Chapter Eight

“Well, hurry up and go inside!” The door grunted angrily. Christie glared at it before walking into the ghastly room. The four girls gawked at her as she looked around the room. Next to her was another chipped, dusty door that looked as if it was meant to bring the room a bit of sunshine with its bright yellow colour but had failed. The grey walls were covered with cobwebs and holes, and there were only two small windows in the room which were both situated on the east wall. They were so dirty and had too much dust clinging on them that they were blurry and the view of the outside could not be seen properly. Pushed aside were the curtains, dirtied and moth eaten. The floor was made of stones and had few cracks here and there. There was a broken chair, ready to collapse, in the most cobwebbiest corner of the room, which was really quite pointless. Finally, against the east and west walls were five beds(three on the west and two on the east), and each had a very old, very dusty wooden trunk each labelled with names.

“So, you’re the village girl? The girl who comes from the non-magical town?” Asked the thin, very pretty blonde girl rudely from a bed from the east wall.

“Don’t be so rude Ashley.” Said the sickly looking pale(but rather chubby) girl from the next bed.

“If you call me ‘Ashley’ one more time, I’ll burn you.” Grumped the first girl.

“You should know that she isn’t kidding.” Snickered the girl with the green mohawk hair from across the room.

“I called her Ashley because I thought she said her name was Ashley when she said not to call her Ashley or she’ll burn me. She burnt me the second I called her that.” The last girl with the long black hair that covered her face, muttered gloomily. She pulled back her sleeve on the right arm and revealed a long, purple burn that covered half her arm.

“My name is Ashlyn. You hear that? Ash-lyn!” Snapped the ‘Ashley’ girl and turned away to glare at the wall.

“Well, yeah. So her name is Ashlyn, and I’m Lamia.” Grinned the friendly girl. She stuck out her stout hand for Christie to shake.

“Ravana.” Said the mohawk girl. Like Lamia, she shook Christie’s hand, who flinched when she felt the girl’s hand, because it was very, very cold. Ravana chuckled. “Sorry. My hand is rather cold. Genetically from my mother.”

“Ebony.” The gloomy one mumbled and shook Christie’s finger, as if she was ill.

“I’m Christie,” said Christie, “and yeah, I am the village girl, the girl from the un-magical town.” She added coldly at Ashlyn. Ravana and Lavina laughed. They were a very cheerful pair, Christie thought.

“Uh, so where do you come from?” Christie asked Ravana who grinned rather evilly.

“The Torturous Terrain, where people freeze to death within two days. I don’t, because my body temperature is almost exactly the same. It’s why it’s so torturous. The coldness is basically torturing you to death. Zero sunlight.” Ravana said proudly. Thinking, what is there to be proud about?, Christie turned to Lavina.

“What about you?”

“Before I tell you, sit down on your bed. Aren’t you tired of standing?” Said Lavina and gestured at the empty bed next to Ravana. Christie looked at the bed wearily. She didn’t like the look of its scrabbiness and the amount of dust it had.

“You’re gonna have to sleep there, anyways.” Ebony whispered, almost as if she was reminding her.

“Right.” Christie muttered and gingerly sat down on the bed which was surprisingly very comfortable. “Ohh.’’ She sighed appreciatively. She hadn’t realized how much her legs needed rest until now.

“I know that expression.” Ravana laughed at the relieved expression Christie had on her face. From across the room, Ashlyn smirked cruelly.

“Looks like an idiot.” She murmured, loud enough for Christie to hear. The grin on Christie’s face vanished. Annoyance replaced all the cheery feeling she had been feeling. Her hands clenched into fists.

“What? You gonna kill me? I’d like to see you try.” Cackled Ashlyn mockingly.

“Shut it, Ashlyn. You don’t know what she can do.” Warned Ravana, who was now unsmiling and looking very serious. She turned to Christie and explained, “All Vile students have the power to do something when they’re angry, like Ashlyn can burn you, like I can do the opposite of what she does-freeze you.”

Christie’s mouth fell open with shock.

“What can they do?” She gestured at Lamia and Ebony.

“Well, Lamia’s too happy all the time to be angry, so we haven’t seen what she does, and all that Ebony feels is sadness.”

Curious to know what she can do, Christie asked, “How much do you need to be angry to show these...powers?”

“It all depends on how big your temper gets,” said Lamia who had been listening, “because think about it. If you did something to me and I didn't get that angry and you did the same thing to Ashlyn, Ashlyn would get furious and could summon her powers-burning you-, whereas I can’t because I’m not as mad.”

Ashlyn, who had also been listening, exclaimed, “so are you saying that anything would make me mad? Are you saying everything everyone does, I’ll get mad at that?” Her hands glowed fire red and steam blew out of her ears as she leapt off her bed.

“What on earth-” Christie began, but Ravana clamped her hand on her mouth. Christie flinched at the coldness of the hand.

“Best not to say anything when she can burn you. Hurts like hell, Ebony says.” Ravana whispered very quietly, so only Christie could hear.

“No.” They heard Lamia say weakly.

“Exactly. Next time I hear you say those words or anything about me, you will be dying of pain.” Ashlyn fumed, dumped herself back onto her bed and spun to face the wall, breathing heavily(which rather stank up the room). Christie looked at Lamia who shrugged and said, “well, at least you almost saw what I was saying?”

Knowing what was bound to happen, Ravana and Ebony(she had been watching-shockingly-in amusement which was shown by her less depressed expression) looked away. Christie, however, did not realize and stared at Lamia in confusement as she cringed at her mistake. And a minute later, Christie found out what had been wrong. A high pitched scream made Ravana, Ebony and Christie to wince and squeeze their eyes shut. When they opened, Ashlyn was storming out of the room, leaving Lamia on the floor, groaning and clutching her left arm in pain.