Haunteds

Chapter 21

"Found anything?" I asked Leo, who was sitting on the floor with me.

He shook his head. "Nothing good."

We were staying in a luxurious suite in a hotel. Major Coleman brought us here when the dorm maintenance guys came. He would have gotten us all individual rooms but we won't be here long so we saw no point in it. As soon as the repairs are done and the lights working again, we'll be heading straight back to the dorm. Besides, I'm pretty sure we would all wind up sharing one room in the end. I mean, none of us really want to do all this by themselves.

The place was furnished with two recliners of soft, brown fabric and a leather sofa bed, next to a table which top was a mosaic of stones of different kinds, cuts, and colors. The carpeted floor had alternating stripes of black, grey and white. On one side, there was a large, flat-screen TV mounted on the wall. Below it was the square, see-through glass cover of a fireplace. There was a separate bedroom with a king-sized bed but I doubt anyone would use it. For first-timers, I should have been amazed but compared to our dorm, this place was underwhelming.

Now, I've never stayed in a hotel before, not to mention in a suite because this room probably cost a stupid amount of money and my parents aren't exactly loaded. But I know this place was not meant to accommodate ten people at a time.

To make room, we remove the tiled table so the carpeted floor became our work area. There were some arguing and pushing as to who gets to sit on the sofa. In the end, it was Scarlet, Demi, and Caprice. The rest of us didn't really care and just occupied the empty recliners and even the carpeted floor and got to work. I didn't mind sitting on the floor since the carpet was really soft. Soon, everyone was busy poring over the contents of whatever documents they were holding. Papers and folders and boxes littered all around us. If someone comes in and saw us, they would probably think that we were just a group of good students having a study session for an upcoming test and not reading up on decades' worth of information about the Shade.

"How would we even know if we found it?" Darius asked. Aside the handbooks from our dorm, Major Coleman provided us with boxes of information about the Shade. Newspaper clippings from decades ago, transcriptions of statements taken from countless eyewitnesses. All archived files we wouldn't even know existed if not for Major Coleman. We even had the original reports of the haunteds from twenty years ago, the very first reports ever since the system was implemented. It was a lot to go through but no one minded, especially since it would mean saving our lives.

"It could be something that wasn't in the file, or something new to you," I said. "Or just share whatever you find interesting." 

"I don't know, man," Leo said. "Everything says the same thing."

It was true. Most of the files contain the same description, the same observations. Except for some tidbits of information I didn't know about before, which I used to write some sort of timeline:

1974-2025 Shade History/Timeline

1974 (51 years) – Cult' Serial Killing/Mass Kidnapping

1975 (50 years) – First appearance of the Shade. First record of victims, haunteds, having their heads missing in photographs.

1985 (40 years) – Haunted Identification System (H.I.S) was planned but without a way to protect haunteds it was useless so the government started testing various countermeasures.

1990 (35 years) – Shade Museum was acquired.

1992 (33 years) – Mrs. Roth proposed the use of U.V. lights.

2004 (21 years) – Dark Year

2005 (20 years) – Biringan was established

"Just keep looking," I said. There are still a lot more materials to dig into so I was really hoping we would find something.

"Hey guys," Demi said with a high-pitched voice. "Did you know that this Shade Month originally lasted only a week?"

"Corresponding to the week of serial kidnappings, right?" Scarlet said. "I've read that."

"Right, by the cult," Demi said, beaming, as if we were just a group of friends hanging out, exchanging stories and trivia.

"What do you think they were trying to do?" Caprice asked.

"No idea," Demi said. "I haven't read anything about that yet."

"They're crazy," Cana said. "Crazy people do crazy things."

"I don't know," Cato said, picking up another pile of reports to read, his dark hair swept to one side that his bangs covers one of his eyes. "They did manage to create a monster that been hunting kids for years. So maybe they're not that off in the head."

I still can't help but stare at Cato. I know we've just survived the most horrific encounter any sixteen-year-old would have in their lifetime and looking good is the last thing on our minds right now but come on? Orange, wool turtleneck and suspenders? It's like he's asking me to make fun of him.

On our way here, I told Harmony all about it about, hoping to get a laugh. I am in desperate need of a laugh right now.

This girl knows a thing or two about fashion. White top with long sleeves and a neckline that reveals her collar bones, matched with a dark blue mini skirt. Her white sneakers with black stripes complete her outfit. I like it. She's cute.

But as usual, being the ray of sunshine that she is, Harmony twisted Cato's unique fashion sense into something positive like "He's got his own style." Or "Fashion is about being comfortable with yourself." Or something to that effect. So I told Cana, who I thought shared my sense of humor, but she actually said that Cato looked good. So I may be wrong here.

"Right," I said, trying to get back on the topic. "So it was a Shade week. What happened?"

"Well..." Demi said as he started reading the paper his holding. "Looks like after the U.V. lights prevented any deaths, the phenomenon lingered way past its time. So the week turned to a month."

"So if it met its quota of twelve dead kids a week, the, what do we call it—"Haunting Week"—stops?" Cana asked.

"Maybe," Demi said. "It doesn't look like they tested that theory."

"Gee, wonder why," Cana said.

"Wait a minute," I said. "So that means the Shade HAD been changing over the years."

"I guess," Demi said. "But small changes, and not all of a sudden."

I turned my attention back to the paper I've been reading. Another year before Mrs. Rott's discovery. But the H.I.S. or Haunted Identification System—the picture-taking thingy—was already implemented. Apparently, someone had thought that if this thing was summoned in the city, then maybe it was tied to it. So the city tried evacuating all those who are identified as haunteds. And it worked.

When the first night of the Shade Week came, nothing happened. There had been no casualties. There were no reports of Shade sightings in the city so they thought they've finally figured it out. But the day after, all morning news channels only covered one story, all reports of a possible Shade casualty. Only this time, it was in Manila. A city adjacent to ours, the place where the haunteds were taken. There hadn't been an incident where the Shade appeared elsewhere except here in Bastillio so as expected, the news went viral. And that didn't sit well with our neighboring countries.

There had been multiple meetings between nations about the incident. Various leaders from around the world, mostly from surrounding countries, came to these talks. I imagine it must have been like an ASEAN summit, only they're talking about the Shade and not economy.

In the end, they concluded that the Shade is not tied to to our city, Bastillio. Unfortunately, that means that the phenomenon would continue to spread over other cities or possibly across continents, following where the haunteds are.  A law was signed forbidding haunteds to leave their city for the duration of the phenomenon.

"Hey," Leo said as he leaned next to me, trying to take a peek of the report I'm reading. "You got something?"

"Oh," I said. "This is..."

I gave them the summary of what I've read.

"Huh," Cato said. "Always wondered why they didn't just send us off somewhere else." 

There was a knock on the door.