We Love a Tortured Artist - Xavier Thorpe

You don't believe me?

"Wait, okay, run it back again."

"Xavier..."

"I know I'm just trying to understand this."

"I told you twice now." I replied crossing my arms in front of me. We were sitting cross legged facing each other and I was explaining to him what I just saw.

"Its just so weird. Why would anyone pretend to be principal Weems... it doesn't make sense."

"So you don't believe me." I asked him. He shrugged and looked down. I scoffed and smacked him on the shoulder.

"Well! Okay, It just doesn't seem plausible I mean, why?"

"I don't know Xavier, but I know what I saw!" I exclaimed. "And after everything that I was told happened last year this shouldn't be as hard to believe as your claiming."

I leaned back against the cold stone and closed my eyes. I focused on calming my breathing and I felt Xavier take my hand.

"You're 100% sure of what you saw?" He asked me. I looked over at him and nodded.

"1000% sure, I watched her go in, then a man came out and shape shifted into her and left. It was terrifying." 

Xavier thought about what I told him for a little while. He drew shapes on the top of my hand with his thumb as he thought. It comforted me.

"What if Weems had actually gone into there, like the real one."

I sighed and shook my head.

"No but she came out as a man." I furrowed my brows at how odd that sounded out loud. 

"No but hear me out. What if that guy ambushed her and locked her down there and took her place?"

"Why would he do that?" I asked him. He shrugged.

"I don't know, but then again why was Weems going down there in the first place?"

"I'm so confused." I rubbed my face and looked at my phone. It was 1:30 in the morning.

"T.G.I.F right, at least we'll get to sleep in tomorrow." Xavier said.

"If I even get sleep at all."

"Ophelia, everything is going to be okay." 

"How do you know that?" I asked him. I didn't know why this was upsetting me so much. I guess it was just the fear of knowing all of the stuff that happened in this schools past.

"I just do, besides you don't have to deal with all of this alone. Now, tell me again what you saw."

I groaned again and he laughed and pulled me into a hug. He kissed the top of my head.

"Why do you think he did this?" I asked. Xavier leaned his head back snd tightened his arms around me.

"I don't know."

"We should go find out." I said finally. He shook his head and looked me in the eye.

"No, we don't know how dangerous it is."

"How bad could it be?"

"Students died last year and if its anything like then, then it'll be very bad."

"I'll go by myself then. I can handle it." I stood up and put my phone in my pocket and walked over to the steps. Halfway down them I heard Xavier running after me.

He caught my waist keeping me from walking away.

"Ophelia, think about this."

"I have."

"Fine. we'll go! You happy?" He dropped his hands to the sides and sighed.

I grabbed his hands and pulled him along behind me.

"Hey look, its your turn to do the pulling."

I shook my head and led him quietly through my room and out the window.

We walked to the quad and peered through the entrance doors to make sure the coast was clear.

I didn't feel any negative energies so I went ahead to the statue. Xavier was breathing heavily and I could tell he was nervous.

"It'll be okay." He nodded and took my hand. With my free one I pulled out my phone and turned on the blue light again. I pulled my hand away from Xavier's and placed my hand on the print.

I held my breath as the statue opened and revealed the steps below. He took my hand again.

"We don't have to do this. We could wait, we could tell-"

"Who? Think about it, we cant tell anyone, now come on."

I pulled him with me down the winding steps and didn't even look behind us as the statue started to close again. I felt Xavier jump though.

"We're not going to be trapped." I assured him. He didn't say anything. We reached the bottom of the stairs after about a minute of descending and we stopped.

"Ophelia, I feel like I'm gonna throw up." I looked up at him. His face was dead serious and his lips were pressed tightly together.

I reached up and grabbed his shoulders, pulling him down to face level. I put my forehead against his and sent a wave of relaxation through him. My mother had been especially good at this and often did it when I was nervous. It was usually over a shot so i didn't know how well it would work in a situation like this.

I felt his tense shoulders soften and he let out a deep sigh. I pulled him into a hug and he buried his head into my shoulder.

"I don't think we should do this." He said, his voice muffled by my sweatshirt.

"Why not?"

"What if we find Weems's dead body, or maybe there's like scary stuff in there, or maybe someone is in here still."

I pulled back to look at him.

"I can't feel anything, we are fine."

"Are you sure you can trust it?"

"I'm positive. Now all you need to do is trust me okay?"

He nodded and I stood up. I turned back to face the door and reached out to the handle.

I twisted it and pushed it open. I stared into the room and my stomach dropped.

It was empty.

It was just plain stone walls and a stone floor and it was empty.

"What?" I whispered in disbelief.

"Well that was anticlimactic wasn't it?" Xavier said. I looked over to him.

"This doesn't make any sense."

"No it doesn't but see there's nothing wrong. Lets go back, lets go to sleep." I shook my head again.

"No we have to go tell the others."

"The others?"

"Yeah, Wednesday, Enid, Bianca, Ajax if you want."

I closed the door behind us and walked back up the stairs. I found the handprint and we walked back.

I stopped at the bottom of the tower before we had a chance to climb up.

"You go get Ajax, I'll go get Wednesday and Enid. Meet back here."

He nodded and jogged away.