Welcome to the City of Lancaster

Chapter Eighteen

Enjoy :)

Sam's POV

No matter how long or fast they ran, the gargoyles were not giving up.
When they turned a corner, it revealed to be a dead end. They turn to go back but the gargoyles were there staring wide-eyed at them with drool dripping from the corner of their mouths, Sam looked around for something, anything but came up with nothing.
"What do we do?" Abby cries.
And just like that Sam remembered one crucial thing, something that he should've remembered because it's not like it hasn't been there his entire life.
"Grab my hand Calum," Sam reaches out for Calum who looked at him confused. "Just do it!"
Calum makes a face and takes Sam's hand.
"Now absorb my power," Sam instructed and he closes his eyes and focused on breathing. "Breath," he whispers trying to calm himself. "Just breath."
He felt the energy of his force field grow and slowly push from his body, he opens his eyes maintaining his concentration on making the force field engulf them within his force field and with Calum's help who was struggling a little as well to help maintain the force field.
"Whoa, you're doing it Sam," Abby whispers.
"I don't know how long I can hold it," Sam admits.
"For as long we need too," Calum growls. "We will hold it."
The gargoyles watched them tilting their heads confused at the bright orange force field that surrounded them, one of them creeps over to touch it, when it saw that it could not get through it screeched.
"I have an idea," Calum says. "Sam, are we able to hold the force field and walk at the same time?"
"I'm not sure but we can try," Sam looks at Calum. "Ready?"
Calum nods.
They started walking towards the gargoyles, some of them backed up now afraid of them while the others stood their ground snarling at them. When the force field touched those that stood their ground, it pushed them to the point where they slid across the ground. They screeched again now moving.
Sam felt his head pounding in pain, this was the longest he has ever held his force field. He felt something dripping from his nose.
"Calum..." Sam grunts.
"I know, I know," Calum responds. "Just a little longer."
"You can do it," Abby encourages them.
Sam felt his muscles clenching and his head was about to explode, he wasn't able to hold it for much longer, his power was draining and he wasn't even sure he could even outrun the gargoyles.
"I can't," Sam whimpers.
"Yes you can," Calum grunts.
"No," Sam whimpers.
He felt his power draining, he failed.
"I CAN'T HOLD IT ANY LONGER!" Sam screams and he felt the force field snap back into him. He looks up in time as the gargoyles came at them and suddenly everything felt like it was going in slow-motion, a white light flashed brightly and Sam felt a gush of wind throwing him forward, he falls to the ground and turns his head to see what it was.
A silhouette of a person comes running.
"Get up," the man shouts. "On your feet."
The man hauls Sam to his feet and pushes him, Sam tries to look back for his friends but the man continued to push him. Sam forced himself to keep moving but he was so weak, he stumbled and for the second time, he fell on the ground and he welcomed the dark abyss.




Abby's POV

"How long until he wakes up?"
Sam has been out cold for the past three hours.
They returned to the academy and were all currently in the infirmary, Sam collapsed while they were on the run and more men came to their aid. The man who saved us, carried Sam all the way back to the entrance.
So now Sam laid on the bed opposite to me while Calum and I had the beds next to one another. This was the first time we spoke since being rescued.

