Chapter 4

I moved my fingers first to make sure I didn’t die outside in the cold, luckily it was still moving. My toes were next, they were still covered in the same shoe that I had been wearing and they were generously wet.

Finally I opened my eyes and was welcomed to the empty room where I lay alone, with nobody in sight.

What kind of school was this? First there was no one to open the giant gate for me and they left me outside under the rain. Now, they didn’t even have the courtesy of covering me up or at least removing my wet shoes from my feet.

My face was marred with annoyance as I swung my feet over the bed and stood up, taking my time to study the room.

The walls were bare set for an old clock that adorned the east side of the wall, there was something odd about it though, the time was set to 3 o’clock but as it ticked it never let that exact time.

I shook my head, maybe all the rain that beat me somehow got into my head. I turned back to the clock, the hands were ticking but it still managed to remain at that exact time, talk about creepy.

Something else caught my eyes, there were spider webs up in all the corners of the room so much that it looked like the room was part of a haunted house for Halloween. Did they not have janitors?

I was barely here for more than a couple hours and I already hated it, I don’t know what would possess my mother to ship me off to such a place.

Suddenly I felt a rush of cold air and turned to see a lady standing so close to me and I yelped “How did you get here?” I asked her, I could swear that I hadn’t heard anybody come in.

“You have to lie down so I’ll make sure that you’re okay” she said, her voice too high pitched for my ears but that was not the most annoying thing about her.

Her skin was pale she looked like she had never been under the sun a day in her life and her skin, it was so perfect. Not in any way ruined by teenage acne or any surface wound, how did she manage to do that? The last time my skin was this smooth was probably when I was a kid.

“I don’t have all day child, get on the bed” she huffed, making me eye her wearily.

I slipped back onto the bed and laid down, there was a smirk on her face when she bent towards me but I said nothing.

She touched her palm to my forehead and I flinched, her skin was so cold and it had nothing on the rain that had drenched me head to toe.

“You’re fine, there’s absolutely no need for you to be here” she said, pulling away from me. I wanted to tell her that I didn’t want to be here anyways, that if this really was a school then it absolutely sucked.

She left after that not even bothering to show me the way since I was new here. I stood up and left the room only to bump into someone.

I looked up to see a girl on uniform whose skin was just the same shade as mine, at least there were normal people here “I’m sorry” I apologized after helping her get steady on her feet.

She dusted off her skirt “It’s fine, no real damage done” she said before scrutinizing me “You’re the new student I guess, the principal asked me to get you” she turned down the hallway after that not waiting for my reply.

I almost rolled my eyes “Perfect way to treat someone new” I muttered under my breath. I followed her regardless, walking around lost in this huge school was not what I wanted for myself.

We walked into a courtyard from there, it sported very large trees that adorned the place. Hopefully the rest of the school was not as bad as the room that I just had the displeasure of staying in.

We walked from there to another courtyard, the entire building beginning to feel like it was built a thousand years ago from all the courtyards it held and the old structures too.

All the walls were a dark Grey color making everywhere look sad and depressing, like the cobwebs were not enough.

Soon we were in front of the administrative building, written in bold on the board in front of it with red.

“You better be on your best behavior, Principal Adams is the last person on earth you want to be on their bad side” the girl in front of me warned as she pushed open the door to the office.

Immediately I stepped inside the huge office I could sense whoever sat on the chair, their back turned to us, was in a bad mood. A shiver ran through my body but I stood my ground in front of the huge desk.

When the chair finally rotated, a young woman glared at me from under the glasses that were perched on the tip of her nose. Certainly not what I expected, most principals were usually old people, but not her,  she looked too young to be seated on the huge chair.

“I see you finally made it inside” she said, her voice light and sultry “It took quite a longer time than I expected”

So she knew that I was outside the gate but—

“You were registered so late into the semester and because of that there are no rooms left for you” she droned on after so rudely cutting me off. She flipped through a book on her desk “There’s an empty room just after the dorm, across the courtyard” she looked at me for a brief second “That will be your room”.

I nodded because somehow it didn’t feel like I was supposed to say anything. She kept glancing through her book and I used that opportunity to look around her office.

