The Invisible Mystery

“Okay, class.” We all stopped what we were doing to look at him when we heard that he was getting our attention. He smiled at all of us as he looked around our surroundings and sighed. “This will be our last day in this park, so I suggest that you make the most of it.” Half of us cheered because of what he said, but some let out a sigh because they still wanted to try so many things at this adventure park. Even though we stayed in this adventure park for the whole week, it felt like it was too short for all of us. Well, either way, we still needed to go back to the University because we still had so many things to do once we got back. We still needed to prepare for our final exam, as well as for our graduation. Our adviser chuckled when he saw the disappointed faces of some of my classmates. “I promise that we will return to this adventure park some other time.” My classmates, who were sulking just a moment ago, immediately brightened up when they heard that, and that made our adviser grin wider. “That’s why you are the best adviser we ever had!” one of my classmates shouted, which made all of us laugh. Though we immediately cheered after that because we all agreed with what he said. Our adviser in front of us right now was really the best one we ever had. He became like a father figure to all of us, and sometimes, he was like a friend to us that we could lean on whenever we had a problem that we thought we could not resolve. He always listens to our opinion, and we all thought that it was the best characteristic of him. He chuckled again when he heard our cheers, before he waved them off, so we got silent again and decided to listen to what he was about to say. “As much as I enjoy your compliments, I still have something to say, so I suggest that you guys should listen,” he said, which made all of us laughed, before we got really quiet. We just sat in front of him, waiting for what he was about to say to all of us. But as we were waiting for him to talk, I saw that he had this proud smile as he looked around. Both of his hands were on his hips, and he was even nodding his head with the same smile on his face as he looked at each one of us. “We learned so many things at this adventure park, and I hope that you will be able to keep that in your mind until the end.” He looked around again, and a proud look was evident on his face. “And I hope that our bond as a whole section, and as a friend, will become much stronger than before.” He looked at us once again, then he smiled. We turned our heads towards the person who was sitting behind us and we gave each other a smile, before we all nodded our heads. We stood up from our seats, then we all bowed to our adviser, and that made him look at us in shock. “Thank you too, Sir!” all of us told him at the same time. “Thank you for all your hard work, and thank you for teaching us everything that we know we can use in the future. Thank you for being the best adviser that we ever have!” After we said that, we all straightened our backs to look at him, but we were shocked when we saw that there was an unshed tear in his eyes. “You guys,” he said, and I could hear him sniffling. Maybe it was because he wanted to stop his tears from flowing down his cheeks; though I guess that he failed to do so because I could see a lone tear falling from his eyes that he immediately wiped. “Why are you suddenly acting like that?” he asked and we just laughed as we saw that he could not stop his tears from falling anymore. “It is as if this will be the last time that all of us will be able to meet.” Everyone laughed again because of what he said. “We will stick together for a long time, sir!” one of us shouted, which made us cheer again. He even saluted our adviser as he said, “We will still fulfill our promise to you!” He then smiled at him, which made our adviser let out a sob again. “You guys,” he told us again, which made us laugh and cheer at him again. It seemed like he really didn’t know what to say anymore, which is why he waved that topic off. “Anyway, let us enjoy this last day of ours,” he repeated what he said earlier. “You can do anything you want in the morning, and we will all have lunch in the afternoon.” I raised my hand at him, and he nodded his head at me as if saying that I should go ahead and tell him what I wanted to say. I immediately withdrew my hand as I asked him, “When will we leave this adventure park?” Murmurs started to go around the place, and some of it was about what they would buy for their friends and family before we departed. Our adviser hummed as he took out his phone from his pocket. Maybe to check our schedule for the day, and when would we need to depart. I heard him humming again before he looked at us and kept his phone in his pocket again. “We will leave at exactly five in the afternoon,” he said and I nodded my head at him before I murmured a small thanks. “Until then, I will let you do anything that you want to do, but remember that you should be finished with packing all the things that you brought, by now, so that you don’t have to think of anything else for the rest of the day.” We all nodded our heads at him again, and that was the moment that he finally dismissed us, saying that he would just call his wife and we should already start our day by eating our breakfast. We all stood up when we saw that he had already left us alone. All of my classmates immediately walked in the direction of the dining area, so that all of us would be able to have breakfast together, and I just followed them when I checked that we were still complete. After all, I needed to ensure that all of us were present or our adviser might scold us if I didn’t do that. Our breakfast became uneventful. We were just talking about what we should do and what we should buy. Some were even saying that they would just stay in their rooms, and some were saying that they would just roam around the place to take some pictures because we already did every single ride at this adventure park. After that chat, we really did everything that we said and even our adviser joined us in the fun. We separated our ways to do everything that we wanted to do, until it was time for all of us to have lunch with our adviser. Unlike in the morning, our lunch became so loud because they all wanted to tell our adviser everything that they had done the whole morning, and he was just listening to them and was just laughing from time to time. We also celebrated our one-week stay at that adventure park by drinking some fresh orange juice that the owner of that park had offered. We took a rest after that because we still needed to travel a long distance before we could reach the city. We all stayed in one room, and we were just lazing around and doing nothing but to talk about the things we could come up with. The time that we needed to leave had arrived and we all saw the bus from the university was already in the parking lot. We took out all the things that we brought on our first day here, and we all left our rooms at the same time. “Okay, guys!” our adviser said, which made all of us look at him again. “It is sad to say, but we already need to leave.” He then gave us a small smile. He went silent for a minute and that made all of us confused. One of my classmates elbowed me as if saying that I should say something because it was really odd for him to act like that. “Sir?” I called his attention, but