With extracurriculars,assignments,homework and studying for the prelims, i was exhausted and always busy.
My brother took notice of this as i was flipping through my flashcards, my head nodding to the bus’s rhythm and i dont know when but i ended up dozing off amidst this
I was surrounded by darkness in a forest.
The wind blowing morbidly cold and harshly, making the trees rustle and whistle.
My hair flowing with the gust,as i felt a cold chill run up my spine.
Some strands flew in my face,obstructing my vision so i tucked my hair behind my ears.I was surrounded by nothing but forest and trees.
No idea where to go or turn.
I looked up above the trees to the sky, it was dark,cloudy with snakey lightning strikes piercing through the clouds with a blinding light.
Some so bright it was as if the sun was shinning for the second it flashed in the sky.
Further in the darkness with one flash of lighting i made out a tall tower in the distance, it looked like a keep.
It looked to be so far but so close as well.
Seeing it as the only thing remotely worth walking to and a peace of civilization, i began to move my heavy feet towards the tower.
I got to my classroom door and knocked, the door was closed and a teacher’s voice could be heard from inside I could hear the familiar stern voice of Mrs Russo, her voice pausing, my knock interrupting her lesson.
“Come in”, I swallowed hard then entered the room.
“Welcome Miss Oxbow-”
“Oh look, the class Ox is here!!!” taunted Mikayla laughing with her friends.
“Detention Miss Bay!!, I hope that was worth it. Now, thank you for gracing us with your presence Miss Oxbow. Mr Hing will also be glad to have you attend his detention class.” she said coldly and I nodded, she gestured to my seat and I went to sit down.
Valery whispered over her shoulder a short greeting and I greeted just as quietly but just enough for her to hear.
“Alright students.
Since all of you are here, I have an announcement.
We of Fioness High School have been invited for a joint study camp with Cavernborn High School” She started, “for seniors of course” she finished.
There were shocked gasps around and hushed whispers in the class, “Isn’t that one of the best high schools in the South?” one questioned, “Yea, I heard they always get either 99% or 100% pass rate each year from seniors and only the best go to that school” I heard Mikayla whisper to Mandy who gasped in awe.
Valery turned her head enough to look at me, “I heard that school’s strict as heck, and the 1% who fail a grade are kicked out and even then so are the ones who fail to meet the 80% grade pass on each subject, heard it used to be 98% but recently it got reduced to 80% because most students ended up crashing” she said.
“What do you mean by crashing?” I asked, “girl, I mean crashing, some had mental breakdowns from the pressure while others committed suicide afterwards, others just disappeared randomly. That school is so unhinged, there are so many bad rumors about it but people in that area attend because graduating from that school can get you into majorly powerful universities too. It’s impressive” she said.
I looked at Mike to see his thought on it and he looked out the window, when I looked at Jason he was staring blankly into space.
We heard Mrs Russo slam her hand against her desk, “So, all of you have to get your parents to sign permission forms as we will all be there till after the prelims. So a about 5 weeks give or take. Remember, this is a good opportunity and I recommend all of you accept and convince your parents to allow you. To go” She said
“Mrs Russo?” called Jason, his hand up, “Yes, Mr Dayton?”, “I don’t think I can go, I’m not really a fan of long travels and I recently moved here and I’m comfortable here so packing all that stuff is-”
“I forgot to add that attendance is dependant on if all of you are able to or not. If even one senior doesn’t go, then all of you can’t either. Be aware that with this opportunity, all of you could get into powerful schools of higher education. Every year, a different school that has combined with this school, the students who attended had many scholar doors opened for them. So keep this in mind, i advice you convince all your classmates to convince their parents to sign the permission papers. Follow the newest chapters on novelping.com. As for those who don’t have parents near you can ask your current guardian to sign for you and for emancipated children like Mike Dayton, you can sign for yourself.” she finished.
“Question Mrs Russo, while I have heard of that school doing combined study camps I’ve never heard of this all attendance or none attend rule, what’s with that?” asked Jason.
“Special for us I suppose? Besides it’ll also be good to show you kids adaptation so you will be fine in your new schools after graduation.” she said.
Jason seemed satisfied with that answer and smiled, “that’s a good point, hmm, I think I’m on board” he said.
Everyone cheered and then they all turned to look at Mike, he looked back at us, feeling the prying eyes on him.
“Fine” he said and everyone cheered.
“Remember to bring the signed papers in 2 days max. Then if all of you are attending you’ll have the rest of the week off to prepare for your trip. A few teachers will be coming including me to watch over all of you and to also teach some classes at Cavernborn. And Now students open your textbooks to page 256 and let’s get started with class I’ll hand out the permission forms at the end of class” she finished and everyone somehow cooperated with no groans of displeasure or complaint.
Most were smiling throughout the class, excited about the adventure that’s about to come, even if it’s studying, to others it’ll be their first free trip as big as that, to an incredible and well known city.
As i walked towards it i felt the wind change direction,blowing in the opposite direction, harsher and harder as if trying to blow me away from the direction.
I stood my ground and held onto the trees to support myself as i walked forward towards the tower, fighting against the strong gust of wind.
As i continued to walk i saw animals,no creatures.
Crows with red feathers,rabbits with beaver tails, cats wirh spiky fur and more, all were in panic and running in the direction the wind was blowing, screaming loudly and some bumping into me.
