Author's Notes: welcome back. I know it's been terribly long, so terribly out of character. I've been busy with a lot of things lately, lots of tiring things that needs to be taken care of. But what really holds me from publishing new chapters is the many writing I've been doing lately, writing to rework and improve my earlier chapters.
It's not a small rework, my writing skills (if you can call it that) is vastly different from when i started this fic, and truth be told, I'm not completely happy with my earlier chapters.
So I've been working on that, a lot. If you go back you can see that chapter 5 has finished it's Rebirth (that's what i like to call this rework, like DC comics see), and its following chapters will be given the same attention too. In fact, chapter 6 is already reworked, just unpublished yet, because publishing its rework on this state will cause confusion for it's overall difference to the old one. The point is, to avoid confusion and disconnection of story progression, I plan on publishing the reworks ONCE all the reworks are done with, publish them all together as to avoid story disconnection.
You shouldn't worry too much, there won't be that great of a difference in main details in the reworked chapter, but it's style of presentation and plot delivery will be vastly different from that of the old ones that I'm sure you'll get a vastly different experience reading through them.
tl;dr: Rework on earlier chapters is in progress: its totally fine to not read them since the overall story is the same, but it's also different enough that reading them is still a fresh experience.
I'm your host: Wayward Bot, and this is Tonight Show Yee Haw Edition (tm) Featuring Dante From Devil May Cry with Knuckles and Tales From Sega's Sonic Franchise.
enjoy.
It's early morning, at least I think it is. I have no exact idea of what time it is, but what I do know is that I'm sleepy, tired, and that the moon still reigns supreme somewhere on the still starry sky. The hour of sunrise is soon to come, but yet so far. Stumbling through the cold hallways of Luna Nova is me, without a single soul for a companion as I cradle a large wooden crate filled with things I do not care nor able to name any. And beside me, a soulless automaton walks in diligent steps, atop its tiny yet surprisingly sturdy hands is a wooden crate similar to mine, though differing in its contents.
Without anyone starting any form of conversation, I find myself almost drifting to sleep along the journey. It's thanks to Stanbot that I'm numerously saved from collision courses.
"That's a fourth", I say, half-surprised yet still half-drowsy, "maybe we should stop and have a little rest".
Sensing my imminent abandonment of duty, Stanbot takes the joke to heart and points its metal fingers accusingly towards me, "no stopping! Work work work!".
"I'm just joking!" I cry, "why are you so hostile to me man, why you gotta make this… so antagonizing for me?".
At this point, I'm slurring through some words.
"No joking!" Stanbot commands, "finish task quickly!".
Without waiting for me to gather my senses, Stanbot continues its march through the hallway, leaving me behind a few paces. With an unsuppressed yawn, I head on and keep up with the robot, hoping that all this nonsense would pay me handsomely in the near future.
Through the turning hallways we walk, and up through the spiralling staircases we went, all to finally arrive at our destination: the tower above the Labyrinth, Luna Nova's main tower that houses the magnificent Sorcerer's Stone.
Or not so magnificent, for now at least.
The first thing I notice as we step into the uppermost level was the ridiculously cold air, with the moon hanging somewhere in the sky, now is the hour farthest away from sunset and closest to sunrise, and along with it is a series of unwelcomed cold wind from the far oceans.
Morning winds are from oceans right? I'm not sure I'm not gifted in geography.
The Sorcerer's Stone glows dully atop it's towering pedestal, and with it comes the memories of the last time I set eyes on it this close, of the dragon attack that nearly doomed the whole school. There's no lighting in this room, I assume it's unneeded since normally the Sorcerer's Stone grows brightly on it's own, but at it's current state, the room is mostly left for the stars to light.
Beside the foot of the pedestal sits one short witch, tinkering with her machinations in preparation for her so called grand plan. And shifting my eyes elsewhere, I find the red headed witch, sitting carelessly at the edge of the room as her legs dangle off the edge.
Hearing our arrival, Amanda turns her head to look. "what took you so long?", she asks.
