She stood in the darkness of her dorm room for a second. She couldn't hear any noise at all, which was odd. She didn't know how she knew that the disease was affecting people all over. But she did.

Did anyone else know?

Aruin was standing next to her, growling softly now. She was happy for the noise.

"Shh!" she whispered. "Did you hear that?"

There was a high pitched scream somewhere far off.

"Yeah," he said. "It's coming from somewhere in the school."

They stared at each other in horror.

"It could be the disease," said Aruin.

"Yes," said Ariu, "but it could also be someone having a heart attack or a murderer."

He nodded at her, and she ran over to the door, grabbing her anorak from somewhere.

Then she cracked the door open and looked down the hall both ways. She didn't want to get caught. Although, if her feeling was right- of course it was- who would catch her.

For as long as she had known about the strange sickness, she had wanted to be there to control everyone. But, as they slipped down the hallway, keeping to the shadows, she realized that she really wouldn't want to experience that.

All of the wizards in the world couldn't help. She knew about destiny. It was how the religion that everyone except the Secrets, who studied ancient things, and the outcast people who lived on some island somewhere.

And as Ariu walked through the halls, she realized that she knew not where she was going, only that she would eventually get there. She also realized that she knew almost nothing. Sure, she went to a fancy school, and she was pretty smart, but she could have been twice as smart if half of her time there hadn't been spent complaining to her friends about it.

She also didn't know about any other places on earth. She didn't even know the names of other countries. She knew they were there, but she had never even thought about them.

She shook her head, and hoped that no one saw how messy her hair was. Maybe she was stupid, but compared to other people, it didn't seem so bad.

After wandering around for almost the whole night, they had ended up nowhere. She and Aruin were standing outside the student Dining Room.

That wasn't the weird part though. The strange part was that she couldn't remember how she had gotten there, and they were directly in front of the large doors.

She shivered suddenly, and reached out to grab the doorknob. It was locked. Of course.

She didn't know why she wanted to find the source of the sound. It could have been someone having a nightmare or anything. So why was it so important? Why are you here? the ever-present presence in her head asked. Why not just go back to sleep? She slid down to the floor, and passed out.

She woke up to the sound of voices talking loudly, with her head tucked into her anorak hood. She thought that it was her roommate at first, and she closed her eyes slowly.

"Ariu!" someone yelled, very near her head. "Are you okay?"

She sat up very quickly, looking around. She hoped she hadn't drooled on her face.

"What are you doing?" another voice asked.

It was her best friend, Aaliyah, and their friend Ryanna.

They were standing near a woman, whom Ariu recognized as one of the kitchen maids.

Aruin rolled over in his sleep as a fox, while Ariu nudged him until he woke up. She stood and stretched. Then she, shook her head, hoping that hood would stay on. Her hair must look pretty bad by then.

"I was sleeping," she said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. Well, it kind of was. The teacher looked disapprovingly at her, and moved to unlock the doors.

"Anyway," she continued. "How many people have the disease?"

Aaliyah and Ryanna stared at her. "What do you mean?" Ryanna asked.

"Okay," Aaliyah laughed. "You must have been seriously having a dream!"

"No," said Ariu. Then she realized that saying she woke up with a feeling sounded quite ridiculous. "I think--I have the