NaNo 2008 - Chapter Three
I must confess... I'm a little confused about these posts. I'm copying and pasting my chapters from MS Word. I computer formatted them - added extra lines between the paragraphs, you know. Then, when I post a chapter, I have to go back and edit them. I have to physically go in and add in all the extra spaces that should already exist. A bit annoying...
Chapter Three - In the Music: In Which Hitoshi and Hanako Have Trouble with Murphy's Law
"Whoops."
Jake’s eyebrows twitched at the single word. That was never something someone wanted to hear as they approached the student labs. He peeked around the door and saw Hitoshi, scowling at some device. "That didn't sound good,” he said. When Hitoshi looked over at him, he said, “Something wrong?"
"No, nothing wrong,” Hitoshi said, shaking his head. He looked back at the device and picked it up off the table. “That's just the problem. It worked."
"Huh?"
Hitoshi gave him a frustrated look. "It wasn't supposed to work. It was supposed to break." He tossed it back on the table and sat down on a stool. His fingers danced over the keys, as he made notes about whatever he was working on.
“How’s that work?” Jake said, blinking incredulously. Why would he want whatever it was he was working on to break? Wasn’t his job to get things working?
Exhaling loudly, Hitoshi picked up another device. It looked almost like a television remote. “This was supposed to break that,” he said, pointing at the other device.
“Oh.” Jake felt a little foolish, but that didn’t matter right then. He cleared his throat. “It’s time to head home, Hitoshi,” he said. “Um… I need to borrow a violin from the music room.”
Hitoshi looked up at him. For a moment, they just stared at each other. Then Hitoshi shut down his laptop and tossed the remote control into a cabinet. He locked it and tucked the key into his pocket. “What the veg, Jake,” he said, as he grabbed his books.
He swept past Jake and into the hallway. Jake fell into step beside him as they hurried towards the music room. "I reminded you," Hitoshi said. He shook his head and gave Jake a vaguely annoyed look. "I reminded you to bring your violin and you still forgot it."
Jake shrugged and ran a hand through his hair. "Yeah," he said. His brows furrowed. "I don't know where my head was this morning. Anyway, the teacher said I could borrow one from the music room, at least."
Hitoshi nodded as they headed into the music room. While Jake began searching the shelves for a usable instrument, he wandered over to the large portrait that hung at the back of the room. It had been there for as long as he could remember and he'd always wondered who it was.
"Anyway," he said, as he stepped closer to it, "I don't know anything about the Circle Society Oliver asked you about."
"Me neither," Jake said, from behind him. "I wonder if we're supposed to know at all. The teachers seem to be working hard at keeping it all on the down-low."
Hitoshi nodded and then he noticed a small, tarnished nameplate attached to the frame. That was one thing he'd never noticed before. He stepped up to it and rubbed at the corroded metal with a fingertip, trying to buff it up enough to read the swirling script. "Henri Dufresne," he read. "1910 through 1970."
"Is that how long he taught here or how long he lived?" Jake said.
Hitoshi glanced over at his friend. Jake was standing on a chair, trying to grab a violin off the top shelf. He smirked and shook his head. "The school didn't open until 1943, genius," he said. "That means those must be his birth and death dates."
"Oh," Jake said.
Scowling, Hitoshi stepped away from the portrait. "Do you need a hand, Jake?" he asked. Before the other boy could answer, there was a bang, almost like a gunshot. Hitoshi gasped and whirled around. He had just enough time to realize that the portrait had fallen off the wall, when there was a startled cry and a clang.
"Ow," Jake said, as Hitoshi turned back around. He held up the violin case with one hand and said, "That startled me and I fell."
"Are you hurt?' Hitoshi said. He shifted nervously from one foot to the other. Should he go over and check on Jake or should he see if the portrait was damaged?
Jake grimaced and set the case on his knees. He flipped it open and heaved a sigh of relief. "I'm fine and so's the violin," he said.
"That's good," Hitoshi said. He sighed and stepped over to the portrait. He picked it up and turned it over. The wire it had been hanging by was intact. He looked at the wall. The hook was still firmly in place. His brows furrowed. "Why'd it fall?" he murmured.
Shaking his head, he hung the portrait back in place. Maybe it hadn't been securely on the hook and he'd dislodged it when he rubbed the nameplate? He tested the picture and, once he felt it was secure, he turned away. "Oyaji'll be waiting for us," he said.
