I’m sitting on the armchair in my living room, back home.  I look around and see the warm yellow glow of the sun enveloping almost every corner of my house. Just then, I hear a familiar voice call out to me. “Jack? Is everything okay?” I turn around to my mum as she asks me. I stare at her quizzically for a second, and then reply casually “Yeah, everything’s okay.” I grin. (My mum… why does it feel like it’s been ages since I saw her? I’m so glad she’s here…) These thoughts rush through my mind as I look at her face. Her long and beautiful black hair falling to her shoulders, with some strands faintly covering her hazelnut eyes. “I’m so glad we get to spend today together!” She says while practically beaming. “..Yeah!” I hesitantly agree with her (Why do I have no recollection of what happened before..?) “It feels like it’s been ages since we talked like that…” She looks down clasping her hands together. “Lately you haven’t been opening up to me…” My mother’s voice trails off. “In fact you barely even talk to me anymore.” She states wearing a sad smile. “Mum I-“ I try to protest but she cuts me off. “You never told me why you wanted to move back here so badly… You are lucky that my job took the transfer application so well.” She looks me in the eyes, wearing a serious but sad expression. “I feel like I have to know if something happened to my son. No, I want to know.” She grabs my hand and for some reason I can’t move nor talk. I can only stare at her dumbfounded. “You’re not the only one feeling lost after your dad passed away…” She says as a tear streams down her face. (I want to hug her so badly… I want to say that I’m sorry…) “I know I’ve been really busy with work and that doesn’t help this situation much, but I need you as much as you need me!” She raises her voice and envelopes me in a hug, that for some reason I can’t reciprocate. (I want to hug her back… Reassure her I’m here…) She starts crying and all I can do is stand there looking at the wall across from me. (I’m sorry mum… I’m so sorry…)

Truth is, I love my mum. But ever since we moved here, I changed. As much as I wanted to talk to her about everything that had happened, I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. I never knew she felt like this…

“Nghh…” I groan as I feel a burning sensation run through my closed eyelids. I hesitantly open my eyes, squinting in the process, as the light of the morning sun assaults my eyes. I raise my arm blocking the light coming from the window of the bathroom with my forearm. I look around and realize what happened the night before, almost immediately. “We fell asleep didn’t we?” I mumble to myself, feeling some sort of heaviness on my right arm. I draw the most logical conclusion and decide to wake up the girl next to me, who is resting her head on my shoulder. “Hey, April. It’s morning.” I announce shaking my shoulder just slightly. “Hmmm??” She mumbles beneath her breath, while groggily fluttering her eyelids. “…What?” She utters while raising her head from my shoulder. She looks me up and down and, I assume, recalls the events of last night. Suddenly her cheeks take on a reddish tint and she looks away. (Was she embarrassed that she fell asleep on my shoulder…?) “Oh yeah, we had a blast last night! Don’t you remember?” I teasingly say to her, waiting for her reaction. Which, of course comes quickly and without delay. “Hey! Stuff like that will cause misunderstandings, idiot!” She hisses at me, angrily although still being quite flustered. (Of course I’m talking about all the weird stuff that took place at the school building merely hours ago… Shortly after arriving at the safety of this building we doze off without noticing and woke up only now...) I immediately chuckle as I get up from my sitting position. “Ugh, my butt hurts…” I say while groaning in pain. “Well it’s not like we slept on the floor or anything.” Her witty remark is followed by a stretch. I offer my hand to her and she accepts it, albeit somewhat hesitantly. As soon as she gets up, she groans in pain, in a similar way as me. “What time is it?” She asks as she notices that I’ve already got my phone in hand. “Seven on the dot.” I reply placing it back in my pocket. “I can’t believe we dozed off like that last night…” April says while looking troubled. ”Well the good thing is that monster or whatever didn’t get us.” I state, somewhat optimistically. “Monster… Do you believe that thing is somewhere in the school as we speak?” She asks while looking deep in thought. “Hmmm…” I hum as I scratch my chin. “Well we can’t really be sure but I at least doubt it.” I state after having reached a logical conclusion within my head. “Really? What makes you say that?” April furrows her eyebrows at me. “Well do you remember what the gh- Nora said to us?” I ask her trying to make my explanation come alive. “Yeah most of it... but which part are you talking about specifically?” She answers my question while posing one of her own. “The part where she said that she wouldn’t advise us searching for the keys after midnight. Also, I remember her saying something along the lines of “the supernatural forces are more potent at that time at night”. I’m thinking that the appearance of that monster is perhaps related to that.” I explain as I recall Nora’s warnings. “So you think the monster spawned after midnight or something? Still that doesn’t explain why it won’t be there now…” April ponders, adding a gaming term into the mix. “Wait up, there’s still some more to my theory.” I raise my palm in front of me as I pace around the room. “Nora also said that the majority of them died due to a fight that between the group, after having lost some classmates to the traps already. But there was no reference to THAT creature. I’m assuming that IF the monster keeps roaming around the school after “spawning” as you said then there were bound to be victims ‘cause of him. Heck, he might have killed all of them if that was the case. To add to that, even if he hadn’t killed a significant amount of students then Nora was bound to warn us about such a threat beforehand since, as she said, wants us to succeed where she and her late classmates failed.” I go into Sherlock-mode laying the pieces down one by one. “But what she DID warn us about was the fact that it’s not safe to roam around the school after midnight. Meaning there are threats during that time span, which are not there after the sun rises.” She catches on to my theory and draws the same conclusion. “Exactly! So we can assume that this creature was roaming the school only for that specific period of time. Although we don’t know if the classroom-shifting is a product of the time or is here to stay, OR if the incidents that happened 10 years ago should be the exact same as the ones happening today, I say it’s still a pretty solid theory.” My train of thoughts comes to an end as I await for April’s reaction. “Agreed. I like that theory actually, since it’s a tad bit optimistic.” Her reaction is a positive one and we both nod our heads, contentedly. “Still we can’t be sure about this so we’ll have to go out and see for ourselves. Not to mention that we need to find the others and warn them as well as tell them all about what happened. Also in case the classroom-shifting phenomenon is still present they might be in big trouble if they actually walk in somewhere they shouldn’t.” I lay down my thoughts once again. April chuckles for a second as she watches me with a grin. “Yes mister Sherlock.” She replies shortly after. “Yeah sorry I kinda jumped into big-brain-mode without realizing. It’s still too early in the morning for this crap!” I say as I stretch my back and arms. “Well, granted that big-brain-mode is useful you’d rather jump into it more often.” She smirks sarcastically. “Are you saying I’m useless otherwise?" I throw back with a sharp glare. “No way, I wouldn’t even dare think about it!” She says gasping ironically and I reply with a click of my tongue “Tch.”

