Page 33 of Shattered Darkness
His suggestion doesn’t only make me smile but makes the others as well.
“Yeah, I like that,” I agree, and sounds of agreement go all around the room.
Suddenly, it’s like the atmosphere is lighter, like just knowing that we can leave after this, that we don’t have to be stuck in a place that feels so wrong for all of us, is freeing, and I feel a hell of a lot happier about the situation.
There is a tinge of sadness, but I think that’s because I had such high hopes for this place and what it was going to teach me, but even right from the beginning, when the teachers weren’t that bad, it just didn’t feel right to me, I put it down to nerves, but it’s not gone away. I don’t think it would change even if we get the teachers back to normal. I can’t explain it, but I just know that we aren’t supposed to be here, not for the long term, at least.
“If we can’t leave,” Erin starts, pulling me from my thoughts and gaining the attention of the whole room, “then I can always put a shield around us while we leave, and we can lay low.”
“I think we’ll call that a last resort,” Maverick replies this time and then adds, “we’re just going to be setting ourselves up for stress if we leave when we’re not supposed to. Especially since we’re going to need to buy a place, if the school put out missing or even wanted alerts for us, which I imagine they will do if we did for some reason leave before we broke the Order’s control, then we wouldn’t be able to be seen in public, we’d also become incredibly well known where as at the moment we’re known of, not known by sight. It would also affect our ability to go after the Order because we would have to stay in the shadows to avoid getting caught ourselves.”
“Yes, that actually makes a lot of sense,” Erin replies, “but I just wanted everyone to know that it is an option that we can use as a last resort.”
“Great, thanks, Erin,” Levi replies.
Before anyone can say anything else, there’s a knock at the door.
“That must be Dean and the others,” Harry says as he hops up to get the door.
I hear Harry greet them all and then, he walks in with three students that I must admit I only just recognise.
“Okay, so just in case, and because it’s been a while anyway, this is Dean, Marie and Yates,” Harry introduces with a smile, as all three of them grin, no sign of any fear or hesitation. Harry then goes onto to introduce all of us which makes me smile because there are a lot of us. I know there are a lot of us, but it's not until someone has to introduce us all at once that I realise that we make quite an imposing group, and if I were walking into a situation like this, then I would be nervous as hell, so I’ve got to give it to the three of them, they aren’t showing any signs of being wary and just smile at us before taking seats.
“Do you guys want a drink?” I ask them since the rest of us all have our own drinks.
“Yes, please,” Marie nods, “do you have coffee?”
“Absolutely,” I reply and turn to look at the guys, “What about you two? Would you like a drink?”
“I’ll have the same, please,” Dean replies with an easy going smile.
“Me too,” Yates says.
After double checking how they take their coffee, I start to make it as easy conversation picks up in the sitting area of the room. It doesn’t take me very long at all to make the drinks and Kysen comes to help me take them back to the others and hand them out. Once I’m seated again the conversation turns to why they’re here, or rather the more serious reason for why they’re here. After that, we can just hang out. I think the general vote is to explore the grounds still.
Marie seems to take the lead, and she’s so freaking bubbly that she has me smiling, “Okay, so we’ve done what Harry asked and kept an eye on everyone. The students are confused and scared, and they can all tell that something is going on and it’s making them feel uneasy.”
“That’s understandable,” Erin replies.
Marie nods, “Exactly, the teachers are telling us, and them that you aren’t to be trusted and only out for yourselves, that if something happened you’d flee and not help. That your gifts are all dangerous and uncontrolled.”
My anger rises; we knew that they were doing something like this, but having it confirmed just adds to the anger and feeling of injustice.
“That’s ridiculous,” Cole says with a deep frown.
“Yeah, it is,” Dean replies, “which is why the students are struggling with the situation. They knew Cole and Erin and the guys before Sage and the others got here, and they were pretty well liked, so to now be told that they’re dangerous and all of this other shit, is completely out of left field and confusing the shit out of them.”
“But the teachers are in control, they do run the school and they are more knowledgeable, so even though it doesn’t sit right with them, they’re going with it and the main consensus is that they think the teachers must know something that they don’t.” Yates adds he’s frowning and clearly doesn’t like this situation either.
“Okay, so that’s pretty much what we expected, and none of us blame them for following the teacher's lead. At the end of the day the students expect the teachers to have their best interests at heart, so if they say that we’re dangerous, then we must be.” Maverick replies.
“Yeah,” Marie agrees and then adds, “I have spoken to a couple of people and pointed out how ridiculous it is and how nice Cole and Erin are and that they wouldn’t be friends with someone dangerous, so although we don’t know Sage and the others very well, they’re obviously nice too, and whilst most of them agreed with me they still said that they’d avoid the whole situation for now so that they don’t get caught in the crosshairs.”
I nod, “Yeah, if I’m being honest, I think I would do exactly the same thing. At the end of the day, they owe us absolutely no loyalty, and we wouldn’t expect it from them either.”
“What about the teachers? Did you find anything out about them?” Levi asks.
Dean nods, “Yeah, so they are all wearing those pieces of jewelry with that gemstone on them. Some of them have necklaces, some bracelets, and there are a couple of teachers with rings as well.”