A/N-- Uhhhh just a quick warning, this chapter has a few curse words in it. Make sure your parents aren't reading over your shoulder.
After Class - Tuesday - Garland Mansion: Second Floor
Time: 5:07pm
June 3
Noelle's POV
The Garland mansion was like a maze. Every twist and turn took us deeper inside, progressively getting more impossible to finding our way back. And as if that wasn't difficult enough, each hallway looked the same. Same tiled floor, same red walls, same chandeliers and same brown wooden doors.
It started to feel like we were going in circles until we came across a hall different from the rest. Picture frames hung on the walls as far as the eye could see, each housing a portrait of a Garland family member. It was intresting to see the ancestors of Jin Garland. The oldest picture dated back to the 18th century. My comrades on the other hand, found this humorous.
"Oh my gosh! Look at this ugly painting!" Blaze ran up to a picture of an old woman, her curly, gray hair piled on top of her head in a mountain sized mess.
"It's simply horrifying!" Vane gasped.
"It's dreadfully drab. And look at that dress! The color doesn't suit her complexion at all!" She imitated a british accent.
"Why would she wear such misery!" The disease spread to Vane as he also picked up the british accent.
"It's an insult to fashion!"
"I could just die!" Vane dramatically fainted into my arms.
I rolled my eyes in annoyance. "Stop fooling around you two! This is serious!" I dropped Vane, letting him crash against the floor.
"Ouch! That hurt my rump!"
"Aww, come on Noelle! Don't be such a party pooper," Blaze whined.
"Yeah Noelle, loosen up a bit." Vane helped himself off the floor.
I almost froze his head off, so I wouldn't have to hear him speak, but I realized that he was too tall for me to reach his massive head.
"Do you even realize that our lives are at stake here! If Jin caught us we would surely die!"
"Oh look at this one! It looks like Bruce!" The little red headed freak ignored me, pointing to an overweight, middle-aged man.
"Ugh! And this one seriously needs a makeover. Maybe a few highlights in her hair?" Vane twiddled his fingers above his head.
Blaze ran ahead of him, squealing at the next painting she saw. "A puppy! It must be the family pet! Gosh it's the most cutest thing I've ever seen in my life!"
It was a hamster.
"Now this is an nice painting." Vane, being the idiot that he is, now stood in front of young, teenage girl. Her long blond hair braided to curve down the front of her body. The end of the braid disappearing between her large breasts.
"Hey there beautiful. Would you care to have a picnic with me in the garden? I'll serve us tea and crumpets."
"Are you seriously flirting with a painting right now?!" I asked, exasperatedly.
"Uh...yes?"
I signed, drained from talking to people who don't even know the difference between a hamster and a puppy. And for ever meeting the eight foot mound of pure incompetence in front of me.
Footsteps echoed down the hall. We all froze, the room growing silent. The only sound came from the clang of metal against metal. It bounced off the walls creating an eerie feeling in the air. My eyes widened, realizing that we had no where to hide. I started to sweat as I began to lose my composure. "A guard! What are we going to do?!" I frantically whispered.
"We can run away screaming, hoping that once we get caught, tortured and almost bleed to death that our friends will come and save us," Vane suggested.
"That's a terrible idea!" I whispered.
"I thought it was pretty brilliant," he muttered.
"What about that plan seemed brilliant to you!?"
"Stop fighting guys, this is serious business you know," Blaze hushed us, the footsteps grew louder still.
"Do you have a better plan!?"
"Well...we could always have a little...fun," Blaze smirked. The twinkling in her eye gave me a bad feeling.
"I like where this is going," Vane nodded smiling too.
"Yeah, but I don't."
"Vane, use your magic to trap him in the floor once he enters," she directed.
"We shouldn't draw attention to ourselves!"
"But I like attention," Blaze replied just as the guard walked in.
"Who are you?" The guard took a defensive stance.
"Just a couple of janitors. We were just dusting off the paintings," I said, trying to remain calm. The guard relaxed, buying it. My nerves subsided a little.
"She's lying," Vane stated. My nerves sky rocketed.
"Yeah, actually we're mages," Blaze inputted.
"Idiots!" I yelled.
"What!? Rana says it's bad to lie!" Vane defended himself.
"Rana also said we shouldn't leave the school, but you didn't listen to that!" I shouted.
