by Nissa Gordon
It was darker in this section as though the lights had been turned down onto low, but Will was sure that they library wasn't supposed to close until eight o'clock, which meant he still had a full hour to find what he needed. He looked up and down the aisles, but still couldn't see anyone even as he went into the third, but he stopped suddenly when he heard something again. He turned around hoping to catch whoever it was, sure that someone was playing some sort of prank on him now, but he still couldn't see anyone. They were either a lot faster than he was, or he was just hearing things, getting himself all worked up over nothing. He went down the aisle where he thought he had heard the noise coming from, even though he couldn't see anyone and it was getting darker; then something flew at him.
Will shouted out as he threw up his arms stumbling back into the bookshelves, looking around rather panicked, but he couldn't see anything except for a large book on the floor. He took a couple of deep breaths, as he looked around again, before he walked back to the book and bent down for it; telling himself that it must have just fallen off of the shelf.
Will picked up the large black leather bound book; he was going to put it back on the shelf, smiling slightly at himself for getting so worked up over something so stupid, that was until he actually saw the cover of the book and the smile faded.
There was no writing on the cover, just a raised picture of a black rose. He just stared at; it couldn't have been that simple, what they had been looking for all this time just basically falling into his lap. He looked up and down to see if there was anyone else close by perhaps watching him, but he couldn't see anyone, not that he could see much with the lights not working properly overhead to begin with.
In that moment he decided to take it with him, he turned and ran holding the book close to his chest, knowing that this was what they had been looking for and he didn't think that he would be able to take it out like a normal book. As he ran he didn't seem to realise at first how dark everything was around until he came out of the library and back onto the normal corridor and he slowed his pace, the lights over head as he approach would flicker and dim; he wanted to tell himself that it was nothing, but it happened every time he got close to a light. He quickened his pace, needing to get back to the others to tell them about this; but as soon as he thought that he stopped. He couldn't show the others this book in the common, not if the lights did the same thing, there would be too many people around and he didn't want to draw that much attention to him self, so he decided that he would take the book back to his room, check it out first and then show them tomorrow. Yes he’d do that, then started running again along the corridor, turning at the end for the lift wanting to get out of there as quickly as he could, hoping that the lift would still work.
Will stepped into the lift and everything seemed normal, he pressed the button for the ground floor, but the doors didn't close so he pressed it again and again, until finally they closed. The lights flickered as it slowly moved, taking him down. He stayed where he was in the middle of the floor, not turning around to the mirror even when the lights went out completely and the lift shook as it stopped suddenly. He adjusted his hold on the book as he pulled out his wand, feeling a little better knowing that it was in his hand, even though he had no idea what he was going to do with it. Will wasn't sure why but he suddenly felt as though there was something behind him, he so didn't want to look back, but the feeling just kept nagging at him. Instead, he reached for the lift buttons, pressing the ground button a couple of times, hoping that it would get moving again, as he didn't want to call for help because he would then have to explain the book he had and probably would have to hand it over before he had a chance to have a proper look through it.
As he carried on pressing the buttons, he heard fabric and metal move behind him, he stopped pressing the buttons and started to try to control his breathing or he'd start to panic.
"Flamma!" Will shouted as he turned around, light exploding out of his wand filling the space and throwing something large and black back into the mirror which shattered falling to the floor.
The lights came back on and the lift started to move again, he shook his wand and the light went out leaving him with just the normal overhead light as he looked at the broken mirror wondering what he should do about it. Again he didn't want to hang around too long, or get caught by a teacher with the book, so as soon as the doors open he ran out and headed straight the door. As soon as the cold air hit him, he spun around pointing his wand as he felt as though there was something following him, but this time he couldn't see anything, not that he was going to take any chances, so he ran for it.
He ran all the way back to his dorm with the feeling that there was something at his back the whole way, he flew into his building and up the stairs with the lights flickering on and off, the walls seeming to shimmer and he could actually feel the pull as he was tugged this way and that, stumbling up the last of the stairs onto his floor. He practically crawled over to his door, dragging himself away from the pull of the stairs and over to his door; he managed to open it and crawl inside. The pull let up somewhat as he stumbled to his feet and ran into his room, the light not coming on until he threw the book into the bottom of his wardrobe and closed the door, then his light came on full and the feeling at his back vanished as though it hadn't been there to begin with.