"It really depends," Calum says. "The maze was horrifying, we ran on adrenaline and fear most of the time and Sam used so much of his magic."
I remember watching Calum's reaction upon realising that Sam was unconscious, he ran to Sam's side and was a complete mess. He was begging Sam to wake up, tears streaming down his face, it broke my heart seeing him like that but when I tried to comfort him, he shook me away telling me to leave them alone. It stung but I understood.
"He'll be okay," I whispered.
Calum didn't say anything, his eyes never leaving Sam. So I turned away inhaling deeply to control my emotions, everything that happened, I tried pushing it from my mind but when I closed my eyes, I was back in the maze so I stayed awake and tried thinking of other things which never lasted long.
"Calum?"
I turned to see Sam stirring, I jumped from my bed as Calum reached his side.
"Sam?"
"Where are we?" He asks closing his eyes.
"We're back at the academy, we're safe now," Calum whispers. "How you feeling bro?"
Sam didn't respond.
"Sammy?"
"Mmm?"
"How you feeling?"
"Exhausted."
Amara walks through the door with a grim expression but softened when she notice that Sam was awake.
"Hey Sam, how are you feeling?
"Exhausted," he repeats his answer.
"Take this," she hands him a cup of water and a small red pill. "It'll help you to regain the energy you have lost and help you rest easier."
Sam nods his thanks, popped the pill into his mouth and downed the drink.
"Anything you can tell us about the situation we're in?" Calum asks.
Amara sighs. "Usually I wouldn't but this is a serious matter Calum. Not only did you snuck out of the academy but you also took a person who isn't trained for that kind of thing."
I sat down feeling numb at Amara, I felt most of this was my fault, I should've said 'no' and tried to talk them out of doing something so stupid.
"The headmaster is furious and once you all are feeling well, they are going to have a meeting with you and your parents to discuss your punishment."
Calum snorts.
Amara ignores him. "The headmaster and the rangers are coming here to speak to you three of you so be ready to answer some questions."
And on cue, three rangers came walking through the door, Amara straightens up giving them a thin smile.
"Sam, Calum, Abby, this is ranger Ace, ranger Ripley and ranger Robin."
Ranger Ace appeared to be the oldest and the leader as the way he holds himself up, and his hair was neatly done. Judging from his cold hard expression, he must've gone through a lot during his time as a ranger.
Ranger Ripley, the only woman of the three and the shortest of the three, she smiled warmly at us and her hair was tied back neatly into a bun.
And lastly, Ranger Robin, he did not look much older than ranger Ace and like Ace, his expression was cold hard and I noticed that he has a scar across his right eye, he looked like he has been through hell and back multiple times and if you look closely, he looked pale, like a sickly pale man.
"I assume you guys are well rested?" Ranger Ripley asks us.
We all murmured answers.
"Are you up for some questions?" She asks.
Calum looks down, Sam looks away not giving them an answer.
I took a deep breath. "I'm up for it."
Sam glances at me. "Yeah, I should be up for it too."
Calum didn't say anything, he just nodded his head.
"Okay," Ripley turns to me. "I'll be happy to speak to you Miss Johnson."
"Actually, I would like to speak to Miss Johnson, if that's all right with you," Ranger Ace moves over towards me. The way that ranger Ripley looked at ranger Ace when he said that, she was angry, something was definitely off between those two.
Ranger Ace looks at me. "Are you well enough to go for a walk?"
I nodded getting off the bed, ranger Ace led me out of the room, I followed him but not without turning back to see Calum leaving the room as well to head into the smaller office with ranger Ripley while Sam got the other ranger and neither one looked at each or at me. I guess the maze was a lot worse on them then I thought.
Ranger Ace led me down a few hallways until we reached a room, he opened it up to see that no one was inside.
"This is good," he walks in and motions for me to do the same. He closes the door and turns to me.
"I could've sworn you had a bruise on your cheek," he says to me, I frowned. I haven't had a chance to look in the mirror so god only knows how horrible I look.
"A bruise?"
I gently touched my touched my cheek, yes, I remember now. Shawn. I was too stressed about Sam's state and being checked over a hundred times that I had forgotten my own demons.
"I..." I didn't know what to say.
"You are one interesting person Miss Abigail," ranger Ace sits down on one of the chairs. "Falling from the sky from another world, causing trouble and now you have wounds that are disappearing. It is very interesting."
Okay, now I wish I had the female questioning me, I thought.
"I don't know what to tell you," I tell him. "And aren't you meant to be questioning me about the maze?"
Ranger Ace arched an eyebrow.
"I can already guess what has happened within the maze, I've been there before."
"You have?"
He nodded. "I've seen terrible things within that maze that would make your skin crawl but yet again, they were my worst fears, my waking nightmares."
I shivered at his words.
"Now back to you. Since the portal is not yet ready for you to be returned back to your world, you will need to learn to fight and survive."
I nodded.
"And the only people who should know about you is the headmaster, teaching staff, your friends - who I assume all already know?"
I nodded again.
"Names?"
"Sam, Calum, Audrey, Lynette and I think Ben and Liam also know."
"And what about their leader?"
"Who? David? No, he doesn't know."
"He will be informed immediately."
I swallowed.
"No one else is to know. If by chance someone else comes across this information, you will inform the headmaster immediately, is that understood?"
I nodded.
"If anyone finds out, you could be in grave danger, do you understand? This is serious."
"Yes sir."
He leans back into his chair.
"You are lucky that this group of young rangers in training are highly recommended, my partner, ranger Robin, had the ability to take ones memories. If I had a say, everyone's memories would've been wiped and you would be kept under watch at Ranger's Base until it is ready for you to be returned home. But your headmaster has other plans for you."
My eyes widened at what he was saying to me, he sounded so disappointed at the last part.
"Now, do you have any questions?"
I had hundreds of questions that needed to be answered but the only one that came out was, 'why did my bruise heal?'.
He leaned forward. "Look at your hands, are there any scratches or scapes?"
I looked down at my hands. "No?"
He narrowed his eyes. "Hmm. I don't exactly have the answer to your question but keep it to yourself, I don't anyone knowing until I am able to find you an answer, understood?"
"Yes sir," I say. That is so not happening, I did not like this guy one bit.
"Anything else?" He sighs.
"Yes, one more thing."
He looks at me, he looked extremely tired.
"It was not their idea to go to the maze, it was actually mine."
He blinks. "What?"
"I like to read," I tell him. "And I saw information about the maze and wanted to go. I wanted them to take me but they said 'no' so I went by myself. They followed and tried to stop me. Anything they say about it being their idea... they're only saying that so that I don't get into trouble."
He raised an eyebrow at my lie.
"I promise," I say and I put my hands behind my back to cross them. "I still do not understand how dangerous and scary this place may be, I shouldn't allow my curiosity to get the better of me."
I would have laughed, using my lack of knowledge of this world comes in handy.
"Noted. Anything else?"
"No sir."
"Okay, you can return back to your friends."
I nodded and quickly left the room, I did turn back to see that the ranger leaned forward resting his head in his hands.
Walking back felt a little strange, the entire encounter was strange and I was not exactly sure what to make of it. He was meant to be questioning me about the maze but instead was telling me to learn and survive, did he mean learn to fight? Was this place really dangerous? And people knowing about my story of how I got here, would I really be in danger?
So many questions I could've asked, but no.
I gently touched my cheek. Shawn had hit me, there should be a bruise. And then there were my hands, completely healed from little wounds I had. I didn't understand any of it and I had a strong feeling that this ranger Ace knows something and I will make it my mission to find out what he knows.