Stephanie winced slightly at her second question, hoping the girl -now known to be Cali- would have forgotten that comment by now. Sliding her hands under her legs, she rocked back-and-forth in her chair uncomfortably.
"They won't do much if it's only once," The artist started, hoping to divert the conversation. "Just ask you why you missed it and make you feel extremely guilty if you're that kind of person. I'm not really sure what happens if you try to skip all the time..." She trailed off, falling into nervous silence.
Even after her years at the school, Stephanie still wasn't used to explaining things. Cali obviously had some kind of ability, otherwise she wouldn't be there. But some don't take well to the knowledge. As they most likely had other problems to deal with, suddenly being even less "normal" was terrifying and easy to... Well, freak out about.
Jaden cringed as the church bus screeched to a stop, he hates loud noises unless its music. He looked out of the window and he saw it, St. Reginald's Academy. Jaden grabbed his duffel bag and threw his guitar case over his shoulder.
As he gets off the bus, the driver yells "God be with you" and Jaden rolls his eyes. He isn't a believer and probably never will be unless convinced otherwise by actual evidence. Jaden walks to the front steps of the academy and sighs, he doesn't hate the place because it finally gave him a chance to be away from his room and his father, but it isn't much of an improvement. He waks through the front doors enters the lobby.
"Wow..." he mutters under his breath as he saw students sitting around generally just being...normal, a commodity Jaden never had. He walks up to a random student and asks "Uhm...Do you know where I can find Dorm 15?" The student then tells him directions.
Jaden finds the Dorm hallway and walks down it searching for Dorm 15. Jaden says to himself "What the hell, this looks more like an Asylum than an Academy." After pondering on that for a moment, it quickly leaves his mind because he finds his dorm. Jaden walks to the door and sees his schedule taped on the door. He takes it down and looks at it wondering what time it is right now.
Elias gasped in shock at the new tunnel that was revealed. This school would just keep throwing weird shit at them it seems. "This..." Elias sighed and hung his head, God this was embarrassing. "This might seem a bit silly, but that tunnel seems creepy as the seventh circle of Hell..." He twisted his head, and looked around Drake. Yup, that was still one of the creepiest things that he ever saw. "Just. The whole flood-murdered thing seems a little more... real now." He looked at Drake and his face twitched, like it too, didn't quite know what emotion to feel, which expression to show. "I don't want to kill you." He felt his eyes widen, and wow, he didn't mean to say that, ever, let alone when they only met, what, an hour ago.
"I mean." What did he mean? "I..." Elias felt his hands starting to twitch and sweat, his arms were itching and he was starting to get nauseous. He blinked, five times, in rapid succession, breathed in and held it for fifty seconds, and his heartbeat slowed, and when he breathed out, ten seconds, it felt like that weird sensation again, like the pressure outside was larger than it should be. Four more times he took a breath, held it, and released it again, and Drake was breathing too, but so much slower than even him. When he inhaled for the sixth time there was a rushing in his ears, and Drake's breathing was as fast as his again. "Sorry, just, lets just do this?" Elias stepped around Drake, into the tunnel that probably lead to the seventh circle of Hell. He turned his back to the tunnel on the first step down, and looked up even further at Drake, "just, promise me that if I try to hurt you, you'll defend yourself?"
Jaden walks into his room and sets his stuff down on his bed. He looks around and says to himself "Not bad, certainly looks better than the hallways." Jaden then begins to unpack his things, setting his guitar in the corner and bringing out his notepad and his Wicca altar tools. he sets up a small altar on a desk, complete with pentacle, dagger, chalice, and candles as well as a few other things.
After setting up his Altar he takes out his guitar and begins to strum a few notes, then proceeds to tune it to "Standard Tuning." Jaden then begins to play a few short songs to himself to make himself feel more comfortable with his current situation.
He laughed when Elias gasped and said that the flood-murder thing seemed a bit more real. "Seems pretty, legit now, huh?" Drake said, and grinned.
With slightly-widened eyes, his breath hitched as he heard Elias say, "I don't want to kill you." He felt himself breathing fast, the grin was gone. He seems so normal, though. What does he mean? Why would he say that? He tuned out his friend's rambling for a moment as he thought, We only did just meet. He tuned back in as his friend said, "Sorry, just, let's do this? Just, promise me that if I try to hurt you, you'll defend yourself?"