"If I have the energy to strangle you, I might strangle you, Amanda", I tiredly threaten the witch.
"Ooh, someone's grumpy", Amanda amuses, unaffected to my threat in the slightest.
Stanbot hurries away towards its master, forcing me to return my attention to where it's needed. Following it, I hurry to the tinkering witch.
"There", I say, "that's all you asked, whatever those were".
We place the crate in front of Constanze, and without wasting a minute to chatter (as if she could), the little witch digs through the contents to find whatever parts she needs.
I wait here, standing still in front of the busy Constanze, as if I'm waiting for some sort of gratitude from her.
"Yeah you'd die before you get it", Amanda remarks, and finally I stop my wait for it.
I'd feel hurt, but it's Constanze after all.
With my job basically done, and with the person next to me too busy with her work to care, I look for Amanda across the room. She's at the edge of the room, dangling her feet off the ledge.
As I approach her, I feel my steps instinctively slowing as I get closer, in fear of the fenceless part of the room. In contrast to Amanda, I find myself unable to get anywhere near the edge of this tower.
Before I can get myself to say what I want to say, a loud yawn interrupts me. "Someone's missing their sleep", Amanda remarks as she notices.
"Obviously", I reply. "I should've slept much earlier but I've been busy lately, and I'm sort of regretting it".
"Yeah? What've you been up to?".
"Nah it's… not something worth telling", I sigh.
I say nothing else, not wanting to further the current topic, but it seems Amanda doesn't even care if I do or not, as she continues watching the almost sunrise sky in silence.
Without her starting the conversation, I push myself to be the conversation starter. "anyway! What I've been up to doesn't matter much, there's this thing that I've been meaning to ask you for the longest time, see I was wondering whether you…".
I try to get closer to Amanda, but I find doing that to be impossible. Her place of sitting is too close to the edge for comfort. Pausing for a moment, I try to understand how she could sit there unfazed of the danger.
"…quite the idea of a quiet sitting place", I say.
"yeah", Amanda says, keeping her gaze still at the forest below the tower. "I like high places, don't you like high places?".
"I do, but I also hate falling", I answer. I really want to continue my point but the situation is too uncomfortable for me to ignore.
"Look, I don't want to be captain buzzkill but I don't think this place, especially the one you're sitting on, is safe at all".
Hearing my concern, Amanda scoffs and breaks her gaze away to look towards me. "What, you're scared?".
"Yes", I answer, as boldly and confident as a scared man could answer. It's not an irrational fear after all.
My previous plan of topic is beginning to loose its importance at the real problem that's present in front of me.
As expected however, Amanda pays no heed to my worries. "Come on, get yourself some little adrenaline, keeps you alive".
"Not falling off the ledge is what keeps me alive", I point out, almost sighing at her oblivious nature to danger.
Ignoring my worries, again, Amanda proceeds to lay herself to the floor, right next to the edge. "Ah… I'm so tired, guess I'm gonna have a little nap right here"
"Don't… please", I beg her, with a tremble in my voice that I realize.
Amanda rolls around, now having her back towards me as she nears ever closer to the edge. "Ah it's gonna be troublesome if I roll over in my sleep…. And fall…"
"Amanda, no"
"Or!", Amanda exclaims and she suddenly sits upright. "I could show you a headstand, I'll do it right here! I'm really good at it!"
"Wha- headstand?! You're not serious are you?"
With a toothy grin Amanda answers, "of course I'm serious, don't worry I wear shorts!".
"No, that's not the point you idiot!".
Without waiting for another one of my worries, Amanda plants both her hands to the floor very closely to the edge and prepares for a headstand.
Just before she lifts both her legs to the air, I grab her hand in pure horror and drag her across the floor and off the edge. "No, no not fine! Unsafe this is unsafe!" I cry.
"Whaaat why are you stopping me?"
"Why am I stopping you- are you crazy or stupid or both?!" I cry as I keep dragging her far off the edge.
"Chill out man!", Amanda says, she quickly gets on her own feet and takes my shaky hand off hers, "why are you so worried? You're not the one doing the headstand!"
