Eden's Gate

Chapter 22: Another One Bites the Dust

A week had passed, and the group had silently been working away. Kaitlyn had gotten a book on edible fruits and berries in the local area to read, while Taylor had actually managed to secure a cold casting material that would help them make the key. Richard was still working on the device that would deal with the cameras. He'd have to sneak it into the room where all the camera recorded too, but that was okay.

They were feeling pretty good about the situation, until they walked into Psychic Class and found that Professor Manfred wasn't there, and instead Eliza was sitting at his desk, typing away on the computer.

"Where's Professor Manfred?" Kaitlyn instantly asked.

Eliza turned to her, her expression surprisingly blank, as she said, "I'll tell you once all the class here. I have a few announcements to make."

Kaitlyn shot her friends a look, who seemed to understand the implication. Mr. Lepus crawled up her leg again and hung off her neck, looking at Eliza with what would have been a death glare if his eyes were capable of expression. She was sure it was intense enough Eliza could feel it.

She sat down in her usual seat, and waited for the rest of the class to arrive, which didn't take long. Others asked about Professor Manfred, but they all got the same response: They'd find out in a moment, for now they needed to sit down and get ready for class.

Once everyone arrived, Eliza cleared her throat with a thick, gooey sound, and began to address them, "Alright, children. Many of you have been asking about Professor Manfred, and I'm sorry to tell you that he is no longer at the school, at least for now."

"What?!" Asked Devon.

"How?!" Richard asked.

"What's going on?" Came Matthew.

Eliza raised her hand, and the class instantly went silent, allowing her to continue, "we recently became aware of some...pretty horrific and disgusting crimes he may have committed. Things children don't need to hear about. Until we can clear up the authenticity of these claims, he has been sent back to his home in Leads."

Kaitlyn felt a chill down her spine. They had gotten rid of another teacher. It would make sense that jovial and goofy Manfred would not have been in on the conspiracy to bring the Elder Things to Earth. But how could they have known for sure?

Eliza's blank expression curled into a smile for just a second as she continued.

"In the interim I will be teaching this class to you."

'She's got another one,' Richard whispered in her mind.

'What do we do?' Kaitlyn asked.

'Play dumb for now,' Taylor said, 'she may be trying to get a rise out of us.'

She took in another breath and said, "There is something else. There are...rumors. We can't be certain of it, but it seems that the children who left made the Grade-Fs aware of our...unique school. The last time this happened, twelve years ago, we had a crisis of sorts. As such, I am instituting a curfew."

She waved her hand, and her smokey black glow overtook a piece of chalk as it wrote on the board, and she wrote her words out. "From now on, all children are to be in their appropriate dorms starting from 7pm until 7am the next day."

She turned towards the class, her eyes falling on Richard, Taylor and Kaitlyn for especially long periods of time.

"Anyone caught outside their dorms at these times will be instantly expelled. No exceptions."

Kaitlyn swallowed. This was the definition of bad.

They met back up at the workshop, where Richard immediately got to work on an old camera. She wasn't sure what he was doing with it, exactly, but she trusted his judgement. Taylor was tying bedsheets together while they waited for the cold set cement to take the shape of the key, and Kaitlyn for her part was reading the book she had taken out of the library. She actually recognized a number of the plants she was seeing in the book from her occasional walks through the forest. She had stopped taking them after she had nearly given Eliza a heart attack when she couldn't find her, and was told not to go wandering in the forest, but those memories were still very vivid.