Badr and Yousef rushed downstairs the next Thursday afternoon to get to the forest on time.

"Where now?" Badr asked. Yousef turned to have a good glimpse then shook his head.

"It's not here. Where are we anyways?"

Badr and Yousef wandered around the empty school grounds. Yousef suddenly turned to Badr and exclaimed, "Wait, I forgot my math book!"

They dashed upstairs and glanced around once again. They ran up the stairs in front of them aiming to find their classes corridor.

"Wait, what floor are we even on?" Badr's eyes darted around.

"I don't know..." Yousef sprinted around the corridors that kept on leading them into more and more corridors.

"We aren't on the right floor, let's go back," Badr suggested, but when they turned they just found more misleading corridors.

"This is annoying..." they heard a murmur nearby. They spotted a figure walking in front of them.

"Uh, excuse me..." Badr started and the figure turned around.

"Oh, hey," Yahya greeted casually.

"Yahya! Hi!" Badr exclaimed and Yousef smiled.

"Why are you here?" Yahya probed.

"We...wait why are we here?" Badr grilled Yousef.

Yousef explained. "We are lost. Do you know the way out?"

"No." Yahya's voice echoed as he turned around and navigated forward.

Badr and Yousef followed him, hoping to find that stairs again, but all that was on this floor were numerous rooms in the endless corridors.

They continued prancing through the corridor that they reached, which was on the third floor. This corridor was much like the others surrounding it: deserted, dark, and quiet. They tip-toed through the dark corridor hearing the echoes of their footsteps clicking on the granite floor.

Suddenly, Yahya stopped in front of a large door.

"This is it..." Yahya whispered. "This is the door...to the legend..."

"What legend?" Yousef tapped Yahya's shoulder.

"Ah...what...nothing. Never mind," Yahya smiled as Badr and Yousef curiously examined the door.

"What legend? Is it adventurous...?" Badr excitedly began.

"No...it's kinda scary. I said don't mind. Just go, I think the stairs are somewhere nearby." Yahya pointed at the endless halls.

"Really, Yahya, tell us. Please," pleaded Yousef quietly.

"Fine...but don't blame me if you get them," Yahya intrigued.

"Get what?" Badr queried.

"The nightmares," was Yahya's response. Then he started talking in a somewhat low voice. "There is a book I read. It was about the history of Albasea, and it has all the information you could find about this country."

"Wow, everything? Tell me, tell me! I want to know!" Badr shouted enthusiastically.

Yahya slowly sighed again. "Yeah, everything's written there. When I came here, I did some research about this school. In one of the topics I found something about this room, I think," he pointed at the door.

"This is called...'The Haunted Room' and they say it is where...one of the teachers who once worked here died in. They say her soul is still living in here, and anyone who enters this room...their soul will be sucked by her spirit. The book said that anyone who ever died in Evenlane gets thrown in here and...she feeds on them," Yahya finished.

"Wow...that's surely interesting! Let's go in!" Badr jumped at the door and knocked on it.

"It's locked. I tried opening it before," Yahya told him.

"But why would you...want to go in there? I mean, it certainly is interesting but you want your soul to get sucked?" Yousef asked Badr and Yahya.

"I want to go in there. You guys can leave. I'm going to look for the keys," Yahya informed them.

"But what if you are attacked by her 'soul'? Wouldn't you need us? It's better that if you want to go in you let us in with you," Yousef eyed Yahya with a slightly worried look on his pale face.

Yahya shrugged. "I'll be fine."

"Please let us go in with you. I don't want you to be in danger at all, Yahya," Yousef twinkled. Yahya's eyes widened and he blushed a little.

"Ah...well...okay...I guess," he turned his head sideways and closed his eyes.

"Then let's look for the keys!" Badr exclaimed happily.

The search for the keys started and the three boys examined every keyhole of each door, hoping that there would be a key there. Finally, when their hopes had been almost drowned, Badr noticed an open door that had its key inside its keyhole. There were actually several keys that were clustered with a key ring. Badr pointed at it then hurried over to take them out.

Badr pulled the key out and started trying out all the keys on the door. A school cleaner, who was a bald man wearing the usual cleaner uniform, was cleaning inside the nearby open room and saw them then ran to tell someone about them.

Badr, Yousef, and Yahya finally unlocked the door and opened it as cautiously and hesitantly as they could. The room they stood before was indeed very dark. They could not see a single thing and the room felt very dusty, as the air they were breathing was a little dense because of powder particles. They were standing on the diamond-patterned tile floor and they could feel some broken pieces shattered underneath their feet.

"Is this...the haunted room?" Badr questioned with a tone of disbelief. "It doesn't look haunted at all!"

"It does...but where's the spirit?" Yousef fretted.

"I don't know...I don't see any dead bodies either," Yahya quavered in a suspenseful manner.

