Halls of Splintered Souls (Wandering Souls #1)

Chapter Nineteen

The sunlight was uncomfortable and made my eyes hurt. I heard birds perched on the window pane chirping. This was not my dorm room, nor was this the rooftop. I was in the infirmary.

But... how did I get here?

Sometimes days pass in the blink of an eye in this plane.

Had I been gone that long? How many times has passed with me unconscious? What day was it?

I sat up slowly. Looking at the side table to find a candle burning next to a bowl of burned cinnamon. There was also a glass and a pitcher of water.

Ayn... she must be worried. Where was she?

"Aya!"

The door burst opened as Ayn practically ran towards me, hugging me so tightly it was uncomfortable and hard for me to breathe. "Ow!"

"Sorry, I'm just so, so glad you're back," she whispered.

I wanted to tell her about Kenji and what he said about Baekhyun, but before I could say anything, Adrien came in. "Listen, I'm never helping the two of you do things like that ever again."

"Too bad," I said, coughing from the dryness of my throat.

Ayn grabbed a glass of water from the bedside table and handed it to me. She observed me as I gulped down every last drop. She looked tired, like she hasn't been sleeping or eating for a while.

"How did you know I was awake? You came in literally a few minutes after I opened my eyes." I asked her.

Ayn exchanged a glance with Adrien. "You were right."

"About...?"

"Our tether. When you were... unconscious, I lost my power completely. I felt so helpless. And then just now as I was walking back from class, I felt it return. I just knew it meant you're back," she explained.

My eyes widened. This was a breakthrough. Nothing like this has ever been recorded. However, remembering that spirit magic has been deemed a both fictive and dangerous at the same time, it might be better to keep it a secret.

"Does anyone else know? What did you tell them when you brought me in?"

Adrien was the one who answered. "I told them we didn't know what happened to you and then I found you on the rooftop unconscious, wasn't technically a lie."

"Yes, and the doctor couldn't figure out anything wrong. They brought in one of the teachers."

Crap. Professor Cain of all people would be the most likely to figure out what really happened. We took the instructions from her grimoire, for heaven's sake!

I urged them to continue. "And...?"

"She... dismissed it as a hex gone wrong," replied Adrien.

"Well that doesn't sound suspicious at all," I murmured, then remembered I still didn't know how long I was out, "what day is it, anyway?"

"Thursday," Ayn and Adrien answered at the same time.

That means I've been out for three days and...

... the new moon is tonight.

***

It was beginning to get dark and I was sneaking out to the forest. As much as I hated going alone, the thought of putting Ayn and Adrien in danger made me decide to not tell them. I was exiting the building when a hand tapped my shoulder.

"How lovely to meet you here!" Padma exclaimed, smiling that wrong smile.

I tensed. "Padma, what are you doing out here?"

Instead of answering, she linked her arm with mine. "Are you going to the woods? I am, too! We should walk together."

This was not Padma. This was... this was someone else in her body. Was Padma still in there? Or was her soul wandering around the school grounds, lost and alone?

"You know, I have someone who has been dying to meet you. Literally." She giggled with glee at her joke.

Could it be... she was talking about Baekhyun? How could she know Baekhyun? Suzanne Harper died in 2005, Baekhyun died in the 1979, the timeline did not match up. Unless, Suzie knew him after his death.

"I was like you too, you know. I had unusual powers that allowed me to speak to the dead."

I swallowed hard. We were entering the forest now. It was significantly darker. I was getting scared that she might do something. But she seemed content with walking next to me.

"What happened?" I asked her.

As we neared the clearing, I spot two figures standing. Some kind of table was there and... was that a body on it?

Padma, no, Suzie stopped kept walking and dragging me closer to the figures. "Someone betrayed me. I died for him, but he threw me away."

"But you're technically alive now," I said, gaining a bit a courage, "even though you stole it from Padma."

Suzie laughed. "I don't like her body. I'll leave it once you meet him."

"Him?" I asked.

"Shush, look ahead."

I did as she instructed. We were close enough now that I could identify the two figures. It was... Baekhyun and Professor Cain? Why were they together?

Then it hit me, she was there in my dream when I saw Baekhyun's dead body. Could it be that somehow, she truly had a role in all this? What did she gain from it?

"Miss Aya," Professor Cain greeted when she saw me, "thank you, Miss Harper."

Miss Harper? She knew that this was not Padma? How could she be so calm knowing her student was possessed? But then again, what was she even doing here?

"Baekhyun?" I tried.

Baekhyun glanced at me, then turned his attention back to the table. For the first time, I focused my attention to it too. There was an ornate box on top of it, next to the body. It was undeniably a boy about my age. I tried not to flinch at the idea of seeing a corpse.

Suzie let go of my arm, and taking that chance I walked closer to see whose body it was. There was something familiar about the figure. What if it was someone I knew? Professor Cain merely observed me as my eyes finally landed on the face. That face...

I gasped in horror. I turned to where Baekhyun was still standing and staring at the body on the table. His expression was unreadable. He didn't spare me another glance. I kept looking back and forth between the face on the table and the face of the boy standing next to it. It didn't make any sense, but there was no mistaking that face.

No matter how many times I said it in my head, it didn't make it sound believable.

The boy on the table... was Baekhyun's.