"l...I don't…know how to…to...to...read," Marcus stammered, his heart racing. The bathroom felt heavier with tension, and the air turned cold as he got paralyzed with fear. Madam Koi-Koi's voice slithered through the room.
"Are you sure...? that you can't read?" Her voice was melodic yet ominous, echoing off the tiled walls of the bathroom, as she tried to confuse and trap Marcus into reading the words.
"I swear, I can't read! My parents didn't have money to send me to school!" he pleaded, again and again, dread pooling in his stomach.
"Then how come you speak fluent English?" she pressed, all she wanted was to pressure him to say the words in the wall after he panicks.
Marcus, trembling, had to think fast.
"I work with people who speak English; that's how I learned." The moment the words left his mouth, he bolted from the bathroom, abandoning his earlier urgency to relieve himself.
Outside, he collided with Mathias, who was waiting at the door, concern etched on his face. "What's the matter, Marcus?" he gasped, his breaths quickening with each passing second.
"It's... it's Madam Koi-Koi, in the bathroom!" Marcus exclaimed, heartbeat pounding loud like a drum as he muffled gasps.
"Blood....it's everywhere, blood....blood..."
That was all Marcus's lips could say.
Throwing caution to the wind, Mathias stepped into the bathroom, returning moments later with a puzzled expression.
"Marcus!, were you hallucinating? There's nothing in here!"
Marcus's eyes widened, worry gnawed at him. He stepped inside to see if what Mathias said is true, and to his astonishment, the bathroom was pristine, without any single drop of blood nor any signs of haunting.
"I swear, it was... it was all over the bathroom! Blood everywhere!" he insisted.
Mathias calmed him, as he remembered the earlier incidence of the missing girl in the bathroom.
"That means the Janette read those words when she entered the restroom. Then... that's a taboo—no reading or responding to the words she asks."
"If even the restrooms are dangerous, then how shall we survive without responding to the call of nature?." Marcus muttered.
However at that time , Mathias stomach began to grumble, and they had to head to the school canteen, feeling the oppressive atmosphere weigh down on them.
It was there that they caught sight of a young boy wearing an SS4 badge, a class that had been wiped out by Madam Koi-Koi long ago.
"Strange," Mathias mused. They decided to visit the archives to investigate the SS4 class of 2001.
At the archives, an ancient receptionist greeted them. "What are you boys looking for?" he asked, voice as dry as the pages around them.
"We need the register for SS4 from the year 2001," Mathias replied.
The receptionist's eyes gleamed knowingly.
"As long as it's about this school, I know everything." With a slow shuffle, he retrieved an old file.
Inside, a class photo revealed a group of 31 students...except for one detail—Madam Koi-Koi wasn't in the picture.
That meant she was with the camera!
Squinting at the profiles, they noted two students were still listed as alive, while , the 29 were deceased. One was Charles Oworitapo, the boy they saw at the canteen.
As they returned to their dorm, they spotted Charles arguing with another boy. They couldn't hear well, but it seemed heated. When the other boy threw a punch at Charles, Marcus and Mathias rushed over.
"Hey! Are you okay, Charles?" Mathias asked, concerned.
Charles, wary, frowned. "How do you know my name? What do you want?"
"What was the deal with that guy?" Marcus asked.
"Just a disagreement. I've got to run to class now," Charles said. With that, he sprinted away, leaving them puzzled.
Later, while wandering down a dim corridor, they stumbled onto a staff's board depicting administrators. To their shock, one photo—the director's—was conspicuously absent, raising their suspicions.
"No name...no picture, how is that even possible." Mathias thought.
As evening fell, Marcus and Mathias returned to their dorm. Meanwhile, max and Musa had lost a friend. They began to argue, Musa insisted, they should remove the canes from their room, terrified that the sticks were a cause of the haunting.
"I'm telling you, these canes are the reason our friend disappeared!" Musa yelled.
"Leave them alone; they don't mean anything," max replied.
Ignoring the argument, Musa stormed out and found an empty room. He started removing the canes.
" I don't want to die, l won't die here.." he muttered, believing he wasn't breaking the taboo. Feeling relieved, he lay down to rest.
Suddenly, he heard a whisper, as if someone was calling him from the upper bed.
"Is that you, Janette?" he asked.
"Yes, it's me," the voice cooed, sending a chill down his spine.
Without verifying whether it was Janette, or somebody else, he answered, "I'll protect you this time, l won't let you disappear again."
"I want us to recite a story," the voice suggested.
It felt comfortable, like chatting with his friend. "Okay, just tell me the words."
"Read for me," the whisper urged, " l will also read my lines, but you first".
and a piece of paper was given to him from the upper bed , as he was in the downer bed. He stretched out his hand and accepted the paper eagerly.
He read aloud, "I had two red heels... one I the room. read aloud, "I had two red heels... one I have, but one I lost. My legs hurt; one is high, one is low... only one echo is heard—can you give me yours? What shoe did I lose?"
"THE RED ONE,"
As the final words left his mouth, silence followed.
"Now it's your turn, Janette!" musa insisted, but when he called back again, there was no reply. His heart raced as he checked the bed above—the top bunk was empty.
In that moment, panic set in; it had been Madam koi-koi all along.
"No one will save you," she crowed, her laughter echoing through the room