Badr, Yousef and Yahya walked straight ahead and the room was becoming clearer and lighter every time they took a step further. On their left, a broken window was positioned into the wall and there was a long stem with dead leaves passing through its broken glass. Next to the window stood a big wooden closet that had one or two of its doors broken. A silver accent chair sat to their right in front of the cracked grey wall.

The light that has entered this room had emanated from the windows that appeared one after another. Four windows were submerged into the wall, one on the left side and the rest on the right.

It was indeed a strange and scary room, yet gave the vibe of a storage for old and antique furniture.

They reached the end of the room that had its wall blocked by a historic empty bookshelf that had its cupboards missing. There was nothing very special about it, except that it had small wooden drawers at the bottom, which were also somewhat dilapidated. A smaller door seemed to be partly hidden by the bookshelf, and the boys lumbered over to inspect it more closely.

A sudden sound of the main door banging reached their ears. The next thing they heard were sounds of dress shoes that were approaching from behind them. They turned around to see none other than the two vice principals, the furious Mr. Nabil and the surprised Mr. Samer staring at them.

"What are you boys doing here? Do you acknowledge that it is prohibited to be here?" Mr. Nabil interrogated.

"You are first-year students, right? Grade 7?" Mr. Samer queried confused.

"Y..yes sir," Badr replied loudly.

"You...filthy," Mr. Nabil murmured. He turned around and gave the same cleaner from before the bundle of keys that he took from the door earlier.

Mr. Samer requested further information. "May you tell me why you are here?"

"We...we were lost," Badr answered.

"Okay then. Please close the door and follow me," Mr. Samer told them. Yousef closed the door and they faced the two men.

"Don't waste our time, follow me," Mr. Nabil demanded.

Badr, Yousef, and Yahya followed them quietly while staring at the ground ninety percent of the time. They were led to Mr. Nabil's staff room and then told to wait with Mr. Samer.

In a minute, Mr. Nabil opened the door then signaled Badr to stand in front of his desk.

"Name?"

"B...Badr Quloub."

"Class and section?"

"Seven D."

He wrote his name and information on a slip of paper. Then he dismissed Badr and motioned for Yousef to come over.

"Y...you...Yousef A-Adham."

"Okay, class and section?"

"Seven...C."

Then came Yahya's turn.

"Y..Yahya A-Amer, seven C."

"Okay, you have been suspended from school for three days. You have to sit down in the detention room for three days and study whatever you'll miss. But luckily for you, I will let the suspension start from today and end on Sunday in the first break."

"So, we will sit in the detention room during the weekend?" Badr hoped for his question to be answered by no.

"If you had done this on Monday, you would have been suspended from Monday onto Tuesday, Wednesday and then you would have been excused on Thursday. So you are lucky it is in the weekend, or else you would miss many classes. So yes. YOU HAVE TO SIT FOR THREE DAYS INCLUDING YOUR WEEKEND!" Mr. Nabil glared at them irately.

"How...how is that lucky, sir? To just sit there in the weekend?"

Mr. Nabil glared at Badr once more.

"Okay, okay...and what about food? You surely won't leave us in there to starve, right? Won't you give us some food, sir?" Badr pleaded.

Mr. Nabil ordered Badr to shut up.

"But, really sir! The food..."

"WE WILL PROVIDE YOU WITH FOOD! NOW SHUT YOUR BIG MOUTH!" Mr. Nabil shouted and Badr nodded.

Badr, Yousef, and Yahya were taken to the detention room. It was a little smaller than a normal-sized classroom. It closely resembled the classroom in appearance and the library in tranquility but it had nothing but tables and chairs.

"Sit here," he pointed at the chairs that were in the room. Badr, Yousef and Yahya dropped their bags next to their seats and sat down. After the two vice principals whispered among each other, Mr. Nabil left the room, leaving the boys with Mr. Samer.

"So...Badr, Yahya and Yousef, is that right?" Mr. Samer inquired and they nodded.

"Uh, sir, we are sorry, we didn't mean to break the rules. I mean...Yahya said that this particular room had a story behind it!" Badr resounded quickly without thinking before he talked.

"Story? What story? Can you tell me, Yahya?"

Yahya glared at Badr and nodded slowly. "I, uh...I read once in a book that this room is haunted."

"Haunted?" Mr. Samer chuckled. "What fantasies have you been reading, Yahya? Don't tell me you believed that?"

"I...I did..."

"Well, you shouldn't believe everything books tell you. What did it say?"

"That...that there is a spirit or something...inside there," Yahya admitted in a low voice.

"Spirit? Oh, boys, you have a wild imagination. That's not always the best thing to have," Mr. Samer laughed at the three boys.

"Um...Mr. Samer?" Yousef called quietly.

"Is there anything wrong?"

"Did...was this the room of a staff member? Did they die?" Yousef wondered slowly.

"Oh..." Mr. Samer answered softly. "I mean, yes...and yes, she died."