"I- I! It still it creeps the hell out of me!" I cry out, really loudly that it echoes through the room.
The echo continues for a bit, silencing the both of us and even catching Constanze's attention. It's at that point that I realize my heart is beating like crazy and that Amanda is giving me a genuinely surprised look.
It was awkward, I'm speechless, Amanda is speechless, Stanbot is speechless, and even Constanze is speechless!
It takes another second before a smile appears on Amanda's lips, that stupid, stupid grin that could only mean one thing.
Thankfully a good distraction appears in a form of a pink haired girl finally appearing in the room.
"Finally climbed the stairs", Jasminka says. "Sorry for being late Constanze".
On behalf of its mistress, Stanbot runs up to Jasminka to retrieve the item she has. The robot raises both its hands as it awaits for Jasminka to hand the item to it. In its short stature, the robot is at the taller girl's mercy. Jasminka gives the item to the robot and sends it off with a wave as Stanbot races back to Constanze, it's metallic steps is the only thing audible in the room filled with awkward silence.
It took a second for Jasminka to notice our irregular quietness. "What's wrong?" she asks.
"Nothing!" I say loudly, trying to get the conversation elsewhere. "Oh, what's that you got in your hand Jasminka? is it something interesting let me see closer".
In an attempt to change the conversation, I leave the snickering Amanda and head towards Jasminka.
"It's just some parts that Constanze asked" Jasminka answers, a hint of confusion in her voice.
It takes a few moment of silence from her before she gives in to her confusion, "what's going on?"
"Nothing!" I answer. "We were just having-".
Before I can finish my lame lie, Amanda pops up beside me and cuts me off. "Jericho here is afraid of heights!", she shouts in delight.
Hoo boy there it goes.
Before I knew it, Amanda breaks to a fit of laughter.
"It's not fear of heights…" I begin. "It's fear of falling!".
Between her fit of laugher, Amanda struggles to get her words out. "Whatever you say man, whatever you say!".
Turning towards the dull glowing stone, I try to hide my reddening face from the both of them as I wish to ask a topic changing question. "Wh-what are we really doing here anyway? I was too sleepy to grasp what you asked me to do to be honest".
"Yeah you were pretty sleepy when we shoved you our request", Amanda agrees, chuckling fondly as if to a merry memory. "Anyway we, are going to rig the Sorcerer's Stone, or something".
"Am I… am I hearing this right?", I ask. I try to cut her off, but Amanda quickly holds a finger to delay my protest.
"No, no, let me finish first", Amanda continues, "we… well, it's Constanze mostly, are going to install some improvements to the thingys that connects the stone to the entire school, thingy".
"Improvements? What kinds of improvement?", I worriedly ask.
"I don't know the details, but Constanze here said that it'll ease her tech's capabilities tenfold!". Amanda declares, throwing her arms high for added effect, before pulling them down again as if she's reminded of another less exciting fact, "if it works…".
I stand there staring at the far from confident Amanda, flabbergasted at the whole situation I'm in.
"Remind me", I begin, jumbling over words as I try to contain my puzzlement, "remind me on how did I agree on all this".
Hearing my demand, Amanda laughs nervously and scratches the back of her head, "well… we sorta deliberately asked you for help after slamming onto your doors in the middle of the dark remember? We knew full well you'd still be sleepy to really grasp what's going on, that's why".
"oh great, yes that explains it", I say, cupping my hands to my face at the memory, "noo, I say things I didn't mean when just waking up".
"Yes!", Amanda agrees, "we gained your consent!".
"Not when I'm fully awake I'm not, no! This is stupid Amanda and I revoke my consent! What if you break the Stone with all these tampering?"
"Pfft!", Amanda laughs dismissively, "you can't break what's already broken my man".
"Alright one: the Sorcerer's Stone is not broken it's the cables, as far as I understand at least. And two: no, you can break something even further! Your needless tampering might make things worse, this is a bad idea I don't really like this".
"oh, you're chickening out?", Amanda asks with a challenging grin.
