Troom! Troom!
"Attention, all students! Please gather in the Assembly Hall."
The loudspeaker blared like a broken robot.
And, man, the school was alive again.
Not like they came to study or anything
nah.
It was gossip, new shoes, fresh phones, flexing outfits.
"Hey Google, I just went karaoke with my boyfriend!"
"I came back from the city yesterday, it was sooo nice~"
Girls were running late, boys were shouting on the basketball court, tennis balls flying, football kids yelling like they were in the World Cup.
Me?
I just walked through it all bag on my back, hands in my pockets, eyes on the ground.
No friends. No noise. Just… me.
Didn't want no spotlight today.
Then grab!
Someone caught my shoulder from behind.
"Yo, dude!" Cairo.
"Didn't you see my house yesterday? Why didn't you wait for me so we could roll to school together? Whatever don't worry, I'm here now."
I turned and there she was.
Nami.
Leaning by the gate wall, arms crossed, cool as ever.
In her hand? A club paper. "Mystery Club." Already signed.
She walked up to me, handed it over. "Since your club's not getting any members, I'm joining. Congrats."
I blinked. "Wait who told you about my club?"
"Oh, Mr. Daigo. The man can't keep his mouth shut. Said some new city transfer kid opened a 'mystery club.' You walk like you're lost half the time, so I guessed it was you."
Cairo snatched the paper from my hand, signed it too.
"Yo, I didn't even know you were in a club, bro!"
And just like that boom. Two new members.
The teacher almost fainted when I turned the form in.
"Well," he said, fake-smiling, "that was fast. Hope your little ghost club goes well."
Yeah, right.
We left the office.
Nami split first her class was near the science block.
Cairo's class was upstairs.
Mine? 3-E.
Soon as I hit my seat, I dropped my head on the desk and passed out.
Even half-asleep, I could still hear the chatter:
"Yo, the security guards said they saw three figures running across the yard last night."
"Yeah, bro, they were soaked like dripping wet!"
"Maybe they were ghosts, dude!"
My eyes shot open.
Soaked? Three people?
That was us.
I jumped from my seat and stormed out the class, heading straight to the old building the Mystery Club room.
When I opened the door, Nami and Cairo were already there, cleaning the place up like they owned it.
Nami looked up first. "You heard the news, right? The guards said they saw us running… but nothing else."
Cairo dropped his broom. "That's wild, bro. We didn't even see anyone out there last night. Just us."
I frowned. "This is weird. We need to figure out what's going on."
Nami nodded. "I went back to that classroom this morning. No water. Everything's clean. Even my book gone."
Cairo blinked. "Hold up you saying last night didn't happen? Like, we dreamed that?"
I slammed my hand on the table. "Come on, man! Illusions don't soak you head-to-toe in dirty water. That was real!"
We sat there in silence for a while, thinking.
Until we overheard three girls outside whispering:
"Hey, they say there's a secret tunnel under the school."
"Someone said it leads to the old district."
"Creepy, right?"
We looked at each other.
That was it. The lead.
Nami crossed her arms. "Tonight, we meet again. We find that tunnel. We find out what's really going on."
After school, I went home and tried to rest but it was like the clock jumped. One blink and it was already night.
I packed my bag:
Water.
Salt.
Olive oil.
I'd read online that it wards off evil spirits. Maybe it'd help.
Then I hopped on my old bike and rode out.
Cairo was already there standing in front of a dark tunnel entrance, gripping a long stick like a baseball bat.
I parked my bike, grabbed my flashlight, and walked up to him. "You ready for this?"
"Born ready," he said, trying to sound brave.
Then someone stepped out from the shadows.
Nami.
She was holding a rolled-up map.
"Yo, found this in the school's storage. The school's built right over this tunnel. See? It connects straight to the old town area."
She spread the map open, and I handed her my bag.
"Water, salt, olive oil," I said. "If anything goes south, mix it and seal the tunnel. Only the living should walk out."
She nodded, serious.
Me and Cairo stepped inside first. The tunnel smelled like dust and wet stone.
As we walked deeper, the darkness swallowed the sound of our steps.
