Unseen (Book 1)

18: Strange Truths

4:15am Thursday Morning
I just barely escaped being eaten by literal werewolves.
X called them by another name but it's clear what they were.
X starts to tell me the story of Barnum.
Not only are most of the students here delinquents kicked out of other schools who came to Barnum Prep for another chance, Barnum also happens to be a high school for something called the Order of the Hunt.
Some are aware of who and what they are.
Others have no clue.
Regardless the school makes sure that we're ready for the time where we join the order.
The three beast in the hall were Harry, Arlon, and Jacob.
Hearing this I can't wrap my head around it.
"So they transform into werewolves?" I ask.
X doesn't answer. Instead he walks over and grabs a book from my desk and hands it to me.
It's the book that Ms.Klein passed out on the first day.
"Read it." X says.
"I already did." I respond.
The book is centuries old.
It starts out with a man and his family who live in a village; a king, his queen and their three sons.
Their village consisted of craftsmen, herbalists, and saints. It was calm secluded place, surrounded by woods and nature.
Everyone lived in peace until one night when a beast invaded. The book only describes the beast as "otherworldly" and "monstrous".
At first the beast started to kill and eat livestock. The beast ends up getting into the castle and taking the middle born son.
Enraged, the king gathers all able bodied men and go after the monster. That includes the first born son, the prince and next in line for the throne.
None of them come back.
Having lost her husband and two oldest sons, the queen turned to religion.
She gathered a group of villager and prayed to the gods to give them strength to kill the beast that took their king and princes.
The gods answered her prayers.
The queen was herself was the one who killed the beast supposedly with her bare hands.
In the end of the book the queen took her own life and the youngest prince was the last remaining member of the family.
"What does that have to do with what just happened?" I ask. "Three werewolves just attacked me and you're telling me they're students."
"The book is important." X says.
"Despite sounding like fiction and metaphors most of what's in that book is true. The youngest son's name was Alistair Barnum the first."he adds.
I sit on the bed and listen. Waiting. I can tell he's about to say something important.
"One day you're going to have to fight monsters and beasts just like the one in that book. You're not going to make it to the order if you get yourself killed first." X says.
"What do you mean?" I ask.
The way he said it was as if I had some kind of greater destiny.
He storms off into the bathroom as if he'd already said too much.
I couldn't get the idea of what X said out of my head.
A few minutes pass and X comes back out of the bathroom.
He doesn't say a word as if he's mad at me.
"So what now?" I ask.
"If that really was Harry and his friends then do we tell someone? Does Headmaster Ross know?" I ask then I remember headmaster Ross is gone.
"Normally the staff and security is responsible for keeping them in line. Something strange is happening."X says.
This is exactly what I've been saying for days. Ever since Monday.
I can't shake the feeling that answers are in whatever happened Sunday.
I watch as X gathers a bag. He goes into his closet and walks out with a short sword.
"Where did you get that?" I say.
"Smithing class." he says casually as if it was normal.
Two white cards slide from under the door.
They're our schedules for today.
X walks over and picks them looks at them both then walks over to hand me mind.
"Go to class. I'll see you afterwards."he says.
My schedule for the day is 3 classes. Language, Algebra, and Medicine.
I can afford to skip them. 
I have to find a way back into the tunnels without being caught.
I shower and get dressed the pack a bag of my knife and map.
Before going back I plan on stopping by Blair's room.
I get to the door and knock. A few seconds pass before the knob turns.
Blair is standing there, I can't help but smile when I see her.
She invites me inside.
I don't tell her about what happened. The three beasts in the hall.
That would make me sound insane.
I do tell her about something else I noticed on the way here.
"The number of people missing has gone up"I say. "Ms.Kelly."
At first she looks puzzled then worried.
Since I've gotten to Barnum, the second I touched the school grounds that wrinkle faced woman has been hovering over me.
Every time I'm in the hall during school hours she's lurking holding that silver pocket watch and telling me I'm late.
Yesterday and today I haven't seen a sign of her.
That can mean only one thing.
She's missing.
Bam, Dahlia, Professor Blithe, Headmaster Ross, Ms.Delgado, and now Ms.Kelly and probably a bunch more.
I tell Blair about my plan to find the tunnels again.
"I have an idea."she says.
She starts to tell me about this morning after I left. She was going to go back to sleep but she had to use the bathroom. On her way back she saw someone in the hall.
When she says this I start to get anxious. If she had a similar encounter as I did then I'm impressed she got away.
She continues the story and it turns out her story isn't like mine. Instead of our monstruos shapeshifting classmates, she saw someone going into a secret passageway.
The person was Dennis Labeaux and the passageway was down the hall.
"Show me." I say without hesitation.
This is good news.
Not only is it possible we might have found another way inside, if Dennis knows about the passageways he might be able to help us not get lost inside.