The plan was simple. We would wake up early and leave our rooms before Heena arrived.

“Should we take this with us?” Rame asked, holding a kitchen knife with him.

“For what, cutting apples?”

“We might face foes much stronger than us.” He told, while swinging the knife like he was fighting a rare breed Curas which only he could see. He even slammed himself to the wall as if it was the creature that threw him. For a duel with an imaginary enemy, he had excelled at his style. The grip he held, the way his hand moved, he could easily fool any of the common folks into believing that he was really fighting an invisible Curas. But not us.

Rame was the most talented in our class, whether it be in theory or practice, none of us could beat him. And the funny part was, Rame was not even trying his best. It was normal for him to top the class, like how breathing was for us. I would be lying if I said I was never jealous of him. Although, that was simply the truth. He belonged to the most powerful family in our country, the Karians. His genes were meant to be at the top.

The same was true for Heena. She was the eldest daughter of the Bloodvanes, one of the direct descendants of the royal family.

“Just take whatever you like. We need to leave before she comes here.” After putting on our uniforms, we left.

Victor and his party will meet us in front of the new building. We intended to make our adventure hidden and leaving the dormitory in a group will only gather unwanted attention. So we decided to leave in two parts.

“All clear”, Rame signalled with his hand and started moving out. Being careful to avoid any of the faculty’s attention, we left the gate and rushed towards our destination.

According to our plan, Victor would reach there first and we would see him near the gate of the new building along with his minions.

And there he was, Victor and his three minions.

What, three? It should be three including Victor. Why was there an extra person? His new friend? No way! Wait, it was no new friend of his, it was..

“Heena!” Rame shouted.

Great. What a wonderful plan we had! So simple and so stupid.

“What are you doing here?”

“Me, oh I was just taking a morning stroll and was surprised to see your friend Victor here along with his friends. We were just talking about you guys.” She smiled with victorious eyes.

“You know it is forbidden for students to come here and..”, before he completed his worthless words, I stopped him with my hand on his shoulders.

It was clear as day in her face, “No matter what you say, I was coming with you guys.” Arguing was just futile.

However, another problem was the annoyed face of Victor. He came forward and warned in our ears,

“She came here for you guys. No matter what happens to her, I will not take any responsibility.” He and his gang started walking towards the entrance of the new building, leaving the three of us.

“Why, why are you following us? ”

“I am following no one. I came here myself and plan to be myself until this ‘adventure’ of yours ends.” She stated. Now, Rame was the one who was annoyed.

“Shain, make her leave.”

“Me, how am I supposed to do that? You know she isn’t going to listen.”

“Shain’s right. You can’t make leave, that is, unless..” She paused.

“Unless?” Rame asked. To which she replied hesitantly.

“Unless you guys decide to go back to the room and we can all study together.”

That was not gonna happen.

“That isn’t gonna happen. You can do whatever you like, however we will not be responsible for any of you.” He snarled and left.

“Do you really think it was worth it?” I could not help but ask. All I could see was her trying her best to annoy Rame and succeeding in it.

The won-like expression faded away from her face.

“I don’t know what else to do. You know how bad Victor’s influence was. The last time it got you three suspended.”

“Yes, still that's what he’s like, Heena. You want to keep him away from trouble and he wants the same thing for you. We don’t want you to get entangled in any of the trouble which we might face.”

“You are telling me as if I am the only one who’s wrong here.”

“All I am saying is that Rame doesn’t want anything bad happening to you because of us.”

“That you can be rest assured, I am more than enough to take care of myself.” She said with her chest high.

“If you say so. And try to walk close to us. You might want to keep your distance from us after all that show, but now is not the time.”

“I know, I know.” She started waking with a nod. I also followed them, leaving the entrance empty.

---

“Why would you even come to this deserted place?” Heena asked as we wandered through the hallway of the new building.

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

The question was not directed at anyone so I expected Rame to respond, however, he didn’t. Victor and his gang were taking the lead and we three followed them quietly. All of us were silent until now, and Heena was the one to break it with her question.

“This is the tallest building inside the Academy. That’s why.”

“Is that so? I tried to find out more about this building, whereas most girls from our dormitory weren’t even aware that a new building was under construction. Isn’t it weird, like the Academy was purposefully trying to hide the info?” She asked.

She was right. We only got to know about this from Victor and the Academy didn’t even release any official statements related to this new building. But, so were many things here. She was asking these questions because she wasn't aware of all the other secrets that the Academy was hiding from the students.

“Look,” Victor turned around and started speaking in his resounding voice.

“If you are afraid, then say so. You can leave if you want, and no one stops you. Even so, if you desire to walk with us, then shut that babbling and follow us in silence.” He warned her.

One could see why half of the class was afraid of this kid. Having a big grumpy body with a terrific and intimidating voice like that made most of us judge him even before we spoke with him.

The pale face Heena held was the same one Rame and I had when he talked to us first. Although, being together for almost two years with him, we have certainly learned to not judge a book by its cover. He was like a sheep, in fox’s skin.

