Tuesday– September 11th, 1974

Breakfast is scheduled for 6:30 AM, curfew breaks at 5:30AM. During breakfast announcements are made, and then posted on a board as a reminder. On this board the rules of the school are posted as a reminder for those who have a tendency to forget such things. The weather for the day is a high of 93F and a low of 50F, it will be sunny.

Breakfast is held in the dining hall of the Main building, and like all meals at Northwood is buffet style. Those students with dietary requirements (diabetics, those with allergies or any other intolerances, or personal dietary choices) will have their special orders prepared and need only ask the catering staff to get them. It’s the perfect time to mingle with those in other classes or years before heading off in different directions for the day!

• Leadership will be discussing today the plans for the back to school dance, as well as starting elections. All students in Leadership are required to be at Tuesday’s meeting. If you are in two clubs please come to Leadership this Tuesday, or you will be dropped from the club.
• Ms. Reese will be at the Lake during free period at 5-5:30.
• Someone has lost their keys, if they are found please bring to the main office lost and found.
• Mrs. Freeman, the librarian, would like to extend an opportunity for students to help her out in the library. Feel free to show up at 5 for a quick lesson in the Dewey Decimal system.
• Anyone who wants to pick ideas for the first school play may see Mrs. Wellington in the theater during free periods.
• Auditions for sections leaders in music will be held on Saturday during Music. Please bring practiced audition piece.

Zaylin tossed and turned in her bed, trying unsuccessfully to fall back asleep. Her mind wandered to her classes the previous day, and the missing girls Stella had mentiond. It did not help, either, that the glorious darkness still shrouding the room felt alive, as if taunting her, breeding new life to the ever persistent desire to release the animal side of her.
After propping herself up and fluffing her pillow for the thousandth time in the past few minutes, she looked to the clock on the nightstand, her vision easily piercing through the darkness to make out the hands and numbers: 4:02. Still at least two hours before the rising sun.
Maybe I could search for those missing girls, she thought, shoving her face into the pillow, its cover still slightly damp from her shower the previous night. Catch their scent or something... but I'm not a bloodhound, a proud side of her scolded. Not that I would know what to look for, anyway.
She sighed irritably into the pillow, the stuffing muffling the sound. Without taking her head from the pillow, she removed the comforter. Grumbling in a gruff-sounding language, she sat up, stretched, then padded over to the window, her steps quiet against the floor.
With a glance to the other bed, Zaylin carefully pulled aside one of the curtains and pried it open. She flinched at the gentle squeak of wood-on-wood. With the window open as far as it would go, she draped her arms on the windowsill and stuck her head out into the night. She leaned out as far as she could and looked up at the dark sky.
The morning stars winked at her from amidst the sea of near-black. She closed her eyes and inhaled. The earthy scent of the nearby woods lingering on the comfortably chilled air speaking of freedom, calling to her on a primeval level. Her fingernails grew slightly and thickened, their pointed tips digging into the outside sill.
Zaylin inhaled through her nose and opened her eyes. The gold of her irises consumed even her pupils, the gold glowing slightly in the darkness. With the conscious demand, she released the sill stiffly and both her nails and eyes returned to normal.
I’ve gotta get out of here. She ran a hand through her hair, her fingers catching on one of the many knots tangling the strands. Stretch my legs or something. She started toward the closet, then paused, looking back to the clock. But there's a curfew, right? Her eyes narrowed as she glared at the clock. I’ll feign ignorance or something if I get caught.
With that thought, she quickly and quietly got ready for her day, shouldered her usual messenger bag, and crept into the hall beyond. She paused, blinking in the sudden light that forced her eyes to adjust from the comfortable darkness. Listening and searching for any sign of a patrolling teacher or prefect, she snuck down the hallway.

"Ugh!" Kiddo sighed as he sat up in his bed. It had been a long night. The presence of the body disturbed him. What made it even worse was the fact he couldn't find it. It felt as if every time he got closer a nail was stabbed into his head. Pain after pain. He told the headmaster and she of course seemed concerned. Something just wasn't right though. Kiddo wanted to know what. Every since that girl died a year before he arrived everything has apparently been a little strange.

"I need something to do." Kiddo stood up and pulled some pajama pants on. He cracked his door to make sure nobody was in the hall. Of course, nobody was. It was 3AM after all.

Kiddo began to walk on the pads of his feet. Trying to be as quiet as possible, he made his way to the vending machine. He hadn't ate in hours, his stomach was kind of growling. The voices weren't there though. He hadn't heard from them since them he left the headmaster's office.

The vending machine gladly accepted Kiddo's money. Kiddo then lightly pressed in A5. The corkscrew wire spun and made the pretzels fall. Silently he reached into the slot and grabbed them.

At the soda machine Kiddo lightly pressed the cola button and waited. The suspense was killing him. You always have to wait before your soda came while at a vending machine. It was the dead of night, he wasn't suppose to be out of his room. He didn't want the noise to wake anybody up.

Finally, after what seemed like eons the cola came crashing into the slot. Kiddo put his hand there to soften the blow, but it made some noise. Maybe enough to cause somebody to move a bit in their bed.

After picking up the bottle he began to make his way back to his room. Kiddo, as quietly as possible, step by step, walked back. He had a lot of thinking to do.

Luca Agnelli
3:00 AM

Amy was missing.

Amy was missing.

Amy was missing, and God, what’s going on?

Luca could hear nothing but her rapid footfalls pacing around the dorm room like a caged wolf. At three o’clock in the morning, she could do nothing but wait, at least according to the student handbook. She’d never been caught before, but that was because she was a good girl – she played by the rules, she stuck to them like glue.

But some things were more important than rules, more important than life itself, and all of them were scrawled in her little black diary, and all of them revolved around Amy Snow not being dead.

She crept out to the showers feeling every bit like James Bond or some other super spy, if they even existed, but there was nothing to be found there but the faint drip-drip of a tap left running. Luca turned on the spot, pulling her baseball boots on her feet before sliding down the drainpipe to the muddy grass at the bottom.

Amy was missing.

The lake was black as the void as if the midnight sky had spilt into it. Luca had never seen it like this, so dangerous, the trees hanging over it and shedding their leaves onto the surface. She was paralyzed. Her legs were caught in a trap, and that trap was her own imagination. She had to find her roommate – she had to–

A hand stretched out and grabbed at her wrist but she didn’t have it in her to scream. Clawing and scratching, Luca fought back against an assailant that was surprisingly limp and unresisting until a, “Fuck, Agnelli,” resounded in the empty night. “I didn’t mean to scare you. Sorry. Sorry.”

She knew that voice. James Drummond, wasn’t it? Luca could only stare dumbly as the boy tentatively touched his cheek where there were three long, red scratch marks, winced, and then moved up to inspect the damage done to his forehead.

“Amy’s missing,” she ended up saying. Not a huge shock.

James nodded. “I figured it was something like that.” He stopped rubbing at his head (since that was doing nothing but spreading the thin trickle of blood all over) and shrugged off his jacket, putting it over her shoulders. She realised somewhat belatedly that she was still in her pyjamas, and it was cold. “Come on. Nothing you can do out here – let’s get you inside…”

“But she’s gone.” Luca couldn’t help but look up at James as if for some divine guidance, but all she caught was the worried curl at the corner of his lips.

And then he said, “You’ll see her again. We’ll find her, yeah?”

Luca believed him.

---

Jamie Drummond
6:30 AM

Some things were just never meant to be, and one of those was Jamie getting any sleep whatsoever tonight. Dawn lit up Luca Agnelli and Amy Snow’s dorm room through the dark blinds and even as it did, neither of them moved. The girl was near inconsolable in a way that he couldn’t deal with – the quiet, tearless sort – and his emotions were sucked into hers.

Escaping was futile. Luca was a black hole, an endless pit of primeval motivations and fears wrapped up in confusion. Trying to unpick the labyrinthe was like trying to find the start of a Mobius strip.

Impossible.

At some point in the night, he had slipped back to his room to pick up his uniform, if only because he didn’t trust Luca not to do anything stupid as chaotic as her mind was. A devastating whirl of colour – that was what she was. A girl who hadn’t yet picked a direction, decided on what to do other than save Amy because she’s mine.

So he ran a tired hand through his hair and led the girl up to her feet, handing her a brush and sending her the brightest smile he could muster before waiting outside the door to guide her to breakfast. Not once did he think he was being too nice, too supportive, because she was a human being (maybe?) and she was hurting.

Honestly, Jamie didn’t know how she was functioning. When he tried to steal away some of her pain by assimilating it himself, he had to leave the room before he burst out into sobs or worse tried to break something, knuckles included. The only thing he could liken it to would be what he would feel if these disappearances continued to take–

And that was why he had no chance of sleeping anytime soon, unless it was during classes. He was really waiting for a statement from the Headmistress saying something along the lines of, ‘You’re all going home because it’s dangerous,’ but he was sure that would never happen.

The ones who went missing already – why them? Jamie couldn’t help but wonder about it over his muesli.

@Saltwater Thief

Stella almost dragged herself to a table that morning. It had not been a productive nights sleep. Her powers were fluxing a bit, and so at random points in the night, all she would feel was the urge to just leave the school. The fact that the plants were almost screaming now was getting to her. Now that she was more awake, she was focusing all her energy into tuning them out, but it was costing her a bit.

She set down a tray of food, and a rather large cup of coffee, which seemed odd for a fourteen year old. She starting sipping her coffee and eating, but seemed to be miles away while doing so. So much so, that she didn't notice someone sit down next to her.

"That is quite a lot of caffeine," came a familiar voice as that someone eased into the seat to her right. A look toward the sound revealed it was Tobias, looking a little sleep deprived himself, but cheerfully smiling nonetheless. "Having trouble waking up?"

Stella blushed as she looked at Tobias and then back at her coffee. It was more out of embarrassment than anything at that moment. "I didn't sleep very well last night. Still getting use to being in a new place," she said, lying a bit. However, what could she tell him? The truth? That would be the quickest way to lose him as a friend.

"You look like you didn't sleep very much either. Is everything alright?" She asked, looking a little bit concerned.

Tobias took a long pull on his own drink, tea from the smell of it, before he answered. "Oh, uhh... yes, I'm quite alright. Just wound up staying awake most of the night dealing with some, er... malfunctioning devices," he said, his voice a little nervous as he seemed to struggle finding the right words. "Though I think I might also still be warding off the jet lag, home's a solid 6 hours ahead of here."

