by Nissa Gordon
Troy spun around at the top of the stairs. "My dad still won't tell me anything about what's been going on,"
Will laughed at him. "And you actually thought that he would. Yeah, right, they all know what we're like,"
"And just what's that supposed to mean?" Troy asked offended, though not sure why.
"We're already doing our work on what's going on," Will told him as he nudged him out of the way so that he could get past him.
"Oh...right...yeah...I guess..." Troy said shrugging.
Will unlocked the door opening it wide as he went it, and straight over to his own room; he opened his door to complete darkness; the over head lights not automatically coming on, which he thought was strange.
"I'm going to check on my candle!" Alex shouted through.
At the mention of the candle, Will was confused considering that there should still be light in his room coming from his own; but there was nothing. He slowly stepped in wondering what had happened, as his candle had never gone out before in all the years that he had been doing this, but there was no light except from behind him in the living room. The floor beneath his feet felt really strange, kind of squishy or even wet, which he didn't understand because he hadn't spilled anything in here.
"Lights!" Will said, but nothing happened. "Lights!" Again nothing happened, he was still in darkness.
Flames suddenly erupted beside his bed making him stumbled back in fright dropping his bags, his heart thundering in his chest he took another step back as he looked around his room while the flame drew back on itself just becoming a normal light once more. Will took in his bed in the candle light, but it looked different as did the floor; he looked down at his feet for the first time and saw red. He took another step back wondering what was going on, he knew that it wasn't a joke of some kind because the other two would have already come in to check on him by now, and it wasn't as though they had any time to do anything either.
Will just stared at the floor wondering what it was, he dabbed it with his toe while the hem of his white trousers soaked up whatever it was on the floor; but as he thought that it actually made him feel sick taking another couple of steps back right into something solid. He shouted out in fright as he stumbled away knocking into his door.
"Damn Will, chill," Troy said reaching out on the wall for the light switch. "Nervous much,"
The lights flickered on.
"Shit!" Troy shouted as he fall backwards out of the room.
"What's with all the shouting over there, you sound like a pair of girls!" Alex shouted across from his own room rubbing his eyes.
Will held onto the door as Troy crawled backwards out of his room, and he just stared at his bed, it was covered in blood dripping over the edge and onto the floor.
"Come on guys...what's going on?" Alex asked getting annoyed with them as he came out of his room to check on them. "What're you doing on the floor?"
Troy though couldn't answer him as he backed up into the sofa, his face white and his eyes round staring into Will's room. Alex walked over annoyed that he was being left out or that they were setting him up with some sort of weird joke, but he walked over to find out what was going on, he walked in front of Troy looking in Will's room; his mind couldn't even form what he was seeing but he ran over to the door almost throwing himself at it and pressed the emergency alarm above the lights.
The alarms sounded breaking the silence but none of them moved, mere seconds later Hunter and Loring teleported into the room with their wands out ready; they quickly scanned the room and then stepped over to the door that was open.
"Shit," Hunter muttered.
"My god!" Loring said.
Hunter stepped into the room and grabbed Will by the arm dragging him out, as more teachers teleported in; Domnus and Fortis stood together with their wands ready as were Eldamar and Burnhill, looking around to find out what was going on.
"You should look at this," Loring said still staring into Will's room.
They all walked over to check out what was going on, as Will stepped out of Hunter's shadow to look into his room wondering what else could be happening. The blood on the floor was actually moving, it was moving backwards as though where ever it had come from was absorbing it back; he faintly heard someone being sick behind him but he couldn't turn away from it.
Domnus suddenly stepped past them all and into the room; he quickly looked around as the blood receded back to the bed, the droplets actually going up, being absorbed backwards like everything else. He ripped off a piece of his shirt and dabbed it into the blood, but it didn't take so he tried it again and again until finally some of the blood was soaked in it, then he smelt it.
"It's real," Domnus told them.
Hunter took a step back with Will and nodded at Loring to get Troy off of the floor; Loring bent down and pulled him to his feet directing him over to Alex by the door.
"I had hoped that it was just a practical joke," Eldamar said grimly.
"No such luck," Domnus said as Burnhill walked into the room with Fortis behind her. "I'll stay and have a look around,"
"The candles black," Burnhill said.
Everyone in the room looked at Will, as he looked at them.
"Why would you use a black candle?" Hunter asked him.
Will shook his head trying to focus. "It isn't...it was burnt red,"
"Does that mean that it somehow got in here?" Loring asked unsure how that was even possible.
