Oliver
Cigs… that was something Oliver could do, easy. If all of Suleykaar’s requests turned out to be this straightforward, then maybe this wasn’t going to be as difficult as he’d initially thought. With a final glance towards the terrified looking Alice, he headed towards the door. She’d be fine on her own, maybe… and this was for her benefit anyway, probably. He stuffed his hands deep in his chinos pockets, the motion slightly more aggressive than it really needed to be, and pushed forward through the throngs of people entering the hall. Hopefully he’d be back before he was missed, not that it would be too big a deal if he wasn’t, he’d already done more to draw attention to himself than he’d planned.
The halls were pretty much abandoned by this point, with only a few stragglers rushing towards the main hall, casting curious glances towards Oliver. He glanced around the lavishly decorated corridor, trying to remember the way to the dorms. He hadn’t really been paying much attention to the route when he’d walked over with Suleykaar, as he’d been too busy focusing on the million and one other things that had been going on, and he was kicking himself for it now. He knew that the dorms were in another building, but he wasn’t entirely sure how he was going to get out of this one-
“Watch where you’re going young man!”
“I’m sorry!” Oliver yelped, taking several hasty steps back, realising he’d just collided headfirst with a, rather tall, woman, “I’m so sorry, I didn’t see you the-“
“Do you know who I am?” She demanded, making him stop short. Platinum curls, considerably older than any student (physically, at least), and a stony glare all made Oliver realise he’d just made a huge mistake.
“I’m really sorry, Miss, err…” he stumbled over his words, uncharacteristically flustered.
“Mrs. Langley, if you don’t mind,” She cast an icy blue eye over Oliver, and he squirmed beneath the scrutiny, “and what, pray tell, are you doing heading
away from the dining hall?”
“Well, I was-“
She interrupted him again, “Whatever it is, it is clearly of minimal importance, turn around at once!”
Oliver flinched away from her harsh tone, who was this woman? He certainly hoped she wasn’t going to be one his teachers, “I’m sorry, I just, er, really need to go and get…” he trailed of as her glare intensified. This was not going well, Suleykaar would probably retract the agreement on the spot if he found out that Oliver couldn’t even do something as simple as getting a packet of cigarettes from the dorm room, and Oliver could not allow that to happen. He’d have to figure out a way around this.
An idea popped into his head, “Please! I really have to get back to my dorm room! I left my phone there and my dad’s expecting me to call him, he’ll be mad if I don’t, and he’s really powerful-“
He stopped again, interrupted this time by great peals of laughter, “You really expect me to believe that, Mr. Oliver Raynott?”
“Wait, how do you know my name?” He asked, his voice barely above a croak. Was she working for his father? Or worse, was he going to be in her class?
“I don’t think there’s a vampire out there who doesn’t know your name! Your father really is quite annoyed at your little escapade, he’s paying a small army to look for you, and is blackmailing the rest of us to keep an eye out as well,” she smiled, and Oliver felt as if his innards had been scooped out, fried, and served up to him on a silver platter.
He began to back away, slowly at first, but ready to break into a run, grab Alice, and get out of there within minutes if needs be, “You’re… you’re not going to turn us over to him, are you?” he said, barely keeping the slight tremor out of his voice.
She chuckled, and as she did so, her eyes darkened, “Now, why on Earth would I do that? I taught your father when he was your age, and he was one of the jammiest little bastards to ever walk these halls,” her expression turned to one of appreciative disgust, “and that’s really saying something, because this academy’s seen an awful lot of jammy little bastards.”
“So… you’ll help us?” Oliver asked, confused but hopeful for another ally.
“I shall do no such thing!” She snapped, and placed her hands squarely on her hips, “You and your little friend are by no means the first students to attend Rosa Clare whilst facing something much bigger than yourselves, nor are you the only students to do so this year. It is not our job to fight your battles for you, it is our job to teach you how to fight them for yourselves. And besides, it seems you are already making powerful allies, and that girl has a lot more potential than she lets on.”
