It's just Post-3rd Survival 101, and I can only flinch and squeeze my eyes more tightly closed as I hear its huge paws strike the ground just inches before me.
The sound of its breathing is harsh against my ears, and my heart bangs wildly against my chest as I sense it circle around me ever so slowly—-
Aaah!
My heart thuds as I feel its gaze intensify. I can sense it coming closer, and it's all I can do not to back away.
Seconds pass, and then suddenly—-
Its breath teases the strands of hair behind my ear, and the ticklish sensation takes me completely off guard that my knees abruptly fold, and I start to fall.
My eyes involuntarily fly open as my butt hits the ground, and though I've already prepared myself to be confronted with the sight of the beast up close, what I see instead—-
I don't understand.
—-is a pair of beautifully polished leather shoes.
W-what's happening?
A mist comes out of nowhere just as my head jerks up, and a cry escapes me as my world turns grey. I scramble up, fearing all the while I'll accidentally bump into the beast, but it's only the coldest air that brushes against my skin.
I want to scream, and I nearly do...until I realize the mist has started to fade, and once my vision clears, it's only then I realize.
The beast is gone, and I'm all alone.
Chapter Two
It takes a while before my knees finally stop shaking. My heart, however, is still racing, and I'm not surprised to see my fingers trembling as I grab hold of my luggage once again. If this is the Crones' way of telling me that being bad isn't in my future, well...message duly received, and they're not going to get any arguments from me.
Confusion and fear persist in hounding me as I retrace my steps back to the entrance, and it's times like this that I'm reminded of how the Internet is a necessary evil.
The things that frighten us are often the things we're unfamiliar with, and it's become my coping mechanism to search for answers until my mind's convinced that I have nothing to fear. Google would have been my best friend right now, and oh, the questions I could ask...
What was that beast?
Was it just a beast...or the bestial form of a god?
Google, oh Google, where art thou when I need you?
So many questions, but actually, that last bit is the one question I can answer.
Agatha warned me from the onset that while the use of any electronic device is permitted on campus, Rosethorne has also been licensed to operate signal jammers that prevent everyone within its property from going online. I literally need to travel miles and miles before my phone can get a signal, and as freaked out as I am now, the memory of those black bears and coyotes makes me feel I'm no different from a man who finds himself trapped in the raging waters between Scylla and Charybdis.
Damned if leave, damned if I stay.
My fingers are still shaking a little as I pull my phone out, but I eventually manage to get the school app running. This time, I opt for the safest and quickest way to my dorm, and in less than ten minutes I'm already hurriedly dragging my suitcase up the steps of Dark Rose House.
Like all the other buildings in the campus, this one is also of brick and stone, and I see the same colorful stained glass panels adorning its windows. The doors are also big, heavy, rectangular blocks of wood, and I feel like I've completed an entire hour of a workout by the time I finally get them to open.
An elegant antechamber welcomes me once I'm inside, and at the center of it is a stone fountain, with water gently spouting out from the mouths of gargoyles while cherubic angels also sculpted from the same stone frolic around the center column. At the very top of it is a gray and glowing sphere, and it takes me a second to realize that it's actually a replica of the moon, and one digitally programmed to show real-time data on lunar phases.
The whole house feels quiet and empty, and I have to assume most of the students are still at Lavender Hall having dinner. Otherwise, it's a little too quiet, and after the scare I've just had in the labyrinth...I really, really need things to be normal, and a high school dorm that's silent as a tomb?
Not. Normal. At. All.
Past the antechamber are U-shaped stairs with steps made from the same stone as the exterior. The balusters of the railing are made of brass, and the polished wood of the handrail feels warm and smooth under my touch.
Suite 391 is on the third floor, and I'm short of breath by the time I slip my ornately carved room key into the lock. The door makes a slight creaking sound as it swings open, but once I step in, my spirits lift up, and memories of my close encounter with the beastly kind fade momentarily as I have my first look of my lovely, lovely room.