Chapter 5: Night School.
'Who invited Whateley and Carter?' Ceaser demanded as they met outside the school gates, still unlocked. Ceaser wore a dark tracksuit, a rucksack on his back containing a flashlight clipped to the side of it. Alex was dressed mainly in cream colours, a bracelet around his right wrist made of white stone with cut green crystals at set intervals, sparkling in the moonlight. Kara had dressed in very warm, winter clothes, a thick blue coat zipped up tightly; it was designed for skiing.
They took residence up in one of the English classrooms. 'This is horrid... Boring.' Alex sighed, swinging his feet absent mindedly as he sat on the edge of a desk.
'What are we looking for?' Wilbur wondered in a yawn. 'I have studying to do.'
'Yeah, Alex, you said this place was haunted!'
'Shh! Hush! Do you hear that?' Ceaser demanded, silencing them all in one go. Alex felt it first, wrapping his coat tighter around him. 'That chill...'
Footsteps could be heard, thumping and echoing along the empty corridor. Then it hit the others; that frigid void of an utterly alien presence.
'W-When you said h-h-h-haunted?' Randolph wondered trembling from head to foot.
The footsteps came to a stop outside the door to their classroom. All of them watched it expectantly, heavy breathing could be heard from outside. 'Lights off...' Kara breathed. With several clicks, their flashlights were turned off, leaving only the moonlight streaming in through the windows. 'I wish I hadn't said "Haunted" and "Dark" in the same rumour...' Alex breathed to himself. 'The Haunter of the Dark...'
The presence lingered behind the door, chilling sixteen year olds to their bones. Alex was suffering major deja vu, but managed to keep his mind in the present. 'Come... Come to me...' The whispering voice echoed through the air, only Alex seemed to be able to hear it. 'Come to me, Alexander... Let me rip you... Let me tear you... '
'Alex?' Kara's voice snapped him from his trance, he had been staring unblinkingly at the door.
'Hmm?' he wondered, looking at her.
'You Ok?' she wondered. 'You looked a bit... Out of it for a moment.'
'Yeah, I'm...' the presence faded from behind the door, the chill gone with it. 'Fine. Fine, now.'
'Isn't that w-w-where we came down?' Randolph Carter wondered after he and Wilbur had seperated from the rest of the group. That chill was back. 'Y-yeah. It looks... A bit darker now. A lot darker.' he wondered, shining his flashlight down it, the weak beam did not manage to penetrate the inky blackness. 'Let's not go that way.'
'I never liked gym...' Alex groaned as they entered into the massive basketball court. Their footsteps echoed through the hall as they proceeded between the shadowy sectors of the hall, and the area illuminated by moonlight coming in through the windows. 'Stop!' Alex demanded, grabbing Kara and Ceaser by the back of their shirts before they stepped out of the moonlit area. 'Alex?' Ceaser demanded, black hair flying as he turned to look down on his smaller friend, his eyes were wide and he was staring around, unblinking. 'What's wrong?' Kara asked, taking one of his hands. An image burst into her mind the moment that she completed the psychic "circuit". She tried to pull away, but Alex held her hand in an iron grip. A dark shadow emerged out of the utter blackness of a void, form unfixed, shifting and changing like rippling oil. Kara finally managed to wrench had hand free, the image faded. 'What was that...?'
'I don't know...' Alex shook his head, seeming to have recovered. 'I don't know.'
'My, my... Aren't you up late?' A dark voice drawled from nearby.
'Mr Tepp?' Kara wondered. 'What are you doing here?'
'Why, Kara, I could ask you the same question.' he shrugged, pulling his hands from his pockets.
'His eyes...' Alex whispered, he looked positvely hysterical. 'His eyes!' Kara noticed it now, the science teacher had dark black voids where his eyes should be, absoultely nothing beyond. Her entire form began to tremble with an unknown fear, and if Alex was sensitive to this sort of stuff, she was amazed he was still standing. Mr Tepp gave a small smile, opening his mouth to say something, but before he could, a snarling howl whipped through the building, the shadows thickening as the temperature took a plummet. 'Everybody, careful!' Ceaser demanded, pulling Kara and Alex close to his solid chest with unnatural ease. 'Stay in the light.'
'Ahh! Our Haunter arrives...' Mr Tepp snickered. 'Are you going to kill me? Or is that beyond your power?'
The very building shook with a roaring howl, suddenly the eyeless science teacher vanished suddenly. They gathered Whateley and Carter and soon fled the building after that. None of them slept well that night.
'Broaden your minds...! True artwork comes through the cleansing of the soul!' Kara struggled to stay concious and nearly fell asleep twice, one time she came dangerously close to sleeping face first in a paint pot. 'Hmm... Now what do we have here... Huh?' Alex nudged her roughly and she sat up with a start, staring into those deep amber eyes of the art teacher. 'Hmm? Is this group work?'
'Y-yeah!' Ceaser cut across, trying to find the right shade of green.
'So... Do tell me, how is this working?' Mr King wondered, flexing his fingers in wonder.
'Kara here...' Alex tapped her lightly on the back to wake her up again. '...Is opening her chakras to properly channel the energies requried for clear vision of artwork. I am sketching what she is describing, and Ceaser will paint the finished product.'
'Ah. Co-operative artwork. Music to my ears.' Mr King nodded before returning to his desk and picking up a book of plays, Alex could make out the name; "The King In Yellow".