"I'm not chickening out! It's just… what if you mess up and something bad happens?", I murmur my worries quietly, genuinely worried of what kind of terrible accidents could happen.
As usual, unfortunately, my worries amount to exactly one pence for Amanda. "Stop being a worrywart, you're not an expert on this things, what's the worst that could happen?".
"You're one to talk! I won't be hearing that from someone like you"
I try to come up with ideas of what could happen, and try to sprinkle a spice of dramatizing it in the hopes that it will at least strike a worry in Amanda's worry-free heart. "What if… I don't know… the Stone explodes? That could happen".
"Pfft! The stone explodes?", Amanda gleefully remarks. "Get a load of this guy Constanze!".
"L-look I'm not that smart about this kind of things but I'm serious! Who are you to know for sure it won't explode?".
I think I noticed Constanze raising a finger to intervene, maybe to back up my worries or support otherwise, but Amanda's quick attempts at dismissing my worries gave Constanze little chance to join in on the debate (as if she had any chance in the first place to be honest). "Hah!", Amanda laughs, "I'm not dumb enough to know that a Sorcerer's Stone can't explode!".
"Or maybe you're dumb enough to not know that the Sorcerer's Stone can explode! Fine if you don't agree on that, but what if… what if… the cables just sort of went crazy and sets the schools on fire?"
"That won't happen, what are the fire brigade for?".
"Oh yeah, that's one of your famed flawless logic. Dammit Amanda don't you realize how dangerous this could be?".
"Hah! Danger is my middle name my man".
"I thought it's O'", I hear Jasminka say behind me.
"Just chill man, you don't know anything about this stuff anyway", Amanda says.
"The fact that I don't know anything about this stuff is exactly why I'm worried!"
We continue bickering for what felt like hours, until a loud hum echoes beside us followed by slight but perceivable shaking of the floor beneath us. We both turn just in time to witness the previously dull glowing Stone now glowing brightly in the early morning, lighting the room with its green glow that's so powerful that it shines through outside.
Another new thing we noticed was the line of cable wrapped around the stone's pedestal, flowing down to where Constanze was sitting, but we didn't find the little witch there, only a medium sized machine, with pumping engines and exhausts pumping smoke. Attached on top of it, glass containers vibrate as green and glowy liquid begins to pour onto it.
Before the three us could really grasp what's going on, the humming immediately stops and a loud deafening sound rings throughout the whole school, perhaps even further. The humming sound is now gone, so too does the glow and the small quake, everything reverts back to i's original state as quickly as it came, and everything returns back to normal.
The smoke slowly disperses, revealing the room fully again.
"What", was the only thing me and Amanda can muster to say, as we both gaze endlessly to the now dull glowing Stone.
Without us knowing it, Constanze is already behind us, resting her hands on her hips as she triumphantly takes off her tinkering goggles. The little witch walks past between us and arrives at her machine. She reaches for the glass container and unscrews it from the machine. Turning around, we see her cradling the object on her hands. The previously nearly empty glass container is now fully filled with a thick, glowy green liquid.
The silence persists for one full minute, until Jasminka breaks it. "so cool"
"Booyah!", Amanda cheers, throwing both her arms in the air. "told ya it will work!".
Amanda quickly throws all her shock and awe away to the air as she walks around and share a high-five with all of us, both Constanze and Jasminka take the high-five enthusiastically, even Stanbot gets a high-five. All got high-fives except the still awe-frozen me as, with my hand not budging, Amanda gives me a hard slap on my back.
"Early morning drinks on me!", Amanda cheers, and the three of them happily exit the room and head down the stairs, their cheers and laughs still echo as I'm left here.
On their way down the stairs, I hear Amanda call out. "Oh, and pack up the things for us will ya?! Thanks!"
And just like that, they continue their celebration down towards to the most definitely still closed cafeteria.
A loud clank snaps me out, something from Constanze's machine falls down and rolls on the floor until it hits my shoe to a stop.
I stare at it, contemplating at what really just happened and trying to figure out what it is. It's a gear of some sort, probably loosened at the violent shaking the Sorcerer's Stone and the machine produced a mere minute ago.