"The barriers are up," Hunter said, but he didn't sound convinced even to himself.
Will looked up at him nervously. "The underground tunnels,"
"What?" Hunter said confused and then suddenly realised what he was saying. "You've got to be kidding me,"
"I'll sort that myself," Eldamar told them before he teleported out of there, as Domnus walked out of the bedroom.
"How'd you know about the tunnels Will?" Domnus asked him. "I remember telling you, to tell me if you happen to come across anymore doorways,"
Hunter pulled Will around to face him grabbing his other arm. "The Firmasca match, students said that they saw someone suddenly disappearing on the stairs. What happened?"
"It...it pulled us in..." Will told him feeling horrible for not saying anything sooner, they had been going to, but then got distracted with the idea that they could find out what it was on their own.
"Us? Who's us?" Hunter demanded.
"Err...Lucy...it was Lucy..." Will told him.
"I'll go check on her, and check in with the others on the swipe," Burnhill told them before she teleported out.
"What happened?" Hunter asked him.
"I told you to tell me as soon as anything happened," Domnus told him sternly.
"I know...we were going to...but I don't know..." Will said feebly.
"Will?" Hunter prompted shaking him slightly.
"I don't know..." Will said distractedly looking between the two of them. "It was dark...we didn't see anything...we just heard someone following us. We ran and came out onto a corridor,"
"How'd you come out onto a corridor?" Loring asked confused.
"Did it follow you?" Hunter asked.
"We heard something hit the wall hard, as though it ran straight into it," Will told him, as Hunter looked at him pointedly and he tried to remember Loring's question. "Err...Lucy...she did some spell...and a door opened...well an opening shape kind of thing,"
"Lucy did?" Hunter asked.
"This is the first time that I've heard it's gone after a person," Domnus said.
"Why them though?" Loring asked.
"I saw it in the field," Will said feeling kind of numb and stupid, he should have just told them everything.
"They can stay down with Ethan and Methos for the night," Fortis told them as he walked back through to join them. "I'll stay here and go over the room, see if I can find anything,"
Hunter let go of one of Will's arms, but kept hold of the other as he directed him towards the door, with Loring right behind him maki
ng sure the other two followed also.
"I know how it is to want to prove yourself Will, but this is serious...if anything else happens you're to tell us straight away," Hunter told him. "I don't care what it is, or what time it is; you find one of us and tell us. Lucy will be told the same thing,"
"I..." Will started but didn't have a clue what to say in his defence because he didn't have one.
"I know, you've done a lot of training before you even got here and Lucy...I know all about your families, but this is different," Hunter told him as they took the stairs. "This thing, we really have no idea what it is or even how far it's going to go. You need to stay as far away from it as you can get,"
Will nodded, not wanting to say anything else and get himself into even more trouble than he already was; and at the moment all he wanted to do was get away from his room not sure if he would ever want to go back in there again.
Chapter Twenty
Will dressed in Eddie's bedroom, which was much the same to his own after his uniform had been brought down to him along with all off his books and work, they had told him that it might take a couple of days while they properly scan the rooms to find out what had happened. Will had also asked for a new bed, not wanting to ever sleep in his old one again after all of that blood, he had been quite revealed when they said that he could have a new one, in fact they agreed with him, that it was a good idea in case it itself was enchanted for later if he got into it.
Will so wasn't looking forward going back into the living room to be questioned by Duncan and Jasper about why they were down here, as Hunter had told them the night before that they weren't to tell anyone about what had happened, the story that would be told to the students would be that the alarm was set off accidently. Eddie and Methos had been fine about the whole thing, probably because their dad was a teacher and they kind of already knew what had been going on in the school.
He could already hear them through the door, and knew that it would be worse the longer that he put it off; so he picked up his school bag double checking that he had everything that he needed in it and then went through to face them. As he opened the door the room went quiet and they all turned around to him making him blush deeply.
"Come on Will," Duncan said eagerly.
"Yeah, they won't tell us anything," Jasper told him.
"That's cause there isn't anything to say," Troy told them still looking a little pale.
"We told you last night, it was just a practical joke that someone must have done, and it went a little wrong," Will told them again, hoping that he sounded convincing enough.
"Can't we at least see what they've done to the room?" Duncan asked getting up ready to go.
"No, they've sealed it off," Will told them.
