Chapter Ten

Chapter ten

Ashes, cinders, fire, flame.

Leaves, trees, wind, clouds.

Flowers, grass, dirt, worms.

Water, lakes, bank, mud.

All things are interconnected, all are one.

“What do you think it means?”

“Haven’t a clue Pete, sure is, Earthy.” Peter laughed at Hayden’s obvious comment.

“Thank you Dr. Hayden.”

“I know, I know. I’m pure genius.” Wit then walked by the two boys, who had been looking at the engraving on the frame of the Academy map.

“Sure,” Wit replied “Let’s go with that.” Two more weeks had passed since Peter had gotten it in his head that Lye was broken. Since then Peter tried harder than ever to ignore her, and ultimately failed. Hayden pretended to be offended, he failed and rolled his eyes.

“Whatever, I want dinner come on.” Hayden huffed as he stepped around Wit. Walking to the dinning hall they found Lye, Ecrin, and Declan making some sort of plan.

“Alright it’s open after 11:00 so we should be getting ready by 10:50.” Declan said to the girls, they nodded and Ecrin said slyly.

“Do you really need ten whole minutes to get ready Declan? My goodness you men really are high maintenance.” Declan jerked his head back.

“We are not! I’d like to see you girls get ready in five minutes.” It was after this comment that Lye slipped in.

“We most certainly can, 10:55 sound good?” Declan took a step towards Lye.

“Deal.” Declan snarled. He and Lye now nose to nose. Then Declan stepped back and said in a cheery voice. “I’ll see you both at 10:55 then?” When Lye and Ecrin nodded he clasped his hands in front of him. “Now, I need food.” The girls followed him into the dinning hall Lye saying to Ecrin.

“You know you’d never be able to tell he’s Australian I mean he doesn’t have an accent.”

“I know, and I thought Australians were like. ‘I need something to skewer me shrimp for the bobby!’ ” This caused several chuckles to be turned into “I wasn’t eavesdropping” coughs from the guys behind them.

“What is a bobby?” Lye asked Ecrin, who shrugged her shoulders.

“I haven’t a clue.” Dave cut into the girl’s private conversation as they grabbed sandwiches from platters on the great table.

“A bobby is an English police officer.” Dave said to them.

“We really don’t care.” Lye snapped at him. Dave was about to retort, but he was cut off by a bleeping cell phone. Lye had to turn a bit to dig the phone out of her dark blue blazer. She took one look at the screen and ducked out of the room, pushing past Phillip and Blake. Aden was trying to grab three sandwiches at once when Anthony popped up like a ghost and smacked them out of his hands.

“Have you washed.” Anthony bellowed, then continued dramatically “You hands!” It was more declarative than interrogative and everyone laughed, Aden hung his head and headed to the washroom. Mr. Roblin and Donte walked in and told everyone to take their seats.

“So you have been here for a month now and you seem to have adjusted very well.” Donte said, he made it sound like they were receiving an award. However that proud feeling was shattered when Mr. Roblin began to speak.

“Due to some, incidents. There are to be new rules that are going to be established at the assembly this coming Tuesday. For now, no one is allowed out of the Manor past the new curfew which is,” Eloy referred to a piece of paper that he had retrieved from his vest pocket. “10:00. If you are out past this time, it could result in, consequences. Even so we recommend you are in the Manor by at least 9:40 just to be safe.”

The whole mood had changed, they ate their dinner quietly with a few whispered comments. Lye came back in, and was ignored.

“So they finally decided to do something about the, incidents.” She walked past Peter, and ran two fingers down the length of his arm, which was laying on the table. On instinct Peter jerked his arm back and looked up at Lye. She smiled at him and continued to walk to her seat. A choking noise came from the direction of Claire and Declan. Hayden and Peter shared a confused, and on Peter’s part terrified, stare.

“Yes, things were getting out of hand too soon. People were being careless.” Eloy said dryly, swirling his drink in his glass.

“Ah, Eloy. You must understand that it was not entirely because they were, careless. Newbies merely overstepped their boundaries.” Lye finally reached her seat, she took a long drink of red liquid.

“Wait,” George said “what do you mean by newbies overstepping their boundaries?” Mr. Roblin shifted in his seat to face George.

“A few newbies from the Robshire Manor strayed from the marked path and went past the border behind the school. As a result they have gone missing. This is the reason we insist that you travel together, and obey the rules and boundaries. They are there for your own safety.” Lye nodded.

