She put the spoon in the sink, deciding to wash it in the morning. She switched off the light, leaving the room in semi-darkness, needing a second or two for her eyes to adjust to the lack of light. With her cup in her hand, she walked slowly back to her room. When she reached it, she stopped.

  Something was off. The rain was still tapping against her window, harder and harder, and the wind howled outside. The door to her room was wide open, but she could swear she had left it only ajar, so that she wouldn’t release too much light into the hallway. Now, the door was wide open. They had a cat, but Missy was an outside cat. She was never allowed in the house, so it was impossible that Missy got in and pushed the door open.

  Eva swallowed heavily. She rubbed her eyes with her left knuckle, as if trying to shoo away any possible remnants of sleep. Now, she was wide awake. And, she knew something was wrong. She could feel it in her gut.

  She took one step closer. The silence was overpowering. She glanced at the door to her grandparents’ room. It was closed, like before. She wondered if she should just run over there, like she used to do when she was little, or convince herself that this was all in her mind. A second later, she chose the second option. Taking one more step, then one more, she was in the doorway of her room.

  Nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary. Her bed was just as she had left it, the little lamp in the corner still on. Then, thunder sounded, even louder than before, and she jumped, spilling her cocoa on the carpeted floor.

  “Oh, shit!” she said, a little more loudly than she had intended to.

  She took the cup with her other hand, and shook her fingers a little, trying to get the milk off. It was then that she felt a slight breeze. Her glance traveled towards the window in lightning speed and to her horror, she saw it was open, the curtains floating left and right.

  It was firmly closed when she left the room, she was sure of that, as she never opened the windows while it was raining. She walked over quickly to it and looked outside. A strong gush of wind lifted her hair, then threw it back in her face. She pushed it away with her free hand, not even thinking of putting down the cocoa.

  She looked out the window left and right, only being able to see a part of the pathway, which led up to the house. There were puddles scattered all over the place and nothing else. Nothing seemed out of place. There was no indication of anyone being there. Just endless rain.

  Eva quickly pulled back, then pushed the window closed, locking it. She checked the lock. It seemed sturdy enough, but this was an old house, and all old houses eventually needed repair. It was probably just that. The wind was strong, the lock was weak, or maybe she herself didn’t even lock it properly, so the wind pushed it open. There was probably a draft somewhere in the house as well, which pushed the door open, too.

  “That’s probably it,” Eva said aloud, trying to convince herself of what she was saying, as she put the cocoa down on the little nightstand.

  But, those little hairs on the back of her neck wouldn’t go down. It was like her gut was telling her there was more to the story. Finally, she decided to listen. She rushed out of her room, one slipper even fell off her foot, but she didn’t even consider going back after it. In two seconds, she was standing before the closed doors to her grandparents’ bedroom.

  She lifted her hand, and knocked gently at first. She wanted to wake them up, but she felt bad about it, as there was probably nothing to worry about. This was all in her mind - surely. Still, she wanted to hear her grandma say that, and only then would she be able to go back to bed, and possibly fall asleep.

  After that first knock, she waited a second. There was nothing but silence. She tried again, a little louder this time, but, it was the same. She pressed the handle and the door opened. The room was dark but enough moonlight was oozing through the window for Eva to recognize the two slumbering figures on the bed. She moved closer to them and walked over to the side where her grandma was sleeping.

  Familiar glasses lay neatly folded on the little nightstand, on top of the latest book her grandma was reading, before bedtime. Eva almost changed her mind. Her grandma was sleeping so sweetly, that she didn’t want to wake her up. But, then there was another stroke of thunder and lightning and Eva knew that it was a night when she needed someone next to her.

  “Grandma?” Eva whispered softly, leaning closer to her grandma’s face.

  But, her grandma was still sleeping soundly, with a visibly rhythmical rising and lowering of the side of her body, underneath the covers.

  “Grandma?” she put her hand on grandma’s shoulder this time, in a more zealous effort to wake her up.

  No success. Eva thought that maybe her grandma took a sleeping pill or something. She would have taken one herself, but she couldn’t get her hands on one.

  “Grandma?” she called out, even louder this time, knowing that she might wake them both up.

  But, nothing happened. Eva shook her grandma by the shoulder. Still nothing.

  “Grandma, wake up!”

  She kept pushing, now both of them, but they seemed dead to the waking world. Eva grabbed her by the wrist, checking her pulse. She exhaled with relief, realizing that she felt it. They weren’t dead. So, why weren’t they waking up?

  She eyed them both, in the dark, two sleeping bodies, unable to be woken up. Now, that feeling of fear was creeping up on her even faster, its cold fingers clutching at her shoulder, reminding her that, instead of disappearing, it was present more than ever. Eva felt cold sweat dripping from the sides of her face, when she saw a shadow on the door. She almost shrieked.

