Bloody Angel Book 1

First Day of Class

Authors Note:
Song used in this chapter is-
'The Goddess and the Weavers by Spiral Dance

Enjoy!

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Annie walked down the halls, a large basket of fresh cut flowers held to her hip as she hummed softly to herself. It was just before afternoon classes were to start, everyone still tucked away in the refectory for lunch so there was no one around, save for the two ghouls that accompanied her, each carrying their own baskets.

"Hey, Miss Annie?" The shorter piped up, shifting her basket to her other hip.

"Just Annie is fine, Mysti. But what's up?" She turns her head to look at the shorter ghoulette.

"Isn't this a bit much for your first day?"

Annie pauses to turn, looking at the baskets they each held. "Well, no. Not all will be used for today plus I want the siblings to take some back with them. No point in wasting them."

"I suppose," the ghoulette shrugs before giving an excited little dance. "I'm so eager to learn with the siblings!"

"You sure you're not secretly a fire ghoulette?" The tallest of the trio asks with a laugh. "I've never known a water ghoul to be so energetic."

"Oh shut it, Ace. Water can be calm or it can be raging like a stormy sea. You know that."

"Easy there, miss maelstrom," they raise their free hand defensively as they laugh again. "Just poking fun."

Annie shakes her head and smiles warmly at them, turning to continue down the hall. "Both of you have too much energy. Let's put it to good use, yes?"

The pair smile at each other behind their masks before speeding up to catch up with the woman.

Entering the designated classroom, Annie sets her basket on the front desk before going to the windows, throwing them open to allow the warm spring breeze to flow in. Ace and Mysti follow suit, setting their baskets next to hers and helping with the windows. Satisfied, Annie turns to take in the room.

Several rows of two seat long tables fill most of the space, facing the front desk and blackboards. The walls were bare, a rough stone with natural color.  Overhead fluorescent lights hummed lightly as they emitted their soft glow. Annie shut those off with the flick of a switch, the natural light outside more than enough to brighten up the room.


"I have a lot of work to do," she says mostly to herself. She turns to her companions and smiles softly. "Could I ask you two to please move the desks so they're in a large circle with one in the middle?"

Ace gives a salute, rocking back on their heels before setting to work. Mysti simply nods and joins Ace as they begin to rearrange the room.

Annie walks over to the blackboard and picks up a stick of chalk and writes out first in runic followed by large flowing letters-

"Welcome to Herbology.

Today's agenda:
Introductions and common flowers"

Followed by her name. She adds a couple of simple yet detailed sketches of some flowers. Satisfied with her work, she sets the chalk down and turns to the baskets, sorting through the flowers to bundle them in individual groups. When the tables are rearranged she has the ghouls set one bundle per seat.


"You nervous, Miss Annie?" Mysti asks, leaning forward and tilting her head to catch the witches' eyes. Annie blinks and smiles at her, coming out of her thoughts.

"It would be a lie to say I wasn't. I never thought I'd be asked to teach others what I know. Do you think people would really be interested in this?"

"You kidding?" Ace laughs, hopping up on the desk to sit next to her. "We're stoked to learn and we aren't even Earth ghouls!"


Annie laughs and nods, rubbing her wrist as she waits. She looks down at her light blue skirt that falls to her ankles exposing her bare feet, held up with a wide light brown leather belt. Her shirt is short in front, stopping just above her navel and is a soft silver, designed as a mock front lace corset with a low neckline and a cold shoulder sleeve, a style that hangs on to the bodice from the sides rather than from the top of the armscye leaving a hole exposing the shoulders. Her hair today was mostly down in long waves with two simple twisting braids that stem from her temples that drape behind her head where they're fastened into a messy bun held with an arched fastener with a rod through it.


Mysti looks her over carefully, her eyes full of worry. "Hey, Miss Annie? Are you sure you'll be okay to do this class? You seem really, really nervous."