Prologue | Narrator POVEvery student at Lincoln high school was given a test. It was a very odd test, for the teachers could tell them almost nothing about it. The subjects the test touched on were not related to school in any way. The students were given the whole day to complete the test; leaving only to go to lunch where the cafeteria was buzzing with curiosity.
“What is it for?” one student would ask their friend.
“The teachers wouldn’t tell us anything about the test,” another would say.
“It is the weirdest test I’ve ever taken. What are the questions supposed to mean?” someone else would comment.
One week after the test had taken place, letters were given to some students by their homeroom teachers. The letters read as follows:
Chapter One | Ellie POVFriday night at 7:30PM, Ellie walked cautiously into the school. She felt like an intruder since she was at the school so late, and since nobody seemed to be here the feeling only increased.
“Hello!” came an excited voice from behind her. Ellie jumped about 50 feet and almost had a heart attack. She whipped around to face whoever was talking, and saw a tall, thin as a twig man striding towards her. “I’m Dr. Matt Hedally. But you can call me Matt. And you are?” he said this all very quickly, leaving Ellie stunned for a moment.
“Um… Ellie,” she muttered, glancing behind him. She was relieved to see some people that she knew from her classes.
“Good good! Go wait with your classmates. We’re still expecting a couple more people,” Matt said. Ellie walked around him, trying not to make it look like she was trying to stay as far out of his reach as possible. She glanced at her classmates, and realized that she was not even remote friends with any of them. Great, she thought. This won’t be weird at all. Toby, Mari, Avery, Raz, Gibbs, and Syv, she thought. She could see why some people were here, as they were incredibly smart, but others, she wasn’t too sure about. Finally, Eises walked in alongside Quies.
“Okay, we’re all here!” Matt said with a wide smile, “Now if you’ll all follow me…” he continued, leading them down the hallway towards a staircase that Ellie had been wanting to explore for awhile. The stairs went up and up and up to a lone door at the end of a narrow hallway. Matt opened the door and stepped into the room.
The room was very spacious, seeming to stretch across half of the school. However, it seemed much bigger, as there was next to nothing in the room, save for a small stage-like thing in the front of the room with some chairs in front of it. Matt walked up onto the stage and gestured for them to gather on the chairs in front. Ellie sat down, and Matt put an image up on the wall. Ellie narrowed her eyes at the image, then looked around the room for a projector. She did not find one. What the heck? she thought, glancing at the others to see if they had noticed. Raz definitely had.
Raz shot up from his seat and stared at Matt. “How did you do that?” he asked, shock ringing throughout his tone.
Matt glanced at Raz and replied in an amused tone. “I’m getting to it, if you’ll let me,” he said. “Now if you’ll turn your attention to the presentation.” Ellie looked back at the presentation. The lights dimmed and Matt began.
Chapter Two | Avery POVOn the introduction slide was a moving picture of a fearsome looking eagle owl swooping down at the camera that was used to get the picture. “These extracurricular activities aren’t necessarily activities extra classes. We are a school. We call ourselves The Night School,” Matt said, changing the slide.
The next picture was one of a grand looking school. It looked to be at least three stories high, and most of the school was made of what seemed to be glass. Sunlight reflected off of the massive windows, giving the school a slightly mystical illusion. Avery narrowed her eyes slightly in thought. This is all great, but what does it have to do with us? she wondered.
“The Night School is a private school in a sense,” Matt said, changing the slide again. This one showed the lobby inside of the school. It was just as magnificent as the outside, if not more. In the center of the room there was an impressive statue of an owl. It’s wings were spread out and it’s gaze was fixed firmly on the entrance to the school. It looks like it was put there to scare intruders off, Avery thought, as the owl’s gaze was making her feel slightly uneasy.
‘Though, we specialize in… a different sort of people,” Matt continued, sounding as though he was choosing his words carefully. The next slide showed another moving picture, this one of a girl who looked about ten. She was conjuring water out of thin air and moving it around her. Avery’s eyes widened in disbelief, and she heard Eises suck in a sharp breath next to her.
