Knight of the Black Rose (32 page)

The stadium went wild as Norvin flew out of the changing rooms on the right centre corner of the stands, obviously Si'wun's statement about him being one of the schools favourite teachers was true, and Lucy had a feeling that it wasn't just because he played for a national team, he was good at what he did and he also stood up for what he believed in. Lucy cheered along with the rest of them as she watched him do a complete circle of the stadium before he hovered just out in the centre over the main island.

"And now for our two teams, Cadell and Disa!"

The stadium erupted again as the doors flew open to the changing rooms on either side of the stadium, and the players flew out upon their brooms, and in their estate colours, as they did a circuit.

"Conductions are good today for an extraordinary match!"

Lucy shivered as she pulled her jacket closer around her. "Do you feel that?"

"It's just cold, but it is the end of September," Jess said off handily.

Will was on his feet staring down at the lake, and he wasn't the only one as he pointed down to it. "Do you see that?"

They all looked to where he was pointing, not sure what they were looking for at first, but then they saw it. The water actually seemed to ripple somewhat, as a wave of black washed over the surface.

"Oh...my...goddess! Do you all see this...the lake...its turning black!" Si'wun shouted somewhat alarmed. "It's like in the papers...hay! What're you doing? Give me that back!"

Screaming and panic broke out through-out the stadium, as students started to push their way along the seats to get to the exists.

Another voice came over the speakers and the screaming, this one commanding and in control. "Stop!” Hunter, taking charge of the situation. “I need everyone to stop and calm down, or someone will end up getting hurt! I want you all too calmly make your way to the exists; no pushing or shoving as you'll all get out of here. The carriage drivers have been instructed to let more of you on board so that we can get you back to school quicker. I'm sure that you can all do this, without harming another or yourself. Now, calmly to the exists!"

The panicked screams had subsided, but people were still rushing to get out of the stadium as quickly as possible, going both ways towards the lifts and stairs.

"Well I feel better just hearing him," Lucy said, he had nice calmly and commanding voice.

"Which way do you think would be better?" Troy asked as he looked both ways.

Will nodded to their right. "This way would be better, we're closer to these,"

"You do know that we'll never be able to get the lift down," Jess said holding onto Lucy's arm tightly as they followed after Will.

"We'll have to take the stairs then," Will told them.

"You do know that it's going to take ages to get down there, we're on the sixth level," Troy told them next to Alex closely following behind Jess, not letting anyone get past them and break up their group.

"At least the carriages aren't going anywhere until everyone’s on one," Eddie said loudly over all the noise.

"They don't have to go far either to drop off," Methos added.

Libby turned around from in front of them. "You don't really think that this has anything to do with what was going on in the city...from your papers I mean?"

"I think it does," Will said even though he didn’t really want it to, but it seemed the same.

"So it's got onto the island?" Lucy asked, not sure if she believed it or not as she didn't really sense anything strange, just the cold before the lake turned black. The only thing that she knew for sure was that her dad was probably going to call her later as soon as he heard about this, and grill her on what happened, and he was going to be so angry with her because she wouldn't have the answers that he wanted.

Lucy stumbled suddenly on something that she couldn't see, she would have fell into Will if Jess still hadn't had a death grip on her; she carried on walking even though she could feel her face burning slightly, but it didn't seem as though anyone was going to say anything about her near miss, which she was pleased about.

"I don't see how it could have gotten past all of the teachers," Eddie said confused.

"It's gotten past all of the officers in the city, why wouldn't it have any trouble getting past a couple of teachers?" Alex said.

"Because some of them used to be officers themselves," Eddie told him.

"Your dad and Domnus did right?" Lucy asked.

"How do you even know that?" Troy asked.

"My dad," Lucy told him as though that was obvious, as they stopped because there was a queue to get down by the lift and even the stairs.

They slowly edged forward, wanting to stick together but they told the others in front to just go whenever they got a break in the crowd and they'd meet back at the dorms or in the main common room. Selena and Libby disappeared with a couple more from their class into the crowded stair well, while they still waited for their opening.

"You won't let go, will you?" Jess asked nervously as they slowly made their way forward.

"Jess you have hold of me, and I have hold of Will's jacket; we're not going anywhere without each other," Lucy assured her.

"Should we hold onto you Jess?" Alex teased, as he and Troy were practically pinned against her because of those behind them pushing to get through.

"You can do, as long as I don't get separated from you all," Jess told him, feeling better for once that they were at her back.

They edge a little more closer to the doors, Lucy could see Eddie and Methos sneaking through, which meant that if they could do it, then so could they if only given a chance. Will shuffled forward with Lucy right behind him and the others right behind her; she so wasn't going to let him out of her sight.

"We're almost there...I can actually see the stairs," Will told them over his shoulder, moving through the crowd knowing the others would be following as closely as possible.

"Awe!" Lucy shouted as someone pushed into her making her stumble again.

"Are you alright?" Will asked concerned.

"Yeah, just keep going...the sooner we get out of here the better," Lucy told him, as they finally made it to the stairs.

There were still loads of people coming down from the upper levels, and as she looked over the railings she could see that there was students on every level trying to get down to the ground. She felt Jess tugging on her arm, but that was fine because it meant that she was still there. She kept hold of Will in front, and being carefully where she put her feet as they slowly headed down not feeling comfortable walking down stairs when she couldn't see the steps.

