One Direction is After Us

Chapter 35

*Cassandra's POV*

We pulled up to the castle close enough to hear the wind blowing over the tops of the roofs, but far enough away that we wouldn't be seen right away. 

"So, what's the plan?" I rasped, looking from person to person. 

"Plan?" Louis asked, as if he had never heard the word before. "We're just gonna wing it. When people plan in books, it always gets screwed up, so this way nothing can go wrong!"

I saw his logic. I nodded approvingly. 

I rephrased my question. "So, then, what will we do first?" 

He didn't know the answer to this right away. 

"I think... Eleanor should go out first. Since the horses are the first obstacle," Harry suggested. "Maybe she can persuade them to let us through," 

Eleanor rolled her eyes. "I can read their body language; that doesn't make me a horse-whisperer,"

"I agree all the same, though," Kaya piped up, "It is the first thing we'll have to get past, and she's got the best chance at predicting when it's safe to go,"

"I think we should all go at once," Eleanor argued, "since, once I'm in the castle, you guys will know when you can come, too,"

"True," I agreed, "But if you get into the castle without even having to tame the horses or whatever first, then we'll know it's okay,"

Eleanor didn't have a response to that, so after a moment's hesitation she slid out of the car. 

"I hope I don't regret this," she muttered under her breath, but no one else seemed to hear her other than me. 

The eight of us watched intently out the window as she snuck toward the castle. 

At first, the horses seemed oblivious to her presence, just sniffing the air at their posts and checking out the view. 

But as she got close enough to see their expressions, she froze. 

Not a good sign. 

The horses were like statues, boring their eyes into her soul. 

Suddenly, some sort of alarm started blaring and echoing through the air. Eleanor stayed frozen, not sure what to do. 

I didn't think. I jumped out of the car and just started talking. 

"You are under arrest! You are not allowed in Calando headquarters unauthorized. We'll let the Professor deal with you,"

I started marching her forward, toward the castle. When I had first started talking, Eleanor jumped, terrified that maybe I was really an officer. But she started to catch on and played up her fear so it would look convincing for the cameras - or whatever it was that saw her and triggered the alarm. 

Miraculously, I don’t know how, the alarms stopped after I "arrested" Eleanor. The horses tolerated us and the gates opened with a loud creak. 

Somehow, in some miraculous way, we were in. 

*~*~*

*Eleanor's POV*

We walked through the doors, our arms still linked, trying hard not to break character. However, it was hard not to marvel at the inside of the castle. 

The ceiling was so high I wondered if the entire castle was just this one story. The carpet was multicolored, an artistic swirl of mahogany, gold and tan. To our left was a desk with a man standing behind it in a suit with his sandy hair slicked back. The few other well-dressed people hurrying around didn't seem to notice us. I tried to nudge Cassandra to get her to realize that no one would notice if we stopped acting, and she seemed to get the message. We dropped our arms and continued inside. 

I sat on one of the velvet cushions on the benches, and Cassandra sat right next to me. 

"I wish we had Margaret's sketches," Cassandra whispered to me, "I remember her saying she drew everyone we needed to be careful of,"

I stared straight ahead as to not draw attention to the fact that we were whispering, but still responded, "Me too. I wonder how they'll get in now that our little stunt is taken. They don't have many options,"

I saw her nod, ever so slightly, out of the corner of my eye. 

We hoped for the best.