After speculating for a good 5 minutes, the most plausible outcome we all agreed on is that the key is somewhere in the rooms we’ve checked already. Meaning we have to possibly look over every room a second time. (Just the thought of searching room by room yet again makes my head feel dizzy…) I think as I lean back on the wall behind me, and raising my head to look at the ceiling, as a sigh escapes from my chest. As of now, we have decided to catch our breath for another 5 minutes, all the while thinking about our next course of action. Chris is pacing about the entrance while Anette and April have joined Max, as they’re all staring at the map while murmuring to each other. Sarah on the other hand is a good distance away from everyone, as she sits alone on the steps of the staircase. Aware that the time is not on our side, I reach for my phone, resting inside my pocket. “Dead” I murmur as I click my tongue and slide it back to its place. “Hey Chris, you got a watch?” I voice as he stops pacing around and turns to me. He doesn’t verbally answer but the fact that he starts searching his schoolbag is a good sign, at the least. Soon, he retreats his hand from inside the bag as a sports wrist-watch rests within it. “It’s quarter past 11…” He voices as he looks at it with a disappointed expression. “Damn.” Is all I can say in response as he puts it back inside his backpack. “I hope the janitor won’t come after us like the last time we stayed out this late…” A comment escapes my lips and Chris is visibly getting sweatier by the minute. (Oops.) “Aha!” Suddenly, Max jumps up in the 3rd eureka moment of the day. Soon, everyone’s attention is shifted onto her. “I’ve got a plan!” She states as I feel hope welling up within up my chest. “You do?” I ask widening my eyes. “Yep, turns out the shifting of the school classrooms isn’t random, but there’s actually a pattern to it!” She says enthusiastically as Chris frowns. “So what if there’s a pattern? What will that help us with?” He voices pessimistically yet again. “Yeah maybe the ghost likes to be orderly.” And Sarah states for yet another facepalm moment. “No guys, I’m telling you, this might be our ticket out of here!” Max speaks up with a highly optimistic expression. “We’ll need to split up once again, but this time we’ll memorize most of the rooms’ location so I can figure out the pattern.” She explains and Chris protests for the umpteenth time. “What? Again?!” He voices clicking his tongue in the process. Despite his protests, the rest of the group decides to trust Max’s intuition and go along with the plan. She splits us up into pairs and tells each pair which rooms they don’t have to check, since Anette has located those rooms already.  

Max didn’t give anyone a full explanation before we split up, and despite some minor protests, it turns out the group trusts her a fair amount. As of now, me and Max are walking down the hallway, all alone, for the 2nd time this evening. I follow behind her as she opens the door we found the music room before and inside lies a cozy-looking room, which I assume is the teacher’s lounge. Max quickly makes a note in her map and moves on to the next door. She opens another door that was a closet before, this time revealing a classroom. She marks that down as well. With every new room that she notes, a satisfied expression is becoming more and more apparent on her face. “Oh, I can’t believe I didn’t think of looking for a pattern earlier!” She exclaims but her happy expression remains unchanged. “I don’t know Max, every room seems different to me though…” I reply not wanting to give her false hope. “Exactly!” But she’s even more enthusiastic than before. She opens the next unknown door and marks down another classroom, then looks over her map again. “Yes… Yes! I see it! There really is a pattern here!” She shouts up in pure excitement as she writes down more notes on her map. “There is?” I walk closer to her, genuinely curious to see what she’s found. “Look.” She shifts her map closer to me and starts drawing arrows on the map. She points back and forth between the classrooms and starts explaining the pattern that she found out, in lightning speed. “I bet when we talk to Sarah, they’ll tell us that this room here was the room with the trapped floor panels, because that’s where it falls next in the pattern! You see?!” She practically beams while going about what she just discovered. But after a few seconds, she catches wind of my confused expression and lowers her head. “Sorry. I guess I got a little too excited…” She says walking slowly past me. “Hey!” I exclaim grabbing her wrist. “Look I may not know what you’re talking about, but I know YOU know what you’re talking about, and that’s enough for me.” I sincerely reply and a small smile appears on her lips. “Yeah but getting excited over a pattern is a bit… too much.” She laughs, but not sincerely. “Nah I don’t think so. You just discovered something really cool that might be of great use to us. You can be proud and excited all you want.” The answer I give is one that I wholeheartedly stand by. Max finally looks up and gives me a light giggle. “Thanks. Now let’s continue!” She excitedly grabs me and we continue searching. Max continues to exclaim in excitement with each new discovery, so her pattern must be working out. (I love seeing you like this, Max, so alive and animated. It doesn’t matter what anyone else says. If you’re happy then I’m happy.)

