Academy for the Strange

Chapter 15: Whispers

        Whispers filled the computer room, everyone moving close to speak and listen to each other, the news already having spread through the whole school at lunch. Fiona, Meredith, Chay, and Perry were no different. Her chair scooted back so it was beside Chay’s and far enough away from the table that Meredith and Perry could both lean in and hear, Fiona shook her head. “I can’t believe it. That’s like the third one, isn’t it?”

            Meredith nodded. “I heard they’re all still in comas.”

            “Tahatan’s a good guy,” Chay said, new lines radiating out from his mouth and creasing his forehead. “I don’t know how this happened.”

            “People are saying it’s a curse or a new disease,” Perry added, his face sober for once. “But no one knows for sure. No one I talked to has even heard of anything like this.”

            Fiona spun her ring around her finger rapidly, not knowing what to do. The latest victim of whatever was happening had been in their grade and it hit far closer to home than she liked. He hadn’t been in any of her classes, but she’d met him briefly at the beach. He’d seemed nice and not someone who deserved to slip into a coma during the middle of lunch.

            This one had been hard to hide, given that their entire lunch room had seen him. The teachers had rushed in and carried him off, but not before everyone got a look at his pale, sleeping form. It had brought to mind the other two had already met a similar fate and now people were beginning to panic. If three Phasms as different as a banshee, leshy, and a cetan could all be taken out by the same force, then no one was safe.

            That thought was what was freaking people out. Fiona was no exception. The thought of Meredith, Chay, Perry Tyna, Aura or Jordana falling into a coma they wouldn’t wake up from made her stomach turn to ice as it twisted in on itself. And if it happened, she’d be no help. She wasn’t a Phasm and had no experience with Phasm diseases or curses. She prayed that nothing happened to her friends. And that this go resolved quickly.

            “Curses are rare and hard for most people to perform,” Meredith said. “Why would someone go to the effort to curse the school?”

            “Could it be someone with a grudge?” Fiona asked.

            Chay frowned. “Who would have a grudge against the school?”

            “It’s more likely to be a new disease,” Perry said. “There can’t be more than a handful of Phasms with the kind of power it would take to curse a whole school. Not to mention they’d have to get past the school’s protections.”

            Fiona licked her lips, feeling a little light-headed as something occurred to her. “Do you think it’s airborne?”

            “Couldn’t be or we’d all have it,” Chay replied. “And more people would be down at the least.”

            “Did the victims have anything in common?” Meredith asked.

            Perry frowned. “Not that I’ve heard. They were all in different grades, different dorms, and they didn’t hang out at all. Hell, the first girl hadn’t even been here a week. If she were the carrier then her roommate would have been the next to drop. Or at least someone in her dorm. And I haven’t heard anything about Dr. Volkov getting sick either, and he’s been the one who’s treating all of them.”

            “It makes no sense. None of it does,” Fiona said quietly. “Why is this happening?”

            The others looked at her and then away. Mr. Telford chose that moment to hurry into the room, his brown hair a mess, his grey eyes bright. “I’m sorry for being late,” he said. “Things came up.”