This World Is Strange

As the night continued, Ms. Suzuki and Clay stood guard by the stairways, weapons ready and ears listening intently. However, as time passed, Ms. Suzuki and Clay noticed a problem. Both of them were growing sleepy.

Although both wanted to stay awake, their body's internal clocks demanded sleep. Due to that, their senses were slowly waning as the sensation of tiredness encroached on them.

Noticing this problem, Clay turned towards Ms. Suzuki and addressed the issue.

"Are you sleepy?" Clay asked.

Ms. Suzuki nodded her head in response before speaking.

"Yes, but I'm still doing okay." Ms. Suzuki responded, trying to sound awake and full of energy.

Hearing Ms. Suzuki's response, Clay grew quiet momentarily as he pondered their situation.

'Both Ms. Suzuki and I are growing tired. If this keeps up any longer, we'll both be out of commission.'

With that in mind, Clay began working on a plan to tackle their current situation.

'Our bodies aren't accustomed to staying up at night. Our internal clock is still working on the schedule of going to bed at night and going to school in the morning. But with our current situation, that's impossible. But even so, our bodies still need sleep. Leaving me with only one choice in our current situation. We take turns sleeping.'

Clay's thoughts finally finished as he expressed his idea to Ms. Suzuki.

"Let's take turns sleeping," Clay stated.

"What?" Ms. Suzuki asked in confusion.

"You heard me. Let's take turns sleeping if we're both up for too long. Our senses will dull, leaving both of us vulnerable. But if we take turns sleeping, one of us can rest while the other stands guard. With this, we can take turns resting, avoiding the worst possible outcome of both of us knocking out from exhaustion." Clay stated again.

Ms. Suzuki processed Clay's idea momentarily as she weighed her options before responding.

"Okay then, why don't I take the first shift while you sleep?" Ms. Suzuki promptly stated, surprising Clay.

'That's fast, and I thought she would have questioned me more.' Clay thought to himself.

"Alright then, I'll take a quick nap. Wake me up in an hour or so." With that, Clay closed his eyes.

Seeing that Clay was no longer responding or saying anything else. Ms. Suzuki turned her gaze towards the small gap of the barricade and began wondering to herself.

'Although Clay wanted me to be bait. How exactly does he intend to handle the goblins, though?' Ms. Suzuki questioned herself.

Ms. Suzuki knew Clay's idea was completely unreasonable and even somewhat reckless about her being bait. But at the same time, she couldn't refuse for some reason.

'I suppose that's because of his aura.' Ms. Suzuki thought to herself.

For some reason, Clay gave off this aura of safety and comfort. Call her crazy if you want, but after being saved by Clay. She instinctively felt the need to be near Clay.

If she weren't, her body would feel jittery, as if bugs were crawling all over her body. Cold sweat would also begin to form, and before she knew it, hyperventilation.

'But why do I feel this way?' Ms. Suzuki questioned herself again.

For all she knew, she never had symptoms like these before. One could chalk it up to the effects of drug withdrawal if looking at it from a glance.

But Ms. Suzuki knew that drugs weren't the problem at all. Plus, she never even did any drugs in the first place. So that wasn't it.

With no logical explanation for her strange symptoms, Ms. Suzuki's mind wandered to another thought as her gaze landed on Clay's position.

'He's changed so much...' She thought to herself.

Before the events that have led up to now, Clay was one of the many students she had taught. At most, she only recognized his name and appearance for the sake of being a teacher.

After all, it would be awkward if she had to always ask for a student's name when teaching them or asking them to solve a problem. Thus, memorizing all the students' names and appearances was an unspoken rule to avoid such awkwardness.

But now, Clay had a much deeper position in her heart and even her sanity, if she had to admit it. After all, he did save her when she was moments of being attacked or worse, raped. It was like something straight out of a fairy tale, though granted, she didn't want to experience it again.

'And then there was that moment...' Ms. Suzuki replayed the image of Clay's body being thrown around like some ragged doll while he was fighting the goblin.

Although she wanted to help, fear gripped her body, preventing her from helping Clay. Once she saw Clay's body thrown onto a wall with a loud impact before sliding down onto the ground, her heart thumped.

Not from fear but from the prospect that Clay could be dead at that very moment. She was pretty sure that Clay was already dead when he no longer responded to any stimulus from the goblin, leading to his body being thrown away like some rag doll.

Seeing the scene of Clay's body being thrown away felt unreal. But even more unreal was when Clay somehow appeared behind the goblin again like some ghost.

And then, without a second wasted, Clay finished off the goblin.

'Thinking about it, he's changed after that near-death experience. It's almost as if he's a different person...' Ms. Suzuki thought.

If Ms. Suzuki thought about it, how much Clay had changed was strange.

'But then again, I suppose anyone would change with such a near-death experience.' Ms. Suzuki reasoned to herself.

'Plus, now that Clay had changed, he seemed even more dependable.' Ms. Suzuki's thought continued.

Without Ms. Suzuki even realizing it, a small smile had plastered itself on her face as she watched Clay's sleeping form.

Before long, Ms. Suzuki quietly walked over to Clay's sleeping form and sat beside him, leaving her post unattended. But she didn't care. With a slow and soft hand motion, she clutched onto the edges of Clay's clothes, careful not to alert him.