Another loud clank appears, followed by another, another, and another, and before I could even lift my head to see whatever caused it, a sea of mechanical parts roll across the floor, they're too many to count and some of them hits my shoe, splitting beneath my feet like water. It all comes to a stop and I don't even need to look up to know where they come from.
"Clean up for us, heheh", I let a chuckle escape.
Of course, I should clean all this up. Else a teacher might find out about all this, that won't be nice at all, that's the worst. I couldn't imagine what would happen to me if a teacher were to find out about this, with only me at the scene.
I think of this, as I hear a new pair of footsteps sounding from the stairs.
The Headmistresses' room was ominous, the room's usual relatively warm and welcoming atmosphere is turned completely upside down with the mere presence of a soul devouring demon. A demon named Anne Finneran.
For most of the hour I'm inside, the chat with Miss Holbrooke was quite nice, she wasn't so hostile towards me, and I'm sure to say that she doesn't suspect me in the slightest to be the one at fault. But the mere moment Miss Finneran took step within the room, it's as if Archaeon the Everchosen himself has spread his chaotic mutations across the Old World's very soils.
"Clearly Miranda, he should be punished for this!"
"Now now Anne. I'm as eager as you when it comes to correcting our student's mistake, but I believe Mr Franklin is not guilty".
"he was in the scene! Right on top of all those mess he made!"
"Doesn't guarantee that he was the culprit, for all we know he just so happens to be there at the wrong place at the wrong time".
Miss Holbrooke looks to me. "Aren't you?"
I fumble over my words. "Why y-yes, I did just stumble there, unknowingly. Miss"
Miss Finneran looks clearly bitter with the Headmistress's apparent support to me. She throws a sharp look towards me. "Still, he could be hiding something".
Miss Holbrooke's eyebrows rise. "What do you mean?"
"Maybe he was indeed not guilty, but was associated with others who are".
Oh crappa dooda doo.
Miss Finnelan won't let her gaze falter, with each second of her menacing gaze I could feel more and more sweat on me.
"Maybe he's not fit to be punished, but someone else is". Miss Finneran says, as flame begins to spout out of her mouth.
"Is that true, Jericho?". Miss Holbrooke asks worriedly.
I fumble my fingers as I try to find whatever words I could throw to convince them that I was completely alone. "I! I wasn't…. I was… I was alone! I was just there doing my early morning walk and I heard… things, from the top of the tower and I thought why not check it out am I right? It could be a burglar, a burglar!"
I pull my collar and let out a nervous chuckle. The foul ash that follows the demon's fiery breath makes it hard to breath and begins to fill my lungs with its incapacitating dust.
"Do you now?", Miss Finneran asks, black wings begins to grow out of her back with a sickening bone crunching noise. "And what did you find when you arrived?"
"Nothing! Just those pile o' junks and hijinks, hahah".
There's a very uncomfortable silence after my answer, it was quiet and definitely ominous, the silence makes it even much easier for me to hear the endless cries of countless hapless souls that the demon has consumed throughout her lifetime. The demon doesn't let her fiery gaze falter. Her analysing gaze is so tormenting, it burns into my vision and I swear I could see the 7th depth of hell right there in her eyes. It's as if I'm having a staring contest with the bloody Eye of Sauron himself, an eye that literally has no bloody lids.
"I see", the Demon says, as burning lava begins to spread across the floor from her gaping maw. "so you're sure you didn't see the culprit at all?".
The whole room begins to shake, and I could swear Miss Finneran is doubling in size with each passing seconds. Her voice has completely left its human touch and is now a mixture of a million tormented souls screaming from the oblivion in unison.
"Oh absolutely", I answer.
Another uncomfortable silence follows, an uncomfortable and tormenting silence. The demon's tormenting gaze has made me unaware that the landscape around us has completely changed. Fire now reigns supreme in the room, and a sinister volcano has risen from the very grounds, supporting the demon higher and higher to its absolute supremacy. Our difference in our height is now insurmountable as the demon glowers down on me like a worm. The air is so thick with poison and ash that I could barely breathe, it's close to living in the 2033 of Metro surface. I could only wonder how Miss Holbrooke manages to breathe so easily without any gas mask. Her expression is worried at best.