"Mate, if you try to hurt me, you'll probably be burned before you can even lay a finger on this hotness," he said in a partially joking tone. "Now, let's do this!" Drake stepped in to the tunnel, following Elias. The book shelf gave a loud creak, before thumping, leaving them alone in the partial-light. "So, where do think this leads? Something creepy, fancy, or something that's just, like, a chair."
"Personally, I feel like it's going to be creepy, but you never know... It could just be an add on to the library," he shrugged as they continued making their way down the path. "Of course, it's so dimly lit in here, that if you wore sunglasses, you'd think that it'd be night." Drake's grin was back. "If we end up making a ton of friends, we could all just come down here and chill. If it's cool, though. I mean, if it's like, a chair or some flood-murdered person, then probably not."
Elias smiled as Drake rambled behind him. He trailed a hand down the rocky side of the dark tunnel and shuddered. So much could go wrong, and he tried not to think about it, but of course that didn't stop his brain. If only he could see clearly, but nooo Elias just had to be night-blind. Shit, his hands were getting clammy again. "You know, since you're a pyromaniac and all, have you got any matches or something on you? I'd like to be able to actually see." He didn't turn his head towards Drake, knowing that that would just be another patch of darkness indistinguishable from the darkness in front of his face. His voice was shaking, and maybe this was a bad, bad idea, but he would not let his obsessions control his life.
"I'm wearing the those sunglasses you mentioned, as in I am really freaking night-blind." Elias clenched his jaw and focused on moving downward. "I just hope there's a proper source of light down there." He mumbled stumbling down the uneven stair in darkness. "I think it's more likely that it's a part that's been removed from the library, to be honest, otherwise there would just be a regular door, I think. So maybe it's just a chair, or maybe it's a collection of books they don't want us to find." To think, they discovered a hidden portion of the school's library on their first day. "If it's a corpse, I hope it's not flood murdered, because I've heard" well, he researched decomposition rates and that, because maybe more information would calm his brain down, hint; it didn't. "I've heard that corpses that died or rotted in water stink a lot." Elias laughed, "and Drake, you are so full of hot air"
"Wow, Elias," Drake said, "you are just blinding me with your amazing pun, right there." He reached into his pocket, and pulled out a match, and lit it. Sure, I could always just use my hand, but... That would be quite awkward and strange, wouldn't it? he thought to himself. "This better?" he asked, running the flame along his palm when Elias wasn't looking. It was warm and ticklish, and didn't quite burn. Yes, it was the fire powers. This is what caused it to not burn him. He pushed his sleeves up, trading the match between both hands. As he glanced at the small, tiny thread tied around his wrist, he felt the urge to burn it.
So he did, but blew the inflamed thread out, laughing. "Well, that was fun," he said, and continued on the path. The thread fell down to the ground, in tiny ashes.
They carried on, before stopping at another door. "Ugh, another door," Drake said, "Seriously, if they want it to be so mysterious, why don't they just have it be accessed first?" Nonetheless, he pushed the door opened by the handle, and glanced around.
"Well, isn't this nice? More books. Oh, and look here, a chair."
After his delightful tune session, Jaden sat his guitar against the wall and walked towards the closet to change clothes. He changed into a long sleeve back and grey stripped T-shirt and black jeans. Jaden's stomach growled loudly What do they have to eat in this place? He thought to himself as he walked out of his dorm and down the hallway searching for the cafeteria. He must have looked like a lost puppy because several people asked if he needed help looking for something, but Jaden denied the help determined to find the cafeteria himself. Mainly his curiosity lead him to reject help but some part of him wanted to be self reliant for the most part of his new life, so he wouldn't have to rely on anyone else.
Bri hung her head rejectedly. "I can't do this right now. I need time to think. Just...breathe in...breathe out!" She walked towards the cafeteria. Maybe someone had seen her book there.
As Rachel was driving up to the academy she looked out the windows of the police car to see if she saw anything she recognized. Rachel was upset she had to go to this "academy" but would rather go here than go to a prison. She honestly wondered why it was better for her to go here in the first place, what? did they have send your prisoner here and get $100 free Coupon? but never less she wasn't going to complain.
The police escorted her out and made sure her handcuffs were still intact and double checked her suitcase for any weapons. "Yes I totally could take weapons with these handcuffs on,' she said as they found a knife hidden in the suitcase. The police confiscated the knife and brought her inside holding her so she couldn't run away.
