Chapter 19: Raven

After the winter formal, Flora would not talk. At all. She would lay in her bed, staring at the wall. Her dress hung limply in her closet, the hem ripped up.  I felt so bad for her. She watched her boyfriend die, or so that's what Williams confirmed it as. They couldn't find a body or who even had done it. 

            Christmas came and by, no one was really in the mood now that our group was missing a member.  Poor Flora.  I had received gifts from the Jacobson's, but I hadn't bothered to open them yet.  Derek had also given me something and I was tempted to open it when I found it outside our door, but then I remembered Flora and strongly decided against it.  I didn't want to upset her any more than she was at the moment. After Christmas, snow began to fall and winter became a b***h.  I've always hated the cold and it wasn't my idea to go to an academy in the north. 

            On New Year's eve, we tried to throw a party to get Flora out of the room. It was a flop.  She came out all right, but once she saw it was party, a new years eve party, she burst out crying and ran back to the dorm room, locking the door. I wasn't allowed in until the next day when Mrs, Berlowski had to unlock it for me.  That was a little embarrassing. 

            Classes began and Flora became a zombie, going to class, eating required meals and then holing herself in our room. It was awful, seeing how depressed. Her grades began to slip and eventually, she was required to go to the counseling office for classes instead because she was a wreck.  She wouldn't talk to any of us, she barely talked to anyone at all.

            "Poor Flora," Betty said worriedly as she watched Flora walk away, not even eating her lunch. "She's losing weight. She's not eating anything."

            "She's depressed," Derek pointed it out. "Usually, I'd say she'd get over it, but I don't see that happening any time soon."

            "I don't think anyone would if they watched a person they loved so much die in the hands of a masked figure." Whitney chimed in.  "We've tried everything to get her back to what she was and it hasn't done anything."

            "The only thing that will get her back to her normal self, "Jane piped in, "Is Ethan himself."

            "Hello! He's dead!" I said a little too loudly. Flora must had heard me because she turned to me and burst out crying. She ran off in a disastrous heap. I felt a hard kick to the shin.

            "OW!" I jumped, rubbing it afterwards.

            "You don't say that out loud. You know we don't know for sure." Betty said sternly. I sighed and continued to eat. 

            The loudspeaker kicked on and Jan's reconigizable voice echoed through the hall, "Ms. Sterling, phone call in the office."

            "Who's calling you?" Whitney asked me. "We fooled the doctors pretty good in september. They can't be calling us now to give us the bill!"

            I smirked, "I doubt it. I'll be back." Derek's eyes followed me as I left and headed to the office. When I entered Jan sat there with a phone in hand.

            "Here, It’s a…Zella Jacobson." She told me. I grabbed the phone and pressed it against my ear.

            "Hello?"

            "Raven! I need to tell you something!!" she exclaimed.

            "What's up?" I asked.

            "I walked into a dream. It looked like a demon's dream." My ears perked up.

            "Go on," I urged her.

            "There were two people, one was for sure a demon, he was a guy. He was very handsome, tall, said his name was Jase. There was another person as well. It was a girl. She had black hair and wasn't very tall.  Jase told her that she had messed up the first two kills. Yet he compliemented her on the latest one. He said, it was quite successful." She stopped as if to think for a second, "Then he made a deal with her; that if she got the last two people successfully, then the contract would break. Then I fell out of the dream."

            I was speechless."Ok, thank you Zella. That is most useful." I said my goodbye and then hung the phone back up.  I walked out quickly, not even acknowledging Jan's presence and sped back to the great hall.

            "What was that all about?" Derek chuckled, "The doctor's nail you good?"

            I was in no laughing mood though, "I need to talk to you privately." He noticed my seriousness and followed me out.  The wind howled as we walked.

            "What's up," He asked. I explained the information I was given by Zella. He stared out in thought.

            "There has to be a pattern." I blurted out. "This is not just some killing spree.  There must be a pattern." We were deep in the forest where the wind wasn't as brutal.

            "Well, The three victims were lion, buffalo and elephant." Derek began. "They're all dangerous."

            "That's too generic though. We're just as dangerous." I commented, "Is there a specific group or something they all had in common?"

