Like Harold's last religious studies class a week ago, he was one of the first set of students to leave the lecture room. It was exactly a week ago when Harold had received the strange letter—after his class, that his life had begun to steer in the path of destruction and now, he was entirely en route his death and there was nothing he could do.
He was going to end up like the wolf Francis had mentioned in his journal, Margaret.
As he hurried past the heated bodies of students; werewolves like him, who seemed to have forgotten all they had been taught minutes ago, he felt the weight of Prof. Travis’ dark pupils on the back of his neck; an extra weight he didn't want to carry, and that propelled him to move faster towards the exit.
He got out of Citadel J—where the class had been held, and breath out deeply, picked up his brown leather bag and hurried to his next class which happened to be the last before he had his break in the cafeteria
The clouds right above Golden Lake University; hostels, buildings, cafeteria, pool, too, and everything that fell into Golden Lake's territory were ruddy and as the clouds stretched towards the skyline, they gradually faded like an old piece of clothing that had become a rag to a shade of pale brown; the kind of brown found on maple leaves during autumn.Harold lay coiled on his bed like a millipede under attack with his wooly blanket that knocked off dawn's chilly weather stretching from his curled toes—that touched the end of his bed, all the way to his neck. His eyelids were closed in a slumber and he snored gently in a calming rhythm.All of a sudden he jolted up, gasping for breath, like a swimmer who had held his breath under water for hours, his eyes failing to blink as he looked all around barely able to make out the grotesque raincoat—that hadn't come to any use so far, hanging from a nail drilled into the wall beside the door, or Wil
In a blurry haste, Harold Girard ousted his nightcloth and in its place, a casual plain blue shirt that hugged the upper part of his body and denim jeans covered his nudity. He flicked on the electric bulb switch strapped to the wall and the pale dark lightbulb that hung from the center of the room came alive.He rashly picked up his phone and texted Trisha;WILKES IS GONE. DON'T GO TO ANY CLASS YET, I'M COMING TO YOUR HOSTEL.He shoved his phone into his pocket as a cuss escaped his lips then he dashed out of his room, latched the door and bolted down the hallway which was empty but for an obese student with too much blonde hair that rambled to his left. He got to the staircase before spiralling downwards and heading out into the calm, chill and unruffled morn.He brought out his phone expecting a reply from Trisha as he peered down on the screen whilst jogging down the asphalt and heavin
Trisha McLeon and Wilkes Milton sat on the cold ground that reeked of urine in a very small and dark room with their hands uncomfortably fastened behind their backs with thick horsewhips that dug into their skins.Neither of them remembered how they had gotten there. One moment they were on their beds in their different rooms—at dawn, and the next moment they were in a mysterious room in the middle of nowhere, tied like rams who'll be slaughtered for a feast. “What... What is this about, Trisha. Any idea?” Wilkes whispered, fear having overrode his sense of reasoning.“None. Not a single idea,” Trisha replied then paused to relive all that had happened to her and Wilkes in the forty minutes they'd been in the sullen room before speaking again.“I'm scared,” she confessed. “All this makes no sense. I mean, Harold in all sincerity, has a very very low chance of surviving the contest,” she paused again and tried to co
The athletic man in the dark room whose stench was gradually desensitizing Wilkes and Trisha's nostrils left them after pacing around a few more times without harming as much as an hair on their head—much to their reliefs. When he was gone for a few minutes and they were quite sure he couldn't be eavesdropping, they continued whispering to one another what they thought of the information he had just passed to them.“Driller? Does that name sound familiar to you?” Trisha whispered to Wilkes whom she couldn't see due to the darkness that sheathed every inch of the odd place they were in.“No, no. It... doesn't,” he whispered back wearily. Hush befell them again as they were lost in their own thoughts then Trisha broke the silence.“He said we're going to remain here till Harold finds us. How are we going to survive if he doesn't on time?”“He must have no
“You spoke about him in our last class, sir,” Harold responded calmly as he knew the upper hand was gradually slipping from the lanky professor that stood before him in a dark suit that was too large for him.“You were even paying attention?” he replied, eyeing Harold. When he got no reply or body language to nourish his suspicions, he eyeballed Harold for about two seconds longer dubiously, sighed exhaustedly then turned back to have his seat on the other side of the urbane leather desk.“Here, here, seat,” he motioned in an unnatural high pitched voice and pointed his palm to an empty seat that looked more like a cushion to Harold who seemed glued to a spot. “You said you wanted to know about Francis, right?”Harold nodded, swallowed a ball of saliva that had formed behind his tongue seconds ago, as he walked doubtfully and had his seat opposite Prof. Ericson.
Wilkes and Trisha sat on the ground of their cell, listening to Prof. Ericson and Harold's conversation as the fetor from the pee which was just a few metres from them sank into their nostrils.Trisha heaved a sigh of relief and Wilkes whose body was cramped, relaxed when Harold replied his professor's question of how he had heard of Francis; that is, from his Geography class.Good! He hadn't mentioned Francis’ Journal.“I don't see any way out of here,” Trisha announced and her voice echoed softly as she swung her wand which served as a flashlight, left and right, up to the cell's roof which was just as black as soot and down, to the cold, dark ground.“But the driller,” Wilkes replied, standing up and looking for a door knob or something of help, “he was able to leave here when he was done talking to us. How...” He paused when he noticed something
Harold Girard surveyed the room again, this time, in a quest for whatever he could use to drill the wall. Books at that point in time were useless. The wall clock which was hung above him only served as a reminder that his time was running up and his lecturer could come in at any moment. The window showed him as morning transformed to early afternoon with the blistering heat that attenuated every second. There was nothing he could see that was of help. Then his eyesight landed on something. The flower vase which was a few metres from him.“Wilkes, are you there?” he whispered, with his sight fully fixed on the broken vase. A plan was formulating in his head. It wasn't much but it was something. He had to break down the wall although his professor will sooner or later, be aware of it.“Yeah, yea—” Wilkes let out a dry, hearty cough. “Have you found a way to get us out of... Here?” He coughed again and
For a few magical seconds, the stinging pain in Harold's finger stopped and even the warm, red blood that streamed down his face like tears stopped as he took a lasting look at the small jar in Professor Ericson's drawer.'He was the one that sent the letter to me?', Harold thought as he picked up the jar with his healthy hand and held it with two fingers a few metres from his face with wide eyes like an old sailor examining a treasure box to know if the fortune he'd found was authentic. There was almost no difference between the squid's ink and a normal one used in writing and if he hadn't seen what was written on the clean, transparent jar, he wouldn't have guessed in a thousand years that it was what it was. 'But why did he write that to me as a warning if he will later capture my friends?' he quizzed himself.It made no sense that his professor was being the good and bad guy at the same time. What exactly was wrong?