I thought of the young girl, who I now knew to be Laura, on the floor. Her hair was long and blonde. She was petite, even more so than Lillian. She was in her pajamas. Yellow. The color of first year students. She barely had a chance to live. She didn’t even have her powers for more than a couple of years at most.
“What kind of spell was used exactly?” I asked. Miles bit his lip like he didn’t want to tell me.
We were interrupted by the crackle of the intercom. “Good morning, students. This is Headmistress Craw. There will be a mandatory meeting for all grade levels in the auditorium in the North Wing in 30 minutes. All students must be present. Thank you.”
Miles squeezed my hand twice then stood from his seat. “We should head over. It’ll be crowded with every student in the school heading that way.” The café was already starting to clear out. Most students were standing and walking towards the exit that led towards the North Wing. I stood and took his hand as we followed the crowd through the exit.
* * *
The auditorium was seldom used. There weren’t many times the school had enough people in one place to require such a large space. It was always full on graduation, but I had never attended one. The only time I’d been inside it was my first day here. Walking down the hallway to the entrance took me back to that day. Each year new students would come with their families to the First Year Ceremony. My parents insisted we arrive early that day. We ended up in the third row, so close to the front and center. The Headmistress had spoken, as well as a few professors, including Professor Rose. My mom spoke, too. She was always involved in things that were important to the school. And since she was in line to be the next Headmistress, Craw thought it appropriate for her to say a few words. She talked about the years she spent at the school, how she discovered her powers, and how they developed through hard work and discipline. She didn’t speak of her powerful bloodline. She wanted each student to know they all had the chance to be powerful if they wanted to. I was glad to be sitting in the third row that day. I beamed with pride watching her speak so passionately about what she loved. She would have been the perfect Headmistress.
Nerves were eating my stomach that first day, but I hadn’t been immune to the excitement in the air. The mood was completely different this time. When we stepped through the doors, hand in hand, the tension was palpable. Some first years were crying. Others had their arms around each other in efforts to comfort one another; to make each other feel safe. Like an ineffective security blanket. No one could protect you from the unknown. No one was safe until this mystery was solved. People wanted answers that nobody had except one person who would be in this room with all of us: the murderer.
The auditorium was just as big as I remembered. The ceilings were as tall as the ones in the library, but instead of glass at the top there were only steel rafters. I would have preferred the glass ceilings. The steel bars made me feel trapped. Would the person who committed this cold-blooded crime feel trapped, too? Or were they proud of themselves? Were they wrapped around their friends emitting faux tears for the sake of appearances? Or were they sitting alone in a back row, unbothered by the hysteria around them? Surely they were smart enough to at least pretend to be sad, keeping the smug look off their face in public.
The room had stadium seating with five different sections of seats, each higher than the last. The bottom section was already filled so we went up to the next one. As we sat down, I scanned the crowd searching for Lillian. Miles, knowing I needed my best friend right now, began looking for her, too.
“Hey, there she is!” he exclaimed. I followed where he was pointing and saw her climbing up the steps to our section with Ava and Daliah behind her. I jumped up and waved my arms.
“Lillian!” I called out over the shuffling of students. I watched her eyes survey the crowd until she found me and waved. Relief flooded her face. There was only one seat beside us, so she crossed the crowd, and our two roommates continued up the steps to more seating.
“Thank the Divinity I found you!” she whispered, wrapping her arms around me. “I was worried when I woke up and you were gone.” We took our seats beside each other with Miles on the other side of me. “Hi Miles,” Lillian waved, putting on her friendliest face.
“Hey, Lillian. Thank you for coming to get our girl last night.” I saw Lillian raise one eyebrow out of the corner of my eye and I tried to hide my smile. Our girl. Now probably wasn’t the time to be smiling like a schoolgirl over a boy. “I hated leaving her in my room. Everything was so chaotic.”
“I can’t imagine, but we’re all here for each other,” she said, giving my shoulders a squeeze. We sat quietly while the remainder of the school filed in. There were a few whispers, but for the most part groups of people were sitting silently. I guess no one knew what to say.
Once everyone was seated Headmistress Craw headed for the microphone in the middle of the stage. By the time she took her third step, the room was dead silent; the only noise were the heels of Headmistress Craw’s shoes clicking on the hardwood floor. I had never seen a group of people this big be so quiet. Two guards followed closely behind Craw. They were the two tallest men I had ever seen, surely towering above seven foot, and made of pure muscle. It was clear why she had chosen these guards to stand with her on stage. No professors accompanied her, and I wondered if that was for their own safety or because the whole staff, along with the student body, was under speculation.
Craw stopped in front of the microphone. She stood silently for a moment, taking in the crowd, then closed her eyes as if contemplating how to start.