Will took a couple of deep breaths as he tried to calm down staring at his wardrobe now wondering if he had done the right thing by bringing it back here, wondering if the thing could be somehow attached to it and he had actually brought it back to his room. He stepped closer, going to pull it out and have a look but stopped himself thinking about the presence again and the lights. What if the book had something to do with it, he didn't really want to do it alone; he told himself that it wasn't because he was scared half to death, but just that he needed help. So tomorrow when he met up with them all again, he'd tell them about the book.
...Several men stood around a long dark wooden table, in a chilly room, the windows high set in the room and open letting in the chilly spring evening air. They were dressed smartly in suites, but their actual appearance wasn't completely clear as though blurred around the edges. They were talking about something but Will was too far away to clearly make out what it was they were talking about, so he tried to get closer; he stepped forward but it actually felt as though there was some sort of invisible force pulling him back. He struggled against it for a while, not making much progress until he heard something heavy hit the table, he stumbled forward suddenly as the barrier disappeared.
He was going to go straight into one of the men, but he couldn't stop himself, he didn't want them to know that he was there considering that they hadn't yet seen him. He tried to brace himself, with his hands out stretched, but he fell straight through the man and into the table.
Will looked around a little panicked, wondering what was going on, the table felt solid but he had somehow fallen through the man. He righted himself and then stepped up to the man and reached out, again his hand went straight through him; the feeling sending a shiver through him. He looked to the other men in the room but they didn't seem to notice that he was there also, which just confused him even more, he couldn't understand how he could be somewhere and not at the same time.
"Are you sure this is such a good idea?" the man across the table asked nervously; but Will still couldn't make out what he looked like even though he had gotten close enough so that he could touch them, or rather move through them.
"He wants to use it," another man said, he was stood at the head of the table as though he was in-charge of the group. "It won't be loose for long, just to be used when we need it,"
The others seemed to look at each other not convinced by his reassurance, before they looked nervously over at the book on the table. Will followed their line of sight, and just stared, it was the book he had gotten from the library; but that couldn't be, it was back in his room.
"It will be awaken from its sleep," the ma
n carried on telling them. "We will send it out, and then bring it back once it has done what we want it to do,"
"But how do you plan to control something like that, it is said to have a mind of its own?" another man asked gripping the backs of the chair that he stood behind.
"He said that he creature will have to focus on someone, making it as though he is protecting them in some way," the man told him. "As this creature hasn't been freed for well over a thousand years, we don't completely know how it will react, so that's why we will be running several tests, before we put it too work for us properly,"
There was another bang behind him, Will spun around as another man walked into the room, making those now behind him move uneasily like they were afraid of him. Will watched as he calmly walked over to the end and pulled out the chair, he sat down and then put his feet up on the table.
"Sorry I'm late, I didn't get the message that we were meeting about the Knight until a minute again,"
"We couldn't find you," the man who Will thought had been in-charge told him, his voice still trying to hold onto the commanding tone that he had with the others, but failing somewhat as though he was afraid of this man.
"I for one had been looking forward to this. I wanted to know when we'll be testing the Knight properly; I am looking forward to getting a burst in power," he told them sounding somewhat amused by it all.
"We're not sure yet how that will work, or even if it will," the man told him.
"That's what the tests are for, Burson,” he told him as though his was obvious. “Don't you want to be more than what you are now? You've always seemed as though you want a better position,"
Burson cleared his throat. "Testing could take a couple of months, as we'll be starting on plants and lower beings before we move onto people,"
"Whatever, as long as I get juiced up," the man said dropping his feet and standing, making the others move, stepping back as though readying themselves for an attack. "Don't worry; I'm going out for something to take the edge off. I need you all alive for now, for this project; power is close, don't get scared on me now," Then he vanished, the others releasing a breath...
Will shot out of bed quickly scanning the room, but he was back in his own bedroom and everything looked normal, he seemed back to normal. He shook himself as he threw back the covers and swung his legs over the side of the bed, telling himself that it was just a dream, a strange dream, but a dream none the less.
"Lights on," Will told the computer as he walked across his room to see if the others were up yet, he so didn't want to go back to sleep after that. It wasn't that it was overly scary, it had just felt wrong, he had felt wrong in that dream.
He opened his bedroom door onto the living room to find both Troy and Alex awake and dressed, and they both looked as though they were heading out already.
"You're up," Troy said surprised.
"Just...why didn't you wake me?" Will said annoyed as he started for the bathroom.
"We did, but you just seemed dead to the world, so we let you sleep," Alex told him.
