Disclaimer: I don't own Charlie Bone

Alright, new story! This is my second Charlie bone story but I quit the first on a few years ago. This one starts when Charlie is fifteen, about three years after the fall of the Bloors. Warning: there will be profanity! Honestly, how many fifteen year olds don't use it? Hell, I've had a potty mouth since the second grade!

Chapter 1:

Bone Academy didn't look like what it was: a school. It was a tall gray structure, ancient and forbidding. It's walls loomed five stories high with pointed towers and dark windows that made you feel as though you were being watched. And for all you knew, you could have been. It just wasn't a normal school. The students who went there were endowed with musical, artistic, and dramatic talents. It was also a place for children called The Endowed who had more… magical talents such as flying, hypnotism, controlling weather, or being able to create illusions. This however, were only a few of those strange talents.

Currently on the grounds of Bone Academy, 300 students were milling around for their break. Many were celebrating the end of what they called "Test Fever". Every year the teachers put the students through this form of torture. When it was over the children didn't care how badly they might have failed though, just that it was over.

Next to the walls of the ancient ruins, once a grand castle home to the Red King, the ancestor of every one of The Endowed, stood a group of eight students. Seven of these eight were endowed, a fact that caused them to stick together through everything. They had all been through so much together, they really were almost family.

"Liv is lucky she wasn't here," Said Fidelio, the only unendowed member of the group, his voice lightly laced with jealousy. Granted, that little jealousy was permitted as their friend Olivia was currently with her parents in Africa, where her father was directing a movie.

"Anybody know when she'll be back?" Charlie asked. Olivia was his best friend and he missed her creative personality.

Charlie Bone. In the years since the Bloors he had changed quite a bit. The most noticeable however, was the he was now about six feet tall, towering over all of his friends except for Lysander who still had an inch on him. He had a bit of a smart ass attitude that got to all of the teachers in the school, even the ones he didn't have. Charlie just said that it took skill to be able to do that. He was still a magnet for trouble, something that showed itself every few months. Even though the Bloors were gone, the little bits of chaos they had left in the city weren't. Charlie and his friends spent three years trying to fix that.

Emma shrugged in answer to Charlie's question. "She won't say. She said she wants it to be a surprise."

"What a jerk," Tancred muttered, though in a good natured way. With his words came a small gust of wind that had nothing to do with the February air. He had never gotten that under control.

The hunting horn rang signaling the end of break. They all ran back to the school and then to their respective coat rooms. Afterwards they went to their lessons.

Charlie trudged to his trumpet lesson. He had long since come to terms with the fact that playing music just wasn't his thing. After how many years, he still wasn't ever a part of any musical event the school had. So why should he try? It wasn't like he would ever go anywhere with it.

After his failure of a lesson he had French class. He only had one problem. He'd forgotten his book, something he realized just outside the classroom door. Great. The last time he didn't have his book he'd gotten detention. So he ran off to get it.

And this caused him to be fifteen minutes late. Madame Tessier was fuming when he entered the class, a very scary thing to see.

"Out! Out! You obviously do not care if you are in my class so why should I?"

"But I was only late because I had to get my book!"

"Enough! Out!" She pointed a boney finger toward the door.

Charlie threw his hands in the air as he turned around. "Ridiculous!" he exited the classroom and leaned against the wall. Who cares about French class anyway? I've got better things to do with my time. Like explore. With that thought he was off. What was the point of sitting outside of the classroom for a half hour when he could be doing something that was almost productive.

He decided on the DaVinci Tower for two reason. One: he hasn't been there since his first detention with Olivia and Billy. Two: it was close. That was Charlie, always taking the easy was. Well not really. If he did that then he would still be trying to be controlled by the Bloors.

When he got to the tower, Charlie realized something that he hadn't thought about. It was dark. Pitch black, really. And Charlie, like most people, didn't carry around a flash light in his pocket.

And then there was suddenly light. Claerwen fluttered just in front of him. He quietly thanked her and carried on up the stair, thinking of how the last time that's what they were trying to do. Until Olivia fell down the stairs. He prayed that wouldn't happen to him.

It wasn't long before Charlie began to wish that there was somebody there with him. He wasn't afraid of the dark or anything like that, but over the sound of his footsteps on the creaking stairs, he couldn't hear anything. Charlie knew that it was just his imagination playing with him like it always did when he was nervous. And so he did what he always did in these nerve-racking positions.

"I like to explore. I like chocolate cake. I like the color blue…"

Ten minutes later Charlie came to a landing where the stairs turned. He stood there for a moment to catch his breath. Those steps were steep and looking up they seemed to go on forever. Had anyone ever been to the top?

"I have to stop thinking these stupid ass thoughts," Charlie muttered crossly to himself. He looked around him nervously and saw Claerwen fluttering around a doorknob. A doorknob? Charlie looked at the door in interest. Something good had to be behind there. He drew back the heavy, rusted bolts and turned the knob, pushing on the old wood. It swung slowly in with a loud squeal.

The room beyond was pitch black. Charlie thought he saw a small sliver of light several feet away but decided it was his eyes playing tricks on him. He took a step forward, slightly fearful that nothing would be there.

Suddenly there was the sound of heavy footsteps and Charlie panicked. A furious and wordless scream reached his ears and he began to walk backwards, though still trying to see who was there. Something hit the wall next to him and shattered, pelting him with sharp pieces of glass. A particularly large piece sliced his left forearm and he gasped in pain. He quickly spun and charged out of the room, sliding the bolts back into place. Charlie, in his panic, misjudged how far away the first step was and fell right down.

Somehow he managed to stop himself before he broke his neck. He took the stairs more carefully until he found the door leading out. Knowing fully well that he looked like he'd been through hell and back Charlie decided to use the last few minutes in class to clean himself up.

With one last look at the door, Charlie knew that he would be going back. Some poor soul was locked up there in the dark, eating who knew what. It would be dangerous, but something had to be done.

A/N: chapter one complete. For those of you who will continue reading this story I don't have Internet at my house so I write the chapters on my iPod and update on weekends. For this reason several chapters may be put up at once. Thank you. Oh, and chapters do get longer eventually so if you're a person like me who likes the long ones, I don't know what chapter that will be by. Sorry! And farther along in the story I will be posting a cover art on a fan art website.