Ashwock Academy ✓

C H A P T E R - E I G H T

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"Shit!" Rafe exclaimed as she ran to the door. Ella, the closest one to it, tried to get out before it closed but she didn't make it in time. The rest of the group ran to it and pounded on the door, screaming and hoping that the other group could hear them.

"It's no use, they can't hear us," Teony said, suddenly even more nervous.

"We're trapped," Fox said, hands shaking. His claustrophobia set in, and suddenly it felt like the walls were closing in on him. "We're never gonna get out."

"Fox, don't say that," Ella said, even if she kind of believed it inside. 

"There has to be a way out, there has to," Trevor said hopefully. When Ella suggested that they try the key, they all agreed. Trevor cleared everyone out of the way and slid the key into the keyhole, and while it fit in the door didn't move whatsoever.

"What?" Ella exclaimed. "It worked earlier!"

"Look over here!" Teony said. She was on the whole other side of the room, and they all noticed just how much she went off on her own. Luckily it had helped them the first time, so they went over to see what she was talking about. It was the another one of the tablets that were in the room, and in the other hand she held a book titled "Latin Translation". "These two were next to each other, so, well, maybe it's in Latin."

"And maybe it's a message we need to get out! Teony, you're genius!" Trevor exclaimed.

"Well, let's get on with it," Rafe urged. It took them almost five minutes just to decode the first line, and with five lines it seemed impossible. Ella hit the one of the desks with her fists and heard something fall from underneath. It was a small piece of paper and she picked it up, reading the words "page 231".

She brought it over to the group and took the book from Teony, flipping to the page written. To her excitement, on the last page there was something scribbled in the same handwriting as the note that Rafe found. Ella read it aloud. "This room was meant as an experiment, to test the effects of the dark magic that haunts us to this day but it went horribly wrong. In exactly fifteen minutes after the door closes all of the inhabitants will be filled with the dark magic I have experimented on, and possibly killed. I have hidden your way out in this room so that they can't find it, but if you follow my instructions you might get out alive."

"Woah, woah, woah," Trevor said. "We have fifteen minutes to get out of here of we all die?"

"Sounds like it," Rafe agreed. 

"And it's already been seven minutes," Trevor said, looking at his watch. And when they looked for their first instruction, they found nothing. 

"We're at a dead end," said Ella. It looked like she had given up, sure that that was their fate.

"Wait, maybe not," Trevor murmured. They all looked at him. "Maybe he's hidden something else around the room. It must connect to Latin somehow."

"Like a script?" Teony exclaimed, and she ran over to the piece of stone that she had looked at earlier. She brought it back to them, and quickly decoded the line. It was only one word, so it didn't take very long. When she finished, she announced that the stone said the word  "case".

"Case? Like luggage?" Fox asked, confused. He hadn't spoken much, since when he's frightened he tends to freeze up.

"No, like a bookcase," Ella said. Trevor's eyes lit up as he went over to the bookshelf.