Awakened

Chapter 6

The man whom I had seen in the gate was standing in the office at the back of the room close to the Headmaster’s chair and we were all standing before Headmaster Motley like criminals waiting for the judgment to be passes even though nothing had been said yet. The unknown and unnamed man looked at me as if he would be able to sense if I lied.  I had never really cared for any male before but now it seemed that his shoulder length blonde hair and eyes like freshly cut sapphires were going to haunt my dreams.

My heart was thudding badly against my rib cage given the fact that we had just killed a vampire whose origins we were not sure of.

“It is midnight and you were out of the Academy grounds instead of being in your beds and rooms where you should have been. I hope you have a really good explanation for this,” said the man as I looked at him in the eye. He was angry a bit, yes, but it was more fear and concern that laced his entire being. Who knew that having an emotional sensor was going to be this helpful in times like this!!

“We are very sorry for breaking the rules like that Sir,” piped up Freddie from the back and his face looked contrite and I smiled inwardly.

“Ms. Atwood, do you have something to say? And pray tell me, why is Ms. Johnson in the infirmary at the moment?” asked Headmaster Motley and I gulped once. I just prayed that he would believe the story that I had made up.

“Sir, first of all I am sorry and we are all very sorry for going out like that but if Bellamy’s life was not in danger then we would have never done anything of this sort,” I said and my expression was earnest and my voice rang true which was because this part was the truth. And prayed a little again in the back of my mind to help me get the story right with conviction.

“Bellamy told us today afternoon that she wanted to go to the cemetery and check if there were any restless souls there in order to test her new theories from Necromancy so that she could put them back to rest, and pray for them. We did not think that she was going to actually call upon something in the graveyard and we were all in the grounds walking and waiting for her to come back when we heard her scream. Then it was like….” And I shuddered as I said. And a sob wracked through Melanie as she finally could not bear it any more and fell down on the floor with a thud sobbing.

“Whatever it was it seemed to be dragging her back which is the reason Bellamy could not deal with it on her own. We finally were able to pry her from there and we all ran and came back,” added Andrea and the Headmaster looked at us as if he was in pain. His features were all pained and I could feel that he was sorry and hurt for what happened.

“It is lucky that all of you were able to get back in one piece and whatever it was that you could not understand was a dark force and when you are still not ready to fight with dark forces without your powers you should never go searching for trouble. But I am just glad you all are safe. Get checked in the infirmary and then take a glass of warm milk and go to sleep. I don’t want to hear anything else about this incident again,” said Headmaster Motley when the other beautiful man came forward and whispered something to the Headmaster.

“Yes, thank you Mr. Whitmore for reminding me that. It is the Awakening ceremony in the next two days and none of you are going to leave your rooms until then. You are grounded,” he said as he bit the words and I could feel a wind move around all of us like it was binding us in that order.

All of us nodded at him and then we went out of the office. I could feel the staring of the blue eyes trained on my back. And this was definitely not the last time that I was going to be seeing him.

“That was a close one,” said Freddie as we all went towards the infirmary.

“Shut the f**k up,” hissed Andrea as she knew that we were not out of earshot.

Once we were in our rooms Freddie tried to come out of his room to come in our direction and then suddenly something slammed in him and he was thrown back. He landed flat on his ass. It was not a pretty sight Melanie went to the door and then touched it and said,” There is some kind of invisible spell blocking us from going out of our room.”

“Yeah, that figures. He told that he wanted us inside the room and I could feel him doing a spell with his words. Is he a sorcerer?” I asked as Melanie plopped down the bed and the opened the drawer to bring out a pack of crackers that we had for emergencies.

“No. He is something else altogether. He is The Owl,” said Mel and I scowled at her. If she was joking I was going to seriously beat her up this time.

“I am not joking. He is really an Owl, heaven knows how many years he has been alive. He has magic and he is a powerhouse of knowledge and his money making ideas are off the world. He is blessed by God to be the one of his kind. That is why he is in solitary existence but he says that his life is blessed even more to have us all as his students,” said Melanie and I could only ingest that information.

