> "Fear is a funny thing. It smells like copper and tastes like cold sweat. But revenge? Revenge smells like cheap ammonia and victory. They say you shouldn't kick a dog when it's down, but nobody said anything about scaring a Class Representative until she irrigates the linoleum."
> — Maria's Notes, Entry #66
Part 1: The Queen of the Dark
The classroom formerly known as 2-B no longer exists.
It has been murdered.
In its place stands "Ward 4," a labyrinth of black tarp, strobe lights, and questionable smells. Yu-ri, true to her word, has turned our academic learning environment into a sensory nightmare. It smells of damp cardboard, metallic paint, and the "rotten flesh" scent Grandma concocted using vinegar and old cheese.
I am sitting on a metal stool in the center of the "morgue."
I am wearing a white funeral kimono that smells like mothballs. My hair is hidden under a long, tangled black wig that itches like crazy. My face is painted dead-white, with dark circles under my eyes that Yu-ri applied with her thumb.
And I am having the time of my life.
"RADIO CHECK. OVER."
I tap the small Bluetooth earpiece in my left ear.
"Loud and clear, Ghost One," Yu-ri's voice crackles in my ear. She is stationed at the entrance, acting as the 'Nurse' who takes the tickets (and confiscates flashlights). "You comfy? Do you need a pillow for your butt?"
"I AM COMFORTABLE. I AM DEATH. DEATH DOES NOT NEED PILLOWS."
"That's the spirit. Okay, we got a group of first-years coming in. Fresh meat. They look jittery. The guy in the front is trying to act tough for his girlfriend. Destroy him."
I grin. My face feels stiff from the drying makeup.
Being blind in a haunted house is the ultimate cheat code.
For everyone else, the darkness is a handicap. They shuffle. They stumble. They are terrified of the unknown.
For me? The darkness is just Tuesday.
I hear them enter. Shuffle, shuffle, squeak. Three people.
"It's so dark," a girl whispers. "Taka-kun, hold my hand."
"It's fake, babe," the boy says. His voice is trembling. I can hear the fabric of his polyester pants swishing—his knees are shaking.
They move through the maze. They pass the "Surgery Room" where Tanaka (a boy from the baseball club) is chopping up a mannequin with a meat cleaver. They scream.
Amateurs.
They approach my zone. The Morgue.
I sit perfectly still. I slow my breathing. To them, I am just a prop. A doll in a chair.
They get closer. I can smell their fear—it's a sharp, acidic scent. I can smell the boy's hair gel.
"Whoa," the boy says. "Look at this one. It looks super real."
"Don't touch it!" the girl squeals.
"I'm gonna poke it."
Big mistake, Taka-kun.
He reaches out. I feel the air displace as his hand comes near my face.
Yu-ri whispers in my ear: "Wait for it... wait for it... NOW."
I snap my head up.
I open my eyes wide—my "creepy, milky, dead eyes" as Yu-ri calls them. I stare directly into the void where his face is.
And I scream.
Not a normal scream. I unleash a sound that vibrates in my chest, a feral, broken shriek that sounds like a banshee passing a kidney stone.
"AAAAAIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEE!"
"HOLY SHIT!"
The boy doesn't just jump. He recoils so hard he trips over his own feet. I hear a heavy thud as he hits the floor, dragging his girlfriend down with him.
"It's alive! It's alive! Go! Go!"
They scramble away on hands and knees, whimpering.
"TARGET NEUTRALIZED," I whisper.
"Beautiful," Yu-ri laughs in my ear. "The guy actually left his shoe behind. He ran out with one shoe. You're a legend, Maria."
I settle back into my pose. I smooth down my kimono.
This is power.
For seventeen years, I have been the one people stare at. The one they whisper about. Look at the blind girl. Look how sad she is.
Now? I am the one staring back. And they are terrified.
Part 2: The Eagle Has Landed
We terrorize the student body for two hours.
I have made three football players cry. I have caused a breakup (the guy used his girlfriend as a human shield). I have been poked, prodded, and screamed at.
I am exhausted. My throat hurts. But I am running on pure adrenaline and spite.
Then, the signal comes.
