[Pre-Fall] Chapter 0: Re-Orientation

WiFi is out. Great… the girl thinks, as she waits for her messaging service to tell her that the text had gone through.

Maybe the girls hadn’t come as a group then. She’d lumped them in as friends, when really they were two different parties and walking up at once. A natural kind of mix up when new faces and a new year were all mixing together!

"Oh. Are you guys signing up then? We’ll head out in a minute, I just need to check something!" she says, as she walks behind the booth, and stoops down behind the table cloth where she can’t immediately be seen.

She tries to focus her mind on that entity she saw in the basement. Was that Emily? Was that something else?…

>>>The sense of unease, of wrongness pervaded the faces of the students around Jonathan, both freshmen and seniors. Something was wrong, even if no one could exactly put their finger on what it was... He, himself, suddenly felt the weight of eyes on him as if something or someone had suddenly been made aware of his existence.
>>> Confusion still reigned in the hall even as the school staff began appearing to investigate and mollify the situation. One mystery remained, the missing girl. Emily.
>>> Jonathan's hands reached back behind him to grab whatever supplies the club had present on the table and flipped around one of his canvases. Practiced hands flew over the rough media, sketching the face of the disappeared girl before memory of her faded. They'd only met for a moment and he didn't want to lose the recollection of her. He had to have something concrete he could show others that might jog their memory of her.

A number of thoughts jostle for attention in Joe’s head. A girl has better things to do than disappear in the middle of a conversation, so there’s something weird going on. Unless maybe she’s like me and her inner other went off at half-cock? Doubtful; that illusion, if that’s what it was, was very broadly focused. I couldn’t do anything remotely that ambitious if I wanted to. So, it seems unlikely that she did that to herself.
A nasty thought occurs.
Was she actually real? There’s weird stuff happening all of a sudden; if someone were fishing for Awakened or potentially Awakened people, throwing a sufficiently odd occurrence in as a stimulus might provoke such a one to give themselves away; rather as I’m afraid I may have done… except I remembered the warnings the first time and kept my response mundane; then my inner other cut loose by itself, and they haven’t come for me yet.
Where are those two?
Where’s Em?
Joe fishes out his phone, sends a text to his sister. Power blip; are you ok? It takes an age to send. For once Joe doesn’t mind. It’s a cover. Absently, he steps forward into the space where the girl with the auburn curls disappeared. One hand is holding his phone, but with the other one finger is rhythmically tapping the pulse point on his other wrist. Joe calms his mind, lets the hubbub of talk and text rise around him, lets it fade to the edges of his awareness as his own sense moves inward. He is softly tapping out a pulse rhythm not his own, probing for a recent match in this space where he recently thought someone was, feeling through his inner other for the fading echo of another pulse; was there another actual person here a moment ago?

Multi-Purpose Hall

With the sketches safely in her book, Myra found Cassandra reaching for the two freshmen who had ducked under their booths, "Are you okay? It’s safe, you can come out. Teachers are on their way." Even under situations of distress, Cass was composed and instinctively took charge. After all she did win a resounding vote for council president. At Myra’s words Cass raised her head and their gazes met. There was a split second of wordlessness between them which spoke louder than words. In that instant, Myra was sure that Cass understood something as well. But did she dare to broach the subject of the strangeness? Could she trust the daughter of one of the staff members, especially after having noticed Marston looking at her?