“And that other man? With the blue eyes and blonde hair? What is he?” I asked trying to appear innocent in my question but I could feel butterflies flying around in the pit of my stomach. I wanted to know everything that was there about him.

“Well none of us know exactly what he is and he has never revealed us anything else but his human form. So I cannot say for sure but he is crazy fast with weapons and I mean, any kind of weapons at all…knives, arrows, swords, daggers…..” said Melanie but the moments she said daggers by attention shifted to the one that was in my boots. I pulled it out and placed it on the table and Melanie’s eyes widened.

“Is this the one you threw to pierce him? That bastard?” she asked as I nodded. And she closed the door and then pulled the dagger out of its case and looked at the blood which was dried up on it. It was a rust coloured brown and the stench of death wafted towards me with such intensity that I felt myself gag. I wanted to throw up when Melanie looked at me and put down the knife.

“Are you alright babe?” asked Melanie as I put my hand over my nose and mouth trying to clamp down the nausea that was threatening to overwhelm me. This meant that every time I was feeling near to death I would be having this reaction. I nodded my head saying no and I ran towards the attached bath and hurled the contents of my stomach in the toilet bowl. There was not much in my stomach yet I kept on dry heaving for some time and I felt that my hair was pulled back by Melanie so that it did not get very dirty.

Finally when I was done I stood up and then went to the sink to splash water on my face and neck. I was still feeling absolutely empty and then I went back to the room and found that the dagger was nowhere in sight.

“Where is the dagger?” I whisper screamed at Melanie and she smirked.

“I have removed the blood from the knife blade I have put it in a solution so that you are not going to feel it. I think those negative emotions attached to the knife are taking a toll upon you. Tomorrow when we go for breakfast I am going to return it to the armoury,” said Mel while I sighed.

“Do you know how to pick locks?” as I raised my brows in question.

“Why am I supposed to know that?” she asked me as if I was stupid to ask her this.

“Because the armoury is locked and I had to open it by picking it and then bring out the knives and stakes. The only reason that we are safe today is because Bell was in mortal danger and we were all seen bringing her back to safety but I am going to singe off the hair on that b***h’s head the moment I get a chance,” I said as I seethed and remembered the way she had smirked standing behind the guy called Whitmore.

“Now why will we do that? Singing off is good but I think that giving her a combined spell of baldness and then explosive diarrhea will be good,” said Mel winked at me and I laughed out loud.

Look at us, here we were, roomies and partners in crime trying to make plans to get our revenge in the most harmless and innocuous way possible. But then suddenly I felt that there was a darkness coming over to me…wafting…like surging of a wave towards me and I started gasping for air like something was choking me up. Mel looked at me and then immediately caught hold of my hand. She had opened the window so I could breathe the cold air but nothing was working.

“El there is something in this room which is making you choke…what is it?” asked Mel as I tried to focus on her words but every single thing seemed incoherent and not much air was reaching my brain.

And then the door to our room suddenly burst open and I found those blue eyes looking at me as I blacked out of consciousness.

I did not know how long I was unconscious but I woke up in the infirmary with no memory of what had happened earlier. It was a pristine clean white room and the smell of lavender wafted everywhere. My throat was absolutely parched and then I looked at my side and found those eerie blue eyes looking at me again.

“I see that you are awake,” said the man and I could not say anything.

He was talking to me after I almost choked to death for reasons which were unknown to me….what was I exactly supposed to say?

Then he came closer and whispered,” I know what you did yesterday.”

And just like that my heart lurched so hard in my chest that I felt that it might stop. The feeling of paralyzing fear gripped me when he spoke the next sentence,” You might be stupid but you are admirable in your courage Ms. Atwood and for that reason alone I am not going to breathe a word about this to anyone.”

I smiled genuinely at him for the first time with gratitude in my eyes but he left me immediately without a word.