Chapter 6
I woke up to the sound of shuffling. It was still dark, and I could still see the moon outside the window, peering through the glass, curious at what had stirred in the shadows. What had awakened me? I stayed perfectly still, my eyes closed. Nothing.
Assuming that it was Amy snoring, I began to drift back to sleep, still very exhausted. That was when I heard it again. Someone was in our room.
My eyes flew open again. My heart hammered against my chest. Someone is in here. I looked to my left. Amy and Denaé were both asleep.
Scratch, shuffle, scratch… Went the creature in the dark. Striiiiiiiiitch. Whatever it was, was in our closet. Whoever was there needed to be stopped. Gathering up my courage I took a deep breath and quickly sat up in my bed.
“Who is there?” I demanded. Fear escaped from my voice, causing my words to tremble. The sudden movement I created scared whatever was lurking in our room, and everything went perfectly silent.
I blinked, trying to figure out what I saw ahead of me. There was a shadowed figure standing, hunched over in front of our cupboard. The dark, animal stared up with glowing eyes before quickly leaving our room with a whish of a cloak. I could have sworn I saw it holding something…
I sat there in the darkness, my heart pounding. Confusion caused my head to spin. I locked the door. My head felt light. I must have locked the door. I remembered after Amy came back from the washroom, I double checked that everything was secure for the night… How did someone get it?
I slipped cautiously out of bed and padded quietly over to the door, my legs shaking with fear. It had been left open. Sweating, I stuck my head outside. All was quiet. All was dark. The hallway stretched ominously forward, its finish concealed in darkness.
I looked at the doorknob: there were no signs of a struggle getting in, either we didn’t lock the door, or… I sucked in a sharp breath, they had a key.
The confusion was too much. I closed the door again and locked it. I double and triple checked that it was locked and sat down on the windowsill, looking outside.
I let out a troubled breath. My whole body was alert and shaky. Fear still tingled in my spine. Cold sweat gathered at my brow. Every sound caused me to jump.
“Isis.” I scolded. “You are fine. Everything is fine.” With that I shook my head and jumped down from the window. I returned quickly to my bed. Snuggling down in my sheets I closed my eyes, trying to calm myself.
You are fine. Everything is alright. No one can hurt you, you just forgot to lock the door. These words comforted me enough to allow me to drift into a shallow sleep, filled with dreams of dark hallways and shadowed figures.
You are fine… no one can hurt you…
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The next morning, instead of waking up to my alarm clock, I woke up to a horrified scream.
I leapt up, my claws digging into my sheets and my teeth bared in a snarl. That’s it.
“ISIS!” Amy screamed. She was sitting on the floor, staring wide-eyed into the closet as if she should be imagining something. “Our uniforms! They’re GONE!” She wailed, falling over.
A shiver crept up my spine. That was what the figure was doing in our closet. Stealing our uniforms.
“What is happening?” Denaé asked, sitting up with concern in her eyes. Amy let out a dramatic sigh. “Uniforms.” She whispered.
I hopped out of bed and threw off my housecoat. “Let’s just get dressed into something somewhat formal… perhaps that will do for now.”
I got into one of my tight fuchsia skirts. I threw on a frilly, white blouse and sat down beside Amy.
“I…” I started to speak. The scenes of last night’s crime flashed through my mind. “I saw someone in our room last night.” I told my violet fox friend, looking into her wide eyes. “Someone was in here?” She gasped. “How do you know?” I explained to her what I saw, and she furrowed her brow, misunderstanding in her gaze. “I am absolutely positive I locked the door.” She said for about the third time. “Positive!” I nodded and stood her up.
“It must have been Evica. She found a key, came in here and took our uniforms to get at us for being improper, or far too undignified for her sensitive tastes.” Amy giggled, her stare still worried. “I hope you are right.”
Once all three of us were dressed, we walked to the Meeting Hall. On the way, we noticed that no one else was wearing their uniforms.