"Still," he continued while he ate, "This place seems alright, on the whole. A little eerie, but the people are nice."

"I will agree with that. A little eerie, but the people are nice," Stella said between bites, smiling a bit. She did notice he seemed a little nervous talking about his devices. "Because I am curious, what of your devices were malfunctioning so much that you had to deal with them last night? You don't have to answer if you don't want to... just... as I said, I am curious," she said, looking at Tobias.

Tobi seemed to spend an oddly long time chewing a piece of bacon while he pondered her question. "It's mainly the power supply," he finally answered after he finished it, "Most of the bloody things need some electricity to work, but just the right amount. Too little, and they don't turn on. Too much, and they might light something on fire. And when I left some of them alone the last couple of days, they sort of... built up too much of a charge, so I had to figure out how to get rid of the excess and then see if I could get them to not do that. Couldn't really figure it out before I collapsed into bed, but a least there shouldn't be any problems for right now."

"And what about you? What in particular kept Stella Herbalem awake? If you're willing to share it, of course. If not, I'll just keep my nose in my tea cup."

Stella shrugged. "As I said, I'm still getting use to a new place, and my bed at home was way more cushiony than these things they attempt to call mattresses..." She paused and then frowned a bit. "Have you heard about the missing students? If I'm really honest, that's what is keeping me up at night. The fact that there are people missing from this school, but we're just continuing on like nothing is wrong. It doesn't seem quite right to me," she said, admitting to what was really on her mind at the moment.

Tobias stopped eating at the mention of the missing students. He set the fork he had been using down and crossed his arms on the table in front of him, his face screwed up in thought. "I know what you mean. Anywhere else I've gone to school, people vanishing like that would have the place on lock-down with the authorities all over the place. But everything here is proceeding like the poor sods never even attended. Makes you think about some things. It'd keep anybody up at night."

Stella nodded. "That is why I was up most of the night. I do hope something is being done, but... part of me just wants to leave. However... I don't want to just go. Not just yet," she said a bit softly. There was something that was drawing her to the school. She wasn't sure what it was, or who, but there was something here. Her own curiosity wouldn't be satisfied till it was figured out. "What about you? Knowing that... are you going to stay?" She asked, turning to look at Tobias, waiting for his answer.

Tobias took a deep breath in and let it out slowly as he seemed to consider the question heavily. When it had been completely been let out, he gave a single, small chuckle. "Well, it's quite a puzzle in and of itself, and I've never really been one to walk away from a puzzle. Besides," he said as his chuckle became a modest smile that he turned toward Stella, "I think I've found a few things here that are worth sticking around for." With that, he grabbed the mug of tea and held it out toward her in a toast gesture. "Here's to some better mornings to come, eh?"

Stella blushed softly, and smiled, and held up her mug of coffee and clinked it with Tobias' mug of tea. "To better mornings then. And maybe a puzzle we can figure out, possibly together," she said, muttering a bit at the end.

The morning breeze mussed Zaylin’s hair as she slowly crossed the courtyard toward the main building, the coolness of the morning marred by late summer humidity hanging in the air and foreshadowing hotter weather. The almost electric energy that ran through her during the night had started to diminish as the sun began to light the sky, turning the spattering of wispy clouds into cotton candy as it yawned over the world.
Other students mulled around the courtyard, some looking more like zombies than people as the monster of sleep still crawled in their shadows. Others looked almost paranoid, a couple gender-segregated groups speaking in whispers. Some conversations centered around worry for the missing girls, while the voices of morning people rang exuberantly through the courtyard as they made their way to breakfast.
Business as usual, Zaylin thought, her eyes narrowing as she looked around before she continued toward the main building. It’s been at least a day since those girls disappeared, hasn’t it? Shouldn’t the police be involved by now? She glanced up at the windows of the ancient-looking building, then entered. Wonder what the headmistress is doing about it…
She moseyed through the cool halls, keeping close to the walls as the flow of students slowly intensified.
The sound of voices echoed down the passage as she neared the dining hall, the familiar sound increasing inside the room as words bounced off the walls and turned into little more than a jumbled mass of noise.
After going through the line, Zaylin paused, trying to tune out the irritating din of many conversations as she scanned the large space and the bodies crowding the tables in search of a free chair. She caught sight of a few others she recognized from a couple classes from the previous day, including Victoria. A large opalescent pendant hanging from the eccentric girl’s neck and her hands moved in broad gestures as she spoke to the others sitting around her full table.
Noticing Zaylin, Victoria beamed and waved, making a couple others at the table turn to satisfy their curiosity.
Zaylin returned the gesture with far less enthusiasm. Nevertheless, satisfied, Victoria resumed her story. Zaylin couldn’t help but smile, then headed for the least crowded table.

Stella dragged herself to theater class after lunch. It had been a lovely lunch outside, and she was left quite happy, for various reasons. She walked into the large theater and looked around, and plopped herself into an empty seat. The theater seemed relatively empty, only about twenty-five students and one teacher. The teacher was on the stage, and had her hand out, and Stella guessed she was counting the students. She noticed a small frown on the teacher’s face.

After the seeming last student walked in and sat down, and the bell to start class rang, the teacher adopted a smile on her face. “Hello my lovely actors and stage crew, and welcome to theater class. For those who don’t know me, I am Mrs. Wellington and I am the theater teacher, as well as the music teacher here. It is good to see some of you back, and also lovely to see some new faces! However, before I begin, may I have two volunteers? I need some of you to check the costume and prop storage for me, please,” Mrs. Wellington said.

Stella looked around and noticed a lack of hands at first and put hers up. Why not? It was a good chance to see the costumes the school had.

A second hand shot up, belonging to one of the wiry and shifty-looking boys. He just seemed to be grinning. Stella looked over at him and shrugged a bit. “Looks like we have two volunteers! If you both come down here, and give me your names please? A little bit of bonus credit for being so brave to volunteer,” Mrs. Wellington said.

“Stella Herbalem,” Stella said as she walked down to the stage.

“Glen Kerr,” came the response quickly after, the boy stifling a small yawn as he followed, heading to the stage. Stella noted his name in her memory.

“Alright Stella, Glen, the costume and prop storage is just under the stage, right here,” Mrs. Wellington said, pointing to a small ring hole in the stage. “Mr. Kerr, if you could please lift it for Miss Herbalem?” Mrs. Wellington added, while handing two flashlights to Stella. She took them and looked curiously at Mrs. Wellington. “Its a little dark in there,” she added.

Glen took the door, lifting the ring and pulling the door open, sneezing immediately. “And dusty,” he added, waving away some of the dust. “After you,” He finished, looking at Stella. Stella nodded, and handed one of the flashlights to Glen and went into the costume and prop storage. Glen followed shortly after, leaving the door open as he did.

After a few minutes of wandering through the aisles, stopping to take stock of the costumes every so often, there was a sudden clatter of a flashlight and an “Oomph”. A few moments later, Glen’s voice yelled “STELLA! GET MRS. WELLINGTON NOW!”

Stella rolled her eyes. “I swear, if it is a spider, I can...handle…” Stella walked over to where Glen was and saw that Glen was sprawled out over the floor, and he had tripped over a body. She was propped up against the wall, but the front of her school shirt was covered in blood. And at that moment, Stella let out a loud earth-shattering scream. Every worst fear had come true, and her powers surged, causing every plant on the campus to pause in their swaying.

Mrs. Wellington came running in to the prop room and stopped when she saw Glen, Stella and the body. “Arro…” She said so softly, but Stella caught it. “Glen, Stella, you go to the Headmistress’s office… now…” She said, looking at the two students.

“But...but...but Mrs. Wellington… there...there…” Stella started stammering out, but the teacher started doing a very odd thing. She started whistling. “Mrs. Wellington! Real…” As Stella was about to chew the teacher out, a very odd thing happened. She started feeling unusually calm. Sure, there was a dead body in the costume storage, but, it was alright.

“Please, Glen, Stella. The Headmistress needs to be made aware of this situation, but we don’t need to panic the whole school. Please just head to the Headmistress's office as calmly as you can, and then head to the cafeteria afterwards, I’ll be with you shortly,” Mrs. Wellington said, stopping her whistling.

“Whatever you say Mrs. Wellington,” Stella said, and then looked at Glen. She’d seen that he’d been very pale just a moment ago, but he looked like he was pretty relaxed too. He just nodded.

“Let’s go, then…” He said, and with that, he headed out, momentarily pausing to make sure he hadn’t gotten blood on himself, or so Stella assumed. She headed with him to the Headmistress’s office, and knocked on the door.

“Come in.” The calm pleasant voice that belonged to Mrs. Standiford said from the other side of the door. Upon entering the room, Stella noticed that the office did not have a lot of furniture or, decoration in it, but there were some rather spiffy looking comfy chairs and a few filing cabinets.

“How can I help you?”

“Uh, Mrs. Standiford…” Stella was cut off.

“Dead body in the theater,” Glen interrupted rather rudely, though he was starting to look nervous again. “Just thought you should know.” Mrs. Standiford stood quickly.

“Thank you. You may go down to the cafeteria.” She added, almost as an afterthought. “Someone will be there shortly.”

Stella blinked, and nodded, heading to the cafeteria with Glen and looked at him. “Was it just me, or did she handle that way too well?” She asked.

“... Practice?” Glen asked reflexively, obviously not thinking.

Stella blinked. She remembered hearing about the girl from last year, hints of things. She paused in heading to the cafeteria. Her eyes went wide. Everything was wrong with this school, and she had known it from day one, and this was just the icing on the cake.

Glen wasn’t with her now. He seemed to have vanished into thin air between when they had left the headmistress’s office and when they’d gotten to the cafeteria.

“Glen? Glen?!” Stella said, snapping back to reality. She didn’t need to lose him on top of everything else going on in that moment. She also really wished that Tobias was there.

“Stella?” The steady voice of Mr. Johnson came from behind Stella. She turned around and did one of the most un-student like things and hugged Mr. Johnson.

“Mr. Johnson! There was a body, and now Glen is missing and everything is just wrong, and the headmistress was too calm about this and I don’t know if I want to be here anymore!” Stella blurted out, on the verge of tears.

Mr. Johnson hugging Stella back said, “Mrs. Standiford is always calm looking. I’ve seen her handle some crazy stuff without having a hair go out of place. Now who is this Glen? Where did you see him last?” He gave her a reassuring pat on the back before pulling out of the hug a way, his hands on her shoulders.