we got even more confused when we saw that he shook his head as if he was waking himself up. “Sorry about that,” he apologized to us as he let out a sigh, before that soft smile returned to his face once again. “Before we leave, I want all of you to thank the owner of this park for letting us stay at their place for a week.” I looked at him for a brief second, before I slowly nodded my head at him, then I told my classmates that we should do what he said. After all, the owner and his staff were really hospitable and accommodating. They did everything that they could in order for all of us to feel at home in this adventure park. We formed a line before we bowed down to them, and we said in chorus, “Thank you for letting us stay for the whole week!” We stood straight right after we did that, and we could see that the owner and the other staff who wanted to see our departure became so overjoyed because of what we did. “Be careful on your way,” the owner said to us and we thanked him once again, before we finally went inside of the bus that had been waiting for us the whole time. The whole ride was silent because all of us were still tired from everything that we had done. I thought that it would be that way until we finally reached the city, but I was wrong. Because the moment that the bus started to go down the mountains, I felt that there was something wrong. I felt that something would happen, and it felt like it was inevitable. I flinched and became alert of my surroundings because it really felt like something wrong would happen anytime from now. It seems like our adviser noticed what I did because he looked in my direction. He even put down the book that he had been reading all this time, and looked at me with concern in his eyes. He called my name and that made me snap my head towards him. “Is there something wrong?” he asked me, a genuine worry could be seen in his eyes. I looked at him for a minute, before I roamed my eyes around the whole bus. “It was nothing,” I said, but I still did not return to my position before. I stayed vigilant as I looked around my surroundings once again. After a few minutes of silence, I finally said to our adviser what concerned me at that moment, “It’s just that… it felt like something was about to happen…” I trailed off in the end. My adviser became alert when I said that to him, but he relaxed when he saw that the whole bus was just like usual. But even though that’s the case, I was still feeling that uneasiness in my heart. I could still feel that something was bound to happen, and it felt like we would not be able to like that ‘something.’ “Maybe it was just your imagination?” our adviser said in an attempt to calm me down, but it was never working. “Maybe you are just so tired of everything that you did for the whole week? You can take…” Our adviser was not able to finish his sentence when we heard someone shouting from behind us. We both looked in the direction of that shout, but we both frowned when we saw that the person who shouted was looking in front of the bus, wearing a horrified expression on her face. And she was not the only person who had that kind of look on her face. Almost everyone who turned to look in the front of the bus had that kind of look too. “There…” Her voice trembled as she looked in front of the bus, and she could not even finish what she was about to say. That was the moment that I, and our adviser, turned to look in front of the bus and we also were horrified at what we saw. I couldn’t believe that it was happening in front of me, and I didn’t know what to feel anymore. A car was swaying on the road as if the driver of the said car was drunk, or maybe unwell, and the driver of the bus that we were on was trying his best to avoid that car, but it was too late. The car was already near where we were, and even though the driver of the bus was honking, it seemed like the driver of the car could not hear it. It continued to get near our direction and it had an unbelievable speed that made you fear for your own life. That was when the bus driver turned the bus in the opposite direction to avoid the collision, but there was not enough space on the road and he turned the wheel in the wrong direction. The bus turned on the cliff and it was too late for the bus driver to realize his mistake. He could not stop the bus anymore and it was already nearing the edge of the road. Everything happened so fast right after that. We just realized that the bus was already falling from the cliff, with a height that we could not even measure. No one was shouting, not even the bus driver who seemed to also fear for his own safety, and not even our adviser, who also got frozen in shock. We did not have any time to react. It was like at that moment, all I did in my life came crashing back into my mind. Everything that I had done flashed back to my mind, and I knew that I was not the only one who had experienced that kind of thing. I know that they all knew that it might be the end for us. Then, I didn’t know when we stopped falling from that cliff. I didn’t know what happened next, but the moment that I opened my eyes once again, all I could feel was the ache all over my body. All I could feel was the pain caused by the wounds and bruises that I got from that sudden fall. I tried to open my mouth to speak, to call for someone’s help, but it seemed like I didn’t have any strength anymore and I could not even move an inch from where I was. I tried to look as far as my eyes could see, but my heart sunk when I saw that no one was moving anymore. I heard a spark somewhere, and I knew that anytime from that moment, the whole bus would explode. I still tried to open my mouth to speak, to ask for anyone’s help, but I just let out a shallow breath. A lone tear fell from my eyes when I realized that it might be the end for all of us. Then, suddenly, I heard someone shouting somewhere. I instantly knew that it was not one of us but someone who would help us. I got some hope because of that. I thought that they would really help us, but once again, I was wrong. All the hope that I had was crushed when I heard them shout, “Hurry! Find the lady!” I didn’t know who they were talking about, but all I knew was that it seemed like they knew that this would happen to us. “We must hurry! The bus will explode any time from now!” I clenched my fist as I still tried to get their attention. I tried to call for help, but it seemed like they really didn’t want to give any single care to us. All they wanted to do was to save that ‘lady’ they were talking about. I tried to reach out for them, but I just realized that they had left with that ‘lady’ and they left all of us to die inside of that bus. The fire suddenly started to spread. I heard an explosion and I already knew that we would not be able to escape anymore. We would just die there without even fulfilling all of our promises that we made in the park we were previously. We would just die without even knowing who that person is. I suddenly felt an extreme pain inside of me. I suddenly felt the heat of the fire that spread all over us. Then suddenly, I could not feel anything anymore. It felt like I was losing all the strength that I had. But before I was completely shrouded by the darkness, I mumbled with all the strength that was left in me, “I hope that someone will unfold this mystery.” Then suddenly, all my strength was gone and everything went black.