When the Night Comes

I smiled helplessly at the blushing girl who probably chided her stomach at this current moment.

My smile though, only caused Cielle to redden even more.

In a way, it was kind of amazing. To be able to worry about such trivialities when death, ruin and whatever else may come lay behind the single layer door frame of this room. I don’t know whether to praise Cielle for her steadfastness or worry about her mental health.

In an attempt to calm Cielle down, who by now, had started fidgeting restlessly, I spoke out.

“Now that you mention it, I am a bit hungry too…” I gripped at my own stomach, feeling the unusual hollowness that indicated I hadn’t eaten in a while.

Cielle, upon hearing this, nodded firmly.

“Then…”

I trailed off as my hands entered my pants pocket. Not a moment later, I pulled out the granola bar that I had saved from before. I had planned on using this during my “farming” but I guess such an opportunity never came.

I bought the package of rolled oat to eye level and looked between it and the people around me.

Cielle and I were hungry, and if you add in Hina who, in all likelihood would wake up sooner or later, we had a total of three mouths to feed. There was no way that one measly piece of food would be enough.

We had to get more.

I looked around the strewn about backpacks. Most, if not all of them were open, their contents flayed about on the dirty, stained floor.

“...I’m guessing you’ve already checked all the bags?” I asked while my eyes lazily scanned the ground. Truth be told, I also checked the bags earlier before I left, so it wouldn’t come as a surprise had Cielle done the same thing in my absence.

“Y-yeah, you were gone for so long… and I needed something to do…” Cielle muttered under her breath as she informed me that she raided everything within this room due to boredom.

I nodded absentmindedly at this.

“Then, did you find any food?” I asked.

“....I...I did.” Cielle hesitated for a moment before she confirmed. Oddly enough, what portion of her face showed through the curtain of hair was dyed an even brighter red.

“...What happened to the food?” I asked her.

I didn’t see anything resembling snacks, candy, or food upon entering the room, so it left me wondering. Wait… no, that was wrong. I did see something. I didn’t notice before, but behind the teacher’s desk, placed meticulously next to the first aid kit against the wall… was an endless supply of wrappers. From Kit kats to protein bars, all sorts of remnants remained, all but eaten.

“I ate all of it….” Cielle guiltily spoke, while her eyes seemed to bore a hole into the ground.

“...And you still want more food?” I questioned as impassively as I could.

“.....” Cielle said nothing as she strained her neck to avoid eye contact.

“...”

“...”

“How can you eat so much in a situation like this?” I sighed out, not really serious in my reprimand. Sort of teasing.

Although I did have an ulterior motive to condition Cielle to the guilt I was currently administering.

She was about to protest when--

“Uuuu…” Her abdomen made another rumbling noise.

She blushed furiously, probably guilt and shame once again dyed her mind as she gripped her stomach strongly, in a vain attempt to hold back the noise.

“...Damn, that’s noisy... What if a monster heard that outside...”

“S-sorry…” She hung her head down in defeat, letting her arms fall to the side. The sound of continuous stomach rumbling created the background music for her apology.

“How can you be such a glutton when your frame is so small…”

I noted while I took in exactly how small the girl was. She was about a head shorter than me and although I couldn’t exactly tell due to her baggy clothing, she had a small enough frame to where I could imagine that carrying her wasn’t any different from carrying a baby.

“... Sorry…” She apologized again.

“That’s not necessarily a bad thing though…” I absentmindedly stated while I went to go pick up what looked like a granola bar off the floor. Turned out it was just a wrapper.

“Eh?” Her voice let out an audible noise while she looked up for a moment. Her face was brighter than ever.

“I don’t think monsters would want to eat such a small person.” I further explained.

“O-oh….” She looked back down again, her blush somewhat diminished.

I sighed out once more.

[Well, enough messing around with her. It might be fun but it’s wasting time. Plus, I wouldn’t want her to always be so… glum. It leaves a bad aftertaste in my mouth.]

Changing the subject, I stated, “Let’s go look for some food then… It can’t be helped that you’ve already eaten everything.”

I stated simply to which I got a firm uuu! reply. Cielle was a bit fired up, probably fueled by the feelings of guilt she’s produced.

I scanned the room one more time before I walked over towards the left side of the room.

There wasn’t a traditional wall, rather, there was a wide window and a single doorway that connected this room and a small teacher’s lounge for the art teachers together. I peered into the window and on the other side of the teacher’s lounge, was another door which connected to an adjacent art room.

The door had been left unopened, mostly since neither of us ever entered this interconnected room. Nobody knew what lay on the other side, and at the time, it was much safer keeping the door closed and sealed off rather than opened and connected.

I opened the door for the first time, letting in a puff of stale air enter our current classroom.

I poked my head inside and did a brief overview before I signaled for Cielle to follow.

She reluctantly left Hina’s side and followed.

“You haven’t entered the teacher’s lounge, have you?” I asked as she walked closer. Although I already knew the answer to this question.

She shook her head, causing her hair to sway left and right. She reached my current location and confirmed once more with an affirmative, yet somewhat prideful, “No, I haven’t.”

I nodded.

“Good, then find some food around here while I check out the other artroom.”

I stated as I walked across the teacher’s lounge and opened the other door.The familiar scent of death entered my system when I did so.

“Don’t eat everything this time, okay~” I spoke a passing remark, which promoted a grunt of protest, as I entered the adjacent art room.

The structure and overall equipment of this adjacent room was practically identical to the one Hina was currently in. The placement of cabinets, the large, wall sized window that overlooked into the burning city, even the way the teacher’s desk sat at the front of the classroom. They were all very similar. Of course, there was one major change.

