The Burning of the White Wisteria

CHAPTER 19: WHITE WISTERIA

I sighed loudly, groaning as I hit my head against the table. "If you really must know," I mumbled, "I'm meeting up with Mara and Luci. I'm not going to try to kill myself again, relax."

"You speak about it so casually," Tom said, his voice slightly hurtful.

Suddenly, a large crash of thunder shook the room, the lights flickering before returning to full power. I let out a breath that I didn't even know I was holding as the other students in the room began to mumble to themselves about how frightening the thunder had been.

"Was that lightning?" Abraxas asked.

"Yeah?" I snorted. "Unless you know some other bolt of electricity that shoots out of the sky."

Without warning, Tom shot up from his seat, collecting his books hurriedly. "You said you were meeting up with your friends, yes?"

"They have names, Tom."

"Either way. That works out for the better. You can ditch them without worry."

"What?" I asked. "You're still going to make me go? I thought you said--"

"I'll be cancelling tonight's meeting Abraxas. Do be sure to tell the others."

"What? Why?" Abraxas shot up from his seat too. "We were going to discuss--"

"I've just remembered something deathly important for Alexa to do." Tom walked to the other side of the table, grabbing my arm and pulling me up without warning. "Come on then."

"What? Tom, wait!"

~~

I stared at Tom's hand wrapped around my wrist as he pulled me. I had given up struggling against him nearly ten minutes ago when we had first entered the forbidden forest. I had given up on trying to figure out what we were doing too. Maybe he was planning on killing me? Using me as some sort of sacrificial lamb?

I let out a groan when I felt a droplet of rainfall on my forearm before I glanced up.

The sky was pitifully grey today, signally the coming rain. The storm had been brewing up there for a while now. I blame it on the spring. It must be, what? Mid-May now? Time was passing quicker than I could control. My fifth year would be over in just a month.

Tom stopped abruptly, looking up at the sky like I had. "That started faster than I thought it would," he sighed, taking out his wand.

"Can we just go back? I'd rather not get drenched."

Tom didn't respond, pulling out his wand as he casted a wordless spell around us. I wasn't surprised to see that he had essentially casted an invisible magic umbrella above us before he grabbed my wrist again and began pulling me further into the forest.

Peering through the painfully grey sky was the dull sun. I felt rather numb as buckets of dreadful rain poured on top of the spell, thunder booming in the distance. I slowed my steps, suddenly coming to. I became fixated as I looked ahead; beautifully intricate lightning stormed in the vast sky, lighting up the grey. I let out a yelp as a flash of lightning struck right in front of us, scorching the ground below it. Tom barely reacted as he tugged my wrist, prompting me to move again.

The wind howled incredibly through the forest, bellowing and moaning as it wept past the many nooks and crannies of the wilderness. Several little magical creatures ran past us to seek shelter from the horrible storm. I wished greatly to join them.

Tom abruptly stopped and I came crashing into his back, knocking him over slightly. I purposefully didn't apologize.

"Why are we--"