"I cannot let you leave alive then," the guard took a sword from his side and charged at us.
"Aww! But I'm too pretty to die," Vane breezily jumped back, arms crossed, landing several feet away.
"I can't have all the ice cream in my freezer go to waste," Blaze ducked, as the guard sliced the air above her head.
"You will never live to see another day," he turned around taking a stab out of me.
"Ice- shield!" I screamed, blocking his attack.
"Hey what's going on!?" Two more guards entered.
"Oh shit," I muttered quietly. I'm going to die and it's all Blaze and Vane's fault.
The newcomers quickly rushed into action. It was a full out brawl. The guard I had blocked earlier smashed through my ice shield and swung at me again. I dodged it by jumping to the left but he was ahead of me. Now attacking from that side. I tried dodging it again, but I wasn't fast enough, he nicked my left leg, and blood started to seep through my pants.
I barely had time to react before he cut my right leg as well and punched me in the gut. I fell against the wall, my knees buckling.
The guard rose his sword high into the air preparing to slice my head off when Blaze jumped off the wall, kicking him in the face with her feet aflame. Blaze stood protectivly in front of me. The guard she kicked regained his balance, a second guard joining his side.
"Come on Noelle. Let's beat their asses and get this over with," she pulled me off the ground.
I took a deep breath, locking eyes with the first guard. "Right."
We launched ourselves in unison, side sweeping our legs to kick them off their feet. I touched the ground yelling, "Ice floor!" A thin layer of ice covered the tile. The guards slipped and fell.
Blaze immediately jumped them, grabbing their heads and smashing them together, knocking them out.
"Quick thinking Noelle," Blaze complimented as I lifted the spell off the floor
"No big deal. Thanks for saving me," I smiled at her.
She returned it, "I couldn't let you die before you have some of Vane's kids."
"Wha-what!?" I stammered, face heating up.
Blaze laughed, now looking at Vane.
The third guard was out of breath and Vane was unscathed. His magic lets the objects around him bend to his will. The guard was having a difficult time fighting the pillar that appeared out of the ground. Vane leaned against the wall, giggling like a little boy because of it.
"Just finish him Vane," I called out. He nodded in acknowledgment.
He dropped the pillar back into the ground, which reformed to its original shape, before making a pit fall right underneath the guards feet. The guard fell to the bottom, effectively trapping him. The crash of tile against metal rang in my ears.
He groaned, rubbing his head. He looked up at us, his face turning red with anger.
"Let me out if this right now!" He demanded.
"You have to say please," Vane mimicked a child's voice.
"NOW!!" He roared.
"That's not very nice," Vane pouted, walking off.
"You deserve a time out young man," Blaze giggled, following Vane.
I smirked, not saying anything. I left right along side them, but not before knocking him out with a block of ice of course.
We left the hall of paintings. The rooms continued to be repetitive. We were definitely lost with no landmarks that gave us any bearings. At this point I was walking behind Vane and Blaze who gave up on finding any logical way of tackling our situation, creating a rock, paper, scissors game out of it. If Blaze won, we went left, if Vane won, we went right.
"Rock-paper-scissors-shoot!"
"Haha! I win!" Blaze cut Vane's paper, laughing.
"You've won the last ten rounds! You're cheating!" he accused.
"I am not! I don't read minds! But it's kind of easy to win if you keep picking paper!" Blaze retaliated.
"It's a strategy," he replied.
"A very bad one," she said. They started to argue again, when I stepped between them.
"I'm starting to think that you're only here to spite Rana," I grumbled.
"Well duh. A teenager's life is based off of how much we can rebel against authority figures," Vane said, leaning close to me with an expression that sold his motive.
I pushed his face away and walked through them, annoyed that he isn't taking this seriously, even after we had almost gotten caught.
I opened a random door and found myself in a room fulled with strange objects hanging on the walls, scattered on the floor and suspended from the ceiling. Across the room their was another door leading out. No natural light came in, from the lack of windows making the room fairly dark expect for the poorly lit chandelier hanging from the ceiling. It was enough to cast shadows on the ground and walls, but not much else.
Blaze and Vane followed after me. "Woah! This is awesome!" Blaze stood in awe.
"What are they?" I asked.
"They're torture devices!" Her face lit up with glee, fiddling with anything within reach.
