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Present Day

It was currently seven-thirty in the afternoon, and most of the students stood in the hallway, thinking about what to do. The hard thing about getting to do "whatever they want" was that they forgot where everything was in the school, so they had nowhere to go.

Well, almost no one.

Avalon Sable was one of the only kids actually paying attention to where Professor Suarez was leading them. She knew it would come in handy; and it did. There was so many things to find out about the school that she could not let one minute go to waste!

Once she told Devin where she was going, she excitedly rushed to the closest library, immersing herself in the beauty of all of the secrets of the school.

It was strange how eager she was to read. Sure, she had always liked it, but never loved it. Maybe it was partly due to the fact that she could actually apply what she learned into her current situation. No, not the way you "apply" things you learned to real life like they told you to in school, but actually use them to her advantage. 

Also, she might learn something interesting about the school itself on the way. Like a secret passage, perhaps? Or a dark history behind it? Or a murder?! The possibilities for interesting cases in a castle that hosts magic were endless.

She swung the door to the library open, letting out a deep, relaxing breath as she looked at the options. It was the Miss Hendrix's library, the one holding history books and records. Unlike in class, Avalon had the freedom to look at whatever she wanted whenever she wanted.

Avalon slowly walked to the filing cabinet near the back of the library, shuffling through the options until she found some old newspapers, one catching her eye with the headline, "Mass Murder Spree On Elkman Street. Twenty Killed, More Than One Hundred Injured. Is Dark Magic The Cause?"

Once she got a few that satisfied her, she took at seat at the table and started reading.

×××

Eli and Emery walked out of the classroom, Emery talking while Eli quietly listened. Everyone else had already left to do their own thing, but the two boys stayed loitering outside of Mr. Harrison's classroom.

"So, basically, my sister Mare is in college now, but when she was in high school, she would always bring her boyfriends over to our house for dinner. Now, my parents are usually pretty chill, but when it comes to dating, they're full-on Parent Cops. This one time, Mare brought home this boy named Colton over, and my parents weren't very excited about him, just because of her record with staying in a relationship. So they asked her about him, and she said that he was just a friend. But of course, they didn't believe her.

"Anyways, Colton stayed for dinner, and my parents went on questioning him about himself. He was pretty nice, actually, telling them that he played soccer and liked science, but when my parents asked him how long Mare and him had been dating, he quickly denied it and said that he was in a relationship with someone else. A boy named Ryder."

Emery chuckled, Eli letting out a weak one as well. "My parents apologized about fifty times that night!"

Eli bit his lip. He really wanted to comprehend what Emery was saying, but his mind was elsewhere. With everything he had done that day, he had almost forgot.

"I'll meet you back down here, okay? I just gotta get something from our room real quick," Eli told him. Emery nodded, and Eli walked away as quick as possible without looking like he was running, and made his way towards the boys dorm.

In full honesty, he hated how many stairs there were to their dorms. Sure, it was cool at first, but after a little while, it just became tiresome. He just wanted to get to his room as soon as possible, not stop and admire the beauty of the castle. He would do that on the way down if he desired.

As soon as he was in the room, he ran for his bag, grabbing what he needed out of it and throwing his headphones and Walkman onto his bed. Making sure no one was watching him, he hurried into the bathroom, locking the door behind him.

Carefully, he took the needle out of its box, setting both on the counter. He pulled his hoodie off, and lifted his shirt just enough so that a small bit of skin was exposed. He stuck the point of the needle into the liquid bottle, filling up the syringe. He took a deep breath, biting his lip to soothe the pain as he injected the needle into his skin. When he was done, he delicately placed the object back into its case and placed a small bandage onto the small bleeding spot.

Eli turned to the mirror, holding his breath as he looked at himself. It had only been three weeks. Why did it have to take so long to take effect? He wished more than anything that one morning he would just wake up and look in the mirror to find the boy who he always was on the inside looking back at him.

When he was ready, he slipped his hoodie right back on, grabbing his box and placing it in his pocket. He swung the door open, only to be met with another boy colliding into him.

"Shit!" Eli cursed, hurrying to grab the container that had fallen in the crash. He silently prayed that nothing had broken. "Shit shit shit!"

Emery rushed to apologize. "Oh my god, I am so sorry! You were just gone for a while, I thought I should check on you!" Suddenly, he noticed what was in his hands.

"Eli? Are you okay?" He asked. 

Eli shielded the box from his view as soon as he noticed that Emery saw it. "Can you not look at my stuff?" He snapped.

However, Emery wasn't done. "Is that-"

"Mind your own business, Emery!" 

"Wait." Emery thought to himself, piecing everything together. "Oh... you're... oh."

Eli stopped in his tracks, letting out a big sigh. "I didn't want you to find out this way," He said quietly, turning away from Emery and opening his luggage, shoving the box inside in anger and zipping it up. "I didn't want you to ever find out."