“Um Glen… uh… Glen Kerr. He’s in my theater class. We were headed to the cafeteria together, and he vanished in the hall,” she said, pointing back the way they had come. It was at that moment she noticed that there were mirrors in the hallway. Mr. Johnson’s gaze followed Stella’s. A look of worry crossed his face.

“Let’s sit for a moment.” He gestured to one of the tables. “Tell me everything that happened from the beginning.”

Stella nodded, sitting down at the table with him. She did notice the rest of the class was there, looking like a mix of confusion and worry. She looked at Mr. Johnson and told him everything that had happened in the last twenty minutes.

He had nodded along as Stella told him everything without interrupting her. “All right, now if you still want to leave, and I cannot blame you for it -” The PA crackled to life and Mrs. Standiford’s voice came in over the system.

“Would all students and staff report to the gym for an announcement.” The PA turned off again.

Stella frowned at the announcement. “I guess that means us,” she said, and stood up. Her stomach was doing flips.

@kittyluna45

The Art & Design class had been progressing fairly normally, by what Tobias had come to accept as Northwood standards. From an honest standpoint, it was a tad bit mind numbing; given that they were still getting started with the year, the class consisted of a lot of the basics, and he’d figured out most of them on his own back in England. There was some merit to knowing the actual terminology though, and the instructor was nice enough to boot, but review was review. Which was why he was entirely alright with stepping out to the lavatory in the middle of the lesson. And it was just as he was washing his hands afterward that the PA system came to life and an ominous message projected across the grounds.

“Would all students and staff report to the gym for an announcement.”

“Well,” he thought out loud, “That bodes exactly not well at all.” Announcements were usually posted in the meal hall or mentioned over the PA, depending on urgency and importance, but they’d never called an assembly to make one. That, along with the Missing Students…

This doesn’t bode well at all, he thought as he made his way out of the bathroom and toward the gym. A few other students who’d had a similar headstart dotted the halls, but most of the school was probably lining up in the classrooms to proceed. The lack of a crowd made it somewhat easy to spot Stella as he rounded a corner. She was walking along with one of the teachers, Mr Johnson as Tobias recalled. And something was clearly wrong.

“Stella!” he called out as he quickened his pace to a light jog toward her, concern spreading more across his face with each step.

Stella turned to look at Tobias, pretty much looking like she was about to start crying at any moment. She leaned up and said something to Mr. Johnson and he nodded and continued on his way. “Hi Tobias,” she said softly.

“Hi,” he replied as he reached her and finally got a good look at her face. Tears were welling in her eyes, and all the color was either gone or draining from her face as she stood there in front of him. Without a moment’s pause, he put both of his hands on her shoulders and gave them a gentle squeeze, trying to reassure her for something he didn’t know about. Yet. “You don’t look good at all… are you okay? What happened?” he asked as he looked down into her eyes and tried to steady her.

“Um…” Stella looked like she was trying to find the right words. “So you remember those missing girls I mentioned this morning?” She asked softly.

He nodded as such.

“I… uh… found one of them,” she said softly. “However, um… she’s not… with us anymore,” she said, trailing off at the end. She then sniffled, tears starting to roll down her cheeks.

It took him a moment to process what she said. Not because he didn’t understand what she meant, but because it took him some time to fully comprehend the gravity of what she’d gone through. What didn’t take any time at all to figure out was that the dam in her eyes had finally broken as she began to softly cry. More sounds from down the hall told him the rest of the student body was beginning to make their way there, and he realized the last thing Stella needed was added attention. With no more delay he took her by the hand and softly tugged her to the side of the walking area. Only when his back was against the wall of the building did he let go of her hand, and he wasted no time in wrapping both of his arms around her and pulling her into his embrace. For a moment, they simply stood there as the tide of students trickled past them, her tears soaking into his shirt as he delicately held her head against his chest.

“Shhh,” he finally said, just barely loud enough for her to hear him, “It’s okay, Stella. Just stay here for a moment, let it out as much as you need. It’ll be okay, I promise…”

Tobias could feel Stella’s head nodding against his chest as she continued to cry, her arms wrapping around him and gently grasping the back of his shirt. He could feel his shirt getting more soaked as she started sobbing a bit. After a few minutes, she pulled back a bit and looked up at Tobias. “Thank you,” she said softly, and let out a soft sniffle. “I just… after that, and seeing you… I couldn’t… I…” she stammered a bit, obviously still not all there.

He took the stumbling words in stride, and rather than hush her or try to help the coherence he simply reached forward to sweep some of her hair out of her face, gave her as good a smile as he could get on hand, and pulled her back in. “It’s no problem,” he intoned, “Stay out here as long as you need, I’ll be right here. I’m not going anywhere.”

For a brief moment before he pulled her back into the embrace, her cheeks seemed to have a bit of color returning to them. She seemed to move in close. “Thank you, Tobias,” she muttered after a moment.

“Anytime, Stella.”

They remained stationary for a while, simply holding one another, as the river of bodies coming through the hallway ebbed, flowed, and rose to a peak before diminishing once again. As the hall grew quiet again, Stella looked up at him and nodded that she was ready, or as ready as she was going to be, and they broke apart to walk toward the gym, side by side. Along the way, Tobias extended his arm around to rest on Stella’s opposite shoulder, which she happily accepted as they made their way into the gym with the rest of the school.

It had been a long day for Katalina. She hadn’t slept well and had woken up to find out that Amy was missing. On top of the other girls that were missing. One of her best friends was missing and apparently the school just didn’t care. Similar to what had happened with Natalie last year, there were no police at the school. Three girls missing and they were in art and design listening to the same boring spiel from the previous years! Katalina fidgeted in her seat and looked over at Luca. She knew however she felt about Amy missing, Luca was feeling it at least ten times over. Amy had never said anything outright, but Katalina could just tell.

She scooted closer to Luca and set a hand on her shoulder. “I won’t ask how you’re holding up, since I know how much she means to you, but I will offer this. After classes are over, if something still hasn’t been done, I’m sure we can try to hitch a ride into town with the music teacher, if you’d like,” she said softly.

Luca flinched away from the gesture. Her eyes slid from a dreamy gaze out the window to peer at Katalina curiously. They were bloodshot, and despite the dark circles under them, they were alert. “Amy’s probably still here, though.” Confusion was evident in her voice as if the concept of leaving the academy was so foreign and an unnatural a concept. “I’m not sure– there’s nothing even there but people. I don’t think they’d help.”

“Luca, I’m sure Amy’s still here, but isn’t odd that the police aren’t here, again, after what happened last year with Natalie? We should get help from them early, before…” Katalina sighed. She was positive Amy was alive as well. Amy was smart and resourceful. However, the other two girls… “It’s not just Amy that is missing you know. And I’m not going to just sit around and wait for their bodies to be found,” she said, trying to keep her voice low as to not alert anyone else. Last year she had just kinda let the teachers do as they wanted, and then… she was not losing another friend. Not like this.

“I don’t think they’d help,” Luca repeated, brows furrowing in confusion. “I’m not sure if they can.” She glanced down at the page of lined notebook paper in her hands and the scrawled, almost illegible words written on it before scrunching it up and stuffing it into her blazer pocket. “The dead girls, Amy would’ve gotten to the bottom of it eventually…”

She coughed and looked away again. “I suppose it’s worth a shot.”

“What do you mean ‘dead girls’ Luca? ...What do you know?” Katalina asked. Girls, plural, meant that it wasn’t just Natalie. Was one of the missing girls…? But, how could Luca know that? How could anyone know that? She was about to say something when the PA buzzed to life.

“Would all students and staff report to the gym for an announcement.” Well, that wasn’t good.

“What is happening now?” Katalina said aloud and stood up, and looked at Luca. “I guess we’ll finish this later then?”

The girl nodded as she stuck her fountain pen behind her ear and reached down to pick up her bag. After a few moments of chewing her lip, she moved closer, speaking in a low whisper. “I don’t know if they’re dead or not, but two people today have lied to me when they said they’d find them safe and sound.”

Katalina looked at Luca and grasped her shoulder. “Luca… I know you and Amy were working on something. Was it related to this school? Look, don’t ask me how I know, just, either nod or shake your head,” she said.

Already the class was starting to up and move out. Luca looked around the emptying room surreptitiously and nodded.

“Thanks,” Katalina said and took her hand off of Luca’s shoulder. “I just… I’ll see you later. I hope,” she said and sighed. She picked up her things and went to head to the gym.

It was too soon.

Mrs. Standiford swallowed hard as the gym filled with students and staff. Dr. Mann stood off to her side, his face darkened and more sunken than usual from the sleeplessness of searching. Futilely searching.