“Students,” she began, her voice calm, almost soothing. “I’m aware that most of you have already heard about the tragedy that struck our school last night. A first year student named Laura Hodge died. I cannot divulge much about the event, but you deserve to know the truth. We have reason to believe there was foul play.” I could feel the air leave the room even though most of the students already had this theory in their minds. Actually, hearing the words come from Craw’s mouth made it final, set in stone, like a nightmare come to life within our home, the place we all used to feel safe. I saw people in all black moving to my left side. It startled me and I turned to see several guards, almost as large as the two behind Craw, making their way through all the aisles beside our seats. They were wearing earpieces and scanning the crowd inconspicuously. “We don’t have much information to share. I know you must have questions, but right now I’m encouraging you not to ask them, for we do not have many answers. Please do not be alarmed. You are under the best care possible. We have called in for more guards. They will all be here tonight. There will be enough to be placed in almost every hallway in the dormitory sections of the school. I will make sure this does not happen again. You will be safe.”
Miles put his hand on my leg and looked at me as if to say he would also keep me safe. I trusted his word more than Craw’s, even though I knew deep down that if someone in this school was using dark magic like this there would be no one that could stop them. Maybe not even Craw.
“We will be taking extra precautions in the upcoming days.” She paused and swallowed hard. “As we speak, several guards and trusted employees are searching your rooms for any clues that may help…” Her voice was difficult to hear over the murmurs that were erupting throughout the crowd. Lillian and I looked at each other and, even though neither of us had anything to hide, clearly felt uneasy. It seemed like a complete invasion of privacy, but at the same time I was relieved that we would surely have some answers after the search. There was nothing we could do to stop the school from searching our rooms anyway. We were powerless here. And privacy wasn’t something we were entitled to at a time like this.
“Josie,” I heard Miles whisper. “That book is in my room.” I looked over to see his face filled with terror. “The book with the spell used by the murderer.”
“The book with dark magic…” I whispered, feeling his terror spread to my face. “Hold on, though. You tol
d Craw about the spell. She knows—”
“I didn’t tell her I had a book like that in my room. Only that I’d heard of the spell.” His voice shook.
“It’s okay. It’ll be okay. Craw trusts you. She knew you had to get the spell from somewhere,” I reassured him. I was sure that was true, but unsure why I still felt a pit deep in my stomach. After all the help Miles gave them last night, they couldn’t suspect him.
“It just looks bad,” he hissed, looking away. “Especially with my family history…” Headmistress Craw held one hand in the air as a signal for us all to stop talking. The crowd was silenced instantly.
“I understand your concern. Some may argue this is an invasion of privacy, but that does not mean this invasion isn’t necessary at this moment.” She went on to discuss the precautions the school would be taking. It basically sounded like we needed to get used to more security, walking in pairs, and living by the motto “if you see something, say something.” Half an hour ticked by while Craw and the guards continued their speeches and I started to suspect they were only being this detailed so our rooms could be searched in full.
When we were finally dismissed, the auditorium erupted with voices. The mood was completely different than it was when we entered. People were angry. Some even frantic.
“I have devil’s juice in my room!” I overheard a tall girl with light red hair exclaim to her friend in a panicked voice.
Her friend slung her brown hair over her shoulder nonchalantly and rolled her eyes. “What would that have to do with a murder?”
“They could make a connection somehow!” the girl with the red hair exclaimed as she fought her way through the crowd in a rush to get back to her room.
The meeting didn’t give us the answers we hoped for. Most students were practically shoving their way out of the auditorium, but the three of us just sat, waiting for the crowd to clear.
“You okay?” I whispered to Miles so Lillian couldn’t hear. I knew it wasn’t something Miles wanted people to know. I could already tell he thought no one would understand.
“Yeah. Just anxious to get back to my room now. I need to see if the book is gone,” he whispered back. I noticed his knee was quickly bouncing up and down. I placed my hand on it to slow it. Eventually, the crowd died down and we all stood.
“Do you want me to come with you?” I asked. He just shook his head, bent down to kiss my cheek and said he would see me later. Then he made his way towards the exit.
“Everything okay?” Lillian’s purple eyes were wide with worry.
“Yeah, it’s fine,” I smiled, trying to push my concern deep down. “He just wanted to meet up with his roommates. You want to head back to the room?”
“Sure,” she said as we walked down the stairs. “Isn’t it kind of messed up that they can search our rooms whenever they want?”
“I guess so. They just want answers like we do. The messed-up part is that this is the only way they can get them. They must have no leads.” I shuddered at the thought that they were as clueless as us.
We crossed campus to our dorm room, passing several guards on the way. Once we made it inside it looked virtually untouched. “Did anyone even search our room?” Lillian scoffed, confused. “We lifted the protection spell before we left so they should have been able to get in…”
“I have no idea,” I said as I picked up a crumpled sweater that was in the exact location I left it at the foot of my bed. “Maybe they’re just really good at making it seem like they were never here. They could search our rooms all the time for all we know.”
“Well, search away guards! There’s nothing to find in our room except schoolbooks and my journal. We’re so boring,” Lillian giggled.
“We follow all the rules,” I giggled, too. “No murder weapons or anything! Snoozefest.” The two of us decided to hang out in our room for the rest of the afternoon. Craw had discouraged us from spending unnecessary time wandering the campus and we had no reason to leave anyway. Not many people were planning any parties at the moment. It wasn’t a usual Saturday afternoon at North End.
Ava and Daliah made it back soon after us, and Ava seemed offended that our room looked unsearched. “Do they think we’re not capable of doing bad things? Like we don’t have enough power or something?”