Denaé appeared to notice as well and whispered, “Maybe it isn’t uniform day.” I whispered back, “or maybe they were all stolen.”
We arrived at the Hall and sat down. Very quickly, Headmistress Marie stepped onto the stage and shushed everyone.
“It appears there has been some trouble.” She announced, looking anxiously at Mrs. Harris who was standing at the side of the stage with an equally-worried expression. “Everyone’s uniforms appear to be missing.” This caused the animals in the crowd to gasp.
“This school is cursed!” An orange and cream tiger hissed loudly. “First the lights and now… this?” She looked genuinely angry. “Mira’s Academy never had any of the problems that appear so abundantly here!”
A pink and white red panda stood up. “Yeah!” The blue and white red panda that was sitting beside her also stood up. “You’re just saying that because you did it to get even with me for spilling soup on your brand new dress.” The two pandas appeared to be siblings. Twins perhaps.
The female red panda gasped. “ALLAN HOW COULD YOU!” She fumed, her paws curling into fists. The two instantly exploded into a serious fight, which caused more yelling.
“THAT IS SO STUPID!” The pink and white panda exploded. “Why would I steal everyone’s outfits INCLUDING MINE to get even with YOU?!” There was more bellowing and shrieking as more of the students got involved in the fight.
“EVERYONE, ENOUGH!” A loud voice boomed over the speakers. Everything instantly fell silent. “Whoever did this needs to own up to it.” No one said anything. Our Headmistress scowled down at her students. “If anyone has anything to confess, you may come speak to me about it in my office. Please look at your schedules and continue to your classes.” She stepped down the stairs and stormed out of the hall, the aura around her burning with fury.
Mrs. Harris followed quickly behind, whispering loudly, “This place is haunted! We can't let these students stay here, it is not safe!” Headmistress Marie whipped around, her icy gaze burning into Mrs. Harris. “No.” She replied firmly. “I will fight and do everything I can to keep this school alive.” With that, and a whoosh of her dress, she stormed out of the hall, leaving us all in complete stillness.
One by one, the students began to stand up and leave, shaken from the scare and by the yelling.
I stood up and slipped out of the row, head low as I puzzled over the reasons for stealing uniforms.
“Oh look at Isis.” Evica hissed. “She looks like she has something to confess.” I looked up at her, my brain still in detective mode. “Hiding something, honey?” She enquired, shoving her face in mine. “What?” I replied, blinking.
“Leave her alone.” Amy demanded sticking her face in Evica’s. The saucy arctic wolf growled at Amy, causing the fox to flinch back.
“Evica.” Rune said. “Leave them alone. They aren’t worth our time.” The two walked away, Evica still glaring back.
“Wow.” Amy sniffed. “He could have just left it at ‘leave them alone.’ But really? ‘They aren’t worth our time’?” I sighed, just as annoyed as she was.
We left the room and headed upstairs for math class with Mr. Calculous.
In the perfectly white, crisp and boring jail-like room, we sat at our desks and waited as Mr. Calculous began writing on the board.
“We should have stayed at Mira’s Academy.” I heard someone whisper. I turned to see Casella the red panda and Anastasia the orange and cream tiger huddled close and whispering.
“Alright.” Our teacher said in his robotic, nasally voice. “We are going to start today’s lesson by reviewing variables and powers. Who can tell me what nk2 · n2 · k2 is?”
I sunk lower into my seat with a sigh. I tuned Calculous’ annoying voice out as I thought to myself. The lights, the uniforms… who would be up to doing such a crime? But most importantly… why?
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Someone was in the girls’ rooms… who could it have been? Were you guys scared when you read that part? I know I freaked myself out a bit. (But of course I had scary music on to help me find the right feelings and to get them out on paper.) Jam on and read on! (Also by the way, the answer to that math problem is n3k4 I think… It has been a few years. XD)
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-As always, this book is written by Nop (not Cutey, as it likes to say since I’m the one who posts it for Nop). Jam On!