We've been talking for some time now and noticed no one else came to join us. "Is it just us?" I asked.

"I don't think anybody else is coming," Harmony said.

"Why not?"

"I don't know," she frowned. "They didn't open up so I thought I should just leave them alone."

"That's probably the best," Kent said. "Being forced to live with strangers for a month is not something you can just accept that easily. It's probably why they give us all this." He nodded at the food on our tables. "To help ease the transition."

"Seems like you're doing okay yourself," I said to Kent.

He went for another chip. "I guess I'm kind of used to these kinds of situations."

I can't help but frown at him. "How could you be used to this?"

"You know those volunteer doctors who live in remote villages over long periods?"

"You mean like Doctors Without Borders?" I know this because of this Youtube channel I subscribed to. They speedrun video games to raise money for charity, usually for Doctors Without Borders.

"That's my folks," he said with a proud smile.

"And they bring you along?" Leo asked.

He nodded. "I'm not complaining, though. But this is by far the best one I've been to. The secrecy, the isolation, the creepy Shade. It's like something from a horror movie."

"If you're okay with dying, sure," I said.

"Oh, come on. We're safe here. As long as we stayed inside."

"But don't you think security is a little bit too much?" Cana said.

To ease our minds, Major Coleman explained that if someone managed to sneak past the heavily-guarded wall around the mountain, the forest acts as a natural maze and camouflage from eyes on the skies, providing a second layer of defense. And if someone managed to find this place, pressure sensors that can differentiate human and animal footsteps are buried around the perimeter of the forest surrounding our dorm. The trees themselves are equipped with thermal sensors that trigger an alarm that initiates the lockdown protocol in place whenever a human heat signature is registered. And if all that fails, there's always the soldiers positioned at the rooftop authorized to use live ammunition. It's supposed to be protection from the superstitious citizens, to avoid a repeat of another Dark Year. But I'm sure the walls and the forest are enough for that job. I can't help but wonder if Major Coleman is hiding something.

"I don't think so," Eris said. "What if an escaped psycho found this place at night and we only have Mr. Donovan to protect us?"

We all stared at her, too stunned to speak.

"You watched too many Criminal Minds," Leo said which made us all laugh.

"It can happen okay!" Eris snapped at Leo, which made us laugh even more.

"Knock it off, guys," Harmony said, being considerate of Eris but she was giggling herself so she wasn't very convincing.

Eris checked her wrist watch. "Oh, it's almost 5:30. We should start cleaning up."

"Boo..." Kent groaned.

"Killjoy!" Leo said, hiding the word between fake coughs.

Eris cross her arms over her chest and gave them a glare you wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of. "Did you say something?"

"I'll get the Karaoke," Leo said to Kent with a serious expression. "You take the plates."

"R-right!" Kent said with quivering lips. I could hear the panic in his voice. "Hey Vergil, you can't just sit there and do nothing! Here, take these bottles," he said, practically pushing them to me and dragged me out of the door. I waited till we were outside, in the visitor's lounge before I burst out laughing.

"Dude..." I said between laughs. "You should have seen your face."

Kent, using his free hand, wiped his forehead with the sleeves of his uniform. "Oh man, I did not expect that at all."

When we opened the door to the dining area, we saw Mr. Marino holding a large service tray. A savory aroma of beef broth and vegetables immediately filled my nose.

Kent stopped for a bit. "What's up, Mr. Marino?" he said.

"Hello," I added, following Kent.

"Good afternoon, children," Mr. Marino greeted back. He placed the service tray on top of the only empty table and faced us. "You're a bit early, as you can see."

"Oh, we were just cleaning up," I said, holding up the empty, 2l bottles.

"I'm glad to see you kids enjoying yourselves," Mr. Marino said in a slow and measured voice, as if testing our reactions."Considering the circumstances."

Kent shrugged. "The creepy Shade aside, I love this place!"

A smile appeared on his face. "That's good to hear," he said. Then he looked at me. "Well, I trust you know what to do with recyclables?"

I nodded. Mr. Marino went ahead to empty the contents of his service tray. I followed Kent to the kitchen countertop. I pushed the plastic, soda bottles against a swinging door labeled Non-biodegradable under the kitchen countertop and dropped them inside.

