Far away from the safety of the enchanting stone walls of Merkwood academy, in a darker corner of the world, a young man sat alone in the shadows. Watching. Observing the world around him.
"So this is the approach she's going for, hm?" He smirked to himself, staring dead into a pool of light he had created, showing images from the school, watching and biding his time until he controlled every inch of the grounds. "How pathetic," Nox snickered, waving away the pool of light, which melted away into nothing, allowing the shadows to move back in. It was then that Nox brought a hand up to the level of his neck and held it out, letting rays of murky yellow light escape from his fingertips, illuminating the outlines of the large corridor that he ventured down.
About halfway down the corridor, Nox stopped, facing the dark wall covered with peeling wallpaper and what looked like framed pictures. He brought his hand to further illuminate the frames and what each of them contained.
The first one, a large photograph of many students at Merkwood academy, all wearing uniforms, the image fading into black and white over time, he sighed at how times had passed and changed. Another one, a pressed rose, framed in a gold ornate frame, dark and very much dead, but he thought it looked romantic, especially as it was a gift from when he was young, it reminded him of his past failures. It also marked a time he started to discover what he was truly made of, despite others telling him otherwise.
As he continued to stare at the wall, each picture was a step back into the life he used to have and the life he, in theory, should've led. His eyes circled the wall until he reached one particular photograph, in a tiny and unassuming frame which seemed to be more outwardly isolated from the rest of the gallery wall. Nox knew exactly what the photograph was, but he moved closer to it nonetheless, reaching a hand to take it off the wall.
"Headmistress, you never cease to disappoint," Nox chuckled, the sound of his voice echoing through what sounded like miles and miles of darkness.
He put the frame and photograph on the floor and very swiftly brought his foot crashing down on the glass, the sound of it smashing filling the eerie silence. Nox then bent down to retrieve the slightly wrinkled photograph of a young and smiling Nicholas Chase and his mother, the headmistress of Merkwood academy.
"but, and I assure you, mother dearest, you will never see me coming," He said with a laugh, switching the light that pulsed out of his fingertips to set a-light the photo and hold it as it burnt into ashes, letting it's dying embers be the only glow through the blackness of corridor as Nox dropped it to the floor, laughing maniacally as he shrunk into the shadows.
YOU ARE READING
The Merkwood Chronicles
Fantasy'One girl, one extraordinary school year...' When Mabel Banks, a regular girl from the countryside of England, receives a mysterious letter in the mail, her life gets turned completely upside down overnight. Now she has a whole new family, but an u...
