The words “FOLLOW ME” lit up on the floor.
No one said anything.
Then Leo took a step forward. “So… I’m following.”
“Of course you are,” murmured Emil.
The bell started moving.
Ding… ding…
Slowly it rolled down the hallway.
The children followed it. Very carefully.
The light flickered again.
The walls suddenly looked different. Darker. Older.
“Has it always been like this here?” whispered Mila.
“No,” said Emil immediately. “There are usually math posters here.”
Janitor Bruno stopped.
“Herbert says we are now in the old part of the school.”
“There’s an old part?!” asked Leo.
“Every school has an old part,” said Bruno mysteriously.
The bell stopped in front of a wall.
Just… in front of a wall.
“And now?” asked Mila.
Ding!
The wall vibrated slightly.
Then a door appeared.
Just like that.
“I take it all back,” said Emil. “That’s not just unusual. That’s completely crazy.”
The door creaked open slowly.
Behind it was a room.
Full of old things.
Broken clocks. Old boards. Yellowed notebooks.
And in the middle…
…stood a huge, old bell machine.
With gears. Levers. And lots of cables.
“That is the original school bell,” whispered Bruno.
“It was turned off years ago.”
The small floating bell slowly rolled toward it.
Ding… ding…
Then it stopped.
And suddenly…
…the gears began to move.
Very slowly.
Very creaking.
“Um… was that planned?” asked Leo.
“No,” said Bruno.
The machine got faster.
And louder.
KRRR… KRRR… DING!
The small bell suddenly jumped up.
And disappeared…
…into the big machine.
Silence.
Then a new sentence appeared on an old, dusty board in the room:
TOO LATE.