"What? Someone got into our dorm last night?"
Selene looked at her friend, eyebrows raised slightly. Of course, it wasn't like it hadn't happened before but surely who could possibly be stupid enough to try and sneak into the girl's dorm.
"That's right!" Calla folded her arms, nodding furiously as she often did. Her dark blonde pigtails bounced along with her head. "I saw it with my own two eyes, I swear!"
"Didn't say I don't believe you." Selene tossed the empty can she held into a trashcan, hearing it clatter against the side before falling in. "Who was it, anyways?"
"They didn't catch him." Calla pointed a finger upwards before giving a deep sigh. "He ran into the lake before someone could restrain him."
"I can't believe this. It's only the beginning of the year and trouble is already happening."
"Trouble? There's never really that much-" Calla's words faltered, her face drooping and her voice becoming quieter than it had been previously. "Oh…"
Fiddling with the grey strap of her book bag, Calla bit her lip. She shifted uncomfortably and fidgeted with her fingers. Casting her gaze downwards, she slowly moved her eyes up towards Selene.
"How are you doing, by the way?"
Selene merely glanced up to her friend, smiling as she often did. She shook her head, her face unchanging. Seemingly unfazed by the question she received so often.
"By the way, you know we're getting Banner's exam back today right?" Selene said matter-of-factly, crossing her arms.
The color drained from Calla's face in that moment. Her lips parted a little forming a small O shape. Her large green eyes grew as wide as plates as she came to the realization that she would have to face her score, good or bad.
"Oh no! If I did bad on that and then do bad on the duel exam, I'm going to be demoted!" she cried, now gripping the straps of her bag.
"You studied for it-" Selene waved her hand in the air carelessly- "You'll be fine."
The girls stopped before a set double doors. A sign that hung over read, 3-B. Calla stopped, taking a deep inhale before sighing dramatically.
"By the way, you're not tutoring after school today, right? You wanna go to movie night?" Calla pressed a finger to her lips as if she was deep in thought. "I heard they're showing that new animated film, Plucking a Star."
Selene shook her head.
"Can't. Got something else to do."
"Study? It's the weekend though." Calla raised her brows slightly. Her lips pressed into a small frown. "Or are you hanging out with the Kaiser?"
"I do other things too, you know!" Selene huffed, lightly punching her friend in the arm.
Calla laughed softly, turning towards the double doors.
"Well, see you later then."
Selene gave her friend a three finger salute paired with the click of her tongue.
"See ya."
Selene turned to continue further down until she reached her classroom, 3-A.
Walking down the lecture halls descending steps, she quietly slid into her seat in the third row up from the bottom. Right next to the stairs. Zane already sitting in the seat beside her.
"Morning," she said, shuffling through her bag for her alchemy notebook. Pulling out many of her other notebooks, folders, textbooks and miscellaneous papers in the search for the pale pink book, she placed them in a stack on her desk.
"You really need to start organizing your things," Zane remarked with an almost disgusted tone. He grabbed some the miscellaneous papers that had fallen onto his area of the workspace, tapping them against the tabletop to straighten them out.
Shuffling through them, he realized they were old philosophy assignments. From the stack of items she laid out, he pulled away a plastic purple folder from its middle and stuck the tests inside.
"There it is!" she exclaimed, plucking out the coveted pink notebook and slamming it onto her desk.
Zane handed her back her history folder. With a thanks she took it and stuck it back into her bag. Grabbing her items one at a time, she quickly filed them back into her bag, making them a tad less crooked than they were that morning.
The cobblestone path that led from the campus to the old dorm, once in pristine condition had now been overrun with weeds and covered by brambles. The branches of the trees which surrounded the path had been untended, letting them form a cover above the old path. If you didn't know where it was, or weren't looking for it then you could very well miss it.
Selene followed the path down into the woods, her heels no longer clicked against the hard stone but were muffled against the plants that had grown over it. The canopy above let only small patches of sunlight through.
Pushing her way through the tall shrubbery that had grown over the end of the old path, she emerged in a clearing that seemed to only get more dismal the more she visited. Looking at her PDA, she had about three hours until dinner. Three hours until people would start getting suspicious.
She looked behind her. A habit of hers, to make sure nobody had followed her before glancing back down at her PDA. Clamping it closed, she tossed it into her bag and walked up to the entrance of the old dorm. Though it had only been a little under a year since the last time anybody had lived there, it seemed to have aged many years in their absence.
Not a trace of its former regality in sight. Its once perfectly manicured gardens had become overgrown, overrun with weeds. The building itself, now seemed to be dismayed at its current state. Tall windows once fit for royalty had been shattered and a chill seemed to surround the area.
The gate- once well maintained- had the glossy paint chipped away leaving rusting metal exposed. Upon the gate hung a sign, written in crude bold handwriting on a plank of wood, Dangerous, Do Not Enter. Selene pushed open the gate, slightly, scrunching her face in pain at the horrid noise it made. Slipping through the small gap she made, she gently pushed it closed as to make it seem untouched.