The lava is now knee-high, and I could feel my legs melting more and more.
Not like this.
It was after another burning millennia do Miss Finneran's expression suddenly softens slightly. "Very well".
Miss Finneran turns to the Headmistress, "unfortunately he's not guilty. This is most troubling, someone tempering with the Sorcerer's Stone and we have no clue of who did that".
Miss Finneran lets out quite the sigh and shakes her head, "just imagine the dangers they could inflict on the stone, and the school. Who knows the Sorcerer Stone could overcharge due to the tampering and blow the whole school up?"
I snap a finger to that awesome statement, a gesture that caught Miss Finneran's glare once again.
Quickly reminded of my place in the food chain, I revert back to my earlier, humbled self.
"Indeed, we must quickly figure out who did that and punish them accordingly!" Miss Holbrooke wholeheartedly agrees.
I'm sure the Headmistress was so lenient with me only because she knew I wasn't guilty. But the second she figures out who really did the damage, that leniency will surely be gone.
That reminds me, Miss Finneran somehow dropped her suspicion on me quite quickly, I didn't expect that. Maybe it's my speech skills rising.
What can I say? I'm quite smooth with my words I rarely st- stammer.
The rush of adrenaline from the recent interrogation has left me quite blank. With me out of the main spotlight, the whole room and flow of conversation becomes blurry and I fail quite catch all the words the two are saying, but what I'm still sure is that I'm out of the trouble and is safe outside of suspicion.
But that false safety was soon shattered like one of Wang's cheap Chinas when I hear my name suddenly spoken.
"Sorry? I didn't hear".
Miss Finneran crosses her arms. "We were asking you, what exactly are you doing out at that hour?"
"I answered didn't I? I was out for my morning walk! Isometric exercise, I was stretching my calves!"
Miss Finneran raises an eyebrow. "At four in the morning?".
It doesn't matter what methods I try to deflect that accusation, because I myself have no idea at what time the whole tinkering the Sorcerer's Stone ordeal happened. When I said I was out for a morning walk, I presumed that it was already close to morning, and far out of the curfew.
"Curfew?" I whisper timidly.
Before the hell spawn can cherish in my own realization of my mistakes, Miss Holbrooke says, "Unfortunately, you're out at the wrong time. You were aware of this, no?"
Yes. Tell her yes, Jericho. No more lies could save you now!
"No, no I'm afraid not!" I answer nervously. "In fact I was wondering what that word meant, curfew. I don't think I know what it means in my native language, So I head to the library to find a dictionary!"
"The library's closed at four in the morning, Mr Franklin". Miss Holbrooke informs.
There was an uncomfortable silence in the room, the milk was all but spilled and my charm rolls were absolutely not 20. Still in silence, the Headmistress looks towards Miss Finneran. There were no words spoken between them, but after a good while of, the younger of the two surprisingly shakes her head and smiles.
It was an expression I couldn't believe I saw. Could this be?
"Well then" Miss Finnelan nods. "Since you're not aware what the word 'curfew' meant, I suppose…"
Yes, yes, yes!
The professor takes a good while of pausing, as if this very next sentence is so rarely spoken by her that it inflicts so much difficulty in uttering them.
Miss Finneran sighs and says, "You can learn its meaning while you do your punishment duty, four hundred times of writing 'curfew' and its meaning".
Fucking.
The sky is beginning to red as I crawl out of the classroom, myself only it's inhabitant for the past 2 hours. My fingertips are exceptionally burning, bleached by the same chalk that I've used for writing thousands on the blackboard. My whole back aches, caused by prolonged standing and trying to reach the upper areas of the board. Legs, hands, and even eyes, they're all burning, especially the eyes. Caused by the chalk residues falling over to my eyes as I try to reach up and write. And every muscle in my body feels as if they're about to collapse at any moment.