When all the students had taken their seats and something resembling calm was reached Mrs. Standiford started speaking. "As many of you are aware Arro Jenkins went missing Monday morning. I am saddened to announce she is gone forever. She was found today -" God she had to say it, "dead." Her stomach twisted, but her face stayed still. Her mother had trained her well. Mrs. Stanidford was about to speak when all the hairs on her arms raised - No!

~~~
Everyone felt it. Each student felt their own power increase ten fold in strength for that moment. For many that meant a loss of control, one boy's skin was on fire (he not burned by the fire), but the students around him had to move away lest they get burned. It was more than that. They all knew three things in that moment. One Amy Snow was dead. Two Amy had pushed into everyone's minds tiny bits of information including that these deaths were a common occurrence at this school, this school that had been specifically made for students with special powers. The third was that everyone at the school had been hand picked because of their brilliance or powers.

((OOC: I'll be pming (or other forms of communication) with everyone on what else they've learned from Amy's push. A quick explanation: Amy's power was knowledge (god I've been waiting for so long to make that joke). She has shared some of her knowledge with everyone in her last seconds of life. I encourage no more secrets among the students.))

Something had felt off to Zaylin all morning. There were missing students, and life continued within the halls of the school with infuriating normalcy. No extra security. No police roaming the halls. Only on-edge students, the average faculty, and more whispered rumors than Zaylin could count.
Her hands clenched and unclenched as she headed to dance class after parting with two new-found acquaintances, Casandra and Jake.
If no one else is going to do anything, she resolved darkly, then I will.
The dance teacher--a rather beautiful Asian woman, her hair pulled into a feathery bun to the side of her head--had dove straight into her lesson, her demeanor comfortingly joyful.
However, the atmosphere changed as soon as the headmistress’ voice rang over the PA: “Would all students and staff report to the gym for an announcement.”
Zaylin inhaled as a sense of foreboding raced through her. Possible reasons for the sudden call for an assembly ran through her mind in a jumbled mess. Voices rose in the room, and the teacher tried to regain order. Mostly failing, she called above the others in her thick accent.
“Proceed to the gym in an orderly fashion!” She scarcely finished speaking before the first of the students rushed out the door.
Zaylin waited impatiently, following at the end of the flood with the teacher a couple feet behind her. The dance class joined the boisterous flow of other students in the main hall, the echoes of the voices making Zaylin scowl and resist the urge to cover her ears.
In the gym, she shoved her way to the side of the doorway to get a better look at the already crowded bleachers. The sense of unease that had only misted among the students the first time Zaylin had laid eyes on the gym now felt like a weight pressing against the shoulders of every student. Such a drastic change in only two days’ time.
Zaylin caught sight of a few familiar faces, but chose to wait. When the flow of students slowly ebbed, she made her way to one of the bleachers near the top. She sat on one of the few remaining empty spaces, with only a freshmen girl between her and the edge of the bench. The girl, thick glasses resting on her nose and her curly hair teased to give it extra volume, gave Zaylin a halfhearted smile, then playfully kicked a friend in front of her.
Zaylin watched the other students come in. She smiled as Stella entered last with a boy she assumed to be Tobias, his arm draped over her shoulders. Zaylin’s smile faded as she took in Stella’s grave expression, the urge to make sure she was okay making her shift in her seat. Then, the headmistress began to speak.
Immediately, silence fell as Mrs. Stanidford’s voice rang through the gymnasium. A wave of shock, denial, and panic rolled through the crowd of teenagers as the woman spoke the news that everybody in the room dreaded to hear: one of the missing students had been found, dead. Zaylin held her breath, biting her lip. She fought the desire to rise to her feet, to shout her enraged question of why nothing had been done yet.
Before Mrs. Stranidford could continue, Zaylin gasped and her irises turned a pure gold while every one of her enhanced senses went into overdrive as complete pandemonium broke out among the student ranks packed nearly elbow to elbow. She had scarcely a moment to take in the chaos ensuing around her, from the boy to her left who burst into shimmering mist, to the storm clouds that bubbled and undulated outword from the center of the gym’s ceiling before she felt the dragon inside her rear. It pushed for release like she had never felt before. A wind of her own, unconscious making blew through her hair and flames burst into dazzling existence around her. She tried to push away the familiar tightness that preluded the release of turning into her dragon form, but it proved too much.
In a desperate attempt to escape the now screaming girl beside her and the close quarters of the surrounding crowd, she summoned a gust of wind that carried her higher into the air than she expected, and catapulted herself to the space beside the bleachers.
Before she could demand the air to let her down slowly, her body began to morph. In just over an instant, her body stretched and grew as she fell toward the gym floor. Leathery wings burst from her back, a tail extended behind her, and her face elongated into a thin snout. Her clothes stretched with her, then erupted into glittering jet black scales that covered all but the underside of her reptilian form. There, thick golden plates formed from the base of her neck to near the tip of her tail, while three matching horns sprouted from the top of her head.
The tip of her tail whipped over a couple of the students on the edges of the bleachers, before she landed cat-like on the floor. Golden claws protruded from her scaled, yet still fairly human-like hands, while those of her hind feet dug into the wood of the floor. A crest of deep purple spines unfurled along her back to the top of her tail to complete her transformation.
Her lips pulled back, revealing her dangerously sharp teeth in a smile at the exhilaration running through her. At long last, she was what she was meant to be.
Alas, she had only an instant to revel in the energy and rightness of her dragon form when she felt something push its way into her mind. Her eyes, glowing a complete, rich gold, widened, and she gave a surprised howl as information embedded into her mind. She gripped the sides of her head, but, as quickly as it had come, the presence vanished.
Zaylin shook her head and snorted, black smoke rising from her wide nostrils. Remembering where she was, panic momentarily gripped her chest and she jumped nimbly to her feet. She stood on her hind legs, reaching nearly eight and a half feet tall from feet to crown. Her tail, about the same length as her body, swished behind her, and her wings folded slightly as she looked around at the hectic mess of the mass of other, specially chosen students as their powers, too, went into overdrive.

Stella was keeping close to Tobias in the gym as the Headmistress started talking. Stella pretty much already knew what was going, since she had been one of the students to find poor Arro. However, suddenly, something happened.

She wasn’t quite sure what had happened at first. Then suddenly, she heard all the plants screaming and could feel every single little movement. She was suddenly one with nature in a way that she had never been before. The plants around the gymnasium suddenly covered the windows, and darkened the gym.

She was suddenly snapped out of it as it started getting wet and she got a very puzzled look on her face, and then looked around the gymnasium. “Wh…” There were students on fire, a… dragon? Her puzzled look soon disappeared as knowledge entered her mind. She turned to look at Tobias and then paused as she looked at him.

What she saw was the person who had been comforting her only minutes before turning as white as a sheet. His eyes widened briefly as they looked at his feet- or rather the metal structure he sat on- then flicked over to her, dripping wet among the rest of the students. Horror visibly filled his countenance as he seemed to come to a realization, and as the air around them began to snap and crackle he was standing and shoving himself away from her. Stella was a bit confused for a moment, and then realized what that crackle meant. They had found seats near the edge of the bleachers closest to the door, which meant Tobias had gone no more than 2 steps before he was leaping off of them toward the floor. As soon as he landed, electricity began to arc and leap off of him in random directions. By some miracle none of them struck the now soaked bleachers, but there was no mistaking the shout that came from Tobias’ mouth as he wrestled with it.

Stella’s eyes went wide, and she focused. The plants suddenly burst through the windows, and started absorbing the water, lessing the shock factor. Now was not the time to play dumb. She look and realized that it wasn’t just her pulling the water away, there was another older student pulling the water into a cloud of sorts. ”Well that’s one less problem at the moment… no one is going to have their hair ruined… is right now the time for humor Stella? Really? There is a dragon, Tobias is a human Tesla Coil, and one of the teachers is yelling at the headmistress and Miss Standiford… oh… that Mrs. Wellington… No! Focus!” Stella focused the plants, which started going back outside and returning to their normal size. She then slumped over a moment and groaned. ”Ugh...I’ve never used them like that before…”

She looked at Tobias, trying to see if he was still sparking, and winced, still recoiling from the over usage of her powers.

As she looked, the sparking seemed to be affecting the area less, but at the same time there was more of it flashing around Tobias himself. His head rotated slowly, like he was looking for something, before finally settling on the gym doors that had been blown open by some student or another. The electricity condensed even more around him, until finally a great flash blinded her and anybody else in the area as a bolt of lightning erupted from Tobias’ hand, outstretched toward the open doors as a way to direct it outside of the gym and into the empty air. There was a bit of cussing at the flash. Finally, as the light show died away and Stella could see again, she found Tobias laying on his back, arm still extended as though he was waiting for a second bolt, and breathing heavily… but alive, and seemingly unharmed.

“Tobias!!” Stella bolted from the bleachers and dashed over to Tobias and dropped to his side. “Are you alright? I mean… besides the whole being a human conductor thing, are you alright?” She asked, concern written all over her face.

He didn’t answer, for a moment. It was some time before he even took his eyes off of whatever point he had focused on outside. When at last he looked at her, he exhaled significantly and leaned back on the ground, tension leaving his shoulders as she watched. “Yeah,” he said, “Yeah, I’m alright. Arm’s a little tingly, but I don’t shock myself when I do that, thankfully.” His eyes went wide again as he sat up partially, looking over her. “Oh God! please tell me I didn’t…!”

“No no no… you missed. Luckily. The water has been dissipated, so, no one here is that much at risk anymore, I guess. Well at least from being shocked, however, there is a dragon, and uh… I’m pretty sure the bleachers are broken beyond repair, and I kinda broke the windows, and may have caused some damage to some lovely plants, but you’re alright, and I’m alright and uh…” Stella was rambling, and she knew it. It was a coping mechanism.

Suddenly, her rambling was broken up by a bout of laughter. Tobias’ laughter, in fact, as he reclined onto the floor again. When he saw the confused look on Stella’s face, he pulled himself up and patted her on the shoulder. “Sorry, so sorry,” he apologized, “It’s just kinda funny to me. We were just talking about how this place seemed odd this morning, and then we find out about… well, all of this!” After a few more chuckles, he took a deep breath and calmed down again. “I suppose I owe you something of an explanation. Though, I’m not sure what else there is to explain after all of that.”

Stella blinked and let out a small chuckle. “Uh… well in case you couldn’t tell, my power has to deal with plants. Surprise,” she said and chuckled again. “But an explanation would be lovely, but maybe not right here and now… I think most of the student body is still wigging out here. Also, I’m not sure if staying at this school is the smartest move at this point,” she said and frowned a bit.

