I'm back! :) For those of you who have read A Summer To Remember, this is the story I referred to in my last author's note. I started it in 2012, making it one of my oldest fics, picked it up again in 2015, then finally got back into it this year continuing around chapter 9. Old chapters will be edited before I post them so they're more polished. The title in my notes for the past six years has literally been "Beyblade Horror Story" and I haven't come up with much better, so please excuse the not-so-great title I've settled on. Thankfully, I already had a summary written. No struggles with that at least.
In my notes, younger me decided each chapter would be named after a song for whatever reason, but I think I'll stick with it; if you want a soundtrack while you read or wanna get into new music, here you go. This chapter is "Ducere Me in Lucem" by Sirenia, which translates more or less into "to lead me into the light" in Latin. Enjoy, let me know what you think!
I do not own Metal Fight Beyblade.
In her hands, Mei Mei held the envelope containing the letter that could be responsible for changing her life forever. Anxiously, she tore through the envelope and read the paper that would determine her destiny.
"Yes!" Mei Mei cheered excitedly. "I'M IN!"
She immediately grabbed her cell phone and 4-way dialed her best friends: Madoka, Sophie, and Hikaru.
"Guys, I'M IN!" she shrieked.
"No way! Me, too!" Madoka replied, just as excited.
"I'm opening my letter right now," Sophie said, her voice barely containing her anticipation.
The girls waited a few moments for Sophie to read her paper.
"IN!"
The girls screamed with joy.
"Hey, wait a minute. Hikaru, are you in, too?" Madoka asked.
"The mail truck hasn't come yet," Hikaru sighed.
"If I was you, I probably would have gone to the post office by now and demanded my letter," Mei Mei laughed.
"Yeah, I- THE TRUCK IS HERE!" Hikaru screeched. "Be right back!"
The girls waited with bated breath for Hikaru to return. Never before had the four of them been so silent on the phone together.
"Guys..." Hikaru came back on the phone a few minutes later and her voice trailed off. In the background, they could hear the ripping of paper as she tore through the envelope. She took a deep breath. "I GOT IN!"
Hikaru was waiting anxiously at the train station. Seriously, where were her friends? They did not want to miss this train.
Suddenly, Madoka came into view, lugging three giant bags behind her. Hikaru stifled a laugh.
Madoka was the smart one of the group. For some reason, though, it never failed that she brought twice as much as necessary. She always ended needing someone to help her.
A few minutes later, Sophie and Mei Mei showed up together.
Sophie, ever the fashionista of the group, surprisingly only had one bag with her, but it was huge. Mei Mei had two bags, both about medium size.
Hikaru looked down at her one, average-sized bag. She sighed, then went to help Madoka out. She didn't understand why her friends needed so much stuff, especially when they had uniforms where they were going.
Starlight Academy.
Over 100 years ago, Starlight Academy had been a prestigious boarding school for rich kids. Something went wrong, though, and for reasons unknown, the school had been shut down and forgotten.
But now, the building had been restored to its former glory and was once again accepting students. The process to get in was extremely tough and the acceptance rate was rather low. The four of them had spent hours together working on their applications and the required essays. Hikaru was somewhat surprised that every single one of them had gotten in when they were up against so much competition, but she wasn't complaining. Starlight Academy would be so much better with all her friends there.
This would be Starlight Academy's first year back in action since it had shut its doors so many years ago. Hikaru was sure it would be one to remember.
She had no idea how right she was.
"I'm so excited," Mei Mei commented while sitting on the train. They still had over an hour before reaching their destination.
"You've said that already," Hikaru responded, amused. "Multiple times, in fact."
Sophie glanced up from the book she was reading. "Well, everyone is. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity. It's not every day you get a chance to go off to a boarding school like this." Sophie looked over at Madoka, who was typing furiously on her laptop. "Madoka, please tell me you're not doing homework. We haven't even gotten to school yet. There aren't any assignments you could possibly be working on."
