FIFTEEN: FEAR

“There were two of them, I swear,” a familiar voice said.

Daphne and I are currently crushed together into what seems like a secret room. She holds her hands against her lips and I nod keeping quiet. 

“Two students over powered you, a guard wolf?” a lady's voice scoffed.

“One sang” the guard spoke and the clicking of her heels stopped.

“A siren, not many are enrolled here” the woman replied. “And the other?” 

“I couldn't tell, but I couldn't sense any hostility from her only fear, she almost smelled human” the guard relayed.

“Very interesting, trespassers at this hour, ohh the headmistress would love this” the voice chuckled.

Daphne grabbed my hand and pulled me further into the room.

“I could die for this” she murmured to me and we came in front of a high wall.

I watched as she knocked it twice and it opened like a closet. 

My eyes widened and I felt my heart stop for a moment.

There were portraits in black and white of different young children, majority with smiles on their faces. They didn't look like monsters or were they?

“What is this?” I asked turning to face Daphne who had a dull look on her face.

“They're all the humans who have come to this school, 

they're all dead” 

I felt a deep pain in my heart almost like someone was squeezing it and my breathing got more shallow.

“Wha…what do you mean” I asked breathly 

“The headmistress allows some humans to be enrolled every once in a while, but they never make it out alive” she narrated. 

I stared at the portraits with shaky eyes as tears filled them. All these numbers dead?

As I glanced down the high wall, I noticed an empty frame at the bottom.

“Don't tell me” I pointed my shaky finger towards the frame.

“She knows you're a human, she's prepared a spot for you” 

“T ... .this is sick” I grit. “I’m leaving this crazy place” Tears slowly roll down my eyes and I begin to stomp away.

Daphne rushes to me and grabs my hands, “let me go!” I scream at her and try to pull back as much as possible.

“Do you want to die?” She asked me and I noticed her eyes turn to slit again and the ice blue colour had some yellow hue in them. Her grip gets stronger and it almost seems like she's crushing my bone.

“Let me go, you monster!” I screamed louder.

“What was that sound?” the woman asked the guard and I froze. 

Daphne pulls me to her in a second, uses her other hand to close my mouth and pulls me towards a window.

“Shut up for your own good” she warns me as she slides the window open.

The door we came through suddenly loudly opened and Daphne pulled me with her out of the window. 

I scream but it's muffled and after a few seconds we land with a loud splash into an ocean.

I can barely see but suddenly we're moving at an outrageous speed and when we're out she finally raised my head up.

I gasped loudly for air and coughed hard. I pull away from her grip and turn to see my roommate with golden eyes and she looks even bigger than before. Below I noticed her mismatched gold like tail that was flapping below her.

I gasp as I stare in fear.

“I showed you all that to let you know the kind of danger you are in, I really hope you survive this semester and once you go home, never return” she warned me.

I tried to calm my heart and look at her as my roommate, not a massive sea creature.

“Thank you” I mutter. 

“Let's head back,” she said.

…..

I'm brushing my hair and processing everything that happened the previous day, Phoebe came back drunk with love bites all over her neck.

This is one of the free days I can study with Mr Alister for long.

I make my way down to our class and knock on the door before entering, sure enough he's already seated and waiting for me.

“Avery, please sit” he gestures towards the chair and I nod, going to sit there.

I stare at the werewolf in front of me and I don't see my teacher. All I see is a monster who can gobble me up.

“Is everything okay?” he asked, reaching for my hand but I flinched away before realizing I did.

“Of course it is” I put on a smile and he stared at me for a few seconds.

“Daphne waters, please report to the headmistress office” a voice blares through the speakers.

I pause at the announcement and swallow hard, don't tell me they saw us?

“Avery, is everything okay?” Mr Alister taps my hand and I scream on instinct.

He looks at me in shock and also part of him seems hurt.

“If there's anything you can tell me, or can you not study today?” he asked.

“Apologies sir, I don't think I can” I give a polite smile and though he doesn't look convinced he nods 

“Of course, please take care of yourself” he said and I nodded and gladly stood up before hurriedly leaving the room.

I walk through the halls very self conscious and go back to my room.

Sure enough Daphne is not inside and thankfully, Phoebe is still sleeping.

I jump on my bed and scream into my pillow, a few minutes later I fall asleep