“We take in people who have extraordinary abilities,” Matt said, his gaze sweeping over the small crowd. “Some come to us with the ability to control the elements-” he gestured at the girl in the picture. “-some can fly, or disappear at whim. Some, like me, can create illusions.”
Illusions. Great, Avery thought, trying to comprehend all of this. “There is a wide, very wide array of powers that people come to us with. Some we have never seen before, and it’s always exciting when this happens,” Matt grinned, clasping his hands together.
Out of the corner of her eye, Avery saw Quies slowly raise her hand. “Sir,” Quies began quietly. “How exactly do you find out what our powers are?”
Matt nodded. “Well you see-” he put up another image on the screen. It showed a person sleeping in a dark room. “We have more advanced technology at our school. So what we do is put you into a special kind of sleep, and then trace your dreams. The power usually presents itself immediately. Once we know what it is, we wake you up and tell you.”
Avery sat up straight, not realizing she had been leaning forward. She then raised her hand quickly and said, “Sir, are we supposed to go to this school?” This was the most confusing part, as she couldn't see how they were supposed to juggle going between Lincoln High and The Night School.
“Ah! Very sorry, I should have explained that first,” Matt said, running a hand through his hair. “So you see, if you accept to go to The Night School then you will be moved there permanently. As I said before, it is a private school, so you will live there if you accept. All of your classes will be at the school, so don’t think you’re getting out of learning the stuff you’re learning at the moment,” he said with a slight smirk.
Avery nodded slightly.
A private school for kids with powers, she thought. And then she thought the one thing that was going through everybody's mind at that moment.
What is my power?
Chapter Three | Mari POVMari shifted uneasily in her seat as the bus pulled up to the new school. A thousand thoughts were chasing each other around her head as she and her classmates stepped off the bus. The first sighting of the school in person was enough to steal her breath. The school was even more majestic in person, if that was even possible. It towered high over their heads, and the sunlight glinted sharply on the glass like sidings. She couldn’t see through the glass though, which made her think it either wasn’t glass, or it was one sided glass.
Mari pulled her duffle bag of stuff tighter onto her shoulder, and followed the crowd into the school. She had forgotten about the owl statue in her awe at the outside appearance of the school. The statue managed to make her jump in surprise, and she stifled what would have been an awkward squeak of surprise. That thing is really creepy… she thought, edging away from it. She noticed some of her classmates also eyeing the owl apprehensively.
“Follow me,” Matt said from the front, heading down a wide hallway. Mari adjusted her duffle bag once again, then quickly followed him and the group. Matt led them into a room that wasn’t much bigger than the average classroom. “Your room assignments are listed over on the bulletin board,” Matt said, gesturing to a bulletin board that was overflowing with papers. “After you know what room you are in, come and get your school uniforms.” He gestured to a small table that had piles of black and navy blue clothes on it.
Mari moved over to the bulletin board, feeling more nervous than she thought she should over a silly room.
Who will my roommates be? she wondered, standing on her toes to see the list.
A sigh of relief escaped her when she saw who she was going to be rooming with.
Now the only thing that can go wrong is me making a fool of myself… she thought, catching the eye of Avery and Ellie. Ellie smiled nervously then ducked her head, and hurried over to the table with the uniforms. Avery waved, then followed the others over to the table. Mari managed an even more nervous smile, then followed suit. She quickly found the pile of clothes with her name on it.
Studying the clothes, Mari reached the conclusion that they weren’t too bad. They were kinda like suits, only their names were stitched onto the overcoat breast pocket in silver threading. The undershirt was a dark navy blue, and the overcoat was black, as were the pants.
“You can all head to your rooms now,” Matt said. “Dinner is at 6:30 in the main hall. To get there, go to the main entrance, take the first left. It’ll be the second room on the right. On another note, be sure to meet back here in this room at 7:30 tonight. That’s when we will do the test to see about your powers.” He then exited the room, leaving them all alone in the room. Mari felt a rush of anticipation and looked at the clock. It was only 4:30.
Well… guess I’ve got a lot of time to kill… Mari thought, heading out of the room with the others.
