Knight of the Black Rose (37 page)

"I..." Will started but didn't have a clue what to say in his defence because he didn't have one.

"I know, you've done a lot of training before you even got here and Lucy...I know all about your families, but this is different," Hunter told him as they took the stairs. "This thing, we really have no idea what it is or even how far it's going to go. You need to stay as far away from it as you can get,"

Will nodded, not wanting to say anything else and get himself into even more trouble than he already was; and at the moment all he wanted to do was get away from his room not sure if he would ever want to go back in there again.

Chapter Twenty

Will dressed in Eddie's bedroom, which was much the same to his own after his uniform had been brought down to him along with all off his books and work, they had told him that it might take a couple of days while they properly scan the rooms to find out what had happened. Will had also asked for a new bed, not wanting to ever sleep in his old one again after all of that blood, he had been quite revealed when they said that he could have a new one, in fact they agreed with him, that it was a good idea in case it itself was enchanted for later if he got into it.

Will so wasn't looking forward going back into the living room to be questioned by Duncan and Jasper about why they were down here, as Hunter had told them the night before that they weren't to tell anyone about what had happened, the story that would be told to the students would be that the alarm was set off accidently. Eddie and Methos had been fine about the whole thing, probably because their dad was a teacher and they kind of already knew what had been going on in the school.

He could already hear them through the door, and knew that it would be worse the longer that he put it off; so he picked up his school bag double checking that he had everything that he needed in it and then went through to face them. As he opened the door the room went quiet and they all turned around to him making him blush deeply.

"Come on Will," Duncan said eagerly.

"Yeah, they won't tell us anything," Jasper told him.

"That's cause there isn't anything to say," Troy told them still looking a little pale.

"We told you last night, it was just a practical joke that someone must have done, and it went a little wrong," Will told them again, hoping that he sounded convincing enough.

"Can't we at least see what they've done to the room?" Duncan asked getting up ready to go.

"No, they've sealed it off," Will told them.

"Actually it has been sealed off, with a magical barrier up over the door," Methos told them, as they all looked over at him. "I checked before while you were all getting ready,"

Jasper was confused. "Wait a minute...you went upstairs and then back here, without anyone else noticing?"

"Yes," Methos answered smiling proudly.

"Okay," Duncan said. "So, what did you lot learn before you even came here?"

"Yeah, you do seem more advanced then us," Jasper added.

"Our dads a teacher," Eddie told them as though that explained everything as he and Methos stood up ready to go, the subject over with for now; and he could see that Will was pleased for the distraction.

They all gathered their things and headed out for breakfast, this was something else that he wasn't looking forward to; he knew that everyone would be talking about the alarm going off, and wondered just how many would actually believe the story that the teachers had told considering the light of the situation with that thing going around sucking the life out of things.

The doors opened and the cold air hit them as they stepped out into the November morning; Will looked to either side as though he was expecting out here to be different, to show some sort of sign that, that thing had been here last night, but he couldn't see anything out of place. They walked over to the food hall in silence, Will quite happy for a while not to have to answer questions that he wasn't allowed to answer and basically what he didn't even know the answer to; he basically had no idea about what had happened last night and he had a really bad feeling that even the teachers didn't seem to look as though they understood what had happened either.

The hall was actually quite full, which surprised Will somewhat considering that it was normally quiet so early in the morning, but considering how noisy the place was he could guess why everyone was up; as he followed Troy making his way through the tables to where Lucy and her friends were sat.

"Why do you always sit with them?" Jasper asked.

"Cause Lucy's like one of us," Alex told him.

Lucy looked up suddenly as they approached even though she had her back to them. "Will, morning,"

"Hi," Will said as he took the seat next to Troy not, really in the mood to be quizzed by her in front of everyone so that they would have to speak in code.

"What about us?" Duncan asked annoyed.

"Oh, she meant hello to us all," Troy said smirking.

"So...do you lot know why the alarm went off?" Holly asked excitedly as she leant forward from the far end of their table, which was now full from near enough everyone in their class.

"It was a prank," Troy told her.

"It went off in their room," Jasper told them nodding at the three of them.

"Complete mess, they had to stay with us," Duncan added.

"Do you know who did it?" Libby asked.

"No...they're still looking into it," Will answered staring pointedly at Lucy.

"Everyone was checked out, you know to make sure that they were all alright," Lucy told him. "Burnhill came to us; it wasn't as though one of the guys were going to check on us,"

"You know, it's been non-stop since we got here," Duncan said.

"So this sort of thing happens all the time here, my old school was so boring compared to here," Jasper added.

"Neither my brother or sister mentioned stuff like this happening...unless I weren't told because I was too young to be told," Lucy told them.

"My sisters never told me much either," Troy told them.

"I'm just hoping that things will stay quiet for a while," Will said, he really did want things to quieten down, yeah it had been exciting and scary there for a while, but that thing had gotten into his room. That was just too much, and he was hoping that his dad would be able to tell him more of what's going on later today when he called him, until then, all he had to do was stay out of trouble.

Everything was quiet as Will, Alex and Troy stood outside of their room after finally being told that they were allowed back inside, it had been three days since any of them had been inside but their teachers had told them that everything was alright and they could go back to their room.