Jake nodded, but before he could speak, the door banged closed. His brows furrowed and he shot Hitoshi a look. "The... um, wind?" he said.
"We'll go with that," Hitoshi said. They both knew the windows were closed. There was no way for the door to have been blown shut. However, at the same time, there was no one around who could have closed it either.
They hurried out of the room, down the hall and out into the front schoolyard. By the time they reached the car, Hitoshi was panting. "Sorry," he said breathlessly. "Jake forgot his violin at home, so we had to borrow one from the music room here."
"Whatever," his father said, shrugging his shoulders. If it were up to him, his son wouldn't be playing the violin. To his way of thinking, Hitoshi should be concentrating on tennis, to the exclusion of other things.
His mother, however, was determined to teach Hitoshi that there was more to life than tennis. To that end, she encouraged him to develop other interests - many other interests. Oyaji was smart enough to know that he should let her win that particular debate. Twelve years of marriage was useful that way.
"Okay," Jake said, glancing over at Hitoshi. "Just what was up with that?" His brows furrowed and he shook his head. "Did you sense anything?"
"No," Hitoshi said. His own brows furrowed. His first thought was that it was a ghost - perhaps of the man whose portrait he'd knocked off the wall. Now, though, he had to wonder. "No, I didn't sense any spirits."
"Does that mean there definitely weren't any?" Jake asked.
Hitoshi looked over at him and grimaced. "I'm still learning," he said shrugging. "It might be that a spirit was there, but was powerful enough to hide from me."
"Oh, but that's scary," Aidan said. He grinned and then shrugged at Hitoshi and Jake. "Hana and I need to work on a project."
"718," Hitoshi said, nodding. He looked over at Hanako and said, "You think it's ready for field testing?"
"I think it's the best way to know if we've got the bugs worked out of it," she said, nodding.
Oyaji looked at them in the rearview mirror. "What's Project 718 again? I don't recall." He shook his head and then looked back at the road.
"Glasses with a tracker in them," Hitoshi said. He smirked and added, "Among other things." He looked at his sister again and asked, "Who's doing the testing and who's doing the monitoring?"
"I'm going to where the glasses and Aidan's going to stay at the house and monitor the systems," she said. Her nose crinkled in amusement and she added, "He didn't really want to be out in the sunshine for that long."
"I can understand that," Jake said, nodding in agreement.
It wasn't long before they arrived at the Murata home. The house was a modest one, but well suited to the family's needs. Hanako and Aidan disappeared into the garage, to set up their equipment, while Jake and Hitoshi headed down to the basement, where their playing wouldn't disturb anyone.
The basement was a finished one that Oyaji had set up specifically for the children to practice music in. Hanako's flutes were kept in one cabinet. Hitoshi's violins resided in another. The various musical scores they used for practice and performances were laid out on a bookcase.
"We'll start with the Double Violin Concerto," Hitoshi said. He set his violin case down on a low table and flipped it open. While he tuned the instrument, Jake got the violin he'd borrowed ready.
They set out their music on low stands and began to play. After the first couple lines, both boys stopped. Jake blinked and looked over at Hitoshi. "The music says Concerto for Two Violins in D Minor," he said.
"That's not what we were just playing," Hitoshi said. He looked at the music again. This time, he began humming the tune softly. He stopped again after a few lines and looked at Jake in shock. "That's - that's..."
"Danse Macabre?" Jake said. He blinked and looked at his violin. He played the E-string and shot Hitoshi a confused look. "It's cross-tuned," he said, shaking his head. "Why the veg would I do that?"
"You were playing the main line," Hitoshi said. He shook his head and said, "That's… that's just too weird." He looked at his music and closed it. "I'ma get us something to drink. You tune your violin correctly and we'll try again after a break."
"What if it happens again?" Jake asked.
Hitoshi's brow furrowed. "Then," he said, "we'll put off rehearsing until tomorrow, I guess." He turned around and headed up the steps. Hitoshi wasn't quite sure who was more relieved when he returned and they sat down to play, to find that they were, indeed, playing Bach, rather than Saint-Saëns.
The next day, Jake and Hitoshi went to the music room, to return the violin. However, Jake shook the knob and then looked over at Hitoshi. "Locked," he said.
Hitoshi's brow furrowed. The door to the music room was never locked during school hours. He looked around and then spotted Professor Reeves, Jake's homeroom teacher. "Professor," he called.
The woman looked up from the papers she was reading and walked down the hall. "What's wrong, Hitoshi?" she asked.