One of the police men asked the lady for Rachel's schedule, so the lady gave the schedule to the police. The other police asked her if Rachel was going to always have a eye on her the lady said "yes," but then mumbled under her a breath "yeah no way." The police then said "if you murder anyone it's straight back to prison" then took of Rachel's handcuffs and handed Rachel her schedule.
"So I'm in dorm #8, any chance I can get out of here?" Rachel said as they left. The lady chuckled "yeah no way" she said with a grin. Rachel made a face at her then left for Dorm #8. As Rachel looked at the hallways she thought to herself well if I murder anyone these hallways won't look any different. Rachel then began to chuckle, which turned into a laugh, which had turned into an insane laugh that lasted for 1 whole minute. She then calmed down and said "Okay here I go onto my way of boredom."
After about thirty minutes of searching, Jaden gives up and grabs a book from his dorm and sits on hi bed. Blue and red flashing lights shine in his room and distract him from reading, so he walks out and sits on a bench outside of his dorm room in the Dorm Hall. What is that about? He wonders to himself as he reads along the fantasy novel, it is one in a series he quite enjoys more that others. It seems very odd that he is enjoying small things more now that he has free time to actually do the small things.
As Rachel walked down the hallways she began to wonder if anyone else came here because it was this or prison for them. She kicked the floors to make a creaking noise, but she continued because she seemed to have enjoyed the annoying sound of the floor. After a while Rachel finally came to her Dorm #8 and noticed how loud Dorm #6 was, but ignored it for ignorant reasons.
Rachel barged in to see no one was in there yet so Rachel claimed the Right side of the room for herself. She then plopped her suitcase onto the bed and checked if the police by any chance had accidentally left her knife in the suitcase by any chance which they didn't. After the search Rachel took out her crumpled ball of paper which was her schedule and opened it to see her schedule.
Rachel then Underlined the one she wanted to do after breakfast. She decided it was best for her to take a nap on her bed before heading for breakfast. Before going to bed Rachel felt her wrists to see how they felt without handcuffs. They felt like freedom to her as if they (The police)had just given up on her and let Rachel live her life her own way. With that happy thought in mind Rachel dozed off to sleep.
Elias sighed at the disappointing sight of old dusty books, chairs, and a table. At least there was a light switch on the wall. Elias flipped the switch and the sudden brightness blinded him. After blinking, five times, he saw clearer again. "Dusty books, dusty table, freaking dusty floor." Elias kicked said dusty floor and the puff of dust made him sneeze. "Looks like it was a part of the library they sealed of." He wandered around the table to the dusty bookcase that held the dusty books, god, this place is just so dusty.
"You know, if any of my obsessions or compulsions were about cleanliness, I would be on the floor drooling from an aneurysm right now." The joke about his OCD came easier than he expected, and so did the accompanying smile. Elias scratched his arm, this place was still giving him the creeps, even more than the rest of the school, and the scratching helped. "I wonder why they even made a part of the library in what is sure is the basement, judging from how far down those hell stairs went." Elias dragged his finger along the uneven backs of the books, trying to read a title through the layer of dust.
"Ah fuck it, lets see what they tried to hide." And then he pulled one of the books, one that was thick, but not very tall, down. The dust cloud that that resulted in made him sneeze three times. Three. He hates the number three. He squeezed his noise, but there was no saving fourth, multiple of two, good but not as good as multiples of five, sneeze. The book was surprisingly sturdy for how old it looked. Elias put it down on the dusty table, and cracked it open. The first page had the title there, clear for him to read, but he didn't believe it. It couldn't be. Surely this was some sort of prank or hazing or... something.
Elias took a deep but dusty breath and held it for five seconds. No, the title was still there, still so impossible. "The spaces between heartbeats; or a comprehensive guide to dilatory time control." Elias looked to Drake and felt his panic built.
Rachel woke up to see she was still in this academy rather than in the police car or prison. Rachel rubbed her eyes while trying to keep them open and made her bed again. She looked if she left anything good in her suitcase and actually found her iPhone. Rachel checked her to see if they changed anything which they didn't for somehow not her passcode. She looked at her schedule again and saw that it was or breakfast was about to start. So Rachel decide to walk on over to the cafeteria.
