Chapter 18
"A terrible nightmare"
When Flora woke up the next morning, she was stunned to discover that she had fallen asleep in the living room, the professor nowhere to be found. She also noticed that someone had placed a soft blanket over her. Who? She had no idea. However she put the thought aside for the time being, got up and stretched her arms.
A few minutes later, while picking up some books that had fallen on the floor she saw that Darkell had left her a note. He seemed to have written down all the useful information he had read and also advised her on a few book titles where she could find more. She smiled at his thoughtfulness. She carefully arranged all the books and the note into a neat pile on the table, making sure nothing was missing. Then she went to check on Mirta and wished her good morning. The rest of the day passed quickly, without anything unusual. Except maybe a surprise test in Flitwick's class.
However the girls didn't know that a few miles away, the Trix were chanting and brewing an evil curse that would put a stop to the calmness of the Winx's day. Weird smelling smokes and strange looking ingredients were scattered in the three witches' room. At every word they spoke thunder would echo in the distance. When the dark spell was finally finished, the chanting was quickly replaced by the sisters' hysterical cackling. A little creature formed from the weird concoction. "Sisters, Bloom's powers will soon be ours! " the oldest yelled in joy.
The five fairies were happily chatting in the living room. Dinner had ended, they were all wearing their nightclothes and were planning to go to bed in a few minutes.
"I can't believe that tomorrow is open doors day. Huh I hate this!" Stella loudly complained. And she wasn't the only one.
"I really don't want my parents to come to Alfea." Bloom added her two cents.
"At least both of your parents are coming…"Musa mumbled sadly under her breath. But that didn't stop the others from hearing her. Stella and Flora, who were sharing a sofa with her, instantly hugged her in comfort.
"Okay girls I don't know about you but I'm exhausted so I'm going to bed, we have a long day tomorrow." The others nodded in agreement, wished each other good night before slipping into their beds. The little creature that had been hiding the past hour behind the living room's curtain took that as his cue to start wrecking chaos.
A few hours later most of the girls' peaceful sleep was interrupted by a scream coming from Stella's room. They all hurried to the blond girl's side. Stella was sitting up with her head between her knees.
"What happened Stella? Why did you scream?" Bloom sat next to her.
"It was a dream…" She answered, not bothering to lift up her head.
"Oh Stella, it must have been a terrible nightmare!" Flora said while hugging her terrified friend.
"No it was more than that…" After making sure she was feeling a bit better they all went back to their rooms, however the night didn't end there. Just a few minutes later they heard two screams coming from the other side of the apartment. This time it was Musa and Tecna's turn to be victims of weird bad dreams. After comforting their friends, the girls started to get suspicious.
"First Stella, and now Musa and Tecna? This can't be natural." Bloom whispered to herself. But before she could share her ideas to her friends, Flora told them to be quiet, she seemed to have heard something.
"Mirta!" the flower fairy exclaimed suddenly, she ran to the living room in the pumpkin girl's direction. She reached out her palm by instinct like the note of Professor Darkell told her to do. Out of nowhere a small hologram of the red haired witch appeared in her hand. The other girls stood around her impressed by Flora' s progress.
"Flora! I'm so happy that you found a way to contact me! You need to be careful. I saw the dark beast it was here crawling in the apartment sapping one by one your energy, but it left as soon as dawn started showing up. So you have to prepare for tomorrow night, it's probably going to come back!" she warned them before fading away.
They looked at each other and they all had the same look of determination in their eyes. They all knew that they would need to confront the beast. But first they needed information, and Flora already knew who to ask.
A few hours later, as her first free period of the day came, Flora left her friends who were discussing their different nightmares. She climbed up the entrance's stairs. She walked through two or three different corridors not very much used by the students. But before opening a small discreet door on her left she looked around her making sure no one, especially a teacher would see her enter her history teacher's office without authorization. That would lead to a lot of questions that she really didn't want to answer and rumors that she really didn't want to create. When she was sure the coast was clear, she softly knocked three times at the door.
"Come in." she heard her teacher's voice answer behind the door. She quickly opened and closed the door behind her.
"Flora?" he was surprised to see her without her things to study. She actually seemed tired and nervous. When she sat down in the seat in front of him, he noticed dark shadows under eyes, proving his hunch about her being tired. He didn't even bother to ask what was the matter. He knew that she was going to tell him anyway, so he waited. Staring at her with a raised eyebrow, showing her he was listening.
"Hello sir, I was wondering if you could help me with an assignment for my magic creatures class." She smiled at him, trying to hide the urgency in her voice, the key was trying.
But he chose to play along with it, if she wanted to keep whatever was happening to herself, it was her problem. He told her to continue.
"You see, Mrs. Roselyn talked to us about some of the dark creatures that targeted fairies. She told us to do some research on the monsters we knew about before coming to Alfea. I know about a dark creature and I really wanted to research it more but for that I need its name and I can't seem to remember it."
"Well maybe by telling me the things you know about it, I'll be able to recognize it and tell you its name." He said completely ignoring her terrible lying.
"Well it's a creature that can only use its powers at night. It can sap people's energy by making them have terrible nightmares…" she described vaguely. But that didn't stop him from recognizing the species. It was a type of beast that he really liked using in the past against his enemies.
"It's probably a Nightmare Gargoyle. Creatures created by witches to terrify and weaken their targets." Flora's eyes widened in shock. He proceeded to tell her more about them. They were horrible beasts that prayed and fed on peoples' worst fears. But why was one hunting in Alfea? Thought Flora.
