Rana's POV
The numbness that I feel lightens me. I am not alive, yet I feel more than most. There's a pain around my neck and it's hard to breathe. This is normal.
I hear a familiar sound. It's the jingle of the earth's dark angel. A nightmare. I see a black butterfly. It flies towards me, landing on my shoulder. One would expect butterfly kisses, but this one is a vampire. An omen of death.
I know I will not like what I see.
I see silhouettes. I hear screams. I recognize each one. "Please don't go," I whisper, praying for it to be a dream. Nothing happens. One falls. Then another. Then two more. I see a fire. Two silhouettes stand in front of it, braving hell. The flame grows, and one runs away. The other stays. I know who she is. Then she turns and I see her face.
Verity...
~
Classtime - Monday - Diviner's Classroom - Time: 7:12am
June 9
Class the next morning was hell. Aria was gone, Bruce was missing, Lanny had called in sick, though I knew that damn well that he wasn't. Kip was gone and hadn't called, but I knew that she was likely in her room if not with Lanny.
As if to make me a hypocrite, I showed up late for class. Everyone else was already seated, nobody in their uniform except for Avon.
I stumbled up to the front podium, starting my attendance. As I went through the list, I talked. "There's been another vision," I announced, "but I don't want to talk about it until everyone's here. Now where in God's name is Bruce? Has anybody seen him?"
The way that Blaze immediately averted her eyes made me suspicious. However, I decided that arguing with her was pointless, so I decided to question Vane, who had obviously not been paying attention.
"Vane? Have you seen Bruce anywhere?"
He seemed to think for a moment. "Bruce? I haven't seen him since the mansion."
The class erupted into a series of mumbles, most along the lines of, "oh shit."
I raised a brow. "You brought Bruce to the Garland mansion?"
"Yeah," Vane continued, "he was there with us, but we left him when we split into groups." Then, realizing what he was doing, tried to cover it up. "I mean- I'm sure he got out fine on his own. I'm pretty sure I saw him this morning, and he was definitely there for supper las-"
"Enough," I cut him off. "Vane, thank you. You've been most helpful."
I turned back to the rest of the class...
...and I lost it.
"YOU GUYS LEFT BRUCE AT THE GARLAND MANSION ALONE?!"
"Rana, I swear we didn't mean to-"
"I DON'T CARE WHAT YOU DID AND DID NOT MEAN TO DO! YOU WENT TO THE GARLAND MANSION AGAINST MY ORDERS, AND YOU CAN'T EVEN BOTHER TO LOOK OUT FOR YOUR CLASSMATES! ESPECIALLY IN A TIME LIKE THIS! THERE IS SOMEONE WHO IS TRYING TO KILL ALL OF YOU, SO IT'S CRUCIAL FOR YOU GUYS TO BE LOOKING OUT FOR EACH OTHER!"
"Technically speaking, Rana," Avon piped up, "this is a failure on your part. It took you almost a week to even notice he was gone."
I whipped around so fast that the entire class jumped. I glared at Avon. "Avon," I started, "if you open your damn mouth one more time I will have you suspended- just like Aria."
That shut him up.
I sighed. "I hate to do this, but I have to leave now. We can't just leave Bruce there."
Blaze scowled, "Aww, why not-"
I glared at her hard enough to shut her mouth.
I turned back to the rest of the class. "I know I was just yelling at him, but I'm going to leave Avon in charge, because frankly, he's the most likely to make sure that you guys are still working," I announced. "While I'm gone, I strongly suggest that you guys practice your combat."
I got nothing but a series of uncertain nods as a response. "...Yes ma'am."
~
The mansion didn't seem to have any Garland family members inside. Using my magic, I changed my appearance to match the guards. As I tried to approach one, he yelled at me.
" You! Stop!"
I froze.
"State your name and your reason for coming here."
"My name is Benjamin, I'm new, and I'm here to speak to Sir Garland about my daily tasks."
The guard narrowed his eyes at me. "I'm from the newest batch, and you don't look familiar. Besides, everyone knows that Lord Garland is out for his son's funeral. Some imbecilic juvenile killed him. I don't think I can let you through the gates."
I sighed. "Guess you're gonna be a pain in the ass," I muttered. I changed my appearance back to my teacher-form, grabbing him by the throat. He noticed the divine teacher's symbol next to my right eye.
"Y-you...you're..."
I grinned. "If you don't want me to slaughter you right now, you'll let me through the gates. You see, I'm somewhat of a brat. I don't like not getting my way."