            "What type of group?" Derek asked. "Animal group, clubs,…" he kept naming different clubs.

            "Shut up," I joked. "Let's go to the library and do some research. We might find something there. Derek nodded and we both changed to our birds so we could get there faster.

            I actually had never really been in the library before. It was tall with tons of books stacked high, waiting for someone to read them.  There were a couple of ancient computers as well.  Students milled around, barely making a noise.

            "I'm going to use a computer," I pointed to it. Derek laughed as he walked over to a section in the library.  I sat down and  wiggled the mouse. The screen flickered blue and I clicked on the internet logo.  Google popped up and I stared at the search bar for a minute.

            Finally, I just typed in what does a lion, buffalo and elephant all have in common and searched it.  A long list of sites came up and I just clicked on one randomly.

            It was a site about hunting dangerous animals. Curiously, I skimmed down, past the label called Africa and noticed the first two sentences in the paragraph; 'Africa is home of the "Big 5" dangerous game animals. These are the elephant, rhino, Cape Buffalo, lion and leopard.'

            "Holy S**t!" I swore loudly.  A few people shushed me. I rolled my eyes and then reread the sentences. "They're after the big 5!" I clicked out of the internet and rushed to find Derek. When I found him, he was deep in a book.

            "Derek!" I hissed.

            "Find something?" he asked, looking up from his book.

            "They're after the big 5. Lion, Leopard, Elephant, Buffalo and Rhino." His jaw dropped. The eagle boy closed his book, threw it back on the shelf and grabbed my arms.

            "That means-"

            "Rhett is next."  I stopped, trying to get a hold of myself, "What about the leopard?"

            "No one here is a leopard."

            "Jane's a jaguar. They're similar."

            "We need to leave them." Derek told me. "Tonight. We need to get out." I nodded and we hustled out, looking for everyone in the group. The snow was falling harder and the ground was more slippery than ever.

            "Is it still lunch time?" I implored as we hustled to the great hall.

            "I-" We reached it to find it barren as the lunch ladies began to clean up plates.

            "S**t!" I cursed. A couple of the ladies glared at me. Derek grabbed my hand and pulled me away.  We raced down the snow trail and to the boys dorm rooms.

            "We have no choice but to hide out."

            "In your dorm room?" My eyebrow rose up on my forehead. Who knows what we were going to do and besides, how was I going to get in without being caught.

            "Fly up to my window.  I'm on the top floor." He pointed to a small window at the top. I grumbled as I handed my backpack to him and changed. He smirked and then ran inside, hustling up the stairs.  Once the change had began, I flapped my wings to get blood pumping and took off on the snow packed ground.  The wind was not helping me fly today so I had to pump harder to get to the top.  I found the window and perched on the ledge.

            "You beat me," Derek's northern accent rang through my ears. I cawed at him to open the window farther so I could hop inside. It was cold outside.  He slid the window open and I hopped in, shaking off any snow that had landed on me and then changed. 

            "You got a blanket?" I asked, shivering. "Its frickin cold out there."

            "Here," Derek threw me the quilt off his bed and I curled up in it.  It smelled of body soap and pine needles.

            "We need to figure out who is doing the killings," Derek began, rummaging through my backpack. 

            "Don't tell me you have a list of suspects," I grinned.

            "Sorry, I don't. I honestly don't have a clue who's doing it." He pulled out The Devil's Reincarnation.

            "I think it’s a demon doing the killing.  Someone here that is demon. Someone who traded their soul to the devil and that's why we don't know if there is a demon running lose on school property."

            Derek thought for a second.  His eyebrows creased in deep thought, "But who would sell their soul to the devil?"

            "How 'bout one of the new kids? Not Flora or Whitney, but those other two kids that came this year."

            "I don't know." Derek sounded unsure of the thought. "I just want to focus on getting everyone out safely."

            "Speaking of that," I changed the subject, "When are we doing this awesome escape?"

            "Sunset," Derek answered quickly, "Betty can manipulate minds, I read it in her profile. She can manipulate the guards' minds."

            "Good to know." I smirked and then laid on the floor. "I'm gonna take a nap.  We've got some time before classes are over."

            "Night Raven," I winked and then closed my eyes, letting my mind go dark.

Author's Note

ignore grammar