Chapter 5 – Seeds of Doubt

Vanessa Lullaby looked expectantly at William, then at the mop teetering on the edge of the shelves, then back at William.

“Well, are you gonna help or not? We can’t reach it,” she said, slightly out of breath as she set down Abby. In the process of lifting Abby her skirt had somehow ridden up to her upper thigh, and she pulled down on it hastily.

William blinked blankly, his mind a mess for the first time in quite a while. Part of him felt like a fan meeting someone he only ever saw before online, who he’d already forgotten went to the same school as him. Vanessa had three and a half million fans on Yube for a reason; she possessed the envy-inducing body shape that other girls would edit their photos to look like. And yet another part of him felt a bit of disgust thinking back to Professor Ghoulstein’s lustful gaze directed at her.

“Yeah, I’ll get that for you,” said William in as flat of a tone as he could muster. He didn’t want to stutter or anything—he’d rather not lose face like that—so he tried his best to act normal. Act cool. As he settled into a meditative state, he felt his heartbeat slow down.

In fact, it wasn’t really Vanessa’s presence that had him on edge. Something about this whole situation felt a bit off to him, like a boiling kettle waiting to explode. Best if he remained alert and vigilant.

He reached up to the top of the shelf and knocked the plastic mop off of it with his fingertips, the mop hitting Abby on the head as it came down.

“Ow!” the short girl yelped. “What the hell, William?”

“Sorry, sorry.” He picked up the mop and uprighted it, sending a few more apologies Abby’s way. Vanessa took it, nodding in acknowledgement.

Her grateful voice sounded like soft butter. “Thanks. You’re the guy who’s always with Evelyn Moon, right? What was your name again?”

She actually remembered seeing him around before? That was news to him. Although now that he thought about it, valedictorian-in-the-making Evelyn Moon definitely drew eyes wherever she went, and since he tagged along behind her blazing trail he must’ve garnered some attention here and there.

“William Blackwood, and he’s Finn Mutton.”

“I’m Vanessa Lullaby. It’s spelled lullaby but you can pronounce it lu-la-bee or lu-la-bye, either way works. Even my own family can’t agree which is correct. And this is—”

“They know me,” Abby Fate answered, rubbing her head. “We were lab partners in theoretical physics. Finn here still managed to get the lowest grade in the class for the midterms even though I shared my notes with him.”

“What grade did you end up getting for that class?” William asked out of curiosity.

“A minus,” she said proudly. “How about you?”

“B minus,” William answered, thoroughly impressed. He had to live in the library for weeks just to barely scrape together a B minus for that class. Anyone who could score an A minus was a genius in his book.

“Not bad,” Abby said. “And how about you, Finn?”

Finn looked ashamed. “I bombed that class, it was too hard. Got an F.”

Abby scoffed. “Well, you should actually try to study next time—”

“Hey,” Vanessa called while leaning on the closet door. She tugged at her sleeve while a bead of sweat rolled down her neck. “It’s kind of hot in this room. Why don’t we talk outside instead?”

William and Finn quickly wheeled out the cart they originally came for and left the janitor’s closet, closing the door behind them to join Abby and Vanessa who were waiting for them outside. It did seem to be quite hot in the closet now that Vanessa had mentioned it, although the girls were probably a bit more sensitive to temperature.

In other circumstances he might’ve felt a bit more self-conscious in this situation, but there was something sobering about being forced to perform menial chores together that made him feel more comfortable.

Finn on the other hand was clearly a bumbling mess, knocking into shelves when retrieving the roller cart and deliberately avoiding eye contact with Vanessa.

Abby Fate and Vanessa Lullaby seemed quite familiar and friendly with each other. The Fate and Lullaby families were both wealthy but not quite considered elite or minor elite families. William came across the Fate last name a few times when he searched the city records for traces of his own family, along with the last names of many other Trinity Academy students.

Since they only found one set of rolling carts in the janitor’s closet, they agreed to help the girls wheel over the heavy cleaner solution and buckets, and wheel them back later when they finished. William and Finn were bound to pass the girls’ bathroom several times during their eight-hour shift as it was in east wing, between stability storage and the cafeteria. Despite Vanessa and Finn’s protests about the chores, William was secretly glad that they had something to do. He wasn’t sure how his nerves would hold up simply waiting around for something to happen.

The four of them walked down east wing, rolling past students who were performing all sorts of miscellaneous tasks. A few male students looked shocked seeing two unknown students in the company of one of the top beauties in college, but since they were clearly helping her and Abby move supplies, they looked more like helpers than anything else.

William mentally reviewed the internal layout of the school. Stability storage was through east wing and up past the gymnasium, right before the generators. The girls’ bathroom was at the end of east wing by the observation tower staircase.

Sometimes, small details could make all the difference in the world. A single misplaced rake could make him see something he never would have seen otherwise… a slight nudge to the course of history… although now was not the time to get too philosophical.

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Vanessa sighing, clearly irritated. “I just can’t believe he’s having us mop the bathroom floor. What are my parents paying this stupidly expensive tuition for anyway?”

“I don’t mind doing a few chores, as long as we’re not going to be gruesomely killed,” Abby replied. She suddenly smirked. “Speaking of gruesome deaths…did you guys ever hear about the stalking beast or the night terror?”

“Is that a type of monster?” Vanessa asked.

William decided to speak up, as he’d searched this up before. “It’s a monster, and a pretty nasty one too. Not many written records of it, since it’s encountered so rarely, but its official name is the skulkus furtivis. Skulk for short,” he added. “Skulks were assessed to have a mid to high threat level to human life by the Threat Assessment Bureau. They’ve never been seen on this side, thankfully. Only beyond the gate.”