I fight back the urge to write some extra words in the blackboard, a little parting gift for whoever discovers my work the next day. I was tired as all hells, and my mind isn't straight right now. But whatever resentment I have for the punishment, I still have enough surviving brain cells to know that doing so would mean more punishment for me.
It does sound easy, I thought it was. But I didn't expect this punishment to be so savage on my body.
I close the door behind me and lean on it, trying to rest myself as best as I could before later retiring to my chambers.
I was so tired that I failed to notice Miss Finneran's presence beside me.
"Well done", Miss Finneran says.
She opens the door slightly to check on my work. "Your writing is surprisingly terrible, but it checks out".
"Now", Miss Finneran says. "I hope you learn your mistake, and what curfew means"
I say nothing and just stare at her. The exhaustion proves that it's impossible to make half-witty remarks at this point. Maybe if I stay unmoving she'll just go away.
It takes a good minute before she finally stops bugging me and leaves me for good. With her prey out of the menu, the demon continues on to find a fresher meat. The demon stalks down the hallways, her legs shakes the very foundation of the building and dust begins to fall from the ceilings. Fire and wanton death were left in its quake, before a bright fiery portal suddenly rips in the air in which she slinks into and vanishes from this very realm, gone to whence she came to torture god knows what poor soul she has in mind.
I expected relieve to quickly greet me, but the exhaustion completely negates any sort of relieve I should've felt when that demon leaves my proximity.
No matter, what matters is that everything's done. There's nothing else for me here, so I turn on my heels and head down the hallway, to the place where I will sleep for two days straight.
Before walking far however, I find my footsteps shadowed as I walk. Turning around, I found Michelle walking up to me.
"You look like a mess", she frowns.
I turn away. "I was just doing something".
Michelle sighs as she hears my attempt to lie. "I know what happened".
She walks ahead of me without saying another word. Reluctantly, I try to force my tired legs to catch up to her speed.
The exhaustion makes it hard to think right, and right now I just want to have this all over with. I'm irritated, even, that Michelle wants to talk at such a bad time.
But something still holds me back, something inside me is conscious enough to just wait and listen to what Michelle has to say.
When I finally catch up to her, I expected her to start saying what's on her mind quickly. But something keeps her from doing so. She's silenced, and doesn't even throw a gaze towards me. She just stares down to where we're headed in silence.
It's an odd situation, right now I should be the one feeling upset and everything. But something makes me rethink that I'm not the one that deserves to be upset right now.
It took a good moment of silent walking for Michelle to finally speak up. "You shouldn't have done that".
I turn to Michelle, but she keeps her eyes away from me. "Didn't you remember those terms that the Headmistress gave us on the message we received?"
I know what she's referring, one of the many terms of me enrolling in this school, how since I was here by Michelle's plea, she's one to be responsible for any of my mistakes.
"Yeah, yeah I do", I mutter. "Michelle it was just a stupid curfew".
Michelle stops to a halt, and for the first time since our long walk, she looks to me directly in the eyes. "Look, Jericho", she begins. "The Headmistress is a very, very nice woman, one that I look up to and respect. She's the only reason the both of us are here and I appreciate that every day".
"Michelle" I begin. "I didn't do anything it was just a curfew, a stupid curfew that I'd forgotten. If you're there you'd know that I didn't even do anything wrong, I wasn't even out there by my own will!"
"Which is exactly why I'm upset!", Michelle suddenly says. "You're only in this trouble because of your friends".
She pauses briefly, breathing deeply before continuing her point. "I don't want a good kid like you being dragged to troublesome situations just because of your friends, troublesome situations that could get you out of this school no less".
Michelle stops, letting her words sink into me and waits for my response.
Despite her not saying it, I'm sure I got the right idea of what she's meaning to tell me. Yet it's hard for me to accept that she's trying to tell me that.
Holding back a sigh, I say, "You mean, you want me to…".
"I don't want you to do anything", Michelle cuts. "I won't forever be by your side, Jericho. You have to decide this kind of things yourself".
