Book 1: The Chaos Keys

Chapter Six: Lex🌔

Alexis had been paying little attention to the class. She was fully fixated on trying to figure out how negatively Aspen's words had affected Ethan.

Ethan was a little quiet, yes, seeming a bit lost in thought. However, after Melody raised her theory on vampires, he perked up.

Satisfied that he was okay, Alexis was going to turn her attention to the class. However, her cat suddenly sat up, his ears pointed towards Lilith, and his eyes completely fixated on the girl.

"What's up?" She quietly asked the cat, rubbing his head.

When Alexis looked at Lilith, at first, she just seemed to be watching what was happening. However, the look in her eyes gradually began to shift, slowly glazing over. They grew cloudy, and she started looking around, suddenly seeming a bit restless.

Alexis frowned softly at Lilith's odd behaviour, glancing around the room to see what could have been making her uncomfortable. Just the moment her eyes fell on Melody, she suddenly put her hands to her ears, squeezing her eyes shut.

"Mel? What's wrong?" Aspen asked, glancing over to her quickly.

Drake looked at Melody too, his brows furrowing a bit in concern.

"Hey, Melody." Aspen said again, shaking Melody's shoulders lightly.

Melody, however, did not seem to realise it was happening at all. Just clamping her hands tighter onto her ears.

Alexis immediately became deeply suspicious that Lilith's sudden uncomfortable behaviour, and Melody's movement were connected. Perhaps Lilith was somehow the cause. Melody was often strange, but she had not had a disruptive episode since, well...

That was when Melody had first gotten put into this class.

Her theory that Lilith was the cause however, was quickly disproven as she looked back at Lilith. She was violently shaking, and her eyes were wide, as if she'd seen something horrible. Her graceful composure had crumbled away entirely, and the colour had drained from her face.

Alexis looked to the teacher for guidance or help, but he was already flipping through his book. She knew that book, it had all of their names and information in it, along with emergency contacts. This was the only class that he ever had it.

He finally acted, getting up and going to Melody. He scooped her up effortlessly and gently lowered her to the ground, her back resting on Aspen's service dog, who was watching them all with solemn eyes. Alexis noticed that the dog also seemed suddenly intruiged, the same way her cat had shifted interest.

"Stop! Leave her alone you're gonna hurt her!" Melody suddenly screamed, and Drake stepped back quickly, obviously.

Just at that moment, as her voice rang through the silent room, there was a sharp tinkling of glass as some of the fairy lights on the wall exploded. The room was plunged into darkness, and Ethan let out a startled shriek. Her cat jumped off of her lap, but Alexis wasn't sure where he went.

Her heart thudded against her chest as she grabbed her phone from her pocket, turning on the flash and looking at everyone to make sure they were okay. Somehow, it didn't occur to anyone to open the door and let the light in. She noticed for the very first time that the room was totally detached from the outside world. No windows, and under door didn't even let in a crack of light.

She quickly turned the light to Ethan, who looked thoroughly rattled, but unharmed. As the eerie glow lit each of their faces, she saw the muffled fear in Aspen's eyes, and a similar concealed panic in Drake's. He seemed frozen, unsure of what to do.