Authors Notes:I mostly wrote this to keep myself from going insane while waiting for the newest episode, but if this gets a lot of attention and some love I will keep writing. (at least until the next episode airs because that's sure to be way better then my dribble)
All spelling errors are definitely my fault, seeing as I am writing this at 4:30am. Expect a lot of mistakes.
As soon as Eliot ran out the door after Margo, the heat hit him like opening the door to a oven on high broil. His face was instantly starting to cook, the top of his hair was hot to the touch even though he had only been out for 30 second, he felt like he was in a desert.
It didn't stop him from running after Margo though. Eliot might be a drama queen, but his friends always took president before his playful bickering.
"ELIOT!" a far away shout immediately pointed him in the right direction, and he darted towards the shout for help.
"I'm coming, Margo!"
He kept running, the sound of her cry still echoing in his head like he was in a deep canyon.
His tongue felt the exhaustion first, turning into leather from the blistering heat, his thoat next, then his lungs felt like they were being mummified, every bit of him felt like they were drying out. Even the sweat from his forehead was disappearing faster than his body could keep up to cool him down.
He kept pushing himself forward towards Margo, but he started to slow as little grey spots started to bob up at the corner of his vision like beer bottles in a swimming pool.
Eliot then realizes that this wasn't some regular summer heat wave. Every part of his body screamed for him to get out of the sun.
He stopped there, in the middle of the field at Brakebills, squinting, looking around him for any sign of Margo or her supposed kidnapper, but the foregrounds were as empty as they were in summer when all the students were gone. He called out for Margo a couple more times, but they came out like loud wisps more than anything. He'd be surprised if anyone that wasn't standing right in front of him could hear it.
His clothes, though shielding most of his body from direct contact from the sunbeams, were also choking him. The collar of his dress shirt tightened around his neck uncomfortably and he loosened his tie in a desperate attempt to breathe easier.
He looked up again, temporarily stalling his panting and looked all around him, looking for anyone at all, a groundskeeper, a teacher, anyone, but the campus was a total ghost town. That wasn't totally unusual for summer time, but as Eliot soon noticed, even the sound of wildlife seemed to be absent, no animals, no birds, no insects, not even the goddamn wind could be heard. Confusion bubbled up onto Eliot's face
The feeling of total imprisonment all of a sudden overtook Eliot and he toppled over. It was the strangest feeling he had ever felt in his life.
One moment he had been in the middle of Brakebills well kept lawn, the next he felt like everything in his body was screaming at him that he was trapped. His stomach wrenched inside of him and twisted like a wet kitchen dish rag, his lungs started collapsing on him like they were underwater. All he could do was lay there, trying to wrap his mind around this weird instinct he felt.
Like a lamp being turned on in the corner of a dark room, he all of sudden he remembered that he was a magician and that there was definitely a magical explanation for all of this.
Right, he was a magician, and magicians can cast spells. He should cast a spell to get out of the sun.
His brain turned to the first spell he could think of, Personal Rain Cloud. He pushed himself upright into a sitting position to free his arm for the hand tutting. He closed his eyes, recited the words perfectly and then gestured his hands in small circular motions like he was smoothing out a plate of clay and then quickly slapped his hands up together in the prayer position, intertwined his fingers and with one last whispered word, "sýnnefo" a cloud emerged from nowhere.
The spell was supposed to make a cloud big enough to cover a small house, but due to his slightly heat stroked brain, his cloud was barely bigger than a king size mattress. It was still big enough to block out the sun from beaming down on him, but the rain part of the spell was more like a light misting.
Deciding that whoever had taken Margo had probably outran him tenfold by now, he ran back to the the buildings, making a beeline for the Dean's office. If anyone knew what was going on, it would be him. Perhaps the school was under attack and he just hadn't gotten the memo yet.
He slammed the door open to the office, ready to apologize firsty for the wetness in the lobby, but his voice caught. The room was completely void of people, but the office still held the energy of business, like the Dean had just been in the office, but had vanished right as Eliot touched the door. He could have sworn that he heard the echo of a voice right as the door opened, but he couldn't be sure of anything.
"What the hell is going on here!?" Eliot shouted in frustration
Eliot then began his search around the grounds for anyone, starting off obviously with the busiest places first. Library, Teachers Lounge, Dining Hall, the larger classrooms and then he went back outside to the Maze that surrounded the magical fountains, shouting for people all places he went.
It was like every living soul had just disappeared.
The day, which had started off being the hottest day he had ever experienced at Brakebills, quickly started to dwindle, the sky showing some its own, none magical, clouds. Eliot, after getting slightly annoyed with his damp clothes, made the decision to uncast his little personal mist cloud.
He placed his hands flat in front of him, palms facing away, then rolled his wrist to make a kind of a robotic double wave, then he pinched fingers together tightly and swiftly drew them downwards like a conductor of an orchestra signaling the abrupt ending of a song. He whispered on last word, "fýgo," and all of a sudden the cloud seemed to drift apart like smoke from a cigar.
Eliot was starting to run out of places to look for people, he checked popular places for certain groups on campus, he checked some of the secret hangouts that only the cool kids knew about. He didn't find a single soul.
Just as he was losing hope, the strange feeling of him being in a prison came back to the front of his mind.
A thought made its way abruptly into his mind: Even though this place looks and feels like Brakebills, could he really be sure it actually was Brakebills?
He stood silently for a second, trying to make sense of this weird feeling he was having, but he had a little bit better control over his mind now, so he pushed the thoughts down.
Right than, his brain finally remembered one last building he had yet to check. The Welters Pitch.
He had almost forgot about it because the outside of the building was, in fact, invisible, so as not to obscure the scenery that surrounded the gigantic building. To started walking towards its direction and then he met a stone footpath that he knew lead the the Welters Pitch.
As he came closer to the invisible building, he could sense that someone was inside. He couldn't explain it, like he had all of a sudden developed some kind of six sense of where people were. It was a little bit unnerving.
When he came to the end of the footpath, he felt around for the invisible door handle, fumbling around for a few seconds until his fingers grazed across the cool metal. It's funny because it was the first cold thing he felt since he had left the Psychical Kids cottage. He guessed that since the building was invisible the light from the sun couldn't heat it up. A small thought from the back of his head amused itself with the thought that the building must have great climate control on summer days like this.
As soon as he opened the door he saw the squares of the Welters game, but besides that, an empty room. Something told him to investigate more.
Perhaps it was his supposed new found six sense, or maybe it was his brain registering the sound of someone breathing without Eliot himself fully registering it.
As Eliot walked in fully, he saw finally something moving.
Margo, who was sitting chearily in the stands was waving at him like she wanted him to come take a seat she had saved for him for a long time.
"Oh, thank god," he said.
"Come on, El. You're going to miss the best parts!" she said, like she was shouting over a boisterous crowd, but no one was there.
His face which had just been filled with relief now showed confusion.
All of a sudden the entire room melted from the magical looking Welters Pitch to a very normal human looking basketball court full of students shouting at the players on the court.
Eliot felt a weird feeling, like everything around him got bigger. Then he realized he had actually shrunk. he was back into his teenage, chubby body. He looked at himself in the reflection of a nearby glass window, eyes wild with worry and panic.
"What the Hell is happening to me," he said grabbing at his face and felt his soft, youthful skin and messy curly black hair that hadn't ever seen a single drop of styling gel.
Eliot fainted.