A/N: And so we come to a new chapter of Tomb of Mahmet. I want to thank everyone that has reviewed each chapter, most of whom are on the CB board. Thank you.

Chapter Eight


Charlie woke up in the middle of the night to a strange light flashing through his window. He rubbed his eyes as he sat up and looked in the direction of the light. He saw is coming from the far end bedroom where he had figured Asa was being kept at Number Thirteen. It was like they were having a power outage, except the light wasn't yellowish, but bright white.

Then, all at once the light show stopped. Charlie watched for a little while longer to see if anything else would happen, but he neither heard nor saw anything. He lay back in his bed and was fast asleep quickly.


Charlie ran to the bus stop as fast as he could. He had a piece of toast in his mouth and his trunk being dragged on the ground behind him. He saw the bus come to a stop and wait for him to get over and put his trunk on before leaving. Charlie looked around, but didn't see Morgan or Asa on the bus. He sat down next to Fidelio with a frown on his face.

"What's wrong, Charlie?" Fidelio asked.

Charlie told him about what had happened when he went home, leaving out the bit where Emma kissed his cheek, as he finished his toast. Fidelio's eyebrows rose as he looked to his friend. "Well, if she and Asa aren't on the bus, then Mr. MacGregor must have taken them with him to the school. He is a teacher, after all," he said. Charlie nodded.

They reached the school and walked out with all of the other blue cloaked students. They were joined by the purple cloaked drama students and the green cloaked art students as they walked through the main entrance. Emma sidled up beside him and smiled at him. "Thank you for walking me home yesterday, Charlie," she said. Charlie blushed faintly and nodded before walking straight toward the blue cloak room as fast as was humanly possible.

The morning run was the best time to talk things out with his friends, something Charlie was grateful for, since he couldn't talk inside the school without getting into some sort of trouble. He rolled up his sleeves and jogged out the door toward where he saw a bit of blonde hair.

However, he ran right into that boy Joshua Tilpin. He was with the red haired girl Rosemary Lace. "Hello, Charlie," he said as he smiled a wide smile that showed off all those crooked teeth.

Charlie felt like he had to smile back, but he just frowned that much more deeply to stop it. He felt something brush his side, but only saw the smile of Rosemary Lace. "Excuse me," he said quickly before jogging ahead.

He stopped to lean against a tree to wait for Fidelio and Emma to show up, as well as Olivia, if she was up to it. He felt something in his pocket and pulled out a black bracelet. In his hand, the thing made him feel cold. He had trouble breathing as his head started to spin. He dropped it on the ground and slid down the side of the tree as he stared at it. He heard someone call his name and looked up in time to see Tancred and Lysander running toward him.

"Charlie! Are you all right?" said Lysander as he knelt down.

Tancred looked down and bent to pick up the black bracelet. Charlie kicked his hand. "Don't touch it!" he cried.

Tancred blinked and looked to Charlie as Lysander helped him up. "It's bewitched, but I don't know what it does," gasped Charlie, starting to feel a bit better since he'd kicked it away from him.

"By the looks of you, I'd say you were close to death. Can you stand, Charlie?" Lysander held Charlie up until wobbled away from him a bit.

Charlie frowned at looked to where he'd kicked the thing away. "The first one was enhanced hearing, the second was like slipping through time itself…Morgan found one that put her to sleep and now one that kills?"

"You're a right target, Charlie," said Tancred as his hair crackled slightly.

"What's going on over here?" asked a shy, but pleasant voice. Corazon De La Cruz appeared, jogging toward them. Both older boys seemed to zero in on one particular part of her that was bouncing, making the girl blush and cross her arms in front of her chest.

Tancred's cheeks went pink as he looked away. "Nothing. Just talking," he said quickly.

Lysander smiled at Corazon. "Don't worry about him, Corazon. He's that way normally. You get used to him."

Charlie watched them as he leaned against the tree again. He was still feeling a bit shakey, his head a bit foggy, but it was all clearing. Corazon picked up the black bracelet. "Oh how pretty!" she said.

"No! Don't put it on!" cried all three boys at once.

They were too late. Corazon dropped to the ground, the bracelet flying away from her. She hadn't put it on, but just holding it was enough. Tancred lifted her up and patted her cheek. "Hey, are you all right? Come on, are you all right?"

Lysander looked around and picked up a rock. "We have to make that thing disappear."

Tancred looked up at Lysander and nodded, the entire area darkening as thunder sounded overhead. Then, out of no where, a flash of lightning cracked down and disappeared, leaving the spot where the black bracelet had been a charred mess.

Lysander smirked at his friend. "Show off," he said.

Corazon mumbled as she slowly began to recover from holding onto the black bracelet. Tancred patted her cheek again. "Hey, wake up…"

When they managed to get Corazon back onto her feet, the hunting horn sounded. Corazon's cheeks darkened considerably when Tancred offered to walk her back to the cloak room and to her first class.

Charlie walked with them back toward the castle as he looked around for any sign of Morgan or Asa, or Fidelio and Emma. When he saw nothing, he walked on to the blue cloak room and found himself face to face with Cathrine Pest.

"Sorry, Pest," he said quickly and grabbed his cloak, starting to feel queasy again.

"Don't pretend you don't make fun of my name, Bone," she said with a tone he hadn't heard her use before. It was both sweet and as hard as stone. "Everyone does. Even little Billy, though who can blame him when his new sister is a disaster."