Chapter Four | Part One | Narrator POVTwo adults dressed in black suits were crowding around a strange looking computer. For one, the computer itself seemed to be floating about 4 feet off of the ground. Second, it’s screen was black, as if it wasn’t even on. However, it was obvious that it was projecting the landscape that was quickly forming around the people. “Start the test,” the one on the left ordered. The one on the right nodded, and pressed a small green button on the computer.
Avery knew in the back of her mind that she was dreaming. Still, that didn’t make the dream any less interesting. She was in an open space, where virtually everything looked to be some form of technology. The space was all black, except for the soft, slightly pulsating blue glow that was being emitted from breaks in the black. Avery smiled, and lifted her right hand. The blue light rose up with the movement of her hand. It whispered softly, and glowed brighter. Avery narrowed her eyes in concentration, and began bending the blue light- no, it was electricity- the electricity to do her will. She stepped over to one of the computers, and fed the electricity into it. It turned on, a friendly white glow signaling appearing as it started up. The computer got to the welcome screen, and Avery clicked on the only available account. It was password locked. No problem, she thought, resting her hand on the keyboard. There was another whispering as the computer told her the password. Avery grinned in satisfaction, and typed it in. The password worked.
Toby was standing on top of the world. Literally. Though, it is kinda hard for a light particle to stand so…. Feeling she was up high enough, Toby shifted into a bowling ball. She kinda wanted to see how big of a dent she could make in the ground from falling thousands of feet up.
Whee! she thought excitedly as she sliced through the freezing cold air. The ground was rushing up at her faster than she had expected. A thought of worry blossomed in her mind, and she wondered if she would explode into a bunch of bowling ball shards upon impact.
I’d rather not find that out the hard way… Toby thought nervously, and shifted into a bouncy ball. She hit the ground hard, then when rocketing back up into the air where she started laughing like a maniac.
Mari was having the dream again. Something was chasing her through the dark. Mari had no idea what it was, or what it intended to do, but common sense was screaming at her that it was bad, and that she had to keep running.
Why can’t I run any faster? she thought frantically, gasping for breath. It was closing in on her, she knew it. Then, something odd happened. Something that had never happened before in the dream. As Mari ran, she felt herself changing. She knew, somehow, by the feeling of her arms extending far out, and growing wider and thinner, that wings were taking their place. She pushed off the ground, and flew away. The sky grew lighter and lighter as she rose higher and higher. Finally, Mari landed on a snow covered mountaintop. She resumed her human form, and felt to the ground in exhaustion.
Great, now I’m freezing, she thought as the cold from the snow flooded into her. “Now what is able to withstand cold mountain temperatures?” she wondered out loud, just to hear something other than the howling wind. She smiled as an idea came to her, and she changed into a snow leopard. The rush of warmth was sudden, but welcoming.
Raz was on a mission. A mission to do what exactly, he didn’t know, but he knew he had to get to the huge black building silhouetted against the night sky before dawn. He picked up his pace to ease the waves of adrenaline that coursed through him. Sooner than later, he was standing just outside the building. He could see the shadows of guards against the moonlit ground. He also considered the possibility of hidden guards.
Eh, no problem, he thought, turning on his invisibility. Raz lifted one of his hands to make sure that he couldn’t see himself. All he saw was the door that he had to get through. After taking a deep breath to calm his nerves, Raz walked carefully down the pathway, taking each step carefully so that he wouldn’t make any noise. He glanced to his right at the guards, and they gave no indication that they could see him. Just as Raz reached the door, it opened, and a guard much bigger than himself stalked out to relieve one of the other guards. Smirking in satisfaction, Raz slipped through the door just before it closed.
It was pitch black; so dark that you wouldn’t be able to see your hand right in front of your face. Quies, however, was a different story. She could see perfectly fine, and was walking confidently towards the meeting place. Rumor had it that someone had an important mission for her. She reached the meeting place in a manner of minutes. The place was a dead, decaying tree that nobody in their right mind would go near, as it clearly screamed ‘Danger!’. Quies stepped through the tree, and found herself in the presence of a demon. It was a particularly ugly one, though Quies took no notice. “You needed me for something?” she asked in a strange tongue. “Yes,” the demon hissed in the same strangled sounding language. “Listen closely, child because if you so much as mess this mission up even by a hair, it’ll be the end of your sorry little life,” the demon snarled. Quies noticed a very sharp increase of emotion, and the air was suddenly saturated with fear.