"The door's locked and Jake needs to return the violin we borrowed yesterday," he explained.
Professor Reeves scowled and tried the door. "That's odd," she murmured, "I could have sworn..." she trailed off and then looked at the boys. "Just wait here a moment, all right?"
"Yes, ma'am," the boys answered together.
The professor nodded once and then headed off down the corridor. As she disappeared around the corner, there was an audible sliding sound and a loud click. Jake's eyes widened and he looked at Hitoshi. "The door unlocked," he said. He whimpered and shook his head. "I don't wanna go in there."
"Yeah, no," Hitoshi said, taking a step back. He hadn't been able to hear the door unlock, but he had no doubt that Jake had heard it. It simply wasn't like his friend to make something like that up. "We'll just wait in the hall until the professor gets back."
A moment later, a voice echoed down the halls. It was a wheezy voice that immediately remind Jake of the lab assistants in old horror movies. "I unlocked the door, Professor," the voice was saying. "I can't think how it might have come to be locked again."
Professor Reeves appeared at the end of the corridor and smiled gently. "This is Mister Jones, boys," she said. "He's the head janitor." She looked back at the small, mouse-like man beside her and said, "The door was locked, Reggie."
"It just unlocked by itself, Professor Reeves," Jake said. He swallowed thickly and blinked back tears. "I'm not making this up! I heard it!"
"We were too freaked to try it," Hitoshi said, shifting weight from one foot to the other.
Professor Reeves scowled and reached out. She caught the knob and it turned easily in her hand. Her brow furrowed even more and she pushed it open. "Hello?" she called, glancing around the room.
"The picture's on the floor again," Jake said, pointing. He looked at the professor and said, "That picture fell off the wall last night while we were here borrowing the violin."
"Then the door slammed by itself," Hitoshi said, nodding.
"Professor Dufresne was real particular about how the class was kept, ma'am," Mister Jones said. He slipped between them and made his way across the room. "Maybe - maybe the boys did something to upset his spirit."
"But I don't sense a spirit," Hitoshi said, shaking his head.
"I'm sure there's some kind of logical explanation," Professor Reeves said, patting his shoulder gently. She smiled at Jake and said, "Go ahead and put the violin away, Keenan,"
"It's Jake," he murmured. He stepped into the room and then hurried over to the shelves where the spare instruments were stored. He hopped up onto the chair he'd used the night before and settled the violin in its previous place.
"Why'd you borrow that violin?" Mister Jones said, sounding worried and upset. He shot a look at Professor Reeves and said, "That were the late Professor's instrument, ma'am. He donated it to the school after his death."
Jake's brow furrowed and he shot a look at the portrait. "That's just... weird," he said. He shook his head and said, "I gotta get to gym class."
"Me too," Hitoshi said. He hurried after Jake, as they all-but-ran towards the school's gymnasium. "That was way, way too creepy!"
"Yeah," Jake said. He bit his lip thoughtfully and then said, "You don't think that I, like, teed off his spirit or something by borrowing the violin, do you?"
"No," Hitoshi said, shaking his head. "No, there has to be some other explanation." Hitoshi wanted there to be another explanation, but he couldn't imagine what it was. The only thing they knew for certain was that something very strange was going on.
Hitoshi shook the thoughts away and tried to concentrate on class. Gym wasn't his favorite class, but he enjoyed it because it was the only class he shared with his sister. He changed quickly into his gym clothes and headed into the gymnasium.
"Hey," he called to Professor Johnson, who taught the class, along with coaching the All Sports Team. "What are we playing today?"
"Soccer," she said, grinning. She blew her whistle, then, gaining the attention of the two dozen or so students. "All right," she called, waving towards the doors that lead outside, "everyone line up, so that we can head outside. We need to warm up a bit and then we can play. Professor Reeves' homeroom against Professor Stanford's."
Hitoshi grinned. He loved playing any sport, especially against his sister. As much as he cared for her, he was also extreme competitive with her. He looked over at Jake and said, "Who do you think will win?"
"Us, of course," Jake replied. He grinned and shook his head. "Your class is going down, Bookworm." Then he hurried on ahead and joined the stream of students that were heading out to the soccer field.
Gym was, by and large, both enjoyable and uneventful. Hitoshi was on defense as Hanako dribbled the ball down the field towards the goal. If she made it, the class would end with a tie score. However, he was determined to maintain their one-point lead.