He paused and seemed to consider that. “You may be right,” he responded after some time, “This place being what it is, suddenly those deaths and missing persons are even scarier than they were before.”

“But at the same time,” he continued, “I’m not sure what other options we have. And personally? I’ve got some questions I’d like answered. Best move right now might be to sit tight and let the dust settle before any of us do something rash. I think I can say that not many blokes’ll be looking to tangle with me after that just now, though,” he said as he nodded his head toward the students staring at him bewilderingly, “So you’d probably be pretty safe sticking round me. If you wanted to, that is.”

Stella blushed deeply. “I should be the one saying that. Of course I want to stick around you! I’m not going to abandon you just because I found out that you can create your own power. I actually think it’s kinda cool. I mean...uh…” She blushed more, her face resembling a shade close to her hair. “Ugh I’m a dork… I don’t see why you’d want me to stick around,” she mumbled.

“Oh?” Tobias replied as he raised an eyebrow in what she could only assume was sarcasm, “How about this reason, then?” When she turned to look at him quizzically, he leaned in and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. Her face went redder still, and he took the chance to rub her head affectionately, with the static he produced by accident tousling it all the more. “Come on now,” he said, “No need to go beating yourself up. I like you just the way you are, Stella. Now come here,” he finished as he put his arms around her and invited her back toward his chest again.

Stella smiled and cuddled a bit close and closed her eyes. “And I like you just the way you are as well Tobias,” she said, wrapping her arms around him. She leaned up and gave him a kiss on the cheek in return. “Just in case you couldn’t tell,” she said and let out a small giggle. Sure, things were awful all around them, but in that moment, only really one thing mattered to Stella and that was knowing that she would be alright with Tobias.

It came to her while she was in Math class, the first omen.

“Would all students and staff report to the gym for an announcement.”

A cold energy grasped her heart as the announcement drawled over the speakers, freezing her pulse and stiffening her bones as everyone around her rose in succession, preparing to head down towards the gymnasium. It took a tap on the shoulder from a random student to pull her from her daze, and even then she felt as though her feet were made of cinder blocks and her head was full of lead while she trudged through the halls. Diana was clung to her arm, as always, but her face was lowered as if she were crying and her grip was much more loose than usual. It was all so odd, all of these feelings, all of these vibes, it was odd and ominous and made Aiden feel down right sick, and all because of the rumor she had heard being shared around classes.

amy snow has gone missing too

Her mind quickly flipped towards Luca and Amy, probably the only two girls who were closest to her at this current point of time, and the thought of one of them going missing made her stomach do flip flops. This school, ever since Aiden had stepped foot inside these haunted halls, she knew something was off. Everything was much too weird to be normal here, it felt like the entire school was the main setting for some kind of horrific horror movie. A horror movie where no one would be getting out safely.

Eventually, Aiden found herself within the hollow gym with the rest of students, and she carefully slipped into the last, empty row of seats. She would have made an effort to seek out Luca, but now her head felt as though it was about to burst and she could barely even stand without wobbling too and fro like a drunkard. Diana slowly released her arm, glancing at Aiden with eyes that she could only assume to be reflecting her own current state of mind. The gleaming white-blue orbs were stormy with anxiety and stress and fear, and as Aiden watched her reflection within the young girl's eyes she barely registered the fact that some staff had taken the stage. The redhead slowly pulled her eyes away from Diana,

Mrs. Staniford spoke above the children, her face pale with what Aiden could only assume to be grief and terror. She listened to the older woman's words, but found that they barely registered within her mind.

"As many of you are aware Arro Jenkins went missing Monday morning." Oh... This is about that girl? The girl who went missing a day or so before Aiden had arrived? She had only heard of the girl's name through rumors, but still, the fact that they are only making an announcement about her now was worrying. "I am saddened to announce she is gone forever. She was found today -" Staniford seemed to freeze, lips unable to utter the words that everyone else already knew. Arro Jenkins was dead. Aiden shook against Diana's hug, feeling something like sadness or anger welling within her chest, but it all instantly turned to panic as a familiar voice made her ears ring and her head pound.

"Am-!" This voice. No no no no no NO. Not her, not Amy! She gripped her throat as air failed to produce words, and then slowly found herself backing away from the students and staff in front of her, nearly tripping over the chair she had been sitting on moments before. All Hell had broken loose now, very easily confirming Aiden's theory of the school not being exactly what it seemed, but she didn't have time to focus on that now, because she had just received some very, very vital news. She turned the voice over in her head, failing to realize that many new ghosts, ghosts that probably didn't even belong to Northwood, had suddenly been drawn to her shaking, semi-standing body, replaying the sound of her friend's knowledge until she felt as though it was real and true and important. Tears fell instantly as she dropped to her knees, and she delicately touched them with her shaking hands before her eyes rose to view the chaos within the gym. Well, at least she tried to view it, but honestly she couldn't see shit due to all the ghosts that currently surrounded her.

They circled around Aiden like kids playing, their eyes wide and hurt and burning with rage and sadness. Aiden was terrified, and as she turned to try and find comfort within D's embrace she found that the young ghost girl was gone. Entirely missing. Aiden felt her mouth open in shock, and a raspy cry escaped from her throat. Those outside of Aiden's ghost circle would notice that the air had become much more excited and windy, as if their were a storm brewing within the walls of the gym, and that any source of electricity was flickering from the actions of countless poltergeists.

"S-stop, please. Leave me alone, y-you're scaring me and I... I need to find... Amy's-! Aiden mumbled and cried as the poltergeists grew stronger from outside of the ghost-circle, her hands tightly enclosing around her cross necklace, "Amy, Amy! Oh my God, oh my God. D, Diana, come back, please. H-Help me, D..." The stress that Aiden had accumulated over time was finally spilling over, suffocating her, killing her. It was too fucking much to take it, all this panic and sadness and anger, and as she watched the ghosts' mouths move silently and heard the powers of the other students outside of her circle she finally felt herself slipping, her mind closing in on itself, and just before darkness engulfed her senses she saw a familiar, small back appear before her, hands balled into fists as a familiar psychic energy shooed away the poltergeists. Aiden groaned out a thanks, eyes still over spilling with tears, and then she finally fainted in the arms of a shaking Diana.

Jamie’s injured cheek glistened in the light with whatever cream the school nurse had plastered over it intensifying the grease, like suncream. It hurt – Agnelli had sharp nails, after all – but his mind was elsewhere, presumably with the anxiety gnawing at his chest. He bit his lip and held his tongue. His fraying nerves couldn’t take much more of whatever this was, the whole supernatural phenomenon surrounding it, so he closed his mind off and thought of the sea, of warm ocean currents and beaches and soft shallows.

As always, Ash was sitting beside him on the bench for the seniors. They’d both come down from the same class after all, Art and Design. His knee brushed against hers and he managed a weak smile. Though he could pick out her worry from the mix more easily than he could his own. Assemblies always were dire, especially when they were surely about something bad – like death. Last year, the announcement that they had found Natalie’s body had gone much the same way: nightmarish, for an empath.

He figured it was something like that. Down somewhere in front of him, white flowers wilted into grey; the ozone crackled as it did before a storm; circus music turned into the mad Varsouviana and right up there with the teachers, Miss Standiford’s canvas was splattered with enigmatic blue ink, thick and opaque and meaning nothing at all. For anyone else, Jamie would consider that anxiety or sadness or fear, but he wasn’t sure his mentor was capable of any of those. And, if she was – if she was just good at hiding them in the past – that was even worse, because what could possibly scare her now?

”As many of you are aware, Arro Jenkins went missing Monday morning. I am saddened to announce she is gone forever. She was found today–” The pause meant nothing to Jamie but a needless building of tension. He already knew the answer, he’d known since yesterday. His schoolmates knew the answer. Even if the rumour mill hadn’t been circling (which it had), the whole thing was much too sombre for it to be anything else. “Dead.”

Jamie kept his eyes pinned on Miss Standiford, who was sitting there with her brow furrowed and one hand holding her elbow protectively. The other reached up to touch her nose where sticky blood was collecting. She looked up in alarm. He had two seconds warning above everyone else. The psychically inclined were hit by it first. The world tilted sickeningly to the side before all hell broke loose.

Human beings weren’t designed for this. That was the thing about emotions: for some people, those he wasn’t concentrating on or those who were naturally muted, they drifted into the background to the point where Jamie could only hear a faint buzz from them. But this panic, this chaos, was a natural disaster itself. Feelings erupted from the room that only Jamie could unpick, and while he’d experienced similar situations before – a winning score at a football match that caused him to faint from jubilation; a sad funeral song that he just wouldn’t stop sobbing at – this time it was a tad more difficult. If previous encounters were addition, this one was theoretical physics.

His body felt like it was burning before a boy a few rows down from him was set aflame. No, he set himself on fire without matches or a lighter. Of course, he should have seen it.

One of the younger girls turned into a dragon, and Jamie wasn’t drunk enough to deal with that, yet. Sparks flew, everything was decidedly wet and the sweet, sickly scent of flowers bloomed around the gymnasium.

He saw his roommate from two years ago confirm his previous suspicions by crushing the edge of the bench with his bare hands. His panic was like a weight pressing down on Jamie’s spine before he shook his head and tried to move on.

Agnelli, a few seats over, cried out, “No!” And whilst his gaze slipped from her instinctively as if she weren’t even there, hidden behind a curtain, what he felt from her was worse than anything he had previously. Unconditional and unrequited, or doomed to be forever now. Because Amy Snow was dead. Jamie pressed his palms to his eyes to hold back tears that were definitely not his own. After one more surge, he stuck his head between his knees to hold back the bile rising up, hooked a foot around Ash’s ankle to make sure she was still there and he wasn’t going mad, and then let his consciousness slip away.

---

But he found himself in a library. It wasn’t real; it was vast and incomprehensible. The titles of the books were in gibberish, the shelves towered to the ceiling – which Jamie couldn’t even see – and the hall stretched on and on to infinity. Some were being thrown from their shelves, others torn to shreds. Some bits and pieces of paper shoved themselves through the walls and floors, secrets to be dealt out to the students of Northwood.

And Jamie knew, he just knew that this was Amy Snow’s doing.

One was stuffed into his hand, crumpled but no less there than he was. On it was a note in plain English. You’re not supposed to be here, it read. It was true, he shouldn’t. He half-expected this whole illusion to have something to do with both fainting and his empathy, which was on overdrive.

A few lines below, it read, Don’t trust your mentor. You can keep an eye on her, but don’t trust her. Amen to that – Jamie didn’t trust Aveline Standiford as far as he could throw her, which was–

---

He blinked back into a world turned topsy-turvy. Blood rushed to his head dizzyingly as he forced himself up. How long had he been out for–? It couldn’t have been more than a minute, not when the madness was still going on.