That was the moment Kyle crossed over, clearly catching Myra’s concerned question about Emily. There was time later to figure out the discrepancy how both Kyle and Myra had separately interacted with the girl freshie. He was still worried for the safety of the freshmen following him, though from the looks of it there was general consternation throughout. Whatever happened seemed to have frazzled everyone in some way or other, freshman and senior alike. But he was now certain that Myra noticed something amiss as well when she heard his question."You ok?" It was Sera Knowles again, who had the uncanny ability to find herself next to Torrance without him realising it. Torrance had curtly ignored her when she was teasing him earlier for standing motionlessly while watching Joe’s fainting spell. Now she sought him out again as he stood there, staring at the large old clock that hung on the wall. It read 2.58pm, although Torrance had just checked his own watch to establish that it was already 3pm, two minutes since he spoke with Emily. He looked at his watch again to be sure, and then looked back up. The minute hand was at the 12 position. It now read 3pm. "Hey, everything okay?" Sera repeated with more concern in her voice. There were still a couple of kids near the rows of booths when Wren came down, but they were too preoccupied with their own stress to recognise that Daniela had retreated into a corner blocked by the booth decorations. Wren headed straight for her, and Daniela looked up when she approached, her eyes were wide and wild, tears streaming down unrestrainedly, and she was muttering something very softly while biting her lower lip. Wren got close enough to put a comforting arm around Daniela, close enough for her to hear Daniela mumble surely the most unrelated thing to what had just happened in the hall: "Alex. Where’s Alex?" She could only mean their classmate Alex Vance, who did not come to school today.Jonathan’s next action was nothing short of prescient. Zarah who was next to him must’ve thought him befuddled when he made a grab for pencils and the nearest canvas whilst everyone else was caught up in the hubbub of the blackout, but somehow Jonathan knew he daren’t trust his memory, nor anyone else’s for that matter, for a bizarre occurrence as this. He blitzed through his sketch needing to pause nor think, and the picture that formed was a highly detailed likeness of Emily, unnervingly realistic. Jonathan drew on sheer instinct, and it was only when he completed it that he saw that he had shaded multiple portraits of her in the background. Teachers were now on site. Vice-Principal Marston was quickest to arrive, as Myra well knew, and she could feel Cass’ eyes still on her. Dr Veritas, the Chemistry Head and also care counsellor, was there next with four of the form teachers of the freshmen classes, who began to spread out to speak with various pockets of students. Kyle and Torrance recognised Mr Chase, who came in with Professor Strom some moments later. Chase was headed their way, but Strom stormed towards Veritas instead as if he had something urgent to say that could not wait.

Will anyone approach the teachers to describe what happened in the room, or to yourselves? Or will you endeavour to keep it quiet?



Gymnasium

The anxious girls looked bewildered that Minsoo was still enthusiastically talking about sign-ups at a time like this, for they were too caught up with themselves to realise that Minsoo was making her exit. Joe saw that she stepped away even as he stepped forward to where the girls were.

The network outage seemed to have stabilised for Minsoo’s phone finally buzzed back, with Sabrina first to reply in the class chat, insane in the hall! gym 2? Joe’s phone also pinged a reply, in the hall, things went weird dark, m ok, wru??

But both Joe and Minsoo didn’t quite get to their phones just yet. Something more pressing preoccupied them. The moment Joe stood at the spot where Emily had stood, he set aside the thought of his sister of the same name. This other Emily was … just as real. He could sense she was alive. Even if she did disappear as if she were an illusion. In fact, Joe felt that she was very alive, if that made any sense at all. More alive? More lives? The sensation was spiritual, intense.

Minsoo was about to do something similar, to see if she could sense again the darkness she perceived somewhere in school. The traumatising appearance of the image was as far removed from Emily as Minsoo could rationalise. But the inexplicable disappearance of a freshie was surely as traumatisingly associative. Perhaps Minsoo could make a connection.

Teachers were now onsite. Coach Corbin must’ve flown in in double quick time from wherever he was, and right behind him was track coach Mendes. She began to get a couple of the older students to group the freshies and do a headcount, while Corbin himself made his rounds to check on the seniors at each booth. He moved as a teacher focussed solely on the safety of all students, and was seconds away from where Joe and Minsoo were still concentrating on their own business. Would they think of telling him about had happened? Or would continue what they were doing and risk being noticed?

"Alex Vance?" Wren sat down next to Daniela. "I think he didn't attend school today."

"What did you see, Daniela, what did just happen?" Wren asked, keeping her voice calm.

Myra and Cass would never been BFF's, their priorities were just too different. That doesn't mean that they could not respect each other's skillsets - even if misguided.

In this case, they are both seniors and some freshmen got spooked during the blackout and are now missing. They should be able to meet at this challenge.

Myra checks her phone and find the class group chat

Class Chat:
Mac: Guys, wth was that? Power went out in the gym? Weird.
Myra: Power went out everywhere, it seems. A freshman called "Emily Walsh" is missing. Last seen in the multipurpuse hall by the library/math club stand. Lot of weird stuff is going on.

"Yeah just... losing time." He didn't think there were any more clues to what just happened to be found now, and staying distracted from what was going on wouldnt help. "Just a weird day." Seeing that noone else (at least noone near him) was reacting to the missing girl or slipped time he wasn't going bring it up.