"We were leaving you a note," Troy told him, picking up the piece of paper. "We're getting breakfast then going over to the stadium to watch the match, seeing as we weren't doing anything this morning,"
Will looked at the two of them, he kind of knew what they were talking about, but it was as though his brain was on a go slow and he hadn't caught up to them yet. He shook himself, thinking that it must be the dream and the book that was still bothering him.
"Fine, I'll meet you there," Will told them dismissively.
"Are you sure, we can wait now you're up?" Troy asked him, a little worried considering what had happened last time they had gone ahead of him.
"Yeah, its fine...I'll be fine," Will told him. "But wait for me in the food hall, I won't be long,"
"Sure," Troy said smiling, feeling a little better about that plan, as Alex headed for the door. "You know where to find us,"
"Biggest group there, yeap; I think I'll be able to manage that," Will said smirking as he headed into the bathroom, wanting to be only a couple of minutes behind them as he was only going to throw on some clothes.
About five minutes later Will was practically falling out of his bedroom dressed and his long hair falling forward into his face because he hadn't had chance yet to tie it up like normal, he had the band in his hand and could do it while he walked over to save himself some more time. He wanted something to eat before they went to watch the Firmasca match, which he really did want to watch at least one, but with everything that kept happening, that hadn't happened yet.
He walked over to the door and went out, then making sure that it was locked behind him before he headed for the stairs, but he stopped as he reached the top. It was kind of an odd feeling looking at them now considering what had happened on his way back from the library, which had only felt like last night, but if they were going to watch the match then it must be Saturday.
He just couldn't remember much of the week, which meant that nothing interesting must have happened to him. Except perhaps for him now being afraid of walking down the stairs, he shook himself knowing that he was being stupid and went down, but perhaps a little faster than he normally did, leaving his hair for now not wanting to distract himself and not caring if anyone saw him with it down. His dad might be bothered about what people thought of his long hair, but he didn't, in fact he liked it this length, otherwise he wouldn't have bothered to grow it out in the first place.
He jumped down the bottom two steps and then ran across to the door and out into the morning air, he looked about as he gathered up his hair to plate it wondering if there was anyone else running late, but he couldn't see anyone as he walked around the dorm in front of their own. He could feel the temperature dropping which made him stop wondering if he should go back for a jacket considering that they were going to be probably sat outside for a couple of hours, but he didn't want to be any more late so decided that he could live without it for one afternoon.
Will took another two steps then stopped again as he looked down, the ground, the grass that he was walking on was turning black; he froze panicked not knowing what to do. He kind of knew that he should at least try and run, but it was like his body didn't want to move, he tried but nothing and he suddenly felt so tried. He heard some sort of shriek that seemed so far away but at the same time so close, his vision blurred and his body felt like it was going slack then was enveloped in blackness.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Will was barely aware of what was going on around him, he was sure that he could still hear shrieking of some sort and there were other voices that he couldn't make out either, he felt so heavy and light at the same time. He tried to open his eyes but couldn't as though that task alone was too much for him, he couldn't move either; but even if he could it wouldn't have done him any good because he was so tired, he just needed to go back to sleep.
The doors to the hospital section flew open as Glen stormed in, quickly scanning the empty beds for the one that held his son; as soon as he spotted him at the far end of the room he rushed over to him closely followed by Hunter.
"Glen please, you need to calm down," Hunter told him.
"My son was attack by that thing, and you want me to calm down?" Glen asked mockingly. "I want to hunt it down and destroy it for harming him, not calm down,"
"We're doing everything that we can to locate it, there are dozens of teams searching the school grounds and the island," Hunter told him.
Glen stopped and looked down at his son, relief washed over him when he saw that he wasn't like the others who had been attacked, he hadn't turned black, which meant that there was still hope for him to wake up.
"As you can see, he was found before any real harm was done to him," Hunter tried to assure him. "It still took energy, that's why he hasn't woken yet...but he was lucky Glen,"
"Lucky," Glen said. "Sure...when it shouldn't have even gotten in here in the first place,"
"I know, our defensives are near unstoppable, but it's getting in and out as though they're not even there," Hunter told him angrily.
Glen nodded, he had heard all that before, but now he needed to know about his son. "You said that students interrupted the attack?"
"Yes, Lucy Shepherd and a couple of her friends," Hunter said rubbing his ears, they weren’t as bad as the others, but still one never did used to that sound. "They're being treated from the shock of her shriek. Which we also believe that was what helped scare this thing off,"
"She and the others were told not to show themselves," Glen told him, wanting to be annoyed but he couldn't if it had saved his son.