Chapter 6

Scarlett

William had started striding through the long corridor and I followed. The school looked like a mansion. There were white walls all around and the floor was made of marble. We walked for a few minutes. None of knew what to say. William stole glances at me but not in a seductive way but rather in a way like he wanted to read my mind.

"So, what was your favourite subject in mundane studies?" he asked breaking the abnormal silence.

"I actually loved studies but if you ask me one, I would say...Maths."

"Well, that's unfortunate. With your ability to sense death and your interest in maths, you would most probably have to attend the "Time of death class"." he said smirking.

"Seriously?" I asked him, he was joking for sure. I stared at him.

"Don't look at me like that. I am not joking."

"Well then great, I am so excited about the class, why don't we start it now," I said sarcastically.

He laughed, his laugh was melodious. I couldn't help but smile.

We continued to walk making small talk.

The first room I saw was the Black magic room. The first word that came to mind was 'Creepy' because that is what it was. Altars were drawn all around the room and images of demons and angels were drawn on the walls. On one side of the room, there were groups of people holding hands and chanting. On the other side, some people were sitting on the benches murmuring to themselves as if memorising the spells. 

"Isn't black magic illegal? " I asked William confused.

"It is, but our school has permission to use it to some extent, the only for learning basic defence black magic." 

"Oh," I said and we continued ahead. 

After some time we reached a door and I heard some soft whispering. Curious I peeped through the door. There were around ten people sitting in pairs. One of each pair was murmuring to the other and the other one looked dazed. 

"This is where people who have hypnotising skills come and put them to use". he said. I looked towards him amazed.

"Do you want to get hypnotised or do you want to forget something?" He said in a mocking tone. My head said yes to his question but I knew it in my heart that I wouldn't want to forget any detail of that haunting night. I wouldn't want to forget my parents warm hug. The favourite curry my father mad or the last time I saw them alive. But most of all I wouldn't want to forget that they were murdered. Because I what happened to my parents was not right and I had already promised myself to get to the bottom of this matter and take revenge for my parent's murder. I stared directly into his eyes and said: "No, I wouldn't want to forget anything." 

He nodded understandingly and we went ahead. 

We were in the open corridor when I saw a light pink painted building a little further from the main building of the school. "What's that?" I asked William. 

"Well, I was just going to tell you. that's our school's hospital. There our school's students get treatment but most importantly there we have mundane patients also, who come for treatments. The student's who have abilities which can contribute to the hospital go there. So basically it's the most important place to practice their skills as well as do good for the society. You will be going there too, not only to practice your ability to knock someone unconscious with your touch but also to develop your healing ability."

I have no healing ability till now and frankly, I doubt I will ever develop it.

"Ya about that, do you have any idea why the headmistress thinks that I will develop healing ability?"

"Yes actually. There are many students in this school who have different abilities. Statistically, it is seen that the abilities are passed on in genetics. Your father had healing ability right?" He asked me.

I nodded and motioned him to continue.

"So as you just told me that your father had healing ability, you may develop the ability in the future."

"Ok, that makes sense." 

Dad would be so happy to see me have his ability. I stopped my mind then and there. Nothing about my parents today. 

"You know all about my abilities but you haven't told me about yours, I only know that you can walk through walls," I said folding my hand on my chest.

"That's part of it but my main ability is whatever I draw, it can come to life."

"Wow! That's so cool, but it's so hard to believe."

"Well then I can show you my cool ability," He said smiling sweetly as if he had something in his mind.

"Close your eyes"

"OK, if you say so." I obliged and closed my eyes.

I heard screeching of the pen as if he was drawing on the wall. Obviously, he was.

"Okay, now you can open them" 

I looked towards his hands and saw that he was holding a necklace. I took it from his hands, careful not to touch his skin. The necklace was beautiful. It had was a silver chain with two beautiful pendants. One pendant was infinity shape and had beautiful rainbow coloured gems attached to it. It looked enchanting.

I looked up to him and I saw him watching me carefully as to gauge my reaction. 

"Wow the infinity necklace in wonderful," I said to him.

He smiled but looked a little worried when he said, "See the second pendant."

My eyes went to the second one. It was a small picture case. On the case, the word 'Always' was written with a beautiful font. That reminded me of Snape and Lily Potter from Harry Potter. By this time my curiosity had spiked. What picture could it be? 

I quickly opened and what I saw completely surprised me. It was a photo of me and my parents. Wow!!, I had no photos of my parents. I was so mesmerised by the photo and the necklace that I didn't speak anything for a few minutes. I was truly speechless. 

When I didn't say anything, William got worried and said, "Scarlett I didn't want to violate your parent's memory. The detective had shown us a photo of your parents and I thought maybe you would like to have it. I didn't want to upset you." 

I stared back at him surprised by what he just said. 

I smiled at him and said, "No, no William I am not upset. I actually love the necklace and I am actually very grateful to you. I didn't even have a picture of my parents till now but now I will sort of have them in this necklace above my heart forever. I am actually so grateful, that I would hug you..." I pause and quickly completed my sentence, "but that would be inappropriate."

He chuckled. 

"Only inappropriate for you" he joked.

"Anyways, I would love to stand here and laugh all day but we really need to complete this. tor fast or else we will be late for breakfast," he said before I could even think about his previous statement.

"Yeah, let's go. So does the school has a library?" I said opening up to his warm nature.

He laughed and said, "Actually yes, it is right ahead." 

We walked a few steps and then he paused in front of a door. It was big and wooden with iron hinges.

“Here we are, now,” he said, and the door swung open at his touch.

The room was magnificent. There were circular wooden tables set down the middle of it. Each table was illuminated by a glass lamp that flickered white. The room looked ancient and inviting.

There were spiral staircases on either side of the room encased in wooden railings. There were rows upon rows of bookshelves, at intervals, there were white marble benches. 

There were millions of books in the library but most of them were behind bars.

It was as if an imaginary line was sketched. On the bottom shelf, the books were left open to read and on the above shelves, they were in bars.

"Why are most of the books behind bars, they look like they are imprisoned," I exclaimed surprised at seeing books in bars for the first time.

"Some books are in bars because they are dangerous," he said.

"But some books are not imprisoned, most of them are..." I paused when my eyes skimmed through the shiny title of my favourite book series 'Throne of Glass', "Well, at least my favourite assassin is not behind the bars."

Then I realised that we were on a school tour and not a book tour.

I turned towards him and smiled sheepishly,

"Sorry let's go, I got a little carried away with books."

"It's ok we all get a little carried away with books," he said smiling back at me. His eyes lit up at that sentence. 

I chuckled, "You like books too don't you?"

He nodded, " Good deduction detective. Let's go we can come back later to explore books properly."

In my situation, I truly wish I was a detective. 

That being said we went out of the library the wooden door closed behind us. My stomach had become a bottomless pit by now. I was extremely hungry as I hadn't eaten anything since yesterday and even before that, I hadn't eaten properly.

"So we have almost completed our tour. Only the kitchen, dining hall and the training centre is left. I will show you the kitchen on our way to the dining hall and as for the training centre, you most probably won't have those classes for a few days, so that you can recover properly". 

I nodded. "Ok, so where are we going now?" I asked.

"Now I will show you your room, where you can freshen up and then we can go to eat breakfast."

"That's a good idea I am famished."