since I saw how strange the symbols were and I was looking for people to solve it, and only by sheer coincidence did I find Samantha was able to decode it. Please you should thank her instead of me."
"I already did thank Miss. Samantha and she wanted documents and research papers that were hard to get from the library. So it's your turn to be thanked, Phil. Well before that, tell me why were you absent for 2 straight days?"
Phil was thinking hard on how to answer Seth.
"Uhm can I just not answer Teacher?"
Seth quizzically looked at Phil.
"Is there something that bothers you, Phil? Or are you in danger perhaps? Maybe I can help you."
Phil thought hard and scratched his head. He knows he could just ask En if he had any questions but strangely his teacher Seth was quite knowledgeable and Phil had a feeling of strange connection with him.
"Uhm you see Teacher, you might think I'm crazy if I tell you about my story."
"Hahaha, that's no problem Phil. During my travel all around the world, I have seen many things that you might find crazy."
"Hmmm, then what if I told you I saw a ghoulish entity behind a classmate that was about to attack her when I was heading towards your office."
Seth looked at Phil with an expression that was saying are you serious written all over his face.
Phil averted his gaze feeling embarrassed talking about ghosts towards a professor.
"Well, Phil. I thought you were going to ask something crazier. Hahaha."
A hearty laugh filled Seth's office.
"Well let's see."
Seth stood up and took a folder out of the cabinet behind his desk.
"Hmmm. Ah, here it is."
He scattered the contents of the folder on his desk for Phil to see. Phil looked at the papers with strong interest since what he saw was straight-up weird.
"Uhm, sir. Are all these studies about non-scientific beings?"
"Good observation Phil. Yes, they are studies on different phenomenons that cannot be explained by our modern science."
Seth smiled at Phil who was staring at the papers intently.
"Here look"
Pointing at a paper that was filled with text about ghosts.
"The one you saw behind your classmate could be a ghost."
Phil was filled with doubts as he stared at Seth who was smiling while presenting to him the paper about ghosts
"Uhm, can I ask you about something Sir?"
"Sure go ahead, Phil."
"Do you believe in ghosts?"
"Hahaha, you see Phil, every people has a threshold that will limit the things we can comprehend. The human mind is simply magnificent, for it blocks the things that it considers as maddening that drive people to insanity and even death. Yet it has holes on its guard to slowly acclimate the human mind to what lurks between the realm of reality and that of beyond. You will never know? What you saw might be a delusion or something even more terrifying."
Seth smiled at Phil like he was explaining something trifling and not scary at all.
"Do you believe in ghosts and monsters then?"
Seth only smiled at Phil. But Phil knows that his answer was a yes. Phil was convinced that Seth was open-minded, the evidence was right in front of him, a collection of studies that cannot be explained by science.
"Then what do you think about the ghoulish entity I saw behind my classmate Sir?"
"Well can you tell me who that classmate is before I proceed with my observations?"
"Yes sir, it's my classmate Jess."
"Then it's not a ghost Phil. Why? Because Jess is not a gloomy girl, well to be exact there is no negative energy that is surrounding her. Ghost feeds on negative energy, more so if the ghost is a Vengeful Spirit since you saw it trying to attack her. To be honest, there is too little evidence to completely know what had stuck into her, I suggest you ask her or someone that knows."
"I see, okay I will try and ask someone who knows."
Mark had crossed Phil's mind. He had a feeling that Mark might know the reason why there was an entity that was haunting Jess.
Phil stood up ready to go home after talking with Seth, he was about to exit the office when Seth asked him.
"Oh yes, Phil! You did not answer my question. Why were you absent for the last 2 days?"
"Uhm, would you believe it if I say I was stuck inside a nightmare."
Phil scratched his head as he told Seth the truth.