Chapter 42: Perception
Eirin squinted as she opened the sliding window. The cold breeze greeted her as she leaned out of the window after seeing something moving near the oak tree. With the cold wind seeping through her body, she grabbed her sweater and was about to run out of the door until one thought stopped her from leaving.
Was she allowed to go outside?
Tons more questions started appearing one by one. What was it that kept lurking in the shadows of the oak tree? Would it be a wise decision to go out and seek an answer?
Her hand was frozen on the doorknob, hesitation filled her head. It is not the time to go linger around the campus grounds, what’s more, she came from the class that started the unknown disease.
But it was killing her.
Despite the hesitation, Eirin opened the door and wore her slippers as she walked into the dim and long hallway. There were a few wall lights that opened as she passed them by, but she could never be too careful on such a dark night. She walked downstairs, holding onto the railings tightly and slowly reaching the ground floor. On her way to the training ground, she gripped her sweater tightly after the gentle, yet cold breeze caressed her cheeks.
The sound of her slippers scraping the grassy ground filled her ears along with the continuous sound of the rustling of the leaves.
It makes her think of only one word: Peaceful.
No noise from students, and no murmurs surrounding her. It was just her and the whispering of the wind.
Eirin roamed her vision, the training dummies she passed by were all worn out and were swaying by the wind. Her hair soon went all over her face, making her think of how cozy it was while feeling the warmth of her sweater. When she arrived in front of the oak tree in the middle of the training grounds, she tucked her hair behind her ear while staring at the tree trunk.
"I swear I saw something here," she said to herself while walking in circles, trying to figure out what it could have been. Seeing nothing there made the teenage girl wonder if it was all her imagination, and maybe the isolation from people is making her hallucinate.