He moved to intercept her and then skidded to a stop when Hanako stumbled and fell forward. Suddenly, all thoughts of the game were gone. The only thing he felt was worry for his sister. "Hana?" he said, bounding over and dropping to his knees beside her. "Are you hurt?"
She said up and scowled. She shook her head and then lifted one arm, just in time to see the bloody scrape across it. "I'm bleeding!" she wailed, then the tears began.
Professor Johnson blew her whistle and waved at Jake. "Get the ball, Keenan," she said. "All right, everyone, head inside." She walked across the grass, carrying the first aid kit, and knelt next to Hitoshi. "Let me see it, honey."
Hanako sniffled and pulled her hand away, to allow the teacher to look at the wound. It was a minor scrape, but Hanako didn't deal well with pain. She was even worse about blood - her own or that of others.
"Focus on me," Hitoshi said, taking her hand gently. He smiled at her and said, "You're all right, Hana. Professor Johnson will clean you up and give you a bandage."
"Okay," Hanako said, nodding. She sniffled again and looked over at the teacher.
Professor Johnson had already sprayed the wound with disinfectant. She gave Hanako a reassuring smile, as she covered it with a bandage and taped the gauze in place. "All better," she said. She helped Hanako stand and then looked at Hitoshi. "You both need to get changed back into your school clothes," she said.
"Yes, ma'am," Hitoshi said. Still holding Hanako's hand, he headed towards the door and into the building. He looked at his sister and shook his head. "What'd you trip on?"
"I don't know," Hanako said. She rubbed her eyes and shook her head. Then, in a soft voice, she said, "It felt like someone shoved me, but... there wasn't anyone near me. Was there?"
"Not... not that I saw," Hitoshi said. His brows furrowed. This couldn't have anything to do with Professor Dufresne? Could it? He shook the thought away and then looked at Hanako. "I'll see you at the end of the day, right?"
Hanako nodded and then headed into the girl's locker room, to change back into her school clothes. Hitoshi could hear the other girls in their class as they crowded around her and made sure she was all right. He sighed and spun away. The recital was only a few weeks away. There was no way he was going to let something get in the way of it - no matter what it was!
The next week, Hitoshi was scowling angrily as he waited, along with his classmates, for the bus that would take them off to the field campus. "Why now?" he said, looking up at Professor Stanford. "We're preparing for a recital. It's barely three weeks away. Why are we going on an overnight camping trip - a week long, overnight camping trip - now?"
"Outside air will do us good," the professor said. As he spoke, it was with almost no feeling - as if he was simply repeating what someone else had said. He grimaced and added, in a much softer voice, "I don't want this any more than you do, Hitoshi, but the headmaster said that we all need a little break from the monotony of our schoolwork, especially those students are preparing for the annual recital."
"We can't rehearse in the woods," Hitoshi complained.
Professor Stanford chuckled. "That's rather the idea," he said. He ruffled Hitoshi's hair gently as the bus pulled up to the curb. "You may find that you like camping," Professor Stanford said.
That had been the discussion three days ago. Now, Hitoshi was alone in the forest with a compass and a map. He only knew one thing for certain. "I hate camping."
He turned around in a complete circle and looked at his map again. He should be on a trail that would lead him to the last point in the stupid scavenger hunt. He should have encountered the other members of his team somewhere along the way. "This shouldn't be so vegging hard!" he said.
At that moment, he heard something rustle in the bushes behind him. He tensed and whirled around. His first thought was that it was some kind of wild animal. Something small, if he was lucky. If he was unlucky, it was something large and fierce - like a coyote or a bear. He took a step back and tilted his head.
He thought he heard a voice - a human voice. Animals, whether large or small, didn't talk. However, even in the silence of the woods, he couldn't make out what was being said. "Elle?" he called, with a little tremor in his voice. "Caleb? Is that you?"
He bit his lip, almost hard enough to draw blood. Inwardly, he hoped it was one of his friends. However, as the form began to take shape in the trees, his doubts grew. Whoever it was, they were larger than any of his classmates. Besides that, people were solid and stayed that way. Only one thing had the power to materialize and dematerialize at will: spirits.
"Wh-who's there?" he said. He was shaking now and moving backwards slowly. It didn't matter now how far off course he was or where he needed to go to get back on course. All he cared about was getting away from this particular spirit, and back to his friends, unscathed.
The spirit, or whatever, didn't answer him. Instead, it continued to murmur and grow more solid with each passing moment. It stepped into the clearing where he stood and he got his first clear look at it. "Professor Dufresne?" he said, his brows furrowing.
