The clock didn't stop ticking, yet it felt like time halted after a series of uncanny pages unfolded upon another. I, in my visual leather shoes, stood in front of the long table as the time approached nearly eight in the night. The crickets abused their vocals as they filled every empty noise during our discussion.
"Let's proceed." I reverberated. "Odd Case #8 exclaims the white propaganda of 2017. Contrary to what we would initially think, this does not have any correlation with Caucasians."
Odd Case #8 tackles a certain period of time in 2017 wherein white marks can be seen all throughout the campus. They come in many different forms. In fact, they might resemble a bear's claw mark, and sometimes, it would just be simply a random person's handprint. A recently written clause adds to the document, "A handprint found at the fountain at night resembles a similar color." Implying that the same cause of these phenomena could be related to the cause of the 4th Odd Case. Though the author of this line is unlisted. Who are we kidding? Nobody is more obsessed with the fountain at night than him- Lenard Choi. I've read through it, but there must be details I'm missing for me not to get how special his case is.
With the folder comes several images that illustrated the white marks. The written document did not lie. The descriptions perfectly match up with the images and the white marks are pretty varied too. Ranging from claw marks, bites, handprints, or even just unimaginable objects and random shapes is just there. They can be found usually in isolated places such as under the bathroom sink or above the roof of the greenhouse, including at the side of the abandoned shed on our campus.
"How can we make sure that these marks aren't man-made?" Davila raised her hand regarding his concern for the record's validity. "Do we have any CCTV footages that could have proved the validity of this assumption?"
"As of the records, we do not. Hence, you are perfectly right for wording this case as a mere assumption.", I replied. "We can say that this, without any footage, is valid because of the past year's odd case."
"Then what is the latest odd case?" they asked.
"It's titled- Odd Case #12: Fountain at Night." they all opened their eyes depicting internalized confusion. The constant tremor in their legs stresses their curiosity. "Though I'm not discussing anything about it without us all reading the contents of the cases before it, so I apologize."
They rested their shoulders the moment I declared.
"Shall we proceed?" holding the following folder and flipping it to the front of my palms, I asked them with imminent knowledge at the top of my own head.
"Yes, upperclassman." Ezekiel nodded on behalf of his club's members.
I sighed, "All right." I resumed. "Odd Case #9 is titled The Vex Phenomenon of 2018."
The 9th odd case gives a spotlight on a similar case to what we all were experiencing. The testament follows a certain experience of a particular student named "Luxe Langga" who found herself in a place similar to the academic building 2, but quite different. It says here that these buildings had yellow-tinted walls and there was nobody in sight. However, every single thing that the building contain really was visible in this odd place. During a heat spike during her stay there, she collapsed- leaving only her to wake up to reality in the clinic. Though this testament could be classified as just plainly "a dream", there are certain elements that could support that this was somehow an odd case.
For starters, she explained her experience in detail of what she saw with her bare eyes, including the places that students cannot reach by legal means. This includes the school's confidential records which she says were just located inside the safe under the desk in the guidance office. The main problem is that the cameras, which were attached this year, did not reveal her entering the guidance office's vicinity nor did any staff notice her entrance. The main fact that she was aware of the information written on those hidden papers was supernatural alone. In an interview, she quoted that the only thing she touched was the backside of the safe during the astral experience. And relating this to the previous cases, a white handprint can be observed on the said area she said.
"So these cases are..." Ezekiel mumbled to himself, "Interconnected?"
"Precisely.", I added. "In fact, most of them are. I can hypothesize that Odd Case #4 might be connected with Odd Case #5. Alex Gulang may be a student affected by such incidents which caused the declining student count." Right, there may also be other interconnected cases that may lead to a much bigger picture. "And obviously, Odd Case #1 is connected with Odd Case #2 with the area restriction taking effect with the restriction being lifted in 2013 which the declining student count resumed."
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"To add, as the resident skeptic, can't we say that the student in question is merely delusional?", soon after Viktoria added her statement. "And can we not say that the CCTV footage might be manipulated and cut, so that they may place that white powder as a reason for them to sneak inside that confidential safe?"
"There are three things to be considered.", I added. "One, the handprint is unique and does not match anybody in the City's database. Yes, my predecessor, Lenard Choi contacted the City Department of Investigation, and the handprint expressed here." I showed them a photo of the white handprint pinned to the folder. "Does not match anybody within the vicinity of our region."
