𝕿𝖍𝖊 𝕼𝖚𝖊𝖊𝖓'𝖘 𝕷𝖎𝖔𝖓: 𝕮𝖔𝖛𝖊𝖗𝖙

Her Master, Her Majesty

-In the aftermath... I am providing her Majesty a full account of the events that have come to pass. The punishment dealt to the Prefects known as the P4 was expulsion from Weston, and not imprisonment.

Fog settled around the campus of Weston. It hugged close especially to the wrought-iron gate and the world beyond it. Violet, Greenhill, Redmond and Bluewer looked out into the fog. Like their futures, it seemed bleak and full of despair. The four walked out the black gate together, in tandem and into the fog. It swallowed them up like a starving beast as the gate shut behind them with a ringing clang.

I do not believe it was a mercy done upon the students. I think it more like a bribe: a much more tame and favorable punishment in exchange for the suppression of a scandal involving a blood relative to the Queen. A relative, who, if his true nature was exposed, would receive no sympathy despite being brutally murdered. However, expulsion from Weston might've been worse than even death to these students. After all, they chose the preservation of school traditions over the protection of human life.

As the P4 wandered even further into the fog, they relied solely on the sound of their shoes against the school's stone path to guide them. The further into the fog they walked, the less they could see their beloved school as it disappeared behind them, and the more lost they became in the seemingly endless cloud. The mist kissed their cheeks and hands as it invited them in further. Like a hungry monster goading in prey. Or a lover embracing them after months of separation.

The disappearances of Derrick Arden and his accomplices were later explained to their families as a boating accident, ruling their deaths as ultimately accidental...

Cheslock, Edward, Clayton and a very fortunate boy from Red House were now patrolling the grounds. Unique flowers to represent each of their houses were displayed on their lapels.

And their bodies buried in secret, of course. It was made painfully clear to all remaining parties involved that they were forbidden from ever disclosing the events that they became aware of and witnessed...

The boy's wore newly tailored tailcoats. Each of them were made with different designs and fabrics chosen specially by the boys who wore them. They attracted the attention of everyone around them. Their classmates all stopped to look at them with awe and with smiles. A few tipped their hats to them and others waved and called out the names of the boys in their Houses. And a boy with a particularly messy mop of chestnut hair, round glasses, and a mousy face watched them with eyes glittering with true happiness for the first time in ages.

And so, life continued as it always had at Weston College. Or, at the very least, that was how it seemed.

"Look. It's the new P4!" Gasped the boy with chestnut hair as a glimmer of hope flashed through his eyes. His cheeks were flushed a light pink under his constellations of freckles as McMillan's smile reached ear to ear. "I do so admire them!"

Everyone watched the new P4 with baited breath as they stood before a patch of lawn in the middle of the school's courtyard. Slowly, each of them lifted one of their shoes before planting them on the grass. The P4s of years past always wore smiles, most even cried when they first stepped foot on the lawn without the threat of a 'Y'. But three of them did no such things. Instead, they grit their teeth, clenched their jaws, and bit their lips. Nothing but conflict raged inside their guts and bones.

Obviously there would never be any mention of the living dead that plagued the school merely days ago, Your Majesty," Y/N concluded as she sipped her tea. Her posture was perfect and her movements were nothing less than smooth as she gently set her porcelain and gold tea cup back down. Y/N looked the Queen right in her grey eyes as she looked upon the Lady sitting at the table before her.