They Came In Hoodies

Chapter 26: So You Came

Look out for the <>!

Grayson POV

I crumpled the note in my hand as I walked down the stairs from my dorm room to the ground floor of the school. With my hand in my pocket, I walked through the halls trying to look as casual as possible as I rehearsed how I was going to get to the basement.

I watched the people coming in and out of the basement all day long. Officials that I had seen before and people that I didn't know all came down to question my father only to come back up looking more frustrated than when they came done hinting they didn't get any answers they wanted. But I would be different; I would get the answers they couldn't get because he was here for me. He only wanted to talk to me and I would let him.

I walked up to the basement door and smiled at the guard who stood in front of the door. "Nice evening isn't it?" I asked casually. I still had no idea who I would make it downstairs. All I knew was that it was almost nine and if I didn't think quick, I might just miss my chance.

He nodded as he looked at the time on his watch. "It will be better after my shift ends at 9."

Now it made sense why my father wanted to meet at 9. Everything about this was planned. Churchwell and the royals may have thought they had the upper hand, but they never did. My father was controlling all the shots, and they didn't even know it.

I nodded at the guard as I looked at the clock on the wall. It was five minutes to nine. With the shift change, I could get in to the basement. "Well, you're almost there." With that, I walked out of the hall and waited in an empty study room.

Minutes ticked in slow motion until the clock in the room's corner stuck nine at night. Excitement built me up as I stood up from my seat and walked into the hall to see the door unguarded, just waiting for me to go in. Without wasting time, I ran to the unprotected door and opened it.

There was a light glitter on the door frame showing Starrings and proof of a protection spell guarding what was in the basement from coming out. I frowned, knowing that I couldn't turn off the spell. With the book I held in my hand, I threw into the basement and instantly the book caught fire, falling to the ground with a heavy thump.

Footsteps grew closer, and my heart started to race, knowing I was running out of time. Quickly, I noticed the glitter around the door was not visible anymore, and I hoped the protection spell was gone, but without being sure, I stepped through the door and closed the basement door behind me.

To my relief, I did not catch on fire; I did not melt into goo, which told me that the book set the spell off and it would take another magical spell to put it back into place.

<>

With a slight smile that I survived at least that trap. With confidence, I walked down the stone damp stairs to the bottom of the basement. In the darkness of the large hall, I took a right and took the first door I saw, hoping that he was within it. There, in the middle of the room, was a cage that glittered lightly, showing that there was some magic force field holding the prisoner back.

My father looked like he was sleeping peacefully in a chair in the cage. But deep down, I knew he wasn't. I looked at his bruised body, knowing that the people that came down here over the last 24 hours did more than just questioning. The sight caused me to frown as memories of those boys beating me up popped into my mind once again. If he knew they would beat him like this, why did he come? What did he have to prove?

I looked around the basement, making sure no one was here to disturb us before I moved closer to him. Seeing him in front of me, I felt nothing but resentment, but at the same time, I wanted to know everything about him. He was my father, he turned his back on what he was trained to do and I wanted to know why, most importantly, I wanted to know why he came back.