"Go on Will...you can go in first," Alex said pushing him forward as he took a step back himself.

Troy turned around and walked over to the window seat ledge and sat down dropping his bag on the floor at his feet. "I would have thought that Lucy would have been more interested to have a look around after we told her what had happened. She's been avoiding us as well...spending loads of time in the library,"

"She's probably doing another project...she's got like half a dozen on the go all the time," Will said off handily. "Probably got enough to take her right up until the end of the school year,"

"Come on Will," Alex prompted him again.

Will swung around to face them both. "Why do I have to go in first?"

"Because we voted that you should go in first...you handled the whole blood thing better than we did," Troy told him.

"Yeah, you were sick everywhere," Alex told him smirking.

"It was everywhere, and there was so much of it," Troy told him again, annoyed that he had to keep bringing that up all the time.

"Actually...I vote that Alex should go in first...he did pull the alarm as soon as he saw it all," Will said stepping back.

Alex went pale frozen on the spot. "What? No..."

The three of them looked at each other, debating what they should do before anyone actually came back to the dorms and saw them arguing about who should go in first, considering that they had been telling everyone that nothing had happened, like anyone would believe them if they saw them now.

Will laughed nervously. "This is stupid...we should go in...Domnus and Hunter said that everything was alright,"

Will stepped closer to the door reaching out his shaking hand, as Troy got up and slowly walked back over to join them standing next to Alex. Will turned the handle, the door opened and he pushed it in, then slowly went inside himself with Troy and Alex right at his back. Everything on first glance looked the same, but it wasn't in the main room that anything had happened, except for all the teachers teleporting in. Will slowly walked over to his bedroom, his two best friends right behind wondering why they couldn't be at his side, but at least they had come in with him, so that was fair enough. He stood in front of his bedroom door, knowing that he would have to go in and he believed Domnus and Hunter when they had told him that everything was safe, especially after he had talked to his dad, and he'd told them that they were among the best at the school.

Will knew that he had to do this, otherwise he wouldn't have anywhere to sleep except for the sofa and he really didn't want to send the rest of the school year being afraid of going into his own room. So he took a deep breath and opened the door, the lights came on as normal, and the three of them squeezed in to have a look around; not that you could tell that anything had happened.

"Well...it just looks like your room," Alex said disappointedly.

"I told you that the blood was disappearing when we left," Will told him as he went over to his bed, as he could see something on the top of it.

"What is that?" Troy asked him as he followed him over, still at his back.

They both just stood there staring down at his bed, resting on the pillows was a rose, but not just any rose, a black one.

Will hesitated for a moment before he reached out and picked it up, but it just felt like a normal flower; he didn't understand why it was there.

"Do you think it means something?" Alex asked.

"This probably is just someone playing a stupid joke," Will said off handily as he dropped it on the night stand next to his bed and turned back around to them. "Some one probably thought that it was funny after hearing that something happened in here,"

"He's got a point," Troy said happy with this as he walked back out. "I need to sort all my stuff out before we meet them upstairs,"

"Yeah, but all they'll be talking about is those stupid human papers," Alex complained as he followed after him.

"They did show the ritual of the other night," Will pointed out. "That means that it has to be someone who was there, one of the human students,"

Alex turned around grinning. "It's not me, no matter how much my dad may hate all of this; I don't,"

"I don't think it's any of our lot, I mean considering how much we've been talking about that thing, some of it would have been put in the paper," Troy added.

"Yeah...I guess...I just don't like that someone’s selling us out to them," Will told them as he walked over to wardrobe pulling his spare robes out of his bag, then hanging them back inside, knowing that they weren't the only ones that didn't like what was going on with these papers.

It was the following Monday as they walked into the science and potions, Will wondering where Lucy had gotten to again considering that he hadn't seen her all of break and to be honest they hadn't seen much of her over the weekend either; he was actually wondering if she was upset with him because he had told the teachers that they had ended up in the underground tunnels, but it wasn't as though he was stupid enough to tell them everything that had happened, like listening in to them talking in the staff room.

He took his seat ignoring Reagan and his friend who was glaring at him, as though it was his fault with who he had to share a table, and hoping that she hurried up because he didn't want to spend the whole lesson alone with them. The bell rang as he looked over at the door and she rushed in carrying a huge bag, which made her stumble slightly, but Loring caught her and she blushed deeply.

"Thanks," Lucy mumbled before she hurried over to their table, dropping her bag on top, startling them all at how heavy it was.

"What've you got in there?" Will asked as he reached out to take a look.

"Maybe she's moving out." Reagan said smirking.

"It's called work," Lucy said sitting down.

Will looked at her as though she was crazy. "Lucy, we're in the same class, we don't do that much work,"

Loring cleared his throat loudly before Lucy could respond, and the class fell silent. "Good morning, Professor Jevidah is busy today, so I'll be taking your class," He picked up a stack of papers and came out from behind the desk, as he started handing them out. "Today, as I'm just covering Professor Jevidah; he has done a pop quiz for you all, on everything that you've studied so far and also a few added things he hopes that you've picked up while studying. You have both lessons to do the quiz, and if you do finish it before the times up...then...I'm sure that I can find you something else to do,"