Out of sight, out of mind, said some old white guy centuries ago.

   Yeah, right.

   Because I could no doubt forget that I'd just seen an uncountable stretch of teenagers in a giant, cube shaped room, with red fluorescent lights and white padded walls awfully similar to what one would find in a mental hospital in a horror movie. All I had to do was stop looking at Rav's laptop screen.

   And yet, even after I'd stopped looking, the dilated eyes, pale faces, blue jumpsuit clad frames and statue-like poses assumed by the students of Zavlon Academia and the large, scary Yunies posted at the corners of the room were still recurring images in my mind, playing over and over like one of the creepy, old people broken records my mum inherited from her great great grandsomething.

"I don't understand," I eventually spoke up from my spot on Cami's bed. After what was probably eternity to the rest. "How is Camera Six even on in the first place?"

   When I left Camila about thirty minutes ago, our biggest problem was that though connected to Rav's device and responsive to the camera remote, Camera six wasn't capable of giving any visual coverage.

   So why had I just finished looking at a screen full of mind controlled Zavolonians and Yunies?

"It's actually a funny story," Rav snickered.

"Not really," Camila shot him a glare.

   According to her, Rav and Dorian (guess he was done unleashing his anger at wherever), walked in barely five minutes after I left for lunch. Cami said she took her time in explaining our discoveries to them, ending with the issue in Camera Six.

"But some genius thought it would be a good idea to still screw around the remote." Another scowl toward Rav by her.

"It's me," Rav told me, oblivious to Camila's dagger eyes. "I'm the genius."

   Anyway, she proceeded to reveal that Rav's fingers had gotten too attached to the buttons of the remote, so much so that she believed that he was going to damage it if she didn't step in.

   Rav's resistance to Cami's attempts in prying the device from his hands resulted in a mini tug of war.

"Mini tug of—" Rav cut himself with a scoff while responding to her narration. "Dude, you almost ripped my arm off."

"Anywayyy," Camila continued, "unknown to us, that led to both of us now messing with the remote's buttons, leaving Camera Six at their mercy. Eventually—"

"She let the remote go during our struggle, causing me to lose balance in my footing and fall flat on my ass!" Rav shrieked. 

   This time Camila didn't frown. She now wore a grin as she turned to him saying, "Turns out you were right, it is a funny story."

   Anywayyy (according to Rav this time), during their exchange, Dorian pointed out that something different he noticed about the laptop's screen. Sure enough, there was. The midnight black colour of the screen was invaded by a red flash.

   Though faint, that same light was what led to the shocking discovery that the problem was not with the camera's lenses. It never was.

   Through ways that'll forever be beyond our understanding, the device, after being detached from Talise, had ended up in an enclosed space with next to no lighting whatsoever.

   That's why the laptop screen was dark. Being synced to the camera, the laptop was merely showing us the environment that the camera was capturing.

"As we made the camera follow the light," Rav didn't sound so playful anymore. "The images around became clearer. We soon realised that the device was in one of Zavlon's deserted lower vents."

   That explained the metal sounds that arose when I tried using the remote on the camera the first time.

"We believed that going to the light was just going to get us out of another area of the school we'd searched already," Camila said. "As you can see, though, we were wrong."

"But we're not wrong about one thing," Dorian kept his eyes on Rav and Camila as he spoke for the first time. "It is an area of school, just one we know absolutely nothing about. Like Camila and Beth theorised."

   It was mostly me but okay.

   So, what this meant was, we knew where the students were, but not where they really were.

   Not frustrating at all.

"The Yunies couldn't have built this place overnight." Cami shook her head. "We have to be missing something."

   The room slipped into thoughtful silence. But that lasted for less than a minute. It was hard to think when a never before gurgling noise suddenly reached my ears. Although I appeared to be the only one hearing it, that didn't change the fact that the sound was screwing with my ability to think and was this close to driving me insane.

"Okay, that's it!" I stamped my foot as I got up from my seat, attracting the attention of all.

"What?" Camila tilted her head with a quizzical expression.