After freshening up at the boys’ restroom area I patiently wait for April outside of the ladies’ building, my back on the wall, just like last time. (Although this time I know what she’s REALLY like…) As I stand there, with nothing to do I’m suddenly reminded of the weird dream I saw while sleeping on the floor last night. I vividly recall what my mother said to me and how real it all felt. “It was only a dream…” I whisper to myself. (But even If it was a dream, can I take that the things my mum said to me, are her honest feelings?) To be honest, I always knew that the way I was acting wasn’t right, but I just couldn’t bring myself to change that. These thoughts hang inside my head as the bathroom door swings open and out comes April. “Took you long enough.” I say to her, teasingly. “Well ladies gotta do what ladies gotta do.” She replies, adding a "hmph!" at the end. “More importantly… Did you see anything out of the ordinary out here?” She asks while turning and looking around herself. “Nope, nothing. Seems like we might be right.” I say as I lean forward and start walking, with April trailing behind me. We cautiously walk towards the school building’s big double doors, as we look around every now and then. (Although I came up with that theory and wholeheartedly stand by it, I can’t help but feel somewhat anxious. I’m sure it’s the same for April.) I glance back at her, confirming my theory.

The two of us slowly but surely, make our way inside the school building and we're more than relieved to realize we're alone, and that we don't hear any of those creepy heavy footsteps from earlier. April and I heave a sigh of relief while we walk further inside. "And now to confirm..." I say as I grip the doorknob of the first classroom I see and swing it open. "Yep that's sure as hell is not where our classroom is supposed to be." I say looking down at the crumbled floor. "Which means that the rooms will keep shifting no matter what time it is. That's kind of a let down..." April states while clicking her tongue. "Yeah... Well there's nothing we can do about it. We just need to find the Home Ec class and inform the others." I reply, closing the door in front of me. As I'm about to walk off... I turn around at once, swinging the door open for the second time in quick succession. "Hmm..." I hum looking at the all too familiar class before me. (It's still the same as before...) "So that means that the rooms are shifting places randomly, and doesn't matter if you close a door or not." I reach a conclusion judging by the outcome of my actions. "Now THAT is confusing." April says cocking her head to the side. "Yeah but at least we learned something. Now let's start searching. How about a room-by-room search?" I propose while looking at April. "Aghh... do we really have to look in EVERY DAMN room on EVERY DAMN floor?!" She groans as she replies, after having thought of it over. "Do you have any better ideas?" I give her a smug expression. "I ah... no." April tries to protest but eventually gives up and hangs her head. "Thought so. Now let's get moving." I say tapping her back and walking ahead. "Hey!" She says while grabbing the back of my blazer and halting my walking attempts. "I don't think I need to remind you but if you talk about you KNOW WHAT to the others..." April pauses adding to the suspense, and I gulp hard anticipating what she is about to say. "..I'll cut off whatever's hanging." She bluntly states giving me a death stare. "Yes sir!" I immediately reply, saluting like a soldier. (Jeez... women can be really scary sometimes...)