I couldn’t calm down.

I think that my brain didn’t quite handle the shock of it all, because my thoughts quickly became a jumbled mess. I kept thinking on what I was supposed to do, on how to get out of this mess. But really, what is there to do in a situation like this one ?

I didn’t even notice how long I’ve been sitting here on the tiled floor, next to the stinky toilet. I need to get out of here, Mira was probably looking for me right now.

I lifted myself off the ground and headed out of the bathroom. As I walked down the corridors, I felt my vision blur and the world becoming unrecognizable to my eyes. The voices around me became more and more faint, and I felt myself going insane at each passing second.

“Aai.” I heard in a distance. What was that noise supposed to be?

“Akiii !” The voice became clearer and clearer.

“AKARI !”

I jumped at the sound of a screaming girl next to me. At that moment it felt like I had just gotten woken up from a dazing dream. I turned my head towards the person who'd been calling me out and found myself face to face with Mira, deeply staring at me with a look of utter confusion.

“Are you ok ? You were swaying left and right as you were walking. Did you get yourself drunk or something ?” She laughed.

“Mira…” I said in a shaky voice. Her smile on her face slowly disappeared and was replaced with a frown. Now her expression was riddled with worry.

“Akari, please. Tell me what’s going on. Something definitely happened while I was gone, it is written all over your face.”

I didn't find the will to answer her. Instead, I went over to the pocket of my trousers and handed her the mysterious note.

“It was dropped into my locker.” I muttered.

As Mira went on reading the words, her disturbed expression turned into shock. With her jaw that was now dropped to the ground, she looked up to me and gazed into my terror-filled eyes.

“Akari… Do you have any sort of clue on who would have written this down ?”

I scratched the back of my neck and looked up to the ceiling.

“No, I have no idea who it is. I think that they were long gone before I even arrived at my locker and opened it.”

My friend furrowed her eyebrows and began to examine the sheet of paper in her hands. She now looked like a detective that was trying to solve a murder case by pinpointing any clues that the author of the note might have left down accidentally.

“Hm, the only thing that might help us track down the culprit of this is the handwriting. But I have to admit that I can’t seem to recognize who it might belong to. One thing is for sure though, the guy who gave you this isn’t someone who’s part of my class.”

“Huh ?” I exclaimed. “How can you tell ?”

“It’s easy. Because I am so used to being the class lackey and picking up the works of all my classmates and hand them down to our teachers, I eventually got the grasp on whose handwriting belongs to who in my class. But this right here doesn’t belong to any of them.” She said as she slapped the back of her hand on the paper. Soon enough I started chuckling under my breath.

“What’s up with you now ?” She asked.

“I don’t know Mira, this really looks like a professional investigation that you're doing right here. I’ve never seen you make such a big analysis about something. Don’t tell me that you’ve already done this before.”

As I told her that she glared at me with a very stern and serious expression on her face. It was like she was telling me to stop my bullcrap and to concentrate on the situation at hand.

“Fine, I get it.” I groaned. “Please go on.”

She sighed and resumed her analysis.

“So, as I was saying, this note could have been written down by anyone from our school really. But as you can see right here, it says that they want to meet up with you after your classes, which end an hour earlier than everyone else’s schedule. So I must assume that the person who wants to meet up with you is also free on their last period. Maybe we can find which classes actually leave an hour earlier than the others !”

“Yeah, but there are still a lot of classes who end their day before their last period. It's not rare that people finish off an hour early around here. Besides, we can't exclude the possibility that this person is maybe gonna skip his last class to find out about me.”

Mira dropped her arms and looked down onto the ground with a big sigh.

“You’re right. At this point, it could be anyone. I guess we haven't got a choice now. We’ll just have to find out who it is once we directly meet up with them.”

Mira looked up and noticed that I was starting to go into a panicked frenzy again. As she saw me, she smiled and rubbed my hair in an attempt to calm me down.

“Akari, it’s going to be okay. I'll skip my last class and accompany you to meet up with the stranger. I’ll be here to kick their butts if they even try to threaten you in any way.”