The spirit's face contorted and changed the moment he spoke. Rather than the faint, knowing smile from his portrait, Professor Dufresne now wore an expression of pure hatred.
Hitoshi's eyes widened, as it stepped closer to him. "The veg?" he breathed. He didn't hesitate any longer. He spun on his heel and ran, full tilt, into the forest. Every time he'd try to change direction, the spirit would appear in front of him, forcing him to double back, or run into its arms.
It didn't take long for him to realize that he was being directed somewhere. The spirit - if that was really what it was - was actively trying to move him towards something or someone. He stopped then, panting and trying to catch his breath. He needed to think. Running heedlessly was only getting him more lost and possibly placing him in danger.
He squinted his eyes closed. He had no idea where he was or how to get back to camp. He had no idea who or what was chasing him or even why. He knew one thing. He couldn't handle this alone.
"I need help," he said. He stretched out his senses, trying to find a spirit, any spirit, that might be able to help him. It only took him a moment to find one. "Help me," he said. "Please, please help me!"
He heard a soft murmur and opened his eyes. Dufresne, or whomever, had returned. He whimpered and stumbled back. At that same moment, a second spirit appeared. He looked no older than Hitoshi. However, his hair was pure white. He glared at the apparition of the former music teacher and then sliced through it with a sword that Hitoshi hadn't even seen him draw.
Then he spun to face Hitoshi in a swirl of dark robes. Pale green-blue eyes locked on Hitoshi for a moment. "Go home," the spirit said.
"Wait," Hitoshi said, when he sensed the spirit was about to leave. "Please," he called. He reached out with his senses. He need the spirit to stay, so it needed a name. Naming a spirit, according to his teacher, bound it. What was the spirit's name? "Nyomari, stay with me," he said.
He opened his eyes and then gasped. The spirit was glaring at him, his hands clenched into firsts. "I - I'm a shinigami," he said, shaking his head. "A prince of the shinigami. How, in the names of all the fates, could you hold me here so easily?"
"It wasn't easy," Hitoshi said. He was sweating with the strain it took to hold the spirit in that location. "Nyomari," he said, taking a tentative step forward. "Is that your name?"
The spirit nodded once. "What are you doing here?" He didn't sound angry anymore, simply frustrated and, perhaps, a bit tired.
"School camping trip," Hitoshi said. He pulled out his map and compass. "I'm supposed to be trying to get to the base camp, here," he said, pointing out the place on the map. "I - I got lost and then - then..."
"That apparition appeared and you panicked." When Hitoshi nodded, Nyomari's brow arched. "Not many would admit to panicking, even if it were true."
Hitoshi shrugged and bit his lip. Tears welled his eyes and he blinked them away. He wasn't going to cry. Crying wouldn't help. "Can - can you h-help me get back?"
"Yes," Nyomari said, with exaggerated patience. "Stop crying." He sighed when Hitoshi sniffled and wiped his eyes. Then he caught on of Hitoshi's hands and they began the long walk back.
Nyomari led him as far as a lightly beaten-down trail. "Your camp should be in that direction," he said, pointing down the slope. He sighed and shook his head. "I'm bound to you now, you know that right?"
"Yeah," Hitoshi said, rubbing his eyes. He nodded and added, "Yeah, I know. I'll... um, try to keep you status in mind and not abuse my position." He bowed and then straightened. "Thank you, Nyomari."
"You're welcome, I suppose," he said, "although you didn't give me much of a choice in the matter."
Hitoshi flashed him a smile, then his brows furrowed. "That - what I encountered in the woods wasn't a spirit at all, was it?"
"No," Nyomari said. He shook his head. "That was a psionic projection. Someone with a very specific form of telekinesis created that apparition to force you into a certain location. I don't know why, but I know that much."
"When you sliced through it..."
"It temporarily ended their connection to the dust they were controlling," he said. "I wouldn't be surprised if it also gave them one doozey of a headache." Nyomari sighed. "Call me, if you have need."
"I will." Hitoshi barely got the two words out, before Nyomari had vanished. "Thank you," he said, to the empty air. He smiled. He was certain the spirit had heard him, wherever he had gone.
"Hitoshi!" Hanako called, as soon as he reached the edge of the camp. "Where were you? We were about to go looking for you."
"Guess you can call off the search party," Hitoshi said. He grimaced and added, "I got lost." He'd tell the professor's later what had really happened. For now, it wasn't important and the truth would only upset Hanako.
