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The day after orientation was full of Jules following Liam and Mason around. The days of no sleep were finally taking a toll on her. Liam and Mason had dragged her into the library and were discussing what happened to the wolf that had walked into the lacrosse field. "There's this book, North American Cryptozoology, and they have this entire chapter on spiders. They even have a section on scarabs, too." Masons explanation leaves a confused face in both Jules and Liam. "What's a scarab?"
"Aw, you don't wanna know." The three make their way to a shelf with a section labeled "MYTHOLOGY & SUPERSTITION." To their surprise however there were no books on any of the shelves. "What happened to all the books?" Liam looks at Mason, whose eyes are opened wide in alarm. "Uh, maybe someone is writing a paper on mythology and superstition?" Mason suggests. "More like a hundred." Jules says as she runs her hand on the shelf.
Suddenly, loud screams are heard, causing their heads to quickly whip around to figure out where they are coming from. They run all the way to a math class where the students and teacher have all climbed onto their desks as hundreds of rats crawl out of a nearby vent and scurry across the floor. Sydney screams in terror as she tries her best to stay away from the rats. "Why does this keep happening to our school?"
Unbeknownst to the trio a strange man who had escaped from Eichen was watching them from afar. After a moment, he slowly closes his eyes, focusing his enhanced hearing on the heartbeats around him before opening his eyes and tracking each heartbeat with the person to whom it belongs. Soon, he realizes that who he's looking for is not in the class, and he sighs in frustration before he turns and walks out the door into the hallway.
Jules directs the visions of Mason and Liam to the vent where the rats were crawling out of.
"Looks like we're going to need a book on rats, too."
***
The trio had followed the vents to the tunnels where they were currently walking and discussing the current situation. "It's not as irrational as you think. There's actually an evolutionary advantage of having innate fears of spiders, snakes, and rats." Liam makes a disgusted face as he looks around at their slimy surroundings.
"How do you know they came from here?" Jules asks Mason. "Well, they came crawling through the vents, and those pipes lead directly down here." The three stop when they reach an intersection in the tunnels, and look horrified when their flashlights shine light on something in front of them. "What's that?" Liam says with a repulsed look as he tries mot to vomit.
The bodies of bloody dead rat had been bundled up in a corner and Mason raised his eyebrows as the smell hit him.
"It's a rat king."
***
Liam had called Malia much to Jules' reluctance as she knew all Malia wanted to do was go to Paris. Mason had a disgusted look on his face as he poked the rats with a stick, and Malia seemed irritable about the fact that she had been dragged down there.