"Of course not. I'm actually looking into the legends of Starlight Academy," Madoka replied.
"Find anything good?" Hikaru asked.
"Not really," Madoka frowned. "Just a lot of stories involving supernatural creatures, vampires and stuff."
"I highly doubt there's any vampires," Sophie said, fluffing her hair out.
"Well, what are the legends?" Mei Mei pressed.
"One is about a vampire, or actually, the ghost of a vampire that haunts the school, looking for the person who killed it," Madoka explained.
"Oh yeah, that makes sense," Sophie muttered under her breath.
"All the stories are like that. Monsters going around and slaughtering the students," Madoka told her. "Well, except for one. Even it gets weird after a while, though. It's called 'The Ghost Girl'."
"Oh, because that's original."
"What is it?" Hikaru asked, intrigued.
"It's about a girl who discovered her boyfriend was cheating on her with her best friend. For revenge, she went around trying to scare them then trapped both of them and killed them."
"Even that seems cliché," Mei Mei noted.
"Here's where the story changes. After she killed them, the girl left their bodies in front of the school. Then, she disappeared. Some people thought she may have killed herself, but there was no proof to support that theory. Most people just assumed she was still alive, but had run off to hide somewhere. Every once in a while, somebody would claim they saw her. Everyone who saw her all agreed that she was always at a window, looking at the sky. Then, she would look at the person, glare, and vanish."
"I think the vampire story made more sense than that one. This girl allegedly kills two people, disappears, and then reappears, but doesn't do anything? If you're going to be vengeful like that shouldn't you do more than just glare at people? Seems like a waste of time to me, but whatever. I don't care how isolated the school was back then, law enforcement would have been all over the girl trying to find her anyway," Sophie scoffed. "Anything giving a reasonable explanation why the school closed?"
"Not really. Just that there were quite a few deaths that can be accounted for, which, if you think about it, does give a pretty valid reason for shutting it down. There aren't any further details, names of victims, or anything, though. I suppose if it happened so long ago, the only information left would be from whatever old newspapers from the time are still around, if any."
"And all that's true? Not legend?" Mei Mei's eyes widened slightly. Madoka nodded.
"That's encouraging," Hikaru said. "Are you sure this school is safe?"
"If it wasn't, it wouldn't be reopening," Sophie answered. "Besides, that was a hundred years ago. Whoever or whatever was the culprit is long gone now."
The train pulled into the station and the girls got off. A man with a sign that said "Starlight Academy" was standing off to the right. There was already a sizable pile of students crowded around him, to the point where he was barely visible if not for the sign.
The man led the students to a large coach bus. Two more were directly behind it, also designated for the school. It took quite a while to load the obscene amount of luggage before the doors of the buses were opened. Luckily, the girls all managed to get seats next to each other. Within minutes, their bus had gone from complete silence to a loud clamor. The girls almost had to scream in order to hear one another. The excitement in the air was palpable.
The road to the school was a long, winding one. It was right off the highway, but it went down a rocky back road for miles. About an hour later, the girls got their first view of the school.
"This castle was brought over piece by piece from Scotland in the 1700s," the bus driver explained to everyone.
The school was indeed a tall, looming castle. Its expanse stretched further than the girls could see from where they sat on the bus. The structure was enormous. There were many towers and parapets all around, some of them with more reinforcements than others. From a distance, it was hard to tell, but what looked to be a cannon was perched on top of one. The castle stretched up towards the sky, the dark gray stone walls giving off an ominous appearance. Vines and other plant life grew up along the side of the castle, but for the most part, it looked like someone had been trying their best to control the flora decorating the old castle. The only thing missing was a moat and the accompanying drawbridge. All around the castle, thick woods surrounded the campus.
Their new school looked like something out of a fairytale.
"We get to live in a castle for the next year!" Mei Mei whispered excitedly.
The bus stopped and students unloaded, dragging their luggage with them and going straight to the entrance.
Immediately, they were greeted by a woman with her dark hair tied back in a bun. It was difficult to tell exactly how old she was, but she barely looked thirty, maybe thirty-five at the most.
