The Lost

PART 1- Faelyn

Lyn

The thunder snapped outside and made me jump backwards. Wind, or maybe the reverberation of the horrible sound rattled the window. But the memory didn't go away. I sat up, frowning. Why now of all times are you thinking of that?

A chill encased me like an icy embrace. There was something electric creeping into the air, I could feel it. Probably another headache.

Water dropped down from the sky, from great grey clouds fraying over the skyscrapers. Cars were whooshing through the water-sodden streets and spitting waves out beside them as they went. Better to window-gaze than think of the past.
My eyes remained on the world outside, watching the peaceful chaos through the window though I could hardly see anything anymore. The glass had finally begun to mist from the contrast in temperatures between the school and the exterior. The heaters were working, at least, but it was making it difficult to see anything but blurry lights. Lights, there were so many lights out there. Not only the pulsating colours of the human city, but the flashes that burnt across the sky from time to time. Lightning.

Is it the rain?

I pulled my arms close as another flash dazzled the skyline. It's the rain, I affirmed, then huddled myself into the corner of the window frame. It's the sounds that are reminding you of that night. The sounds of running water cascading over the pavement, dripping down from roofs in streams long as waterfalls. The distant rumble of thunderheads merged with the distant hum of cars was to the point where it was impossible to distinguish the two. It was the same white-noise of a storm that had been around us that night, when he found me.

My thoughts were interrupted by a particularly violent strike of thunder. I recoiled backwards into the corner as it ricocheted through the walls. Did it hit the roof? I found myself subconsciously easing back from the glass. Don't be silly, it couldn't have. It was just my imagination feeding off of the fear.
That made me cringe. I was actually scared of a thunderstorm. Did these crashes and flashes sound as scary to a human as it did to me? Probably not— they were huge. What did they have to fear from a storm? Nothing.
I wondered silently if there was anyone out in the endless sprawl of the city that shared my feeling.
I couldn't help but smile. A resentful, embarrassed smile. Of course not.

Another blow vibrated beneath my bare knees, this time shaking the entire window where I was nestled. I sat up straight. Nerves fizzling, I peered outside, up into the black day.
The rain was softening, even if ever so slightly. The lightning was becoming less and less frequent, probably drifting off through the sky to some other place that I would never see. The storm was easing off... but for the third time in the last minute, I was shaken where I sat.

Without wasting a second I was on my feet, head no longer filled with daydreams about rainy memories. My eyes were already on the minuscule crack in the wooden frame behind me. The break in the wood went right through the plastered wall and into the interior of the building; into the space between the walls, under the floorboards, up to the roof. It had darkened from the damp and barely any light from the overhead light was reaching it. I didn't need light to know that the crack was there though. It was the entrance to a path- my path in the walls.

The strongest force yet trembled the ground were I stood.

Thunder no longer fit the fierce vibrations beneath my feet. I knelt and snatched up the strap to my bag. Whatever that crashing was, the storm was not it... and there was only one other thing in this place that made sounds that loud.

I looked to my left and regarded the enormous door with caution. That thing towered over me like a gateway to some sinister world, a barrier that could only be moved by the giants that roamed these halls. Dark wood, old wood was what it was made of. Everything in the school seemed to be that way. Gloomy and ancient.