In spite of my perfect understanding, I still have the overwhelming urge to ask her what she really meant. It's a far-fetched hope, but I'm sort of hoping she's meaning something else.
Anxious, I ask. "Decide what?"
Michelle takes a moment before answering, herself conflicted with what she wants me to hear. She shrugs, "Your choice of friends"
Her message was expected, but it didn't reduce the impact in the slightest. I try to give her an answer, anything, a response of some sort. But none could escape my mouth. My eyes dart around, myself unable to look straight at the upset Michelle.
Noticing my indecision, Michelle sighs and places her hands on my shoulders. Her expression softens with understanding. "Look, I know I sound mean right now, but that's because how important this is and that I was once in your shoes".
Michelle's voice trails off. For a moment I thought she's about to elaborate on the matter, but she quickly dismisses the thought. "Just… think about it, okay?"
She ruffles my hair and leaves me be. Walking down the hallway, opposite of where I'll go.
The golden light of the afternoon has spilled into the now empty hallways. I turn around and continue my way to my room, bringing with me a new weighty thought along the way.
The sound of a closed door echoes through the dark room. I feel my way through the walls until I find the switch and flip in on. The light flickers weakly, and soon it produces a weak glow. Quickly reminding of the current state of the Sorcerer's Stone.
I sluggishly step further inside, and is quickly greeted with a familiar bubbling noise.
"Hey, Francis", I sigh. "Sorry buddy".
I slump down on my chair and look towards the goldfish. Francis swims merrily inside, as if all the wrongs in the world are non-existent and all that matters is that he's happy.
I smile. "You're too happy, you know that?"
The fish bubbles happily in agreement.
I rest myself on my desk, staring out the window towards the red golden sky.
The busy classes and the punishment I received has distracted me from the real problems, but now that I'm alone, I find them coming back to visit me.
Amanda, Constanze, and Jasminka are all great, I'll admit that. I know they're not 100% nice to me all the time, but I know they're my friends. But I'll have to admit too, that they're a bad influence as students.
Let's face it, they're a group of troublemakers and rebels, one of them doesn't really want to be in this school, another always gets in trouble for her work, and another just follows her two friends to whatever trouble they got into. Hardly a group you want to be influenced with.
I just wish they'd stop being such a handful to the teachers, I hope my martyrdom today will convince them to do so. I just hope they do.
I just wish Miss Finneran is satisfied with my punishment. After all I went through today, I hope she'll have lost interest in finding the real troublemakers. I don't want Michelle to be proven right with Miss Finneran figuring out that my group of friends are indeed what caused me all my troubles today.
Ah, speaking of bad influences, there's still another group, the red team. Oh where should I start?
The universe itself, apparently, doesn't want me to start, as the lights quickly flickers and the weak light it recently gave quickly diminishes into nothing. The whole room has gone dark, safe for a small beam of light from the open window.
Damn you universe, you've been added to the list.
Is the electricity out? Are the water pumps still on? Did the construction team did something that disturbs the Sorcerer's Stone? Or the more troubling question: was it Constanze's tampering that did this?
A distressed bubbling pulls me out of my thoughts.
"I know, Francis, I know".
I cannot hope to imagine how many rules Constanze had broken in her brief time up the main tower, and the countless circumstances that will follow that dwarf those broken rules. What I can imagine however, is the severity of the punishment that she and her friends will receive.
I push myself off the desk, gathering my remaining strength to stand up. Despite my current state, my exhaustion fails to dull my worries, and I prepare to leave the comfort of my room with the intention to find out the cause of this mysterious blackout. Hoping to find that the answer I'll find won't prove Michelle to be right.
Francis bubbles as he notices my departure.
"Yeah. Let's just hope she's wrong".
I head outside to confirm what exactly caused the blackout, silently praying that Constanze is not at fault.
Author's Notes: There's not a lot going on in this chapter, but that's because it's a build up for the next one. Stick around to the next episode to find out what all this builds up to!
Sorry again for the long absence, but I'm now back bigger, better, stronger.