"Hello, I'm Headmistress Celestia," she said in a no-nonsense voice. "You will all be separated by grade, given a tour of the school, then be excused to your dorm room. Classes will start at 8:00 on Monday morning. Breakfast is at 7:00 until classes start except for the weekends. On the weekends, breakfast goes from 8 to 10. Dinner is from 5 to 7 every night. There is an hour-long lunch break at 12 everyday. Now, let's make this a good year without any trouble." The expression on her face was so dark and serious that some kids looked away. Each of the girls made a mental note to their best to stay on her good side. Madoka had opened up a notebook and was feverishly writing down everything the woman said.
Hikaru had to wonder how someone so young had been put in charge of the entire school. Although, the effect she had on the students by simply giving them the daily routine and laying down expectations was undeniable.
Instantly, the entryway became a chaotic mess as students scrambled to find the teacher holding a sign for their grade. Once that was settled, the boys were split apart from the girls for their own tour. Madoka peeked over at the group of guys her age, wondering if she would see anybody she recognized.
After the tour of the castle- Mei Mei was almost certain she would get lost at some point as the layout was extremely confusing with corridors shooting off in every direction with no real sense of purpose or organization- the girls received their dorm assignments. The girls' dorms were located in the west wing of the castle, on the third floor.
Their faces fell upon realizing they would not all be in the same dorm. However, Sophie and Madoka were in the same room while Hikaru and Mei Mei were together in a different room. As upsetting as it was, they were glad they hadn't been completely separated from one another, especially considering the fact that each dorm only held three students. Their situation could have been that much worse.
Hikaru and Mei Mei entered their dorm. The room was relatively large, with white and gold wallpaper and a hardwood floor covered with various throw rugs. There were three beds, and a closet off to one of the sides. Each bed also had a small desk and a dresser next to it.
"Who designed this castle?" Mei Mei asked peevishly, not paying much attention to the room. "It's like they want us to have a hard time getting around and be late to everything. What were they thinking when this place was built?"
Before Hikaru had a chance to respond, they became aware that they were no longer by themselves. Another girl was already in room.
"Hi, I'm Selen," she introduced herself. "The bed by the window is mine."
The girls weren't exactly sure how to respond to her introduction, but it quickly became obvious to Mei Mei and Hikaru that Selen had taken the best bed, as it had the window view and was right next to the closet while the other two beds were more squished off to the side, as if they had been haphazardly shoved there. Something didn't sit quite right about the room having been designed by the school so that two students were expected to share half the room while the third got the other half all to themselves.
It also became glaringly obvious that they had not gotten the best roommate, either. Selen didn't come across as someone who would be that easy to get along with.
"Hey, what are these?" Mei Mei pointed to a bag filled with clothes on each bed.
"Those are the uniforms," Selen answered disinterestedly. "Trust me, they're nothing special."
Hikaru went over to one of the beds and opened a bag. She didn't think the uniform was too hideous or unremarkable the way Selen had implied.
The outfit had a black and purple plaid pleated skirt that was pretty short in Hikaru's opinion, especially for a school uniform. There was a purple tank top with a white blouse. In addition, there was also a black, leathery vest. Assorted tights and socks of varying lengths in both purple and black were also provided. As far as uniforms went, Hikaru figured, it could have been way worse. Mei Mei's uniform was nearly identical, except that the purple color was replaced by gold.
"I don't think it's that bad," Mei Mei echoed Hikaru's thoughts.
"Speak for yourself," Selen said, hardly paying them any attention.
Hikaru went over to the closet to put some of her belongings in it, only to find that it was already cluttered with Selen's stuff. She had barely left room for anyone else to fit anything in.
It was going to be a long year.
Meanwhile, Sophie and Madoka had just entered their dorm room as well. So far, their third roommate had failed to show up.