Ah. The demon is trying to scare me into submission, Quies thought, smirking slightly, as she knew that it couldn’t work. “I understand,” she replied coolly, and waited for the demon to lay out the mission.
Chapter 4 | Part Two | Narrator POVGibbs was in her element. It was snowing so thickly it was nearly impossible to see anything more than four feet away. She smiled, and scooped up some snow in the palm of her hand. It was the light, fluffy kind of snow; much to Gibbs disappointment. She had been hoping for wet snow. That way she could build something.
Oh well, she thought, and stuck out her hands. The fluffy snow cracked loudly in the silent air as it immediately hardened into solid ice. Gibbs laughed, and happily turned the rest of the snow into ice. She quickly hopped onto the slippery surface, and looked around.
I guess I could still build something… she mused, and lifted a chunk of ice out of the surface up front of her without touching it. She took a step back and studied it, then began to mold it like a potter does with clay. The only differences were that Gibbs was using ice, and she wasn’t touching it.
Syv was balancing on the edge of a cliff, about 600 feet up. The wind was howling furiously, and tugged at Syv clothes and hair, trying to make her lose her balance. Syv closed her eyes and turned around on the narrow edge, so that the wind was to her back. She then opened her eyes and jumped, spreading her arms out as the wind caught her, and sent her shooting forward. Syv tilted her hands and feet towards the ground, and focused hard. Suddenly, she was streaking up into the sky. She shot past the place on the cliff she had been standing, and laughed in delight as she carved her way through the wind. When she next looked down, the sprawling green landscape looked tiny. The trees looked like ants, and the cliff, like a brown smudge on an artist’s canvas. She smiled even wider, and turned her face back to the baby blue sky, and continued her journey up.
Eises was hurrying through the rain that pelted down from an angry black sky. She winced as lightning flashed a little closer than she would have liked, and thunder boomed louder than a cannon going off. She looked up, shielding her eyes from the rain with her hand to see how much farther she had to go. Through the rain she saw a person’s silhouette running towards her. They didn’t appear to be very tall, and Eises frowned when they came close enough for her to see that they were a young child. The child flashed her a wary gaze, then made to run around her. Eises stepped in his way, and asked, “Kid, what are you doing out here?” The boy recoiled and back up so that he was out of her reach. “I got caught in the rain, and now I’m heading home,” he snapped. Eises’s frown deepened. The child looked to be no more than seven, and the storm had been going on for about an hour. She then reached into his mind, seeking the truth. Immediately her mind flooded with his thoughts.
I gotta get home! Momma could have died by now. Why is this stupid girl not letting me past? were a few of his thoughts. Eises bit her lip, and traced her way through the boy’s recent memories. As she went back through them, she saw him running from a drugstore with a look of utmost terror on his face. Before that had happened, he had stolen medicine from the drugstore. As Eises went farther back in his memories, she found a him eavesdropping on a conversation. “We don’t have the money to pay for the medicine, Paul. It’s just too expensive for us,” came the hushed voice of a man. “But Dad, she’s going to die if we don’t get it somehow…” came a younger sounding voice. “I know,” came the father’s murmur. Eises snapped out of the boy’s mind as he suddenly streaked past her, and disappeared in a matter a moments thanks to the rain.