You can’t expect one to know that just by looking at him and his attitude towards Heena only made it worse. The tough girl who walked closer to him, now slowed down her steps, keeping enough distance from him. We also had no choice but to keep our steps with her.

“He might look like a Rhino from outside, but he is a nice guy.” Rame said.

“Really? Doesn’t look so nice to me.”

“Sometimes, you should use that empty shell of a head to understand people rather than just relying on eyes.” Rame brought the long lost philosopher in him just to make her look like an idiot, and from her baffled expression, he really succeeded in doing so.

“Yes, like the first time Victor approached us and you punched him in the face out of fear. He really was a nice guy to forgive you for that.” I added, knowing that it will crush the short spanned success of him.

“That was out of reflex. You can’t help it when you turn around and see a big guy blocking your entire field of view.”

“Shut up, Rame. What if he hears you?” Heena turned to look at Victor in concern of his hearing, but he was just walking.

“Don’t worry, we are already over that stage.” I reassured her by putting my hands around her.

The aim was the roof. The tallest building meant that it might have the best rooftop view. Though, it was forbidden for students to roam around the roof. Even entering the new building was forbidden. And since we already broke a rule, it would be the same if we broke one or two extra.

“Are they both like servants to Victor’s?” Heena again started her series of questions. We still had three more floors to climb before reaching the roof.

“No of course not, like I said, he is a nice guy. Might be the nicest of us five. Why would you even ask that?” Rame widened his eyes at her.

“Well, surely you can see he was the only one doing the talking and the other two did just as he told them to do. Wasn’t that weird?”

“The only one being weird was you, Miss Heena. Please quietly walk until Victor throws you out of the window.” Rame hastened his steps, reaching the leading gang.

“I was just asking.” She whined and bowed her head.

“You remember the time last month when we got suspended?”

“Yes of course, the whole academy remembers it.”

“Well, on that day, it was only us three who got suspended.” She frowned.

“Yet that day, all five of us were present when we did that. Victor made sure to keep those two’s names from popping up. We respected his decision and did the same.” The frown turned to shock after she heard that.

She kept her down looking guilty and continued walking in silence.

Beyond that, she didn’t ask any new questions and followed us like a kitten. Maybe she purposefully kept silent for being less annoying, or her thoughts kept her busy. Her calm walk with limited movements made it hard for me to judge her feelings. Anyway, I did not hate the silence between us.

The building was very much similar to our old buildings. The hallway that started near the staircase and branched into different sections as we walked, the huge wooden door for each classroom, and even the colour and design of the walls were the same. I was a little disappointed to see the same old works. One would expect to see novelty in a new building, but for some reason, the director decided to go with the same old design.

However, something was off, or different from our old buildings. Victor was the first one to say that aloud.

“Stop.” He raised his hands and blocked us. It was a junction where he halted his steps. He looked either side of the hallway and stared out of the window.

“Did you notice?” He frowned. I turned my gaze in the same direction. He was looking through the window. The sun rose almost an hour ago and the rays entered the hallway through that window. But what did he notice? The window, the rays, the light….

The light was weird. We could see a huge open garden in the middle of the building yet it was dark there.

The sun already rose, and it was still dark there. I checked the upside of the open garden and could clearly see the sky, still no light entered through that opening.

“It’s like a huge barrier blocking the light entering the building.” I spoke.

“Yet it allowed us to see the other side from inside.” Heena added.

“A one way light barrier.” Victor named it.

“What, is that even possible? Nothing like this was mentioned in the textbooks?” Heena frowned and walked closer to the edge.

“The text doesn't always tell you the full story, miss Heena. You have to find it yourselves, like how we are going to do it now.” Rame grinned at her and continued to walk. So did the others, except me.

“What, you're not coming?” Rame asked as he noticed me standing still. I remained silent and scanned the entire hallway.

“Something’s not right.”

“What? Yes we know that and we are going to find that?” Rame frowned. It was not the first time we went into danger. Then again, something about this building was not right.

“What is it, Shain?” Victor turned and I could see it in his eyes. He also felt it.

“Someone made a barrier that detached the inside space from outside. See, the sky above the garden was not the real sky. It’s been the same ever since we arrived here. It was not a one-way barrier, but an illusion of a false sky.”

“Illusion?” Heena raised her concern.

“But why would the Academy do something like that?” Dwell, one of Victor’s minions, spoke for the first time after entering the building.

“Maybe to prevent someone from seeing the real time outside.” Runne, his other minion answered.

“To prevent who? Wasn’t it weird that we have not encountered any other person other than ourselves.” Victor continued,

“This was supposed to be a new building yet we didn’t see any workers or builders here. And look around us. What part of this building seems under construction to you? The windows are made, the walls painted and even the classrooms were filled with desks. This place looks more like an abandoned building than a new one to me.”

He was right. Yet there were no signs of abandonment. Everything looked new and unused, just like a new building. It was as if..

“The time has stopped here.” Rame stated my exact thought.

“We should leave.” Victor ran towards the downward staircase, from which we reached here.

However, the stairs were absent. Instead, the place turned to a dead end.