Their room was similar in design to Hikaru and Mei Mei's. There were three beds, however, the beds were all lined up right next to each other, cutting the room into thirds, instead of having two squished together and one next to the closet. The walls were bare.
Sophie and Madoka picked their beds and found their uniforms.
"It's not bad," Sophie decided. Madoka nodded her agreement. Besides, it really wasn't like they had a choice when it came down to it anyway.
Madoka went over to the window and peered outside. Their view overlooked a lake in the distance, obscured by a thick fog. The lake water was dark, but not quite black. For some reason, she found herself drawn to it, as if there might be something there, calling to her. From where she stood, the water appeared to be still, as if there were no current at all. Something about it seemed off to Madoka. It was just a bit too spooky.
"Is that a lake?" Sophie looked out the window. "I wonder why they didn't mention it on the brochure."
"Maybe we're not supposed to go near it," Madoka suggested.
"Probably. I bet it's some type of liability if anything happens to a student in it. It is kind of weird looking out there. What's up with all that fog?" Sophie walked away from the window and resumed unpacking.
Just then, a girl with bright pink hair in pigtails burst into the room.
"Who are you people?" she asked, taking a long look around the room.
"I'm Sophie, and this is Madoka," Sophie introduced. "We're your roommates."
"Oh," the other girl looked surprised. "I was expecting someone else. Anyway, my name's Lera."
Unsure of what to do at this point, the girls informed her of which bed was hers then moved on to dividing up closet space. Lera seemed slightly annoyed with the arrangements, but didn't say anything; there was nothing she could do.
Madoka felt Lera's gaze on her several times, but didn't pay it any attention. It was her fault for not showing up earlier. At least Madoka and Sophie were trying to split up everything evenly to the best of their ability. It wasn't as though the two were deliberately attempting to make things difficult for her. Lera should have come straight to the dorm after the tour if she was so concerned about her living quarters. Madoka wondered who she had been expecting to be in the room.
The girls hoped Lera wouldn't be too bad to live with for the year, but they were prepared for the worst regardless. For the most part she did seem okay, if a little bratty. Still, that wasn't the end of the world. She didn't have much else to say while they organized the room.
Later on, the girls all met up outside their dorm rooms, once they had finished unpacking and getting settled in.
"I hate being separated like this," Mei Mei moaned.
"It won't be that bad," Madoka reassured her. "We can always hang out in the rooms together. We'll really only be separated for sleeping purposes."
"Do you guys have your schedules?" Sophie asked, getting hers out of her bag. Madoka took hers out as well.
"Where did you get that? Do we need to ask one of the teachers for them?" Hikaru asked. "We couldn't find ours."
"They were in the room when we got there. Right on the desks."
The girls went back into Mei Mei and Hikaru's room. Selen was still in there, lying on her bed listening to music. She paid them no attention, other than briefly glancing up when they entered. Her side of the room was already plastered in posters, some of them edging closer to Mei Mei and Hikaru's side. Hikaru and Mei Mei did their best to ignore her; there had already been an altercation concerning the closet. They'd barely been on campus for three hours. They had no desire to get involved in another disagreement so soon.
Sophie and Madoka looked around the room with interest; somebody had clearly rearranged the furniture in the room. Their room had been split about equally with the three beds spaced out evenly. Mei Mei and Hikaru's beds were practically on top of each other.
After a few minutes of searching, the girls were about ready to give up. There was no sign of the schedules anywhere. The desks and drawers were completely bare.
"Selen, have you seen our schedules?" Hikaru asked, doing her best to cover up the irritation in her voice.
Selen finally looked up at the girls. "Oh yeah. I think they're in the trash can or something."
"The trash can?"
"Yeah."
The girls exchanged a look with one another. Mei Mei went over to the trash and found the two pieces of paper lying at the bottom of the bin, both crumpled up. She flattened them out. "How did they get here? Selen?"
Selen paid no attention; she had already gone back to her music.
Rolling their eyes, the girls walked out of the room. It was almost time for dinner anyways, and they still had no idea how to get to the dining hall without anyone to help.