Ellie was in a graveyard. Not one of those pristine, fancy, more modern types of graveyards. No, she was in an ancient one that looked as though it was falling apart due to lack of care. Pale white ghosts floated around, talking with each other, and going on with their business as though someone hadn’t told them they were dead. “Hey, Ellie!” a young girl’s spirit was hurrying over to Ellie. “Hey Trinn,” Ellie said with a grin, kneeling down to hug her young friend. “Hey, can we go annoy that grumpy old guy again?” Trinn asked innocently, though her eyes sparkled with mischief. “Yes,” Ellie replied with a laugh. “First we have to Fade though,” she reminded the ghost. “I know!” Trinn said, and disappeared. Ellie also disappeared, though she wasn’t fully invisible. You could still see a very vague outline of her as she and Trinn hurried over to the far end of the graveyard. “Next, we Haunt, right?” Trinn whispered, crouching down behind a tombstone that was a few away from where the old man was resting. “Yep,” Ellie replied. “Do you want to go first or should I?” she asked. “You go first,” Trinn said, peering over the tombstone curiously. Ellie turned to the old man, and focused on raising the level of uneasiness in the air. She saw the old man shoot up in his seat and look around furiously. “Dagnabbit you stupid children!” he snapped, looking around for them. “Where are you? You stop this right now! Right now I say!” Ellie and Trinn ducked down below the tombstone in a fit of giggles. “Can I raise it to Terror?” Trinn asked between giggles. Ellie considered this for a moment. “Nah. We’ll only use Terror on him if he does anything to us,” she said, peeking around the tombstone to look at him again.
Chapter Five | Raz POV
The minute Raz walked into his dorm room, he faceplanted on his bed. “Ugh,” he groaned into his pillow. “It’s soooooo much work.” He heard Gibbs walk in behind him, and flop onto her own bed.
“Tell me about it,” she said, “and we thought that normal school was hard.”
Raz rolled his eyes, and propped himself up on his elbows. It had been a week since the test. They had found out their powers, gotten their new schedules, and had begun their classes. Much to everybody’s disappointment, none of them had been able to use their powers. They just simply weren’t working. The power teacher said it was normal, and that with time and practice their powers would show up and get easier to use. The week had just been full of disappointments. No powers, school was still going on, he had to wear a suit everyday. Yes, Raz was definitely hoping things would improve.
“You know what we need to do?” Syv asked, walking into the room, and throwing all of her books onto her bed.
“What?” Raz said, sitting up eagerly. Maybe something exciting finally was going to happen!
“We need to explore this place,” Syv replied, turning to face Raz and Gibbs. “We need to get lost too or something. Just to spice things up.”
“I’m in!” Gibbs said without a moment’s hesitation. She grinned, and hopped off her bed to wait to wait by the door.
“Let’s break some rules,” Raz declared, joining the two girls. They quickly hurried out into the hallway, then ran past the main entrance to the west wing, as the east wing was all dorms and nothing exciting. They reached the end of the hallway, and were presented with two doors. One door led to the stairs, which led up to the classrooms. The other door didn’t have a sign by it, and there were no windows in it to see though.
“Maybe it’s a janitor closet,” Syv said. Raz had been thinking that too, but Gibbs waved her hand impatiently.
“This is a school of powers,” she said, resting her hand on the doorknob. “People have cleaning powers or something. They don’t need brooms or mops.” She then proceeded to twist the doorknob, only to find the it was locked. She cursed under her breath, and stepped back, frowning at the door.
“Step aside, and let me show you ladies how it’s done,” Raz said with a grin, pulling some picks out of his pocket. He inserted one of the picks into the lock and jiggled it around until he heard a sharp clicking sound. “Done,” he said proudly, whipping the door open. Raz felt Syv and Gibbs step up behind him to see the room over his shoulder.
“Ha!” Syv laughed, stepping away from them. “I told you it was a closet!”
Gibbs stuck her tongue out at Syv, then disappeared inside the closet. “It smells like ancient stuff in here,” she told them. Raz rolled his eyes, then went in after Gibbs. He heard Syv step in after him, and close the door. The closet seemed to go far back, as they hadn’t reached the back wall yet. “Hey!” Gibbs’s exclamation made Raz jump slightly in the eerie darkness.
“What is it?” Syv hissed. “And don’t scare me like that! This place is creepy.”
“There’s another door here,” Gibbs said excitedly. Raz could just barely make out her slightly darker form against the slightly lighter door.
“Is it locked?” he asked, taking out his picks again.
“Um…” Gibbs said, and Raz heard her try to open the door. “It seems like it, but I can’t find a lock hole. Maybe it locks from the other side?” she suggested.
