Total pages in book: 107
Estimated words: 100859 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 504(@200wpm)___ 403(@250wpm)___ 336(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 100859 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 504(@200wpm)___ 403(@250wpm)___ 336(@300wpm)
Chapter 11
Crane
I’m not sure if it was the talk I had with Kat that helped, someone to listen to what I was saying and not dismiss me as Sister Sophie did, but I finally had a good sleep last night.
Or should I say, I at least managed to ignore the sounds. Marie’s accusatory cry and her insults, followed by the thump of the thing in the hallway. But I just put the pillow over my head and counted backward from one hundred, and then, by some miracle, I was out.
Suffice to say, I wake in the morning feeling in good spirits. Part of me wants to leave the ghosts as practical jokes and move on, while the other has the energy to investigate into Vivienne Henry further. I don’t know why the teacher I replaced is of such interest to me. It sounds like she had a nervous breakdown and killed herself. That happens. The isolation probably got to her. The stress. She had been here for far too long. Yet because I know that ghosts exist and that she did die on the school grounds—in the lake—and I did replace her in a technical sense, I wouldn’t be surprised if the ghost outside my door is Vivienne.
Unfortunately, if that’s true, it probably means she’s out for revenge. A lot of ghosts seek those with magic because our energy is such a draw for them, like moths to a flame. Only on rare occasions are those ghosts actually able to cause harm. If the ghost was also magically inclined before they died, well, that’s something I don’t want to find out.
Nonetheless, I bathe and get dressed for the day, and before I head out to the dining hall for food, I decide to pull a card from one of my decks.
I pull the Ten of Swords.
To those who dabble casually in the arcane, the Ten of Swords doesn’t always mean calamity. A man on the ground with ten swords on his back might mean you’re starting over at rock bottom, not certain doom.
But when I pull the card, I see myself on the ground, mimicking the knight drawn on the card deck, my face caked in dirt while I scream for mercy. There is something dark above me, monstrously tall and large, a big black figure that seems to stretch into an endless night sky, the sound of a horse whinnying and galloping hooves. The echo of a blade being drawn.
I push the deck away and sit back in my chair. I certainly wasn’t expecting that.
So much for waking up in good spirits.
I take in a few long and deep breaths, flexing my fingers as I calm myself down, reminding myself that my visions aren’t always reliable. Then I head out into the hall, expecting to see the body there.
I don’t see the body, of course, just Daniels locking up his door. I wave at him and trot over, wanting company on the way to the dining hall so I don’t get trapped in my own thoughts again.
“Crane,” Daniels says to me with a jovial smile. “How are we this morning, boy?”
He slaps me on the shoulder, his mustache bristling as he talks. Daniels is probably only ten years older than me, but he treats me like a kid. I’ll take whatever flattery I can get.
“I haven’t quit yet,” I tell him as we walk down the hall. “So that’s a good sign.”
“Aye,” he says. “It’s a hard place to be at times. But they do take care of us here.”
“You’ve been here for two years, haven’t you?”
“That I have,” he says as we go down the grand staircase.
“Do you go home in the summer?”
His brows raise. “Home? This is our home, Crane. Where else would I go?”
I shove my hands in my coat pockets as we step into the cool, misty morning, the path slick with fallen leaves. “I don’t know. Perhaps the city. Maybe even Sleepy Hollow itself.”
“And risk losing my magic?” he asks. “I don’t want to forget anything I’ve learned here.”
“They say it comes back,” I tell him.
“Have you put that to the test?” he asks. “What if it doesn’t, and then I’m useless as a teacher?”
“But you teach philosophy and literature,” I point out with a laugh.
“It doesn’t matter. My magic is getting stronger here with each passing week. I’m not giving that up. The power, Crane. That feeling of being a god. It’s better than fucking.”
When he puts it that way… “Don’t you think that keeps the teachers here indefinitely?”
He shakes his head. “Eventually, they leave. But you might as well put off the inevitable.”
I stop outside the doors to the dining hall, touching his arm briefly to pull him to a stop. “Did you know Vivienne Henry well?”
His face goes slack, his mustache pulling down at his mouth. “Not well, no. I suppose there are no secrets here, are there?”