Of Life and Death: [A Dark Academia Paranormal Romance]

Chapter 15

How had he been able to speak into my mind?

I wind up in the common room again. Guess my point A to point B are the dinning hall and Veloria's lounge, since it's the only two places I know how to get to in the hulking architecture that is Elmore. The common room is mostly empty.

The matron, a towering woman with a wart on her chin hollers from the bar, "It's class hours! Out."

Muttering an apology, I see myself out.

The hallways stretch out before me. A spike of anxiety suddenly coils in my stomach. How do I get to class? I can't be late on my first day of school.

The noose around my neck tightens when I spot something weaving its way through the halls. A portion of its head is hacked off, rags hang off a bony chest, and the grey, washed off skin colour announces him as another one of my friends.

I need to calm the f*ck down, before more burst out of the woodwork.

"Hey."

I turn around, seeing a short boy with a head of curly brown hair. His large eyes make him appear almost cherubic. He says, "Are you okay? You look like you just swallowed something." He follows my horrified line of vision, looking in the direction of the haggard man slinking through the throng of oblivious students, and, even knowing he won't see anything, I stand in his line of vision, effectively blocking him.

His brown eyes climb up my figure, head tilted back to look at my face suspiciously. "You sure you're okay?"

"Yeah--of course." I extend a hand. "Emma. Emma Richards."

He takes my hand in his and is just about to speak when I hear my name being yelled in the distance. I turn, seeing Sofia marching toward me.

Once her eyes fall on the boy beside me, they harden. "Byron," she hisses when she's at my side.

I freeze. That's him?

She takes in our clasped hands. "Get your filthy hands off her."

Before my eyes, the boy's expression changes. He'd looked the picture of innocence a few seconds ago, now his face shadows, sending ice slinking through my veins. "Skin shifter," he adresses her darkly. Then his gaze shifts to mine. "Never trust a polymorph. They've got many faces."

With a final look at her, he leaves. I stare at his distancing figure, feeling dread pool in my gut.

"Come on." Soph brings my attention back to her. "Don't listen to anything he says."

We make our way into a connecting gallery, striding through soaring archways. "What happened in there?" she asks. "You had gone white. Was it the the whole Tragic Three story? I'm sorry if that was a sensitive to--"

"Hey, no it's fine. Please. I'd like to hear the rest."

"You sure?"

"Yeah."

Her eyes do a brief sweep around. "So, Daisy Ammernaut. Ended up in the same way as Marion. Dead in Saints' Interlude. She was healthy and happy, and this was a problem for the school. Unlike Marion, they didn't have any health crisis to attribute her death to."

My stomach twists in revulsion. 

She continues, "So they made Saints' Interlude out of bounds to everyone, stating coincidences can only happen so much until it becomes planned. You see, they entertained so many students' wild theories, going as far as to let the press publish them on the local papers.