"What?! This guy's a monster!" I was getting increasingly disturbed the more I looked around. "Who knows how many people he's hurt in his life time?!" I thought to myself.
My eyes fell on a metal chamber set up in the far corner of the room. It was small enough to fit a single body, if that even. The double doors were open to reveal sharp spikes protruding from inside it. A head decorated the top of the chamber, which appeared to be screaming. It finished off the foreboding look.
"What...in the hell is that?" I stared at it quizzicaly.
"That there, is what they call the Iron Maiden," Blaze answered.
"What is it used for?" Vane asked.
"To torture people."
"Well yeah, but how does it work?" he asked.
"See those spikes? Once the doors are closed and someone's in there, any movement would mean getting pierced by one of those. They're specifically positioned to cause bodily damage to the organs, but not to kill instantly."
She gestured to two spikes higher up the door.
"For example some are placed to penetrate your eyes. But the spikes aren't very long so it wouldn't pierce very deep inside. Just enough to cause torture, that will last long enough for you to die of pain or blood loss," she finished.
"That is the most terrifying thing I've ever heard! That's just plain cruel!" I stared at the evil device in shock.
"Who would invent such a thing?" Vane wondered out loud. Blaze shrugged in reply.
"What about this one?" I lifted up a collar with a fork thingy attached to it.
"That is the Herectic's Fork. The collar would be strapped around the person's neck, with the fork arranged perfectly to stab the chin, neck and sternum with any little movement. Even talking would cause abrupt pain," she stated.
"At that point I think I would rather die," Vane said.
"You could try, but even if you try to end the suffering by throwing your head back, the teeth of the fork was designed to keep you alive. That would only add to your torture," Blaze replied.
"Well then I'll hope we don't find ourselves in one of those," Vane said it as if it was the most normal thing in the world. As if there wasn't an actual possibility that that could happen to us.
"And then what would happen is that you would proceed to be burned at the stake in public!" She clasped her hands together, grinning. "So, you learn something new everyday!"
She was way too upbeat for my liking.
"Sucks to be them," Vane shrugged, walking over to another contraption.
"How the hell do you know this stuff!?"
She opened her mouth to reply but I cut her off. "You know what I would rather not know."
"I think I'll take this one home," Blaze picked up the Heretic's Fork.
"No, you will not," I sternly said, grabbing the device and putting it down. "You don't find it super weird that he has all of this?!" I waved my arms around me. "No normal person would have this in their house!"
Vane walked up behind me. "It is a bit weird, but there is no point in getting worried over it."
"What do you mean there's no point in worrying over it!?" I was scared and anxious. I broke a sweat, twiddling my fingers. And it wasn't helping that these two bone-heads were so calm about it. It was ticking me off. "Jin hates mages! And guess what! We are all mages! That is exactly why he probably has all of these torture devices! To torture people like us!" My breathing sped up as I felt myself start to panic. "We could all die here! You shouldn't be so calm about it!" I yelled. Taking out my anger on Vane probably wasn't my greatest idea, but at the moment I was frantic, and wasn't thinking straight. I began to cry and collapsed to the floor.
"Noelle," Vane stooped down and wrapped me up in his arms. "It's going to be okay," he whispered, gently shushing me. "I won't let you die here." He lifted me up, now carrying me bridal style. I hid my face in his shirt, too embarrassed to show my face. "Hey Noelle." I ignored him. "Popsicle, look at me." I looked up. "I promise you will come out of this place alive. I swear it." He stared into my eyes. I stared back until I started to believe it myself.
I took a deep breath and climbed out of his arms. "I'm fine now. Thank you."
He smiled. "No problem, popsicle."
The door behind us swung open and banged against the wall, knocking several torture devices off the wall. I screamed and jumped into Vane's arms. Blaze whipped around, lighting her fists on fire, ready to attack.
"Jenna was that really necessary?" Sachiko walked into the room.
We all noticeably relaxed. I breathed out a sign of relief.
"Sorry Mistress. I overestimated my power," the ghost girl and Alex walked in behind her.
I felt Vane's chest moving. I looked up to see him stiffling a laugh, smirking down at me.
"What?" I deadpanned.
"You jumped into my arms when you got scared."
I glared at him and got down once again, hoping he didn't see my flushed cheeks as I turned around to focus on the others.
