Ellie's Flames BOOK 2

7: Everyone in Auradon Sleeps In

It takes us a good long while to cross the bridge, even at full sprint for a few minutes at a time. I really wish I could use my transporting powers, but I still can't focus my mind enough. Sera offered to toss us, but considering her excellent aim in dodgeball I'm more than a little worried she'd purposely end up skewering Uma on a castle tower.

We finally cross the end of the bridge onto solid ground, and Mal leads the way to Auradon Prep since it's the closest to the exit from Auradon.

But as we walk into the courtyard, we see it's worse than we feared.

"They're asleep." Evie says in dismay. "Everyone."

The entire courtyard is filled with slumped-over bodies of students caught in their daily activities, all snoring their hearts out. I could use the phrase "eerily silent", but that'd be lying. All around us, teenagers are snoring in synchronization, like a buzzing of bees. Mal, Evie, Carlos and Jay take their phones out and try to contact people they know.

Mal lowers her phone. "I can't get Ben."

"Or Dizzy, or Doug." Evie confirms.

"Or Lonnie." Jay says. "She should've been at fencing practice."

"The signal's out." Carlos says, stowing his phone back away.

"Is that Auradon Prep?" Celia asks, excitement lacing her voice as she points to the castle.

"Yeah. And when everybody wakes up, you're gonna love it." Carlos says, smiling at her.

"He's right." Sera agrees. "It's perty awesome."

"You go to school?" Celia asks, sounding amazed.

Sera glares at her. But luckily the crisis is averted by munching sounds behind us.

"Mmmm... cantaloupe." Gil murmurs, eating grapes from a bowl.

"Gil, for the last time, those are grapes!" I say, taking the bowl. Gil pouts, stealing the last few.

"I love grapes." He decides.

"Yeah, we get it, ya love ya some fruit. Now c'mon." Sera grabs his ear and drags him over to where Celia, Uma, and Mal are watching Harry and Jay argue.

"---me not squashing you like a bug." Jay is saying.

"You think I'm scared of you, Jay?" Harry dares, holding his hook in Jay's face.

"Guys." Mal and Uma say together. Harry and Jay turn, realize they look like idiots, and walk away from each other.

"Dude!" I hear, and turn to see Carlos facing his tiny dog, who is licking someone's fingers in their sleep.

"Dude, really?" I ask, coming over. He jumps a mile.

"What? It wasn't me, I swear!" We all stare at him, and he sighs. "Okay, it was me!"

Everyone comes to join us by the dog, and a lightbulb seems to go off in Carlos' head. "Hey, do you know what happened here?"

"Yeah." Dude says. "Audrey showed up, she put everyone to sleep, and then she turned some of them to---"

"Guys." We all look around to see Evie standing in front of a statue look-alike of Hanna, the daughter of Hercules, a girl from the band. "Hanna turned to stone." Evie says in disbelief.

"All right, everybody stay on their toes." Jay instructs.

"Look, since we're here, let's check the school." Uma suggests. She, Celia, Harry, and Gil start that way, but Mal shakes her head.

"No." Mal orders. Uma stops dead, facing Mal again. "Audrey went straight for the crown, so I think it's safe to assume she's going to go for Ben and his castle next. That's where we'll go."

"Says who?" Uma says, striding back to Mal.

"Says me." Mal says, matching her walk.

"Says you, and that's supposed to mean something to me?" Uma asks.

"Guys." Evie says. Mal and Uma look to her, but she doesn't say anything else. Mal moves away from Uma.

"To the castle." She orders, and starts walking that way. Uma looks annoyed about it, but she doesn't argue as we all start the long walk to Ben's castle. 

____________________________________

Okay, so I was able to update a lot faster than I thought I would. Since this one's so short, the next chapter will probably be out sometime today. Most likely within a few hours.  

 :)

Hope everyone liked this chapter. Next chapter should be "Night Falls"!!! YAAY!!!