  Her mind raced, trying to come up with a means of escape. Running out the door was impossible. Whoever it was, she was sure he wouldn’t let her pass. The window was on her left, but they were on the second floor and it was pretty high up. She remembered the tree which was a little to the side. If she managed to get out of the window in time and walk three steps on the ledge, over to her room, she’d be able to jump onto the tree and lower herself down, with maybe just a scratch or two.

  As these thoughts and ideas swarmed inside her mind, the shadow at the door became bigger and bigger, and Eva knew that someone was coming closer and closer. He would be here any second. She had to act now.

  She rushed over to the window, flipping the same lock as she had in her room, then tried to pull the window to open. It wouldn’t budge.

  “Shit!” she hissed to herself.

  At that moment, her grandma stirred slightly.

  “Grandma!” Eva shouted, panicking by now, hoping that either of them would hear her and wake up.

  She rushed over to the bed, pushing and pulling on her grandma’s body, but still nothing. It was like someone had drugged them. All she could hope for now was that they would eventually wake up.

  “I’d save my energy if I were you.”

  Eva suddenly heard an unfamiliar voice. She lifted her head, and saw a thin, tall man, about as old as her grandpa. The only difference, was that this man was dressed immaculately, and Eva could see the ghostly paleness of his clean-shaven face. He was dressed in black from head to toe, so for a moment, she thought she was still seeing a shadow and not the actual man behind it.

  “Who are you?” Eva managed to mutter, her entire body trembling with fear. “What have you done with my grandparents?”

  “Nothing much,” the man nonchalantly shrugged his shoulders, taking one step inside the room. “It’s a special sleeping powder.”

  “You drugged them!?” Eva shrieked, checking her grandma’s pulse again.

  “Actually, it is just an herb which makes you sleep for about twelve hours, without waking up once,” he explained politely.

  “What do you want?” Eva took a step back, feeling trapped. But, she knew she wasn’t going down without a fight.

  “This is not the time or place for this conversation,” he kept on explaining, equally politely.

  Eva was confused. She was scared and angry, but at the same time, this man spoke in such a soothing voice that she was barely able to stay as angry as she thought she should be.

  “I’m warning you, don’t come any closer,” she hissed, like a cornered animal, frantically looking around to find anything she could use as a means of defense.

  “If I wanted to hurt you, don’t you think I would have done it already?” he asked, with a smug smile on his face.

  The light in the hallway suddenly turned on, but instead of allowing her to see him better, it hid his face from her sight. She could see he was leaning on a cane, which he was holding in his left hand.

  “Is there anyone else here?” she asked, eyeing the door, measuring her odds.

  She thought if he was alone, she might try and take him on. He looked old and feeble, with that cane. Maybe she could buy herself enough time to run away. But, if there were others here, then she stood no chance. She was well aware of that.

  “Like I said,” he continued, “if you’d be so kind as to come with me, of your own volition, I shall be more than happy to explain everything once we have reached our destination.”

  “Destination?” she quickly replied, taking one more step back, but only then did she realize that she was now backed up against the wall.

  There was nowhere she could run to, nowhere to hide. She looked over at the bed, panicking. Her grandparents were blissfully asleep.

  “I’m not going anywhere with you!” she growled, like a wounded animal, even more dangerous at this point.

  “You are going, my dear, one way or another. I would much prefer the more civilized manner, but, as you wish,” he bowed down a little, bending his cane as he did so, then moved to the side.

  Eva’s eyes glistened in the dark, waiting for his next move. But, it seemed like he was done talking. A second later, three, black clad men, much shorter than this guy, ran into the room, aiming for her.

  “No, no, no!” she shouted loudly, hoping the herb they gave to her grandparents would wear off soon and they would wake up before she was kidnapped or hurt.

  Hands grabbed her from all sides, as her body twitched uncontrollably left and right, looking for a way out, which was nowhere to be seen. She realized one of the men was raising up her left sleeve, then a syringe gleamed ominously in the light of the full Moon.

  “No, no!” she twitched, trying to free herself from their grip, “leave me alone! No, no!”

  “I do wish you had agreed to do it my way…” she heard the man’s voice, as cold steel punctured her delicate skin, and an unknown liquid oozed into her veins.

  Her eyelids started feeling heavy and she almost lost all sensation in her limbs. She was like a puppet, sewn together carelessly, drooping down to the floor, left at the mercy of her creator. The man said something else, but she couldn’t hear him anymore. His voice echoed as if from a deep, dark cave, and, like Alice, she kept falling down the rabbit hole, deeper and deeper, until all she could see was darkness.

