Jim Armstrong and the Goblet's Curse

Chapter 11: Swinging Over A Void Is Enrollment

"What the actual hell is going on?" Noah asked, pacing around the room. We were back in the dorm, alone this time. The girls and Enzo had gone back to their own rooms as instructed and we had been in our rooms for the past two hours. With no way to communicate with each other, I lay staring up at the ceiling and Noah had taken to pacing around the room, asking the same question over and over again.

"But seriously, what is happening?" Noah kept pacing and I kept staring up at the ceiling, trying to answer that question in my head. What was going on here? Two people who randomly started screaming, somehow attained what looked like third-degree burns on their right arms, and then completely knocked out cold.

"No really, what is-

"Will you shut up, you're driving me insane!" I shouted, sitting up so quickly that I narrowly missed banging my head on the bottom of the top bunk. "Repeating the question won't make an answer magically appear."

"I know, I've noticed," Noah replied. Noah, finally tired of pacing, dropped down on to the floor, putting his head in his hands. "Just... I don't know. I don't know what to say anymore." Noah lay back on the floor, doing what I was doing before, just absentmindedly staring at the ceiling while pondering the possible causes of this weird sickness that had overcome both Agnes and the boy.

"Why them though?" I asked suddenly. "What did Agnes and that boy-

"Carl," Noah supplied.

"Why did Agnes and Carl get sick specifically? Why not anyone else, like... like us?"

"Just add that to the list of questions," Noah said, still staring at the ceiling.

We spent more time like that, lying in various positions, staring into space while thinking of reasons why these things were happening. Lots of time passed, but the only way I knew that time was passing was that slowly, my stomach started to tell me that food was sounding pretty good at the moment. Noah voiced my thoughts when he asked,

"Do you think they'll let us eat dinner at the Dinery?" Right on cue, an announcement came on. I swear, these people were psychic. "All students are to come down to the Dinery for dinner, then return immediately afterwards to their dorms."

"I guess that's a yes," I answered. We hauled ourselves off the ground and bed and came out of our dorm. Other students were coming out too, taking advantage of not being in confinement to talk to friends staying in other rooms. It didn't take a detective to figure out what the topic of all the conversations were.

We met with Enzo, and Noah immediately launched into theories with him. I stayed quiet, just listening to realistic and wild theories alike. We descended the North Staircase to the Main Wing, where we made our way to Cecily and Sandra. They also started theorizing with Enzo and Noah, though their theories were a little more realistic. Even though Sandra and Cecily's ideas were more believable, I didn't think they were right. I just had this feeling that they were wrong. Having said that, I didn't have any other ideas myself, so who was I to talk?

We headed into the Dinery, and almost instantly, they noise died down. It was quiet in the Dinery, and we all ate like that: in relative silence. There was a soft buzz of conversation throughout the room, but nothing more than a murmur. Enzo, Sandra, Noah, Cecily and I ate, still talking about different ideas of what could've happened to Agnes and Carl. At one point, a girl came around to our table and smiled at Cecily. The girl looked to be around 17 like Sandra, and she was tall like Enzo. Her eyes were the same colour as Cecily, an electric blue, and her hair was like Cecily's too. Not the silver colour, but the crazy layers and the unkemptness was the same. These similarities were what immediately marked them as related.