The Merkwood Chronicles

Chapter 18

The weeks passed too quickly for Mabel's liking. The hard work they had all been doing had made the days feel like mere minutes in comparison, they had hardly had any time to relax (although Florence did make sure they had regular breaks.)

Michael had started his job at Merkwood, which made Mabel feel much better about everything, knowing that she not only had the support system of her friends and Headmistress Chase, but she had the man who raised her there too. She just hoped that it all panned out how she wanted it to.

Because she had absolutely no idea what she would do if it didn't.

After a long session of studying in the school library, they were all feeling overall tired and all unanimously agreed that they needed a break. Walking back to the dorms, with the intent of most likely having a nap in the common room, the four of them sat on the benches by the side of the dorms, letting the warmth of the spring sunlight be felt, their faces tilted up to the sky.

"I hate to be the one to say it, but I think we need to slow down," Evie sighed as they dropped down onto the benches in exhaustion. Mabel knew that she was right, even if none of them wanted her to be right now.

Impending doom was inevitably coming for the place they called home, and they were all working so hard so that they were more prepared when they had to work as a team of thousands to protect this place they all believed that they all truly belonged.

But it was true, they all felt like they hadn't slept for weeks, working so hard that their hands and heads and hands ached. They needed to rest.

"I guess a day of rest and perhaps a nap or two couldn't hurt, right?" Florence voiced, her eyes getting heavier and heavier by the second.

Florence, Evie and Arthur had all flopped down on the benches, they were so tired they didn't even care where they rested. But Mabel couldn't do the same. She couldn't rest when she knew that Nox was out there somewhere, waiting for his perfect moment to strike. He was probably watching over them right now, trying to orchestrate the perfect plan that would hit them where they were most vulnerable. There was this feeling, right in Mabel's gut that told her it was coming, and coming soon. Nowhere was safe.

"Come on guys," Mabel said, rubbing the freckles that resided underneath her eyes, like constellations smudged across the sky. She began to rise from her part of the bench, attempting to drag her friends to the dorm buildings. It was definitely time for more than just a nap, and Mabel thought she'd try to be a leader and make sure her friends got a responsible amount of sleep, the soldiers wouldn't win a war on no sleep. "Time to actually get sleep, we don't have any classes today, time to catch up on all the lost sleep,"

Together, they slowly trudged to their dorms, Arthur said his goodbyes sleepily and went off in the direction of the boy's dorm building and the three girls snuck through the creaking gates of their dorm building, ready to endure a nice long, and well deserved, rest.

Up at the very top of the highest tower of the school, Headmistress Chase watched as the girls walked closer and closer to the doors of their dorm building and as Arthur entered his building just down the pathway. She smiled softly, she really was glad that the four of them had each other, and that she had found four such students to trust, and she really did trust each and every one of them.

What she wasn't smiling at was the fact that she knew - she knew this was her fault. If only she had listened to him, to what he had to say, and guide him the way a mother should. How could she expect to save this whole establishment, the place she had mistakenly loved more than her own flesh and blood, when she couldn't even save her only son.

She had failed Nicholas, but she wouldn't allow for the same mistakes to be made again with Mabel, Evelyn, Florence and Arthur. She would definitely make sure of that.

And she also knew that when the time came, she would have to do what she knew was right.

For everyone else to win, and for the legacy that had been passed down through generations at this school to stay intact,

she would have to lose.

So she watched as they all reached their resting places for the evening, curtains were closed and books were stacked away, their eyelids becoming so heavy that they would drift off into the last peaceful sleep they may have for weeks, and as the headmistress closed her eyes, letting a single tear escape, carving pathways down her face as she sent a silent wish into the stars.

They've worked too hard to suffer any longer

She thought, another tear trailing down a separate path to the last.

They deserve a win.

Hours later, after a thankful night of rest, Mabel woke to the sounds of panic and disarray, her eyes fluttering open as the newly installed alarms sounded overhead.

"They've sounded the alarms!" Florence gasped, already out of bed and semi-functioning as a human being.

The day was here.

He was here.