Class Chat:
Mac: Guys, wth was that? Power went out in the gym? Weird.
Myra: Power went out everywhere, it seems. A freshman called "Emily Walsh" is missing. Last seen in the multipurpose hall by the library/math club stand. Lot of weird stuff is going on.
Wyck: the missing freshman girl was with us at the Art Club table when the lights went out, not at the math table.

>>> Satisfied that he'd gotten the pigtailed girl's image committed to physical media, Jonathan checked his phone as a stream of push notifications flooded in after the lights had come back on. The messages from the other seniors in the class chat flashed by at breakneck speed but the message from Myra about where Emily had been when the lights went out was clearly wrong and if she was going to be found getting the current information out there was important.

As the coaches rushed around to gather up the students, Minsoo focuses harder on that feeling she’d had from the basement. Maybe something had reached out and taken Emily… somehow removed her from her friends’ memories…

Hurriedly, before she was tapped on the shoulder and asked to line up, she focuses her thoughts on that something that might be living somewhere deep below…

Myra stares in disbeliefe at her phone and then responds.
Class Chat:
Mac: Guys, wth was that? Power went out in the gym? Weird.
Myra: Power went out everywhere, it seems. A freshman called "Emily Walsh" is missing. Last seen in the multipurpose hall by the library/math club stand. Lot of weird stuff is going on.
Wyck: the missing freshman girl was with us at the Art Club table when the lights went out, not at the math table.
Myra: No she was not. I was speaking with Emily as the blackout happened. Are there more than one Emily missing?

Class Chat:
Mac: Guys, wth was that? Power went out in the gym? Weird.
Myra: Power went out everywhere, it seems. A freshman called "Emily Walsh" is missing. Last seen in the multipurpose hall by the library/math club stand. Lot of weird stuff is going on.
Wyck: the missing freshman girl was with us at the Art Club table when the lights went out, not at the math table.
Myra: No she was not. I was speaking with Emily as the blackout happened. Are there more than one Emily missing?
Wyck: The "Emily" here wore pigtails. Pretty sure she said her last name was "Walsh". She was getting buzzed by a Robotics Team drone. Was talking to her when the lights went out. Twins??

Torrance check his phone for the notification feom the class chat, which is unusuall since he muted that whole chat a year ago and happens to catch the conversation in question.
Class Chat:
Myra: No she was not. I was speaking with Emily as the blackout happened. Are there more than one Emily missing?
Wyck: The "Emily" here wore pigtails. Pretty sure she said her last name was "Walsh". She was getting buzzed by a Robotics Team drone. Was talking to her when the lights went out. Twins??
Torrance: The same girl was at the programmer's club booth. Does anyone but those that noticed here here seem to be reacting to someone missing? She came here with friends but they do not seem to be looking for her or reacting to her dissapearance. Her belongings seem to be held by another girl as is always there.

Kyle looks at his phone which has been pinning non stop and notices some posts that seem relevant
Class Chat:
Mac: Guys, wth was that? Power went out in the gym? Weird.
...
Myra: No she was not. I was speaking with Emily as the blackout happened. Are there more than one Emily missing?
...
Wyck: The "Emily" here wore pigtails. Pretty sure she said her last name was "Walsh". She was getting buzzed by a Robotics Team drone. Was talking to her when the lights went out. Twins??
...
Myra: No she was not. I was speaking with Emily as the blackout happened. Are there more than one Emily missing?
...
Torrance: The same girl was at the programmer's club booth. Does anyone but those that noticed here here seem to be reacting to someone missing? She came here with friends but they do not seem to be looking for her or reacting to her disappearance. Her belongings seem to be held by another girl as is always there.


Not sure what is going on, Kyle does not feel the need to get into it just yet. Feigning to have not noticed Mr Chase heading his way Kyle looks to the others around him and mixes in with the throng of other teens as he wanders towards the exit, following the trail he somehow noticed in connection to Emily.

Marston made an announcement, first at the multi-purpose hall, and then subsequently at the gymnasium hall one floor below.

"Dear students, this is Vice-Principal Marston. There is a minor electrical issue in this gymnasium block. Power has been restored and everyone is safe. We will close this Orientation Showcase early as an added precaution so that we can conduct a more thorough safety check. I commend everyone for remaining calm and well-behaved.

