Gothicana

The way he phrased the question made her pause. He asked what she saw, his tone implying he knew she was seeing something.

The shadow began to move, and an urgent need to follow filled Corvina.

She shook off the hands holding her, and ran down the stairs again, aware of his pursuit behind her.

His longer legs had him catching her before she could exit the Wing, tugging her into one of the alcoves and imprisoning her between his arms. His eyes, those mercurial eyes, were dead serious as he considered her.

“What do you see, Corvina?” he asked her again, enunciating each word with patience she didn’t have at the moment. God, she couldn’t tell him. Best case scenario, he’d think she was crazy. Worst case, he’d tell her she was crazy. She wasn’t. No, she wasn’t. Or maybe she was. She didn’t know. Her own mind was unreliable.

His scent engulfed her as her stomach twisted with both dread and desire watching him. He wanted an answer.

“A shadow,” she told him, her voice barely a whisper, her eyes on his neck. He had a nice Adam’s Apple. “I need to get to the tower right now,” she locked gazes with him, beseeching. “Please.”

He considered her for a long minute, before removing one arm, giving her the space to leave. She ran out again, realizing the gardens were completely empty. Why were they empty? There was always someone or the other loitering around in them, especially at this time of the day.

Muscles and lungs burning with the exercise, Corvina hit the cobblestoned path on the side of the wing that led to the towers, not knowing why she needed to get there, just that she did.

Legs pumping, she finally made it to the clearing in front of the tower and saw a crowd gathered further up ahead. Dread pooling low in her belly, Corvina slowed down a bit, trying to understand what was happening.

“Oh god!” she heard Jade scream.

Adrenaline filled her veins and she cut through the crowd, trying to get to her friend.

“Jade, what-” her words cut off abruptly as the scene unraveled around her.

Every single person in the large crowd was looking up, Erica holding Jade as she sobbed, her eyes somewhere above them as well.

Corvina turned, tilting her neck back.

Her heart stopped.

There on the roof of the tower, Troy stood alone, appearing so small that up high, not even looking down at the people yelling at him to stop and come down. He didn’t even flinch, just staring vacantly up ahead, unhearing of the calls for him.

A gasp left her lips.

What was he doing up there?

“Troy!” she heard Jax call very, very loudly, so loudly she knew his voice must have reached up top. But Troy didn’t respond, didn’t even move from his perch. Chills covered her at the sight.

“Jesus,” the curse from behind her made her realize Vad had followed her to the tower – of course he had – and then he was ru

“He’s locked the door to the roof, Mr. Deverell,” Ethan shouted, ru

Corvina watched Vad grit his teeth. “There’s another way to the roof,” he told them, and Corvina wondered for a split second how he knew that.  “I’ll need you guys to talk him down. Come on.”

Ethan and Jax followed him without another word, speeding up behind him. Corvina wrapped her arms around herself as the crowd thickened in the area, gasps and shouts ringing out as more and more people realized what was happening.

“Troy!” Erica yelled. “Come down, please!”

He didn’t look down.

Teachers hurried in the clearing, being told different versions of “Mr. Deverell has gone up”, and waited on pins and needles. Students watched, riveted and terrified for a boy who was liked by all.

The sky darkened rapidly overhead, Troy’s white jacket standing out in contrast against it as Corvina held her breath, not understanding why he was doing this. He had spoken to her that very morning, and there had been nothing about his happy behavior that could point to this.

Why this? Why now? What had happened between breakfast and this moment to drive him to that roof? And why did Mo tell her about it?

Troy took a step closer to the edge and a collective gasp rose up from the crowd.

“Oh god, Troy,” Corvina cried out, her hand covering her mouth, unable to contain her fear for the boy who had become her good friend, a boy whose company she loved, a boy who had accepted her in his made family like a long-lost sibling. Her heart clenched, eyes burning as she willed him to come down and talk about whatever was bothering him. Should she have asked him that morning when they’d been talking? Could she have done anything to prevent him from going up there?

As though he heard her voice, he looked straight down, right at her, and gave her a smile that chilled her to her bones.

Then he walked off the roof.

Her scream drowned in a sea of others as his body succumbed to gravity.

It happened in one split second.

One second he was on the roof, the next second he was on the ground in front of the tower, blood spreading out under his head, pooling around him, the boy full of life gone.

A few students ran forward.

Corvina stood frozen to the spot, shaking, silent tears streaming down her face as she saw the body of the happy, jovial boy who’d been her friend lying broken on the hard ground.

No.

God, no.

Was this how her father had been too? Had he once been a man as full of life as Troy, and then gone without explanation? 

Something moved over his body, light flickering around a shadow. Corvina held her breath, her eyes widening as she saw the shadow hover for a moment before it disappeared, right before she heard his voice in her head.

‘Purple.’

Impossible.

‘Tell my brother.’

Tell his brother? What? He had a brother?

She stared at his body, shock filling her system as she processed his voice in her head, just calling her what he always called her. She shuddered, looking around to see if anyone else had seen the shadow or experienced anything bizarre.

Shock, sadness, and tears surrounded her. She heard Jade wailing on the side, and her heart broke all over again for her friend, who’d had to lose someone close to her in such a ghastly way again. Wiping her cheeks with her sleeves, she went to Jade, pulling her into her body. Jade turned to her, clinging to her as her body heaved with her broken sobs, and Corvina felt her own tears fall again at the collective pain around her.

More of the faculty poured into the area, processing their shock as they tried to get the students to go back to their towers. Two people from the staff came to the clearing with a sheet and a gurney. They covered his body with the white sheet that stained red within seconds, and placed him on the stretcher, taking him away.

Corvina wondered if Troy had any actual family who needed to be contacted, disregarding the voice in her head, or if he was on his own like most people at this cursed castle.

Something had driven him, a boy who was afraid of heights, up to a roof that usually stayed locked. Something between the morning and the evening, something that had made him almost catatonic up there. But he had looked at her, almost as though he’d been waiting for her to witness the tragedy.

One of the women from the medical room came to Jade.