"Why?" Emery asked. "There's nothing wrong with it."

"Of course there's nothing wrong with it!" Eli yelled, frustrated not only at Emery but at the whole situation. "If there was something wrong with it, I wouldn't be here right now!"Emery pursed his lips in guilt. 

"This was my fresh start, where nobody knew the person I used to appear as to other people! And you saw me for me. The real me. Don't you think that maybe I didn't want you to know because I didn't want you to look at me like... like how I was born?"

"But I don't!" Emery insisted.

"So you don't see me differently?"

"No!" Emery contended, waving his hands as he spoke. "I mean, if you're asking me if I see you as a guy, then yeah, I do. Eli. Nothing could change that."

Eli bit his lip, smiling a tiny bit. He didn't want to admit it, but he was really relieved to hear that. He calmed down, his anger fading away. "Okay. Thanks." After a second, he added, "I shouldn't have yelled."

"It's okay," Emery replied. "I understand." He started to walk further into the dorm, but before he could open the door to the restroom, Eli interrupted him. 

"Hey, Emery?"

"Yeah?"

"Can you... keep this between us?"

Emery nodded. "Yeah, of course," He said one more time. Eli nodded in agreement, and Emery went into the bathroom, leaving Eli in the room alone, a small smile draped on his face.

×××

The pair sat on a cafeteria table, chatting about their past. Caleb bragged about his time in Basek while Nikita told him about all of the times that she snuck out.

"Did you ever get caught?" Caleb asked.

"Once," Nikita admitted. "Lukas threatened to tell my parents, but luckily he never did. It did mean doing his chores, but it wasn't too bad."

"Lukas is a big baby," Caleb said. "Did you see how he reacted in Professor Suarez's class? He was practically screaming inside his head."

"He is," Nikita agreed with a scowl. Memories of Lukas and their parents flooded her brain, making her even angrier. "A big, fat baby."

After a few seconds of silence, Caleb stood up and started to leave.

"Where are you going?" Nikita asked, swinging her legs over to the edge of the table.

Caleb turned back around. "I don't know," He answered with a shrug. "Maybe I don't want to stay in the cafeteria when I have free time to do whatever I want in a castle?"

She raised her eyebrows, nodding. "Touché," She said, jumping up from her seat at the table. "Meet back for dinner?"

"Duh." He then pivoted 180° and went on his way.

Caleb always loved to disobey the rules. Not because he wanted to be cool or anything, but just because he loved the exhilaration of doing something you shouldn't be doing. Plus, at home it didn't matter if he broke a few laws; he would be gone soon, anyways.

That's why when Professor Suarez told them not to go somewhere, he knew that was going to be his first stop.

Caleb pounded his head with his fist, ordering his brain to remember where Professor Suarez's office was. He had to walk down a few hallways before anything even looked remotely familiar.

Suddenly, it clicked.

The fourth floor.

Caleb rushed towards the back staircase and rushed up them, constantly checking to see how close he was. Sweat poured down his face, barely missing his mouth. Each step was another workout that he couldn't want less.

After a solid three minutes of running, he got to his destination. To Caleb's surprise, the door was actually already open. Quietly, he slipped in and looked at what was in front of him.

The room was much bigger than he had pictured. A large desk was set precisely in the middle of it all, curtains draped over every wall. However, the thing that surprised Caleb was how messy it all was. Papers were scattered all over the floor, some crumbled up and some flat.

And in the midst of everything was Professor Suarez facing the wall, a short stub of a cigarette in his mouth, a whole pack sticking out of his pocket.

"What the hell are you doing?" Caleb demanded. Professor Suarez jumped, and quickly turned to meet the eyes of the crossed-armed boy.

"Look," Professor Suarez started, putting down his cigarette. He started walking towards Caleb. "The thing is, with teachers, you can do things that students aren't allowed to do. For example-"

"Breaking your own rules?" Caleb asked, raising an eyebrow. "Yeah, that sounds like a professional thing to do."

Professor Suarez scowled. He took a step closer to him so that his face was one inch away from his. "I wouldn't disrespect me if I were you," He whispered. Caleb smirked.

"Of course not, sir," He said sarcastically. He took a step back, and turned around and went out the door, Professor Suarez slamming it behind him.

Caleb grabbed one of the candles from its holder on the wall, and turned a few corners until he found the door he was looking for; the door to one of the unfinished classrooms. He fidgeted with the handle a little before deciding that it was unlocked, quietly turning it and pushing the door open.

Everything in the room was dusty and broken, pieces of stone falling from the ceiling when Caleb opened it. Half of the room was painted with white paint, but the rest was its normal burgundy color. The paint can was in the corner of the room, a brush sticking up from it.

Caleb took a few more steps in, closing the door behind him and locking it. He stepped to the middle of the room, and reached into his pocket. He pulled out a box, took a piece out of it and used the candle to light the cigarette he had pick-pocketed from Professor Suarez.

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