The Void of Darkness

Chapter 2

All eyes turned towards her as she entered the classroom. All talking, as little as there was before, instantly ceased. The teacher, a tall, skinny woman with round spectacles perched on the end of her nose slowly walked over to her as she stood as confidently as she could by the door.

"What, may I ask, are you doing here?" the teacher asked in a shrill voice. "This is a special classroom for only the most advanced."

Madge trembled almost undetectably under the teacher's harsh gaze. She had somehow managed to keep hold of her schedule, which she held out for the teacher to examine.

"I was told to come here, ma'am," she informed the woman in front of her. "It's what my schedule says to do. Isn't this room -53?"

"Yes," the teacher, which Madge identified from a name tag as Ms. Wache, replied coldly. "No one else was supposed to be in this class. Suspicious indeed," she murmured to herself. "They must have made a mistake. Perhaps they meant 53," she said more to herself than anyone. "May I see that for a moment?" she asked Madge.

Oh no, now I'm done for, Madge thought. Perhaps I can persuade her. It's worth a shot.

She tentatively handed over the schedule, praying it wouldn't fall apart. At this point, all she could do was hope. Well, hope with a little bit of mind talking.

She pushed all doubt from her head. There was absolutely no point in worrying. It wouldn't make any difference in the ending. That depended on actions, not thoughts.

As she handed over the schedule, her fingers had brushed the teacher's hand, just as she wanted. Through that brief mind link, she searched Ms. Wache's mind for some sort of connection. A brief memory would do perfectly. Of course, actually putting thoughts into her head would have been much easier, but that wasted way too much energy. She was already drained enough as it was.

She frantically searched until she grasped a fading wisp of a memory. It was when Ms. Wache was a young girl, a girl with two pigtails and braces. She had just moved and the teacher hadn't received her information and she had been crying insisting that she was in the correct place. It hadn't been a good memory and just maybe strong enough to convince the teacher that she was just an innocent little girl.

"Please, ma'am," Madge tried, pulling the memory forward as her hand dropped to her side. "I just barely moved in. They probably haven't given you my information yet. Please." She was really using more than she should.

Ms. Wache's eyes softened as the memory surfaced. She slightly tilted her head in consideration. Suddenly, she straightened, making her decision. She looked directly into Madge's eyes. A straight-on stare. Madge quickly cleared her mind, leaving only thoughts of innocent little girls.

"Well then, in that case," Ms, Wache said, "I guess you can take a seat next to Troy." She pointed to an empty desk next to a very familiar looking boy.

He had light brown hair that had small streaks of blonde in it. It hung over his eyes a little bit and he had to repeatedly flip it back to see. His eyes were a piercing green. Madge had never seen eyes that green before. He was tall and well built and Madge couldn't help but stare at him for a bit. He looked up and caught her gaze and she quickly looked away.

Taking her schedule back from the teacher, she strode over to the desk and plopped down taking out her school books.

"Troy, if you don't mind, would you show our new guest around the school at lunch?" the teacher inquired.

"Yes, of course, Ms. Wache. It would be my pleasure," Troy replied, his voice clearly implying that it would most definitely not going to be his pleasure. Oh well. She didn't blame him. If he knew who she really was and what she was supposed to do, there would be no way that he would even look at her.