"Thank you professor for your help!" She said in a hurry. And quickly ran to join her friends outside. Moreover she didn't notice the young man looking at her with curiosity. Something was happening and he needed to find out what.
A few hours later, he was in Faragonda's office, telling her about his suspicions.
"So you think that Flora and her friends are hiding something from us because she came to ask you about Nightmare Gargoyles?" She repeated a bit in disbelief.
"She came to see me telling me it was for her magical creatures class. But I went to ask her teacher about it, and she told me that they were in the middle of studying pixies and forest elves. And you know as well as I do that trouble follows these girls wherever they go." It seems he finally convinced her because she nodded her head in understanding.
"Yes you are right, it is quite concerning." She looked out her window frowning.
"The sun will set any minute now, when it does please go check on the girls. Come and get me if our suspicion comes true." She told him.
Ten minutes later, the sun had set. You could only see the night's darkness through the corridors' windows. Professor Darkell was standing in front of the girls' apartment's door. But before he could even knock on the wooden surface, he heard the sound of hissing from inside. It looks like the beast was already starting his night hunt. Dimitri placed his hand on the door and closed his eyes. He concentrated his attention on the different auras behind the wall. The monster's aura was only noticeable if you were looking for it like he was doing now. It was a weird mix of pale blue, dark purple and vibrant red. It felt like he recognized these auras but he couldn't quite put his finger on it.
The thing started crawling through the apartment, it seems it was going in a specific direction. When Dimitri widened his mind's range, he quickly recognized the soft green and pink aura that was targeted by the beast. That's not good. However if he barged in now the beast would probably get away before he could even approach it. He concentrated his power around him and let himself sink in the floor surrounded by his blood red runes.
When he surfaced again he found himself in a small dark space. Clothes were hanging neatly around him. He was in one of the girls' closets. The closet's doors were slightly opened, just enough for him to see a bed and Flora probably pretending to sleep a few meters in front of him. He couldn't see the beast yet but by the sound of it, the monster was still in the living room.
Flora was laying on her bed, eyes closed waiting for the moment when the nightmare gargoyle would enter the room. Her whole body tensed at the sound of knocking near her, it was here! She repeated a few times the spell she was going to use in her head, making sure she knew it perfectly… but wait a minute, gargoyles don't knock!
She opened one way, and she was shocked to death to see her history teacher hiding in her closet of all places. She felt a blush spread on her face. Please don't let him see the inside of the second drawer on the left…
When he saw that she noticed him, he placed a finger on his lips signaling her to stay quiet and go with it. She felt better now that she wasn't alone anymore facing the creature. She smiled at him showing she understood. From then on they waited for the guest of honor to arrive.
From that moment, everything went quickly. The monster passed through the wall surprising the flower fairy, Darkell just had time to push her out of the bed before the beast could hit her with his tail. It seems that the monster has sensed the girl's hostility and started being more aggressive. When the giant lizard noticed that his target had escaped his attack and was now laying on the floor, he chose to attack this time the human male on fours over her that was acting as her human shield.
"Darkell! Watch out!" the girl yelled. But it was too late, the giant reptilian tail crashed into him sending him flying into the wall on his left. She ran to him and checked on his injuries. As that was happening, the beast crawled out of the room. Dimitri noticed that instead of following the thing, Flora was staying at his side.
"Go I'll be fine on my own, unlike those idiotic girls you call friends. They are the ones in danger. They don't have the level to fight a Nightmare Gargoyle alone, especially one that size…" he said to her. She hesitated a few minutes but seeing he didn't seem to have any serious injuries except a few bruises, she chose to do what he said.
When she joined the others in the hallway she was too late, the beast had jumped from the window and landed outside. The girls seemed exhausted. But that didn't stop them from regrouping around Stella and teleporting outside.
A fierce battle ensued between the fairies and the gargoyle, the girls were without a doubt in a tough situation, and things got even worse when the Trix came to join the fight. Bloom, Tecna, and Musa were knocked out by the beast while Stella and Flora were tapped in one of Icy's ice blocks. However before anything worse could happen, two figures appeared out of nowhere in the courtyard.
"It seems you were right Dimitri." Faragonda said while frowning at the gigantic creature that didn't have any right to be in her school. "I'll go check on the girls!" the young man yelled and ran to the girls' aid. Faragonda turned to the beast and blasted it with her magic. The monster roared in pain.
Darkell first checked on the three not-iced girls. They just seemed out of magical energy, Bloom even got up on her feet again. Then he focused his attention on the huge block of ice floating in the air. Him and the red haired girl went to stand right next to it. He lifted up two fingers and used to draw mysterious forms in the air. As he did that, some red runes appeared on the top of the ice block. It led to the ice being split into million pieces, and the two girls falling to the floor, freed from their ice prison. Bloom ran to her two friends and tried to wake them up, while Darkell went to help his boss.
It didn't take long for everything to be taken care of. The Nightmare Gargoyle was destroyed, the witches had fled the scene and the fairies were one by one getting back on their feet. Faragonda asked Bloom and Stella to explain. Tecna and Musa went to stand next to them. But Flora had difficulties in standing up so he went to help her by pulling her by her arm. Even then she didn't seem able to stand very long. So he placed an arm around her waist and a hand on her shoulder to prevent her from falling. She smiled tiredly at him in thanks. This had been a very long night for all of them.
