Under the Spell

Chapter Four- A Trio of Sleepers

Thirty minutes remained in the class and everyone was coming to a conclusion with their assignment. Caroline was settled at the back of the classroom working with her vials and ingredients. The others were writing down their spells on their papers or physically practicing it.

She threw in the last ingredient, Valerian Root, into her vial. The root was mushed down as much as it would allow it to be. The concoction was a thick, dirt brown colored mush. If the potion was smashed to the ground, everyone who inhaled it would fall asleep in a matter of seconds. However, the mixture needed at least 8-9 hours to fully develop its noxious smell.

Which was perfect for Caroline because the assignment was due next class. She grabbed the secured vial and slid it into her satchel. Her teacher didn't notice that she was at the potion-making station because he was so interested in being asleep. How advantageous, she thought.

Once the bell rang for the next class, Caroline hurried out the Magic Department and onto her Language Arts class. It was the final class, which gave Caroline a sense of relief.

Scurrying through the masses of students was a pain, especially when some of the students played magic pranks like releasing stink bombs or change the temperature in the building to bone-chilling. All the students took advantage of the magic friendly building because the rest of the school's area had a magic restriction barrier. It didn't matter to Caroline though.

After suffering through hellish hallway, she finally reached outside to the warm autumn weather. She clenched on her satchel's strap that she hung over her shoulder. It'd be pretty bad if the vial broke, she thought in worry.

She was near the main building by following the brick pathway but she briefly made eye contact with the infamous blue-eyed boy. He always went down the same brick pathway and it was in the past few days where Caroline started to notice how his looks were different from others. It bothered he, of course. It felt forced the way he looked at her.

She averted her eyes to the ground and kept walking and a faster pace. An awkward, tense atmosphere was suffocating her enough. Then, she felt a crash against her body, and was immediately pushed to the rigid, hard ground. A student who was running between them could only muster a quick sorry before dashing off into the distance.

Hitting rock bottom left an awful ache in Caroline's bottom. She looked to her side when she saw that her vial had broke and the contents were pouring out. She immediately looked up to Julien, who was a few feet behind was slowly walking up the path.

"Don't come any closer!" Caroline shouted with worry and she eyed at Julien who only returned a bewildered expression and a rough, "What?"

He didn't listen to her and kept on walking down and scoffed at Caroline but in a matter of seconds his eyes became droopy and staggered in his walking. Caroline had already put her hand over her nose, and shook her head as she saw Julien slowly meet the ground.

"What the...hell?" Julien slurred and finally collapsed. Students who were near didn't notice because of the secluded area they were in. Caroline couldn't remove her hand but she also couldn't just leave Julien there to sleep on practically rock ground.

She immediately pushed herself up, with her left hand still over her nose. She walked towards Julien, a little mesmerized by his euphoric beauty but she kneeled down and shook his shoulder. No response.

"Erm, Julien?" Her wide emerald eyes peered at his sleeping face. It felt strange for her to call him by his first name when they hardly knew each other. An urge inside her wanted to shout for help but that would quickly put her in the chairman's office. Another student on the pathway gasped in shock when she saw the male student sprawled across the ground and Caroline kneeling down to help him. As the student got closer they also began to stagger and question with a "What?"

Plop.

Another student had passed out before Caroline could even manage to give a warning. The tardy bell had rung and the usual patrol guard had gone down the road and spotted the students.

"Please don't get closer! You'll end up like them!" Caroline shouted with might and the officer responded with suspicion, "What did you do?!"
"Nothing...! Nothing criminal! No magic! They're asleep!" Caroline began blabbering away for she felt like she truly did commit a crime.

"I'm going to get closer OKAY?" The patrol guard stretched his hand in front of him and tip-toed almost towards Caroline.

"But you gotta cover your no-" and plop again. Caroline had witnessed the patrol guard's eyes roll to the back of his head and slowly descend.

"Oh Light, now it looks like I have a pile of corpses..." Caroline nibbled away her bottom lip and her large, emerald cat eyes observed the disaster. She couldn't afford another victim because of her poor warnings and weak shouts. She stood up and ran, as if she left the crime scene she made. Which was half true.

She could picture it all, sitting in intimidating silence while her subconscious yelled at her while the chairman discussed with her mother about Caroline's offenses.

An offense.

Not to mention Julien's prestige family and possibly the other student, who she didn't even know what their name was, would be wanted some sort of payment. Payment for what? Being offended. Over a mistake.

Overthinking didn't help, so Caroline's almighty subconscious decided to say, Shut UP and run!
So she did, up the front stairs, down the long hallways, and to the front office.

A long necked woman with a tight blonde bun smiled at Caroline with pursed crimson lips, "How can I help you?"

"I have t-three knocked out people outside a-and I need h-help...I dropped a s-sleeping potion!" Another thought ran through the back of her mind that the 8-9 hours for a potion to fully develop was entirely false. Never would she trust an outdated potion making book, ever.

The blonde woman's crystal eyes widened and her bony pale hand reached over to the her phone left of her. She tapped in a short number and brought the phone to her ear, "We need assistance outside for sleeping bodies?"

Caroline sighed but her hands trembled by her sides. She was a nervous wreck because she knew what she overthought would soon come true.