Ties That Bind Us

Chapter Two: To insanity.

Chapter Two: To insanity.

Headmaster Bartley has left his office in a haste after receiving an alarming letter from an anonymous sender. He was limping quickly with the use of his cane in order to get to the courtyard.

He was so caught up with the threat within the inked parchment that he didn't notice the crowd of students and staff following closely behind him.

One of the girls in the crowd broke away from the mass of people and into one of the open classrooms where she knew her friend would be.

"Sebastian," she called out, staring at the blond boy who's head had snapped up from the book at her voice, "Come quickly."

She watched his eyebrows furrowed for a moment before he quickly understood her words and stood up. The pencil he was using to annotate the novel he was reading fell to the floor as he quickly gathered his things. He closed his leather satchel shut and walked towards her, trying not to seem so eager to the watching eyes.

He didn't want to draw attention to himself, but he knew that the damage was already done once she called his name out. He was well aware of the fact everyone was eager to know what was going on between them.

"Is it not too soon, JJ?" He asked her as he stood beside her, shoving his free hand in the front pocket of his trousers. "Ambrose couldn't have finished it so quickly."

"He must have," JJ told him, her voice low, but still soft, "Bartley is headed towards the courtyard right this minute. We have to go."

Ambrose always found comfort in art. Therefore when he was tasked with defacing the statue of the founder of Newton Academy, he knew it was the part he was born to do.

As his eyes took in those that had already made it out to the corridor to see his masterpiece, he realised that he achieved what his ultimate goal.

To comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable.

He'd never been so comfortable and as his eyes wonder around the courtyard, he saw a sea of uncomfortable people.

"Five pound says that Bartley will have a stroke," he heard his best friend, Theodore Jacobs say.

Theodore stood near the back of the courtyard, a lit cigarette between his pointed and middle fingers. He wasn't looking at the statue, instead he was looking up at a window that overlooked the courtyard.

The prefect badge he was adorning was placed underneath the school crest on his school blazer. His eyes landed back on his best friend as he felt the cigarette leave his fingers.

Ambrose placed the cigarette to his lips taking a deep inhale as he glanced to the window that Theodore was just looking at. "He's back, Theo," he said as he caught a glimpse of a silhouette in the window, "he wouldn't miss this for the world."

Harrison Pierce ran down the corridor of the second floor towards the prefect's bathroom. The soles of his school shoes were at their wits end, yet he didn't care as he halted to a stop outside the wooden door.

He knocked on the door three times in a haste. He went to knock another time when it opened and in front of him stood his best friend, wiping the blood from his hands with a white handkerchief.

Harrison walked into the room and closed the door quickly behind him. "How did it go?" He asked, almost hesitantly.

"As expected," was Nicolas Montgomery's reply as he walked over to the mirror in order to fix his head boy badge that sat beneath the school's badge on his blazer.

"Did you look out yet?"

Nicolas shook his head, before looking over to the brunet boy in front of him. He motioned to the window with a tilt of his head. Harrison spent no time in walking over to the window that over looked the courtyard and seeing the answer to his own question.

The chaos ensured below them as the majority of the school, both staff and students, looked at the statue of the founder of the school.

The statue in which had a rope around his neck and red paint across his usually white marble body. The red spray paint had leaked a little, but the phrase was still readable. All that was needed was a translation to those who didn't speak French.

"À la folie," Nicolas read aloud.

"À la folie," Harrison repeated, not caring how breathless he sounded as he said it.

Nicolas stared at the chaos, spotting his friends within the mass of people. The two by the back wall smoking and looking out at the crowd and the two within the crowd. One holding a book underneath his arm and the other on his shoulder with her hands in the air giving into the chaos.

They all knew that this was just the beginning of the chaos that was to happen this year at Newton.