"How?" pried Badr.

"I don't exactly know. I guess it was just the time for her to die. She was my wife, you see."

"Y...your wife?" Badr gasped in disbelief. "Sorry, sir..."

"It's fine, Badr, do not apologize, but I do not know of any spirit that lives in that room. So...did you find that spirit or not?" Mr. Samer joked.

The boys shook their heads.

"No..." Yahya replied. "I just thought maybe...it would've been interesting if there really was a spirit there."

"I see."

After a few minutes of awkward silence, Mr. Samer left the room saying, "Make sure to study. You have your books, right?"

"Y...yeah?" Badr shrugged and Mr. Samer smiled at them one last time and left, locking the door.

"Ugh...it's all your fault, Badr!" Yahya snapped angrily the moment the door closed.

"Wha-ME? You were the one looking for the stupid 'haunted' room!" Badr shouted back.

"Excuse me? Maybe if you didn't scream 'let's look for the keys!' so loudly, we wouldn't have been in trouble!"

"It's my fault now?"

"Yes, it is!" Yahya insisted.

"No, it isn't! It's your fault, weirdo!"

"Shut up, stupid loud monkey!"

Yousef sighed and took out a bag of chips and a sandwich. "STOP FIGHTING! Here, eat these!"

They both stopped and Badr took hold of the sandwich.

"Hey! I wanted that!" Yahya grabbed it from Badr's tan hands.

"Oi! Give it back!" Badr yelled loudly, snatching it back from Yahya's pale fingers.

Yousef took the sandwich from them, split it in half and handed it back.

"Take," he offered, munching over a potato chip. "I just happen to have these by chance. It's not like I saved them for you or anything."

"O...kay?" Badr took a bite from the sandwich, grinning from the wonderful taste.

"Thanks," Yahya took his time eating the second half of the sandwich.

In a minute, Badr finished his sandwich while Yahya was barely taking a second bite and announced, "I'm going to sleep!"

"Goodnight," Yousef added. "Wait, aren't you thirsty? Don't tell me you don't have water?"

"I don't," Badr scratched the back of his head.

After half an hour, they were already tired from quarreling and they all decided to sleep. They all laid their heads on the table and managed to get comfortable while dropping off to sleep.

...

"Wake up, Yousef. Wake up!"

"Nnngh..." Yousef moaned and slowly opened his eyes. "Where am I...?"

"Yousef!" Malak's piercing voice reached his ears and he flipped out. "What?! Why are you here?" he yelled.

"Shh...Never mind that, I'm here to get you out!" Malak placed her index finger near her lips. "Can you please wake your sleepy friends up? I tried so hard but they didn't even open their eyes."

"We don't need help from a nosy rat like you. You're a girl anyway so you're usele—" In the middle of Yousef's grumbling, Malak punched his cheek hard.

"Shut up and just do as I said! I'm here to help you! You don't need to insult girls also!" Her voice was high now and she was furious.

Neither Badr nor Yahya roused from their loud argument. However, Badr did move his head to the other side.

Yousef glared at her for a while and turned to Badr. "Wake up. Badr. Wake up."

He nudged Badr repetitively until Badr finally awoke.

"Huh? Good morn..ning..." Badr yawned loudly. "Did you get in trouble too, Malak? WAIT! WHAAAT?!"

"Just wake that guy up and let's go!" Malak commanded. Badr stared at her in amusement and Yousef pushed Yahya gently from side to side but Yahya didn't even move an inch. After multiple tries, at last, Yahya awakened and stared at Yousef sleepily with one hand on his cheek, while the other cheek had red marks from his school uniform.

Malak led them out of the detention room shortly afterward and locked the door. She turned around and faced them with an angry face.

"Why did you do that? Badr, Yousef!" she placed both of her hands on her hips. She eyed Badr and Yousef, one by one.

"Geez stop acting like a teacher! That's so annoying." Yousef scoffed with a bad temper.

"We...we were just...you know..." Badr beamed sheepishly.

"I know what you did! I followed you! Plus, I had to make up an excuse to enter the school today! The cleaner almost caught me while I was getting the keys! And I woke up early just to get you guys out of here!"

"What...who are you?" Yahya yawned.

She ignored him and continued scolding and ranting about her struggles to get the keys. In the end, she slightly teared up, "Liars! You said you'd come to that place!"

"Sorry," Badr apologized and Yousef nodded. "Sorry we didn't come. Why do you care so much anyways?"

"I don't! A sorry was all I needed. Thanks!" Malak smirked teasingly then ran off to return the keys.

"What even..." Yahya said, still half asleep.

Author's note: Sorry guys we didn't upload for like two weeks! We were incredibly busy with academic work. But here it is! We finally updated! Hope you like it, and don't forget to comment and vote if you like it!! Thanks for reading! Who's fault do you think it was? Badr or Yahya? Or maybe Yousef? Let me know!