(Small time skip)

Karl arrived at the library study room five minutes early, a habit that was equal parts enthusiasm and anxiety. He set his backpack down on the table, pulling out a notepad, a stack of pens, and a small bag of gummy worms.

He wasn't sure why he was nervous. Maybe it was the idea of going back into the tunnels, or maybe it was the fact that Drista and Nick couldn't seem to agree on anything. Either way, his stomach churned as he waited for them to show up.

The door creaked open, and Drista strolled in like she owned the place. She was wearing a bright green hoodie that looked two sizes too big and had the notebook clutched under her arm.

"Alright," she said, dropping into a chair and slapping the notebook onto the table. "Let's do this."

Karl blinked. "Do what?"

Drista gave him an incredulous look. "Figure out what's going on, obviously. What else would we be doing?"

Before Karl could answer, the door opened again, and Nick walked in, a coffee cup in one hand and his ever-present hoodie pulled tight around his face.

"Hey," he said, dropping into the chair next to Drista. "Please tell me we're not going back down there."

Drista rolled her eyes. "Don't start. You're the one who wanted to 'be careful' and 'do research,' so here we are." She gestured to the notebook. "This is literally your fault."

Nick frowned. "How is this my fault? I didn't tell you to steal a creepy notebook from a tunnel." "Borrow," Drista corrected. "And you didn't stop me, so."

Karl groaned, rubbing his temples. "Guys, can we focus, please?"

Drista leaned back in her chair, smirking. "Fine. Let's focus. Step one: this notebook. Step two: figure out what the heck Professor Halloway was doing down there. Step three: solve the mystery, become famous, and make a Netflix documentary."

Nick stared at her. "You've got issues."

"Thank you," Drista said with a mock bow.

Karl reached for the notebook, flipping it open to one of the early pages. The handwriting was neat but cramped, and the diagrams were meticulous—chemical equations, blueprints, and what looked like measurements for some kind of machine.

"This all feels... advanced," Karl said, squinting at the notes. "Like, beyond what you'd expect from a chemistry professor. What is all this?"

Nick leaned over, his frown deepening as he scanned the page. "I don't know, but it's definitely not just basic chemistry. Some of these formulas... they look experimental. Like he was trying to invent something."

"Or blow something up," Drista added helpfully.

Karl shot her a look. "Not helping."

She grinned, grabbing one of the photographs from the notebook and holding it up. "What about these? They've gotta mean something, right?"

The photo showed Professor Halloway again, standing in what looked like a lab. This time, he wasn't alone. There were two other figures with him—one blurred, the other partially turned away.

"Who are they?" Karl asked, leaning closer.

"Assistants, maybe?" Nick said. "Or students? I don't know."

Drista flipped to another page, her eyes scanning the text. "What if they're involved? Like, what if they know something?"

Karl hesitated. "Drista, this was, like, decades ago. Even if they're still around, how would we even find them?"

She shrugged. "I don't know. Yearbooks? Old campus records? Social media stalking?"

Nick groaned. "You're so chaotic."

"Thank you," Drista said, unfazed.

Karl set the photo down, his mind racing. The idea of tracking down people from Professor Halloway's past was daunting, but it also felt... possible. And if they could figure out what he'd been working on, maybe they could make sense of everything they'd found in the tunnels.

"So what's the plan?" Drista asked, leaning forward.

Karl hesitated, glancing at Nick. "We could start by looking through yearbooks, I guess? See if we can find any names or connections?"

Nick nodded reluctantly. "That's safe. No creepy tunnels involved. I'm in."

Drista groaned. "Lame. I say we go back to the tunnels. There's gotta be more down there—we didn't even explore the whole thing."

Karl shook his head. "We don't even know what that sound was. I'm not going back until we have a better idea of what we're dealing with."

Drista sighed dramatically, slumping in her chair. "Fine. Yearbooks it is. But if we don't find anything, we're going back."

Nick raised an eyebrow. "You're awfully confident for someone who almost peed herself last time we were down there."

Drista glared at him. "I did not—"

"Alright!" Karl said quickly, cutting her off. "Let's split up. Nick, you and I can check the yearbooks. Drista, you can look through the online archives and see if you find anything about Professor Halloway's research."

Drista crossed her arms, clearly unimpressed. "Fine. But we're going back down to the tunnels soon."

Karl sighed, gathering the notebook and photographs. "Deal."

---

The three of them spent the next hour digging through the library's yearbook collection, flipping through dusty pages and scanning for anything that might connect to Halloway. It was slow, tedious work, and Karl's head was starting to ache from staring at tiny black-and-white photos.

Finally, Nick spoke up. "Found something."

Karl looked over, his heart skipping a beat as Nick pointed to a small photo in the corner of a 1987 yearbook. It showed Professor Halloway standing next to a younger man with glasses and a nervous smile.

The caption read: Professor Charles Halloway and Assistant Researcher James Clark. 

 "Assistant," Karl said, his voice barely above a whisper. "That's one of the guys from the photo."

Drista leaned over, squinting at the page. "Okay, now we're getting somewhere. Who's James Clark?"

Karl pulled out his phone, typing the name into a search engine. After a few minutes of scrolling, he found what he was looking for: an old faculty directory from the late '90s.

"James Clark," Karl read aloud. "Assistant professor in the chemistry department from 1985 to 1993."

"And then what?" Drista asked.

Karl frowned, scrolling further. "It says he resigned suddenly in '93. No details."

Nick leaned back in his chair. "That's suspicious."

"You think he knew something?" Drista asked.

"Maybe," Karl said. "If he was working with Halloway, he might have been involved in whatever they were doing. Or at least, he'd know what happened."

Drista grinned. "Looks like we've got our next lead."

Nick groaned. "Please don't say we're going to track this guy down."

"Oh, we are," Drista said. "And it's going to be awesome."

Karl wasn't sure about the "awesome" part, but one thing was clear: this mystery was far from over.