The bodies.

Unlike the other room, this corpse ridden place didn’t have their own version of Cielle to remove all the dead bodies. The smell had fostered quite terribly, but luckily, it wasn’t all that bad. I didn’t notice through the teacher’s lounge, but there was a gaping hole where the door to the hallway should have been.

This hole allowed for some of the stale air to waft out, which allowed the place to be somewhat less disgusting.

The hole prompted caution in me, as I grasped Efhermet and gripped its handle tightly. While the outside was quiet and showed no signs of movement, one could never be too careful.

Still retaining that caution, I immediately began inspecting the bags and started scavenging for supplies. My somewhat helpless expression I had when I conversed with Cielle faded, only to be replaced by the impassive mask I currently used to view my surroundings.

I moved over to the closest one and inspected it. Of course, I used [identify] both on all the bags and their contents. Mainly, I did this to see if I could find anything useful, also, doing this was good experience for my skill.

Most of the bags were fairly close to the corpses that scattered the room, so it was kind of a chore inspecting them.

A little over 10 minutes passed when a noticeable change occurred; The room shifted into darkness.

At first, this change filled me with a heavy sense of dread and despair. I was reminded of what happened during the countdown. Was something similar about to occur? Now of all times?

My grip on Efhermet got tighter, causing my knuckles to whiten. I stopped scavenging for a moment as I scanned the area.

“.....”

My eyes were still vigilant, and except for the dark, I couldn’t find anything remotely suspicious. I couldn’t find anything, that is, until my eyes met the window panel that overlooked the outside.

“....”

I sighed out, somewhat relieved.

The reason the room had gotten darker was because the clouds from outside were dissipating.

You see, I hadn’t noticed before but the current time should be around 1 am.

Now usually, when its about an hour past midnight, everything gets a bit, no, everything gets noticeably darker. In this regard, I lost my sense of time mostly because of the view from outside.

Ominous clouds spiraled against the backdrop. It filled the whole sky, blocking out any of the twilight black most people had grown accustomed too.The clouds themselves, strangely enough, produced a sort of luminescent red, leaving the impression that it was still daylight outside.

Coupled with the still beating glow from the epicenter of the cyclone of clouds, it was hard to tell the current time from the sky alone.

Now though, these clouds began to part. They eventually revealed the quiet backdrop of the milky way. Actually, I’d say tonight would be a good time to stargaze, seeing as how there’s a huge possibility that due to all the chaos, more than just a number of lights would be out in the city.

Once I had calmed down, I immediately set out to work once more. I checked and scavenged every knook and cranny of this room, even going so far as to inspect the clothing of the dead for anything useful.

My pace was much more quickened. I wanted to monopolize the glow of the red clouds before they completely vanished.

In as short as 15 minutes, I finished scavenging.

I had found nothing interesting using [identify] but I did manage to find some food.

From a scavenged backpack, I filled it with all the edible bits I could find. A sandwich, sealed in a paper bag that was left uneaten during lunch, a couple of granola bars, some pack of chips, even leftover casserole that I found on the teacher’s desk. By the looks of it, this casserole was the uneaten lunch of the dead teacher in question.

With the total amount of food I found, I -- I mean, the three of us should be good for about 2 days. It’s after those two days which worries me… By then, we’ll have to go down to the cafeteria, but by some strange coincidence, there’s no food there, then we’ll be in serious trouble. Seeing as we can’t escape this place… starvation rather than death by monster would be the biggest concern… when, and if that time ever comes.

Also, there’s the issue about water, but luckily that’s not a drastic concern. You’d be surprised how many students bring along water bottles to class.

I also stuffed a few jackets and sweaters that I removed from the dead bodies. I mean, it gets cold and night, so…. although it was kind of hard finding these jackets, considering how warm it gets during summer, not many students brought them.

As I prepared to make my way back, I briefly glanced over the dead bodies.

I played with the thought of using [dissect] on the corpses. If I did, I could gleam more than just a few tidbits of information. I’d know their weaknesses, and in general I could learn a bit more about the human body by extension. Desecrating these already dead students has numerous advantages.

Plus, when I came across some crazy “players”, which I no doubt know it will happen, I’d have a small lead if a fight broke off.

I contemplated this, but in the end, I brushed such a gruesome thought aside.

I wasn’t comfortable with that thought. I was still human after all, and while I may be able to do the same with goblins, it really was a whole ‘nother thing to do such a brutal task on to real human bodies. It was a sort of ethical and moral dilemma that struggled inside, as if my subconscious was trying to retain as much normal social etiquette at possible despite the situation.

So, as decided, I left the bodies alone.

If I ever did get desperate enough, I’d probably use [dissect] on people, but for now, it can wait.

As I lost myself thinking about such things, my mind was immediately brought back to reality by a rather haunting sound.

It was low. A low pitched growl of sorts. The noise resonated from out into the hall, and due to the hole in the wall, this noise not only resonated, but echoed within the artroom.

My keen ears instantly picked this noise up, prompting me to peer out into the hallway. By now, night had fully set. This room was only lit by the faint light of the stars from out the window, and the hallway looked menacing from my perspective.

An eternal darkness.

That’s what it was. As I peered into the hallway, I saw a place so dark that one would think it was void of everything. From life, commotion and noise. One wouldn’t think either of these things existed in this eternal darkness.

Too bad I was wrong.

I had definitely heard a low, primal growl earlier. There was no mistake, my above average hearing heard it, despite what my brain wanted to believe.

And just now, I heard it again.

*****

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