❝STESHA WILL BE the one to give you the details.❞

The person who gained the most votes to lead the student council was Dawn Madayag, the only daughter of the headmistress of La Trinidad. She was full of herself, and only because she got pawns on her side to protect her with all their lives. No one even knew where her hatred and insecurities came from, to the point she couldn't live seeing other people succeed in life, even her friends.

People called them leeches, sticking with Dawn no matter how badly she treated them most of the time, especially Traci de Lapaz, the second in command of the student council. Everyone on campus tried to avoid her wherever, whenever. Everyone described her as a silent type of person but deadly once someone gets in her way. One wrong move, and Traci would never think twice to end one's life.

A psycho on the loose, they said.

"You will give the opening remarks," Stesha looked at me and winked. "You are the best option to represent our school to the students, Michelle."

Everyone portrayed Stesha Laure as the amiable princess in school, but the wink was too alarming for my liking. I smelled danger, even if she hadn't done anything yet. Just talking to her right now made me nervous. She gave me chills to the bones. Dawn might be the leader, but the one who manipulated the arena never showed their true identity in the eyes of the enemy.

How I wish I could pull off her mask just for once.

"What do you mean?" my eyes slowly met the eyes of Candice Samonte, the only person who does every dirty work of the group.

"You still don't get it, don't you?" she asked back, with her pouty and glossy lips. "You are the most useless card among the deck of cards, so you get the laugh, and we get the pleasure."

I balled my right hand into a fist under the table and tried to calm down. The student council was never worth the fight, anyway. It was just Candice knew how to make someone mad to the point I wanted to put my left hand around her neck and choke her to death. But I would never stoop low on their level, and I would never give them the satisfaction.

But I would also make them regret why they disregard such useless cards from the very beginning. Joker? Not a problem after all.

"Why are you doing this to me?"

"An initiation," Dawn said while clapping her hands in excitement.

"You badly want to be treated good," Candice added. "Then be our guest, and we will arrange a bloody welcoming party for you, Michelle."

"Will you?" I asked as an assurance, although trusting her was vicious.

"Just say yes, and we definitely will."

I nodded in agreement, "Deal."

Never make a deal with the devil, my mother said. But what did I get myself into?

After walking out of the meeting room unscratched, I found myself in front of the rusty gate where everyone believed that no one had ever unlocked the padlock ever since the headmistress built a tall gate at the back to isolate the forest from the school. Were they scared of the consequences of their action? Or students at La Trinidad just didn't give a damn about the urban legend?

But I cared.

I wanted to make a wish.

I wanted to take my revenge.

Damn it, the rustiness of the gate went through my brain, maybe the reason why I wasn't able to think straight at all. The wind was a bit cold as the sun slowly bid its goodbye, and soon darkness ruled the sky in heavy motion. I waited until someone appeared before me, just like in horror movies. But as time passed, nothing happened, and my chances of believing the urban legend gradually faded like dust in the wind.

I intended to stay longer, but mother nature called me that night. Dismayed by my decisions today, I began walking to the dormitory. Did I mention that La Trinidad is a boarding school? Maybe not. Nonetheless, one of my favorite things about being a scholar at La Trinidad was having the freedom to choose whether to stay in the dormitory. I could go home whenever I wanted to see my parents and escape this hell hole.

The rain started to pour, but I couldn't care less. Getting wet doesn't scare me, just like how I didn't fear if I would see a ghost in the dark hallway.

"Ghost?" I sighed before looking at the rusty gate one last time. "They don't scare me. Humans are scarier than the ghost, to be honest."

I continued walking in silence, barely noticing the sudden shift of the atmosphere due to the sound of raindrops and the darkness that soon ate me alive.

Tweet your thoughts and use #2311 on Instagram, Facebook, or X.