Witchly Ever After

Chapter thirteen

Willow was reading Constantine's journal and some of the stuff he's written isn't piecing things together. There some things that described how were his school days were going while other things talked about things that didn't involve school. 

"They haven't been able to catch me, yet." Willow read, "If the lousy headmaster and vice headmaster catch on to who I am, I'll fail and give that wealthy son of a bitch his body back."

"That must be the person who said who woke up in the alley." Lumi assumed.

"Hey Lu, did that said person say what Constantine looked like before his body got taken?" Yuki asked.

"He said that he couldn't remember." Lumi replied, "Whatever Constantine used on him to make him go unconscious, it must have wiped his memory."

"Willow, can you keep going?" I uttered.

"Now that I have gotten into this hellhole called Grimmdale Academy, I can kill every student here. When I do, it will be everyone of Grimmdale and the High Court that will have their bodies scattered all over." Willow continued.

"Why did he write this in first person?" Rosanne muttered.

"People can call me a monster." Willow said, "I am and this is all for what Grimmdale has done to me. Grimmdale is going to wake up and they will all fear me."

"Maybe he isn't working for Arthur and he is a different threat." Jiao Long presumed.

"Or he is in fact Arthur." I chimed in, "Arthur disguised himself as the man Lumi found in the alley."

"We don't know that for sure, Rowan." Lumi refuted, "He could be someone who is working for him and he is tricking Arthur and us at the same time."

"So now what?" I questioned.

"What do you mean now what?" Amity scoffed, "Wouldn't you know? You're the one who came up with this idea." 

"I'm not the only one responsible for ideas." I said, rolling my eyes. "You guys are smart, you can come up with something." 

"Well I don't know." Acelin spoke, "You're Harkin Bailie's daughter, shouldn't you have ideas from left and right?" 

"So just because I'm his kid, I have to a solution and idea to everything?" I argued, "Well guess what Acelin, I don't." 

"Rowan, why is this so important to you?" Willow queried, "Rosanne, Yuki, and I said that we won't help you out with this and let the authorities handle it. Yet, here we are." 

Why is this so important to me? Is it because I want to see good for Grimmdale? Why do I want to do this so badly? I looked around the room and thought about my friends. I thought about my other classmates. I thought about the staff. My childhood neighbors. My parents. Everyone in Grimmdale. 

"It's important to me because I care about you guys and other people around me. Believe it or not, even Acelin. She was my childhood best friend after all." I mumbled, "I don't want to see you guys hurt because we all stood by and did nothing to stop the problem at hand. We all could die if Arthur achieves his goal. I already lost someone I loved and most of you are runaways like me. I would hate to relive the same thing that I did and I know you wouldn't want to either." 

Everyone exchanged looks with one another. Then they all look back at me. If Arthur is spying on us, then we to be strong and not weak. Arthur would love to see us to be weak. His teeth flashing at us when he smiles and taunts us for it. That's what he wants us to feel. Weakness. 

Jiao Long stood up and came to my side, placing a hand on my shoulder. He gave a heartened smile to me and his expression changed to a serious one when he addressed the others. 

"Rowan is right." Jiao Long agreed, "You know how many people have lost family members when Arthur attacked and do you know how many people were homeless after that because their homes got destroyed? Lumi, your mom left you and dad to join Arthur. Rosanne and Willow both lost a parents. Yuki's parents were killed. Amity lost her parents as they were escaping. I was abandoned by mine to die and spent my life in an orphanage in Guangzhou, wondering if my parents were going to come back for me. Coming to find out, the owner had to take me in as her own kid because they weren't coming back.  

Didn't know all this about everyone. They all lost someone who was their family. People they loved and cared about. People that have been affected by the damage and carnage by Arthur and his army. 

I remember when I used a spell to see what Grimmdale looked like after I got the news from mom that the Le Fay battle was over and Arthur was taken into prison. I expected home to look like how it did the day before. I was wrong. 

 Houses were demolished. What I thought was snow, turned out to be ash from the fires. There were bodies almost everywhere while there were some staggering around. People were trying to find food by stealing from stands or eating out of the trash. Some fell to their knees and cried out when they saw their homes damaged. People cried when they saw their loved ones die. Some cried from exhaustion or starvation. 

"I don't have a lot of ideas to stop Arthur either." Jiao Long sulked, "And neither do the rest of us, but do you guys seriously want to sit and wait for another war to happen? See more people die? See more children lose their parents? This is important. Not just to Rowan, but to all of us."

"You know, I would like to know where my family is." Amity chimed in, "I have been trying to look for them and get records of where they might have escaped too, but I'm not having any luck." 

"Then we have to do something." I said, "And that something is to prove that Constantine is working for the enemy or that he is the enemy."

"How though?" Yuki questioned, "We are only high school students. What about going to the headmaster?" 

"We aren't going to Headmaster Grimm." I contradicted, "He's not taking any sort of help from us or isn't doing anything to protect the school. There's people we can go to help that isn't him, like our other classmates and teachers who don't want to sit back. People in town too." 

"Oh!" Willow exclaimed, "The Grimmdale Ball. Constantine might have some plans regarding that."

"And we'll figure those out." I smiled, "We can do this. Will everything turn out well in end? I don't know, but we can only hope." 

"Speaking like a true Harkin Bailie." Yuki smirked.

"Not like speaking him like him." I stated, "Just speaking from my own words.