Lillian argued that the administrators trusting us was a good thing while she pulled up a movie on her small laptop. We all gathered to watch it. The girls spent a majority of the movie chatting and continuing their argument about the room search, and I spent a majority of it glancing in the direction of my phone. With each minute that passed, my stomach knotted more.
Six o’clock rolled around and I still hadn’t heard from Miles. I tried to rationalize it in my head. He was vague when he said he would talk to me later. He didn’t set a specific time. Maybe he’s just with his friends. Or maybe he went to talk to Headmistress Craw about the book. He doesn’t have to talk to me all day every single day. But even as I played these explanations on a loop in my head, I knew deep down that if Miles could have called me then he would have. I thought about how panicked he looked when Craw said the guards would be searching rooms and knew my worries were much more serious than those of a clingy girlfriend. He could actually be in danger.
When another half hour passed, I decided I would call him. I rolled over to my bed and dialed the number. It only took three rings for him to pick up.
“Hello?” he said with a low, husky voice.
“Hey!” I squealed. Relief washed over me. He was okay. “Can I see you?” I asked hopefully. That hope was instantly squashed, and my relief started to trickle away. Replacing it were the same knots in my stomach from earlier.
“I can’t really talk right now. I’m in Craw’s office.” There were long pauses between his sentences. “They found the book.” I stayed silent. So, he hadn’t gone there voluntarily. They found the book and called him in for questioning. I felt the blood drain from my face.
“Josie?” he whispered anxiously.
“Are you okay? Do they think you’re a suspect?” I whispered, knowing he couldn’t explain if he was in Craw’s office, but unable to stop the words from pouring out.
“I got to go,” he said abruptly, and the phone went silent. I could feel my heart pounding through my whole body.
“What’s going on?” Lillian asked when I returned to the group. Three sets of eyes stared at me. I tried not to make eye contact as I lied and said “nothing,” but I could feel Lillian’s glare burning a hole in the side of my head. She knew something was going on, but she also knew better than to ask again in front of an audience. She didn’t push further, but I would have to have a conversation with her later. I hoped she would understand Miles’ situation. Would she think he was a suspect, too? Or would she trust me when I said he was innocent?
Up All Night
The night had come and gone, but it hadn’t passed slowly. I tossed and turned uncontrollably, getting almost no sleep. I must have checked my phone 10 times for a call from Miles, but no call ever came. I rolled over in bed to face Lillian. She was already awake and reading a book with the curtain cracked open. I looked at the clock on the wall. It was 9:05. I had slept more than I thought. The last time I checked the clock showed 5:50. I still felt weak and achy, though. Not only did my body feel tired, my mind did, too. The thought of Miles stuck in Craw’s office didn’t leave my head all night. Even when I actually fell asleep, I was startled awake by dreams of the black book or Craw screaming at Miles. The worst of the dreams portrayed Miles as the villain. That one kept me up for over an hour.
I thought morning might bring some sense of clarity or relief, but instead of a new day it just felt like yesterday kept going. Lillian noticed me moving underneath the covers and turned to face me.
“Did you sleep at all last night?” she murmured. Either she heard me tossing and turning or I looked exhausted. It was probably both.
“I don’t even know,” I groaned. Lillian peaked over her s
houlder at Ava and Daliah. Ava was snoring and Daliah lay flat on her back with her mouth wide open.
“What’s going on, Josie?” she asked now that she knew it was safe. I double checked to see if either roommate had moved. They hadn’t. So, I told her everything while keeping my voice low: all about the black book I found before the scream, how Miles was the one that led them to the spell that killed Laura, and finally about how they found the black book during the search. I stopped there since I didn’t have any more information, only speculation and worry.
“Do you believe him?” she asked seriously.
“Yes,” I answered confidently. “I really do, Lillian. The way I feel when I’m with him...I can’t explain it. I haven’t felt this safe since I lost Mom. He couldn’t hurt anyone that way.”
She paused to take in what I said. “Then, I believe him, too.”
“You do?” I asked, peeking at her through my eyelashes.
“Yes,” she whispered undoubtedly. “I don’t think you could love a murderer. You have good instincts. And there’s something about Miles. Even I feel like I can trust him, and I barely know the boy.”
Relief washed over me. I was so worried that I was being foolish and would be blindsided by a truth that I refused to see, but if Lillian believed in Miles then I knew I could, too. However, I was still stuck on one of Lillian’s words.
“I never said I loved him,” I mumbled, feeling suddenly shy. I ran my fingers through my hair nervously.
“You didn’t have to.” She smirked, then turned over to continue reading her book. I thought about the word “love” for a moment. I’d certainly never been in love before. I’d dated a few boys, but it was never anything remotely serious for either party. My feelings were very strong. But did that mean it was love? I wasn’t sure yet. I grew up seeing the way my mom and dad looked at each other, how they treated each other. They were the perfect example of true love. Watching them from a young age programmed me to never settle for less than what they had. What would my mom think about Miles if she were here to meet him? I wished more than anything she could give me her opinion on love.
North End: The Black Forest Page 8