"I told Professor Stanford that you shouldn't be allowed to go off on your own," Nomi began. "I said..."
Hitoshi didn't care to know what she'd said. He turned away then, so that he wouldn't be able to hear her or read her lips. "Where is Professor Stanford?" he asked, looking around.
"I was speaking," Nomi said, stepping in front of him.
Hitoshi glared. "Were you?" he said. He smirked and shrugged. "If I can't hear your opinions, they don't matter." Then he spun on his heel and stalked away from her. At the moment, he needed to talk to his teacher, not hear how he should have been forced to stay with someone else because of a disability that had nothing to do with anything.
His brows furrowed as he realized that maybe, just maybe, what had happened in the woods had something to do with that society the students weren't supposed to know about. He spotted his teacher speaking with Professor Reeves and bounded over to them. "Hey," he said, waving.
"Hitoshi," Professor Stanford said, "where were you? When you didn't show up at the appointed time, we began to get worried."
"We were just discussing whether or not we should call the locals in to help us find you," Professor Reeves said, nodding. "Are you all right?"
"Yeah, sorry for worrying everyone," he said. He looked up at his teacher and said, "I got a little turned around, but then I got attacked."
"Attacked?"
Hitoshi nodded and sighed. "A psionic projection of Professor Dufresne," he said. "Someone was trying to use it to make me go someplace. I summoned a spirit that helped me and led me back here."
"Not quite what we had in mind," Professor Stanford said.
Professor Reeves' brows furrowed and then she looked at Hitoshi. "Do you know where it was trying to get you to go?" she asked.
"No," he answered truthfully. He scowled then and crossed his arms over his chest. "What's the Circle Society?" he asked. "Why would they kill the school's groundskeeper? Would they be able to do the things Jake and I saw? Why would they do that? Could they have been the ones who attacked me in the forest? To what ends?"
Hitoshi looked from his teacher to Professor Reeves and back again. Well?" he prompted.
"How'd you even hear about the Circle Society?" Professor Reeves asked.
Hitoshi rolled his eyes. "From Jake," he said, "Jake heard from Oliver and Oliver heard you talking about them - at a teacher's meeting. The police decided it was an accident, but Oliver said Professor Murray said 'William' could have done it." Hitoshi scowled as a sudden though occurred to him. "Did he mean Professor Saunders?"
Professor Stanford looked chagrined. He sighed and looked over at Professor Reeves. "I do believe it's time we let them know what's going on," he said.
"Ya think?" Hitoshi said, arching an eyebrow at his teacher.
Professor Reeves smiled faintly and ruffled his hair. She moved over to where the other students were, and Hitoshi followed behind her. "All right," she said, beckoning to the students, "You've all been read in, so you know that part of our job is to work counter to people who might want to exploit people who are gifted."
The students nodded quietly and settled in to listen. Professor Stanford sighed. "One of those groups of people is known as the Circle Society," he said. "They have been around for some time now. Their main goal, it seems, is to use those with psionic and magic energy as an alternative energy source."
"For real?" Ken said, as other students gasped.
Professor Reeves nodded. "It seems so," she said. "Needless to say, it's not pleasant to be used to power cells."
"It's sounds like something out of a horror movie," Shin said. His brows furrowed and he looked over at Ken. "I think it is something out of a horror movie."
"I am so using that as an idea for my November novel," Nomi said, excitedly. She earned several shocked expressions. "What?" she said, "It's a good idea for a story."
"All right," Professor Stanford said. He sighed and shook his head. "Needless to say," he said, "they need to capture psionics and mages to test out the devices they use to absorb their energy."
"So," Hitoshi said, crossing his arms over his chest, "they were trying to capture me." His brows furrowed and he shook his head. "They were trying to force me into their arms, by making me think a spirit was chasing me."
"And it very nearly worked," Professor Stanford said. He looked at the other students. "Their recent attack means they've stepped up their efforts. That may be why they killed Mister Smith-"
"If they killed Mister Smith," Professor Reeves added in.
Professor Stanford shot her a perturbed look and said, "He may have discovered them trying to get onto the campus, from which they are - at the moment - barred, though some pretty powerful spells."
Professor Reeves nodded. "What you should know is this: for now, you are perfectly safe, so long as you follow proper safety protocols."
Caleb looked over at Hitoshi and frowned. "Should we be worried that she said, 'for now'?" he asked, in a low voice.