  Chapter 3

  When Eva woke up, she realized that she didn’t recognize anything she was seeing. She didn’t recognize the ceiling, or the windows, or the curtains, or the paintings on the walls. She propped herself up, pulling the cover off of her. She didn’t recognize the bed linens, either. The room smelled of fresh lilacs, and she noticed they were sitting in a little blue vase, on the desk in the corner of this yellow painted room.

  She looked around. She was alone. She rubbed her eyes, thinking this might be a dream, a nightmare which started with her grandparents being unable to wake up, and she was still in it. Nothing was right. She had no idea whether that man from last night was part of a dream or if she really spoke with him. If she had, she had bigger problems than she had thought.

  At just that moment, the door swung open, letting in a girl about her age. She was tall and pale, with black, shoulder length hair, tied up in a pony tail, and for a second, she reminded her of that guy from her nightmare. Eva instinctively moved backwards. Nothing was making any sense, and until someone told her what was going on, she wasn’t going to trust anyone in this place.

  “Oh, hey!”

  The girl closed the door behind her, then dropped her backpack on the desk in the corner. She turned back to Eva immediately afterwards, with a smile on her face.

  “Glad to see you’re up, I thought you’d be sleeping through the morning,” she told her, cheerfully.

  Eva didn’t reply. She eyed the girl suspiciously, watching her every move like a hawk.

  “You’re probably wondering who I am, right?” the girl nonchalantly continued, as if she was having the most normal conversation in the world.

  Eva still didn’t reply. She was obviously here for a reason, and now, she had to find out what this girl knew about this whole thing. If only she could get out of this room and find the nearest phone, she could call her grandparents, because they must be worried sick, just as she was about them.

  “I’m Isabella, but most people just call me Bella. It’s easier,” she shrugged her shoulders, getting a few notebooks from her backpack, then turning back to face Eva again. “Here, I brought you your homework for the day.”

  “My what?” Eva asked.

  “Oh, she speaks!” Bella giggled. “That’s improvement.”

  “What are you talking about?” Eva kept asking, her tongue finally untying. “Where am I?”

  “Did you bump your head or something?” It was now Bella’s turn to eye her suspiciously. “This is Ridgeview Academy.”

  “Ridgeview Academy?” Eva repeated.

  Now, she really had no idea what was going on. Wasn’t she supposed to start attending Oak Grove High School? Did it change names in the meantime? Now, she was even more confused than before.

  “You mean, Oak Grove High School?” Eva asked.

  “Oak Grove what?” Bella frowned. “This has always been Ridgeview Academy, for about 500 years now. We’re even having a celebration this year. Are you sure you’re okay?”

  When Bella asked her this, she sounded really worried, and Eva almost believed her that she also didn’t know a thing that happened to her.

  “So, this is Ridgeview Academy and you’re in my class?” Eva finally asked, trying to piece together this newfound scenario.

  “I’m your roommate,” Bella corrected her. “This is Dorm 5. All the dorms are mixed, so don’t worry if you run into idiots walking up and down these halls, like that guy Frey, oh gosh, he’s the worst....” she kept talking about non-connected things, so Eva interrupted her.

  “When did I arrive here?”

  “Beats me,” Bella shrugged her shoulders. “I was helping with the preparations for the weekend, so I just slept here. The principal just told me I’d have a new roommate coming in, and wouldn’t you know it, last night when I got in, you were here, asleep. So, I didn’t want to wake you up.”

  “The principal told you?”

  “Yes, Principal Rannulf. He’s very hands on when it comes to the students of Ridgeview Academy, I mean, you’ll see it for yourself.”

  “I will?”

  “Of course,” she nodded, enthusiastically. “He said that I should look after you until you wake up, and then when you feel up to it, you should go and see him.”

  “Why?” Eva kept asking questions, then getting answers which didn’t shed any real light on what had happened to her and how she’d ended up here.

  “He said that you’ll probably have many questions and he’ll try his best to answer them all for you,” she echoed.

  Eva thought about it for a second. Whoever did this to her, this weird kidnapping, obviously wanted to keep her alive, otherwise they would have hurt her already. They wouldn’t go through such an elaborate scheme just to mess with her. It didn’t make any sense.

  She got out of bed, and realized that she was wearing the same pajamas she remembered from that night at her grandparents’ place. It was so strange. She still didn’t know if it all happened or if it was just some weird trip. But, Eva never did drugs, so she could easily rule that out.

  “What happened to your previous roommate?” Eva suddenly asked.

  “Ines?” Bella wondered. “They said she transferred schools, but then again, she was here only for a year or so.”

  Eva had no idea who Ines was or where she transferred to. She just wanted to see how long these people had known that she’d be attending this school.

  “Listen,” Bella started all of a sudden, “I know it must be tough to start in a new school, especially like this, when the year already started.”

 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22