Chapter 19
Panicked murmurs begin to rise in the room. I watch Miss Deviathan dig out a cellphone, her face attempting to hide shock and dread upon seeing the invaders. I guess she's calling Aunt Nelly. Earlier, I had learnt the 'phones' each adult has are more like walkie-talkies. They can only connect to each other and not the outside.
She snaps incoherently into the speaker, her hands gesturing wildly.
On the other side of the window, Nephilum have climbed over the fence and are walking diligently towards the front door. The sight is almost amusing, that they had orchestrated such an fierce attack to get over and are now using a civilized approach to get into the House itself.
One boy has balanced himself onto the very top of the fence, teetering dangerously, then taking a giant leap down and landing on both his feet.
"How do they do that?" I mutter under my breath.
"Natural battle complex," Jesse says, overhearing my question and spotting my questioning gaze on the boy who landed perfectly.
"When Nephilum engage in combat, they lose a small sense of morality." He points at one girl who has a blood-thirsty look on her face. "They'll do anything to win the fight and beat down the opponent. Along with their euphoric need for victory, it also gives them enough unnatural adrenaline to become practically invincible."
"Wow." I try ignore the girl behind me who was seething delirious notions of being too young to be killed. If she swings her arms any higher, she is going to hit me. "How come we don't get that?"
The crowd shifts a little as Miss Deviathan pushes her way to the front for another look, relaying what she sees into the phone. We move to the side to make space, while Jesse answers, "We take after the beings we descended from. Angels are warriors, beings of justice and victory. Demons are tricksters, they play mind games, create unexplainable phenomenon and hide in the shadows."
Before I can comment more on this, alarms blare throughout the House; the same noise Aunt Nelly executed in the cafeteria yesterday, but this one keeps going on and on in a continuous siren.
"Children!" Miss Deviathan yells over the noise, putting her phone away, "Follow attack procedures and go to the East Wing basement in an orderly fashion please. I repeat, the EAST wing basement. Do NOT go anywhere NEAR the front door. Dr White will deal with this."
People begin to run out despite the orderly fashion warning. Many shove at each other to move faster and some cling to their friends in fear.
I peer back out the window, strangely unworried. What is the difference between being in a classroom and a basement?
Miss Deviathan calls for us to hurry and get out. I spot Vee in crowd giving Courtney, who is also still staring outside, a worried glance before being pushed out. Funny, I hadn't even noticed Vee is in this class. I turn to follow the mess of arms and legs moving out, but nails tighten around my wrist, stopping me.
I whirl around.
"This is all your fault!" Courtney screams at me over the alarm. Something is honestly wrong with this girl to blame everything that happens on me.
I whack her grip off my wrist. "What the flying fudge is wrong with you? You can't possibly pin a Nephilum attack on me!"
"Why not?" she barks, her voice starting to take on an edge of hysteria, "Everything has gone wrong since you arrived, every bit of normalcy I had is beginning to tip thanks to you!"
Jesse tries to step in between us. Key word: tries. We're almost nose to nose screaming.
"Can you two continue this fight some other time?" he yells, "There's a very good possibility we're going to get slaughtered if the Nephilum break in through the windows."
I realize he is right. The Nephilum have gotten closer. Maybe the basement hideout did make sense after all.
But Courtney is nowhere near done with her tirade, "They got rid of Brian to make a place of you. I overheard Dr White thrilled with your discovery! He's gone because of you!"
Brian? I think back to what Sasha had told me this morning. Brain was the disappearance a week ago, an energy user who believed this to be a good place. Puzzle pieces click into place. Brian was supposedly powerful and popular, it made sense he was involved with Courtney. But this was no excuse to hold a petty grudge over something she could have overheard incorrectly. By her logic, who replaced Heather and Garnet? I am not a replacement. I am a coincidence.
"You've got to be kidding," I shout, scowling, "That is not an acceptable reason for all this resentment you've shown me. Even if I had arrived right after he disappeared: attacking me the minute I step into the House, blaming Vee's power shock on me and now accusing me of all this is just insane. "
"Well, who knows," her voice is shaky, "Even if you aren't in league with the Nephilum, they're probably after you since you're such a prize," she spits.
Rage-filled tears well in her eyes, but she wipes them away angrily as she stomps out. I stare after her, even though she's already gone, shocked by the accusation.
Jesse grabs at my arm and hauls me out of the room too, "Come on, princess. You can sweat over this some other time. Assuming we're following the procedure, the rooms will automatically lockdown and shut us in if we don't leave now."
"Lockdown?" I yell over the alarm, "What's the point?"
"Safety."
"Wha-"
We collide with the other class as they run out from their classroom. Pandemonium has broken out as people scream at their friends in terror or sob into their hands.
"Has this happened before?" I scream in question.