With that, an entire hour passed with Ms. Suzuki sitting next to Clay, occasionally adjusting her sitting position while clutching the edges of Clay's clothes.

Although Ms. Suzuki wasn't aware of it, with each adjustment she made, her body had inched closer to Clay.

Before long, Ms. Suzuki's shoulders and legs had made contact with Clay's. Although she could readjust and move away, she didn't. Instead, she chose to stay in that position as she basked in the sensation of feeling Clay's shoulder against her.

'Warm...safe...and comfortable...' Ms. Suzuki thought as she leaned her weight against Clay. Thus causing some of her breasts to make slight contact with Clay.

All the while, this was happening. Clay was peacefully taking a nap, oblivious to everything that was happening.

...

..

.

After an hour or so, Clay was awakened by Ms. Suzuki standing before him. 

"It's been about an hour or so. It's your turn now." Ms. Suzuki stated promptly

Clay got up from his sleeping position, feeling strangely refreshed and warm as if he had gotten out of bed with a warm blanket covering him.

'Odd.' Clay thought to himself but thought nothing much of it.

"Alright, you take a nap in your corner. I'll stand watch," Clay replied to Ms. Suzuki.

Hearing Clay's response, Ms. Suzuki nodded her head before replying.

"Got it, but I'll just nap in your spot. Seems like it's much safer." Ms. Susuzki responded.

Clay passed at Ms. Suzuki's words momentarily as if processing her words before nodding his head.

"Alright, you can take a nap here. I'll go to the other side." Clay said promptly before getting up and walking over to the corner closest to the gap in the barricade.

Seeing that, Ms. Suzuki didn't say much before sitting in the same spot Clay had sat previously, huddling herself in.

Once the silence had returned, Clay began stretching his body. Once done, he sat down and stared at the gap of the barricade.

'Seems like there won't be much action tonight.' Clay thought to himself.

Countless minutes had passed, which seemed like hours, with nothing happening except the occasional wind swirling outside. Clay had begun to let down his guard, thinking nothing would happen tonight.

But just then, his thoughts were cut off by an all too familiar sound, the cackling of a goblin. Although faint, Clay could recognize that disgusting cackle anywhere.

After all, it was the same sound that taunted him when he was at death's door. If there was one sound he could remember clearly, it was the cackling of a goblin.

"ke...ke...ke...."

Once again, the faint sound of a goblin cackling reverberated through the school building. This time, it sounded closer, signaling that the goblin was moving towards the stairwell or somewhere nearby.

And based on the amount of cackling he heard. There seems only to be one goblin, seeing that there weren't any overlapping cackling sounds.

Of course, this was all based on the assumption of the sounds Clay heard. There could be more, but the most important information was that a goblin was nearby.

With this information in mind, he got up and walked to where Ms. Suzuki was sleeping. But just before he was about to wake Ms. Suzuki, Clay paused.

'Is it a good idea to wake her up right now?' Clay thought to himself.

If logically speaking, Ms. Suzuki should still be somewhat useless. After all, Clay was sure that Ms. Suzuki was still probably traumatized from being attacked by one of those goblins.

Meaning that she wouldn't be able to provide any support at all. Of course, some could say that maybe she was prepared for such things.

But words don't mean anything. Only actions do. For all Clay knows, Ms. Suzuki could just be putting up a tough act and coward away when shit hits the fan.

"If that was the case, is it a good idea to depend on Ms. Suzuki or any other students?" Clay quietly mumbled to himself

Sure, relying on the others for small tasks such as foraging for food and stuff was fine. But when it came down to the matter of life and death. The thought of relying on a stranger to cover his back seemed somewhat unappealing now, much less relying on a traumatized individual.

With that thought in mind, Clay couldn't help but laugh silently at his stupidity in trying to convert some students into loyal helpers.

'Although I say that, now what do I do?' Clay's next thought followed.

Clay could indeed wake up Ms. Suzuki, but what would that accomplish? Nothing, but most likely a hysterical Ms. Suzuki who would be either too frightened to do anything or scream hysterically at the information, signaling their location.

Of course, these were mere speculations. However, these speculations were based on reasonable outcomes when considering human instinct.

After all, during the night when the goblins attacked, Ms. Suzuki didn't do anything to help, and neither did the other students. With that in mind, Clay could infer they were the type to flee in moments of danger. Of course, some could contribute to the fact that they were too scared to move.

However, that alone would also signify that they are nothing more than a liability in a life-and-death situation. If that were the case, Clay couldn't rely on anyone, including Ms. Suzuki or the students, to look after his blind spots or help him in a fight.

But just as Clay was pondering his internal thoughts, another cackle broke the silence of the air, this time much closer than before.

Seeing this, Clay knew that time was quickly running out. Snapping out of his thoughts, Clay could only grit his teeth and decide to take a risk.

He would place his bets on Ms. Suzuki, not screaming or acting hysterically when facing the goblin. If she did, then Clay could only lament his choices and face the consequences.

'Making decisions is a series of gambling. Let's hope that I took the right one.' With that, Clay walked over to Ms. Suzuki.