Raz frowned and made his way to the door. He felt the doorknob, and just as Gibbs had said, there was no place for a key. He leaned against it to test out how durable it was. It creaked loudly in protest at his weight. “It seems like an old door,” he said, stepping back. “We should be able to take it down easily.”
“So what, we should all just run into it at the same time?” Syv asked, a laugh in her tone.
“And invite the whole school to join us? Sure thing,” Raz snickered. He heard Gibbs moving by the door. “What are you doing?” he asked.
“There’s no hinges on it,” she replied. “See for yourself.”
Raz frowned. A door without hinges? Did that even make it a door anymore? He felt along all the sides, and sure enough there were no hinges. “Well in that case,” he began. “This door should be easily disposable.”
Chapter Six | Syv POV
As it turned out, the door was not so easily disposable. Syv and the other two spent a good hour trying to bust it open. Finally, Syv collapsed against it with a sigh. “Well. That door ain’t going to budge,” she said. She heard Raz punch it one more time.
“Well that sucks,” he said, sliding down to sit by Syv. “No lock, no hinges, no anything to work with.”
“Maybe it’s guarded using somebody’s power,” Gibbs suggested, also sitting down. “Which would explain why we can’t open it.”
“So what do we do now?” Raz asked.
“Well, it’s obviously guarding something. Otherwise it wouldn’t be so hard to open,” Syv said. It was something that always happened in stories, so why not real life as well?
“If it is guarding something, then that something must be really important or dangerous or something,” Gibbs added.
Syv laughed as a thought occurred to her. “And then once we get it open we’ll find Fluffy inside standing on a trapdoor,” she giggled. Raz and Gibbs snickered along with her.
“Ah well,” Gibbs sighed. “Maybe we should come back once we have some powers of our own. Then we could try to open it again.”
"Sounds good,” Raz said, standing up. “I’m hungry anyways.”
“Same,” Syv said, her stomach growling as she stood.
“Let’s work as hard as we can to get our powers now,” Gibbs said, and they walked back the way they had come an hour ago.
Chapter Seven | Eises POV
*a few days later*
Quies was the first person to have a breakthrough with her power. The power teacher had dumped her in a pitch black room, and told her to describe anything that she could see. It took almost ten minutes for Quies to be able to say that she could faintly see a lampstand and lamp in the corner of the room. There was much celebrating in room 132 that night.
“Congrats, Quies!” Toby shrieked as she flew in through the door, tackle hugging Quies.
“Yeah, congrats!” Eises exclaimed as she came in.
“Thanks guys,” Quies laughed. “I was getting worried that it wasn’t going to come at all.”
“The teachers are trying to get me to be able to sense thoughts,” Eises said. “It’s hard because it always feels like they’re barricading their minds against me.”
“Well we could go try to throw you into the mind of some random person in the hallway, couldn’t we?” Toby suggested.
“Sounds like it’d be worth a try,” Quies said. “Then I wouldn’t have to be the only one with some advancement in my power.”
“Sounds good to me. People should be heading down to the dining hall about now for dinner,” Eises said, her excitement growing. “I could try it out there.”
“Great! I’m starving anyways,” Toby said, bolting out of the room. Eises and Quies ran out after her. Eises felt nervous energy pulsing through her.
What if I can read someone’s mind? she wondered as they entered the dining hall.
That’s going to be so… I don’t even know. Awesome doesn’t seem to do it justice.The threesome sat down by Ellie, Mari, Avery, Raz, Gibbs, and Syv, then exchanged some quick greetings. “Try it on someone who isn’t paying attention to anything,” Quies said, taking a bite of her mashed potatoes.
Eises looked around at the other students. It took awhile before her gaze rested on a girl who was in her grade, but from another school. Eises stared at the girl, who was staring off into space, and absently pushing her food around her plate.
Eises didn’t know how long she was staring and trying to enter the girl’s mind, when the girl snapped out of her thoughts and noticed. Their eyes connected, and a stream of noise flooded into Eises’s mind. It sounded kinda like radio static.
Looking away quickly, Eises nudged Quies. “I got static from her, which is more than I’ve gotten from the teachers,” she said.
