Lyan
The next day I went to class as usual, had lunch and everything, and I noticed a lot of students were missing, including Frock. I was a little bit sad. I liked Frock.
The day proceeded as usual. The teachers were all fine, except for Miss Maura, but she was already hurt before the attack began, so that didn't count.
I was walking to the study hall with the guys. We had a project to finish, a real one this time, when Orus stopped on his tracks.
" What's wrong?" I turned to look at him. If he sensed something was off, then it was very likely that something was off.
" Nothing, just the stupid wind" He said, moving his head.
" What wind?" I asked him. I didn't feel any.
" Don't worry. He's finally lost it" Jack placed his hand on my shoulder, trying to get back my attention, but I was too focused on Orus. After what had happened last time it was worth listening to him.
" I keep feeling a draft coming from behind that picture, but that isn't possible. There's no way there's an opening behind a frame, right?"
Jackpot. It had been easier than I expected. I quickly hid my smile and shrugged, fully planning to come back after they were all asleep to check it out.
" Must've been your imagination"
Jack looked at me, confused by my sudden change of opinion, but just grabbed my hand and led us to the study room, all the while Orus looked confused at a very big, and very ugly, painting of the dean when she was young.
We spent the whole afternoon in the study room trying to decifer what on earth the arcane symbols meant, conversation in which I contributed a lot by scrolling through my phone as the guys yelled at each other about pronunciation and meaning. Meanwhile I didn't even understand the topic the text was about, but fortunately for me the whole class was cooperative, so I could just jump on the guy's backs and let them do all the job.
After a while they reached an agreement and we went back to our dorm having finished our project.
" We did an amazing job!"
" You just scrolled through your phone" The moment Jack said that Orus growled at him and held my hand, trying to comfort me. It was so cute, not that I was mad or anything, Jack had just told the truth. I knew I was useless.
" She was very useful. She gave us moral support"
Mark nodded along, as if I had done something, which I hadn't, but I appreciated their loyalty.
" See you tomorrow" I told the guys and entered my room.
I laid on my bed, still with my clothes on, and waited until I couldn't hear the guy's voices anymore. I slowly got up and carefully opened my door. It was already well passed midnight so there wasn't any light and I couldn't risk turning on my phone and alerting the guys, so I walked through our dorm, hands extended in front of me, until I found the door that led to the common room.
Once inside I walked to where I guessed the door was and immediately regretted my life choices.' Should've put on some shoes' I thought. My foot had hit the couch and now my pinky hurt like hell. Foot hurting I continued walking, this time more carefully, and reached the door, which I carefully opened.
Once in the corridor I walked a little bit and turned on my phone. The light shone and illuminated the corridor. At this point I more or less knew the outline of the academy and filled with confidence I began walking to the corridor near the study room.
I really sucked at orientation. I had ended up in the infirmary, cafeteria and the dean's office, but I couldn't find the study room. At three am I finally found the corridor.
I shone the phone's light into the painting that Orus had pointed out this afternoon. The painting was a mounstrousity created by someone without any art sense. It decipted the dean as a young girl, brown hair flowing in curls though her back, eyes shinning with mischieve, but what made this piece so bad was the proportions. It seemed like her head was three times bigger than the rest of her body and the colors were all faded, making what I supposed was once a brilliant brown a feces like color.
I tried to take it off the wall, but it was firmly anchored there and wouldn't move. At times like this I regretted not having Orus, or at least the strong guys that helped bring a king sized bed, which bearly fit, into Jack's room this morning.
I pulled with all my strength but all I managed to do was to fall to the floor. If I continued at this rhythm I would end up with a big bruise as my body.
I got up and looked at the painting from all sides, but it was all the same. There was nothing suspicious, but if Orus had felt a draft there had to be something there.
Tired of everything I sat down on the floor.
" It must lead somewhere, but how can I open it?"
I was looking at it when I noticed something strange on one of the dean's eyes. I got up and shone my phone's light into the left eye. Unlike the right one this didn't seem to be carefully colored. It seemed like a...wall?