"What are you guys doing here?" Blaze asked.
"We found Alex's heirloom in Jin's bedroom. We can leave now," Sachiko replied.
"Thank God. The sooner we leave, the better," I said.
The door across the room suddenly opened and two people walked in. Jenna and Blaze jumped in front of our group staring intently at the strangers. They were already in a defensive stance. Vane automatically pushed me behind his back, and Sachiko copied his movements with Alex.
Blaze glared at the strangers. "Who are you?"
The strangers were female. One wore thick black rimmed glasses and a black blazer. Her navy blue hair was cropped in layers, just below shoulder length. The bangs were side swept across her forehead, covering a part of her left eye, framing her pale face. She was evidently injured, hobbling on one leg and clutching her left arm. Blood soaked her jacket but the smile she adorned soothed Jenna's worries, relaxing her stance.
Blaze only grew more tense. For the other girl, her frown and icy glare only added to the agressive look. The blood streaked acrossed her face is was what really made me stand on edge. She had one eye covered with an eye patch leaving her right eye to stare cooly at the group. Her blond hair was clipped short above her ears, styled in a messy way. Her attire consisted of a black shirt under a green bomber jacket and some black jeans and black army boots. It wasn't until she shifted on her feet, and her ripped shirt swayed to reveal an open wound in her stomach.
"Answer my question," Blaze advanced a couple of steps.
The blue haired girl shrunk back a little, stumbling on her feet while the blond one stood her ground.
"We mean you no harm. I swear we don't. We just heard a scream and got curious," the blue haired girl spoke cautiously, eyeing Blaze's fire.
She glanced at our expressions and noticed we didn't believe her. "We are from a town many miles away. The man who lives here took my grandmother's necklace that she left for me when she died. I just came to get it back," she said as I noted the cross, silver necklace she was wearing. "I found it, but we had a little trouble with some guards."
"You still haven't answered my question. Who are you?" Blaze repeated, not giving in.
"I'm Lila, and this is my friend Kip. We're mages. I'm a telemancer and she's a carnomancer. I promise we aren't here to cause trouble. Please don't hurt us," she stepped forward to stand beside her friend, who kept a guarded expression.
Sachiko walked forward, pushing Blaze's hands down. "The man who lives here is called Jin. He doesn't particularly like us mages," she started. "My name's Sachiko and we are basically all diviners. I believe that we can trust you, but understand that if you attack us we can easily take you down."
Lila nodded. Kip did nothing.
Sachiko offered a hand now smiling. "So you guys are mages too? That's awesome! You should come back home with us."
Lila relaxed. "It's nice to meet you guys," she shook Sachiko's hand, grinning.
"What's a telemancer and a carnomancer?" Vane asked confused.
"A telemancer can read minds. Idiot. You know, like Zephira? And Kip has the power to heal others like Lanny can," I rolled my eyes. "You should know this Vane. This is common knowledge. The one thing Rana told us to memorize."
"I usually don't pay attention in class."
"Well obviously," I mumbled.
"It's not my fault I can't stay focused. There's too many pretty girls in our class," Vane strided over to Lila, wrapping an arm around her shoulder. "Take her, for example. She's almost as cute as you." She blushed, refusing to meet his gaze. The girl was incredibly short, especially standing next to Vane's tall stature. She was even shorter then I was.
Vane now looked to Kip. His smile widened. "And this one. Her menacing glare is beautiful!"
She scowled, shooting daggers at him as he came closer.
"Has anyone ever told you that your piercing gaze is just gorgeous?" he slung his arm now around her.
"I wouldn't do that if I were y-" Lila never finished. By that time, Kip had grabbed Vane's arm, and flipped him over her head, smacking his back flat against the ground. She immediatly collected her composer regaining her cold status. Vane groaned on the floor in agony.
I smirked. "That's what you get for messing with a girl that looks like she could break your neck and slaughter you, before you have the chance to repent for your sins."
The girls in our group tried hard to stifle their laughs while Lila looked at Vane in horror.
"Kip! I told them that we meant no harm!" she turned to Sachiko in panic. "I am so sorry! Kip isn't one to talk much and she doesn't like being touched and she has anger problems. She has had a rough past and I-" Sachiko held her hand up, stopping her abruptly.
