Queen Hera's Academy

Chapter 3

I walked quickly out of class before my teacher could change her mind. Luckily the water fountain wasn't to far. The water fountain area looked like someone had taken a knife, drawn a huge rectangle into the wall, then took out that chunk of wall and placed a water fountain where it used to be. I took a step into the rectangular arch of a wall and leaned over the water fountain.

Something was wrong.

I looked over my shoulder and saw that the hallway looked really sad and empty. It also looked really old. It looked like the smooth stone floor was rotting, and the rocky stone walls looked mouldy. So yes, Queen Hera's was a couple hundred, maybe a thousand years old, but it was not that old.

I looked down at my reflection in the water fountain, and the strangest thing happened. The metal at the bottom of the water fountain started rusting and spread up and up until soon, what once was a water fountain, was now an old metal block of ugly brown rust sitting in a ghost town hall.

I looked at the single row of cream marble tiles the school had placed inside the water fountain "room" in vain attempt of making it look pretty. I could see my reflection in all of them, from almost every angle of my face. I focused on the one in front of me and saw a small red dot next to me. I tilted my head slightly to see if the red dot was in any of the other tiles, but weirdly it wasn't. I fingered the marble, figuring it was just a mark, but it was definitely a reflection.

I was afraid to turn around. As the balls of my feet swizzled round, you could hear the squeak of my shoes

Nothing was there.

I heard a kind of hissing noise behind me, and I turned back to face the water fountain. I looked up. The ceiling of the "water fountain room", suddenly looked really far away. I looked at the hallway's ceiling. It was the same as always. Slowly, I turned my head up and saw that the ceiling still had all of the usual pipes and tunnels coming out of one wall and into the other. The school had forgotten to change that, but it looked so far up.

I was nervous.

I thought about turning back around and running to class, but I heard that hissing noise from the pipes again, and I instinctively looked up again.

I heard a loud creaking noise from one of the pipes, and I covered my face expecting water to burst out, but it was only a small crack. Instead, something dribbled out and slid along the wall. The force of the liquid cracked the pipe slightly more, and it oozed out onto the wall, traveling down at a much faster pace. It was near me now, and a lot more visible. I swiped my finger across the liquid and peered at it on my finger. It was thick and dark like-

"Blood!" I gasped wiping my hand on the wall in disgust.

I shut my eyes and ran as fast as I could. I opened them to see if I was near my class, but I was still stuck in the exact same place. I tried moving but I couldn't. What was wrong with me? Was I in shock? Was I paralysed? I came to the slow realisation that something - someone was holding onto my shoulders. A burning iron grip pulling me towards the bloody wall, and I heard what the hissing noise was saying.

"Spill the blood. Spill the blood," it chanted. I struggled out of its grip, and I turned around.

I screamed in horror.

That it was... nothing. Nothing was there. The hot grip was moving up to my neck, so that if I tried to push forward, it would strangle me. I tried to scream again, to call out to anyone, but it just came out in small, fast choking breathes barely audible. I managed to lift my hand and feel behind me to see if it was only invisible. Still nothing. I stared at my reflection in the marble tiles wondering if this was the end when I saw that red dot again. Two red dots. I pushed forward as much as I dared, to realise those two red dots weren't dots. They were eyes.

It had pulled me to the wall and was banging my head on the now broken marble, trying to crack it open like an eggshell.

"Spill the blood. Spill her blood!" it hissed. It's hands were on my head crashing it against the wall.

"Thalia! Thalia!" It screamed.

I woke up with a start, hair plastered to my head with sweat, my breaths coming out in strangled gasps. Tears came to my eyes and rolled down my face, still thinking it was real.

"Thalia! Thalia!" I realised it had been Aubrey, shaking my head and calling my name, trying to wake me up.

I burst out into full-on sobbing and Aubrey put her arms around my shoulders and gave me a gentle squeeze. I clung to her and breathed in the smell of her sweet vanilla and coconut soap. I wished I was three so I could sit on her lap properly and be comforted, but unfortunately, I was still thirteen. I hated that unlucky number.

I slowly sat up and wiped my eyes and nose with my arm.

"There now, it was just a really awful nightmare," she reassured me.

I got up and yanked my uniform out of the cupboard. I tied up the tie around my neck and tied my shoes.

"Let's go," I said to Aubrey. We tread down the quiet corridor as silently as we could, not saying anything. It wasn't awkward or anything, we were both just thinking. I decided that for now I didn't want to say anything about my nightmare; I had a bad feeling about it. Aubrey hesitated at a classroom door and looked at me like she wanted to say something, and I thought it might be about my nightmare, but instead she just said:

"I'll meet up with you for lunch after class," she said. She walked into the classroom and left me standing outside staring at the door. I walked to my class as quickly as I could, which was on the other side of the school from my dorm. I had just felt very strange staring at a door, even though none of the students inside could actually see me.