This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, some places, and incidents are all products of the author's imagination and are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, places, persons, living or dead is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved. No parts of this book may be reproduced in any form without the prior consent of the author.

This is not affiliated with the places that have been mentioned here in the story.

Note: There will be a lot of typographical errors ahead. This will be edited once notice.

*Plagiarism is a crime*

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"Damian! Wake up!"  Nicholas screamed as he saw his best friend. Lifeless and full of blood.

That one afternoon, 15 students were tasked to take a trip to Baguio City, Philippines. The students explored the wonders of Baguio as they reached their last destination, the Old Diplomat Hotel, where their courage, reservedness, and wits will be tested.

"All right, settle down class! We are about to go to the Old Diplomat Hotel. This will be the last destination for the night. Turn your phones off during the tour since there will be no signal anyway." The class became rowdy out of excitement as this place was famous for paranormal activity. 

 "And here's a word for everyone: Stay together, doesn't matter what happens, just stay together." The bus went silent as the students thought about what the teacher meant. 

"Nicholas, since you are the class president, would you make a headcount of everyone every 20 minutes during the visit? It's part of our safety measures." The teacher said for the last time sitting down in her assigned seat. Nicholas replied with a nod as he looked at their teacher's tense face.

"Emilia! You like haunted stuff don't you?" Damian asked with a witty expression. 

"I have no business talking to you," Emilia said while irritated to the point that she pointed her bread knife at Damian's neck.

 "Sheesh, calm down, Emy! I'm just asking, for god fucking sake!" Damian anxiously said and breathed heavily. 

Emilia returned the knife to her bag as she and Damian stared at Nicholas, who was just on the seat beside them curiously looking at his phone. 

"Nicholas, is there something wrong?" Damian asked out of his curiosity. 

"Nothing," Nicholas replied. 

"Why was our teacher so anxious about going to this place? I need to know." He said to himself. After an hour of sitting on the bus, they finally arrived at their destination. 

"Oh wow! This is a lot.. Creepier than I imagined." Damian said as he looked up to the menacingly tall and dark building which was considered an abandoned hotel a long time ago, but it is preserved after the war... 

"What do you even expect from a haunted place? Of course, it will be creepy, dumbass!" Emilia complained as she smacked Damian's back. 

"Of course, you're cool with all this, you're a psychopath after all." Damian complained. 

"Look, even Nicholas is scared- Oh wait, even you are calm, huh?" Damian added as he looked at Nicholas' calm and reserved face. 

"Students, I'm going to repeat what I said: stay together." Their teacher instructed for the last time before going into the building.

"No tour guides, not even guides?" Damian complained and scratched his neck. 

"Just get moving already," Nicholas uttered. As they walked through the building, the more they realized what they got themselves into. The deeper they explore the building, the more it gets eerie and spooky. 

"This is not funny, nor is it entertaining," Damian said anxiously as he shivered from the cold and dry air. 

"Stop being a scaredy-cat!" Emilia shouted as she smacked Damian's back.

 After a long walk from the entrance hallway, they reached the hotel's fountain area in the middle of the building. No water was coming out from it, but the eeriness and coldness in the air were enough to make everyone wet from the cold sweat. 

"Yup, this was never a good idea. It never was," Damian said as he stepped back. 20 minutes had passed and it was Nicholas' time to make a headcount. He counted from one to three, to seven, to thirteen.

 "Only thirteen, who was the other missing?" He said inquisitively as he looked around in the group. 

"Those two," he said as he realized that Damian and Emilia went missing. 

"Damian ran off to the reception so Emilia went running after him," one of their classmates said.

 Nicholas sighed as he asked permission to look for them. He walks alone through the hallway and peeks through the dusty and rusting rooms. After a few moments, he reached the reception but to no avail. He was not able to find either Damian or Emilia.

Thud! 

Nicholas looked up as he heard a noise coming from the upper floor. He immediately ran to the upper floor using the creaking and dusty wooden stairs beside the hallway. 

"Emilia! Damian! Please respond if you can hear me!" Percival shouted as his voice echoed through the empty building.

Crash! 

Nicholas hears glass breaking near him and rushes to where the sound is coming from. He reaches the room where the glass was coming from and horror comes running through his face as he sees half of his friend's body hanging from outside the window. Damian's body was pierced with a sharp shard of glass and rusting metal bars with his upper body leaning to the outside of the room covered in blood. 

"Damian!" Nicholas shouted as he rushed to his friend's body to check if he was breathing, but misfortune struck them as Damian was not able to respond with breathing nor a pulse. 

