The Shadow Sisters

[E1] Chapter 7 - Hannah Cole

The bus transported them from Meadow View to the western border of Willow Town; it brought them into a small province named Rumbridge, according to the signs.

Rumbridge mostly consisted of green hills, fields, farmlands, and wide rural streets. The biggest building in the area was The Willow Town Train station. Just beyond the platforms, on the summit of a hill, stood the grounds of Willow Wood Secondary School.

The school grounds were bordered by a white wall, and within the walls were vibrant gardens displaying tulips, daffodils, sunflowers, and more she couldn't possibly identify. There was also a copse of cedars and sycamores, and cutting through those was a pebble trail and a bridge arching over a crisp clear pond.

To the bottom left was a cylindrical building that was probably the PE hall, considering how close it was to the football fields.

Many more small buildings and shacks were dotted around the grounds, but it was in the very centre of it all where unmistakably lay the main hub. It was a colossal grey castle with jutting stone spires, large arched windows, and marble columns.

Their bus wormed its way through the others that'd come from various parts of Willow Town and its outskirts before coming to a stop at the edge of the car park.

Hannah filtered out with her peers and followed them along the central walkway towards the main building. Bronze statues of scholars, athletes, and artists bordered the flagstone pathway, casting down shadows, both literal and metaphorical, upon the students.

It was difficult to hear much else beyond the gushing of the twin fountains, birdsongs, and the steady hum of chatter.

As she made her way, drinking in the wonders one at a time, Hannah soon became aware of something on her peripheries. It was on the far east wall that she spied a narrow, black cast iron gate, and just beyond that lurked a golden retriever.

It was not the mere presence of the animal itself that struck her as unusual, but the fact that its deep black eyes appeared to be staring directly at her, picking her out among a crowd of at least fifty.

Or was that just in her imag-

"Ouch!" someone said.

Hannah knocked directly into another girl, causing her to spill several of her books and a guitar case onto the walkway. "Oh my God," Hannah said, flustered. "I'm so sorry."

The girl, who wore dark eyeshadow and had a purple streak on one side of her bleach blond hair, wrinkled her nose. "Watch it, would you?"

"It was an accident."

"Well, maybe if you tried looking where you were going, you would avoid those."

"I'm really sorry. I'll help you."

"I'm weally sowie. I'll hewp you," someone else said in a very high-pitched exaggeratedly girlish voice. The person who'd said it was a tall boy who was so skinny that his Adam's Apple stuck out like an extra nose. He lingered behind a statue of a bearded man in a robe.

Hannah's eyes widened. She did not sound like that... Did she?

The others on the grass, a girl with spiky hair, a boy with a shaved head and shaved eyebrows, and a girl who had more piercings than she had fingers, all laughed raucously.

The girl with the purple streak in her hair failed to see any humour in the situation. She was glaring. "Reckon you've done enough damage for the day, don't you think?"

Red-faced, Hannah saw no other option but to comply with her wishes. She strolled away from the gang, wondering what on earth their problems were. How could they be so rude to a complete stranger?