Quies grinned. “That’s great!” she exclaimed, putting a brownie on Eises’s plate. “Soon you’ll be going around reading everybody’s mind.”
Eises rolled her eyes and bit into the brownie. “You sure you want me poking around in your thoughts?” she teased.
“Mmm… probably not. Stay out of my head,” Quies laughed.
Chapter Eight | Toby POV
Two weeks had passed since Quies and Eises had made progress with their powers. Now, everybody could do a little something. Avery could detect the energy coming from the electricity, and tell how strong or weak it was. Mari was able to grow feathers, fur, and scales of many variations. Syv could float an inch or two above the ground by somewhat controlling the air currents around her. Raz could make his hair disappear (he looked very odd without it). Gibbs could make the room temperature drop quite a bit. Ellie could also fade slightly from sight, although she just looked a couple shades lighter than normal. Toby was beginning to detect the energies and properties in each object.
It shocked Toby everytime when she touched something to know exactly how it what it was composed of down to the elements. Like the air around her wasn’t just oxygen. There was carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen, and some weird pollutant things given off from cars and buildings.
However, as if their advances in their powers weren’t interesting enough, Gibbs, Raz, and Syv had shared news that they had found a door that was blocked off by someone else’s power. They had shared this discovery only yesterday with everyone else, since their own powers didn’t seem like they would be useful in getting through, and were hoping for some help.
And so, here Toby was, lying in bed, staring up at the ceiling, completely wide awake. She rolled over and looked at her clock. It read 1:42 AM. With a sigh, Toby rolled out of bed, deciding to go check out the door.
I mean, it’s not like I’m ever going to find a better chance, right? she asked herself as she slipped out of her dorm and into the hallway.
Please please please don’t let there be any guards, she thought, peeking around the corner. Her feet were cold against the wooden floor, and she wondered for a moment why she hadn’t put her shoes on.
Pushing the thought aside, Toby tip toed over to the door, sticking to the darkest shadows. Her heart was pounding hard and loud in her ears as she placed her hand on the doorknob.
Brass, she thought, and held her breath as she turned it. The door opened, and it was then that Toby recalled Raz saying that the door was always locked.
So why not tonight? she wondered with a slight from as she quickly stepped into the dark hallway and shut the door quietly behind her.
Toby turned around slowly, and to her great surprise, saw the outline of the stuck door. It was rimmed with a golden yellow light, that was coming from the other side of the door. Toby quietly walked down the long hallway to the door. She could hear something, though it was very faint and she couldn’t make out what it was. As she got closer to the door, the noise grew louder, and Toby recognized it as voices. Her heart threw itself into her throat as she pressed her ear against the door in an attempt to hear the voices better.
“You can’t possibly be serious,” one voice said scoffingly. It sounded deep and raspy, like one that an upperclassman might have.
“Man, we’re running out of time. If we want to do this, then we have to do it soon!” another voice said, though this one was higher pitched.
“Shut up, both of you,” a third voice snapped. “You know just as well as I do that we don’t have enough support. If the three of us just kinda skip off into the school and do it, we’ll be dead before you can blink an eye.”
Toby listened with a sinking feeling of dread in the pit of her stomach, as she knew she definitely was not supposed to be hearing this. She knew she should leave right now and report this to somebody, but she couldn’t seem to pull herself away from the door. A loud bang echoed in the room, and Toby fell away from the door with a tiny squeak of surprise.
“Well what are we supposed to do? Saunter up to any random Joe and be like, “Oh hey, you should come help me and some others-”” the second voice said, but they were cut off by the third voice.
“Shut up! I think I heard something,” the third voice hissed. “Check the doors.”
This time Toby’s hard tried to throw itself out her mouth. Scrambling to her feet, Toby bolted down the hallway, opened the door, and shut it just as the hall was flooded with light. Gripping the round doorknob tightly, she slowly eased it back into it’s position, then whipped around and sprinted all the way up to her dorm. Once she was in there, she locked the door and threw herself onto the bed, yanking the covers up over her head. She was fairly certain sleep wouldn;t be coming to her for the rest of the night.