"Red Alert," Yu-ri's voice drops an octave. It's serious now. "The Eagle has landed. I repeat, the annoying, self-righteous Eagle has landed."
Sato.
My heart does a little flip.
"She's with her posse," Yu-ri reports. "Two other girls. They're giggling. They're criticizing the décor. Sato just said the fake blood looks 'unsanitary'."
"UNSANITARY? IT'S CORN SYRUP."
"She's coming in. She's acting brave. She's doing that thing where she talks loudly to prove she's not scared."
I can hear her.
"Honestly," Sato's voice drifts through the plywood maze. "It's a bit childish, isn't it? Just loud noises and jump scares. Very low-brow."
"Totally," her friend agrees. "I bet Yu-ri-san didn't even get permission for these strobes."
They are navigating the obstacles. They are bored. They are mocking my masterpiece.
Yu-ri whispers: "Maria. Execute Order 66. Go off script."
"COPY THAT."
I stand up.
Usually, I stay in the chair. But for Sato, I need to be personal.
I know the layout of this room down to the millimeter. We practiced yesterday. Three steps forward. Turn left at the hanging skeleton. Wait behind the curtain.
I move silently. I am wearing soft-soled slippers. I am a shadow.
I position myself behind the black curtain, right next to the path they have to walk.
Sato is getting closer.
"And where is Maria-san?" Sato asks loudly. "Probably sitting in a corner somewhere. Poor thing. Yu-ri-san probably forced her to do this. It's practically abuse."
Abuse?
Oh, Sato. I'm about to show you abuse.
They walk past the mannequin. They laugh.
"Look at that," Sato says. "It's just a doll head. Not scary at all."
They are right in front of me. I can smell the peaches. I can hear the rustle of her skirt.
I don't scream. Screaming is for the boys. Screaming is "low-brow."
I step out from behind the curtain.
I am less than an inch from her.
I reach out my hand. My hand is covered in the sticky, cold, slime-blood mixture.
I grab her wrist.
Sato stops. "Ew, what is...?"
She turns.
I am right there. My face is inches from hers. I am not wearing my glasses. My eyes are wide, unseeing, staring through her soul.
I lean in.
And I whisper, using my deepest, rustiest, most broken voice.
"Does... it... hurt?"
Time stops.
For a second, her brain tries to process it. Is that Maria? Why is she touching me? Why is her hand wet?
Then, the panic sets in.
"M-Maria?" she squeaks.
I tighten my grip. I smear the cold slime onto her skin.
"Does... being... full... of... shit... hurt?"
I let out a low, gurgling laugh. It's a sound that shouldn't come out of a human girl. It sounds like water going down a drain.
Sato screams.
But it's not a normal scream. It's a primal release of pressure.
And then, I hear it.
Pssssssshhhhh.
It's a distinct sound. Liquid hitting the floor.
Then comes the smell. Sharp. Warm. Ammonia.
"Oh my god!" one of her friends shrieks. "Sato! You're... oh my god!"
Sato is hyperventilating. "I... I didn't... It's not..."
I let go of her wrist. I step back into the darkness.
"CLEANUP ON AISLE FOUR," I whisper into my mic.
I hear Yu-ri in my ear. She is wheezing. She is laughing so hard she can't breathe. "She did it! She actually did it! I can see it on the thermal cam! Puddle confirmed! Puddle confirmed!"
Sato bursts into tears. "I want to go home! Let me out!"
She pushes past her friends. She runs. I hear her wet shoes squeaking on the linoleum. Squeak-squish. Squeak-squish.
Her friends run after her. "Wait! Sato-chan! Your skirt!"
The room falls silent, except for the strobe light buzzing.
I stand there in the dark.
I take a deep breath. It smells of fake blood, vinegar, and... well, pee.
I have never felt more alive.
Part 3: The Escape
"Okay, shut it down! Shut it down!"
Yu-ri bursts into the room a minute later. She flips the main breaker. The strobe lights die. The house lights flicker on.
She runs over to me. She grabs my shoulders.
"Maria! You absolute psychopath! You made the Class Rep wet herself! It's everywhere! There is a trail!"
