Hey guys! As you have noticed, this story only has 11 chapters now. That's because I grouped some chapters together. :)

Disclaimer: I don't own the Total Drama Franchise or it's characters.

Chapter 12: The Second Set of Clues

He was wearing the same clothes he had on before. I tried to walk past him, but he wouldn't let me.

"What are you?" I asked.

He smiles and looks at his watch. It has unreadable symbols, and 7 small clock hands. He opens it up and pulls a folded up piece of paper and hands it to me. When I try to unfold it he stops me.

"Not here, not now." He said.

I was confused.

"Wake up."

It has been three days since Izzy's birthday party, and I've been having these types of dreams every day since I saw that guy.

I climb out of bed and turn on the lamp. Bridgette is still fast asleep in her bed. I look at the alarm clock: 1:30 am. Ugh, I had 5 more hours of rest before I have to get ready for school. But, I can't sleep. I have way too much on my mind and I want some answers. I look outside the window and see lights flashing in the distance. It's just the school guards on night duty, no big deal.

I pull the old diary out from the nightstand drawer. The cover is starting to peel off again; I'll have to repair it later. The diary feels heavier than usual. A piece of paper falls out onto the floor and I pick it back up. It's a note.

Clavis. Librum taberna. Vetus castrum. Horologium. Hic habes.

How strange. It's all in Latin. I put the note back into the diary, and place it in the drawer again. Afterwards, I try to go back to sleep. A few minutes later, I opened my eyes, unable to move or speak. Bridgette was over at the desk, finishing up some homework at the last minute. She swiveled in the computer chair, and noticed me.

"Finally, you're awake!" Bridgette said. "It's 9:00! We have a 3 hour delay since the guards saw some 'suspicious activity' near the front gates. Are you going to speak to me or not?"

But I wasn't paying attention to her. I was looking at the two tall, shadowed figures hovering over her. Their claws were inches long, and you couldn't see their face. Their limbs looked like they could stretch from wall to wall. I wanted to tell her to run, but since I was still paralyzed, I couldn't form the words. All I could do was sit and watch.

After a few minutes, I could finally move. I quickly sat up in bed and started breathing heavily. Bridgette looked at me oddly.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." I said, wiping the sweat off of my forehead with the back of my hand. "Just a hallucination or something."

"What was it?" Bridgette asked out of curiosity,

I tried to tell her, but I couldn't form the words. Once you tell, she'll see it too. Something told me.

"I'll tell you later." I said, dismissing the conversation. "So, what about the 3 hour delay?"

"Oh yeah, that." Bridgette said. "The guards saw some shadow roaming around the school, so until 11:00, we'll be on lockdown. We aren't even allowed to leave the dorms. Isn't this exciting!"

Shadows? Could they be the same shadows I saw just a few minutes earlier? That's impossible; we wouldn't have school at all if that were the case.

"Then how am I supposed to get ready?"

"I guess they expected us to be ready before this happened." Bridgette said, shrugging. She rolled back over to the desk. "You'll have time to get ready before the bell rings. About 20 minutes. I suggest you start picking out your clothes now, oer you'll be late!"

As I walked down the hallway, people were staring at me and whispering.

"Did you hear about Heather?"

"I heard Heather went mute and it's her fault…."

"Woah, terrorist coming through…"

"She did that to Heather? Wow, she has guts…."

As I started to grab my books from 1st period from my locker, Gwen approached me.

"Courtney, what happened?" Gwen asked. "Everyone's spreading rumors that you put Heather in her place."

"I just asked her to apologize to Sierra, that's all." I said, rolling my eyes.

"Well, there's a rumor that you and Heather fought in the kitchen when Sierra was making the cake. You made her go mute!" Gwen said smiling. "You have to teach me how to do that!"

"Hey girl!" Leshawna said. "I heard you shut Heather up for good. You go girl!"

"I didn't do anything," I say once again, but this time I was irritated. I had nothing to do with Heather and her 'problem', if that's what you can call it. How do we know she isn't faking it in order to make me look bad? "What exactly are people saying anyways?"

"Well, Sierra said that you and Heather got into a fight in the kitchen. You told Heather to stop talking and she did," Gwen said. "possibly forever."