"Never," he responds, "This is definitely a first, although we've run through many drills of practice emergency procedures before, just in case."
Another hand catches my arm and I turn expecting Sasha. It's Eric.
"Have you seen Sasha?" he screams at me while we keep moving along with the crowd. Shoes keep stepping at the back of my heel.
"I haven't." I pause. "Isn't she in your class?"
Eric shakes his head frantically. "She went to the bathroom only seconds before the alarms started blaring," he says in a rush. "She would have thought it was a drill. The rooms have gone into lockdown already. Sasha could be stuck in the bathroom!"
"What?" I screech, "Didn't you see the Nephilum approaching before the alarms?"
He runs a hand through his floppy hair in agitation, "Our class windows face West. They all approached from the North and East."
"Maybe Sasha got out," Jesse offers, "She could be in the basement already."
Eric nods hopefully, but I'm not so sure. That girl takes ages in the bathroom covering the toilet seat with toilet paper as to avoid germs.
"Which bathroom did Sasha go into? North?"
"We're not allowed to use the North ones, they're staff only. She would have used the East Wing ones, they were closest and no one is in them at this hour anyway."
"Then the bathrooms are only a couple floors up," I scream to them. We are already in the dorm corridor of East Wing. "We have to check."
"Even if she is in there, how will we get her out?" Eric asks.
"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it."
I break free from their grips and push my way towards the upper staircase, located between the common room and the dorm corridor. I hear them yell after me but I ignore them. Suddenly, a burly muscular man keeping the crowd from running off steps in front of me. I'd seen him around and assumed he was a human guard for this House. Up close, my eyes widen as I realize he was one of the help who kidnapped me here.
"Where do you think you're going, young lady?" he growls.
"My friend might be in the bathrooms," I yell, "This will only take a second."
The alarms suddenly stop. The quiet makes the crowd panic more. The kids pass us quickly and run to the common room, then into the basement trapdoor. How many trapdoors does this place have?
"Oh no, you don't," he says, grabbing the back of my shirt as I try dodge past him.
A sense of déjà vu hits me. "Let go!" I snarl, grabbing his wrist and preparing to twist it. "I broke your friend's nose, I'll break yours."
Before I can do anything, he shoves me back with the force of a ram from a bull. I hit the floor, my head spinning from the sudden movement. By the time the room stops spinning, Eric and Jesse both each grab one of my arms and pull me up.
"You're here to protect us. Not shove us around," Jesse snaps at the guard.
The guard smirks, "And what are you going to do about it, boy?" He taps the base of his left shoulder where it joins with the neck. Sitting there is a small metallic slab about an inch long and no thinner than a needle. "Your powers don't affect us."
"Let it go, Jesse." Eric mutters, then turns towards the guard, "We'll behave." He shoots Jesse a meaningful look, along with couple of communicating facial expressions which Jesse seems to understand but I don't.
The guard makes a noise of triumphant and nudges us into the room and down the door in the floor. I nearly miss a step on the stairs going down but right myself in time before the guard has time to snicker. A switch on the wall similar to the one in the attic is clicked to the side, and the door slides closed, hiding the entrance from anyone who doesn't know it there. The entrance of the basements and attics are all concealed with very clever planning, blending into the pattern of floor or ceiling.
Interesting. East Wing has a basement and an attic, both accessed by trapdoors. I wonder if any other Wings have them.
The basement is very different to the attic. Whereas the attic is dusty and looks as if it hadn't been cleaned in years, the basement looks sterile and well-kept. It is also huge inside, about the size of a small gym. I could run laps in here and be sweaty by the second lap. The walls had some sort of metal casing, the floor hard and cold. Dried food and bottles of water sat in the corner.
"Okay." I glance at the guard with a hint of a glare. He has his arms crossed, blocking the stairs to the entrance and watching us with suspicion. "Sasha is obviously not done here and none of the adults seem to care. What's the plan?" I ask.
Jesse shrugs, "We never actually told any of the teachers she's gone, maybe they'll do something."
An adult who was consoling a crying girl with purple streaks suddenly gives up. She stands up, exasperated and pulls out her phone to text the teachers who stayed above. The girl cries even harder. I catch Courtney staring at me coldly while my eyes roam the room.
"Or not," Jesse mutters under his breath.
"Okay," I say, "Are we positive she's in the East Wing bathroom?"
Eric nods.
"Here's the plan," I say, then add snidely, "since you guys aren't going to make one." I point at Jesse, "You need to make us invisible, we sneak out, get Sasha, then return to safety."
He rolls his eyes, "Okay, would you like me to list the problems with that plan in chronological or alphabetical order?"
I put my hands on my hips, staring him down.
"First," he says, "the guard is watching us, so even if I did make us 'invisible', it wouldn't work. It's telepathy, not invisiblity. We're still there if they look hard enough, and you don't even know how to use it yet so I have to do all the work."