I grin.
"WAS IT LOW-BROW?"
"It was high art!" Yu-ri wipes a tear from her eye. "But we gotta go. Teachers are coming. Sato is definitely snitching. She's probably crying to the Principal right now about how the blind demon assaulted her bladder."
"I DIDN'T TOUCH HER BLADDER. JUST HER SOUL."
"Same thing. Come on. Emergency exit."
She grabs my hand—the clean one. She leads me out the back door of the classroom, avoiding the puddle of justice near the entrance.
We run down the hallway. Well, she runs. I speed-walk with aggressive cane tapping.
We make it to the staircase. We go up.
The roof. Our sanctuary.
We burst out into the cool afternoon air. The sun is setting, painting the sky in colors I can't see but can feel as a cooling of the temperature.
Yu-ri collapses against the fence, sliding down until she's sitting on the concrete. She drags me down with her.
We sit there, panting.
"I can't believe it," Yu-ri gasps. "The look on her face... well, you couldn't see it, but Maria. It was biblical. She looked like she'd seen the Ring girl."
"SHE DESERVED IT."
"She totally did. But we are so suspended."
"WORTH IT."
"Totally worth it."
Yu-ri reaches into her pocket. "Celebratory pocky?"
"YES."
She hands me a biscuit stick. I crunch on it. Chocolate.
"Hey, Maria?"
"YES?"
"You were scary back there. Like, legitimately terrifying. When you did that whisper voice? Even I got a chill."
I chew slowly.
"GOOD."
"You're not the sad little bird anymore, are you?"
I shake my head.
"THE BIRD IS DEAD. I AM THE VULTURE NOW."
Yu-ri snorts. "Vulture. Nice. I like it."
She leans her head on my shoulder.
"You know everyone is going to be talking about this forever, right? The Legend of the Pissing Class Rep. You've changed the school history."
"I AM A HISTORIAN."
"You're a menace."
We sit in silence for a moment. The adrenaline is fading, leaving a warm, heavy exhaustion in my limbs.
My wig is crooked. My face is sticky with paint. My dress smells like mothballs.
I feel... light.
For years, I carried the weight of everyone's expectations. Be quiet. Be grateful. Be invisible.
Today, I was loud. I was ungrateful. I was the center of attention.
And I broke the "perfect" girl.
"YU-RI?"
"Yeah?"
"AM I A BAD PERSON?"
I need to ask. Because there is a tiny part of me—the part raised by my anxious mother—that feels a twinge of guilt. Sato is humiliated. She's probably in the nurse's office crying into a spare uniform.
Yu-ri sits up. She takes the pocky stick out of her mouth.
"Bad person? No. You're a person who pushed back. Sato bullied you, Maria. She didn't shove you in a locker, sure. But she bullied you with 'kindness.' She tried to erase you. She tried to make you small so she could feel big."
Yu-ri pokes me in the forehead.
"You just reminded her that you take up space. And that if she messes with the bull, she gets the horns. Or in this case, the wet skirt."
I smile.
"YOU ARE VERY WISE FOR A DELINQUENT."
"I read a lot of manga. Wisdom comes from shonen protagonists."
Suddenly, the door to the roof bursts open.
"THERE THEY ARE!"
It's the Vice Principal (the one with the glue-on wig). And Mr. Takeda. And a very red-faced, tear-stained Sato wearing gym sweatpants.
"Yu-ri! Maria!" The VP yells. "Principal's office! Now!"
Yu-ri stands up slowly. She brushes the dust off her pants. She helps me up.
"Well," she whispers to me. "Showtime."
She squeezes my hand.
"You scared?" she asks.
I stand tall. I adjust my crooked wig. I grip my cane like a sword.
"NO."
I face the angry mob. I can't see them, but I can hear their heavy breathing.
"I HAVE SEEN THE ENEMY, AND SHE HAS WET PANTS. I FEAR NOTHING."
Yu-ri laughs, loud and defiant.
"Let's go get suspended, partner."
We walk toward the door.
I tap my cane. Clack. Clack. Clack.
It's the sound of victory.
> End of Chapter 5