Hesitantly, the poor guard reached out and unlocked the gate for me. I let go of him, starting through the gates towards the mansion. "Hey!" he called after me. "The one you're looking for! He's in the dungeon!"
~
I was surprised at how empty the house was. The guards all seemed to be positioned outside, so avoiding them wasn't particularly difficult.
Although I knew that I was being watched.
I didn't think the presence to be dangerous, so I thought nothing of it at first. However, I got more and more uneasy the closer I got to the dungeon. I was standing at the top of the stairs to the labyrinth when I snapped.
"I know you're there," I started quietly, "so you may as well show yourself."
The room went silent. The slow footsteps behind me made me jump. I turned around to face the girl. She was petite, standing just above five feet, although she looked more mature than her height would allow. Her burgundy hair was cut messily, as if done in a rush. The gash in her head was fresh, and it looked painful.
"The name's Uzi," she grinned. "I'm a mage. Just escaped from the dungeon. Gonna go find myself some cake. Maybe I'll take a visit to the park and scare some children. Who knows? Not me. Maybe I'll head down to the cemetery and pay one last visit to my friend, who your idiot child murder-"
"What do you want?" I snapped, not having the patience to deal with the girl.
"No need to get so hostile, lady. Patience is a virtue."
"Well as it so happens, it seems I am not feeling very virtuous today," I seethed through my teeth. "You either tell me what you want or take a nice healthy dose of fucking off."
"Your child, Bruce; he's not in the dungeon. The guard lied to you. He's on the second floor, in the torture chamber. They're using him for ransom. You probably don't know, but the McHoward family is filthy rich." Uzi grinned at me. "The Garland family never hesitates to exploit other people for money. Besides, the Garland's and the McHoward's have never gotten along."
I glared back at her. "Why do you think I'm going to trust you over the guard?"
"I dunno. Why do you think you should trust the guard over me? He works for the Garland's; I was imprisoned by them."
"You just referred to Pierce as your friend."
"Ah yes, Pierce was my very close friend. We were close in the same way Aria and Lanny are close. Unfortunately, Lanny had to go and kill Pierce for the sake of his love. I really shouldn't complain though; because of Lanny, I was able to escape without worrying about guards. I'm free because of him." She looked lost in thought. "Say, what should I do with my freedom? Maybe I'll go rob a candy store, or find a witch in the woods who needs an assistant. Or maybe I'll-"
I didn't hear the rest of what she said, because I was too busy walking away from her. A gut feeling told me not to trust her, but the second floor was much closer than the dungeon, so I opted to check there first.
It took me a while to find the torture chamber. I went through several rooms. There were many bedrooms, many seemingly useless toilets, and long hallways filled with generations of artwork. In one bedroom, I found a middle-aged woman, asleep. She didn't wake up when I walked in. Her breathing was so slow that I had to do a double take to make sure she was even alive. I didn't stay in the room for long.
Eventually I found the torture chamber. Sure enough Bruce was tied to a chair in the centre of the room. He sighed with relief when he saw me.
"Rana! Oh thank gosh you're here. Mister ugly-old-man was threatening to hurt me. My parents have sent them so much money it's not even funny. Please get me out of here."
"Of course I'm gonna get you out of here; that's why I came. Did the others really just leave you to die?"
As I started to untie the ropes that bound him to the chair, Bruce started to explain. "They didn't really mean for me to be left along- they just kinda forgot I was there. The split up to look for Alex's thing but I never got put into a group. I was going to follow Aria down into the dungeon, but they left too quickly. So I was just gonna leave but then Jin caught me and tied me up here. I tried to save myself, but there's something about this house that stops magic from working properly."
"Not Lanny's, apparently..." I muttered.
"What...? What did he do?"
I hesitated for a moment. "Uhm...a crazy adrenaline rush may or may not have caused him to murder several dozen people, including Jin's son."
Bruce was quiet for a second. "...Really? He always seemed so innocent to me..."
I nodded. "I thought so too..."
~
In front of the mansion, the sunlight seemed heavenly compared to the perpetual darkness that consumed the inner hallways.
The one guard was still stationed next to the open gate, but it seemed his hands were tied to a metal post in the fence.
As I approached him, I also noticed that he was covered in bruises and scratches. "They beat me up when the found out I let you through..." he explained. Taking sympathy on him, I untied the ropes, though I was tempted to leave him, considering that he had lied to me about Bruce's whereabouts.
"There," I said cooly. "You let me through the gate, I let you free from your job. We're even."