“I need out of here,” he muttered, and started to push his way along the bleachers towards the exit, his head pounding with the force of all sorts of thoughts and feelings.

Katalina tapped her foot agitatedly as she waited for Ms Standiford to start talking. This was just icing on the cake of one of the worst days ever. She hoped the first words out of the headmistresses mouth were: “The police are on their way and we’re shutting down the school.” If they weren't, she was definitely hitching a ride into town with the music teacher. She was tired of things getting swept under the rug, and she was sure she wasn’t the only one. She wished that Ben was sitting next to her, but he was with his sister and most of the rest of the theater class. As she looked over and waved, she noticed something was off. All the theater kids were whispering to one another, and looking a bit spooked.

Her attention was brought back to the front of the room as the Headmistress began speaking. Her heart dropped when she heard Arro was dead. They weren’t close, but they had been classmates. She frowned, and then, that was the moment everything toppled upside down.

“AMY!” Tears started pouring out of her eyes, as she lost control like the rest of the student population. Her anger and sadness caused the emergency sprinkler system to burst, showering all the students in the bleachers, causing them to get wet. However, Katalina was not focused on that at the moment as she heard one of her best friend’s voices for the last time.

“Kata, I’m sorry. I didn’t want you to find out this way. I wanted to tell you but everything is so wrong here. This place is bad. No one is safe here.”

“Please no... “ She whimpered out, knowing she was really only speaking to herself. However suddenly she was snapped back to the reality of the gym when she heard a distinctive crackling. Her eyes snapped to the front of the gym where there was a boy with lightning arching off of him. She realized what her actions had done and immediately started pulling water off of the students and the bleachers, making a little cloud of sorts in the gym. She realized she wasn’t alone in this endeavor, and not just from the plants. She looked over to her left and saw Ash. “What the fu… y’know this suddenly makes sense,” she said.

She looked over to see Ash streaming tears from her eyes as well, but more oddly, her skin had gone an odd shade of blue. Katalina withheld her questions for now, focusing on making the water find a safe place to be, that wasn’t in the gym with a dragon, a human spark plug, and panicking students. “Put it outside,” she said and nodded to Ash, who nodded back and helped move the water out of the building.

She looked over and saw that Drummond had rather checked out at the moment and looked back at Ash. “Thanks… …” However, there was one last thing that rang in her mind. Amy had one last thing to impart to Katalina. The lake. Nat’s body had been found in the lake. There was a connection. She knew she needed to find the connection. “So, what did she say to you?” She asked, looking at Ash.

For a second Ash was quiet and then she said, “To stop being such an ass.” She gave a bit of a smile to Katalina. “I’m sorry, we’re not so different are we.”

“Apology accepted. I gotta ask about the skin, but now isn’t the moment. Is Drumm-” Her thought was cut off as Jamie got up and bolted from the gym. “Well, that answers that. Do you happen to know what his skill set is?” She asked. She had the sudden urge to run over and ask Ben what his was, but again, now was not the moment.

“No, but he knows more than he lets on. I’ve got to follow him. We’ll talk more I promise.” Ash started climbing down the bleachers after Jamie.

“Wait. Give him a moment. He looked distressed, like he had a lot on his mind.” Ash paused in her pursuit. “Also… Did the theater teacher just punch Miss Standiford?” Katalina turned to see what was going on, since there was now a clamor from the students. Of course, it could be that there was still a dragon in the gym.

“Never mind, that isn’t the issue right now. I may need your help. You know your lake? There’s something about it, and this school. We’re going to need to figure out what it is,” Katalina said. It was a bit odd to her in that moment. Only an hour ago talking to Ash like this was not a thing that happened, but it was amazing what happened when you found out that the person who seemingly disliked you found more in common with you than a love for swimming.

Ash stared at Katalina confused at the words ‘your help’. Finally she seemed to be knocked out of the confusion. “We’ll get to the bottom of this whole thing. For her.” Her voice hardened and nearly cracked.

“For all of them. Nat, Arro and Amy were not the first, but hopefully, we can make them the last,” Katalina said, clutching her fist. She was determined to make that be true. Ash nodded and stepped back up besides Katalina just as Ms. Standiford started to try to call the students back into order, an order that was not going to happen soon.

It had been a roller coaster of a day for Samantha. First she had gotten some wonderful news from the doctor, that she was finally pregnant. However, it had started going sour when she stopped by the police station to inform them about Arro Jenkins and Natali Valkyrie missing, and had been basically brushed off. She was starting to get frustrated that this was just like Miss Coleman the year before.

Then the day had taken a downward turn when those two students found Arro in the costume storage. It had been a horrible sight, to see her like that. Samantha felt a bit guilty for using her powers on Miss Herbalem and Mr. Kerr, but at the moment panic was the last thing this school needed. The rumor mill was churning at full speed, especially since it seemed that Miss Snow was also missing.

After she ushered her class out of the theater and into the gym, she went to sit with the rest of the teachers. She looked over them and noticed that Dr. Mann was looking tired, possibly from searching all night? Aveline looked rather neutral at the moment, if wincing from what appeared to be a headache, and the Headmistress was looking like herself. Samantha frowned as she looked over the students.

"As many of you are aware Arro Jenkins went missing Monday morning. I am saddened to announce she is gone forever. She was found today -" Samantha noticed that the students were starting to react in different ways, not even waiting for the last word. ”Dead.” There it was.

Then the world turned. Samantha felt a wave of nausea that was not from morning sickness, as her mind was suddenly assaulted by information. Miss Snow was gone, but she wasn’t going to go without a fight. Not without letting everyone know the truth.

“It’s not your fault, it was never your fault, but you need to be strong for the students now. I have faith in you Mrs. Wellington.”

Sam’s eyes filled with tears, as she put her head between her knees, trying to make the nausea pass, but she snapped back up as she realized the students were all losing control over their power. As one student shifted up to an eight foot tall dragon, she got to her feet, about to use her power, but then she looked over at the Headmistress and Miss Aveline.

“You… this… is your fault!” She yelled loudly. She went up to Aveline. “You knew! You LIED to me and everyone!”

“Mrs. Wellington, control yourself,” Emma Standiford said, but Samantha wasn’t listening.

“You told me just yesterday that you had no idea what was going on, but you do! You both do!” She yelled at the younger teacher. It felt like betrayal. She had seen Aveline grow up, from both being a little girl to being a student of Samantha’s. The Home Economics teacher shook her head and seemed to be mouthing something – muttering – but it couldn’t be heard. She was staring distractedly into the distance at the crowd of students.[insert retort before punch?]

Samantha growled and did something she normally would never have done, but at that moment, her hormones were surging, she was angry and upset, and betrayed. She punched Aveline square across the face. “YOU BITCH! THOSE WERE MY FRIENDS AND STUDENTS!”

---

There was a sickening crack – noses were fragile after all – but Aveline could hardly feel the blow itself. She was up in space, or rather, her mind was; abuzz with all the thoughts and secrets of students and staff alike. Telepathy hadn’t been so powerful, so fun since she was a teenager, and she used it to hop from point of view to point of view, seeing things from one of the freshmen (Stella Herbalem, wasn’t it?) and the young romance blooming to following Jamie Drummond out the room as he went out to God knows where.

Still, the pain that came after it dragged her back to her corporeal form and its broken nose. She’d tried to tell Samantha that she had it all wrong, that Aveline was innocent of whatever it was she was accusing her of; hadn’t it come through? Trained in first aid and the recipient of more than a few punches in the past, she pressed it back into place… sort of.

“Well, that was uncalled for,” she managed.

“Oh! So letting students die is called for?!” Samantha snapped at Aveline. She looked furious, like her whole world had been shattered, and apparently Aveline was who she was focusing the blame on.

Aveline’s eyes narrowed and she moved to cross her arms, only to abandon that, staunching the flow of blood from her nose instead. Her words were somewhat muffled by her inability to breathe normally through it. “Where are you even getting this idea from? It’s – pardon my French – batshit!”

“You must know that Miss Snow decided to pass on information to people in this school yes? Or… wait, she didn’t tell you a thing.” Samantha chuckled a bit. “She used her last bits of life to make sure we knew what was going on here Aveline.”

“It would be lovely if you could fill me in – I’ve been knee-deep in other people’s thoughts for the last two minutes. It’s far too loud to hear a dead person’s over it!” Aveline, of course, knew that Amy Snow was dead, but she seemed to be out-of-the-loop so far as the dead girl’s offered information was concerned. Guilt prickled at the back of her skull but she wafted it away, finishing with a half-lie. “I’ve no idea what you’re talking about, but, by the way, thanks for punching first and asking questions later!”

Samantha sighed. “Miss Snow has informed us all that, one, everyone here has either powers or a special ability and that is the reason why they were picked or called to this school, and that she has died. For me, she informed me that you Standifords have a hand with the school and part of its danger. As for the students, why don’t you go find out yourself,” she said, crossing her arms.

“Uh-huh. Obviously those were no secret to me given that I help with the admissions. It was a smart call to leave me out to save energy on everyone else…” Aveline huffed a laugh, bitterly cold.

Samantha glared. “Aveline! Now is not the time to keep hiding! Look at the students! Two girls are dead in as many days, and if you keep your head in the clouds and keep denying there is a problem here there will be more. Can your conscious keep that guilt in check? Or will you finally admit something when your golden child calls you out on it? Or one of the other students? Hell! I don’t even care anymore. Right now, the students are the priority and I’m going to take as many of them away from here as I can. By the way, I QUIT!”

“What a drama queen – it’s clear why you’re a theatre teacher,” Aveline said, raising an eyebrow. “So, let’s go through what I know. Did I know our students were all powerful and weird like us? Yes, of course I did. Did I know that they were specifically hunted down–” Bad choice in words. ”–to be invited? Naturally, since I helped to send the letters.”

“Aveline! That is not the problem I’m having right now!” Samantha yelled, pinching her brow.

“Well, shut up and listen.”

“No. You listen.”

Aveline held up a hand as she did to control her class, even at the expense of blood trickling down towards her mouth since she was no longer stopping the flow. “Did I know that students have been dying – even one every four years, usually longer? Yes, yes I did. It’s not rocket science, nor very hard to find out. But, I’ve been led to believe that it is the safest place for us, and the students.” Her tongue burned with the rehearsed spiel she was prepared to give. “They’d be just as likely to die, if not more so if they were outside. Why do you think there’s no kid superheroes in the news, huh? Because what’s starting to happen here is happening outside!”

Samantha’s eyes narrowed. “Aveline… I was your drama teacher. Don’t think I can’t tell when you’re still acting,” she said. “But fine, if you want to live in denial, the lake is outside. I’m going to focus on taking care of our students, by admitting what truths I know. If you want to join me and try to make an effort to care about at least maybe one of them surviving today, I would appreciate it. Otherwise, shut the fuck up and take your lies elsewhere.”

