I picked up the pace. I didn’t know what the hell that guy’s problem was, or why he set his sights on me, but I wanted nowhere near him.
“I’m out of here,” I shrieked, rounding the corner and coming out in a long, dark hallway. “I don’t care what it takes. I’m finding my sister and getting out of this place today!”
“Where will you sssstart?”
That slowed me down. “I’m not sure,” I confessed, “but that’s what this is for.” I held up my notebook even though she couldn’t see it through my shirt. “I’m going to map every inch of this place and mark off every nook and cranny as I search it.”
“A lengthy and laborious task.”
I lifted my chin, marching off in a new direction. “That’s why I better get started.”
Gooooonnnnggg!
I hissed, clapping my hands over my ears as a loud, ear-drumming sound ripped through the echoing laughter. “What was that?”
No sooner was the question out of my mouth than it was snatched away and drowned out under clomping, pounding, thundering footfalls. A horde of demons pushed and shoved into the hallway, and came straight for me.
I pressed against the wall to let them past, but thankfully, they weren’t interested in yelling insults or death threats at me. They hurried quickly, but violently, down the hallway and took a left past a suit of armor. Their shouting and carrying on echoed long after they left.
“You need to follow them, human,” Sabrina said when she could be heard. “They could be going to your lessons.”
“I’m not following them, Sabrina. I’m not actually a student here,” I reminded. “I’m here to get Dora and get out. I’m not wasting my time on anything else.”
“How does it work in your human schools?” She shot out of my shirt, startling me. “Can you refuse to attend your lessons and still expect to be a student of that school?”
“I... Well, no, but—”
“Precisssely,” she sliced off. “Every student of Abaddon must attend every one of their lessons. If you miss one, you’ll be expelled.”
“What!” I cried. “Expelled for skipping one class? That’s insane.”
“It is only insanity to a human,” she said. “Demons are selfish creatures. Nothing but their own wants and needs interest them. Abaddon must be harsh in their enforcement of the rules, or not a single demon would follow them.”
“But I don’t have time for this,” I burst out, frustration bleeding through my pores. “I’ve already wasted a whole day and night. I need to search for Dora!”
Sabrina weathered my outburst without a blink. “Do not despair, human. If everyone must attend their lessons to avoid expulsion from the academy... that means everyone must attend their lessons.”
I pulled a face, frowning at her. “What are you...?” I trailed off—understanding smacking me over the head. “Everyone includes the sacks of manure who kidnapped my sister! They’ll have to show up to class, or risk being booted out of theirneutralhostage location,” I said. “If I find one of them, forget wandering around mapping this place, I can just follow them back to Dora.” I was already moving and chasing after the crowd that disappeared past the suit of armor. “Will they see through my glamour? They know me. They’ve seen me. They stalked my sister and broke in our house.”
She shook her head. “The only way they’ll be able to see through the glamour is if you tell them you’re wearing one. I assume you have no intention of doing so.”
“You assume correctly.” I picked up the pace—renewed determination lighting a fire under my clown slippers. “And there’s no way they could be skipping classes and getting away with it by lying low somewhere?”
“The patches are spelled, human. If they weren’t attending their lessons, it would be known—and there’d be no place for them to hide.”
“That’s the best thing I’ve heard in a month.”
In my head, I figured those pricks would be stashed away in some basement dungeon, but if they had to play student just like the rest of us, then maybe it wasn’t optimism talking. I really could find my sister in a day or two.
“All I have to do is findthem.”
Thankfully, demons were a loud and raucous bunch. I had no trouble following their noise through the darkened, velvet-walled corridor to a set of closing double doors. If I was an admirer of creepy, death-based architecture, I’d have a major crush on the dancing skeletons carved into the mahogany entrance. They danced, balancing on bony tiptoes as their hands joined above their heads and at the meeting of the doorknobs.
I broke their embrace, throwing the doors open. “Oh no...”
This was not a lecture hall, or anything approaching the hell equivalent of one. The gong has summoned me to a place much, much worse.
“The cafeteria,” I rasped as dozens of pairs of eyes flew off the buffet, and landed on me.
