"Would you just wake up? Your first blow to the head already gave you enough sleep."

   Those sharply-spoken words were what awoke me.

   For the second time today, I woke up with an awful ache that spread from the back to every other part of my head. Just like in the lab when I first arose, I was plunged into a night-filled environment, not so dark for me to be completely blind, but enough for me to not recognize my surroundings.

   As my eyes were at their final stages of adjusting to the lack of light, a loud groan erupted beside me. That jerked my disoriented state of mind to some form of stability.

   Soon, my sight adapted and on my right, I could see outline of Rav's frame. He was on his knees and rubbing the back of his head with a hand. The people who hit us made us match, it seems.

"Beth?!" Rav called out, his voice still thick from sleep– that sounded more pleasant than saying 'from being unconscious'.

"I'm here! I'm here!" I crawled toward him and took his free hand.

"Camila. Where's–"

   A loud thump resounded a few steps away from us. Rav tightened his hold on me as our eyes went to the source of the sound. A person. One that was getting up from what I'm assuming was a nasty fall–hence the noise– and running toward us.

   As the person came closer, my suspicion was confirmed. Rav reacted before I did, rushing to Camila before she got to us.

"You just disappeared!" Rav exclaimed after releasing her from a tight, long hug. "Where did you go?"

"I...I don't know," Cami sounded overwhelmed. "The last thing I remember was Minji attacking me in the hallway. The next I'm waking up and seeing you guys here."

   What was here, anyway? My curiosity was short-lived.

   All eyes squinted from the trauma that the bright lights suddenly filling our environment inflicted.

   I was not prepared for what I saw when my eyes became normal again. "The assembly pod?"

   Looking at Rav and Cami, it was evident I wasn't the only one astonished by this unexpected location.

   The shock, however, didn't make it any less real. We were standing in the audience area of this Zavlon facility. For some reason though, not single chair which we would normally sit on during an assembly was here. As I glanced up at the pod's stage a short distance from where were standing though, there didn't appear to be any notable changes...

   Wait.

   I could feel my blood run cold, freezing every part of me in my current position.

   Staring down at us from the left corner of the stage with arms folded and his signature charismatic smile, was the man responsible for everything going to hell. The reason everything was only going to get worse. The face behind the soon-to-be damnation of mankind.

"Gives you a nostalgic feeling, doesn't it? Mr. Speck gestured to the pod with his hand.

   No one had to guess he was talking about the last time we'd been here. When he'd made his appearance and announced his position as our new principal. I remember how this very room brimmed with uncontrollable excitement. How every Zavolonian thought about how life-changing his appointment was.

   Oh, it changed our lives alright.

"I would've agreed with you on that," Rav said. "if this was actually the assembly pod."

   I almost experienced a whiplash with how fast my neck whipped to gape at Rav. Was he saying? How could this not be the pod? Sure, it had some alterations, but that didn't automatically mean it was a completely different place from what we knew.

   The surprise that flickered in Mr. Speck's expression however, proved that Rav hadn't lost his mind.

"How did you know?" he asked.

   Rav smirked. "Despite your elaborate replica, you don't hook up here a few times without getting a perfect image in your head."

   Cami let out a distressed sigh while I buried my face in my hands, rolling my eyes.

"Like how the lights on stage are missing two more," Rav continued, "Or how the white lines in the middle of the room that form a path starting from the door to the stage are absent."

   Suck it, Speck!

"Is that all?" I don't know why my smugness dissipated when he queried with a blank stare.

"Don't get me started on those curtains," Rav clicked his tongue.

   I frowned at that. The curtains that covered the wall behind the inner stage looked as red as they had always been.

"You know Merlot red and Sangria red are distinct shades, right?" he shook his head. "Only one of them is the good kind of red. And I'd be lying if I said it's the one I'm currently looking at."

   Okay, Rav, we get it, you've noticed stuff. You can tone it down now. We're not trying to poke the bear that hard.

   But our principal's lips only spread into a huge smile. One I did not like at all.

   I couldn't stop my mouth from going dry when he began moving from his position, not stopping till he was in front of the curtains Rav had just trashed. For a moment, my mind pictured Speck yanking the curtains from their holders and proceeding to choke us with them in a simultaneous gesture.

   I wasn't sure I wanted to die by curtains that were hideous (Rav's paraphrased words, not mine).

   But running his hands through them, the only words that came from his mouth were, "Funny you should mention these curtains."

   Right before going through and disappearing behind them.

   The imaginary clock in my head ticked and ticked, but the curtains never came down.

   Guess he had something else in mind. But how was that going to work from where he was? These curtains were really thick and it didn't help that they were directly against the wall. No person could breathe there that long. And yet, he'd been gone for quite a while and I wasn't seeing an outline of his body thrashing under the curtains.

   Actually, I couldn't see the outline of his body at all.

   I started toward the stage, only to be stopped by Camila a few steps in.

"What are you doing?" She frowned. "How do we know he's not just waiting for us to come to him?"

"There's no one behind that curtain." I struggled to escape her grasp. "If there was, we would see his body standing out, but I don't see that."

"He couldn't just have disappeared, Beth. Speck is many things, but he is not a magician." Cami's hands on mine anchored even more. "Where else could he possibly be, if not there? Don't play his game."

   The sudden, earsplitting clamour that violated the somewhat silence drowned out my responsive argument.

   With our hands on our ears, Rav, Cami and I watched in horror at the stage–the source of the ongoing noise– as it turned in a rotating motion, making way for what appeared to be another stage.

"You didn't think to mention this, smartass?!" I yell-snapped Rav over the rumble.

"The–" His Adam's apple bobbed as he cut himself to swallow. "The–the–"

"Just spit it out for God's sake!"

"Whatever this is, the assembly pod does not have it!"

   Rav's last words became the loudest sounds in the pod, an indication that the stage's rotation had ceased.

   All the jaws dropped as we glanced at the new scene facing us.

"Yeah," Rav nodded, breaking the millennia of stunned silence. His gawk never strayed. "I would've noticed this."

A/N: Thanks so much for reading! Please don't forget to vote and comment your thoughts!

@Wattpad @WattpadOutreach @WattpadExplorer @Ambassadors @TeenFiction @mystery