The Magic Pawn Series: The Discovery (Volume 1)

Chapter 21: When things are getting complicated

She dropped the juice bottle and then started to run. I went after her; I had no idea what had gotten into her.

When she went out of the dormitory, she stopped for a few seconds to catch her breath and then continued running; she was going towards the professors' dormitory. I thought that I was in a better fettle than before – although I had not done anything to help with that – but I was surprised to see that I was not running – although that was my impression. I was floating above ground.

Beatrice, Christine's roommate, suddenly stopped and exactly when I thought that I was going to run into her, I was shocked to see that I went through her – like a ghost.

'What is wrong with you?' I asked her.

She looked frightened. Her big eyes were desperately looking for a way out.

'Beatrice?' I shouted.

She did not reply. My hand went through her face – still nothing. She could not see or hear me, and I could not touch her.

Was I dreaming?

I saw her lips moving but I could not hear what she was saying. She was looking desperately at the forest and seemed to be crying for help. I wondered what she could see in that darkness – it was almost midnight; I could not make anything out of it.

A red light flashed out of her hand and lifted into the sky speeding up as it went higher. It stopped and then sparked; the entire sky was coloured into tens of colours. After that, the lights in the professors' side of the campus were turned on, one after the other, as did some in the students' dormitories.

That is when I realised that this was the alarm for when something wrong was happening– I could not see anything being wrong; but there was a strange feeling in the air.

I waited impatiently. Shortly after that, it happened. A redhead girl appeared before my eyes; she had taken Beatrice by the arm. They both disappeared in a dense mist that had come from nowhere. It all happened so fast.

Eric arrived at the scene together with some professors. I went next to him and watched carefully. He was angry. He told the others to start immediately the search. I would never had imagined that it can be so fast – faster than I could count to 10; they split into groups and went in different areas of the campus. They were well trained.

I went after Eric; I stood next to him observing all his gestures. He was agitated and angry but I could see a strange spark in his eyes – as if he had been waiting for this moment for a long time.

I was in the forest. You could not hear anything, except for the sound of nature. I could read some of the words from Eric's lips – that was the only thing I was paying attention to – but I was not completely sure that they were correct.

I looked carefully around me. There were three other people – two female guards whom I had seen in the school before, and the Creatheology professor.

Ever since I arrived here, I was curious about this need to have so many guards and so many protection devices. We could not even leave the campus without them knowing. This was because of the very powerful and extremely complex spells around the campus, in addition to the thick two-metres-tall walls.

There is always a guard at the gate; you cannot go in or out without the alarm system going off. I don't know how Sarah managed to get out, but I have this vague feeling that she flirted with the guard.

Lately however, I have seen too many guards patrolling in the campus.

Maybe now – in this dream or reality – I was going to find out the true reason for these many security systems.