Knight of the Black Rose (36 page)

"Sorry," Lucy said as they caught up with them.

Jasper and Duncan and the others who didn't go, were told everything that happened as they walked over in the crowds of students who were also slowly making their way over to the hall, which only took a couple of minutes. What took the longest was actually getting into the hall itself through the side entrances.

There were hundreds of students, most of them still in their white robes, dresses or suits talking with friends or finding somewhere to sit on their table, the rest of the students who hadn’t attended the ritual were in their normal clothes. The hall itself had floating candles above the tables in circles every couple of meters, then high above them all was one large circle glowing in all the colours of the estates; beside from the candles the hall was bare, not even anything on the tables as they approached.

Jasper and Duncan looked around disappointedly as they followed the others over to their table at the front, and then everyone taking their seats on either side; as did everyone else in the hall.

Professor Odin stood and waited for everyone to sit and settle, before he spoke. "Good evening to you all. I hope that our new first years enjoyed their first slumber of the guardians, I'm sure that you'll never look at a tree in the same way again. I want to thank you all for understanding our traditions and belief's, as we accept all belief's of each of you. Tonight, we celebrate our guardians, letting them rest while we protect them,"

Odin waved his hand and the candles above the tables rose higher above them all and the torches went out suddenly, but there was still enough light with the amount of the candles in the air. With another wave of his hand pumpkins fell onto the tables through-out the hall startling everyone, they rolled around, gathering up smaller forms, until small pumpkin figures stood atop the tables and candles lit inside of them. Music suddenly started to play from somewhere above them and then pumpkins began to dance rising up slightly into the air. Food suddenly appeared on the tables, along with bowls of sweets and candies of all kinds; they filled their plates and glasses eagerly.

"Now...that's cool..." Duncan said as he grabbed a handful of sweets.

"Do you think we'll be allowed to take some back to the room?" Jasper asked.

"Probably, we're allowed from the other food hall," Troy answered.

The floor shifted suddenly, shaking slightly making everyone stop eating and look around wondering what was going on, but at first no one could see anything, and then there were several screams from different tables; even Libby screamed as she jumped out of her seat, and then climbed on it. They all looked over to see what was going on, but they didn't really need to move, as it was happening everywhere; skeleton's were climbing out of the ground. Pulling themselves up, as though the spot where they climbed wasn't solid; then once they were fully through and standing they shook themselves out and then started to dance.

"They're not going to hurt us?" Libby asked still on top of her chair.

"That was better than the pumpkins," Troy said laughing. "You should have seen the look on your face,"

"You were just as scared," Lucy shot at him.

"No I weren't," Troy said defensively.

"Then why are you half stood up as though you were going to run away?" Lucy asked smirking at him.

Troy looked around the table as he sat down properly again, as everyone laughed, even Libby calmed down as she got down off her chair and sat back down, nervously looking over her shoulder at the skeleton couple dancing close by.

"Well that Harry thought they were going to rise the dead...I bet he was freaking out," Will said amused.

"Don't you think he asked a lot of questions?" Lucy asked.

"Isn't he from a non-magical family though?" Libby asked. "I had a lot questions,"

Lucy wasn't convinced though, but decided to drop it for now and concentrated on her food instead and watched the animated dancing, quite impressed with how they had done it and wondered if she would ever be that good one day.

Troy walked slowly up the stairs of their dorm carrying three bags of sweets, that he had filled before he had left the hall, with Will and Alex who were coming up behind him also carrying a couple of bags each; they had left the girls outside to go to their own rooms, and now they were going to crawl into bed.

"So do you think all of this is weird?" Will asked Alex.

"Nope...mum's a witch, and she's always believed in all of this...it's just dad," Alex told him.

Troy spun around at the top of the stairs. "My dad still won't tell me anything about what's been going on,"

Will laughed at him. "And you actually thought that he would. Yeah, right, they all know what we're like,"

"And just what's that supposed to mean?" Troy asked offended, though not sure why.

"We're already doing our work on what's going on," Will told him as he nudged him out of the way so that he could get past him.

"Oh...right...yeah...I guess..." Troy said shrugging.

Will unlocked the door opening it wide as he went it, and straight over to his own room; he opened his door to complete darkness; the over head lights not automatically coming on, which he thought was strange.

"I'm going to check on my candle!" Alex shouted through.

At the mention of the candle, Will was confused considering that there should still be light in his room coming from his own; but there was nothing. He slowly stepped in wondering what had happened, as his candle had never gone out before in all the years that he had been doing this, but there was no light except from behind him in the living room. The floor beneath his feet felt really strange, kind of squishy or even wet, which he didn't understand because he hadn't spilled anything in here.

"Lights!" Will said, but nothing happened. "Lights!" Again nothing happened, he was still in darkness.

Flames suddenly erupted beside his bed making him stumbled back in fright dropping his bags, his heart thundering in his chest he took another step back as he looked around his room while the flame drew back on itself just becoming a normal light once more. Will took in his bed in the candle light, but it looked different as did the floor; he looked down at his feet for the first time and saw red. He took another step back wondering what was going on, he knew that it wasn't a joke of some kind because the other two would have already come in to check on him by now, and it wasn't as though they had any time to do anything either.

