The Merkwood Chronicles

Chapter 9

Headmistress Chase loved this time of year. The school had been back in session for a few weeks now, and so far everything was running as smoothly as it always had done thank goodness. She was up until the late hours of the night, as she usually was at this time in the school year, still trying to organise everything and keep it that way. The headmistress walked leisurely around her office, a pile of books in her left arm and a smallish teacup lodged in between the fingers in her right hand, her hare-shaped ring knocking against the porcelain every so often, it's quiet tapping being the only comforting noise filling the emptiness of her office apart from the jubilant tune whistling its way from the Headmistress's lips.

She let the book slide from her upper arm down to her fingertips, catching them effortlessly as she sipped her tea and reached to place the books back in their rightful place on her large set of shelving.

The unused teacups and pots on her shelves began to clatter against each other, very quietly at first, growing louder by every passing second. A single book fell from the edge of her desk, followed by a few others. A candle she had lit blew out with no breeze to have disturbed it, which was the thing that drew the headmistresses eyes from her activities. That was when an incredibly brutal and loud whooshing and crashing sound came from the other side of her office. Shocked and surprised, the loud smash of the dropped teacup echoed aimlessly around the open space, the remaining books that she had been cradling in her arms also dropping onto the wooden floor. But Professor Chase didn't care that her favourite teacup was smashed into smithereens by her feet, or that her sweetened tea was seeping into the wooden floor below her, she just stared, eyes widened, at the cause of the horrifyingly sudden noise.

A huge black smokey void faced her from the other side of her office.

She walked towards it, fists slightly clenched, her mind flashing back to the only time that this had ever happened before. The headmistress stood, alone, and thought silently to herself, her feet moving her body further forward. This could not possibly be good.

As the headmistress got closer and closer, a face slowly became visible. It took her a second to recognise the face, the years had passed over her well, but the same could not be said for her eyes, but once she recognised the features as one, her eyes grew wider.

"Nic- Nox," she gasped, it was almost as silent as a whisper, but the face heard it clear as day.

"Yes, Headmistress, it is I," He grinned evilly, his eyes could've glowed blood red at that moment and it wouldn't have surprised the headmistress. "I do suppose you are still the headmistress?"

"Yes," Headmistress Chase said bluntly, she had hoped that this wouldn't happen again, but clearly she'd hoped too much.

"What do you want Nox? You never used to come to me unless you needed something," Headmistress Chase began sternly. This seemed to amuse the young man immensely, as he chuckled lightly to himself before speaking.

"Ah, yes, you may be older but your memory still seems to be intact," He laughed evilly, rolling his dark eyes. Professor Chase's face turned as stern as her voice. Nox took one look at the headmistress's face and stopped his laughing. "I order you, give up - the fight, the school, everything - and hand it over to me."

The headmistress began to study the young man's face, her eyes softening. Those eyes had once been the same stormy grey as hers, those hands she'd held so tight she had never willingly wanted to let go. She'd known those features long ago, before the darkness had consumed its host. The headmistress wasn't certain if there was a single scrap left of the boy she had known anymore, only the darkness. But there was one thing that she was certain of, she wasn't giving up the school to the darkness, even if it cost her her life.

"Never! Why would I give up everything to you?!" Headmistress Chase scoffed, trying to look past the face, she wouldn't give it all up to a-a monster who did not care for anyone or anything other than itself. The words flew out of her mouth like poison seeped out of a serpent's mouth, as sharp as a dagger held at Nox's throat, and that was how she had intended them to hit him, at full force. Nox's face seemed to alter slightly, taken aback by the fact he had just been refused.

"Okay then," He started, his voice almost reflecting the sharp words that had just been sent his way, "if that is how you want to play, that's how we will play," Nox's face turned incredibly smug, so smug that it was actually terrifying, his eyes slowly turning a golden yellow colour as his mouth turned up to a sharp smirk.

"You can try to take it by force, but she'll stop you!" The headmistress blurted out, covering her mouth suddenly, realising what she had just said.

"What do mean she-" Nox stopped himself mid-sentence, as he remembered exactly what the headmistress meant, "ah yes, the girl," the evil smirk appeared back upon his face, "so she's finally attending this school I see,"

Headmistress Chase immediately regretted saying anything at all, she had been so careful as to not reveal the location of Mabel in any shape or form. But Nox did always seem to have a way of finding things out, squeezing them from his victims even when they didn't realise. Now all she knew that Mabel was in more danger than she had probably ever been in her life so far.

Nox seemed to have been forming a plan in his head as he mentioned nothing else of 'the girl' that the headmistress had talked of, but Headmistress Chase knew that he hadn't forgotten about it. He wouldn't ever forget about it until the end came, and the darkness prevailed.

"Take advantage of your little academy, Headmistress," Nox growled, an evil smile spreading its way across his face as an infection spreads across an open wound, "that is, whilst you still have it!" He threatened, his evil laugh echoed across the walls as the void disappeared, leaving only the headmistress and her shattered teacup alone in the office.