“You got to stop doing this shit; wake up!”

  Ezra was shaken awake by Lyle; the letter was on one knee at his side.

  “Morning Princess,” Ezra had a hand extended at him and only responded to the vocal jab with a grunt. “Hope you’re still yourself.” Lyle said with a quick pull, Ezra extended his hand in tandem.

  Even with the dizziness, Ezra could feel a sort of serenity, as if he were allowed to relax. The light seemed brighter, nearly nurturing in its own way. Even the floor he was lying on didn’t seem as cold as before. Were the two of them actually safe?

  Getting up came with some shakiness. Thankfully, though, without the explosive sickness the last time he tried the ‘jumping out the window into the void’ trick. Lyle instinctively steadied Ezra, worried that he would fall over. The two of them went along the hall, not finding anything to break the silence between them; neither of them felt the need to. The serenity was a gift none of them dared to taint with any words.

  Something caught the attention of Ezra after some walking. Just beside them, the two of them almost walked past it. An imprint of a hand on the right side, just at the end of the lined-up lockers. Lyle was startled by the sudden stop, but just looked at the imprint in tandem.

  "You... think someone’s been through here?” The tone in Lyle’s voice exasperated in a kind of ‘this shit really doesn’t end’ kind of way.

  “Yeah… I think I was.” His hand pressed on the locker, fingers going over the dark red imprint. It was without a doubt his. It felt different; brushing his fingers along; it was as if the blood had engraved itself into the metal rather than just being a coating on top.

  “Hey Lyle, we’re on the same page about the halls repeating themselves the further you go, right?” He didn’t look at Lyle while he asked, choosing to look at the door to the classroom just beside the lockers.

  “I tried it out. They don’t repeat; they’re new halls every time you walk far enough or go up and down the stairs.” A much more sophisticated answer than Ezra expected from Lyle.

  “So how can it be that we just got back to a place I’ve been to before?” This time he looked at Lyle.

  “You’re the dude who hulked out, man, you tell me.” The pitch of his voice heightened, as if the question was a stupid one to ask. At least that’s how it sounded to Lyle, who felt bad immediately.

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  Ezra went inside the classroom, finding it as scavenged as he had left it, some different bags still on the floor, emptied and tossed. Even the drool on the teacher’s desk was still there. He sat down, his exhale purging any doubt left in his body that the two of them were in any danger for the moment.

  “I think we’re safe here, despite how weird that sounds.” When Lyle heard Ezra say that, he sat down in one chair, elbow planted on one leg, forehead resting against his knuckles.

  “Hey Lyle,”

  “Yeah?” Lyle didn’t look at Ezra when he answered; his knuckles gently scraped along his head, as if trying to massage away bad thoughts.

  “Thank you for risking your neck back there.”

  “I’ll be honest, Ezra. We both could start setting up a score on who’s bailing out who. But uh, I’ll be honest with you, you fucking scare me.”

  And there it was laid out in the open. It was strange for Ezra to hear it being said so openly. Even though he knew what he was going to mention, he couldn’t help but feel a familiar sting in his chest.

  “I don’t know what the hell you did or how you did it, and I can’t even say I’m not glad that you could do it. But my mind just fucking won’t stop going on and on about it. You were turning into one of them, weren’t you?”

  Ezra listened but didn’t have any idea on how to address Lyle’s worries. Not questioning any of the machinations at play had proven itself helpful. It had kept his head clear and focused on what was in front of him.

  “I think I was, yes,” Ezra says with a tint of sorrow, almost ashamed of the fact. But a question formed in his mind.

  “But didn’t you have to resist their influence? Didn’t they try to turn you, too?”

  Lyle looked at Ezra, his nose scrunched up in thought. “They? Who are they? The only thing I could point at was that warning that resonated in my head when I woke up, and I’ve been running ever since.”

  It wasn’t like it was that big of a revelation for Ezra; for Lyle, some truths of this entire ordeal became apparent.

  “You know I got to see a few creatures in my time running around here... One of them still had patches of the school jerseys on his body. I thought someone got killed by the thing, but now I think I know better.” Lyle exhaled as he finished, just to go on.

  “So why did they try to turn you into a monster? You think there is any sense in who they choose?”

  “Maybe they choose the screwups.” Erza replies coldly. “But worrying about the hows and whys isn’t helping us survive.”

  “Figuring out how any if this shit works is going to be what keeps us alive. I don’t have the benefit of being able to go toe to toe with the crap we had to deal with.” Lyle sounded exasperated, saying that.

  Ezra nodded in response, knowing he couldn’t keep on charging ahead blindly, especially not if it meant pulling someone else with him. Though it was apparent how much it bothered him to take someone else’s worries into account, the slight grinding of his teeth showed as much.

  “Well, what do you propose we do, then?” Lyle stayed silent for a while, contemplating their options.

  Waiting for an answer, Ezra spread himself out on the table, happy to rest for once, only for Lyle to get up and walk towards the Blackboard.

  “How about we pull together everything we know so far?”