The Fifth Element

“What do you mean they help run the school!?” I practically screamed. “Some safe place this is when the ones running it are a bunch of murderers!”

The ghost scowled at me. “Do you like to be dramatic or something? Relax, they didn’t mean to kill me.”

I stared at her in disbelief. “Wait, why did you just tell me they murdered you then?

She shrugged her shoulders. “Sounded more dramatic, but they still covered it up. It’s a step away from murder. Basically, it was way to get me back for a prank. It was meant to burn off all my hair, but it kind of burned....well all of me.”

I let out an exasperated sigh. “Well, that doesn’t make it much better.” I belly flopped onto the bed and buried my head into the pillow.

“What doesn’t make it much better?” I raised my head to see Henry standing in the dorm.

“Nothing,” I said rolling over on my side to face him.

He narrowed his eyes at me. “The Headmistress would like to see you now.” He informed me.

“The headmistress, do you mean principal?” I sat up and combed my fingers through my unruly waves.

“Sure, whatever you want to call her, come on she doesn’t have all day.” He gave me and impatient look.

“Are you sure you aren’t the one that doesn’t have all day?” I thought as I got off the bed and followed him.

We arrived in front of a set of two beautifully carved doors a short time later. Henry raised his hand and knocked on them. As we waited for an answer, I realized, with a start, that these were the only doors I had seen in the entire castle.

“Come in,” a voice called from the other side. The doors opened to reveal a woman with gray hair sitting behind a desk. She was scribbling on a piece of paper in front of her. She looked up when we came in and, I saw that her eyes were the same gray color as her hair.

“Ah Miss Silver, so glad that you could finally join us. I’m Greta, the headmistress here. I glad I was finally able to meet you .” She gave me a smile without any warmth. I didn’t bother to return it.

Henry looked back and forth between us and frowned. He elbowed me in my ribcage. “Nice to meet you too,” I mumbled, looking at the ground.

The headmistress stood and walked around her desk. She stopped right in front of me and grabbed my chin. She lifted my head and studied my face before letting it go.

“Did Mr. Hemlock explain the rules to you?” She questioned and glanced over at Henry. He averted his eyes. She walked back to her desk. She sat down and laced her fingers together before resting them on the top of the desk. “Well if he didn’t, here they are.” She continued. “First things first, you aren’t allowed to use magic in the dorms or outside of class. Second, you may not use magic to harm a student or staff in any way. Thirdly, you are not allowed to have contact with the outside world or leave the school’s premises, until the instructors, or I deem you as being competent of controlling your powers. Four, you will not tell anybody the existence of this school. And finally, you must go to classes starting at 8 am and return to your dorm at 8 pm. Here is your schedule, you start tomorrow.”

She snapped her fingers, and a piece of paper floated into her hands. She held it out to us. Henry walked over to her desk and accepted my schedule from her, before going back to stand beside me. He handed me the paper, which I reluctantly accepted.

“You may go now.” She motioned for us to leave.

I almost turned to leave, but I stopped and glared at her, “Hold up,” I said crumbling the paper. I went to throw the paper on the ground by Henry caught my hand before I could.

“What are you doing?” He hissed in my ear.

“I’ll tell you what I’m doing,” I hissed back, “I’m deciding not to go along with all this. You people are holding me here against my will, and refusing to let my friends and family know where I am. I demand that you let my mom know you have me!”

“We can’t do that. It’s a matter of safety.” Henry moved his face closer to mine, and for the first time, I noticed panic growing behind his unnaturally blue eyes.

“Is there a problem Miss Silver?” I turned my attention back from the headmistress.I gazed into a pair of frigid gray eyes.

I hesitated for a moment before answering. “Yes,” I said. “I refuse to be treated like a criminal when I have committed no crime. This place is like a prison,” I motioned around me. “There aren’t even any doors here besides this one.”

“So you’re saying that you are going to resist and we might have to restrain you?” she stood and I suddenly felt a frightening change of energy in the room.

I almost took an involuntary step backward. I say almost because it seemed that I couldn’t because my feet had sunken up into my ankles into the black marble floor. I gasped in horror and tried to pull them free, but it appeared I was stuck.

“We might have a little problem then, you and I,” she continued and began to move towards me.

“Please wait,” Henry said suddenly, stepping in-between us, the frightening energy that had been building in the room suddenly disappeared, and I looked down to see my feet were no longer in the floor.

“What is it, Mr. Hemlock?” She spat.

“Please excuse her, I didn’t adequately explain what would happen if she resisted,” he said hurriedly.

“Oh really, did you? Are you beginning to slip Mr. Hemlock? Do I need to find someone else to take over your position?” Her voice was so cold that even I shivered.

“That won’t be necessary,” he replied calmly. “I did explain everything to Miss Silver earlier, but it seems her mind was preoccupied at that moment.” He looked over at me, and I looked away, my cheeks beginning to burn. “But I failed to clear things up with her later on, so it is my fault that she doesn’t understand.”

The headmistress let out a long sigh and sank back into her chair. “Very well, explain everything to her more clearly and then bring her back here.” I saw Henry relax visibly

“Thank you. I will.” He said and grabbed my arm and dragged me out of the room. Once the doors had safely closed behind us, he grabbed my shoulders and slammed me against the wall. He looked intensely into my dark purple eyes.

“Do you understand how close you came to dying!? Everyone at this school is here because their powers make them dangerous, and the penalty for disobedience is death! I don’t think you quite grasp what you are yet, how dangerous someone like you is. You’re a ticking time bomb that might explode at any moment!” He released me and began storming down the hallway. I stood there stunned. I couldn’t bring myself to move a single muscle as I watched him go. He stopped halfway down the hall and turned around and stalked back towards me. He grabbed my arm and began tugging me along behind him.