Once everyone is back together in front of the school entrance, the others share their results with Max, who continues to make notes on her map. By the time she’s finished, it’s covered in circles and arrows. “Uhm Max, what is all that?” April asks, a confused look crossing her face. “I’ve figured out the pattern to how the rooms move.” Max calmly states with a straight face. “So you’ll be able to accurately predict where each room will be every time they shift.” Anette voices with a hand on her chin. “That’s great and all, but didn’t we want to avoid searching the entire school again?” Chris asks and Max bobs her head. “I don’t think we need to. Come and take a look at this.” She points at a room in the map and we all look over her shoulder. The room she’s pointing to does stand out in one notable way: there aren’t any arrows pointing to or away from it. “Hey we checked that one already. It’s Mr. Miller’s classroom.” Sarah points out and we all nod in unison. “What’s so special about it?” April inquires as Max turns to look at everyone in the group. “It doesn’t move.” She replies with a proud grin. “What? You mean this one classroom is always right there where it’s supposed to be?” I’m slightly taken aback as I pose the question. “But we already checked that classroom.” Chris states crossing his arms over his chest. “I didn’t sense any danger coming from it, either.” Anette adds. “Well I guess the fact that it doesn’t move, while all the others do, warrants checking it again, no?” I propose as Max gives me a “thank you” wink. “There’s not much else we can do, so we might as well check.” April joins in on the idea with a hopeful smile. “Okay, since this is our only plan… and we’re running out of time.” Chris voices as we’re all reminded that we’ve got less than 6 hours left. (Sunrise is creeping up on us… Max I hope you’re right about this…) 

After everyone is on board with the said plan, we set out all together towards the designated classroom. As we walk down the hallways of the school, and as the seconds fly by, a bad feeling rises from within my chest. (This must be the growing malevolence of the school…) I think to myself as we stop in front of a classroom. (If you told me I’d be saying stuff like that 3 days ago, I’d probably call you crazy…) Max’s voice snaps me out of my trance, “See?” She says as she points to the classroom behind the door. Fortunately, we find the classroom where it’s supposed to be, just like our leader, Max, said we would. “It’s just a classroom.” Sarah comments as we all step inside in what looks like an ordinary classroom. “I detect no danger.” Anette informs us, and we all relax for a moment. “Then let’s search the room. Stay alert, just in case there’s a trap waiting for a specific trigger.” Max calmly voices and I’m suddenly reminded of Chloe’s fate. The memory makes me shudder, but I soon start searching the classroom like everyone else. It looks so normal, like class could start up at any moment. Suddenly, I hear someone fidgeting and turn to look at Max, who begins clearing things off the teacher’s desk, uncovering an electronic keypad underneath a stack of papers. “Way to go, Max!” I praise her as I walk closer to the desk. “I tried opening the drawer here but it wouldn’t budge… Incidentally I found this though…” She explains as we both stare at her discovery. It appears to be something like a safe, with button-like numbers etched on the surface. “It appears we need to find a combination… Maybe that will unlock the drawer?” April states while looking over my shoulder. “A combination?!” Chris exclaims. “What could it be…?” Max taps her chin as I ponder on the exact same matter. “Why don’t we try random combinations?” Sarah inquires and Max nods, “Yeah let’s start by doing that…” She replies and gets right to it. (What could it be? A date, perhaps?) I internally ponder. “Is it a 4 digit code, Max?” I ask as I furrow my brows in thought. “Yeah, it is.” She replies as I think harder and harder. At that moment, I’m reminded of numerous important dates that we’ve mentioned earlier in the day. “Okay, try either 2001 or 1701.” I say, walking up next to her. “Nope.” She says clicking