Chapter 75 Distraction On The Floor
The hallway didn’t stay calm for long.
Lenora had barely made it halfway down the corridor when a scream tore through the building.
Sharp. Loud. Not the kind people ignore.
Everything stopped.
Then movement hit all at once.
Students rushed past, voices rising, lockers slamming shut as people pushed toward the sound.
Kylen caught Lenora’s arm. “That came from the east wing.”
Lilibeth was already moving. “Science block.”
They didn’t wait.
By the time they reached the corner, the crowd had already formed.
Not organized. Just packed.
Phones out. People talking over each other.
“Move,” Kylen said, pushing through.
Lenora followed.
The smell hit first.
Metallic.
Then the sight.
Blood on the floor.
Not a little.
Spread across the tiles near the lab entrance.
Pamela was on the ground.
Half sitting. Half collapsed against the wall.
Her hands shaking.
Her voice breaking through everything.
“I didn’t do anything— I didn’t touch it—”
A teacher rushed in, dropping to her level.
“Stay still. Don’t move.”
Another staff member started pushing students back.
“Everyone clear out!”
But no one cleared.
They just stepped back enough to still see.
Lilibeth stopped beside Lenora.
“What happened?” she asked.
No one had a clear answer.
A student nearby spoke quickly. “She screamed and then just dropped.”
Another added, “There was glass— I think—”
Kylen looked at the floor. “That’s not just glass.”
The blood trailed slightly from the lab doorway.
Not far.
But enough.
Pamela kept talking.
“I didn’t go in there— I swear— I just opened it—”
Her voice kept shaking.
Lenora watched closely.
Not the panic.
The details.
The door.
The floor.
The way people were reacting.
Then someone said it.
Loud enough.
“Maybe she found something.”
Another voice jumped in.
“Like what?”
“The file thing—”
That word spread fast.
Faster than the blood.
Lilibeth turned immediately. “Don’t start that.”
Too late.
“It’s connected,” someone else said. “Everything started today—”
“No it didn’t,” Kylen cut in.
But now people were already building it.
Pamela’s name.
Lenora’s name.
Same conversation.
Lenora didn’t react outwardly.
She just stood there.
Watching how fast it shifted.
A stretcher arrived.
Staff moved faster now.
Two people lifted Pamela carefully.
She cried out once, then went quiet again.
As they carried her out, she grabbed one teacher’s arm.
“I didn’t take anything,” she said.
That line stayed.
Kylen caught it too.
He looked at Lenora.
“You heard that.”
She nodded.
The crowd started breaking apart slowly.
Not because they wanted to leave.
Because there was nothing left to see.
But the talking didn’t stop.
If anything, it got louder.
“She went into the lab—”
“No, she said she didn’t—”
“Then how did that happen?”
“And what was she talking about taking?”
That part kept repeating.
Lilibeth folded her arms.
“This just buried your situation,” she said.
Lenora shook her head slightly. “No. It shifted it.”
Kylen looked between them. “It’s a distraction.”
Lilibeth glanced at him. “Or something else entirely.”
Lenora looked toward the lab door.
Still open.
Still blocked off.
“That wasn’t random,” she said.
Lilibeth didn’t argue that.
The boy from earlier appeared again, moving through the thinning crowd.
“You saw it?” he asked.
Kylen nodded once. “Enough.”
The boy looked toward the lab.
“That room wasn’t supposed to be open after hours yesterday.”
That connected.
Lenora turned slightly. “You checked?”
“I passed by,” he said. “Lights were off.”
Kylen exhaled. “So now it’s open, and someone ends up bleeding in front of it.”
Lilibeth looked at Lenora.
“And somehow this happens right after your file gets exposed.”
Lenora met her gaze.
“Exactly.”
That was the part no one else had said clearly.
From down the hall, more staff arrived.
Clearing the area properly now.
Students were being pushed back for real this time.
“Everyone back to class!”
The scene started dissolving.
But not the conversation.
Because now there were two things happening.
Lenora’s name spreading across school.
And a girl bleeding outside a lab, saying she didn’t take anything.
Kylen stepped closer to Lenora.
“This is going to spiral,” he said.
Lenora didn’t look away from the lab door.
“Let it,” she replied.
Because now the attention wasn’t clean anymore.
It was split.
Messy.
Uncontrolled.
And somewhere inside that mess…
Someone just moved again.