“Wh-Where are you taking me?” I choked out when he stopped us in front of a wall with a gold seal.

“You’ll see,” he said ominously and put his hand on the wall. The wall dissolved away to reveal a library five times the size of the one he had originally taken me to when we had first arrived. Clusters of wooden chairs and tables sat scattered along the massive bookshelves that towered above them at dizzying heights. He dragged me over to one and sat me down. “Wait here!” he commanded and then disappeared behind a bookshelf.

I waited till he was out of sight before I let the tears roll down my cheeks. That had been really scary back there, and I mean three times scarier than all that had happened to me so far put together. The magic coming from that woman was so unreal, and how had she done that thing with the floor?”

“So you made the boss lady mad?” a girl’s voice said from above me. I looked up to see the redheaded girl ghost from my room levitating above me. She floated down to sit on the edge of the table. She crossed her legs and then grinned at me. “Surprise, surprise.”

“I don’t want to talk about it.” I sniffled.

“There, there, everyone here has made her mad once. Even little old me if you could believe that.” She giggled.

“Please tell me she isn’t one of the people that killed you.” I wiped the tears lingering in my eyes away hastily. I was really hoping she wasn’t because if she was I was, going to have a ghost as a BFFL.

“Unfortunately, she isn’t.” She grinned at me mischievously. “But wouldn’t that be just dandy if she was?”

“Yeah just dandy,” I mumbled.

The ghost suddenly looked over at the bookshelf that Henry had disappeared behind. “Sh!” She put her finger to her lip. “Your boyfriend is coming back.”

“He’s not-”

Henry came out from behind a bookshelf lugging a gigantic book. He dropped it on the table in front of me. I coughed as it sent up a big cloud of dust. He opened it and ran his fingers along the index until he found what he was looking for, then he flipped to through the pages until he got to a page with a painting of chalk white men marching across a blackened field. Upon closer inspection, I saw that the white men were skeletons.

“Expectish,” Henry whispered, touching the picture. The wall of the library began to shimmer and then dissolve altogether, revealing a field of scorched grass, much like the one in the painting. One by one everything else in the library began to fade out of existence till all that was left was me, Henry, and the table with the book on it.

I looked around in awe, so this was the fabled memory magic. But it wasn’t supposed to exist!

“This is incredible.” I blurted out as I bent down to touch the grass.

“Pay attention!” Henry snapped.

I stood quickly and mumbled an apology, my somber mood returning as I remembered why I was being shown this. But somber mood or not my curiosity got the best of me, and I let my gaze wander across the charred field until my eyes focused on a gently sloping hill.

The hill itself stood out from the rest of the flat landscape for obvious reasons, but it was what was on it that captured my attention. “Who’s that?” I said pointing to a figure standing on its top.

“Neeva Jaywing, one of the most feared men of all time,” Henry said. I let my gaze drop from the mysterious figure back over to Henry and saw he was reading directly from the book. “Long ago the rivaling nation of Tristan sought to take over our country of Tilmalia,” he continued. “Tilmalia fought long and hard, but it was no match for Tristan’s larger army. They outnumbered ours by three to one. Tristan soon had our army on the run, and was closing in our capital and royal city, Tarence, fast.”

A rumbling sound snapped my attention away from Henry and towards the horizon. A large cloud of dust was rapidly approaching us. When it got closer, I could see what was creating the dust, thousands of horses of every shade of brown, black, gray, and white galloping across the blackened field. On their backs rode men with rose-tinged armor that glittered in the sun. They held staffs, swords, and spears in their hands. Above them, green and brown dragons with riders on their backs flew.

“The boy, Neeva Jaywing, was part of the retreating army. They had suffered heavy losses in the last battle and were weighed down with the sick and injured. To get back and defend the vulnerable city of Tarence in time, they needed a diversion, Neeva, and a couple of other brave young wizards were going to be that diversion. They would hold back the advancing arm for as long as they could to buy Timalia’s army time. Little did their captains know the terrible magic Neeva held. He held the most sinister magic, the power over the dead, a necromancer. A terrible magic with a terrible price, in order for Neeva to cast his spell he needed the power of a fresh death. He killed all of his comrades to order to gain that power. Then, he did something unforgivable. He raised the dead from their final resting places.”

I looked towards the figure of Neeva Jaywing standing on the hill. He held out his hands and began to chant. A faint purple glow formed in his hands and grew brighter and brighter until it was blinding. I had a bad feeling that I wasn’t going to want to see what was about to happen next as he slammed his hands onto the ground. At first, nothing happened, then a tiny crack appeared on the ground. The crack grew wider and wider until it was wide enough for a grown dragon to be able to fly down without scraping their wings. It grew longer and longer until I couldn’t see where it ended and where it began on either side. I watched in complete horror as thousands of corpses in varying states of decay poured from the crack and started racing towards the approaching army.

“Then the other army...”

“Stop, I don’t want to see anymore!” I cried, closing my eyes and covering my ears with my hands. When I opened my eyes again, we were back in the library.

Henry’s expression was unreadable as he closed the book and studied me. “You need to know the rest of the story, but let’s save it for another day,” he said as he picked up the book with both hands. “But I hope you understand why you need to be here now.”

I nodded my head. “Can I go back to my dorm now, I’m not feeling so hot.”

He nodded his head.

Once back in my dorm, I felt completely drained. I curled up on my bed and went to sleep. I dreamt that someone was looking for me and when I woke up Danny was standing over my bed.