First years, your form teachers will usher you to your classrooms for an end-of-day briefing before dismissing you. Seniors, well-done for organising such an enriching experience for your juniors. You may leave your booths and setups as they are today; we will pack up tomorrow. Today you are also dismissed early." His last concession appeared to have pleased him, and he smiled encouragingly at the 12th graders even as the form teachers began to call out the 9th grade classes to sort the freshies out and walk them to the classroom block.

Myra watched Marston make his announcement and leave for the gym, still convinced that the vice-principal knew more than he let on. She looked at Cass again for affirmation, and saw Cassandra mouth the warning words Not here, before resuming her public persona as council president by immediately rallying some of the other council students to help the form teachers herd the wide-eyed freshies for a headcount, and then towards the hall exit doors.

Torrance, who still kept one eye on the clock, realised in the chat that he was the one who noticed that Emily's belongings were now carried by one of the three friends as if the items were theirs. If he wanted to have a closer look at the items, they would have to get hold of them somehow. Unfortunately, the girls were being led away already. Still keeping his wits about him, he couldn't help but see Professor Strom tap away angrily at his phone.

Kyle checked his phone to see the messages, which made him think of Zane again who had been looking at his phone. He looked back at Zane to see the troubled look on his face, followed by his attempt to hide his phone as the teachers approached. He clearly did not want anyone to know what was up with the device. Kyle followed Zane's gaze and glanced at what Zane was looking at. His gaze was directed at one of the security cameras high up in one of the corners of the hall, part of the security features that kept Ashford High safe.

Although they had a shared group chat as a class, some students used it more often than others. Class chairperson Shelly Marks used it more often than not to send homework deadline reminders, and the nicer of the classmates used it to post class photos and birthday well-wishes. In an exceptional moment such as this, most phones were swarmed with notifications because of the earlier student instinct to try to take photos unsuccessfully, and to react to what they had seen or felt. Class 4A's chat was no exception. Thanks to the chat, Jonathan, like the others who were taking the chance to compare notes, realised that there was some discrepancy in what they thought they just experienced, whereas others like Shawn were completely clueless about what was being discussed. Not all replied. Cass didn't say anything. Zane had chucked his phone, and Daniela -

Daniela stared blankly at Wren when Wren mentioned Alex's absence from school, her face still a broken mess of trauma. "He's not coming back. He's gone. I saw him leave. He's not coming back. He's not coming back. " Her babbling caught the attention of Dr Veritas, the school's care counsellor, who had arrived and was actively looking for students who might have had an adverse reaction to the situation. She came up to the two of them. "Thank you Wren, I can take care of Ms Flores from here. Daniela, come with me." Wren had the odd notion that it felt like Veritas was whisking her away.

At the gym hall, Joe was relieved to receive his sister's reply. Minsoo could hear that Vice-Principal Marston had arrived because of the announcement that was broadcast to the gym. Joe saw his ever-helpful classmate Kirk, Joe's saviour earlier, step up to help Corbin while Mendes and the form teachers rallied the 9th graders by class in order to lead them out of the hall. This meant there was no chance left for Joe or Minsoo to ask them more questions. But Minsoo was preoccupied with something else altogether more troubling. Without knowing exactly what she was doing, she reached out to try to replicate the same vibe she felt earlier, as if she were extending her senses to feel the life around her. In the garble of sensation, she felt the hundreds of students around her, which made her wonder if she was simply projecting, since she knew they were there. But the dark feeling was a different aura. It wasn't coming from this building, no it was further out, much more towards the centre of the school campus, somewhere below. Was it the burned annex that was the students' favourite location for making up ghost stories, or was that her mental projection again? All the same time, Minsoo could not deny the sensation.

After the announcement Torramce will try to be where Vice-Principal Marston may talk to anyone else on the school staff about what is going on. Mostly by weaving through the crowd quickly and then trying to stay unobtrusive.

"Are you good, Daniela?" Wren stood up as Dr. Veritas and Daniela walked away. "I'll come with you."

She didn't frame it as a question or wait for permission. She just started walking alongside them, staying close to Daniela. Whatever Daniela had seen about Alex, whatever had happened during that blackout - Wren needed to understand it. And something about how quickly Veritas moved to take Daniela away felt wrong.