“We can’t do that though ! They told me to come alone…”

"Well, yeah... I will accompany you, but I won’t be here beside you once you are face to face with them. I will be watching you from a distance, and I'll be here to help out if you are ever in need. Then once they will be finished talking to you, you will report in on everything that they told you. I’m not going to let you go through this alone and watch you go completely insane, I’m your friend Akari. I want to have your back.”

Her words did manage to calm me down. Well, at least a little bit. I smiled at her, thanking her for being such a great friend to me. And because Mira was the one to be the cheerful kind, she quickly smiled back.

Suddenly we both heard the bell ring across the school and it quickly reminded me that the confrontation with the mystery guy will actually be happening in only an hour from now. Mira held her hand onto my shoulders and slid them down along my arm, to finally grasp my hand in a reassuring way.

“Meet me right here once your class will be over. We will go and meet the stranger and sort all of this out. Together.”

Once she finished talking, she slowly let go of my hands and went along, walking towards her own class. She waved at me with a bright and soothing smile on her face whilst she disappeared in the stairway. Well, I guess this was it. I’ll just have to head to my class now. Then in about an hour of time will finally be able to see who is behind all of my misery. Crap, now I really regret that I came to school today. I wished that I had listened to my mother and just stayed at home instead.

The hour went by in a flash. And once I broke away from my daze, I finally noticed that everyone had already left the now deserted classroom. This left me alone in the emptiness, panicking even more for my now damned life.

As you'd expect, I didn’t get to concentrate at all during the lesson. The only thing that I could think about for the past hour or so was how the conflict was going to play off between the mystery person and I. And of course, my head just decided it was a good idea to make up all the worst scenarios possible to ever exist. So in the end, it really didn’t help my worried state whatsoever. Damn you brain, why can’t you just cooperate with me for once in my life ?

I eventually left the classroom and went up to meet with Mira at our designated place. Then slowly but surely, we made our way to the sports field at the back of the school.

Mira did her best to reassure me as we walked along, telling me that she had my back and I will be ok. But really, the closer we got to the meeting place, the less I managed calm down the loud thumping that came from my heart.

We continued marching along and we eventually arrived in the sportsground. But once we came at the middle of the field, Mira stopped. I turned my face to see what was wrong and saw her stare completely dead-eyed towards the silhouette situated in the small dark alleyway, that was now at around 50 yards away from us.

“Mira ?” I called out to her, but she didn’t respond. Her eyes continued to glare at the figure in the dark.

“Mira, tell me what’s wrong.” I asked her again, trying to get a response out of her.

“What, can’t you see who it is ?” She answered me while pointing out in the alley ahead of us. I shook my head and replied to her in a very sarcastic tone.

“I don’t have such impeccable vision Mira, that’s a thing with albinos. You should be happy that I even get have such a good eyesight in the first place.”

I thought that my unusual sarcasm would make her react, but again, she completely ignored my comment. Frustrated, I grabbed onto her shoulder and moved my head in her line of sight.

“Mira, who is it ?”

She stayed silent for a moment then averted her eyes towards me.

“I think… That everything will go on fine. At least I hope... Listen, I’m going to wait for you right here, just in case this situation really turns out to be a problem. Don’t hesitate to signal me if ever you feel like you are in trouble. Remember, you have to make sure to solve all of this out for the sake of the mermaids and the protection of our species. I know that you can do it Akari, you got this.”

As she said those words she slightly punched my shoulder in encouragement, turned me around towards the dark passageway and pushed me ahead. I looked back at her for the last time and slowly made my way to the cramped alley between the buildings.

I felt my breathing getting heavier and heavier with every step I took. I was afraid, there is no doubt about that. This could either turn out to be a complete fiasco or end up being my worst nightmare. There’s no way that this situation could turn out fine for me, right ? There’s no way !

I eventually arrived at the edge of the path. As my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I finally was able to identify the dark silhouette. And once I discovered who it was, I felt my heart drop to the ground.

“Hey.” Owen spoke out, his back leaned against the wall.