Having done what we came for, Kent and I walked towards Mr. Marino. He just finished setting one of the three tables with four plates, four bowls, and silverwares. Each plate was served with a cup of rice. The ceramic bowls hold a generous portion of chunks of beef, potatoes, cabbage leaves and a saba banana, sliced in half, swimming in brown broth. "Smells great, Mr. Marino," Kent said. "Been a while since I've had Nilagang Baka. You went all out, huh."

"Wait till you see the dessert," Mr. Marino said.

""Do you need help?" I asked.

"Well, I just need to take them out of the fridge...perhaps you can tell the rest to come down instead?" Mr. Marino said. "And tell them to bring their handbooks with them." He said, pointing at the intercom mounted on the wall. "Just press the button and talk."

"You used one of this before?" I asked Kent as we walked towards the thing.

"No," Kent said. "But I'm excited to." He pressed the button. "Umm...hello." Kent said, his voice filled the room thanks to the speakers overhead. "This is your captain speaking...Nah, this is Kent. Mr. Marino wanted you guys to come down for dinner. And bring your handbooks with you. So...captain out."

"Idiot," I said.

"That means you two, too." Mr. Marino said, not looking amused at Kent's joke. "Off you go."

We bumped into the rest of the karaoke group, who were also on their way up.

"Dinner at 5:30," Leo said. "I'm not sure how I'm gonna get used to this."

When we got back to the dining area, everyone else, including those who didn't come to the party, had already assembled. In front were Mr. Marino and a tall guy with an athletic build who was introducing himself as Mr. Donovan. I didn't expect him to be so young. He looks like he just graduated from college. Kent and I ended up being seated with Cana and Demi.

"He's the night shift," Mr. Marino said. "He'll be looking after you till morning, as was discussed, and that includes supervising your Shady study. Don't worry; Mr. Donovan here is very dependable. I'm sure you'll all get along."

We started eating while listening to Mr. Marino like a group of good kids as he reminded us of the do's and don'ts. When he asked if we have any more questions, no one answered.

"I'll take my leave, then," Mr. Marino said. "Good night, children."

We all said good night. How he would find his way out of the forest at night is something he didn't share with us.

"Now, we'll have a lot of time to get to know each other," Mr. Donovan said. "But for now, we need to talk about your shifts and rules during Shade Study. He took a pile of papers from his shoulder bag and gave it to Demi, who started passing the papers around. "What you're holding there is the schedule the previous haunteds had used."

Once everyone got a copy, he continued. "You'll see that all twelve haunteds were split into three groups, meaning four persons each. They had a rotating schedule so Group A would take the first night, Group B the second, and Group C the third, resulting in each group having two nights off before their next shift. That is a lot of time for rest, especially for those who aren't used to staying up all night. But I suggested you train yourselves to be night owls since pulling an all-nighter every two days is bad. How you write your notes is up to you. But we have to be sure to have it done before morning, for our daily report with Major Coleman."

"I suppose this works," Eris said stood up from her seat and walked to the center, near Mr. Donovan. "Okay, guys, let's form three groups. Who wants to be on my team?"

Leo walked up to her. "Who put you in charge?"

Eris just ignored him. "Anyone else?"

The entire room was suddenly immersed in violet light, making us yelped.

"Nothing to be afraid of," Mr. Donovan said. "That's just the U.V. lights turning on. Which means its 5:30 pm and we should be out there by six."

"A warning would have been nice, you know," Kent said. Then he cleared his throat and pretended to be holding a microphone. "Ding-ding-ding-ding. Attention, haunteds, this is to announce that the U.V. lights will be turned in a minute. Thank you for choosing Biringan. We hope you enjoy your stay. Ding-ding-ding-ding."

We all laughed, even Mr. Donovan. "We'll that's your job now," he said, smiling. "Now go find a group." Kent saluted Mr. Donovan, got up, and walked towards Harmony's table.

The rest started grouping up. I turned my gaze back to our table.

"Wanna team up?" I asked Cana, who simply nodded because she was still eating.

"Can I join you guys?" Demi asked.

I remembered that Demi was on his own and being the youngest here, I didn't mind him tagging along with us. So I looked at Cana, being stranger-avoidant and all. She nodded again. So I guess that's that.

"You need one more?" Kent said as he walked towards us.

"I thought you'd want to be with Harmony's team?"

"Yeah, well..." Kent said, nodding at Harmony's team, who is already complete, including Harmony, Leo, Eris and a guy we didn't saw back at the party. "They already have four."

With dinner done, the dishes at the sink and the groups complete, we head out to see the Shade for the first time.