I waited for them to pass then was about to walk again when in haste a red grow rocketed towards me,crashed into my face and got blown by the strong winds into my hair.
Entangled my brown locks, it began to panic and flap its winds, trapping it further then dug its claws into my hair which i felt were starting to loosely dig into my sculp.Fearing for my head i began to help the red crow untangle itself from my mane.
Freeing it seemed hard yet easy and fast,it didn’t take much to untagle it and i held it into my hands,looking at the creature while it moved its head side to side,trying to observe me with both it’s dark eyes.
The crow then slightly opened its beak and to my disbelief started to speak, “run child,run away from the castle beyond. Run while you can” it said, her voice calm but firm and in panicked speed.
Yes, she was a girl, a woman, he voice having a motherly sound and feel to it.
“What?” I asked,in disbelief and amazement that a crow just spoke to me.
The crow looked at me and opened her beak again, i was waiting for her next works only to be met with a loud screech as she flapped her winds hard,feathers beginning to flutter around.
Let go in panic and shock as she kept flapping and flapping, the feathers harshly blowing onto my face, i closed my eyes and covered my face.
The wind blowing harsher as if reacting to the red bird’s flapping.
Afterwards things got quiet,the screeching died down and the wind stopped blowing harshly, i opened my eyes and saw feather around me slowly blowing away by the calmer wind gust and some on the floor, seeming to be rooted and intent on standing their ground.
I absent mindedly looked up and saw the tower again,it was bigger but so tall, now it nearly touchedthe dark clouds above.
Yet the lightning seemed to be avoiding stricking it,it stood tall and bravely against the wrath of thunder and lightning.
I began to walk towards it, the crow’s warning seeming to disappear to the back of my head, i felt compelled to continue, as if a force was pulling me to that direction.
Without the wind fighting against me and the sounds of thunder seeming to die down or perhaps i was so focused on the tower the sound was less significant.
I soon reached the end of the forest and finaly saw it.
A big castle with three tall towers, two smaller then the one i saw from afar.
It looked old but well prepped, no sign of withering or exhaustion.
A strong fortified wall was surrounding the medival castle, including a moat that seemed to have things swimming in the water, upon closer inspection i saw that they were in fact what looked to be Leviathans, I saw 2 of them swimming side by side, leaping in and out of the water. This chapter was taken from g.com without permission.
At one point i made eye contact with one of them,things went quiet and suddenly the lighting began to rumble again, the ground beginning to shake.
“I TOLD YOU TO RUN!!!RUN,RUN RUN AWAY!!!” Screamed the farmiliar voice of the crow out of no where as if she was suddenly one with the lighting.
“WE NEED TO RUN,RUN, WE NEED TO RUN, HURRY” she kept screaming, over and over, i closed my eyes and used my hands to cover my ears ,it didn’t help and then suddenly the red crows voice started to deform and sound more like my brother’s voice.
“Sis come on!! We need to run or we’ll be late, Hurry up!!!” My eyes snapped open as i saw my brother profusely shaking me in panic.
The bus had stopped, we were at school, i quickly grabbed my bag and we got off the bus then ran to our classes, waving goodbye in a rush.
The school front yard empty of student presence as we ran in haste.
Everyone had submitted the forms before the two days were up and we were given an extra day of free time to prepare.
We were told to pack all things we will need, for daily self care and clothes for the weekend, assuming there won’t be classes which is unlikely but we were told they would give us some off time and also so we had clothes after classes.
So most of us packed a lot of clothes along side our uniforms.
On the day we were leaving 4 buses came, just enough for all classes of seniors.
We had a total of 5 classes, some with less students though and the buses were pretty big to also fit the teachers in.
According to class lists and lines we all boarded the buses, our bags loaded into the buses.
And off we went, Valery and I were split into different seats in the same bus but she ended up bargaining with our classmates so we can all sit with our friends and they shuffled when the teachers weren’t looking and we sat next to each other in the end.
We spoke excitedly about the trip, as the bus rocked.
Some students even singing to pass the time, the area wasn’t that far,only a 12 hours away but some stops were made for bathroom breaks and for others who had motion sickness for the long travel time.
As we seemed to get close to the city the sky started to fog up and snow began to fall.
“Since when does it snow in this area at this time of the year?” questioned Valery as she looked out the window.
“Good question, I did do some research and this is a first but the weather is unpredictable so you never know.” I said.
She shrugged and continued to look out the window.
A few seconds into the calm silence, up ahead the students in the bus in front, who were singing prior, start to scream loudly.
Mr Hing called the teacher in front and it was confirmed that the girls saw a rat and screamed, he told us this and we all calmed down.
“Arg, cowards, who screams at something like tha-” time seemed to slow town as we began to hover in our seats, the bus seeming to fall.
Then the screaming began, as the bus kept going down and down, falling down what we assumed was a cliff.
The hairs at the back of my next stood up as the air seemed to thin, everyone screaming including Valery while I was panicking, frozen in shock as the bus leaned forward, pushing us hard against our seats, unable to move, all we could do was scream.
My shock vanished and I began to scream with the thought of impending doom running through my mind.
Amist our white surroundings a white light started to get near, “we’re gonna die!!!!!” someone screamed in horror as the light got near and near until…..it enveloped us.
Then everything went black.
To be continued…