Cail was lying on the living room couch, watching TV. The school gave him a rest day. He only needs to go to school next Monday, the day when he will meet that suspicious man.
"I better conserve my energy," he said as he slumped down. On the chair was a bag of chips and soda. This was conserving energy, totally not being lazy.
Just as he thought he would have a relaxing day, the doorbell rang.
He turned the TV volume down and listened. He didn't get up from the seat and just waited for the person on the doorbell to go away.
After a few seconds, the doorbell stopped and was replaced by knocks. Cail still continued to ignore it and eat chips.
Then it was silent.
Cail looked to his side. He saw an eye peeking through the small curtain gap on the window. He did not panic but this time, he felt kinda irritated. He stood up from his seat and pulled the curtains over.
"Oh, Cail. Hahahahahaha. You're here..." Oris stammered.
Cail opened the window, "Of course I'm here. Will you come here with another purpose other than to see me?"
"Yow, man!" Iven greeted. Him and Jael were waiting on the sides while Oris was acting like a thief.
"Come in," Cail gestured.
Oris pointed at the window, "Here?"
Cail still looked blank, "Yes, now jump in." Since he already opened the window, might as well use it as an entrance.
Seeing that Cail seemed to be determined to let them jump in, Oris gave up. It was a sliding window so there was plenty of space.
Oris and Jael were just fine, but Iven whose body was a bit chunky got stuck into the window.
Iven reached out. "Guys, help me—"
Jael and Oris pulled Iven out. Cail watched them pull Iven in like a sack of potatoes.
Cail pointed at the empty sofa. "Sit." He pulled the bowl of chips closer to him, "Aren't you guys supposed to be at school? Did you absent yourselves?"
Oris looked at Cail, "You look the same. Still as exhausted as ever. I guess that's your perpetual state despite being injured."
Cail slapped Iven's hand that was reaching for the chips. "Don't dodge the question. You guys were absent?"
Oris averted his gaze, "Uhmm. Just this once!" Then he justified their behavior, "But there's no class tomorrow."
"Huh why?" Cail wasn't aware of it.
Iven finally managed to snag some chips, "Some students at school were missing. Well, it's not just at school, but missing people posters had been pasted everywhere."
Cail had a bad feeling about this, "Who went missing?"
"I can't remember the names but 17 students were recorded missing," Iven said as he munched the chips.
Cail rubbed his head. Thinking about Mr. Quill that was under the alias of Mr. Thade, and also that Auren guy, it seemed that there were strange undercurrents at school.
Still, what does that have to do with him?
"I better just ignore it," Cail thought.
"Oh, I remembered something!" Oris said as he followed Iven in stealing Cail's chips.
"There seemed to be some cult going around the Nxy City. I heard some conspiracy theories that said that they were responsible for those missing people."
Oris pointed in the air, "The fact that the cult is real is verified. As for whether they were the ones responsible for the missing people, it's unknown. They have a pattern in visiting homes."
"Houses on the most southern part of each block... They seemed to be coming closer now..." Oris's voice trailed off as he realized something.
They looked at Jael, "Doesn't your house belong to the southern part of the block?"
Jael looked pale. He's a very quiet person and rarely had any presence. Actually, he is the closest person to Cail. He is the son of Cail's Godfather.
Cail looked at the pale Jael, he patted his back, "Don't be scared. Your neighborhood is jam-packed. As long as you dare scream, people would flock to your house to help you."
Jael nodded. But his fidgeting fingers betrayed his nervousness.
Iven shared the chips with him, "Don't be scared... The next few days, we don't have classes. If you want, we could have a sleepover."
Jael received the chips, "No thanks. I don't want you guys to bother me."
Seeing that the atmosphere became heavy, Iven joked, "Hey, Cail. Sirae was very concerned about you. She actually wanted to visit you together with us."
Cail shot him a sharp look, "If you dare bring a stranger to my home—" Then he made a slashing gesture at his neck.
Iven raised his hand. "Chill chill. I know." Knowing Cail for many years, he knew that he hates nothing more than people bringing strangers that he knows to his territory.
Cail leaned down, he was still quite curious about the cult. "What does the cult look like?"
Oris struggled to remember, "I think they were wearing strange black robes with something like a black globe covering their head."
Cail paused. That description rang a bell.
"Hollow Accord, the Shards," Cail thought. He read that from the beginner's book that Neris gave him.
The Shards were the bottom ranking members of Hollow Accord. The majority of them are half mad with disability. Based on what Cail understood, they seemed to be the cannon fodder. They are very identifiable by the globe at their head.
Cail felt a bit off. He looked at Jael. "Call me if something's off about your home."
Oris felt that Cail was overreacting, "Did your bad taste act up again? Don't scare Jael."
Cail took the bowl off his hand, "Better safe than sorry."
...
After the three of them went home, Cail searched on his phone. What they said was true. A lot of things seemed to be happening.
"This is making me uncomfortable." Cail suddenly felt that it seemed like the chaos that was about to happen would involve him.
But still, he does not regret entering this world.
Now the world seemed to be shifting, knowing something is better than not knowing anything.
He walked back to his room to improvise his weapon.