A Drop Of Rain

Chapter Four

3rd Person POV

Ava awoke with a start. She looked over to see if Gabbie was awake yet, and frowned slightly when she saw her new friend still asleep. She heard the speakers in the hallway ding loudly before a female voice read a message to the school.

"All students and staff meet in the gym for an anouncment please. Again, all students and staff meet in the gym please." Ava heard the ding again, signaling the end of the eerie message. She quickly got dressed and sighed when she saw Gabbie still sleeping. Walking over to her roommates bed, she shook her friend's shoulder gently.

"Gabbie, wake up." When her friend didn't respond, she sighed again and made her way out the door. The rest of the students had cleared the hallway, probably at the gym already. Ava looked around, trying to remember her way to the gym. It was all the way across the school, she could remember that much. She knew she would have to hurry in order to not miss the entire thing. She turned right around a corner and kept walking. She paused for a minute and heard footsteps behind her. It wasn't until that she turned around to see who was following her that everything went black.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Gabbie woke up surrounded by florecent light. She glanced over to see that her roommate had already headed out for the day. She shrugged the concern off, thinking that she would see Ava in their first class. She took her time getting dressed, a green sweater and long, black skirt. Even though it was almost a hunderd degrees aboveground, above the school, it was 45 in the isolated stone walls. She pulled on her favorite pair of boots and had one foot out the door when the loudspeaker came to life.

"Ava Scotts and Gabrielle Nicolette to the headmaster's office please. Ava Scotts and Gabrielle Nicolette to the headmaster's office please." Gabbie furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. Why was she being called down to see the headmaster? It wasn't until she glanced at the wall clock in the hallway that she realized how late it was. 9:10 the clock read. She was ten minutes tardy for her first class. She jogged quickly to the headmasters office. She closed her eyes and imagined she was back home in the bayou, running barefooted through a field. She opened them and wondered if she'd ever feel that free again. She reached the headmasters office and knocked twice. The door was opened and Gabbie saw the relieved faces of Court, Cami, and the headmaster Pratt.

"What's going on? Where's Ava?"

"That's what we'd like to know as well." Pratt said from behind Gabbie, who was hugging her sister. "Have you seen her today?" Gabbie released her death grip on Courtney and turned to face Pratt.

"No, not since this morning. I woke up late and didn't see her. I assumed she was eating breakfast already. Is she missing?" In her gut, Gabbie knew what the answer was.

"Yes, she never showed up for the anoucment this morning." Pratt sighed sadly.

"Anouncment?" Gabbie asked innocently; she hadn't heard anything about an anouncment.

"Yes, you must have slept through it." Cami teased. Just then I hear the distraught jiggling of a door handle, followed by a loud slam of the door itself.

"It's because of me isn't it?" Tara practically yelled.

"Tarissa calm down pl-" the headmaster began.

"The hunter. He's here because of me isn't he?" She sounded exasperated, but this time she didn't yell. She did, however, look about three seconds from crying.

Pratt looked down at her shoes for a moment before looking back at Tara.

"We aren't sure. Possibly..." She looked down again. Tara simply stared for a moment. Then she ran out of the room. Court and Cami followed her, and Gabbie decided to tag along as well.

"Tara wait!" Cami yelled.

Tara didn't listen, and continued down the corridor. The four girls finally reached a dorm room, presumably Tara, Court, and Cami's. Tara hastily began packing a bag, pulling whatever clothes she could find into it.

"I have to leave," she finally explained, "if I leave, so will the hunter." Everyone was silent for a moment. Court was the first to speak. She looked at Gabbie.

"Go back to Pratt." she said sternly. Something in her voice made Gabbie move almost immediately. She was about to turn the corner into the staff corridors when everything went black.