He flicks at my ponytail as if to make a point.
"Second, we have no idea how the lock-down even works. Not every door has a solid lock, yet strangely every door stays firmly shut. We won't know how to open it."
"We still have to try!" I insist, then try switch my tone so I don't sound like a whiny little girl who's not getting her way. "What if they actually do break in?"
"Ariel's right," Eric says, "As much as this can wrong, it could turn even worst if we don't get Sasha in here." He peeks at the adults talking in hush tones. "The adults aren't going to risk a thing for us."
It is strange we keep referring to them as adults. We are all practically adults ourselves.
After a moment of consideration, Jesse finally nods. "Okay, we're going to need a distraction so the guard forgets about us." He stares at Eric for a moment, "Can you summon some ants or something?"
Despite the situation, I snort in laughter.
"What?" Eric says indignantly.
"Ants? Really? You can't summon a mountain lion or two?"
He scowls, but only for a moment. "That's like asking a water-user trapped in here for two years to move the ocean: it's too much."
"So Eric will summon ants," Jesse says, steering the conversation back to our rescue plan, "Ariel and I will then sneak out-"
"Wait, wait, wait," Eric interrupts, "Why do you two get to do the breaking out? Ariel can summon the ants too."
I raise an eyebrow, "Ignoring the fact I have no idea how to use these powers, can you kick open a door with force if the need arises?"
Eric deflates. "No," he mumbles.
Jesse pats his back, amusement lurking in the action, "Don't worry, the distraction is important too."
Eric rolls his eyes, blowing at the hair getting in his eyes. "Whatever." He cautiously glances at the purple chain clasped around his skinny ankle, "Let's hope this works."
Placing two hands on the wall, he makes a face of concentration. We block him from the others' view as his hair begins to glow.
"Nothing is happening," I hiss after a while.
"Ants move slowly," Eric replies.
Suddenly, the ground above rumbles from an impact of something. Frightened screams come from the side of the room and I jump in surprise.
"Did you decide to ask for a mountain lion after all?" I ask, nervous.
Eric glances around with wide eyes, "That wasn't me, but the ants are here."
I squint at the floor and see nothing.
"Where?" Jesse asks.
Eric points at the corner nearest the guard, and in the space the two metal walls meet, a trickle of black are inching their way in. I watch flabbergasted as the ants march their way in a perfect straight line, right onto the guard's foot, up his ankle and into his pants.
"Wait for it..." Eric declares, a smile lighting up from ear to ear.
The guard gives a pained shout and dances around, slapping at the inside of his thighs. I barely have time to laugh at the hilarious sight before Jesse grabs my hand and breathes, "Come on."
I feel a sudden surge of power in the air as he works to make people forget about the two kids jumping up the stairs and the one kid flicking the switch.
The door slides open and we dart out before anyone hears the noise. Eric closes it as soon as we're in the open of the common room.
"Are we still invisible?" I whisper.
Jesse nods, then grins, "Just hold onto me so I don't forget about you."
I roll my eyes, but keep my hand in his anyway. If you told me a week ago I'd be holding hands with a hot telepathic to stay invisible in a rescue mission for a fire-wielder while the House I am trapped in is being attacked by angel descendants, I would have called you crazy.
But here I am.
This is my life.
Fantastic.
Note the sarcasm.
I stop him without warning.
"What?" he asks, uneasy.
"Something's wrong."
"What?" he asks again, this time in different context.
"I don't know, my gut feels funny."
"We're practically sitting ducks, of course your gut feels funny."
The ground shakes again, and the sound of something exploding thunders violently.
"Who are the Nephilum even fighting?" I murmur.
"The adults. I'm sure they have a few firearms, bombs and grenades hidden away. Maybe even a tank."
Then, coming from outside, we hear a thump of something on flesh and an anguished cry of someone falling that is getting louder, and louder.
"Run!" I hiss.
We dash up the stairs in record speed just as the wall of the common room caves in, along with a body of a Nephilum girl smeared with blood and dust.
She doesn't move for a few seconds, as we watch paralyzed in the middle of the staircase, not daring to breathe.
«Should we go help her?» I ask, my silent voice tremoring with it's usual state of terror. «She could be dead.»
«She'll be fine in a few seconds,» he replies, equally shaken. «I hope.»
True to his word, after about three distressing seconds of dead silence, the girl cracks open both her eyes. With a gymnasts' agility, she pushes herself up in one smooth motion. The girl picks up a gun she was holding, and with a single, fierce look of determination, she runs out again so fast she becomes a blur.
"Shit, that was intense," I murmur.
"Yeah," Jesse agrees simply. We both take a few deep, measured breaths. He tugs at my hand gently, "We need to hurry. Sasha's not going to save herself in this turmoil."