I pressed my finger against the painting at that exact spot and the painting started turning without making a sound, just like the shelf at the secret passage had done. The painting revealed a hole in the middle of the wall and I grabbed the edge and mustering all my strength I got myself up, crouching against the floor. I began crawling through the passage and without making a sound the painting closed behind me.
" It's okay" I told myself. At least now I had a phone.
I kept crawling and crawling until the passage was eventually big enough for me to stand up. The passage led to a cave with over six different entrances counting the one I had comed from.
I was thinking about which one to take and then I remembered the forest layed on the South, so I used my spider sense to sense where the North was. As expected, all I sensed was a feeling of unease. The cave was very quiet and all I could hear was my lungs filling with air and my own heartbeat, which was creepy as hell, and the humid atmosphere and bones all over the floor, or the white stuff I thought were bones, didn't help.
I was still hoping for a miracle when I remembered I had something called modern technology. I unlocked my phone and looked for a compass app. According to the app the South was just in front of me.
Breathing deep I decided to trust technology above my spider sense, which pointed in the complete opposite direction, and began walking through the passage the compass had pointed at.
After a while of walking I reached a door and turned the handle. Outside was a hole in the middle of the earth, and using all my strength yet again, I pulled myself up from the hole and got myself in the middle of the forest.
" I did it!!" I began jumping up and down. Phase number one of my plan was completed. Now I just needed the information on the mine. As I was celebrating I felt as if someone was watching me from the trees and I shivered. I looked around, but there was no one to be seen, but that didn't help my feeling of unease.
I began slowly backing away, but I still felt the eyes on me and then I ran with all my strength into the forest.
Even though the light from my phone let me see what was in front of me I still tripped a lot and got scratches all over my body, but as soon as I fell I got back up and continued running. Something in my gut was screaming that if I didn't run fast enough I was going to end up badly hurt or even dead, so I ran.
I was getting out of breath. My legs hurt and it fell like I could collapse any moment when something smashed my chest and sent me flying backwards. My shadows gathered behind me to protect me, and even though they couldn't stop the hit, it was too late for that, they stopped the impact against the tree, so instead of breaking my back, I just badly hurt it.
I was fairly sure I had broken my ribs and my back cracked too as I tried to get up using the support of the tree I had been thrown against.
As I used the tree for support I saw a dark shadow approaching me, bat in hand.
" You shouldn't had snooped around" The shadowed figure said that just as he raised his bat to attack me again. I gathered my shadows and threw them at him, but it was as if he had a shield. My shadows couldn't get too close, it was like water and oil. When I saw my attack wasn't going to work I gathered them around myself to try minimize the damage the attack that was sure to follow would cause.
" Interesting" His hood had fallen at some point and the light coming from my phone let me see his face. I saw the exact moment understanding dawned on his factions and he slowly lowered his bat.
" What are you?" He lowered to my level and picked my chin. My shadows were unable to stop him, repelled by whatever he had. I thrashed, but couldn't do much with my broken ribs. Every movement sent spikes of pain all over my body.
Desperate, I kept pushing my shadows forward, trying to hurt him, but he just laughed.
" See this?" He dangled an amulet in front of my face." It was given to me by my master when I went to the breach to fight off the demons. Wanna guess what it does?" He said, twirling the amulet with one hand while he kept the other one on my chin.
I understood perfectly well what it did, and I also knew I was doomed. I'd either die by his hand or he'd go and tattle. I had to kill him.
My hands began shaking just thinking about it. I was no murderer. I could kill to protect myself on the middle of a battle, or so I hoped, but I couldn't kill a man in cold blood, even if he had hurt me.
" You are interesting, but I have a mission" The man dropped my chin and grabbed a silver dagger from his cloak. If he stabbed me with that, or cut my head off, I wasn't coming back. Panic formed all over my system and tears started streaming down my face. I couldn't die, not here. I began searching desesperatly for a way out, but there were none. I couldn't defend myself and the guys didn't know where I was.
" I can't let anyone find out. Sorry, but orders are orders"
" Please, don't" I begged, but he just laughed and raised his dagger, ready to strike.
" Goodbye"
He swang his dagger with all his might, aiming at my chest and all I could think about was ' I shouldn't have gone alone' just as the dagger striked.