Jim Armstrong and the Goblet's Curse

Chapter 10: Burns Don't Fade Easily

Turns out, we did have classes in the afternoon. An announcement went on a little while after we got back to Sandra and Cecily's dorm.

"All students are to proceed to their next class at regular timing. All students are to proceed to their next class at regular timing..."

"They can't be serious?" Cecily exclaimed. "The seriously can't expect us to just go to classes like usual when, for all we know, Agnes might be dying." She choked on the last word. "I mean, she definitely looks like it."

"Well what can we do about it?" Noah said. "We can't just skip out on classes. I guess... I guess we have to go."

So at quarter to 1, we left Sandra and Cecily's dorm and made our way to our separate classes, Enzo and Sandra going to the Swordfighting Arena and Magic Control classroom, and Noah, Cecily and I going to the Monster Training classroom, where we had a double period.

The Monster Training classroom was very close to the Dinery, and as we passed, I took a look inside. The girl, Agnes as Cecily had said, was no longer lying there, and all the dishes, goblets and uneaten food were still on the tables. Many teachers were in there, talking to each other in small groups, no doubt assessing the situation. Then we walked past, and I saw no more.

When we entered the room, the other students were milling about, talking in hushed tones. The teacher, Michael, (Noah told me his name before- hand) entered the room, but nobody noticed until he actually banged on his desk to get our attention. Once, silence had fallen, Michael spoke.

"Please open your books to page 18 and read Chapter 2," he said. Nobody said a word, only following his instructions. The first part of class was silent, only the sounds of pages turning and the scratches of Michael's pen on paper as he marked assignments were heard. Though, slowly as the class progressed, more and more whispered conversations broke out across the room, and sometimes the conversations that were taking place weren't very quiet.

"What if Agnes never wakes up?" a girl a few seats behind me asked in a loud whisper.

"You can't think like that Chloe," another girl answered. "She'll be fine after Nurse Mulling attends to her."

The conversations continued, and Michael didn't try too hard to stop them, even though I was pretty sure he could hear what was going on. I didn't even think he was marking papers anymore. Noah took advantage of the unproductive class to turn around and talk to Cecily and me.

"What do you think happened back there?" he asked. "I mean, why did she start screaming?"

"How are we supposed to know?" Cecily asked angrily. "Right now, only she knows what happened, and if you haven't noticed, she'd passed out!"

"I know, but do you have any theories?"

"No, but why was she looking at her hand?"

"I don't know, I didn't see her after she passed out."

"Well, who did?"

"I did," I said. Noah and Cecily whipped around to look at me, surprise etched into their faces.

"What?" Cecily asked. "And you didn't tell us? Why?"

"I didn't tell you because it was... horrible," I said.

"What did she look like?" Noah asked, encouraging me to continue. I didn't really feel like telling them what I'd seen, but both of them were looking at me with interest. I described the girl's deathly pale complexion and the burn-like marks on her arm. The whole time both Noah and Cecily's faces were ones of disgust and horror. After I finished, Cecily asked,

"But what could've possibly caused her arm to get burnt like that? And her skin..."

"That's..." Noah didn't finish. I guess he didn't have the words to. I didn't blame him. After I'd seen Agnes's body, I had wanted to puke, and only just resisted the urge to.

Class ended shortly afterwards, and everyone proceeded to their next classes. Our next, and last class for the day, was Magic Control. The classroom was also close to the Dinery, but this time I didn't look inside. I didn't want to. We walked by some colourful curtains, a couple water fountains, and then we got to the Magic Control classroom.

Magic Control was very much like Monster Training did: the first half was completely silent, then the class slowly became unproductive. In fact, it wasn't even the first half of the class that was productive, we were only about ten minutes into the class when conversations broke out. Once again, the teacher, Nicole, did absolutely nothing to try and stop it. I felt like the teachers just knew that even if they tried, they wouldn't be able to make the students do work because the topic of the conversations were just too intriguing.

This time though, the conversations weren't hushed. People weren't trying to be quiet, they were freely talking. A group of students in front of Noah, Cecily and I were arguing with each other very heatedly.

"But what could've happened?"

"Honestly, who knows?"

"We should be able to know, I don't get why the teachers aren't saying anything to us."

"Guys I'll be back, I want some water. I'm going to the Dinery."

"You're seriously going back in there? After what happened?

"Well, I don't want to die of thirst." One of the boy's got up from the group and headed towards the door, telling Nicole where he was going.

I tried to concentrate on my work, but it was too hard. The room was just too noisy. I found myself thinking back to the Dinery and Agnes. I knew that the image of her body wouldn't go away from my mind for a very long time.

I was jerked out of my stupor when a blood curdling scream ripped through the air. All the students looked around at the door, then made a mad dash for the door all at once, Nicole leading the way. We all burst into the hallway at once, along with other students from other classes. Everyone was pushing against each other, trying to get a clearer look at what was happening. Suddenly we heard a voice ring out loudly over the commotion.

"Everyone go back to you dorms! NOW! GO!" Nobody listened until the person yelled again. "GET BACK TO YOUR DORMS AND STAY THERE UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE! GO!" people started clearing out, talking and yelling to each other from across the room. When people, moved out of the way, I was able to see what was going on.

The boy that told his friends that he was getting water was lying on the ground, passed out cold. A goblet from the Dinery was rolling along the ground and spilled water was making the floor slippery and wet. But the thing that caught my attention the most was the boy's arm. It was raw red, terrible burns crawling all up his right arm.

Sorry my last couple of updates have been so short! I promise the next one will be longer. Don't for vote!