It was a much better place than where I had woken up in, my eyes trailed over something and back again.

It wasn’t something, it was someone. A mass of blonde hair came into view even though it stayed in the shadows all the way across the room, I traced it down to a perfectly straight nose and then small plump lips.

I felt my heart thud heavily, so much that it rang in my ears and stirred something that I didn’t know was inside me.

There was a sudden need for me to know he was, where he came from and most importantly what he was doing there.

Do you believe in love at first sight? Because that was what I was looking at. I couldn’t see his eyes perfectly from there but I knew they were a light blue, like the ocean I just crossed over to get here.

It felt like a magnet was drawing him to me and when I looked back up he was looking at me, fiercely. I looked away when something slammed on the table, it was principal Adams.

She glared at me, I could easily imagine steams coming out from her ears “Here’s your schedule, welcome” she said.

I felt anything but welcome, I looked at the boy across the room that was still looking at me, sending shivers through my body that had nothing to do with my current situation.

I followed the girl out and immediately we were out of earshot I turned to her “Please tell me you saw him” I said, my voice frantic that I was seeing things again.

“Saw who?” she asked, her expression puzzled.

“There was a boy at the other end of the room, you could not have missed him. He was just right there” I said, needing her to agree with me that there had indeed another person in that office.

“I do not know what you’re talking about and while we’re still at it, what’s your name?” her eyes pierced into mine in a questioning gaze.

“Elizabeth” I answered, and we resumed walking across then school grounds to where the dormitory was “You’re not going to tell me your name?”

She stopped walking and turned to glare at me “You can call me Annabel but I’d appreciate it if you don’t call me at all” she resumed walking and I followed.

Seems to me like everyone here was just an asshole. I thought this place was going to be a fresh start for me but boy was I wrong.

When the dormitory came into view I almost gasped, the building looked like it came straight out of a Gothic movie. It looked like it was easily the oldest building in the entire school.

The entire place was empty so my guess was everyone was still in class, which was good because the last thing that I needed was everyone staring at me as I was the new girl. Plus, I wasn’t sure how everyone would feel about me.

We walked in, turning down a dark hallway that looked like it led to a dungeon instead of dorm rooms. I was about to ask her where we were going when we passed all the rooms when a large black door suddenly came to view at what seemed like the end of the hallway.

“You can’t be serious” I blurted out when she stopped in front of it “This can’t be my room”

She put her hands on her waist “Well, sorry to burst your bubble but this is it. You just have to clean up and move a few things around” from the way she looked at the door, disgust written all over her face I knew it was way worse than she was making it out to be.

She gave me a nod before leaving, I wanted to tell her not to go but I didn’t. Taking a deep breath I pushed the door open and was assaulted by a gust of dust right in my face making me enter a coughing fit.

The first thing I did when I calmed down was open the huge window that was on the other side of the room, overlooking a forest so vast I couldn’t tell where it ended.

Next was cleaning the entire room, from the state I could tell no one has stayed here for a very long time. Why accept a new student when they didn’t even have proper accommodation for her?

The bed looked new so it wasn’t going to be a problem. I started unpacking when I made sure everything was neat, putting my clothes into the wardrobe that looked like a mini walk-in closet. It was good thing I packed despite what mum had said, I’m not even sure what her plan was when she said not to carry any clothes.

When I was done I patted myself on the back but something was still off, I didn’t like the position of the bed.

With as much strength that I could muster, I pushed the bed so it wasn’t close to the window anymore. I made my bed and finally slumped on it when I was done.

This had to be the most cleaning that I have ever done in my entire life. I pulled out my diary from my bag only for it to fall to the floor.

I bent down and picked it up but something else caught my eye. Just where the leather book had fallen was a mark, it looked like someone had set something on fire there and the flames had scorched the ground.

I trailed my fingers along the dark brown mark, wondering the story that was behind it, whoever had been in this room would have the answers to that.

My attention went back to my diary and I grabbed my pen, I scribbled away all that happened today starting with the little boy that brought me here.

I don’t know how long I wrote for but when I was done the sky outside was already dark and all I managed to write in my diary was about that boy in Mrs. Adam’s office. As I slipped into a dreamless sleep, I wondered if I will ever get to see him again.