The Stray Souls ["The Diary Keeper" Sequel; "The Dark Legacies" Series]

Chapter 26: Paranormal revealers

The morning started not quite typically and not at the hour that usually marks the beginning of what we commonly call a wonderful morning. But I'll get straight to the point of the matter.

The clock showed 5:26 a.m. At this time, either normal people are asleep, or they suffer from insomnia. And those uninvited guests who knocked on our door at such an hour probably belonged to the second category. Honestly, I was awakened by a sharp sound and heard everything clearly, but I was incredibly lazy to get out of bed and open the door. Unfortunately, Caroline woke up too, and she is quite a responsible person.

"Liandra, let's open it!"

"You better sleep," my voice was sleepy, barely audible, and not particularly cheerful.

"Perhaps, one of the girls needs help."

"They don't need anything at 5 in the morning. I think they're just drunk."

"Liandra, don't be so indifferent! You know perfectly well that strange things are happening now, and we should be vigilant."

"That's right - we should be vigilant. That's why it's not a good idea to open the door to someone unknown at this hour," I teased.

Caroline didn't listen to me. She was a very obedient girl and was ready to do whatever she was told, but when it came to my advice, well... You know. I wasn't the best role model for her.

The door opened, and I was still hoping to sink back into a deep sleep. But suddenly, I heard...

"Good morning, girls! Did we accidentally wake you up?"

The voice was definitely not feminine. I quickly got up from my bed and turned to face the doorway - two guys were standing there. I immediately recognized those scums - they came to our recent school party. One of them, the tall one with short dark curly hair, was Joe. The other, the short redhead with freckles, was Miles.

"No, you didn't wake us up at all! Who sleeps at this hour anyway?" I said sarcastically.

"Excuse me, but who let you in here? This is a girls' dormitory," Caroline tried to act more composed, but it was still evident that she was as shocked as I was.

"It's not that important," Joe waved his hand.

"It's very important to me!" my voice raised to a shout. "Either you confess right now, or I throw you out of here through that window because I can't be bothered to escort you to the dorm entrance!"

"Calm down, Liandra!" Miles spoke. "There was no security at the entrance this time for some reason, and we couldn't care less about surveillance cameras - we're not studying here anyway. I hope such an answer suits you."

"I may like the answer, but not both of you," I scoffed.

"We came to you on business." Joe seemed somewhat annoyed by me.

"What the hell kind of business is at 5 in the morning?" Yes, I was overly emotional.

"When else can we catch you?" Miles tried to justify their timing. "You spend half the day at school, then do homework, attend those interest clubs of yours, and later you're all over the place until late at night. So, we chose a time when we could guarantee finding you right here."

"Brilliant..." I sighed and rolled my eyes. "And for what noble cause did you make such sacrifices?"

"Me and Miles recently started a video blog about paranormal phenomena," Joe smiled, "We know there's some spooky stuff going on in this school and in Ravenwood, your town."

"There will be some spooky stuff happening in your lives if you don't leave us alone," I snapped the door. After a minute, my emotions cooled down, and I opened it again - the guys hadn't gone anywhere. "And how can we help you? We don't do video blogs, and we're not going to be in your silly videos."

"We record videos of our investigations," Miles continued. "We don't have too many subscribers yet."

"Let me guess, they're all your friends and family members?" I smirked.

"Well... something like that," Joe sighed. "Just without family - we didn't tell them this kind of stuff."

"So, we know you've encountered something unknown here at school," said Miles, "As true paranormal investigators, we'd like to record an interview with you..."

After these words, there was such a quarrel that I'm surprised all the dorm girls didn't rush over at the shouting. We just didn't need an interview with the local weirdos to complete our happiness. I confess, at that moment, I was very angry because they woke me up so senselessly and invited themselves over when I was without any make-up and in my pajamas.

Finally, the guys left. I thought it would be fun if they were stopped by security on their way out, but that's their problem, not ours to solve.

"Never mind, they just want to be famous - it will lead to many girlfriends," Caroline tried to reassure me.

We even got a chance to sleep for another half an hour - a busy day awaited us, so we needed to gather strength instead of wasting it on idiots.

***
Caroline and I returned to the dorm room quite late - perhaps because we had various activities throughout the day. Or maybe it was because we roamed all around Hazelford in search of adventures - after all, summer passes quickly, and you need to make the most of every day. Youth is foolish, but that's what youth is for.

"We should check our fitness tracker to see how many kilometers we walked today," Caroline said as soon as we crossed the threshold.

While my friend marveled at our "achievement," I carefully surveyed our room, as if noticing some strange signs. It felt like there was a missing puzzle piece to complete the whole picture.

"Liandra, did you listen to anything I said?" Caroline protested.

Of course, I didn't listen to her at all - not a sentence, not a word. I admit it without the slightest pang of guilt. I remained silent for a moment after her question, assessing the situation, and then emotions overwhelmed me, and I exclaimed with an uncontrollable voice:

"Stormy!!!"