Charlie P.O.V.

I got off the bus and lingered for a second, staring at Bloor's. "This place isn't a school, it's a freaking prison." I muttered to Fidelio, thinking about who Emma Tolly is, Vanessa's words echoing in my head. "I know right." A girl with indigo hair said as she came bouncing towards us. "Blue's a good color on you, Liv." Fidelio said. Olivia smiled and laughed. "Thanks, even though it's indigo." She replied as we walked through the gates. "Same difference." Fidelio said.

My mind was occupied with Emma Tolly when I suddenly ran into a tall, tan, blonde guy wearing a blue cape. "Watch where you're going runt." He snarled. I noticed he had black eyes. I frowned. "I'm sorry." I said sarcastically. He ground his teeth. He was about to tell me off when a small, petite, brunette girl with a lip stud danced in between us, shoving the guy.

"Lay off, James." Vanessa said cheekily. James eyes turned blue when he saw her. He smiled. I frowned. I didn't like it. "I was just looking for you, I trust you slept well?" he asked her pleasantly. She looked ticked. She stomped on his foot, turned, grabbed my arm, and pulled me to my coatroom where Fidelio was waiting for me.

"Whoa, what happened to you?" he asked Vanessa. I looked at her. Her face was livid. Suddenly, the lights started flickering and her shadow started twitching. "I don't want to talk about it." she said. He nodded. She turned her gaze to me.

"Charlie, you need to stay away from him, whenever possible, okay?" she demanded. I nodded. "Yeah, okay. But Vanessa, what happened? What did he do?" I asked her, concerned. Suddenly a heat wave just came out of nowhere…in an air conditioned room. Her green eyes turned a deep, rich, blood red color. "He almost killed Asa and…" she trailed off.

Her head snapped out towards the door. She looked back at me, her eyes green again, she looked calm. Then, Asa came in through the door, limping slightly. He frowned. "Bone, Gunn, what are you still doing in here? Get your butts to assembly." He said. I frowned. Fidelio quickly walked out the room. I looked at Vanessa. She rolled her eyes and gave me a hug.

"Better go or Mr. Paltry will give you a hard time, oh, and tell Mr. Pilgrim I'll be in the tower around 5." She added. I nodded and walked to assembly where I stood in line by a terrified Billy Raven. I frowned.

"Billy, what's up?" I asked quietly. He looked over to his right. I followed his gaze. It was that guy James. I looked back at Billy. "What'd he do?" I asked. Billy looked at me. "Asa killed him Saturday night but then…he came back to life and…" he hesitated.

What's he holding back? It can't be worse than him coming back to the dead…can it? He leaned over and whispered something in my ear. My heart dropped to my stomach. I looked over at him and found him glaring at me. I quickly looked to the front where our teachers were speaking.

When assembly was over and we were free to go to our first class, I found Fidelio and told him what Billy Raven told me about the James guy…leaving out the courtship of my sister. His eyes practically popped out of his head. "You're kidding me." He whispered. I shook my head.

"It's not polite to speak ill of people, Charlie Bone." A voice said. I whirled around to find James standing behind us, watching us like a hawk. I looked at Fidelio. "We should be getting to class, later." I said. My class was right across the hall so I quickly walked in and to my seat where I was somewhat in solitude.

No one sat next to me on either side, but they did in front of me and behind me. Then James walked in. I sank in my chair as I realized that the only seats free were next to me. He saw that and smirked. He strode over and took his seat next to mine.

"So we meet again Charlie Bone." He said. I frowned. "Yeah, I guess we have." I replied. He laughed softly as the teacher told us what we would be doing. I looked at him. "What?" I hissed. For once in my life, I wanted to listen to my teacher, it was better than listening to him. He smirked.

"Do you believe the rumors Charlie Bone?" I frowned. "What rumors?" I asked. He looked slightly irritated. "That I died on Saturday, that I'm an assassin…that I came back to life?" he asked quietly. I thought about it for a moment, remembering the drawing that Vanessa had cried over. I shrugged. "I guess." I said indifferently. He turned his head slightly to stare at me.

"Are you scared?" he taunted. I looked at him and raised an eyebrow. "No, I'm not." I lied. If there's anything I've learned here, it's to never admit fear. He laughed darkly. "You will be." He said. And with that, he left me alone.

Tancred P.O.V.

I was walking down the hall, going to the cafeteria when I started feeling…weird. I looked at the ground and saw my shadow twitching. I looked up and saw Vanessa striding down the hall, Asa at her side, while this tall blonde guy was following her, talking to her. He just seemed to be ticking her off. Then she suddenly stopped. She spun around and glared at him. She began shaking and the lights started flickering, shadows were moving, the temperature shot up and, call me crazy, but I think she started to shape shift. This is out of hand.

I strode down the hall purposefully, creating a mighty wind. Their heads snapped in my direction. I looked at Vanessa. She had razor sharp fangs and her eyes were blood red. I looked at the guy. He was tall, had blonde shaggy hair, black eyes, and he seemed like a royal brat.

I looked at Vanessa. "You okay Vanessa?" I asked as I closed the short distance between us. Asa seemed angry about that…so did the guy. She shook her head. "No, I'm not. I'm far from it, because of him." she cried, jabbing her finger in the guy's direction. He frowned. His eyes were now a startling blue.