"It may be planted. Forged, perhaps. To stray us from the investigation" she added.
"Possibly, but it leads us to the second information on hand." I cleared my throat, "The password to the safe is known only by the guidance counselor, even the campus director had no clue of the combination. However, she was out-of-town which means who could have possibly opened it?", I added my weak statement. "I know we can't base the investigation on trusting that only the counselor knew the combination because we won't deny the possibility that it may be leaked."
"Right..."
"So, we're going to take the third consideration. Though this statement may be weak, bear with me.", I bit my tongue. I never thought I'd be like this. "The supernatural in this school exists." The final determiner of every case relies on this statement, why? The predictions of Lenard Choi were enough paranormal for me, and so is Odd Case #11, but we'll get to that. And apart from myself, everyone in this room knows how Sue disappeared.
"Alright.", Viktoria concluded her statement. "Let's move on to another case."
"I second that.", said Davila.
I grabbed another folder on the table, "The following, Odd Case #10 revolves around a certain smell that randomly appears and then disappears. It is described as somewhat similar to a rotten corpse base mixed with sandalwood and musky after-scent. Though only reported in 2019, Odd Case #10: The Horrible Smell Case of 2019 was said to be experienced far earlier even alumni adding that they have smelled a similar stench even far back in 2010." I closed the one-paged folder. "That's it. The following statements provide an in-depth description of the stench. Such as it was comparable to a 300-degree celsius baked toenail at 10 minutes, sided with goat feces, and topped with Catholic incense and cheap perfume."
"I think I have smelled this scent far back in the 7th grade.", said Ahnz.
"You did?"
"Yeah..." he sighed. "Never thought it was an odd phenomenon. I thought it was just Ezekiel farting, it was similar to his stench." he chuckled. "Honestly though, the description was familiar to me, upperclassman, I believe in this case. I am a direct witness to this madness."
Viktoria raised her hands in question, "Could not be this classified as a debate of correlation and causation?"
"The problem is there was no cause." I took another folder and readied it to be read. "And it occurred for several generations. Yes, we can point this to someone simply farting, but no two people fart the same stench. Plus, no far has a sandal-wood like after-scent."
The crowd giggled. "Then you haven't smelled Sue's fart.", jokingly added Ero.
"Excuse me?" I smiled.
"Excuse us, upperclassman." Though giggling with them, Ezekiel tried to make the meeting more formal. "Ero was simply reminiscing a memory where Sue's fart was seemingly lavender and rose-scented."
"Ah...", I chuckled a bit. Oh to have a group of friends. "Alright, settle down. We'll read through the next folder, so we can dismiss the investigation early."
"Yes, upperclassman." they all nodded.
"Odd Case #11 describes the silence of 2021.", I announced. "Is anyone familiar with this?"
"Was this on November 21, 2021?" asked Davila. "I'm familiar."
"Wait, what was it?" almost everyone leaned towards Davila. "What do you mean?"
"What do you mean- 'what do you mean', huh?", she replied. "This was when nobody remembered what happened that day. Not a single memory from the staff or from the students. Though our notebooks were filled with notes, and our clothes used, nobody really remembered what happened that certain Monday." she added, "What's more is that it only happened within the radius of our campus."
"Precisely.", I said. "And the worst thing is everyone took it lightly- like it was not such a big deal."
It's true. Almost everyone brushed it off as something weird and eventually forgot about it. Personally, I did not. I knew something important happened that day, and I could lay a finger about what it was. Back then, I was still the SCA Auditor, the following year, I became a vice, and then this year, the president. But, despite it all, it's quite uncanny that I can't seem to remember what happened that day. Even the SCA president at that time, if I remember correctly- Hannah Pratt, realized it. She was the one who submitted this prompt. Guess, she was the only one in the council alliance aware of these things too, at that time.
"Do you have any skepticism for this matter, Viktoria?" I raised my eyebrow and sat back on the chair right behind me. Standing for hours explaining these cases is more than draining.
"I guess... I do not..." she sighed. "I, myself, didn't remember much that day too. For a large population density having this many synchronized memory gaps. It's odd." she played with her fingers a bit to think.
"It's almost like the Men In Black.", commented Ahnz who referenced many popular media throughout our entire discussion.
"So does that mean we can proceed to the last and oddest case of all?" I leaned towards them and grabbed the folder which was as white as milk.
Ezekiel thought it over and looked at his members, he nodded and spoke, "The Tribunal of Anomalies is ready."