The girls were relaxing on plush furniture in a spacious sitting room downstairs, after having packed for their early trip home and put their bags in a closet off the main foyer. The room offered a good view of the front of the manor. Tug, after some gentle nudging, had sworn the Calloway Cadets would pick them up in the early afternoon. A polite note was left in Sibella's room telling the Baron they had matters to attend to back home, but thanking him for the invitation. The girls' decision to leave had been reinforced by a morning spent not seeing their fathers and dealing with the rude indifference from the other guests.
"Am I batty for actually looking forward to seeing those cadets?" Sibella asked.
"Nah, they're alright. I mean for boys. They look even better compared to these snobs, Winnie said.
"You never said how you got that spell working," Sibella said.
"Well a little of this, a little of that. We just gave Tug a really detailed dream to enter," Phantasma said.
An hour later the girls saw a large bulky black van pull up to the front of the manor. Inside they could plainly see Tug behind the wheel with the other Calloway cadets waiting for them. Hurrying into the foyer, Elsa opened the closet with their bags and passed each girl her luggage. With one last glance around they dashed out the front door, opened the back door of the Cadet's van and piled inside. Laying in the large rear compartment of the van between the seats along the it's sides was a long wooden crate. The cadets all waited frowning with dark bags under their eyes and slumped low in their seats. The girls were all smiles despite the cadets' sour looks.
"Hurry up, we gotta get this thing back ASAP," Baxter said.
"You're lucky we came at all," said Grunt crossing his arms.
"We know you had yo rise very early to drive all this way and we really do appreciate the effort. Cadet Roper, we're ready to leave whenever you are,"Sibella said, smiling pleasantly as Tug turned to look back at her.
"Right, we really should head back," Tug's sounded tired, but his tone lacked the irritation of the other cadets.
The long drive home was mostly uneventful, at first the cadets mostly stewed in irritation at having gotten up so early. As the van rolled along toward the edge of the Baron's lands Sibella opened the wooden crate and gracefully slid herself inside.
"It was very considerate of you to lay a blanket inside," Sibella flashed Tug a gracious smile before closing the lid over herself.
"I'm just glad your friends told me to bring it. Anyway, you'll be in there awhile, might as well be comfortable," he said awkwardly.
Soon most of the cadets were lulled into a nap by the drive. The girls stayed mostly quiet and enjoyed the scenery. The way back felt shorter than the way to the gathering, as the girls began carefully considering explaining their early arrival back home to Ms. Grimwood.
Later in the afternoon, as soon as the van came to the town near both schools Elsa gently knocked on the top of the crate.
"We just crossed into town, you can come out," Sibella carefully slid the crate' stop aside and took a seat with the other girls. The sleeping cadets were woken up by the others as they approached home.
Pulling up to the front of Grimwood the girls all thanked the cadets before climbing out of the van. Before pulling away Tug rolled his window down as Sibella passed by the van's driver's side.
"...so I'll, I mean we'll see you around sometime...," he mumbled not really looking at her.
"Certainly, thank you again," she said, without another word Tug drove away.
As the van headed off to Calloway Tanis turned to Sibella with a confused look.
"Why was he acting so weird?" she asked.
"I haven't a clue, Elsa did Cadet Roper seem strange to you just there?"
Elsa face showed a deep frown as she struggled to find a way to brush off Tug's behaviour without discussing Sibella's starring role in the dream Phantasma had given him.
"Probably just the long drive," she said, hoping Sibella wouldn't hear the nerves in her voice.
"...perhaps," Sibella replied. Elsa could tell the gears in Sibella's head were now turning, and the vampire was no fool, if Tug kept acting strange she would definitely look for the reason.
Suddenly the doors of Grimwood burst open and came running down the steps. She looked both terrified and relieved at the same time as she dashed over to them.
"Girls! Are you alright? How did you escape?" she spoke while moving between them and hurriedly checking each of them for injury. The girls could only stand there for a moment until she was sure everyone was unharmed. Certain they were all alright, she stepped back and looked at them earnestly excepting an explanation.
"Escape what?" Winnie asked.
"You mean you don't know!?" The girls all made their confusion known, but looked to as they all felt a rising sense of panic.
"The Gathering! It was attacked, your fathers have all been captured! I feared you were too."