"Vanessa, calm down, can't we talk about this peaceably?" he asked her in a persuasive tone. She shook her head. "No. Stay away from me, stay away from Asa, and stay away from my brother." She said with authority. Her eyes turned green again and she took Asa's hand. She looked at me. "Thanks, Tanc." She said. I smiled and followed her in to the cafeteria, going to the art table.

I looked at the music table and saw Vanessa standing behind Charlie…Charlie with a wrist wrapped in gauze. She wrapped her arms around his shoulder and whispered to him. He nodded and he and Fidelio stood up and went to go sit with her, Asa, and Olivia. For once, Asa smiled at Charlie and patted him on the head like a friend would.

"Hey, Tanc! Are you even listening?" Lysander said, snapping his fingers in front of my face. I blinked and looked at him. "Sorry, what?" I asked. He rolled his eyes. "Dude, that new guy is giving you the death stare." He said. I looked over and saw that guy glaring at me. Then his head snapped over to the head table. He stood up and went to sit by Dr. Bloor where they started talking. I frowned and looked back to Lysander.

"I don't like this guy, he was harassing Vanessa and I think he jacked up Charlie's wrist." I said quietly. "He did." A small voice said. I looked and saw Emilia Moon looking at us from across the table. I was taken aback. She never talked to anyone…except Olivia, but I think it has something to do with Charlie. She had long, pale hair and beautiful grey eyes…distant eyes.

"Uh, what?" I asked. "The new guy, James. He did do that to Charlie Bone." She said quietly. Lysander frowned. "How do you know?" he asked. She seemed slightly intimidated. "Olivia Vertigo told me, it happened at the end of first period." She said. I looked at Lysander and then back to her. I leaned forward. "What happened exactly?" I asked her. She and Lysander leaned in and she began to tell us.

"Well, Vanessa had come by around the end of first period to talk to Charlie's teacher for a favor that her teacher needed. Then she saw that Charlie and James were next to each other and she got mad and asked the teacher to move him. James had gotten up and walked over to her. He grabbed her wrist and tried to pull her aside to talk to her and she refused and tried to pull away from him, the fight was relatively quiet but you could tell Vanessa wanted to kill him by the look in her eyes. Then he whispered something and she started crying." She paused as the food came by.

"And?" Lysander pressed when we had passed the food along. Emilia took a sip of water and leaned back in to finish up. "Well, Charlie being her brother and all, got mad and walked towards them and told him to let go of her and he didn't. So Charlie started cussing him out and tried to pull Vanessa away from him, but James is stronger than him. He suddenly pushed Vanessa aside and grabbed Charlie's wrist and twisted it so hard it broke." She said. My mouth dropped. "What'd Vanessa do?" I asked. Emilia shrugged.

"That's the scary part, no one knows. But when James did that, the lights flickered and turned off and there were sounds of distant screaming and wailing and when the lights came back on a few seconds later…" she shivered. "What happened?" Lysander whispered. She looked at us for a few seconds then answered. "James and Vanessa were gone and where Vanessa had been thrown to the ground was a lot of blood." She finished. We were silent.

Dr. Bloor dismissed us then and the three of us silently made our way to the Red King's Room.

Vanessa P.O.V.

When my uncle dismissed us, I helped Asa up and waited for Charlie to finishing inhaling his juice. When he finished, he started walking towards the doors but I stopped him. I grabbed his arm and Asa's. They looked confused. "We're going my way." I said. Charlie looked scared.

We were all sucked in and spit out into the King's room. As usual, no one was in the room yet. I took my seat and Charlie sat on my left, Asa on my right. Then Tancred and Lysander walked in…followed by Emilia Moon. I froze. They seemed to have been having a whispered conversation. Her eyes seemed more…alive, not as distant as usual. I smiled to myself. It's wearing off.

Then Manfred walked in, followed by Zelda and James. I took my sketch pad out of my bag and started drawing places I've visited in dreams. Suddenly, I started drawing something familiar…it felt like someone was making me draw it. When the picture was finished, I examined it. It was me playing with Amoret and Borlath in the Red King's castle. There was another boy there. He was hiding in the bush. I frowned and willed the picture to play out.

We were playing hide and go seek and I had ran towards the bush to hide when I found the boy, I cried out in surprise and Borlath and Amoret ran towards me. "What's wrong?" Amoret asked. "There's a boy in the bush!" I cried. Borlath went over and pulled the boy out of the bush.

He was a small, dirty boy. He had grimy blonde hair and startling blue eyes. James. He blushed and apologized for scaring me. Then I giggled and asked him to play with us. The young James looked up at me, as though he could see me out of the picture. He held out something in his hand.

I looked around the King's room. Everyone was diligently working except James. He was staring at me, a softness in his eyes that I've found in Asa's every time he looks at me. I looked down at the picture and slowly reached in, taking the object from the boy.

I stifled a gasp when I realized what it was that the boy gave me. It was an undying white rose. I looked up and saw James smiling at me. I didn't know what to say. I looked over to my right and saw Asa looking at the flower. He frowned and looked at me. I looked at the picture for a long time before I shut my sketchbook and put it and the rose back in my bag. I sighed and looked up at the portrait of the Red King.

What do I do? What does this mean?