The old classroom door creaked as Elias pushed it open. The stale air hit him imdiately but he had gotten used to the sll by now. Three weeks of eting in this place and the mustiness no longer bothered him.
He stepped inside and closed the door, turning the rusty lock until he heard the click. The figure was already there, sitting at the sa desk as always.
"You’re late," the figure said without looking up.
Elias shrugged as he walked closer. "I had to wait. The prefects were doing their rounds tonight. I couldn’t risk being seen in the corridors."
"What do you have for ?"
Elias pulled out a small notebook from his jacket pocket. He had started keeping track of everything now, writing down tis and dates and every little detail he could rember. The figure had made it clear that accuracy mattered.
"They’re barely in their room anymore," Elias said, flipping through the pages. "I’ve been watching for two weeks now and the pattern is obvious. They leave almost every night."
The figure finally looked up. "Every night?"
"Well, not every single night but most nights. At first it was just one night here and there. They’d sneak out after midnight and co back before dawn. I could hear them returning because the floorboards in the corridor creak whenever soone walks on them."
Elias sat down in the desk across from the figure. "But now it’s different. They’ve been gone for three nights straight. Three full nights and nobody in the dormitory knows where they went."
"Three nights," the figure repeated slowly.
"Yes. And here’s the interesting part." Elias leaned forward, his voice dropping to a whisper even though they were alone in the abandoned classroom. "They left the night before Bella was sent to the forest."
The figure went completely still.
Elias continued, watching the reaction carefully. "The timing is too perfect to be a coincidence. The night before the school announces that Bella broke so rule and gets banished to the forest, those four disappear. And they haven’t been back since."
"Are you certain about the tiline?"
"Absolutely certain. I wrote it all down." Elias held up his notebook. "Bella was sent away on Friday morning. The four of them left Thursday night. I heard them leave around eleven thirty."
The figure stood up and began pacing behind the desk. "What exactly did you hear that night?"
"Footsteps in the corridor. Quiet but not quiet enough. I got out of bed and looked through my door. I saw all four of them walking toward the main staircase. And they were dressed in dark clothes instead of their pajamas or school uniforms."
Elias flipped to another page in his notebook. "I tried to follow them but by the ti I got to the staircase they were already gone. I waited by the window in the common room for about an hour but I never saw them leave through the main entrance."
"Which ans they used another exit."
"Exactly what I was thinking. There are several ways to leave the school grounds without going through the main gate. The old servant’s entrance near the kitchen, the gap in the fence behind the sports equipnt shed, the basent door that leads to the groundskeeper’s path."
The figure stopped pacing. "You’ve researched this thoroughly."
"I told you I would keep watching them. I ant it." Elias closed his notebook and tucked it back into his jacket. "But there’s more."
"Go on."
"Other students are starting to notice. Not many, but a few. Marcus from the room next to theirs asked yesterday if I knew where they went. He said their beds haven’t been slept in for days."
"What did you tell him?"
"Nothing useful. I said I didn’t know and suggested maybe they were in trouble with a teacher and had to do extra duties or sothing like that. Marcus seed to accept that explanation."
The figure nodded approvingly. "Good. We don’t want too many people asking questions."
Elias stood up and walked to the window. Through the dirty glass he could see the forest that surrounded the school grounds. Sowhere in those trees was Bella, supposedly living alone as punishnt for whatever rule she had broken.
"Do you think they went to find her?" Elias asked. "The four of them, I an. Do you think they went into the forest to look for Bella?"
"What makes you think that?"
Elias turned away from the window. "Well, they ntioned her na that night I heard them talking about the pact thing. And then she disappears and they disappear right after. It seems connected."
"Connected how?"
"I don’t know exactly. But think about it. Four boys who are clearly involved in so kind of secret pact, they’re talking about a girl, then the girl gets sent away and they vanish almost the sa night. Either they’re running from sothing or they’re going after sothing."
The figure sat back down at the desk. "Or soone."
"You think they went to find Bella."
"I think they went to find answers. Whether that ans finding Bella or finding whoever sent her away, I’m not sure yet."
Elias felt a chill run down his spine. He hadn’t considered the possibility that the four boys might be investigating Bella’s banishnt rather than just trying to rescue her. "You think there’s more to her punishnt than the school is telling us?"
"Don’t you?"
Elias thought about it. The official story was that Bella had been caught breaking curfew multiple tis and had been banished to the forest as punishnt.
But now that he really considered it, sothing did seem off about the whole situation.
"She was only here for a few weeks," Elias said slowly. "Most new students take at least a month or two before they start pushing boundaries. And I never saw her breaking any rules during the day."
"What else?"
"The punishnt itself is strange. Usually when students get in serious trouble they get suspended or expelled. Bella was exiled imdiately, which is strange, given she was still considered a new student."
The figure was watching him carefully. "You have a point."
"So what do we do?"
The figure pulled out a folded piece of paper from inside their cloak. "You’re going to keep watching. But now you’re also going to start asking questions."
"What kind of questions?"
"Careful ones. You’re going to talk to other students who knew Bella. Find out if anyone saw anything unusual before she was sent away. Find out if anyone else noticed strange behavior from the four boys."
Elias took the paper and unfolded it. Inside was a list of nas. Students who had been in so of Bella’s classes or who had been seen talking to her.
"These are people who might know sothing," the figure explained. "But you have to be subtle. Don’t make it obvious that you’re investigating. Just casual conversations, friendly questions."
"What if soone gets suspicious? What if they start asking why I’m so interested in Bella?"
"Tell them you’re concerned about her safety. Tell them you think it’s unfair that she was punished so harshly for breaking curfew. Most students will sympathize with that."
Elias studied the list of nas. So he recognized, others he didn’t know well. "This is going to take ti."
"We have ti. The four boys have been gone for three nights but they’ll co back eventually. When they do, we need to know what they discovered."
"What if they don’t co back?"
The figure was quiet for a long mont. "Then we’ll know that whatever they found was serious enough to keep them away permanently."
The figure stood up again and walked to the blackboard, and with one finger traced letters in the dust. B-E-L-L-A.
"Everyone who knew her seems to think she didn’t deserve her punishnt," the figure said quietly.
"So you think she was innocent? That she didn’t actually break any rules?"
"I think she was targeted. I think soone wanted her removed from the school and used the rule breaking as an excuse."
Elias felt his pulse quicken. "But who would want her gone? And why?"
"That’s what we need to find out. And that’s why you’re going to talk to everyone on that list. Soone saw sothing, soone knows sothing, soone has a piece of information that will help us understand what really happened."
The figure erased Bella’s na from the blackboard with the palm of their hand. "But rember, Elias. You have to be careful. If soone did arrange for Bella to be sent away, they won’t want you uncovering the truth."
"Are you saying I might be in danger?"
"I’m saying you need to be smart about this. Don’t let anyone know what you’re really doing. Don’t trust anyone completely. And if you sense that soone is getting suspicious of your questions, back off imdiately."
Elias nodded, though he felt a knot forming in his stomach. When he had first started eavesdropping on the four boys, it had seed like harmless fun. A way to satisfy his curiosity and maybe learn so interesting gossip.
Now it was starting to feel like sothing much more serious and potentially dangerous.
Elias walked to the door. "I’ll be careful."
"See that you are. And Elias?"
"Yes?"
"If those four boys have been gone for three nights and they’re not back yet, whatever they’re dealing with is serious. That ans we need to move quickly before the trail goes cold."
The figure unlocked the door and peered out into the corridor. "Sa ti next week. Unless you discover sothing urgent before then."
"How will I reach you if I need to?"
"Leave a note in the usual place."
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