Claimed

Chapter 9 - Silence

It was silent when we got back to Auradon.

But not naturally silent.

The silence was eerie, as if all the life had been sucked out of the school usually so full of it.

As the helicopter landed neatly on the helipad at the back of the school, a shiver ran down my spine.
Where the Auradon was everyone?

The fields and pathways leading up to the gigantic wooden doors were completely bare, just a simple breeze blowing a handful of leaves across the open space. I could almost see the imaginary tumbleweed in my mind's eye bouncing across the green.
My nerves prickled.
The grounds were never this quiet.

Of course, they were never expected to be: the gardens stood as the current most popular place on the school grounds for students to spend free time.
So having them this empty..?

Something was very wrong.

On most days, the great oak doors were kept firmly bolted shut - students and staff were to use the smaller doors located at the wings.
Only on special occasions were the doors kept pinned against the walls of the hall inside: the first day of term and the last, Family Day, Christmas Day, upon new arrivals.
This alone makes it suspicious enough that the doors were, in fact, not locked; it was just another--
I paused. My sense of time was so jumbled that I actually had no idea what day it was! Mad.

But I knew that it wasn't Christmas, otherwise there'd be snow - there's always snow in Auradon at Christmas - and I'm pretty sure we weren't out long enough for term to end, let alone for another to begin.

But then there was also the fact that the doors were not open open, but merely ajar.

I swallowed the lump in my throat, placing a palm flat against the smooth wood, and pushed.
It swung open with a ghostly creak, revealing a cave of darkness and shadow.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw both blue-haired girls shiver lightly.
I could imagine why.

The silence soon became suffocating; I felt like I was drowning in it, and evidently, I was not the only one.

Carlos cleared his throat, letting out a nervous laugh as he played with the cuff of his sleeve.
"Where is everyone?" He asked the question we were all wondering, forcing us all to acknowledge - out loud - that something was, without a doubt, completely wrong.

But no-one replied, instead letting the query sit in stale air.
Carlos cleared his throat again, awkwardly, and turned away, leaving us to drop into silence once more.

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It was upon hesitantly searching the uppermost floor of the castle when our little group finally saw benefit in splitting.

'It'll allow us to cover more ground, lovies,' was the excuse that Fairy Godmother gave us when she slipped off into her office, but whether she actually did anything after that is anyone's guess.

The rest of us trudged around a little, splitting into pairs and taking a section of the castle each.

This, is how Ben and I were left searching (ironically) the West Wing of the school in any search of.. Anything, really.
People, or any clue as to where on earth they had gone.

I groaned, leaning back against the desk of Ben's office and throwing my head back in exaggerated boredom as my boyfriend impatiently rifled through his draws.
He paused, then went back to shuffling through.

Wow. Rude.

I groaned again, and he looked pointedly up at me, brows furrowed in annoyance.
"You know, Mal," he said tightly, "If you actually helped me, we might stand more of a chance of finding something!"