“That’s right, be safe.” Lye’s voice sounded fake, drunk, almost mocking. Donte rolled his eyes and sounded less like his usual kid-trapped-in-an-adult’s-body self for a moment.

“Enough of that Lye.” Lye put on a fake pout face, replaced it with a smirk and began to eat.

§***§

Snip Snap Snorem had become a usual evening game for the manories. Peter had won his second round when Hayden hissed at him from the parlor doorway.

“Hey, Pete.”

“I’ll be back.” Pushing back his chair Peter stood and made his way over to Hayden. Aden, Phillip, and Jerald were behind him. “What’s going on?”

“Follow us.” They led Peter out the Manor doors. Terrence stood on the lawn, he was facing towards the woods on the left side of the manor. Terrence turned his head at the sound of their approach.

“There your are.” He said, releasing his abused bottom lip from between his teeth.

“Why are we out here? It’s getting close to 10:00.” Peter said checking his watch.

“We know, and so does someone else.” Jerald’s eyes seemed unable to focus on one thing.

“Jerald, what is that supposed to mean?”

“We were out here because Phillip forgot the football.” Hayden gave Phillip a punch before continuing. “When we saw Lye walking into the wood.” Peter examined each of their faces carefully. Though it was hard to discern their emotions in the darkening twilight.

“You’re sure?” Peter asked, his voice was filled with doubt. Aden nodded.

“We’re one hundred percent positive. She’s been in there over fifteen minutes too.” Peter rocked back on his heels.

“Well, do you think she could be hurt.” His only response was a few shrugs. Peter checked his watch, pressing the button again so that the numbers glowed. 9:55 pm.

“I say if she isn’t out in five minutes, we…”

“Go after her.” Everyone blinked at Jerald’s joyful deceleration.

“I was going to say tell Donte and Mr. Roblin. But, that works too I suppose. I mean here are a good number of us.” Peter began to bit his lip. His heart beat sped up, beat by beat.

Five minutes ticked by slowly. At exactly ten o’clock Aden broke the silence, while he whip out his cell phone.

“Flash light app on boys. Looks like we’re going in.” Phillip protested.

“Can’t we just go get Mr. Roblin?” Unfortunately, his begging was fruitless.

A breeze whispered through the trees throwing leaves and twigs off-balance and sending them twirling to the ground. Tall pine trees and oak trees shared a common ground. Their roots running long and twisting up to catch unsuspecting travelers’ ankles, and send them crashing to the forest floor. The eerie blue squares of glowing light from the boys’ cell phones illuminated the surrounding area.

Moss covered the base of the trees. Owls and other creatures of the night moved about, making noise and sending chills up and down the spines of the six trespassers. A cluster of leaves fell on Jerald’s head which sent him running into a tree from fright. They looked for any signs that another human had been there, and found none. They walked in complete silence with exceptions for the twigs that they constantly stepped on, and the animals.

All left over silence was interrupted by a howl. The chilling vibrations increased in frequency and speed. Terrence was the first to speak in, they did not know how long.

“That sounded like a wolf.” Peter shook his head in the dark.

“Can’t be.”

“Could be.” Hayden whispered. They walked a while longer until Phillip suggested they go back. They all agreed immediately and turned around to do so. When they saw that where the path that had been clear a moment earlier, was no blocked by tree branches and thorn bushes.

“Where did those come from!” Jerald exclaimed.

There was no way past them, they would either have to fight their way through, or keep going until they found relief from the woodland surrounding. They decided to choose the latter. They finally came out in a clearing, it stretched probably twelve kilometers in size all the way around and flattened grass provided paths into the unending trees. The branches cast strange shadows due to the light from the phones, creating illusions and tricking their minds. But what wasn’t an illusion, were two huge glowing yellow eyes.

Breathing was impossible, heartbeats would have been undetectable, thoughts froze in the process of being made. Everything went still. Except, for the heavy breathing of the beast. The temperature was steadily dropping, so they could see the animal’s breaths in the air.

Or rather, the animals’. For more eyes appeared. Unlike in horror movies they weren’t all yellow, some were blue, some were green. One pair had a single blue eye and the other was green, but each one was just as frightening. The first pair of eyes, the yellow; began to move, closer. Closer. Always closer. The boys moved back, their feet brushing against the grass. Then the light provided by the full moon cast down on the massive creature. What stood before them, made them tremble with fear.