{DONE, DEAD} Something Wicked This Way Comes

Nikolai was hungry. Which wasn't at all surprising since he'd been rather neglectful of meals for the past week or so. Still, he was torn between wanting to tear through the stack of nearly-raw steaks in front of him and wanting to push the plate away in disgust.

No, not disgust at the raw meat, for that was as appetizing as ever to his draconic tastebuds, but at a rather disturbing memory from earlier that day.

The forest had been disturbed. Nikolai had a habit of getting up very early to take long walks before doing his job, just to feel closer to home than he did on the campus. It was at about six fifteen this particular morning that he noticed that there was loose earth all over the place.

It would not have bothered him, except for the fact that it was in spots that were discreet and hard to spot if one wasn't paying attention and a smell... a very strong smell roused his inner dragon.

Now dragons will not touch festering meat, so Nikolai was in no particular danger of Shifting because of this scent. It was light and masked by the smell of Earth and Tree, but it was still there.

Nikolai knew what was under the loose soil without digging. And he was afraid of unearthing whatever dead things were there. He was sure it was nothing too out of the ordinary, so he didn't report it. In all likelihood, a new predator had come to these parts. A predator with a penchant for saving its kills for later.

Nikolai shrugged all of this away and looked outside. It was well past ten o clock and the stars were out. Perfect time to come to the dining hall and scrounge up a meal that most people would not find appetizing.


This being a civilized place, Nikolai felt like he had to use the unnecessary knife and fork. At least they reflected light...

---

Jonathan Enders had not been able to sleep. So he went to get a glass of warm milk. The tryptophan would be more than enough to knock him out.

He shuffled his way into the dining room, his beard knotted and looking more like a dense, gray scribble than hair. At least he'd managed to get the rest of his hair into a somewhat manageable braid that trailed down his back.

He slid into the dining hall and was tired enough to be blind to the only occupant until he had retrieved a glass of milk. Ahhh... His blue eyes spotted what appeared to be a student in front of... was that raw meat.

Enders was an anatomy teacher. Which was a good thing, else he would have been grossed out by this fellow's eating habits. Instead, he sat across the table from him and offered up a wry smile. "Interesting choice of late-night snack."

His smile grew when the boy fixed him with an odd look. Johnny introduced himself and held out a hand. "Jonathan Enders, Anatomy teacher."

The boy shook his hand and replied, "Nikolai Dawes, Groundskeeper." Enders was surprised, but he masked that. So young for a member of staff!


||I will continue to post here regardless of whether people join in the thread or the Plot. Stay tuned for more.||

Nikolai watched the old man sip his drink, not thinking anything in general. He gave a start when Jonathan asked him something.

"Pardon?"
The old man smiled and repeated, "So you're a ultra-rare steak man? Might I ask why you would risk it?"

Nikolai shrugged. "I like the taste. It has never made me sick before."

"Interesting..."

Nikolai shrugged and asked a question of his own as he cut of a chunk of the meat. "You are having troubles sleeping?"

Johnny looked stricken, then remembered that he was in his pajamas and was holding a glass of milk. "Yes. I am given to worrying about simple things that probably have an explanation." He shrugged. "I thought that a glass of milk might calm my mind."

Nikolai chewed pensively. "Maybe giving voice to your preoccupations will provide some insight to the underlying cause? Speak. I will listen."

Johnny Enders thought about this proposal for a moment, then nodded. "Alright. As long as you tell nobody else. I do not want to cause trouble for a mere misunderstanding." He only continued when the black-haired boy nodded. "This afternoon, I walked into the main office to turn in some paperwork. Only... there was a man I didn't recognize rifling through the filing cabinets, pulling out files at random. He was so intent on this task that he didn't notice me standing there watching him. He would take out a file, read through it, set it aside or shove it back into the cabinet.

"Now I thought that was very cavalier of him. After all, those files are supposed to contain some very sensitive information about the students- their records and all that. So I stand there and what happens next? He goes to the copy machine and makes copies! I didn't say anything, though. He seemed so sure of himself. Maybe he was a secretary or something.

"When he turned around after making copies, he finally noticed my presence. He gave me a pleasant hello, put away the files, and paperclipped the pages together. He put the papers in a briefcase and walked out as a woman walked in. She asked him if he had another engagement- she was so sorry for making him wait for so long. He told her that yes, he did have a previous engagement and that he would have to take a rain check.

"I watched him leave and I watched her sit behind the desk. It all felt so... fishy to me. But I keep wondering if I imagined it all. I mean, his eyes were so cold, but he acted like everything was all fine."

He squinted at the boy. "Are you alright? That meat hasn't made you sick, has it?"

Nikolai shook his head. There was something odd about this man's description of the stranger in the office. He sounded all too familiar to him.

He'd have to say something to Caroline, the teacher he'd met during the festival. Ask her if her new pet had been visiting the school.

"I am fine... You have quite a problem there. Have you asked about his employment? You might need to report this."

"Hmmmm... yes. I will do that as soon as the office opens in the morning..."

Nikolai shrugged. "Or we can use my keys to get into the office and check up on it ourselves."

Enders emphatically shook his head and said in an admonishing tone, "Then we wouldn't be any better than him, if he's not an employee! I will not stoop to such measures. What harm will a night make?"