“How dare you–” Aveline swallowed and it tasted like blood and grit and slime. “You know what? Fine. Believe whatever you will. You’re not thinking rationally because of your – condition – and instincts and ‘gut-feelings’ only go so far. Take it from me: if my mother or I were involved in all this, I would have known, and I would have known when I was much, much younger. So stop with your lies and slander before I give you a shiner to match this one.”

Samantha sighed. “You really buy your own lies, don’t you? By the way, it isn’t going to be just me questioning your mother and you,” she said, pointing to the students that remained in the gym. The two bickering teachers had become the center of attention, as it would be, given that they were yelling at one another. Aveline flipped her hair, feeling as bedraggled as she no doubt looked, smeared blood across her skin.

“And I’m happy to tell them what I know. But this witch-hunt, Wellington? It’s not going to end well for you – for any of us.” And with that, Aveline sat back down swiftly before she collapsed; an attempt to end the argument before they made even more of a spectacle of themselves. As it was going, it was sure to end up with her throwing her mother under the bus of public opinion.

Thank God Jamie Drummond was distracted with a nervous break down outside. He was the only one who knew for sure when she was lying.

The day had been fairly normal for Sindri. Lunch was uneventful, but it was soon after that there was an announcement. Everyone to the gym. A weird thing, since the school seemed to really make sure schedules were tight.

So as he went into the gym, sitting down by some people he wasn’t really familiar with, and he just waited. It was hard to just wait, even with Sindri’s quirks, but it didn’t take too terribly long before the school had been settled enough for the announcement. Someone was found dead. Sindri’s blood chilled at that. Who would possibly have killed someone? Why? There was bound to be tension for sure, but it was a whole other matter to end someone’s life.

Then something happened. It was hard to figure out why, but Sindri felt it. A surge. All around him, things began to go wrong. Someone ignited - or began to, because just as the brunt of the chaos began to explode, time stopped entirely.

“What in the…” Sindri muttered to himself. The scene around him was the beginning of chaos - lightning, fire, dragons, water, plants, everything seemed to be exploding into existence around him. The kid to his left was mid-ignition. Out of preservation, he began to move away, getting up and going about moving, trying to squeeze between people - even touching them would cause a bit of an impact, and he didn’t want to accidentally bruise someone as he made his way towards the door.

Stupid door. It wouldn’t open, not with time frozen. This was a bit of a conundrum.

“Hey Sindri. Neat power.” A familiar voice said from near him.

Sindri paused. “...Amy? How can you even talk to me? Time’s stopped.” He said out loud.

“I’m trying to come up with something enigmatic about time and death.” She gave a vague shrug. “But honestly I don’t think we have the time for it. Here’s the basics though: the school is dangerous, the Standifords are behind it in some way never did figure it out, everyone here has a power, and most importantly the oldest of records are kept in the basement. Any questions?”

“What do you mean by death?” Was the only thing he could think of. Amy gave Sindri a sad look.

“This is my last hurrah. A last ditch effort at helping everyone survive. I don’t have all the answers, maybe I wasn’t smart enough, but I think with everyone working together it can be solved.”

“Y-you mean… you’re dead too…?” He asked, eyes wide. No. No, no, no! That couldn’t happen! Amy was a friend, and there was no way the only person he knew at the school so far was going to die on him on the third day! The emotional pain was… deep.

“I’m sorry Sindri. I didn’t want to go.” Amy’s eyes brimmed with tears. “But listen,” She took a deep breath. “Adien can see ghosts. If I have my way -” Amy trembled, her form wavering. “If I have my way trust her and the other students.”

Sindri didn’t know what to say. “If… If that’s true, then… thank you for being my friend, Amy. I will do what I can to help. At least there’s a chance… to say bye.” He added, tears welling in his eyes.

“Thank you for being my friend too Sindri. When you come back to normal time you might not want to be near Tobias.” She pointed to the sparking boy near the doorway.

Sindri looked at the boy and blinked, nodding. “Alright. Thank you again. This needs to be fixed.” He said, taking the moment of frozen time to move away, leaving a fair bit of room so that he could avoid whatever it was that was about to occur. There was a moment where he turned, wanting to get one last glance at his friend, but she was gone. His heart sank. With a deep breath, he focused and did his best to regain control. Things started up slowly, but that gave him time - as Tobias’s bolt blasted through the door, he was able to keep out of the way entirely. As everything continued to return towards normal, he just did what he could to stay near the door, not wanting to stay near the chaos too long. After a moment, he exited through the freshly blasted door and went to find someone - anyone - who might know what to do.

---

Glen panicked. The initial shock had been blunted by that strange calm that had come over them, but even that had begun to wear off by the time he and Stella had reached Mrs. Standiford’s office. By the time they’d left, told to go to the gym, his mind was racing. Last year, someone had died. This year, within three days, another. What was going on? How could this happen with all these people? Was anywhere safe?

He’d been just through the thought before he saw something. A trophy case - mirrored, but all the trophies were out. He didn’t even consider what Stella might have thought - he was lost in his own fear. He practically leapt into the mirror.

The mirror world was… scary. It felt oppressive, just like the times he’d been in this world inside the main building. But he continued on, heading out of the building’s mirror world and heading to his own room, where he collapsed on the bed, shaking a bit.

It wasn’t long before he looked up, blinking. Something was wrong. Very wrong. The world twisted, and for the first time ever, his reflection stepped out of the mirror - without his help. And then the two reflections of the two glens stepped out. Four of him - in the same room. Somehow, even his reflections had reflections. With a look around, he realized… somehow, this was the real world… and not. “What the hell is going on…” he muttered. All four of him were indeed in various states of concern or fear, but none moved. Every single one shared sight, touch, hearing… it was a state of overload for Glen. It was hard enough to have two of him… and here he had reflections of reflections of reflections of reflections...

“Glen I need you to focus.” An unfamiliar voice broke through at least some of the confusion.

Focus ripped through him, a thousand attention spans looking for whoever it was that had spoken. Someone else… in the mirror world? Was that even possible? “Who… is that?” The voices rippled from every Glen at once.

“My name is Amy Snow. I was a student here. This school is for people like us, people with powers. Nearly everyone has an ability. The school’s dangerous though. It’s not safe here anymore. There’s something important though, something I never figured out. How far back do the school records actually go?”

Glen paused. He had to try hard to focus, and soon only one spoke. “Was? Are you also dead? This school is dangerous, for sure. Three deaths…” He said to himself. “I don’t know how far back they go, though. Do you think they have something important?” he asked.

“I think so. I think that’s why I could never get to them.”

“Then I’ll find out.” all the Glens replied in unison.
“Good luck, to you and the others.”

“Thank you.” They replied. The world began to right itself, reality reasserting itself over the mirror world, reflections vanishing quickly as the mirrored mirror worlds vanished one by one before it returned to the two worlds…

He sighed. Amy was gone. He looked into the mirror, thinking on what to do...

“Please everyone.” Mrs. Standiford’s voice cut through the room, chaos still filled it. “Attention everyone. If you are able please exit the gym and head to the parking lot. If you are not able give us a moment and we will assist you out.” A few students started out.

Ash turned to Katalina, “I’m going to find Jamie.”

“Okay, see you in the parking lot.” Katalina said and started of to join the group that was leaving the building. Ash hurried forward and squeezed through the crowd. She eyed the dragon, this school is weirder than I thought. Finding Jamie was easy he was leaning against the wall of the Gym just outside it.

“Jamie, are you okay?” Ash started to reach out to comfort him and saw her skin was still blue. She had no idea how to change it back, and had even less of an idea of how to explain it to Katalina when she did finally ask about it.

“Maybe, maybe not,” he said with a shrug, but he didn’t seem to question Ash’s change in skin colour. “The world’s gone a bit strange. It’s turning funny colours – and no, I don’t mean–” Jamie cringed and gestured to all of her. He made no move to stand up, even with the students trickling out of the building.

“Mrs. Standiford is having everyone head to the parking lot.” Ash explained the stream of students. “There’s a dragon in there.” She adds, almost as if that was more important than the evacuation. “Mrs. Wellington punched Miss Standiford.” Ash leaned against the wall, but didn’t sit. She looked at her hands, still blue, not sure if she liked it or not.

“Don’t worry about it, you look pretty in blue,” Jamie informed her in a matter-of-fact tone only a moment later, almost as if he hadn’t heard all of what she said. Ash felt her face heat up, she wasn’t sure how the rush of blood to her face would mix with the blue. He pulled himself up shakily, using the wall as a crutch to lean on. “So that’s what happened. Standiford didn’t even feel anything from it, but Mrs. Wellington sure did. I was wondering…” He trailed off.

“Yeah Mrs. Wellington called her out on having something to do with this.” Ash gestured at the students that were still leaving the gym most still wet from the water that Katalina had pulled from the sprinklers on accident. Others showing signs of some other issue that had cropped up. “So... if everyone has a power, and mine is breathing underwater, what’s yours?” A question that had been pressing Ash for ages. Well the question was in a different form now, one from knowledge that Amy had given her and the rest of the students.

Jamie’s brow furrowed. “You’re sure it’s only breathing underwater?”

“No, I can move it too, control it. It has always felt like water was in my veins instead of blood.” Ash continued to look at Jamie expectantly though, waiting for what he could do, what made him special enough for this school. That wouldn’t change her opinion of him though, he was perfect.

“Explains a lot, doesn’t it?” At first it seemed like he was going to just leave it there on the rhetorical question to avoid answering Ash’s, but he did smile in the end. “Emotions. Well, I mean – well… I can feel other people’s. Change ‘em, too, if I was so inclined.” Jamie rubbed the back of his neck nervously. “It’s all very weird, and probably pretty girly too.”

Ash snorted, “Yeah super girly.” Her voice was sarcastic. “Just like it’s super girly to know just about everything.” Her voice caught a bit at the memory of Amy. “I’ve been an ass.” She added.

“How’d you mean?” he asked, raising an eyebrow. They started to move in the direction of the others, albeit slowly. Jamie looked as if he was about ready to keel over.

“To everyone, well except you. To- and well to Katalina.” Ash kept pace with Jamie, prepared to catch him as afraid to touch him as she was unsure if that’d spark something powerful.

Jamie rubbed at his jaw but continued to walk on. “If you were a bad person, a nasty person, I wouldn’t like you as much as I do,” he ended up saying. “And trust me, I can tell when someone’s one of those. Don’t worry about it, yeah?” Ash smiled, believing him.

As they reached his car Mrs Standiford was starting to speak again. “Everyone if you have a car please take as many people as you can down into town. We’re evacuating the school. Dr. Mann will drive the bus.” A small thing used for field trips to Denver or Belleview.

Electricity. Plants. Water. Fire. The elements clashed together, warring and endangering before working together to eliminate some of the threat.
Fights. Alliances. Both separate, then combined as some students raced through the doors to escape the insanity breaking loose in the large room. A fight among the teachers caught the attention of many students, Zaylin’s own interest turning to them as a few stray drops of water rolled off her scales.