her tongue. (The first and last day of every student’s disappearance didn’t work… How about…) I think as yet another date flashes through my mind. “0608?” I suggest and Max quickly types it in. Soon, we hear a clicking sound and we all jump up. “Yes! 0608 worked!” She announces excitedly as everybody stops what they’re doing and turn toward her. (So the code was the day Emily’s body was found…) Entering the code unlocked a rectangular panel at the top of the desk, and Max removed it to reveal four unusual cubes. “What the heck are those?” Sarah inquires as everybody picks one up and examines them. “I think these are puzzle locks. You need to correctly match the pictures on each side of the cube to undo the lock.” Max explains as most of us sigh in exasperation. “You gotta be kidding me.” Sarah comments shaking her head. “Now I understand why there are no traps here. Unlocking the desk is a trial in and of itself.” Anette states while Max sighs and starts working on one of the locks. “Here, let us help.” I pick up two of the cubes and hand over one of them to April who’s standing across from me. “Ahhh I’m terrible with these kind of puzzles… I’ll just look around.” Sarah explains as she walks away from the desk. “Yes, I’m not particularly good at solving puzzles like these too. I’ll keep an eye for any source of danger.” Anette announces and joins Sarah while Chris reluctantly picks up the last cube and gets to work. “If this will speed things up…” He murmurs as he flips the sides. Soon enough, the four of us start working on the cubes. The one I’m holding is tricky, and I twist it in all directions as the picture finally starts to take form. I manage to finish it rather quickly though, as I get the lock undone moments after Max does. Soon, everyone’s cube is unlocked and we all put them down on the desk. Max instantly tugs on the drawer as we all hold our breaths. The front panel flips open to reveal a circular indentation. “More damn puzzles?!” I exclaim, my impatience growing by the minute. “We just need to find something that fits into that slot, right?” April asks and Max nods her head. “It appears so.” She replies as we all start searching through the stuff Max had initially remove from the desk. “Jack, there’s something unusual about that globe…” Anette nudges me and I turn to look at the globe sitting on a nearby desk. I look at her with narrowed eyes and she instantly gets the message. “Not dangerous… just unusual.” She casually replies and I walk closer to the globe. I pick it up and look over it, as I notice one of the islands is raised slightly instead of being smooth against the surface. I tug at it and it smoothly pops free. Thankfully, the base is circular. “Hey Max, try this.” I call out and hand it over. Max accepts the detached island and inserts into the slot, as we all hold our breaths once again. Instantly, the drawer pops open and we all raise our voices in excitement. “Yes!” I pump my fists instinctively. Max nervously reaches into the drawer and to our delight, she pulls out an ornate key. “This… this is it!” She cheers enthusiastically and everybody’s face lights up. “We can get the hell out of here!” I raise my voice in excitement as I high five everyone. (Damn, when did I get this proactive?) Chris although is a lot more reluctant to high five me than the others. His nervousness must have reached its peak by now. (We’re getting out of here pal, don’t worry.) I internally comment as everyone gives their own cry of joy. “Thank god!” “Finally!” “Yes!” April Sarah and Anette exclaim as we all get ready to head out and up the stairs for the rooftop door. “Let’s go!” With Max’s signal we all set out of the classroom and race together to the door Nora showed us. (Finally, we’re getting out of here!) I scream inside my head as my heart hammers against my chest the entire time. “What are you-agh! Help!” I hear April’s voice and I immediately whirl around in response, but I’m not prepared for what I witness. Chris has April pinned against him… and he’s holding a knife to her throat. (Has Chris betrayed us? Why now of all times? Now that we have all 4 keys in our possession, what is going to happen?)