A/N: Here's the next one-shot. It's about Lyell (again) and is set during the events Chapter 20 of Midnight for Charlie Bone, specifically the ruin game and Paton's forcing the Bloors to give up Emma's papers.
The Ruin Game
Wind and drums echoed through the Academy, and the sounds of whispers that shouldn't have been so loud. He could hear them so clearly, and what they said sent shivers down his spine.
A boy was lost in the ruin. Not just a boy, but the boy. The boy he'd first seen walking toward the Academy, who he'd met in the tower room and watched at assembly and in the dining hall. He was in trouble. He'd gone into the ruin during the ruin game and hadn't come out again.
Fear gripped his heart. Children had gone missing before during the ruin game, but he hadn't expected that to happen to the boy of all people. Not during his first game. He'd hoped…hoped for what? And why was he even afraid? He shouldn't care, not like this, not about a boy he'd only met once before.
He'd been thinking again, about the boy, the strange thoughts that he felt stirring at the back of his mind whenever he saw him and what they meant. He couldn't understand it. There was something missing, he suspected, something vital, but he had no idea what. The only thing he was certain of was that the boy held the key to something.
And now the boy was in danger. He could only sit and wait and hope until it was over. The storm boy and the African were helping him; surely he would be all right.
He sat at the piano, unable to sleep as the drums and wind sang through the walls, and prayed with all of his might that the boy would be safe. In due course the wind died down and the drums faded away, and somehow he knew that the boy had been saved. With that knowledge stuck in his mind, he lay his head on the piano keys and drifted into a restless sleep.
The very next day, when the students had returned to their dormitories for the night, lights all over the building began to burst, accompanied by a strange humming sound. He found himself pulled to the open window in the tower, where he looked down at an awesome sight.
A man was standing the courtyard in front of the Academy- a very tall, dark-haired man wearing a long, dark coat and white gloves. Familiar… he looked familiar somehow. He could feel it deep within him. But he didn't dwell on it for long, for the man had begun to speak.
"Bloor!" the man shouted. "You know what I'm here for. Let me in."
There was no response from the west wing where the Bloors resided.
"Very well," the man roared. A second later, there was a loud bang, and the sound of shattering glass. This was followed by another bang, and another, and more glass shattering.
"Yewbeam!" a voice bellowed. "Stop it, or I'll call the police."
"Oh, I don't think so," the man retorted. "There are things going on here that you wouldn't want them to know. Now give me Emma Tolly's papers before I break every light in the building."
Emma Tolly… that name meant something to him. But what?
As he pondered that, there were more bangs, this time coming from the direction of the west wing. The scent of smoke and burning chemicals drifted up to him-the lights in the science lab must have burst.
"Stop it!" cried Dr. Bloor. "Paton, I implore you!"
"Give me the papers," the man demanded.
More lights burst and windows shattered, this time coming from the chapel. The remains of the beautiful stained-glass windows now littered the ground along with the clear glass of the other windows.
This, it seemed, was enough to make the Bloors comply. "All right!" screamed a voice.
Papers floated down into the courtyard from a far-up window. The man ran to catch them, and as he did he began to laugh, a deep throaty laugh that echoed through the courtyard. The children in the dormitories joined in but the teacher in the tower couldn't bring himself to.