“What are you doing here? Are you okay?” He grabs my hand, and I feel those pesky butterflies battling out again as I blush and wave off his concern.
“Oh yeah. I was asked… uh… told actually, to see Dean Caldron. Something happened in one of my classes,” I shrug and try to hide behind my hair. But Levi does the adorable hair behind the ear move, and I swear if I wasn’t sitting, I would crash to the floor with a swoon.
Levi rubs circles on the hand he’s holding, and the look of concern almost kills me. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
The clearing of a throat makes me jump, and Levi gives my hand a squeeze before letting go. Turning to our new audience member, I almost do a double-take. I’m staring at an older Levi, except this man has longer brunette hair pulled away from his face and a neatly trimmed beard.
Down girl!
Levi is gonna look hot when he’s older.
The vampire across from me giggles, and the older gentleman just smiles.Shit, did I say that out loud?I refuse to look at Levi to confirm.
What’s that rule again? Oh yeah, denial is key.
“Nerezza Taylor?” I refrain from rolling my eyes since I’m the only student out here besides Levi. And he just came from his office. “Come on in.” Dean Caldron motions me into the open room with a smile.
With a small smile and little finger wave goodbye to Levi, I walk into the small and tidy room, taking a seat in the chair in front of his desk. His office is welcoming with soft creams and browns, and the smell of fresh tea is a nice change to the heavy woodsy scent I’m used to in most offices. I was a frequent flyer back in my school days. As he takes his seat, I take in his outfit. A blazer over a crisp white shirt and dark wash jeans gives him the professional yet comfortable look. Approachable.
“Hi, Nerezza. It’s nice to meet you. I’m Dean Caldron, and I was told a little bit about what happened, but I was hoping you could fill in the blanks,” he says.
Smooth. What he’s politely saying is Grumpy Bear didn’t want to take the time to actually talk to me. When he had broken through the crowd of students, he yelled at everyone to back up, looked at Katie May’s ashes, then at me. Then he proceeded to yell at me and asked what happened, but when I gave him a scared shrug, he said I was being uncooperative and sent me to be disciplined. So, here I am.
“What blanks do you need me to fill?” I ask, smoothing down my skirt and picking out a leaf that was hidden in the pleats. Watching my fidgeting, he holds out his hand in an offer to throw it away for me.
“Let’s start from the beginning when you were outside heading to a Survival demonstration,” he says in his deep calming voice, lacing his hands in front of him on the desk.
“That’s what we were going out there for?” Hmm. I had no clue. “Well, I guess that demonstration sucked for survival since not all of us survived,” I give him a pointed look while leaning back and crossing my legs. The best way to deal with shit is sarcasm. 10/10 stars, I highly recommend it.
“That was not expected. The Withering Sulks haven’t been seen in years, and there’s no way to defend against it. You were fortunate to have missed the death strip. Unfortunately, Katie May wasn’t lucky enough.” His genuine pain almost makes me crack and confide in him. Almost.
I’ve been burned before and knew better than to open up to the first smiling face there was. But that doesn’t mean I can’t sit here and pump him full of questions. He is the Dean, and maybe he can just write me a quick pass to get out of this nightmare. I’m human, for God's sake, and it’s painfully obvious I don’t belong here.
“What are the Withering Sulks? And can’t you just lock it up? Put a magical cage around it or something?” My curiosity peaks, and sometimes I can’t stop.
His jaw clenches, and he shifts in his seat, obviously not expecting my line of questioning. I’m a pro at diversion. I could probably teach a class.
“Well,” his Adam's apple bobs as he swallows and clears his throat. “I’m sure you’ve already been told about the process of gaining the ability to travel to Earth.” I nod, and he conjures up a small ball of light that he passes between his hands as he continues. Probably a nervous tick.
“There were a few people the Fates denied passage, and they were barred from obtaining the ability to travel. But they were single-minded and wouldn’t take no for an answer. They played around with dark blood magic, which is forbidden, and the Withering Sulks were made. At the time, it was more like a shifting doorway that could be opened with enough power and allowed them and their followers to travel between worlds. The Sulks were made to travel, so we couldn’t track it or detain the followers, which they simply called themselves the Rebels.”
I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m on team Sulks if it can get my ass out of here. As if he’s picking up on my excitement, Dean Caldron looks at me with disapproval.
Resting his chin in his hands, the ball he’s playing with disperses. “It worked for a while, allowing them to travel to Earth and pose as people in power. Genghis Khan, Ivan the Terrible, Vlad the Impaler, and Mary I of England or Bloody Mary. Those are just a few leaders they posed as. Then the Sulks turned into a death trap for all who touched it, even their creators. No one knows how or why. Now it’s an uncontrollable monster running free, destroying life as you saw with Katie May. We don’t even know why or what it is doing now. It’s our version of the BoogeyMan.”
Oh shit! My heart sputters to a stop as all hope of bypassing all of this gets crushed. Is there no hope of leaving here? On top of that, there’s a killer entity on this rollercoaster ride I’m on. There’s no way in hell I’ll be able to do what is needed and pass some ritualistic summons or whatever everyone keeps mumbling about. Before I can continue down this long rabbit hole and maybe ask for more information to get out of here or what I can do to protect myself from this sulking skull thing, we’re interrupted. An annoying beeping is coming from his computer as he clicks a few keys to make it stop.
“I’m sorry, Nerezza, but I will have to cut this short,” he says with an apologetic smile as he pulls out a sheet of paper and pen and writes out a message. “I’ll excuse you for the rest of the day since you’ve just witnessed a classmate being killed by the Sulks. It’s not easy to watch. Just remember to pick up your materials from class,” he continues.A tardy note? What am I, back in grade school, and I need to use the restroom? Though, what did I tell you? The diversion is strong in you, young Nerezza. That’s how you get out of answering questions. Hope you took notes!
Finishing his own note, he folds it into a star and lays it into his palm, and with a puff of air, it goes up in green smoke. A few seconds later, another note lands in his hands in a yellow haze. Nifty trick!
Chapter Seventeen
Mangle is Real?
Rez
Great. While I was in the Deans’ office, the buildings decided to change. Walking into what I thought was the correct tower, I found myself lost. Damnit. You would think I wouldn’t get lost in a building this small, but oh no. Not me, the lucky bastard trying to find her shit and get back to her dorm. My stomach growls, reminding me I also need to eat.
