Dark Water

Chapter Two

The class room is silent except for the sobbing of Annabelle as the students struggle to react to the question they've been asked.

The angel, Sammael, sighs and looks to the demonic teachers to encourage them to try and answer him.

Zanzi shakes his head.

"Sam...we didn't see anything. Whatever it was that took Lily was deep under the water and moved way too fast. She was gone before any of us could reach her."

Annabelle's sobbing gets worse as she tries to stop the tears that roll down her face. Her classmates attempt to comfort her as best they can but each of them is suffering from grief and trauma.

Watching your friend be dragged to a watery grave will do that to any sane person who witnesses it.

The angel sighs again and gestures for the mentors to follow him out into the hallway.

They exit the classroom and he leans heavily against the wall, the many paper posters crinkling audibly under his back and wings.

"Lily is the third angel to be killed in that area in the last year, each time the attack has been the same. The victim vanishes beneath the water and the only remains found are feathers."

Claire and Gareth shudder visibly in distress, wings rustling and fluffing up.

"My superiors in Heaven have proposed an arrangement....we work together to discover the creature responsible for these attacks and we bring it to the council for examination..."

He trails off and Sagan steps forward, placing a hand on his shoulder.

"We're with you, I won't let these kids be threatened by some primitive beast."

There's a chorus of agreement and Sammael straightens himself out, fluffing his wings and smoothing his jacket.

"I'll call for you the moment I get the go ahead, The Oasis is off limits until this thing is sorted."

In a rustle of feathers, he vanishes.

The mentors share a look before dismissing their students and heading for the only place any of them can tolerate being at this time.

The library on the academy's ninth floor.An ancient room full of every book ever written from human fiction to the gospels of heaven.

Gareth doesn't waste a second before he's rushing off into the aquatic creatures section and retrieving every report file he can.

The mentors silently sit down to read through the vast quantities of books, making notes of any possible leads in notebooks that none of them ever leave behind.

"It's been a while since we did this..."

Zanzi mutters as he skins across a chapter on siren attacks, his eyes narrow and knuckles white around the pen he holds.

Gareth chuckles.
"It has been a long time since we were on an investigation as a team."

They work long into the night, thankful for the fact that their kind rarely feel the need to sleep. It's a blessing for when they are trying to research such uncommon occurrences as what they're calling "The Oasis serial attacks".

"Hey I think I've got something."

Claire calls out to her friends and they rush to her side to see a book labelled "Taniwah, water spirits and souls".

"Taniwah...They're typically man sized and extremely agile. They're almost undetectable..."

"But they leave behind bodies as a warning of territory boundaries."

Sammael's sudden appearance catches the group off guard and his dismissive tone halts Claire immediately.

"If it's not a Taniwah, Siren or Mercreature then what could it possibly be?"

Sammael simply shrugs at her and points towards several duffle bags that have landed on the floor next to him.

"That's what we're going to find out. Pack your things and meet me in the portal hall, we're going straight to The Oasis."

They pack silently, gathering weapons and whatever they think will help.

They say goodbye to their students - promising to be back for graduation - and head for the portal hall, walking through one and emerging on the deck of large boat.

"Welcome to our base of operations. Let's get started."