It was the same monster that Manager Kim claimed to have seen that night to the reporter, he thought. It was painful to listen to Manager Kim trying to push the angle to the reporter that even monsters couldn’t resist the smell of his store’s fried chicken.

Abby continued to speak animatedly. “Right, the skulk. The night terror from rumors. It’s the stuff of legends. I heard a particularly nasty first hand story about them from my sources.”

“So, imagine you’re just a regular soldier shipped off through a newly opened gate in a military convoy. You arrive and everything seems fine, it looks like a quiet world, so you set up an expedition camp and gamble a bit with your bunk mate. You guys drink a bit too much and fall asleep.”

“But later that night, you hear screams from your room, and when you turn on the lights you find blood everywhere. There’s pieces of intestines spattered on the sheets, bloody mucus on the wall, and your bunk mate is missing an arm and his stomach is torn open!”

“Ugh, I never understood why you liked gory tv shows and these kinds of stories,” Vanessa groaned.

Abby Fate’s eyes sparkled with interest as she continued. “Because they’re exciting!”

William and Finn exchanged concerned looks. Neither of them knew this side of Abby. To them, she had just been a hard working project group member who cared a lot about her grades.

“Anyway, as I was saying—so your dead bunk mate’s body is splattered all over the place, which obviously causes quite a commotion, particularly because nobody saw a monster anywhere near camp. Your camp leader sets up watch patrols and infrared sensors, even though those sensors rarely work on the other side with the interference and all, but the next night it happened again! Another soldier dead, this time missing half his face!”

“As hard as your team members try, nobody can seem to find the monster responsible. It’s as if the monster is invisible and makes no sound, and only seems to attack at night, which makes no sense to anyone. Suspicious, right? Your leader decides to withdraw the expedition team back to base, and that’s when rumors start spreading and the legend of the night terror is born. The monster that kills at night that no one has ever seen.”

“Where did you hear this?” asked William, highly curious now. He spent most of his free time reading about all sorts of topics, and even he hadn’t ever heard this story before.

“On the Occultorium forum, of course,” Abby said innocently. “I’m one of the original subscribers so I have access to the VIP locked threads. It’s the best place to get all the juicy details that get censored out of the news.”

“Ah.”

Occultorium was an underground online forum that had quite a bit of notoriety. Topics on there included anything from celebrity gossip to satanic summoning rituals. Sometimes a big story broke from there, like the high schooler who slashed his entire family with a knife was found to be a frequent user on those forums. The forum actually gained more traction after that slashing.

“That story could just be someone’s imagination running wild then,” William said.

“It could, but who knows?” Abby replied. “Strange things happen in this world.”

A heavy collision against the window to their side made the four of them jump in their place.

“What the hell?” Vanessa yelped, stepping back.

“They can probably hear us talking,” William said matter of factly. “Some monsters are sensitive to sound.”

Seeing Vanessa flustering, Abby laughed. “Oh, don’t be such a big baby. There’s no way any monster can get through that much metal,” she said with a smirk, cupping her hands in front of her mouth. ”Come get us!” Her shout drew the attention of a few passing students.

Her shout was answered by another collision, and frantic clawing sounds against the steel fortifications covering the window as the passing students walked away nervously and Finn took a backstep, nearly colliding into Vanessa.

“Y-you probably shouldn’t do that or we'll get in trouble,” Finn said nervously. “The rules said we’re not supposed to do anything to endanger fellow students.”

Abby put her hand on the steel wall. “Come on Finn. You’re even more scared than a girl? Can you even call yourself a man?”

William reached over and touched the steel. Logically, he wasn’t too worried either about a monster breaking through such thickness of reinforced high quality steel. He had to admit that listening to the monster on the other side actively trying to scratch through the wall was disconcerting though. Imagination was a fickle thing, and he could still see those yellow eyes, those long limbs clinging to the second story of the building. He shuddered. At the very least whatever monster was trying to ram its way through the steel had stopped after a few attempts.

“Let’s not joke about it too much Abby,” William said, roughly patting her shoulder. “It’s bad luck.”

“Bad luck huh? I didn’t think you were superstitious. Maybe you should check out the occult forum. You might like it. If you use my invitation I’ll get a referral bonus,” Abby said teasingly. “Anyway, we’re not going to have much to do while we’re trapped here at school.”

“Yeah, without any internet it’s so boring,” Finn said.

And another few days of not being able to work, William thought bitterly. I’m going to have to ask for a rent extension.

“Wait, I have an idea—why don’t we tell some ghost stories tonight?” Abby said. “How about at midnight, for the vibe? Let’s meet in front of the girl’s bathroom at midnight.”

“And don’t even think about saying no, Vanessa,” she added, her hands on her hips. “I know you have nothing better to do, you can’t even post anything tonight.”

They had already arrived in front of the girls’ bathroom, and after much insistence from Abby, Vanessa was the first to cave in.

Vanessa sighed. “Fine, I’ll come.”

Finn looked at William strangely, and without words William could already understand what he was trying to say. If they backed out now, they would look even more pathetic.

“We’ll be there as well,” Finn said enthusiastically.

Let’s hope nothing goes wrong tonight, William thought soberly.

They helped the two girls unload their cleaning supplies, trying not to dwell on Abby’s occult forum monster story, when a commotion came from down the hallway.

Luke Brightsteel and the group of friends that always surrounded him walked down the hallway with a new addition, an awkward looking freshman.