"Quite pushing!"

"Hay, that was my foot!"

"We're all going the same way!"

"This is crazy," Lucy whispered.

"Tell me about it," Will said as they slowly stepped down onto the first landing between the floors; but then he suddenly felt someone pulling him. "Hay!"

"What's wrong?" Lucy asked.

"Just some idiot, trying to get past me," Will said loudly not caring who heard him, but then he felt it again; this time though it was much stronger, he was almost pulled right off of his feet with Lucy falling into him. He spun around trying to see who it was while Lucy righted herself, keeping hold of him, which he was kind of glad about otherwise he probably would have ended up on the floor or over the railing.

"Are you already mate?" Troy asked.

"Someone keeps pushing and pulling me," Will said kind of rattled by the feeling, as he moved forward slightly closer to the wall turning so they could head down the next level.

"Everyone’s pushing and pulling in here," Alex reminded him.

Will felt it again, someone that he couldn't see grabbed his arm and pulled him towards the wall, but this time he struggled more even though whoever it was, was much stronger than he was.

"Will?" Lucy said uncertainly behind him as she grabbed his other arm.

"Lucy don't let go!" Jess shouted behind her.

Will was suddenly sharply pulled forward with such force that he was literally pulled off of his feet, straight for the wall along with Lucy holding onto him as though her life depended upon it, he heard screaming somewhere close by before everything went black.

Chapter Seventeen

Will woke with a start on his side and blanketed in blackness, on a cold damp hard floor, and there was someone on him; he tried to push whoever it was off of him but stopped when he heard her moan loudly.

"Lucy...is that you?" Will asked feeling around, hoping that it was her and that he wouldn’t touch anything that he wasn’t supposed to.

"Yeah...where are we...? And why's it so dark?" Lucy asked as she slowly got off of him so he could sit up.

"No idea," Will answered as he looked around, his eyes adjusting slightly to the dark, so now he could just about make out that they were in some sort of tunnel.

Lucy moved onto her knees looking around as her eyes adjusted as well, and she couldn't sense anyone close by or hear anything at all only her own heart beat that was beating twice as fast as normal.

"Do you think we're in some sort of secret passageway?" Lucy asked encouragingly.

Will shook his head. "Something grabbed me,"

"What do you mean something grabbed you?" Lucy asked her voice rising suddenly.

"Something grabbed my arm and pulled me in here," Will told her. "That's the second time it’s happened,"

"You've been in these tunnels before?" Lucy asked confused, wondering why he wouldn't tell her that, she told him everything; well almost everything that she was allowed to tell him.

"No...not here...but I have been pulled through a doorway," Will told her, not seeing any harm in telling her now considering everything that had happened.

"Wait a minute, that Monday when you didn't turn up to class, and I was pulled out to be questioned about when I fell through one of them?" Lucy asked him.

"Yes," Will answered simply.

"What happened?" Lucy asked.

Will looked back at her. "I saw a black figure, a couple of trees died and Domnus gave me a lift back to the school,"

Lucy just stared at him, not sure what to say; he had actually seen the person behind all of this. "Oh, my goddess. That's why you were pulled in here; it probably wants to kill you because you saw it,"

"What?" Will asked panicked as he shot to his feet, Lucy quickly following him. "What do you mean, it wants to kill me?"

"You saw it...no one else has," Lucy pointed out as she looked up and down the tunnel, but she still couldn't really make anything out clearly enough.

"Shit...we so need to get out of here," Will said hoping that she wasn't right as he grabbed her arm and pulled her along, he also hoped that he was going the right way since neither of them knew where they were going or which would be the best way to get out of there.

Lucy quickly followed after him, wishing that he had waited until they had gotten out of the tunnels to tell her about seeing the guy who was probably behind all of this, now all she could hear beside her own heart beat was echoing foot steps moving quickly in their direction.

Will led the way hoping to see light, which would lead to a way out of here, but there still wasn't anything; except that the tunnel had seemed to have gotten a little lighter so that he could see a bit better, but it hadn't helped in finding a way out. There wasn't any doorways either, as every time in touched the stone walls, they felt solid and there was no way that he would be able to see the shimmering effect of the doorways in this kind of light. He just kind of hoped that Lucy was just freaking out, and whoever was behind these things didn't really want him dead, because it wasn't as though he actually got a good look at the guy, since he was stood in the middle of a field, no where near him.

"Do you hear that?" Lucy whispered nervously, as she hated it when her senses didn't work properly.

"Hear what?" Will asked confused, as he could only hear them walking.

"That...the foot steps," Lucy said pointedly.

"That's us, Lu," Will told her as calmly as he could.

Lucy wasn't convinced as she looked over her shoulder but she couldn't see anything as though the blackness was swallowing everything up behind them; she was sure that she could hear more foot steps then just theirs, unless it was just the echoing. She stopped and made Will stop as well putting her hand over his mouth before he could protest. Unfortunately, everything didn't fall silent; someone else took two more steps and then stopped also. They both looked at each, before they broke out into a run.

"Oh my goddess, oh my goddess, oh my goddess," Lucy panted as she ran beside of Will, the foot steps following them.