Gothicana

Without a word, she started back uphill, knowing the others would follow her out. Their climb back was mostly in silence, their paces hurried, most of them lost in their own thoughts.

“What the fuck was that?” Jax asked after a few minutes, giving Corvina a hand over the same log again.

“Maybe an animal?” a guy suggested.

“An animal that tall?” Troy said quietly from the side. “I doubt it. Did you guys even see the door?”

Corvina looked at Troy, frowning. What about the door?

“What about the door?” Ethan echoed the question in her head.

“It was locked from the outside,” Troy stated, giving them a look before continuing up. “If there was anything inside, it was locked there.”

Jax hesitated, holding Corvina’s hand for support as she navigated the terrain. “Should we go back and see if it’s someone who needs help?”

The words left Corvina’s mouth before she could stop them. “We need to stay away from that place.”

She felt Troy’s eyes sharpen on her. “Why do you say that, Purple?”

“Just a feeling,” she told him simply. She didn’t think mentioning that a voice that may or may not be real, one she’d been hearing her whole life, had told her so would sit well with them.

“Yeah, well, I’ll trust her feeling,” Jade agreed. “Let’s just get back.”

They made their way uphill in silence as the daylight slowly disappeared, finally entering the castle grounds just as the sun sank below the horizon. They stood for a second in front of the towers, processing whatever had happened back in the woods.

A dark figure moved towards the Main Hall, his eyes taking in their group, lingering on the hand Corvina hadn’t realized was still being held by Jax. She saw his eyes pause on the hand for a long second before he moved on, and she didn’t understand why she felt the need to follow him.

“You don’t-” one of the boys began before pursing his lips.

“What?” Troy demanded.

“You don’t think Mr. Deverell has something to do with that, right?” the boy asked. Corvina felt her attention sharpen at his name, her eyes taking in his retreating figure, the idea whirring around in her mind. Could he? Could he truly have something to do with whatever it was back there?

Troy ran a hand through his hair, looking up at the sky. “I don’t know, man. He’s secretive and he goes in those woods all the damn time, and no one knows why. But I never got a bad vibe off him.”

Jade visibly shuddered. “It could be one of those wrong place, wrong time things.”

“He’s been here longer than any of us,” another boy pointed out. “For years, longer than most of his peers. First as a student, then as a teacher. Who knows what all he’s seen and done? Or even why he always goes into those woods.”

“Those woods,” Ethan said, looking at the sea of dark green hiding countless secrets. “I don’t know about Mr. Deverell, but something is very wrong in those woods.” 

Something was very wrong in this whole place, and Corvina didn’t have a clue as to what it was.