"Kindness is a virtue too!" I heard Uzi call from behind us. I groaned.
"Well maybe I'm just not feeling virtuous to you, bitch!" I yelled back. Bruce laughed.
"Has she been annoying to you, Rana?"
"Greatly."
"Yeah, I don't think she's exactly right in the head." He motioned circles around his head with his finger to symbolize Uzi's lack of basic human sanity.
"Clearly." I replied curtly. "Now, lets get home quickly. Something tells me that leaving Avon in charge was a bad idea."
~
Lila's POV
The classroom had an odd feel to it. It wasn't like any other classroom I'd been in before. At first glance you could have easily mistaken the normality of it all, but after watching the other mages interact with one another you start to realize that your assumptions were horribly wrong.
After taking a small peek into everyone's brain, you come across such idiotic behaviors and crazy thoughts that you would think that this was a mental institution.
From perverted thoughts, to ideas on how to rule the world, to schemes of murdering; obviously I started to regret ever agreeing to come here. I was sleeping in a place filled with lunatics.
Despite all of that, it only got worse. Everything was happening before I had time to process the events. Upon return from the Garland mansion, countless injuries were counted.
A young boy in a comatose state was placed in an infirmary for recovery as soon as we arrived at the school. Kip was ushered away immediately after him to heal the wound in her stomach- and I haven't seen her since. It didn't matter though. I could guess that she was just drinking away her problems again, and when she's drunk, it's better to just stay clear of her path. Having no one else to hang out with, I opted to join the others in their daily classes.
Another girl was sent straight to the hospital to recover for a few days, but as soon as she was released she was suspended for disobeying the teacher's orders.
Who as of now, had been yelling at us for the past few minutes about leaving their classmate behind.
From what I'd gathered in the very short amount of time of being here is that their teacher was an actual child. She particularly enjoyed raising her voice and insulting, as well as teasing the students at any chance she got. If anything she fit right in with her kids.
She must not have any friends her age.
Which is fine, but her students proved to be more idiotic than even her. She'd left some idiotic fool of a tyrant in charge. He had started bossing us around the moment the teacher left to go rescue the kid dumb enough to stay behind.
"Marigold, go bake me a pie!" the dickhead demanded. "Vane, massage my shoulders." He turned to the redhead. "Blaze, go get me some water. I'm parched."
The guy kept ordering us around.
"Acorn! You are water mage for crying out loud! You can literally make yourself water!" the girl known as Blaze replied.
Another thing I've learned is that they give each other stupidly weird food nicknames. Like what kind of name is Acorn!?
"I could, but I'm the bitch who's in charge, so I demand you go get me some water," Avon retaliated with a smirk as Blaze stomped angrily away. "By the way- Alex, I want you to do my laundry."
"Okay..." the wolf timidly obliged.
"What!? No! Avon, go do it yourself!" Sachiko cut in.
Blaze reappeared a few seconds later with a cup of water.
"Oh good, my water is here." Avon reached out his hand to grab it.
Blaze forced a smile as she stretched her hand out to him. Avon latched onto the cup, but she held on tightly.
"Let go." He tugged on the glass.
"Of course, Acorn."
Well, she let go... but not before vaporizing the water and melting the glass cup in his hands.
"Ow!!!" he screeched, cold water spouting from his hands suddenly. "You bitch!"
Everyone snickered quietly.
Avon's eyes found mine, seeking revenge. "You don't look stupid. Go make me some tea as punishment on behalf of Blaze's stupid actions."
He calls them stupid! Has he taken a good look at himself in the mirror lately?!
"That's not fair!" Elisia cried out. She was one of the few normal ones.
"I don't care," was Avon's response. Honestly I didn't mind making the fool some tea. Anything to get out there.
I made my way to the kitchen, and after a few wrong turns I made it. I searched the cabinets and eventually found a tea pot and some tea bags.
I sighed. Kip was much easier to get along with. I talked and she just listened. It was a perfect relationship.
God, I hope their doctor isn't a lunatic like the rest of them. Especially that Blaze girl.
"Don't worry. Our Doctor is slightly more sane than Blaze," a voice from behind me said. "Although, he is a bit of a crybaby."
I jumped around frightened, almost spilling the tea I was in the process of making. "Sorry, I didn't hear you come in." I relaxed, seeing it was just another student. "Wait- did I say that out loud?"
She laughed. "No. I can read minds."
"Oh right! Sorry, I forgot we have the same powers." I said.