"Yes that all happened EXCEPT for her going mute! There was no way she could've-"

Wait. Marissa. The very incident that brought me to this school was an accident, so who's to say that this isn't an accident either? I shuddered at the fact that I might've actually caused this. But a large part of me was happy: I had gotten revenge on Heather for all of the pain she might of caused beforehand.

"So what are you going to do now?" Leshawna asked me. "I heard that you might be getting into a lot of trouble."

"Well, what can you expect? Heather's the Emperor's daughter, unfortunately." Gwen said. "But I can assure you, if she wasn't, she would've been nicer."

"What do you mean?"

"The Emperor has been spoiling her and her older sister, Laura. Apparently," Gwen said, whispering so that only their small trio could hear. "Heather wants to steal the crown from Laura, and she'll do anything to get it. She doesn't like anybody getting in her way,"

"That explains a lot," Leshawna said. "Heather wants everyone to obey her. It's not like they don't already."

"How about this," Gwen said, interrupting. "My mom is probably going to make me go visit her anyways. I'll go and see if she was faking it or not, then I may be able to clear your name."

"Are you sure about this? I don't want you to get in trouble or anything." I said.

Gwen rolled her eyes. "That's another good thing about royalty; you barely get into trouble."

The bell rings a few seconds later, and we go to our classes. The whole time, I try to ignore the stares and rumors.

Even though I knew that she was my friend, I couldn't help but notice that there was something off about Sierra that afternoon. She was a bit jumpy today, getting nervous every time I tried to talk to her. It was like she thought I was angry at her for some reason. Or, if I knew whatever she might have done. The whole day, I've been wondering what exactly Sierra was telling everybody, and who she was telling the information to. I approached her about this after 4th period.

"I'm sorry Courtney!" She confessed. "I really am!"

"What are you talking about?" I asked her.

"I told people that you and Heather got into a fight the other day, and that you did a spell that made her go mute." Sierra said. "I thought that I would embarrass Heather, since most others don't like her either, but I didn't know people would still stick up for her. I'm sorry!"

I sigh. "Sierra, why would you do this?"

"I just wanted to get a little revenge, that's all! I didn't mean to cause this much trouble, I promise!"

And so it came, the never ending shower of apologies. I've been trying to tell her that everything was okay, but she still felt guilty. I hoped that Gwen will get that evidence soon and these rumors would stop. Maybe I could have a little bit of peace and quiet. It was the end of the school day and I was in my room, resting. It's not like the rumors and stares tired me out or anything, I was already used to that. It was just that I was still trying to figure out that message that Trent had gave me. I take the note out of the drawer and studied it again.

Clavis. Librum taberna. Vetus castrum. Horologium. Hic habes.

Let's see: I knew that 'clavis' means 'key'. My mind went to the key that was in my dream. I still didn't know what the rest of it mean though, nor did I know where the key led to.

"This is going to be harder than I thought," I muttered, tiredly. "How am I supposed to focus on school and try to do this at the same time?"

"Get some help. Duh." Noah said. I looked up to see him sitting on the windowsill.

"How did you get in here?" I asked. I didn't need his sarcasm; my head was staring to hurt.

"That's not the point. You need to get help with the messages!"

"Why don't you just help me?"

"Do I look like I can help you?" Noah said, referring to his… cat situation.

"How am I supposed to get help?" I asked again. "I still don't know exactly what I'm dealing with! I might get someone in trouble."

"What about that blonde girl? She already knows about me, so why not?" Noah pointed out.

"And she was freaked out." I responded. "Why don't we just drop this conversation?"

"Hey, Courtney?" Sierra's voice rang from outside the door. She sounded as nervous as she was earlier. "Were you going to come to the cafeteria for dinner? We're having pasta tonight."

"Ugh, who's that?" Noah asked, irritated.

"Just a friend," I respond. "now leave. I have to open the door."

Noah rolled his eyes, jumped from the windowsill, and slinked under my bed. I would've liked for him to go outside, but I guess that will do. I opened the door and let Sierra in. She played around with the ends of her hair and looked around the dorm room before speaking again.

"I'm truly sorry, I really am." Sierra apologized.

"How many times do I have to say that I forgive you, Sierra?"

"I know, but still….."

I sighed. At the same time, my stomach growled. "What about we about this over some frozen pasta?" I asked. Sierra looked up at me and nodded.

Welp, this chapter is pretty overdue, but I liked it. Don't be surprised if I switch my narrating style next chapter. I might need to in order write it effectively. :)

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