Will just stared at the floor wondering what it was, he dabbed it with his toe while the hem of his white trousers soaked up whatever it was on the floor; but as he thought that it actually made him feel sick taking another couple of steps back right into something solid. He shouted out in fright as he stumbled away knocking into his door.

"Damn Will, chill," Troy said reaching out on the wall for the light switch. "Nervous much,"

The lights flickered on.

"Shit!" Troy shouted as he fall backwards out of the room.

"What's with all the shouting over there, you sound like a pair of girls!" Alex shouted across from his own room rubbing his eyes.

Will held onto the door as Troy crawled backwards out of his room, and he just stared at his bed, it was covered in blood dripping over the edge and onto the floor.

"Come on guys...what's going on?" Alex asked getting annoyed with them as he came out of his room to check on them. "What're you doing on the floor?"

Troy though couldn't answer him as he backed up into the sofa, his face white and his eyes round staring into Will's room. Alex walked over annoyed that he was being left out or that they were setting him up with some sort of weird joke, but he walked over to find out what was going on, he walked in front of Troy looking in Will's room; his mind couldn't even form what he was seeing but he ran over to the door almost throwing himself at it and pressed the emergency alarm above the lights.

The alarms sounded breaking the silence but none of them moved, mere seconds later Hunter and Loring teleported into the room with their wands out ready; they quickly scanned the room and then stepped over to the door that was open.

"Shit," Hunter muttered.

"My god!" Loring said.

Hunter stepped into the room and grabbed Will by the arm dragging him out, as more teachers teleported in; Domnus and Fortis stood together with their wands ready as were Eldamar and Burnhill, looking around to find out what was going on.

"You should look at this," Loring said still staring into Will's room.

They all walked over to check out what was going on, as Will stepped out of Hunter's shadow to look into his room wondering what else could be happening. The blood on the floor was actually moving, it was moving backwards as though where ever it had come from was absorbing it back; he faintly heard someone being sick behind him but he couldn't turn away from it.

Domnus suddenly stepped past them all and into the room; he quickly looked around as the blood receded back to the bed, the droplets actually going up, being absorbed backwards like everything else. He ripped off a piece of his shirt and dabbed it into the blood, but it didn't take so he tried it again and again until finally some of the blood was soaked in it, then he smelt it.

"It's real," Domnus told them.

Hunter took a step back with Will and nodded at Loring to get Troy off of the floor; Loring bent down and pulled him to his feet directing him over to Alex by the door.

"I had hoped that it was just a practical joke," Eldamar said grimly.

"No such luck," Domnus said as Burnhill walked into the room with Fortis behind her. "I'll stay and have a look around,"

"The candles black," Burnhill said.

Everyone in the room looked at Will, as he looked at them.

"Why would you use a black candle?" Hunter asked him.

Will shook his head trying to focus. "It isn't...it was burnt red,"

"Does that mean that it somehow got in here?" Loring asked unsure how that was even possible.

"The barriers are up," Hunter said, but he didn't sound convinced even to himself.

Will looked up at him nervously. "The underground tunnels,"

"What?" Hunter said confused and then suddenly realised what he was saying. "You've got to be kidding me,"

"I'll sort that myself," Eldamar told them before he teleported out of there, as Domnus walked out of the bedroom.

"How'd you know about the tunnels Will?" Domnus asked him. "I remember telling you, to tell me if you happen to come across anymore doorways,"

Hunter pulled Will around to face him grabbing his other arm. "The Firmasca match, students said that they saw someone suddenly disappearing on the stairs. What happened?"

"It...it pulled us in..." Will told him feeling horrible for not saying anything sooner, they had been going to, but then got distracted with the idea that they could find out what it was on their own.

"Us? Who's us?" Hunter demanded.

"Err...Lucy...it was Lucy..." Will told him.

"I'll go check on her, and check in with the others on the swipe," Burnhill told them before she teleported out.

"What happened?" Hunter asked him.

"I told you to tell me as soon as anything happened," Domnus told him sternly.

"I know...we were going to...but I don't know..." Will said feebly.

"Will?" Hunter prompted shaking him slightly.

"I don't know..." Will said distractedly looking between the two of them. "It was dark...we didn't see anything...we just heard someone following us. We ran and came out onto a corridor,"

"How'd you come out onto a corridor?" Loring asked confused.

"Did it follow you?" Hunter asked.

"We heard something hit the wall hard, as though it ran straight into it," Will told him, as Hunter looked at him pointedly and he tried to remember Loring's question. "Err...Lucy...she did some spell...and a door opened...well an opening shape kind of thing,"

"Lucy did?" Hunter asked.

"This is the first time that I've heard it's gone after a person," Domnus said.

"Why them though?" Loring asked.

"I saw it in the field," Will said feeling kind of numb and stupid, he should have just told them everything.

"They can stay down with Ethan and Methos for the night," Fortis told them as he walked back through to join them. "I'll stay here and go over the room, see if I can find anything,"

Hunter let go of one of Will's arms, but kept hold of the other as he directed him towards the door, with Loring right behind him making sure the other two followed also.

"I know how it is to want to prove yourself Will, but this is serious...if anything else happens you're to tell us straight away," Hunter told him. "I don't care what it is, or what time it is; you find one of us and tell us. Lucy will be told the same thing,"