"This won't be enough!" Raye screamed. Just when Dracy was about to give up trying to turn back to a smoke, Pecker flew over and hovered above her with his wings spread wide, his shadow giving Dracy enough shade to curl up to.
Laurie runs to his friend holding an umbrella and hurriedly opens it. Siberian carries Dracy to the coconut grove near Melissa's aquarium and watches as she heals.
It takes a slow and painful process for Dracy to heal her burns. Raye squatted beside her while the other boys except Laurie went back in the house to confront Lizzie. Mark and Jay came running out afterwards.
"Why'd you do that?" Raye sympathetically asks.
"Here. In this place. We protect each other," Dracy replies in a raspy voice.
"Then why did that Lizzie girl attack?" Mark asks.
Dracy shakes her head. "Its a long story."
"We got time," Laurie insists. "Please tell us."
"No," Dracy declines. "You don't have enough time."
The boys insisted but Dracy told them that it'd be another story for another time. After a few minutes, er wounds healed completely and with the help of Laurie - who decided to carry the umbrella - and the three other humans, she floated back in the house where they were met with some of the students carrying Gustav and putting him in a casket made out of spun web and rocks.
The dining hall is now a bit fixed. But some of it is still falling apart. They haven't fixed the Neil shaped dent on the wall yet. They probably wouldn't ever fix it since Neil told everyone he wanted to keep his work of art.
That night the students quietly sat on the floor of the dining hall as headmistress Leonora proceeded to light some candles and Arachne helps with the candelabras and stuff. Everyone looked at each other then at the casket containing Gustav.
Everyone is there. Except for Lizzie.
Earlier that night Siberian and Neil sneaked in her room and waited until she has her back turned. When they knew Lizzie is vulnerable, Neil jumped up from behind and slid a bag over her head. Siberian followed him in the room and tied Lizzie with ropes Arachne spun with her web. And as far as anyone knew, Arachne's webs are stronger than steel. Its like biosteel. The two dragged her to the garden where Butter and Red covered her with vines and flowers to prevent her from escaping.
Now she's nowhere to be seen and nobody even asked where she is.
After all the candles were lit, headmistress Leonora sat at the head of the room and Arachne crawled up the ceiling where her spider nest lay hanging by threads of web.
Silence enveloped the room until the headmistress breaks the silence by saying common funeral words like 'you will be missed' and 'we will remember you'. All of them lamented and grieved until someone began blaming the humans. He threw curses at them and called them names.
"Siberian that's enough," headmistress Leonora scolds.
But Siberian doesn't stop. He abruptly stands and angrily points at the humans. "No! If it wasn't because of them Gustav would still be alive! They were the reason why Lizzie attacked!" He yells.
The humans remained silent. But deep inside they wanted to yell back and say what they wanted to say, they just keep biting their tongues to prevent themselves from saying something until Jay had had enough.
"Listen. We did not sign up for this!" He protests. "We were just passing by then you" - he waves his outstretched arm around the room - "decided its a good idea to kidnap us and bring us here!"
"Jay," Laurie frantically whispers. "That's enough."
Jay glares at him for a second before turning his attention back at everyone. "No! No I'm not done," he angrily says. "You need to let us go. We didn't mean you or anyone in here any kind of harm. Let us go."
"We can't do that." Kitty scoffs.
"Really? Why not?"
"Because if we let you go. Chances are you will tell the outside world about us. Nobody should know about us," Foxie explains. Jay scoffs at her words.
"How can you be sure? Huh? We won't tell anyone. That is, if you let us go without harm."
"And what if we don't?" Siberian asks.
"Then we get out of here ourselves. You don't tell us what to do." Jay points at him. He turns to his friends and pulls Raye up. "Come on guys let's get out of here."
But before he can pull them all up, a high pitched and defeaning screeching noise suddenly exploded from the garden. Everyone turned their heads to see a part of the garden illuminated by the moon and in the middle of this part lay strings of broken and scattered vines that looked like it was wrapped around something or someone. To everyone's horror, the fairy twins - who glows in the dark - were lying near the clump, limp and the glow of their bodies were flickering.
All of a sudden glass shatters from a room upstairs and sinister laughter was heard.
***
This is probably the shortest chapter ever.
Any idea what will happen next?
YOU ARE READING
The School Of Oddities
General Fiction"We are all secrets. Therefore we shall stay secrets. Can you keep it that way?" An old schoolhouse shelters a group of strange teenagers. It doesn't just serve as a home, but also a protection from the outside world. One day, a group of hitchhiker...
