Aerie's Fallen Immortal

Chapter 17

"What else would you want?!" Lily said, "of course thats it. First thing, they both have individual offices. Unlike everybody else, which, is pretty special to me. You know, most often anyone related would be staying together in one spot. But they are exceptions."

"And theres more." Brian said, picking up Lily's laptop. "For this professor, he always have visitors. Literally twenty four hours a day there would be people going into the room. And it seem that there were even more people inside. Never ending meetings. But Cade is completely different. Doors locked twenty four to seven. Sometimes when you slam at the door, he won;t even answer you."

"Yeah?" Aerie said, wanting to sound surprised. She knew why Cade had his door shut for so long, every day, though she would be more curious about why the professor. Aerie watched him scribble notes onto the board endlessly. Simple sentences, large words. He seemed like any other regular— low quality- teachers.

"You know yesterday? When you were inside his office?" Lily said, "we were planning on waiting outside for you. And you know. Geography students. We would always have compasses with us, right? So there was this small plotting compass with me hanging to my phone like a keyring. And the pin twitched."

"Magnetic field differences?" Aerie said, no longer surprised with anything that they might possibly say given what Cade told her. "you said that there was a magnetic field inside— a office?"

"I had watched movies before. Those science movies where the compass twitched when the villain does something evil? It didn't stop there. The south pin pointed to his office, and so madly that somehow it exploded out of the glass cover and stuck directly onto the wall."

"Cool." Aerie said, "Maybe I can get you in for a moment or two, if you like."

"And what's more, when my compass exploded, he came out of his office. His face— he was definitely mad! You know, you know he—" Lily said, but suddenly stopped. He stared at me, and the compass— the entire compass— flew directly into his hand!

Lily forgot what she wanted to say. For a moment, Aerie looked at her, waiting.

"What did I want to say just now?" Lily said, "I suddenly forgot."

"About that assistant. In my degree." Aerie replied simply.

"What?" Lily said, "Was I?"

Aerie shrugged. "Of course you are." Lily now seemed more confused than ever. "But I— I wasn't talking about him. I don't know who he even is! Why would I be talking about him?"

Aerie could feel the air going dead all of a sudden. All three of them were confused— even Brian who talked so much. "You aren't being serious, aren't you?" She looked around. Nothing seemed different. But the three of them definitely had a glitch somewhere inside them. Like when the Wi-Fi was cut off all of a sudden and the internet stopped loading.

"Anyways. Lets go on." Lily said. "As I was saying, there is one spot that there was something special. When you went off to the library, we passed by Professor's office to get to Brian's room. It was a pity we only had one compass with us. I didn't know where mine went. But it wasn't on my phone with my keys."

"And the pin twitched vigorously?" Aerie continued.

"Yes!!" Lily said, "yes it did! How did you know?! You weren't there."

Aerie frowned. The thing about her saying that there were only one spot, when five second ago she insisted on two annoyed her. Just like a computer, the program itself could not identify a glitch on its own. Lily looked exactly like she had one just now, as if there was some magical spells that applied to them but not her which glitches them when they talk about immortal magic. At least that was the term Cade used.

"You said that just now." Aerie said.

"Oh really?" Lily said, "I must have forgotten."

But you said it five seconds ago- Aerie wanted to say. Instead, she said, "It's fine. Maybe you also slept late yesterday."

"So. Yes." Lily said, "we wanted to know why it happened. We never studied physics. But we wanted to know what had happened there for this to happen. All of the professor, staff, whatever. They would be going to have a very big meeting— one so big that involves everyone. Basically ever single one person inside the university."

"And we would be creeping in then. There will be three hours. And we will be finding out about whatever secret they have hiding behind that door." Brian said excitedly.

Aerie joined in as much as she could. She was as thrilled as everybody else, wanting the run, wanting the fun. Aerie knew that there was something familiar when she looked at him. She didn't know why, but the thought of breaking into his office thrilled Aerie, and certainly everybody else in the group.

Apparently the documents— those about Cade that was supposed to be there— disappeared all of a sudden. Completely clean in both their minds and their laptop. The glitch. Aerie was interested. But she guessed that she would eventually figure out, so it didn't bother her.

What bothered her was the professor. Aerie was in the back row. Meaning that she could not see how he looked like exactly. She could only hear his rather high-pitched tone and the messy words on the boards that wasn't even projected onto the screen, something that high school teachers would definitely know how to do.

Aerie blindly guessed that he did that on purpose. He couldn't have got the job if he as not smart enough, and using a computer properly was definitely one of them to earn him where he was now.

"Aerie?" Brian said, "Have you been listening?"

"Yes. Yeah." Aerie replied, turning to him immediately, "what?"

"We were just saying that we will be meeting again tomorrow, in case you haven't heard." Brian said simply.

"Well." Brian said, "gonna leave. Have lessons to catch."

"Cool." Aerie mumbled and started walking. She knew that there had to be something inside the teacher. Something that is just right but she could not tell.

"Question?" He said, turning to Aerie with a smile, "if there's anything that you don't understand, few free to ask."

"Uh-" Aerie said. She had nothing to say, her mind was empty starting from the first second.

"It's alright." He replied, tone still soft and the same as just now.

"you aren't even in this class anyways." The tone drifted lower, all of a sudden. The smile was no longer bright and natural.

Aerie finally knew why he sounded so familiar.

"We have met before, haven't we?" Jack said.

Aerie instantly knew why everything were wrong. She had to warn him.