"Yeah, no problem. Here let me help you with that," she grabbed the pot out of my hand.
I let her take over as I stood back to watch her.
This girl seems more chill compared to the others.
"Thanks," she laughed again.
"Gosh, I'm going to have to get used to that," I laughed. "I've never met someone like me before."
"Same here." she nodded. She poured out the last of the tea into two cups. "Alright, let's bring that tyrant his precious tea," she suggested, handing me one of the cups.
I looked up at her questioning.
"You look like you could use some tea," she explained.
I smiled gratefully, taking a sip as we walked. "I never got your name."
I already knew her name but it didn't seem right to not let her introduce herself.
"Zephira," she answered.
"Zephira," I repeated, trying the name out loud. "Pretty," I decided.
She caught on and copied my example. "And yours?"
"Lila," I replied as we walked into the classroom.
"Why the hell did you two take so long!? I was starting to think you guys got busy with each other," Avon said as I looked down to hide my embarrassment. I peeked from under my hair and saw Zephira blushing madly as well.
This guy was getting on my last nerve.
"It's wrong to just assume they're together, you know," one of the boys spoke. Jasper, if I remembered correctly.
"I couldn't give two shits. Where the hell is my frickin' tea!?" Avon yelled, again.
And I snapped.
I slowly made my way across the room, Zephira following closely behind me. I looked straight into his eyes and said, "Here's your fucking tea," pouring the piping hot liquid onto his lap.
Avon screeched as Zephira 'accidentally' did the same thing directly over his head.
"Oops." She smiled innocently.
Avon rose from his seat. "LILA YOU BITCH! I HATE-"
Rana walked in at that exact moment, halting Avon instantly.
"-you. I love you. Hi Rana," he visibly relaxed. Any form of emotion vanishing completely from his face.
"Hello. Why are you wet?" Rana asked, confused, oblivious to what just happened.
Seeing the opportunity, I replied before he had the chance. "He had an orgasm."
Avon's eyes opened in shock. "Wait- wha... what!?"
The class joined in without hesitation.
"Yeah, I was just to sexy for him to handle," Vane said.
"That's not true!" Avon denied.
"It's okay Avon. There's nothing to be embarrassed about," Blaze rubbed his shoulders in false comfort.
"But I'm not gay for Vane!" he tried, but the whole class was against him. I decided then and there that they weren't such bad people- kind of entertaining, actually.
Rana laid a hand on his shoulder too. "Why didn't you tell me sooner? You know you can trust me."
She spoke seriously but a smile slipped through her facade.
"Rana...!" he whined.
She broke and laughed out loud. She was in a much better mood than she was before she left.
"But seriously. What happened here?" she asked, eyeing the tea cups in our hands.
"I made them do their school work and apparently they weren't very happy. These young ladies spilled boiling hot tea on me. Very immature if you ask me," the lying piece of shit said.
"Being your servant is not schoolwork!"
"Shut up Vane, don't lie. I didn't do that." He waved his accusations off.
"You made Marigold bake a whole fricking pie just for you!" Sachiko shouted.
"No, I swear they're all lying. They're just upset that I made them work." Avon denied everything.
Everyone went into an uproar. All talking at once, but rather than talking it was more like screaming. It took Rana a few minutes to calm them down and grab their attention.
"Look, I actually don't care to know the truth of what happened while I was gone, but I'm just required to have some level of interest in my students. It might be my job to keep you safe but you all obviously don't have a knife in your chest so you're all fine. And since you can still make my life miserable it proves you're still breathing," Rana ranted.
"But-" Blaze started.
"I said I don't care. I'm tired and sleepy. And if nothing else is required from me, I'm going to bed. Goodnight brats," Rana walked out of the room without another word.
We all stared in disbelief and looked around, unsure of what to do next. When a disheveled Bruce walked in, clothes ripped and dried blood littering his body.
"Oh hey! Where have you been?" Avon asked innocently.
Bruce whipped his head around and glared. "You...! you... YOU MOTHER F-"
A/N-- Hey it's been less than six months since the last update what is up my dudes.
I suppose the final half of this chapter (written by Dixie) is dedicated to @Bluestar4872 so uhhhhhh what's crackalackin my friend.
It was really hard not to spoil this shit. To avoid ruining your lives without warning: shit's about to get real.
Lila, you've been with me a long time. You know that I'm good at heartbreaking ;)
Anyways, I will be on my way. It's past 3am and I'm only awake because I promised to get this chapter out tonight.
Goodnight, cowards.
~Ally