Zaylin’s eyes narrowed as she looked between the teacher with blood dripping from her nose, to the headmistress. Though she had only heard the name of Mrs. Standiford’s daughter, the resemblance was uncanny.
The headmistress and her daughter. Too calm in the presence of the missing and dead, as the voice of Amy Snow had informed Zaylin in her dying moment.
Zaylin’s clawed fingers clenched into fists.
They had lied to the school. To her. If she heard the teachers correctly above the noise around her, then students had gone missing and turned up dead before. Regularly. And now, the disappearances and murders had increased to an even more alarming rate.
Something was off with this school. She had felt it, seen the unease in the students and teachers… at least, most of the teachers. And Miss Standiford’s accuser had made it quite clear she didn’t think the Standifords innocent in the whole wretched mess.
Zaylin wanted answers, and answers she would get, one way or another.
Emboldened by the power of the dragon, her dark stare locked on the Standifords. She unfurled her wings threateningly, and took a step forward as the headmistress spoke, directing the students to the parking lot.
Her sharp teeth snapped together in a scowl as a flood of students capable of and eager to leave the gym rushed out, blocking her from the headmistress. More smoke rose from her nostrils with her irritation, her eyes shifting between the teachers and students. Many of the teenagers eyed her as they passed, and she returned a few of their stares, including one from a girl with blue-tinged skin.
When Zaylin glanced back to the teachers, she growled loudly, making a couple of the passing students jump and veer further away from her.
In her ushering the students out, Mrs. Standiford had vanished. How the woman had gotten past Zaylin, the girl couldn’t say. She glanced to the nearest set of doors, gauging how well she could fit through them. With an annoyed sigh, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath, willing her body to shift back into her human form and hoping it would do as she wished.
After a moment, she felt the tightness of the dragon receding back inside her. Her back hunched forward as her body shrunk, her scales reforming into her school uniform.
She straightened as she opened her eyes, the fury of the beast still beating through her heart and senses temporarily further heightened in the aftermath of Amy’s last hurrah as well as her own transformation. Gold continued to swim in her irises as wind whipped furiously at her hair.
She followed the tail end of the students out, her gait quick and determined as she hurried into the parking lot with the others, her bag forgotten on the bleachers. She scanned the crowd, searching for any sign of the headmistress.
There, she thought darkly as she spotted the woman. Flames involuntarily flickered to life and licked harmlessly over her fists. She shoved her way through the students gathered around the concrete parking lot, careful to not shove anyone to the ground in her fury.
Her lips pulled up in a grimace when Mrs. Standiford addressed the crowd once more with arrangements for transportation with her decision of evacuation.
Still a few feet away with a dozen or so bodies between her and the headmistress, the air of the hot summer day condensed around her and carried her above the heads of the other students.
“So now you want to evacuate the school?” she shouted, her face twisted in a snarl and words carrying on her own wind through the clamor of the other students. More flames twisted around her arms as the wind moved her to the headmistress, before Zaylin caught the eager power and let the streams of fire extinguish at her elbows. “And it only took, what, two known deaths this week?” She commanded the air to let her down gracefully in front of the headmistress. “The cat’s clawed its way out of the bag, Mrs. Standiford,” she continued darkly, her voice low and threatening. “And I believe you owe all of us,” she gestured to the gathered crowd without looking from Mrs. Standiford, “an explanation.”

The details of the assembly seemed to roll right past Tobias. It was a sickening experience, certainly, but it all seemed a blur. Too many things were sprinting through his head, and knowing beforehand what had happened because of Stella made clinging onto the words unnecessary. Trackless questions passed through his brain, each one answered only producing further questions, until suddenly a great wave of force tore his mind from its wanderings. Without any warning at all, the gym was in chaos. Students transformed and shifted in appearance, strange phenomena occurred at will, and the elements of the world burst into a frenzy in waves, all amid screams and shouts. Discord reined in Northwood, that minute.

It was only after the deluge that Tobias realized it. Buzzing, tingling sensations began to run up and down his limbs, each of them more intense than the last. At first, he disregarded them; the sensations were a typical, albeit annoying, consistency of his power. But as they started to grow in number and magnitude, his mind put the pieces together and his heart skipped a beat. He looked down toward the bleachers he sat on as his face blanched, then turned toward Stella as she looked to him. As the air around him crackled and snapped beyond his command, the only thing he truly saw was her, sitting atop a metal structure, soaking wet, and no more than a foot away from what was about to become a living lightning strike. The personal horror behind the thoughts that followed galvanized him into action, and fast as he was able Tobias was hurling himself toward the edge of the bleachers. His body, he knew, could only contain a certain amount of electricity before it began to automatically discharge itself. Had he been in full control of it, he could have known precisely how long he had before then. But now, with some unknown factor multiplying the charge, how much time, how many precious seconds did he have before he unwillingly put hundreds of teenagers to the electric chair? How long did he have to stop himself from killing the young woman he...!

NO! he screamed internally as he kept moving, Don't think about it, focus! You need to get off this conductive bench, isolate yourself, then redirect the discharge so it doesn't hit anything! MOVE!

The charge was building even faster than before. He felt it, down to his very bones. With almost no bleacher left he took the rest of it at a leap, flying over the edge and down to the floor below. The hard landing forced him to tuck and roll, and no sooner had he finished than he felt the lightning start to burst from him. He forgot the pain of the landing, he dismissed the questions he'd had about the school, and he outright ignored the unfamiliar voice trying to make itself heard for the time being; the only thing he was concerned about, the only thing he even thought about, was keeping the crackling bolts that flew off him by the second away from anywhere they might cause harm. It was nothing short of a herculean task. For all the electricity he was getting rid of, it just kept building, faster and faster. And with each new surge, it became harder to limit and control. He needed to let all of it out at once if he wanted to stabilize himself, but where could he possibly fire it? His eyes looked around, not finding anything feasible... until he noticed the nearby doors were open. And just outside of them, in the middle of an appropriately grey sky, stood the school flagpole.

Perfect.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!" he yelled as he willed all of his power into his right arm and flung it outward toward the flagpole, letting all of the lightning erupt from his palm. A blinding flash engulfed the gym as the bolt streaked out the doors and into the tall metal pole, and a few seconds later it was done. The pulses were no greater than they ought to be, there were no more arcs coming off of him, and he could finally rest. The little voice came back again; she called herself Amy Snow, and she had a lot to say to him. Having little other choice, he listened. Some of what she said, he had guessed. Most of it, he had not. But all the same, he listened very carefully- she'd transcended death to tell people what she knew, so it was not to be taken likely. After Amy had faded away, Stella had reached him. And after a short discussion, a touch of reassurance on both sides, and a quiet little symbol of growing affection, she was lying in his arms again.

By that point, Mrs Sandiford was asking everyone to make their way to the parking lot. A few students started to shuffle toward the doors, and more began to slowly follow suit. Tobias stayed where he was. For the moment, he had a lot on his mind; his spine still shivered every time he thought about how close he’d come to harming hundreds of people, how close he’d come to killing Stella. The very idea made him hold her tighter, as though he wanted to be sure it was really her and not a ghost. But even aside from that, there was the warning Amy Snow had sent to him. What on earth did the architecture of the school have to do with anything that had been happening?

A finger tapping on his shoulder tore him away from his thinking. It was Mrs Symmins, the Art & Design teacher, holding the bag he’d left in the classroom when the assembly had been called. She left it near him and gestured toward the door, indicating the two of them ought to head for the parking lot as soon as they could. Tobias nodded his thanks and turned his attention back to the adorable blonde botanist nestled in his lap.

“Stella? You feeling alright to move?”

Stella looked up at Tobias and nodded. “If you’ll let me, that is,” she said. He was holding her pretty tight at the moment.

“Oh!” he responded in surprise at himself. He’d completely forgotten about that in his mental wanderings. “Right, sorry ‘bout that.” he said as he released her, “Just… thinking about some things. How I nearly electrocuted people. You, more specifically.” This time it was his cheeks that flushed red.

Stella reached up and gently touched his cheek. “But you didn’t. However, didn’t help that the pipes burst… I gotta ask however. Did she tell you something as well? Amy Snow?” Stella asked, looking a bit lost in thought herself. “I think she told everyone something. Or at least most of us.” She frowned a bit as she said that.

“Yeah, she did.” he replied, “Something about how the school is a lot older than it’s supposed to be. Called attention to the architecture, how it looks way too gothic for being established in modern times. How that connects to anything else is something I’m not sure about.” By then the two were getting up off the floor. “What’d she tell you?”

“There are books in the school library that an american school library should not have normally. She said it was only logical that we should not have these books, but I wouldn’t really know. However, I guess it doesn’t really matter right now, since we are evacuating,” Stella said, looking around the now almost empty gymnasium. Her frown seemed to get a bit deeper at that moment, and then she shook her head, like she was ridding herself of an unwanted thought. “We should join them all outside,” she said.

“I can agree with that.”

After he stooped down to grab his bag and slung it over his shoulder, he wrapped his arm around Stella again and they walked out to the parking lot together. Standiford was issuing the order to group up in vehicles and head into town right as they got there. Something bothered Tobias as he looked around at the assembly, as though something- or someone- was missing, but he couldn’t quite place it. Calling himself away from that, he figured there were other problems to be solved.

“Well…” he began, “I don’t have a car, and I’m guessing you probably don’t either. Bus it is, then?”

“I don’t know what age the driving limit is in England, but yes, I don’t have a car,” Stella said, with a small giggle. However, her attention was diverted by one of the students marching up to Mrs. Standiford. “Zaylin?”

Tobias’ head snapped around to see commotion as one of the students descended in front of the principle in a whirl of fire and air. Heated words flew from her mouth, words Tobias suspected many of the students were thinking but lacked the courage to say.

“And I believe you owe all of us an explanation.”

“Stella…” Tobias said rather pointedly, “I think it’d be better if you stayed behind me for a bit. Things could get ugly out here…” With so many students, almost all of whom possessed some form of power or ability, and the potential for frustration and anger rapidly increasing, it was better to be safe…

Stella looked up at Tobias and stayed right at his side. “I’m staying right next to you. If they do get ugly, I want to protect you too,” she said, and smiled at him. “Besides, I gotta get up to being by your side, right?”

His eyes widened in surprise at first. Who knew Stella had that kind of confidence? But, then, what was life without a few surprises, he reasoned, as he smiled and nodded back at her. “Alright. Let’s see where this goes, then…” And with that, the two of them turned back toward the crowd to hear what the principle had to say.