"Actually it has been sealed off, with a magical barrier up over the door," Methos told them, as they all looked over at him. "I checked before while you were all getting ready,"
Jasper was confused. "Wait a minute...you went upstairs and then back here, without anyone else noticing?"
"Yes," Methos answered smiling proudly.
"Okay," Duncan said. "So, what did you lot learn before you even came here?"
"Yeah, you do seem more advanced then us," Jasper added.
"Our dads a teacher," Eddie told them as though that explained everything as he and Methos stood up ready to go, the subject over with for now; and he could see that Will was pleased for the distraction.
They all gathered their things and headed out for breakfast, this was something else that he wasn't looking forward to; he knew that everyone would be talking about the alarm going off, and wondered just how many would actually believe the story that the teachers had told considering the light of the situation with that thing going around sucking the life out of things.
The doors opened and the cold air hit them as they stepped out into the November morning; Will looked to either side as though he was expecting out here to be different, to show some sort of sign that, that thing had been here last night, but he couldn't see anything out of place. They walked over to the food hall in silence, Will quite happy for a while not to have to answer questions that he wasn't allowed to answer and basically what he didn't even know the answer to; he basically had no idea about what had happened last night and he had a really bad feeling that even the teachers didn't seem to look as though they understood what had happened either.
The hall was actually quite full, which surprised Will somewhat considering that it was normally quiet so early in the morning, but considering how noisy the place was he could guess why everyone was up; as he followed Troy making his way through the tables to where Lucy and her friends were sat.
"Why do you always sit with them?" Jasper asked.
"Cause Lucy's like one of us," Alex told him.
Lucy looked up suddenly as they approached even though she had her back to them. "Will, morning,"
"Hi," Will said as he took the seat next to Troy not, really in the mood to be quizzed by her in front of everyone so that they would have to speak in code.
"What about us?" Duncan asked annoyed.
"Oh, she meant hello to us all," Troy said smirking.
"So...do you lot know why the alarm went off?" Holly asked excitedly as she leant forward from the far end of their table, which was now full from near enough everyone in their class.
"It was a prank," Troy told her.
"It went off in their room," Jasper told them nodding at the three of them.
"Complete mess, they had to stay with us," Duncan added.
"Do you know who did it?" Libby asked.
"No...they're still looking into it," Will answered staring pointedly at Lucy.
"Everyone was checked out, you know to make sure that they were all alright," Lucy told him. "Burnhill came to us; it wasn't as though one of the guys were going to check on us,"
"You know, it's been non-stop since we got here," Duncan said.
"So this sort of thing happens all the time here, my old school was so boring compared to here," Jasper added.
"Neither my brother or sister mentioned stuff like this happening...unless I weren't told because I was too young to be told," Lucy told them.
"My sisters never told me much either," Troy told them.
"I'm just hoping that things will stay quiet for a while," Will said, he really did want things to quieten down, yeah it had been exciting and scary there for a while, but that thing had gotten into his room. That was just too much, and he was hoping that his dad would be able to tell him more of what's going on later today when he called him, until then, all he had to do was stay out of trouble.
Everything was quiet as Will, Alex and Troy stood outside of their room after finally being told that they were allowed back inside, it had been three days since any of them had been inside but their teachers had told them that everything was alright and they could go back to their room.
"Go on Will...you can go in first," Alex said pushing him forward as he took a step back himself.
Troy turned around and walked over to the window seat ledge and sat down dropping his bag on the floor at his feet. "I would have thought that Lucy would have been more interested to have a look around after we told her what had happened. She's been avoiding us as well...spending loads of time in the library,"
"She's probably doing another project...she's got like half a dozen on the go all the time," Will said off handily. "Probably got enough to take her right up until the end of the school year,"
"Come on Will," Alex prompted him again.
Will swung around to face them both. "Why do I have to go in first?"
"Because we voted that you should go in first...you handled the whole blood thing better than we did," Troy told him.
"Yeah, you were sick everywhere," Alex told him smirking.
"It was everywhere, and there was so much of it," Troy told him again, annoyed that he had to keep bringing that up all the time.
"Actually...I vote that Alex shou
ld go in first...he did pull the alarm as soon as he saw it all," Will said stepping back.
Alex went pale frozen on the spot. "What? No..."
The three of them looked at each other, debating what they should do before anyone actually came back to the dorms and saw them arguing about who should go in first, considering that they had been telling everyone that nothing had happened, like anyone would believe them if they saw them now.
Will laughed nervously. "This is stupid...we should go in...Domnus and Hunter said that everything was alright,"