Cairo trailed behind me with the stick and the map, muttering under his breath.
And in my head, a thought slipped through:
Are we… friends now?
We only met yesterday but somehow, it already felt like something more.
Still, this wasn't the time to think about that.
We had a mystery to crack.
And something was waiting in that tunnel.
Gu… gu… ga… ga…
That sound again.
Still echoing in my skull since last night that damn ghost baby.
Cairo was right behind me, walking slow, long stick in one hand, the map in the other.
Then clack! he kicked something.
I swung my flashlight down.
It was a book.
Nami's book.
The same one we dropped when we were running for our lives.
Cairo squinted. "Yo, what the hell? How's the book down here? Didn't we leave it back at the school?"
I swallowed hard. "We don't got time for that, bro. Leave it. We'll come back for it."
We kept moving.
The tunnel just… stretched.
Longer and longer and longer like it was looping on itself.
Our footsteps kept echoing back, like something else was walking with us.
Finally, I turned my light on Cairo.
"Yo, where's the map?"
He froze. "Uh…"
He pulled out a paper.
But it wasn't the map.
It was some old, crusty flyer 'Find the Treasure.'
I blinked. "Yo. Bro. WHERE'S. THE. MAP?"
He stammered, "I–I put it in my back pocket! I couldn't hold the stick and the map at the same time so I"
"You dropped it, man!" I yelled. "You dropped it miles back!"
I slammed against the wall, breathing fast, and pulled my phone out.
"No problem, I'll just use GPS "
No signal.
"Damn it!" I shouted.
Cairo snatched my phone. "Don't worry, dude, I'll find signal! Just chill!"
Then he bolted ahead into the dark, waving the phone around.
"Bro! Wait! You can't find a tunnel map online!" I yelled after him. "I was tryna call Nami, not "
But he was gone.
The tunnel swallowed him.
Cairo's POV:
He kept waving the phone. "Signal, come on, come on, come on"
Then, boom one tiny bar.
"Ha! Got it!" He laughed. "Wait… crap. This ain't my phone. I don't even know the password."
And right when he said that
click
The flashlight went out.
Darkness.
Pure, suffocating darkness.
He froze.
His breath loud. His skin sticky with cold sweat.
He could feel something slime dripping from above.
Something breathing behind him.
Hands reaching from the walls.
He didn't even look.
He just ran.
Renji's POV:
I shouted his name "Cai—Cai—Cra Cairo!" but my voice broke halfway.
The sound bounced around like the tunnel was mocking me.
Then I heard it again.
Gu… gu… ga… ga…
That same baby voice from the school.
The air got thick.
My flashlight flickered.
Something brushed my leg.
Cold. Wet. Like tiny hands pulling at me.
I couldn't move. Couldn't breathe.
Then SPLASH!
Water started rising, swallowing my feet, my knees, my waist.
My reflection shimmered on the surface except it wasn't me.
It was smiling.
Cairo again:
He was running like his life depended on it.
Which, honestly, it did.
He turned a corner only to find the way blocked.
A wall, dripping, breathing.
He turned again another wall.
The tunnel was shifting.
Closing in.
Water started crawling up from below.
The walls looked like faces now open mouths whispering.
Renji:
I fell face-first into the water.
When I pushed myself up, I was standing on the ceiling.
My reflection below me laughing.
Mocking.
"Gu… gu… ga… ga…"
I screamed, but the sound didn't come out.
The whole tunnel was spinning.
Outside the tunnel Nami:
Six hours had passed.
Her phone read 12:00 AM.
"Six hours… What are they doing in there?" she muttered.
Then she remembered what I told her
Water.
Salt.
Olive oil.
She mixed it, whispering to herself, then poured it across the tunnel entrance.
The liquid hissed like acid.
But instead of running, she ran inside.
No flashlight. No backup.
Inside the tunnel, time didn't work right.
For us, it had been seconds.
For her, six hours had already gone by.
Trapped between walls that moved.
Water that climbed.
Voices that laughed.
Hands that reached.
We were either gonna escape… or die trying.