Behind his eyes, Class

The Trip Part One.

Matteusz was excited about the four day trip to the Edinburgh, after a month of living with Charlie and Quill it had begun to feel like his life was dominated by the Shadow Kin and the cabinet of souls particularly after Quill discovered the truth about the cabinet, so it would be nice to get away with Charlie, if only for a few days. Even though they had to leave ridiculously early in the morning Quill cheerfully waved them off clearly excited about having the few days by herself.

As they walked Charlie asked "How do you feel about the trip?"

"Do we really have to talk." Matteusz mumble sleepily.

"Come on, it'll be fun." Charlie urged, clearly he wanted Matteusz to have more enthusiasm.

Matteusz knew Charlie felt the same about the trip and he would have been more than happy to engage but Matteusz was not a morning person. He felt like Charlie was getting annoyed by his lack of enthusiasm.

Matteusz wanted to make up for his sullen mood in the morning but Charlie was looking coldly out the misted window.

"Please talk to me, Charlie you know I am not a morning person." Matteusz pleaded.

"It isn't that, I need to tell you something," Charlie whispered. He pulled the zip on his suitcase revealing a familiar pattern on a familiar box.

"Why did you?" Matteusz asked.

"I couldn't leave the cabinet of souls with Quill you know what she's like." Charlie explained answering the unfinished question.

"You are very strange." Matteusz smiled resting his chin on the top of Charlie's head staring over him at the fields racing by while Charlie relaxed.

As the train rolled into the station it began to snow. In the hotel lobby Mr Young turned round and commanded the students "Ok, quiet down. Everyone find a friend to share a room with and then come to me for a room key. You have an hour before dinner in the dining hall on the first floor."

Matteusz and Charlie grabbed each other's hands and pushed their way through the chattering, swarming crowd to Mr Young where he handed Charlie the key for room 365. They dragged their luggage up a flight of stairs and then wound their way through maze of corridors until they reached a stretch of landing with a sign saying "350 to 367"

Their room had two beds a table and an armchair by the small window, a door led off to the cramped bathroom. "What do you want to do?" Matteusz asked.

"I need to hide the cabinet" Charlie said pulling the weapon out of his suitcase and looking round the room for a hiding place.

"Can we just, not talk about that?" Mateusz said.

"About what?" Charlie asked.

"About, the aliens and the cabinet and the stuff that has been going on," Matteusz explained "I want this to be an escape from it all."

"Yes I want that to, but I also need to protect the cabinet," Charlie said stiffly pushing the cabinet under one of the beds before standing up "Ok, what now?"

"I do not know," Matteusz grinned sitting down on the armchair "It was why I asked you."

"Netflix?" Charlie suggested.

"Just not Downtown Abby." Matteusz laughed.

In the dining hall there was a long table with forty seats, four of them were marked for the teachers and the others had numbers corresponding to their room number. Out of the high windows the snow swirled violently. The label for 365 was in the middle of the table between 323 and 375.

Matteusz thought the evening did not go well because he felt like Charlie was still annoyed about what Matteusz had said about not wanting to talk about what had happened at Coal Hill.

After diner they went back up to their room and he decided to mention his concerns "Charlie I really need to talk to you." Matteusz said.

Charlie paused and turned round to look at him "About what?" He asked.

"Well, I felt like you were annoyed about what I said, about not talking about aliens." Matteusz admitted looking at Charlie's face to gauge his reaction.

Charlie's expression turned cold "No I, didn't have a problem with it."

"Really," Matteusz asked "I know how defensive you get over the protecting the cabinet."

"Fine, yes I have a problem, of course I have a problem. That is the last memory of my people!" Charlie said raising his voice.

"Then why did you not talk about it earlier!" Matteusz said getting annoyed.

"Because, you would never understand." Charlie turned to the window his voice faltering.

"Of course you would say that," Matteusz sighed sitting down on one of the beds "you think that I cannot sympathise with you. It is just that I wanted this trip to get away from it all for a few days, how is that to mush to ask?" Matteusz was annoyed a Charlie for not being able to see that. When Charlie did not reply he decided to get changed and go to bed early.