Nicholas hears a creaking sound behind him and looks back and sees Emilia sitting on the floor shaking with fear. 

"Emilia, are you okay? Are you hurt?" Nicholas worriedly asked Emilia while examining her. Emilia shakes her head. 

"I'm going to tell the others about what happened. Just stay here," Nicholas instructed. Emilia nod as her answer.

Percival ran back to the fountain where everyone was. Everyone was there except their teacher who went outside for a bathroom break. The teacher didn't come back on time and everyone was left with the choice of going to where the incident took place. 

After rushing back, Percival noticed that some of the things were off and misplaced while Emilia is now gone. Ignoring Emilia's absence, the class tried to get Damian's body off the window, they checked Damian's state just to know that he was long gone.

"Nicholas, what happened here?!" One of the students shouted. 

"I don't know. Damian's body was already hanging on the window when I saw him and Emilia was also here," Nicholas explained. It came back to Percival's mind that Emilia was no longer in the room. 

"Are you looking for me? I just went to the faucets beside this room to wash the bloodstains," Emilia said calmly as she dusted off her clothes. 

"Why is she so calm when she was trembling in fear earlier?" Nicholas said to himself. 

"You must be the one who killed Damian! Didn't you chase after him after he ran away?" Said one of their classmates as they suspected Emilia. The girl chuckled, which made everyone feel prompt.

"I don't even dream of getting near him, I just chased him because he'll be separating from the group,"  Emilia stated as she defended herself to the group.

"Emilia, would you explain what happened when you two were alone?" Nicholas placidly asked.

"Alright, when we first came to the fountain, I saw Damian slowly stepping back and running away to the reception area so I chased him until we found ourselves in this room. I told him to come back with me to everyone but he refuses to. So I decided to use force and we fought. We got tired and while he was backing off, he slipped off from the wet floor and got thrown off the window." Emilia stated. 

"So the thud sound I heard earlier was from you two fighting and the crash was when Damian got thrown off the window?" Nicholas curiously asked while scratching his neck. Emilia nods her head while smirking.

"But why is the floor wet?" Nicholas replied. Emilia replied by pointing her finger through the leaking ceiling.

 "I guess the building is old so I guess that's not out of the ordinary but what is this crack in the floor next to it? It is almost like an iron ball was dropped," Nicholas said to himself.

"But isn't this wet part of the floor too far to fall off from the window?" Nicholas asked. 

"He got out of balance and tripped for a small distance after slipping from the floor. That's why, Nicholas. Stop bombarding me with questions," Emilia replied.

"But it still doesn't make sense, just how strong did he slip to break the window?" Nicholas asked once more which made Emilia sigh out of her frustrations. 

"They used thin glass for making the window and the metal bars holding it got rusty. That's why it was so weak," replied one of their classmates.

After a few moments, some of their classmates went back to the room where the incident took place after finding their teacher bringing with them an ambulance and the police department. Everyone went back outside the building as the officers locked the area and Damian was transferred to the hospital. Both Nicholas and Emilia were invited by the policemen for an interview, and both willingly accepted none of them was suspected and the incident was reported as an accident.

After the interview, the two of them walked out of the station waiting for the others to pick them up. Nicholas massaged his temple, still trying to sink in what happened in that place. He could not accept the fact that his best friend was gone.

"Rough night, huh?" Emilia asked and smiled weakly at him. 

"Of course it is, someone died. My best friend died, who would not have a rough night, right?" Nicholas replied to her question.

"But you know, I'm still wondering how all the events led to the incident," he added and brushed his hair.

"Who knows, we'll never know. I didn't even know," Emilia replied while drying her wet towel. 

"That towel is flinging water everywhere, why is that even soaked in water?" Nicholas asked Emilia curiously. 

"Oh, I soaked it accidentally while washing myself in the hotel. It got stains all over it," Emilia answered and smiled anxiously. 

"Stains? Why?" Nicholas curiously asked. 

"Got stained by Damian," Emilia replied.

Before they finished their conversation, their bus arrived to pick them up. Nicholas breathed heavily before going inside the bus.

"Any way you will never know," Emilia said softly. 

"Come again?" Nicholas asked. Emilia ignores him as she goes to her seat.

"You will never fully know. Why is this towel stained? Why am I not there when you come the second time? You were good enough to see the dent, but you didn't look through enough. You didn't think about it enough. Always look through the surface, Percival. Or you might not know what comes next. "

-END-