Chapter Six

Christie was aware that Silvia had gone to the castle. That she would see her soon. But still, she couldn’t stop worrying as she slowly began to descend to the ground, in front of the fortress.

“Will I ever see her again?” She said aloud and landed on the ground-which turned out to be mud-with a loud splat!

“That, you won’t often. Only during meals.” An unfamiliar, cold voice said from behind. Christie turned to find herself face to face with a young woman of about thirty. She had a very bony face and wore extremely dark makeup(black lipstick, black eye shadow and even a little bit of grey blush). Her hair was pulled back into a tight bun(not a hair was out of place) and had a pointy nose and thin lips. She wore a long, very tight grey dress made of leather.

Overall, Christie decided, the woman was quite pretty.

“Madam Valencia. Headmistress of Academy of Vile which will be your school.” The woman said in the same cool voice. Before Christie could say anything, Madam Valencia walked ahead of her, towards the entrance which had a sign reading: The Academy Of Vile.

“Follow me if you please.” She didn’t look back to see Christie following her. She simply opened the huge doors with a wave of her hand and entered. Christie scrambled in after her without questioning how she opened the doors without touching them, but stopped the second she stepped a foot inside and gasped. She gazed around herself in wonder. The room was huge and the stone walls were covered with portraits, windows and doors. There was a huge, dusty chandelier with hundreds of candles that flickered at every movement someone made, causing the room to be illuminated with shadows. Every corner had broken down fireplaces with ripped armchairs surrounding them. In the middle of the room was a big staircase that led to a platform which on either side had another staircase. Above those staircases were signs that read East and West.

“Hurry up.” Madam Valencia snapped. Christie quickened her pace to catch up with the headmistress. The strict headmistress ushered up the staircase and into the room on the platform(HEADMISTRESS’S OFFICE, the sign read).

“What the-” Christie gasped as she took in the room. The room did look quite like the average office your principal would have. But except for that one cupboard or two, behind the chipped wooden desk were hundreds, perhaps thousands, of big drawers. Each had labels of students’ names.

“I suppose you’re Christie Shantelle?” Christie peeled her eyes away from the drawers and looked at the headmistress who was waiting impatiently for her answer.

“Yes. But how did you-”

“Last to arrive.” Madam Valencia muttered and guided her left hand to a drawer at top-left of the right wall.

The label read: Christie Shantelle. Her name, Christie realized. The drawer magically burst open as a burst of white light hit the handle.

“Huh.” Christie stared at Madam Valencia who was waving her right hand to retrieve a grey dress that had a hideous symbol of a green ogre on the right sleeve, a pile of thick books and a piece of paper. While steering them into a bag, Madam Valencia grumbled how the headmaster brought village students late all the time and how wasteful it was to give free days to students who arrived days before just for one student to come.

“Now,” she said abruptly, “this is your timetable. Classes start on Monday straight after breakfast. Your times are written on this. Your dorm is East Seventeen. You’ll be sharing with four other girls whom you’ll get to know. Go to your dorm now. Your roommates should be waiting.” Madam Valencia smiled briefly, handed her the bag and timetable and shoved her out the door.

“W-wait. Where’s East Seventeen?” Christie called. The headmistress did not answer. Christie sighed and looked around. East Seventeen. East Seventeen. East Seventeen. She thought, and one sign caught her eye. Above the staircase on the left side of her was the sign that read: East. Heart hammering, she dashed up the stone stairs and stopped at the top.

“Now where am I going?” She muttered in frustration. She kicked at the wall. Bits of the stone crumbled to the ground, leaving a hole.

“Oy!” Someone yelled from the bottom of the first staircase that led to Madam Valencia’s office. She turned around, hopefully. It was a thin boy looking around her age. “Are you looking for your dorm?”

“Yes. I can’t find the way to the dorms though!”

The boy smirked. “You’re in the East, right?”

Christie nodded. He pointed to the west staircase.

“It’s a trick to stop people from the Honor Academy sneaking in to visit their friends. Not that they will have any here of course. You just have to go straight up that staircase and right in front of you, a door will appear since you're a girl. The door for west dormitories didn’t open for you because you’re not a boy.” He explained. Christie smiled down at him, gratefully.

“Thanks.” She sighed and went back down the ‘east’ staircase and up the ‘west’ staircase. She paused as she remembered what the boy had said.

It’s a trick to stop people from the Honor Academy sneaking in to visit their friends. Not that they will have any of course.

She immediately thought of Silvia. If this was the Vile Academy, then the one Silvia went to was the Honor Academy, which meant, they couldn’t be friends anymore. She turned around. The boy was still there, watching her.

“Hey. What did you mean by Viles and Honors not being friends?” She asked, knowing what the answer would be.

“Because we’re enemies.” The boy shrugged. She had been expecting this answer. So, she nodded and trudged up the stairs, frowning. When she reached the top, she looked up and found a large, old door situated right in front of her. It was a strange door, she noticed, because it had a mouth. She leaned in to get a closer look. The door coughed out dust and croaked, “Stop looking at me like that! You’re too close!” Christie jumped. She hadn’t expected the door to talk.

“Sorry.” She mumbled and stared hard at it(not as close as before) as the door now had big yellow eyes, glaring at her.

“Well? Are you going to come in or what?” The door growled.

“Oh? Oh. Yeah.” She reached for the door handle, but it was gone.

“You have to tell me your room number!” The door yelled, irritated.

“Seventeen!” Christie, also feeling frustraded, screamed back. The door closed its eyes. A low rumbling sound came out of its mouth.

“East Seventeen: Christie, Ashlyn, Ravana, Lamia and Ebony.” The door croaked and it swung open to reveal a room, filled with four immoral girls, awaiting their last roommate.