Nikolai was already on his feet. "Listen to me, Mr. Enders. You might be right and it is nothing. If that is so, our worries are all for nothing and a night will mean exactly that: nothing. But if you are wrong and a stranger has stolen personal documents, then there might be something very, very dangerous going on. I have my own worries and I do not like the timing. Some of the students at this school can do great and powerful things. Do you really think a stranger can just break in and NOT use that information for his own gain? What do you suppose he'll do with that information?"

Enders stood too, but said in a dark voice, "And what we're doing? Who do you think we could be hurting? You and I can both be fired, we'll violate the privacy of half a dozen other employees at this school, all for the sake of something I might have imagined!"

And now it was Nikolai's turn to speak. He asked quietly, "What did this man look like?"

Enders raised an eyebrow and closed his eyes in remembering. "Blonde hair, lightish eyes... I think they were blue. He was pale, I think.... All I remember is a coldness when he looked at me.... what?" He'd opened his eyes to see a Nikolai with a serious expression on his face.

"You and I are going to the main office. Now."

The boy's tone had Enders convinced. The two made a brief stop in the janitor's closet to pick up Nikolai's keyring (he had it stashed on top of an impressive pile of junk and what seemed like jewelry- Enders did not question it, though).

By this time, Nikolai was absolutely sure there was something wrong here. This man sounded too familiar for comfort. And if it was who he thought it was, then there had been a lie somewhere along the line.

He had to be sure. But he was afraid that if he was right, it might already be too late to stop something horrible from happening. His internal dragon woke up at this influx of anger and growled deep in his breast. He would protect this place at all costs...


The halls were eerily silent- a silence they could almost taste, like the sense of the world holding its breath. It made them both a little more jumpy and the sounds of their own footfalls startled them.

Nikolai bit his lower lip as he unlocked the office. They both rushed to the filing cabinet holding the employee records. Enders was hesitant, so it was Nikolai who yanked the first drawer open. He was succinct when he said, "Look for a person of your description or a first name 'Hector'"

Johnny shot him a puzzled look, but shrugged and pulled out a few files. His heart was pounding in his throat. This was so wrong! It went against all that he believed in, against every moral thread in his being.

Nikolai held no qualms about this task. He made sure that he had his own file, though. Despite having no reason to distrust this teacher, he still didn't want his personal information broadcasted. It was sensitive. He came across Ms. Caroline's file, and Amy's. He gave them cursory scans, then discarded them as quickly as he'd picked them up. He snapped at the old man, "Quickly! If you see anything that doesn't match, then move on. You didn't want to do this, remember?"

The old man sheepishly put away the file he'd slowly been perusing. There was a temptation to learn more about his colleagues; as a man of science, it was oh-so-difficult to just put knowledge aside as though it didn't matter. He sped up, hearing urgency in the boy's voice. Files passed in and out of his hands, then onto the floor. They were making a mess, but it suddenly didn’t matter anymore. Water under the bridge and all that. If they were going to get caught, they were going to be fired regardless of whether or not they cleaned up after their snooping.

About thirty minutes later, they came to a disturbing conclusion. "There is no such man on the staff," said Nikolai, stating the horribly obvious truth of it. "We need to get the-" He stood up suddenly, his nose in the air. Papers flurried to the floor since they had been on his lap when he'd gotten up.

"What? What is it?" Enders also rose to his feet, alarmed by the look on the boy's face.

"Hide. I smell decaying flesh," Nikolai growled.

It was too late. Both simultaneously jerked hands to their necks as they felt a pricking sensation. Nikolai went out like a light. Enders lingered for some odd reason, and he jerked the dart out. "...tranquilizer..." he whispered.

His dimming vision yielded a gloating face and cold, colorless eyes. “…wizard,” a voice laughed. And then Enders knew darkness.



[THIS IS THE END OF PHASE TWO. I WILL POST THE FINAL PHASE SOON. STAY ALERT AND EVER-WATCHFUL.]

[WHILE YOU ALL ARE WAITING FOR THE FINAL PHASE I HAVE THIS SEMI-HINT. ENJOY.]

Sade woke up out of a very deep night's sleep to the sensation of something going very wrong. She hit her head on the underside of her bed before remembering that she'd crawled under there because she'd been having bad dreams. "Ouch," she whispered as she scooted out from under the bed. She rubbed her head and tried to pinpoint where this horrible sense of dread was coming from.

Sade closed her eyes and froze for about three minutes. A soft, "No" escaped her lips and she reached for her violin case, which was eternally within armlength.

A minute later, she was on the Otherside. What she saw scared and awed her. Sade was standing on a vast Plain, cliffs on one side, mountains in the distance. And covering the majority of the Plain were souls. They looked lost and scared and angry. Some of them gathered into groups, their whispery voices raised in anger.

Sade had never seen such a thing before. There were few explanations for such an upheaval in the Otherside. She closed her eyes and took in the voices, quickly discovering the reason for them to leave their respective Finalities. "Heresy," she whispered, horrified, in her low, soothing Otherside voice.

Her body stopped playing the violin and she hurriedly packed it away. Slipping into a robe, she rushed to the door and down the hallway.

This must be stopped.