“You mean Suleykaar and Alice?”
“Who else?” she cast an judgmental eye over Oliver once more, “It seems you’re going to have to do a lot of relying on your allies for the time being, so if I were you, I’d take this opportunity to make as many as I possibly could, for you will not survive alone.” With that, she walked away, presumably towards the feast, leaving Oliver standing alone, and feeling rather uncomfortable.
When she was gone, Oliver realised he now knew exactly how to get back to the dorm, and did so in record time, Mrs. Langley’s words echoing in his ears. He couldn’t afford to slack off, especially after receiving such a formidable warning. He knew for a fact that she wouldn’t be the only vampire here, in fact, Oliver was fairly certain most of his classes would be full of vampires. Having apparently blown all chances of keeping a low profile, he was going to have to just stay on their good side, he’d just have to work on presenting himself as being too likeable to
want to turn in.
Oliver made it back to the dining hall in record time well, record time considering he’d had a rather terrifying encounter with a teacher on his way there. He was of the opinion that he should get points for effort at the very least. He spotted Alice and Suleykaar on the other side of the hall fairly quickly, along with two other girls, one of whom… Oliver sighed, and figured it would probably be best
not to ask why Suleykaar had his hand around some poor girls throat. At least it wasn’t Alice, although she did look kind of shaky, and pale, and completely terrified, nothing new there at least.
He was about to make his way over, nicotine filled prize held triumphantly aloft, when the room shook with an unbelievably loud growl. Oliver froze, the deep words rattling through every bone in his body, reminding him oddly of when he went to see the second hobbit film in the cinema when it was released, except more terrifying and with less popcorn. Everyone in the room stopped, and a deathly silence fell, broken only by the girl’s, he assumed her to be Kiara, rather confident retaliation.
And then Oliver noticed people were staring, even though it was at Suleykaar and Kiara (and the other poor girl who seemed to have gotten caught in the crossfire), he knew exactly how Alice was going to interpret it.
Already, he could feel the floor beginning to vibrate beneath his feet, could see Alice clinging desperately to the edge of the table, the table that was also beginning to vibrate under the massive amounts of energy she was generating. Oliver knew Alice was powerful, he also knew she had little to no control over said powers, and being in a crowded room full of people she thought might be looking at her was not going to end well for anybody.
He glanced at the cigarettes in his hand, and a small frown crossed his lips before he quickly controlled his expression. He didn’t want to think about what would happen if people knew how powerful she was, it’d be like painting big red target right across her forehead but if he could get Alice out of here before she went nuclear, no one would be any the wiser. He just had to divert people’s attention for a few seconds, of course figuring out how to do that would be the hard part.
He estimated he had at least a few minutes before stuff started flying, which should be plenty of time to figure out a diversion. But first of all, he had a job to finish, “I’ve got them!” He yelled, running across the hall, Suleykaar’s cigarettes raised above his head as he ran over, “It wasn’t easy by any stretch of the imagination, but they’re here!” he drew to a stop near the others, and offered the cigarettes to Suleykaar, before turning to address the entire table with a worried smile and a greatly decreased volume, “ And I’m not sure if you realised this or not, but Alice is probably going to accidently tear this entire place apart if she stays here much longer, so I would greatly appreciate your help in creating a distraction, please?” he anxiously glanced at Alice, her control was getting better, but if she didn’t get out of here soon... he breathed deeply, trying hard not to think of the consequences that would be undoubtedly terrible.
He then realised he’d forgotten something, and addressed the two girls, “By the way, my name’s Oliver,” he said offering them a small wave, before giving Suleykaar an apologetic glance, “Sorry we’re so much trouble,” he said with quiet urgency, too low for the others to hear, “I promise this isn’t how it’s going to be forever, she’ll get better control eventually, and already it’s about fifteen times better than it was before… Please, just help us one more time?”