"It's okay. Vane had it coming. Actually, we're sorry for his disrespectful attitude." Sachiko snickered. "It's not every day that we get to see Vane flat out rejected in such a physical way."
"Maybe he will learn his lesson and stop flirting with every girl he meets," I muttered, helping him up.
Vane pouted. "Popsicle! The scary lady hurt me."
"How does it feel to get your ass handed to you by a girl?" Blaze smirked.
Vane glowered at her.
"Does anyone else realize how ironic this is? She's a person who heals people as a magical power and she just brutally took down Vane with one attack and caused him pain." Alex commented. Nobody payed attention.
"Despite having one pervert in our group, our school is a pretty safe place to be. You both should come back with us and, from the looks of it, get some much needed rest and treatment. As Noelle said before, we have a carnomancer that can heal the both of you," Sachiko invited. "So? What do you say?"
Lila glanced to Kip who nodded in approval. Lila beamed. "We would love too! We don't meet much people our age back home."
"Well, you'll meet quite a few of us," Blaze said.
"And their teacher is very hospitable," Alex added.
"Oh yes! She is incredibly nice!" Sachiko agreed.
"I can't wait to meet h-" Lila was cut off again, but now to the door slammed open, and a very scary women barged in.
"What the hell do you think I meant when I said that you guys weren't supposed to come here?!" Rana yelled.
"We-"
"I should skin you alive for how much you've frightened me!"
"I-"
"But that would kind of ruin the purpose of me being your teacher then, wouldn't it?!"
"Rana-"
"You guys could have died!"
"Rana-"
"I'm glad you're all safe, but I'll be fricking damned if I don't personally kill each and every one of you!!!"
"RANA!"
"What!?" she yelled.
"Meet our new friends, Lila and Kip. They're mages just like us and need a place to stay and recover from their injuries. Can they come back home with us?" Sachiko indtroduced.
Lila waved nervously. "Hi."
Rana relaxed. "Of course they can," she said with a tight smile. "I'll need more students when more then half of them suddenly disappear against my one order."
We all laughed nervously.
"How did you know we were here anyways?" Blaze asked.
~
Back in the classroom, a few hours earlier.
Avon's POV
The classroom was silent, since almost everyone had left to go to the Garland mansion, apart from me flipping through the pages of my chemistry textbook. Well it was, until Rana came in. She walked in carrying a stack of books, and loudly dropped them on her desk. She opened the first book and started tearing the pages out. One by one.
Aggrivated, I decided to ignore my bothersome teacher. Not as if that was anything new.
"It's awfully quiet in here," she tried to initiate a conversation. One that I didn't want to be a part of.
"Well it was, until you got here," I replied.
She ignored my previous statement. "Do you know where the others are?"
I looked up, "Alex, Sachiko, Bruce, Aria, Lanny, Marigold, Blaze, Vane and Noelle all left together."
Rana looked at me, confused. "Left? Together? Where'd they go?"
"The Garland mansion," I replied. "Y'know the exact place you told them not to go? They went there."
"They what!? They fu-"
"Ahem," I cut her off. "Watch your language Rana. You're supposed to be a role model to your students."
"Avon?"
"Yeah?"
"Don't you fucking tell me what to do." She groaned, "Oh God, they're gonna die. They're gonna be killed. I could've gotten Alex's shit back myself, but I can't replace eight of the world's most powerful mages. I gave them one job: to stay here, safe."
"You know, Sachiko was going to drop the matter. It was Aria who decided to be a rebel. Viva la Revolution, y'know?"
She groaned again. "Ugh, I'm gonna go get them. You stay here," she ordered. "If you leave this building, I will cut your fucking legs off."
I raised my hands in surrender. "Okay, jeez. Calm down."
"Do you understand?"
"I understand, ma'am."
She nodded and walked out of the room.
"Moron," I muttered under my breath, angry that she wouldn't trust me more then those fools who decided that death was a fun thing to go and do.
But then I grinned. It would be quite a show once they got back from their suicide mission.
"Well at least I got rid of the old cow."
A/N— Hiya! It's me, Dixie and I wrote 95% of this chapter. Ally takes credit for the last part. So yeah they're stupid and Avon is a salty, sarcastic ass. Hope you enjoyed this 4000+ word chapter and have a nice day!