Demigods at Rookwood

Chapter 10

Hazel

We stood there in silence.

"Well, I think we know what this means" said Reyna, breaking the silence.

"She's the ghost!" Said Ariadne.

"She's the thief!" Said Scarlet, slapping her forehead with her palm. "Of course! We were getting close to catching her, so now she's making threats."

"Yes!" said Thalia. "She just suddenly remembers how to tell us to go away too."

"That makes sense" said Ivy. " I suppose. But how can we prove it. Everyone knows you and Violet hate each other, Scarlet. I don't think accusing her is going to get you very far"

Scarlet looked thoughtful for a moment. She seemed to get some sort of idea.
"Just you wait" said Scarlet.

*****

That night, there was knock on our room door.

It was Piper.

"Hi Piper" I said. "What are you doing here? Aren't you meant to be heading to the bathroom? It's your turn to Iris message."

Piper nodded. "Yeah" she said. "But, I'd like to ask you and Reyna something" she pulled out a piece if paper. "The girl in my dream last night spoke this. I'm almost certain it's Latin, but I'm nowhere near as good at Latin as you both are" she handed me the piece of paper.

I let Piper inside and Reyna, Piper and I sat on the floor.

"The first part is the school motto" I said. " 'Nothing is heavy for those who have wings' "

"Ex quo ludum D. Bartholomaei non habent" read Reyna. "This proves Mr. Bartholomew doesn't own the school"
Reyna looked up at us.

"So, the girl who drowned, may've found evidence that Mr. Bartholomew didn't actually own the school" I said.

"What if that was the reason she drowned" said Piper. "Maybe it was no accident"

I shuddered at the thought.
"We can't be sure" I said.

Reyna looked at the piece of paper. "We should hold onto this, and show it to Annabeth and Thalia tomorrow. We should also hide this from Scarlet, Ivy and Ariadne."

"But it's information that we could use" I said. "It could be useful to them, and Mr. Bartholomew shouldn't be in charge of a school he doesn't actually own"

"True" said Reyna. "I suppose we should wait for Thalia and Annabeth to see this. We can decide then"

I looked at the last one.
"Vescere bracis meis."
I laughed. "Eat my Shorts"

Reyna smiled, trying to suppress her laugh, and Piper was giggling.
"She directed that at Mr. Bartholomew" said Piper.

"She must've had a lot of courage" said Reyna. "I don't think Mr. Bartholomew knows Latin, but he could probably guess that she wasn't giving him a compliment"

After that Piper left to Iris Message Jason.
And I headed to the toilets.

When I got the bathroom, I froze.
Scarlet was sitting outside of them.

I could hear muffled talking coming from the bathrooms. It wasn't very loud, but I needed to make sure Scarlet didn't hear that conversation.

I walked over to Scarlet.
"What are you doing here?" I asked casually.

"Waiting for Violet to leave her room"
Scarlet looked at me. "What about you?"

I shrugged. "I was going to go to the toilet"
Scarlet looked at me, suspicious, probably because I'd used the same excuse the last time we'd bumped into each other.
She didn't say anything though, and just stared straight ahead at one of the dorms.

The grandfather clock chimed midnight, and suddenly, the door of room 24 creaked.

Scarlet grabbed my hand and dodged into the lavatories.

We both leant back against the wall. My heart was thumping in my chest.
I looked over at where Piper was.
She looked like she had just swiped her hand through the Iris-Message. She tiptoed over to us.

Footsteps went past the door. Scarlet tiptoed out.
I had a small mental argument with myself, before following.

Well, guess I was going on another nighttime adventure.

Piper left the bathroom and quietly caught up to me.

"What are you doing?" She whispered.

"I think Scarlet's trying to catch Violet stealing" I said.

She nodded. "I guess I'll help then, since I'm already here"

Violet was heading for the stairs. Suddenly, she stopped and whipped her head around to look behind her.

Scarlet, Piper and I plastered ourselves against the wall. I held my breath, hoping she hadn't seen us. Scarlet's eyes narrowed when she saw that Piper was now with us, but didn't say anything.

After a bit, Scarlet looked back. She nodded her head. Clear.

We started following her again, speeding up, so that we didn't lose her.
I realised she must be going to the library. Maybe she was going to steal more books?

All the lights but one were switched off when we got to the library.
Violet slowed down as she walked into the room, and Scarlet, Piper and I watched her as she approached the desk cautiously. She then walked around it, picking through Miss Jones's paper and books.

She walked in the direction of the stack of books with the footprints we'd found previously.

We snuck behind her, walking between the bookshelves. We approached the dark corner silently, being careful to not alert her to our presence.

Scarlet suddenly stopped dead in her tracks. I hit into her back.

"Ow" I said. "What happened?"

Scarlet pointed to the dark corner. "She's gone" she whispered.

I glanced at where Scarlet was pointing. Nobody was there. Violet had vanished.

Scarlet slowly turned around. I could see her panicking slightly.
"What's wrong Scarlet?" Piper whispered.

Scarlet shook her head. She seemed to calm herself down, or at the very least she seemed to be suppressing it. "We should look for her" she whispered. "See if she's hiding somewhere"

We searched the stacks. I tried not to cough in the dusty air of the books as I looked for Violet.

We didn't find her. She had vanished into thin air.

"Well that was an efficient waste of energy" said Scarlet, sounding just slightly more worried than usual.
I nodded my head.

"At least we now have the information that Violet can randomly disappear" said Piper.

Suddenly, there was a distant creaking, and heavy thuds beneath our feet.

And there were whispers in the walls.

We ran.