Looking behind her once more to make sure nobody had followed, she walked up to the entryway of the dorm. The small set of stairs that led to the building's threshold were now in disrepair. Weeds peeking through the cracks that had seemingly formed from nowhere. It was hard to believe these were the same stairs that photograph she hung up had been taken.
The looming double doors, foreboding as if warning not to proceed any further, still hung slightly ajar. Untouched since her last visit. Carefully slipping between the gap, she entered the foyer of her former home.
No longer brightly lit, it was completely dark save for the dim light fluttering in through the windows and her flashlight. The air was damp, smelling of must as she walked towards the right staircase, pausing before a photo of Atticus hanging on the wall. His long brown hair wild, smiling brightly as he often did, she couldn't help but stare at it for more than a brief moment.
It had become much quieter without Atticus around. His almost comical optimism and upbeat chatter always seemed to bring light into a dark room. Or maybe that was his hideously bright fashion sense, who knew. But Atticus knew how to make people smile, even if they had been sobbing a minute before.
So why did it take him?
Selene shook her head. She had to concentrate. She was here to find clues to find them. After all, people don't simply just disappear as they had. And though she had possibly investigated every single corner of the old building, she was sure there was something she missed. There had to be, because people don't simply go missing.
At the top of the staircase was a wooden door, whose white paint had began to chip away, revealing the rotting wood beneath. Gently twisting the rusting knob, she pushed open the door and stepped into what once was the second-floor common room.
As it had no windows, Selene shone her flashlight about the room. The once white wallpaper was now stained brown, with strips beginning to peel away. Shining her flashlight towards the middle of the room, in the center was a short glass table where they had spent many hours dueling one another now covered by a thick blanket of dust. Atticus often lounged on the velour couch that sat behind the table, strumming away at his ukulele.
Shining her flashlight towards the opposite wall was a nightstand now covered in dust. There used to be an extravagant ceramic vase atop it, with pastel blue flowers painted across and fresh hydrangeas sitting inside. Selene had knocked it over, though. When she was tired of losing to him she grabbed Yusuke by the arms and began poorly dancing with him to whatever Atticus was singing. Unfortunately, she bumped into the nightstand, knocking over and shattering the vase.
She turned to the left, walked down a long, wide hallway. The royal blue carpet muffled her footsteps before she came to a stop about three-quarters down. Held onto the door by a strip of tape speckled with a pattern made up of little orange flowers, an aged paper that read "Yusuke Fujiwara."
Yusuke had always been a rather private person, even back before he went missing Selene hardly entered his dorm room. She supposed that might be the reason she never entered it on her investigations. It felt like an invasion of privacy. A betrayal to one of her best friends.
Yusuke, though quiet and a bit of a character, always supported their strange antics. Though not as vocally optimistic as Atticus, he was always one to support anybody and everybody especially in regards to duelling. He was a fantastic duelist, of course. He always was. But he proved himself to be an even better companion. One who Selene often confided in.
She felt her PDA vibrate in her bag. Opening it, she realized that it was nearly dinner time. She looked back towards Yusuke's room door, before looking back that the numbers on the screen. Sighing, she shut her PDA closed.
"Don't worry Yusuke…" she said, glancing at the door one last time. "We'll find you and Atticus both, I promise. And everything... And everything will be okay again."
"Hey!" Selene greeted, setting her tray down upon the table with a clatter before slipping into her usual seat.
Zane looked up from his food, already halfway done with what seemed to be braised fish.
"You're later than usual," he remarked cooly, not missing a beat.
Selene gave her usual overexaggerated pout.
"I lost track of time and I still needed to take a shower, you know?" Selene grabbed her still-slightly-damp hair,twisting it upwards into a ponytail. "Gotta go before it gets crowded later. And that takes a while."
It wasn't a complete lie. Selene had returned to her dorm to briefly shower before dinner, as to not raise any suspicions as to why she would be covered in a mixture of dust and dirt.
Zane looked at her, raising an eyebrow and narrowing his eyes slightly. Almost as if he didn't believe her. She felt her heart tremble in her chest a little, anxious. She wondered if he could tell she was lying.
"Yeah, and naps do too I'm assuming," he said, returning to his food.
Selene's heart gave a sigh of relief as she smiled brightly. With a laugh, she said, "I can never get anything past you, can I?"
Zane's right hand rested partially open on the table. Running across his pale palm, a long white scar was highly visible.
He was helping her pick up the scattered shards of the broken vase as he reprimanded her for her carelessness. Abruptly stopping himself mid-sentence with an "Ow!" and an uncharacteristic expletive. Looking over Selene saw his hand covered in red and dripping with fresh blood, as Zane held it with his other hand wincing in the pain.
They panicked, of course. And Selene sprinted off towards Nurse Fontaine's room screaming that Zane was bleeding a lot. She was still surprised she didn't wake the whole dorm that night.
It was something she still felt guilty for, a year and a half later. Had she not been so careless, maybe Zane wouldn't have that scar.
If only she had been less careless, she supposed.
Might write a duel for the next chapter? Who knows. I'm not sure if I have a good handle on writing duels but I guess we'll find out, eh?