Rachel left her dorm room and started walking to the cafeteria. As Rachel was walking by the library she saw a bent flag pole which had caught her interest. She began to enter the library and saw plenty of books token out showing that somebody has been her. Rachel came up the stairs where the Bent flagpole was. It looked odd, the pole seemed very stable it self but if you pulled it, it was quite loose.
Rachel pulled the flagpole up to it's original position and heard a noise as if something was getting closed. She looked around and saw nothing out of sort so decide to leave the flagpole like this so it didn't look odd anymore. Rachel looked around a bit more and saw a book that had caught her interest and sat down at one of the tables in the library and began to read.
As soon as he took a breath after reading the title a great groaning came from above, and the lights flickered. Elias jumped as the groaning was ended, but a deep thud was heard. A draft followed soon after, making little cyclones of dust, and Elias finally had his fourth sneeze. A look into the staircase from which they came showed no sign of the light that an open door should have. "I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I think we're locked in." Elias felt his breath starting to come quicker, but focused on keeping it slow, breathing faster only used more oxygen, and they didn't actually know if there was a vent down here. So this is how you'll kill him, you only met him and already you're killing him. No, no, Drake and he would find a way out, any way out.
"Uh, I know it might go against your instincts, but please don't light a fire." Elias glanced at Drake, feeling his anxiety and panic building. "It'd use oxygen we need for breathing and all that. We don't actually know if there's a vent or any way to open the door, and I don't think there's a signal this far down, with this much rock all around." And wasn't that a happy thought, his first day at a new school and he basically admits that he fears he'll kill his roommate before finding some weird ancient room with books about shit no one should know about and then being locked in said room, with no way to contact someone and no discernible way out. His thoughts whispered to him that they knew all along that he would kill Drake, and no matter what, it would have ended with Drake dead eventually. Wasn't it a bitter kindness that he killed Drake now, before he got even more attached?
Jaden watched a girl walk by looking determined to find something and he just shrugged it off and went back to his book. After a while he stood up to do some more exploring and started aimlessly roaming the halls in high hopes that he will find something interesting to get into before classes started. This place is huge Jaden thought to himself as he peered around corners and finding more and more hallways and a few staircases leading to even more hallways. He was getting a little lost but he was fine with it, its better that sitting around doing nothing.
Rachel had thought she heard something a few minutes later after picking up the book but looked around and saw nothing so she figured she heard it all in her head.
When Rachel finished her book she left it on the table not in the bookshelves because there is a librarian for that right? Rachel was beginning to leave the library but then saw a book that had someone's name on it.
Rachel looked at the title of the book it seemed to have the name Brianna Washington written on it. She checked the back and it said Please return if lost. Rachel had almost opened it but then thought well I wouldn't want my reputation to go as a diary reader now would I? so I guess I'll just return it, so I'll hold onto it until I find this... Brianna Washington.
Rachel left the library on her way to the cafeteria. Once again kicking the floors to make an annoying noise. She finally got to the cafeteria and saw someone breathing heavily. Rachel walked up to the girl and asked "Is this yours?" she said with a warm smile and holding the book up to the girl so she could see it.
Before the door had shut, Drake found himself drawn to a book, and opened it. This might come in handy, he thought as he put the book into one of his pockets. As he heard Elias talk about one of the books, Drake cracked a smile and said, "Well, you never know when it might come in handy, especially to cure boredom." He glanced towards the book in his pocket, but was cut off by the darkness appearing faster and faster towards them. The door had shut. The lights were turning off.
"A-are you sure?" he stuttered, as he felt the warmth run to his hands. "I mean, it would just be a quick flicker of light, and besides, it would help us see if there's an exist." As Elias, explained that the fire would only take up more oxygen, Drake felt his gut sink to the floor. Something bad was going to happen.
Something bad, indeed.
With his heart racing, the panic setting into his state of mind, and his coolness fading, he found himself with fire. Blazed and bright, it shown through his hands, and he could see Elias's face in deep thought. Then he thought back to the conversation they had. "C'mon," he barked. "Let's get out of here." He pushed the door to the hallway open with his elbow and shoulder, careful not to set the wooden door on fire (No, he told himself, I will not set this on fire. Not now, at the very least). As he swung the door open, he used his hands to light the way.
"Well, great falls of fire, looks like there are two corridors," he said, and shook his head. "Isn't this fantastic?"