   Rav and Dorian's looks toward me reflected hers.

   Seriously? How was I the only one?

   Ignoring them, my eyes scouted around the room with my ears cocked, trying to find the source of the sound. My search took me to Cami's little desk. The noise seemed to get louder as I continued to rummage around the table, but remained undetectable nevertheless.

   This was getting annoying.

"Ugh, that noise again." Rav groaned behind me.

"So you hear it?" I noticed how he recoiled when I faced him with a start.

   I blame this sound for making me this crazy.

"We all hear it," Camila shrugged. "It's just feedback from the Camera Six that the laptop's speakers are capturing. At least that's what we believe any way. I mean it only makes sense since the camera probably flew from Talise's pocket to get to the vents, right?"

   She wasn't wrong. That made sense.

   But even after my issue was addressed, the uneasy feeling that engulfed me just couldn't be shaken off. The more the noise—now much clearer—continued on, the less I began to believe that what we were hearing was feedback.

   Last time I checked, feedback didn't have bubbly sounds. It was almost as if...

  I felt the wind being knocked out of me as sudden realisation caused me to gasp.

   Of course!

"Camera feedback is not what the speakers are capturing," My hands shot to grip my Afro bun as I told the rest. "It's water."

"That's impossible, Beth," Rav half-laughed. "The nearest water body, not counting our swimming pools, is miles away from Zavlon. Our camera audio system isn't that good."

"No," My head shook sideways as I grinned. "But the water I'm talking about is in Zavlon. It has always been."

   The responsive glances that came my way spelt nothing but confusion. I sighed as my face met my palms.

   Maybe a different angle would help.

"Guys, what do you think the low vents are for?" I asked.

"Who knows?" Rav shrugged. "Believe it or not, Zavlon Academia has really old buildings and other facilities and artefacts. Most are not are not necessarily useful. Most are probably still there because the school for some reason wants to maintain some old aesthetic vibe or something...I don't know, okay?"

"And what is one of the oldest things Zavlon has within its walls even today?"

"Apart from the low vents? Hmm, let's see," Rav balanced his chin on a fist as he became lost in thought. "That creepy bearded mouse painting in the West Wing whose eyes follow me around all the time, the statue of our school's founder, Gordon Zavlon, also with creepy, stalker eyes..."

"And behind the school's library?" I pressed.

   Seconds passed without an answer from him. Feeling angsty, I contemplated whether it was just better for me to—

"Oh."

   I was taken aback upon realising that the response didn't come from Rav.

   Tracing the source of the voice to Dorian, I was relieved to discover that I wasn't the only one who knew what I meant after all. And judging by the ghost pale features his face had assumed and the irregular gulps he swallowed, Dorian knew exactly where I was talking about.

   Kind of a shame that the one person who understood what I was talking about hated my guts though.

"The place Beth is referring to," His green eyes skimmed mine for a minute before turning back to the other duo, " is the only reasonable explanation as to why Zavlon still keeps the low air vents."

"And the only place in Zavlon with water aside from the school's gyms," I added.

   Murky, formerly electrified, yellow waters that flowed into a forgotten drainage system. The place I saw a Yunitide for the first time.

   My emotions were all over the place at this point. I was surprised at myself for being able to stay composed this long.

"You might as well just tell us now." Camila rolled her expectant eyes, most likely annoyed that she hadn't figured it out yet.

   My grin faded at that. It was one thing to make such a groundbreaking finding.

   But admitting it?

   The beats per minute of my heart began to accelerate as I prepared myself to drop a major bombshell. News that was going to be a milestone in our journey so far. This was exactly what we needed to bring us much, much closer to all that we were fighting for.

    And admitting it made it all real. Something I don't think I was ready for yet.

"The camera and therefore the Yunies and students and most likely Mr Sacury's lab are in..." I stopped to inhale what was probably my fiftieth breath in the span of five minutes.

   I needed to take a minute if I wanted my mind (and theirs) to come to terms with what I was about to reveal.

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

Any guesses as to where the Zavolonian students are? Hints of where are in this very chapter!