The School Of Oddities

Chapter 6: Sunlight And Shadows

Headmistress Leonora slowly enters the dining hall and gasps at what she sees.

A Neil shaped crack on the wall. the long tables turned over and broken along with the chairs. The glasses and light fixtures broken. Parts of the walls were collapsing and there is a dead Gustav on the floor, crimson blood pooled around him. On the other end is a wheezing and wounded Lizzie.

"What happened in here?" Headmistress Leonora demands. Of course she knows, its just in her nature to be inquisitive around the house especially in things that happens around the house.

Lizzie slowly rolls up to her feet. Her legs tremble and she drops on her knees. She glares up at the headmistress then looks down. Her face has a long gaping wound oozing with blood. It runs from the left top of her forehead down to her left chin. It caves in her eye, blinding her for the rest of her life. Her right eye remained green but the left eye — where the wound runs — is now a milky white eyeball with the iris looks like a pale green circle covered in milk.

"Stop acting like you don't know," Lizzie hisses and camouflages. A soft shuffling sound was heard before the door of the dining hall slams shut.

Headmistress Leonora shakes her head as she wobbles to the backdoor which attaches the dining hall to the backyard and waves at the students. Its the kind of waving that meant something is up, something the students doesn't like and doesn't want to see.

"Silence Hall. Now!" Headmistress Leonora booms and the students shuffles in the house, mumbling sorrys and words like 'I'm not responsible for this'.

They might not be responsible for any of the mess, incident or whatever it was, but the mistake of one, is the mistake of all. Not one goes unpunished when something bad caused by anyone in the house or outside the house as long as its around the territory, happens.

Inside the Silence Hall, the students lined up along one side of the wall. The Silence Hall is empty, with just four lightbulbs in each corner illuminating the room and nothing else. The flowery pink and red wallpaper is peeling off and the cream carpet has tons of holes in it while the blue painted ceiling is chipping off. No furniture or anything around the room.

"Where is Lizzie?" Headmistress Leonora demands. A soft groan comes from the end of the line near the corner. Lizzie raises her hand for a second before dropping it to her side. "Good." The headmistress shifts her attention to the others. "The humans?"

"We're right here. Uh. Ma'am," Jay replies, pointing at him then at his friends who nods as he points at them.

"Do you know why you're here?" Headmistress Leonora asks again.

The students nod their head, not saying anything but their faces scream something. Annoyance, anger, sadness and pain.

"Uh," Raye breaks the silence. "Actually no. I don't. We don't."

"Yeah," Mark agrees. "We don't know why we're here."

"Why are we here again?" Raye questions. The others look at them whispering things like 'be quiet' and 'silence'.

Headmistress Leonora points her cane at the two before speaking. "Does the name of the hall sound familiar to you?"

"The silence hall," Laurie whispers. "Why is it called a hall when its just a medium sized room?" He pauses. "Uh. The silence hall. It means we should be quiet and we mustn't utter a single word for a period of time."

The headmistress nods. "That's right. Now I'm gonna leave you. And remember! Complete silence!" She walks out the room for what seemed like an eternity then slammed the door shut. She turned the key and sat beside the door, listening to any sound or anything.