PENSIONNAT - VERSION ENGLISH - BOOK FINISH

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- What the hell are you doing?! Grayce shouted.

- Grayce I...I was looking for... I couldn't put a name to what I was looking for so eagerly. It didn't have a name. It felt.

- Feeling what?! What were you looking for in the rubble?! Your favorite rubber band? Your lucky sock? A piece of it could have fallen off! You...you could have been crushed by one of those rocks!!!

-Sorry. But something was calling me...

- No. Nothing was calling you, EXCEPT ME.

- What was that black stuff? It stank, it smelled of...

- Death? Grayce took the word out of my mouth. We find her in the world of the dead. Technically, it's impossible for her to be in our house. Or that would mean something dead came and destroyed our dorms! This idea made her laugh.

- But she was talking. I didn't understand it, but I felt it as a...warning.

Grayce looked at me thoughtfully.

- It doesn't speak, Ella. It's dead matter. Did you get hit on the head?

- No! But I'm telling you! She...

- Hey, girls! Max came striding towards us. He cut me off.

- Are you okay?! I heard your dorms were completely destroyed! Good thing you weren't in them!

- It's not just our dorms, it's yours too. Grayce looked at Max with an apologetic expression. They were reconciled again. Ella, too, has lost her mind. Grayce said in a neutral tone.

- It's all nonsense. I'm... I'm fine.

- So where did they take her? Max asked, looking at Grayce.

- Who did? Grayce asked in surprise.

- You don't know who did this?

- I knew it! Grayce shouted.

- Grayce, calm down...

- No! I knew it!

Grayce's hurried footsteps had taken Max and me to the back of the garden. Right near where I'd had my first dance with Derne.

He still hadn't returned. I think I missed him. But what was the point? I was just a toy for him. A way to pass the time. This thought made me hate him. How stupid he could be!

- This is the plot. The one I wanted to tell you about, Ella.

I turned my head towards her and pushed away all thoughts of Derne.

- What plot? You still haven't told me Grayce.

- What are you talking about? Max insisted.

Grayce took a deep breath and began his tale.

"You know that at first...I was interested in Tim...well, I started following him to get to know him better. On the sly...

Don't laugh Ella!

And don't look at me like that Max..."

Indeed. He looked at her with a cold, almost uncaring eye. The situation that I thought was funny and awkward, seemed to disgust him. Like he was above it all. As if he was wasting his time listening to a kid crying because she had just fallen. Where had Max gone?

"Afterwards, I noticed that he was in demand! By other students, but also by the janitor. I immediately thought, like an idiot, that he was simply appreciated... I was sad and impressed at the same time. So I waited for him to be alone, so I could have a dialogue with him.

It took me almost two days! That's when I discovered his true self... His "favorite" place is a room in the basement.

I thought they were condemned, but a part of it remained open. He took advantage of it to set up his little drug business. There were long wooden tables. They were still dusty and looked very old. On top of them, they had set up their equipment.

The Ghota do not use the same drug as the humans. It is not powerful against Ghota blood. That is why they normally use red ginger, ginger shell and Phoenix ash. Only there was something else in the works on the back tables. I knew it right away by the smell of the room... As for the smoke, they had managed to make it disappear.

A simple enough exercise for second years. Although the place was creepy and knowing the dangers I was exposing myself to, I continued to follow him for the next few days, in order to have a chance. Not to be near him, but to know what he was up to.

Just when I thought I would never get close to him... I had a chance.

One of these "workers" and incidentally friend, made a mistake. He tasted it. The new drug. The one he was going to distribute. It was a frightening sight.

Dark red blood began to flow from his eyes, ears, nose and mouth. It was just a trickle, but it flowed without stopping! Then his eyes turned black and then white and finally they came back. But the color of the iris was different. It was a pale blue. Reminiscent of the cold of December and the emptiness of a lifeless body.

Everything happened very fast. He shook and screamed. Then his mouth got bigger and his teeth changed. They became sharp. Then he stopped moving.

All at once.

He stood like a puppet, his head down and his breathing ragged. His back slightly hunched and... I felt like he had... grown... Anyway. We waited in morbid silence for the next part.

Tim asked him if he was okay. But all he got in reply was a high-pitched, frightening scream that made him take big steps backwards.

After this cry, the "possessed" began to search for prey like an animal. His movements were quick and precise. He was no longer human. He had become an animal. It lived only to kill.

He wanted to kill.

He seriously injured one of his comrades by biting her neck like a lion would bite a deer. After five minutes, he collapsed to the ground. Tim naively thought that the effect of the new drug had worn off... but in reality, the nightmare could have lasted longer. It was just that his body couldn't take it anymore.

His friend was evacuated from the school, discreetly, by the teachers.

I had accompanied them to the hospital, the day you saw me Ella. I had to reassure myself. I had to go and see if he was alive or not. I didn't say anything because I was still in shock. I thought it would be dangerous to tell you while Tim was watching me.

Right after you left Tim and I had a conversation where I told him to stop this right away! But he didn't listen to me. The proof. Today he completely destroyed our dorm.

We have to destroy this drug. It's dangerous!"

- It sounds more like a transformation than just a drug. I was scared that a drug could do something like that.

- So, if you were hanging out with him...was it to expose him?...But why didn't you tell me this before?! I mean, US! Why didn't you tell us before?! Max was back to his old self.

- Because you were giving me the cold shoulder for some reason and Ella was obsessed with Derne!

- I'm not obsessed with Derne! I'm just a little concerned, that's all.

- We've got to go tell the principal. Max was right.

But I knew Grayce couldn't go by herself. She was so scared of it, she was having nightmares.

- Let's go together, the three of us. I suggested.