Calithera noticed that Stephanie was trying to avoid her question, and for some reason, this made her very angry. Why couldn't she get an answer? Jesus. None of these other 'answers' were useful either. No, this isnt her fault. Its your own incompetency at asking questions. She took a deep breath, and grabbed out her laptop, turning the screen so Stephanie couldn't see it. "At least tell me that I can use this in the god forsaken place."
Elias stood, stunned, when Drake started to glow, and then lit on fire. "That... That's something else." With one last thought to the room, and the odd books, he grabbed the one he pulled from the shelves earlier. The blind panic of being locked in what was a glorified coffin on his first day of his new school, and then the realisation that his roommate wasn't just a pyromaniac, but apparently could set himself on fire, left Elias feeling shaky. There was a loud panic in his brain, but for once he wasn't trying to count his breaths, or his blinks, nor was he under fire, and that wasn't an appropriate pun, brain, of thoughts about how he was going to kill his friends now. Drake pushed open the door, and how did he not set the wooden door on fire while he himself was on fire?
"Huh, this does explain the completely intact survival from torching your library." Elias shook his head, and focussed on the situation at hand. The door was open, and there was light, and there seemed to be enough stagnant air for both of them to breathe and... and Drake to literally be on fire. The hallway split into two, and wasn't it just their luck if they choose the wrong one and ended up in a literal dead end? "Lets go right, it seems to go up." Then Elias started to run, past Drake, his hand clenched around that stupid guide book from that stupid secret room.
The corridor went on for what seemed like forever, especially for someone that was as not in shape as Elias. And then he smacked into a door. Elias tugged at the little metal lockbox, and pushed, and then just went and threw his shoulder with all his weight behind it into the damn thing. It was no use. The door was locked, and despite its age it hadn't rotten even a bit. Damn. Elias punched the door out of sheer frustration, but all that did was hurt his knuckles. "Think maybe that room was booby-trapped or something?" He sighed and turned to Drake and really looked at him. He hadn't yet, being sort of preoccupied with the whole getting out alive thing. It was odd how recognisable he still was despite the fires wrapping around him.
"Well... Yeah." Stephanie nodded, glad the conversation had been diverted for the moment. "Though if anyone catches you looking up triggering or inappropriate stuff they'll probably confiscate it." She trailed off after that, fingers tapping idly on the edges of her chair.
Hands and mind very ready to get back to drawing once she had the chance, Stephanie stared at the other girl and waited to see if she had more to say. Though silently hoping not, as this had been more confrontational social-ness than the insomniac had had in days, she wanted to at least be friendly enough to her roommate. Cali seemed pretty on edge, so it seemed like a good idea anyways.
"I wasn't planning on anything inappropriate, and besides which, no one can catch me. Unless you tell them." She shrugged, and relaxed for the first time since coming her. Halfway relaxed anyways. Of course, it was also the first time since coming here sdhe had gotten to use her computer. As she typed, she muttered under her breath. Nothing that would !mean anything to someone else, just lines of code. After a few minutes, she shouted "Got it!". followed by " GODDAMNIT!". She flinched, terrified of what would now happen because of her shouts.
He wasn't necessarily sure how to answer that question. As he saw the fire engulfing his entire body, he dimmed it, until the only fire that was remaining emitted a bright glow in the palm of his hand. "I honestly have no idea whether or not that room was a trap." Drake glanced at the wooden door. "I could always burn the door down," he chuckled before regaining seriousness, "Of course, we have no idea what is actually inside that room. So, it's probably better if we just head back and try the other path.
"I'm sure that one of the ways had to lead to the stairs, and if this way lead to the door, the other corridor might lead to the stairs. Or perhaps we could just wait for someone else to bend the flag." His brain reeled, listing out possibilities in a tornado of thoughts. "I'd say that we just turn back. I mean, we don't know what's on the other side, so if there's just a dead end, then it's safe to assume that the door leads to the stairs. Although, we could just open-slash-burn-slash-kick-down-the-door."
"What do you think, Sir Elias?" He paused. "Oh, and sorry if I freaked you out with the fire. I'm pretty sure that's what Power Control is, now. I mean, why else would I light on f---ing fire?" he grinned. "I guess we could be a bunch of mentally unhealthy heroes. Or villains. Jeez, if we're villains, then who the hell is the principal? Or perhaps they developed with our mental illnesses and we're just a bunch of unstable freaks of nature. That's probably the reason! Ah, don't you just love being unnatural? Science can't go f--- itself!" he exclaimed.