Charlie grunted. "No one makes fun of your name except Manfred, Pest. Your name is Pest, so that is what I call you."

"Pestilence? Silk called me that as did that blonde boy Tancred." She puffed up and pulled her cloak around her. "All of you think I'm a plague. I suppose I am, then."

Charlie looked to Cathrine with an incredulous expression. However, it didn't last long since she walked out without even letting him say anything. The girl felt like everyone hated her so she hated them back for it with every fiber of her being, whether or not what she saw was true. Once again, Charlie found himself wondering how such a person could ever come to being.

He shook his head and decided trying to figure out someone like her was a hopeless case, walking on to his first lesson.


Morgan walked outside at break, her hair pulled into pigtails with blue ribbons; something her mother had done that morning for her, wanting her to look cute for her little "boyfriend". Morgan felt her ears heat up. She couldn't like Asa. He was on the other side, he was Manfred's lackey. He would just as soon kill her as look at her, especially if he was in animal form.

However, that hadn't stopped her from helping him when she'd found him in the garden. Her mother helped him until she was sure that he would function normally while he healed the rest of the way.

"Having fun wandering, MacGregor?" said Asa as he looked up at her from his resting spot against the rock ruins of the red castle.

Morgan felt her cheeks burn as she looked to him. "It's none of your business, Pike." She calmed down a little and looked to him. His left arm was in a sling and he had cuts all over him, including bite marks. "How are you feeling?"

Asa narrowed those yellow eyes at her. "What did she do to me?"

"What do you mean?" Morgan looked to Asa with a perplexed expression.

"You know what I mean. I was seriously injured, MacGregor. How am I healed like I have been in the hospital wing for a week?"

Morgan frowned. She didn't tell people about her mother's gift, since it would probably cause people to swarm the house. Her mother had asked her not to say anything a long time ago and people still swarmed their old home.

"You weren't that badly injured, Pike, so stop whining." Morgan pulled her tie a bit, loosening it as she walked away.

Just then, Charlie walked by. He saw Asa and frowned. "What happened to you?"

"None of your business, Bone," he said with a grunt.

Charlie looked to where Asa was staring and saw Morgan walking away. He jogged toward her and put a hand on her shoulder to stop her. He found his hand suddenly behind his back with pain shooting through his arm. Morgan blinked at Charlie. "Oh! I'm sorry, Charlie," she said and released him.

"What's the matter? I didn't see you at all this morning," he said, rubbing his wrist.

"Dad took us to school. Stopped by Pike's house first to get his trunk and then went on to school," she said in a clipped tone.

Charlie frowned. She was holding things back, he could tell. He told her about the light he'd seen coming from her house, watching her as she grew pale. "Are you sure you're all right, Morgan?"

"Yeah, 'm fine," she said quickly. "I hae te ge' goin'," her accent coming out quickly, clearly distracted.

She ran away from Charlie and went right past Asa. He walked back the way he came, stopped by Asa. The red haired boy loomed over him, though he didn't look too stable. "What do you want?" Charlie asked him, not entirely certain what to do.

"Are your friends all right?" he said in a lowered voice. He looked around, sniffing slightly at the air.

Charlie frowned at him. He was either up to something, or he was genuinely concerned. Charlie figured it wasn't the latter. "Why?"

Asa gave Charlie a tired glare. Then, he walked off alone, head bowed as though he was already the beast and was sniffing out his prey. Charlie shuddered at the thought. He'd dealt with Asa when he was in beast form and he never wanted a repeat of that incident.

He saw a bunch of apple peelings when he walked out of the forest. He found Olivia trying desperately to peel the apple, but it never seemed to end. "Is everything all right, Olivia?"

Olivia threw the apple down and ran away from Charlie. Charlie blinked at her, watching his friend running away from him. Had he said something wrong?


The next day, Charlie sat outside Mr. Paltry's practice room. He'd once again been ousted from trumpet practice for being "abysmal". He sighed and leaned his head against the wall. He suddenly looked down the hall when he started hearing a strange tune being played. It was almost out of tune, hurting his ears, but for some reason it made him want to stand up and follow.

He got to his feet and walked toward the tune, violently fighting the urge to run toward it. It sounded like a flute being played, but in such a shrill manner it couldn't possibly be called normal.

He found himself looking at the red haired Mary Dawson, walking out of her practice room. She had a flute in her hand as well as her blue cloak. She looked up at Charlie and grinned at him, bringing the flute to her lips.

Suddenly, everything in Charlie's mind seemed to shatter. The sound was so shrill that it made his ears ring. He let out a yelp of pain and covered his ears with his hands. Then, everything went silent as he felt someone grab a hold of him and lift him up from what he guessed was the floor.

Mary wasn't there anymore. He looked up at Fidelio and blinked. "What happened?"

"I heard you yell and ran out to see what had happened, found you here unconscious," he said as he helped his friend up. Charlie dusted himself off and told Fidelio about Mary and her flute. Fidelio frowned. "I had thought her flute playing was bad, but that just confirms it."

Charlie gave Fidelio a small grin as he rubbed his head. "It looks as though the Bloors are trying to build up their ranks or something," said Charlie, looking to where Mary had been.

"This is getting bad, Charlie. I don't think it's going to get any better, either, any time soon." Fidelio sighed and patted Charlie on the shoulder. "Come on, there's still class time. You can sit in on my violin lesson." Charlie nodded and walked with Fidelio to the practice room and watched his friend practice.