Halo Of Fire: An Angel In Trouble

Prologue

The fact of the matter was, we still didn't know who did it or why, but the last time we saw her, she was talking gibberish about some secret society that met under the school.

We had strewn ourselves in a sunny spot over a blanket on the school's lawn attempting to catch a break after classes and before our extracurricular activities. I had leaned my head against my backpack and closed my eyes, letting the shade of leaves and branches lulling in the breeze dance across my eyelids. Cecily had been reading sections of her copy of The Anchor Book of Modern Arabic Fiction out loud to me. A reading requirement for our Literary Texts and Critical Methods class which I had forgotten at home that day.

Tyler was listening to music with his feet propped up on his backpack and his head peacefully placed on Cecily's lap. And Jordan had been sitting in one corner of the blanket, attempting to meditate. A new thing for them, though we all thought they were trying to overhear the conversation the principal was having with the Theology professor on the nearby bench. Shushing us regularly so they could concentrate.

I opened my eyes and looked at the sky, it was a beautiful fall day and we had been lucky that the temperatures had risen enough to sit in the green without muddying our uniforms after days of rain and wind. I looked from Cecily to the wisps of her aura, shining brightly in oranges and whites as she read, and then took in the white and gray stone walls of Silver Valley Academy, the wide green, with the French style cafe in the square at the center, dotted with small metal tables, ornate-backed iron seats, and colorful umbrellas that the staff had forgotten to open for the day. I tried to experience it as if the view wasn't brand new, as if I had been a student there since the first day of freshman year. The past few weeks, three exactly, had been characteristically damp and dreary, and at the same time dappled with long library visits, tea in the studio as if we were the Queen of England, and afternoons of glorious extracurricular activities, beefing up our college application portfolio.

As I took in the Academy, I noticed Damian walk by us down the path, past the cafe. He was never on campus unless he really had to, even when it came to his extracurriculars, I had noticed he would avoid as many as he could without getting caught. How, I didn't know. So the sight of him made the day stick out to me even more than the prank Thomas had pulled on the Spanish teacher that morning which resulted in a detention that would have him cleaning the lawn from garbage for a week after class.

Anyway, he had disappeared in a door that I knew for a fact was off-limits to us students. He was looking around himself very suspiciously as if he were making sure he wasn't being followed. And I had the urge to follow him to see what he was up to. Just then, Ophelia came running over, her gorgeous hair strewn amok as if she hadn't washed it in days and forgotten how to brush. She was one of the few students that stayed in the dorms on campus, since she was an international student. So she wasn't wearing her uniform at that time. Though it was policy to wear it at all times unless going off-campus.

She had a crazed look in her eyes, like someone who had spent too many nights with no sleep, seeking the answer to a question that couldn't be solved. Her aura was dully shining in blacks, grays, and blues, telling me she was stressed and panicking. "They are here! This whole time they have been here and I didn't know! My father told me-" She gesticulated in the general direction of the cafe and then all around us, "He told me they would find me but they never did."

"What are you talking about?"

"The Nocturnals."

"The who?"

"Oh they're here and I will find them. I know how to find them." She gave us a look that I couldn't quite place, like a rabid dog caught in a trap, and then she ran off in the opposite direction she came from.

We looked at each other quietly, everyone's aura was showing the colors of confusion and surprise. "What was that all about?" Cecily asked no one in particular.

"Beats me," Tyler said, shrugging and lying his head back down on her lap.

"Should we maybe, I don't know, talk to the counselor about her?" I asked, but they had already settled into their spots and shrugged. All the while students walked past us like nothing happened, some throwing glances our way, some too enthralled in their phones to notice what was going on around them, and the day went on.

That was the last time we saw her, or at least, I did. The thing is, there were weird things going on already on campus, so I can't even begin to explain where it all started.

Hello reader! Thank you for giving my story a shot! I'd love to hear what you think (constructive criticism is always appreciated) and if you liked the chapter, please consider giving me a like and a follow! 

The image above is my own rendition of what I imagine Silver Valley Academy to be like, and in this scene, Angel and her friends are lying in first ground right in the shade of the big tree.

Veronique