Chapter 3: Theodore

It was 11 PM, Every student was sleeping soundly in their designated dorm rooms.

Yet Silvana was sleeping so stiff, feeling lost as she was unconscious...

● ● ● ●

She opened her eyes,

everything was a blur.

She could see a burnt out fireplace, her eyes wandered around, it was a room, a library in fact, it looked so dim and messy.

" Hey. "

She suddenly heard a voice that made her frozen in place.

She slowly looked in front of her, it was a boy. He looked badly injured..He was bleeding from his head and neck..

" What book is that? "

*Book..?*

She looked at her hands.

Everything felt red.

The pale color of her hands, contrast with the harsh and dark color of the blood on the book she was holding.

Suddenly she felt pain throughout her body, she fell on the ground, she started to bleed, her redness spreading throughout her body and onto the floor.

She started to feel weaker, her eyes looked around, but all they could see was her blood leaking from her body, with each crawl, she became more fragile from bleeding out.

Crawl? Why was she crawling. Where is she crawling to..?

She didn't know what was happening..but for an odd purpose she was crawling towards a painting.. That had faces she didn't recognize yet her body insisted on crawling.

Her vision went red from the amount of blood she had on her head..and soon that red view turned black.

In the end, everything was blurry again.

_________

Time: 7 AM

As water trickled down, Silvana could see through the water. The place was full of lively plants and flowers as well as shining rocks that you are able to see yourself in.

She observed the overall area externally despite knowing the school grounds well enough already, This portion of the school just felt so off.

". . ." She had been staring into the waterfall for quite some time until she decided to finally move.

"This is an amusing rumour."

She thought to herself as she went and grabbed a spare umbrella, opening it and then walking through the waterfall with ease.

Inside the fall was an ordinary cave, It had a space of a treehouse, nothing out of the blue, just a simple hide out.

"This place just seems different to my presence right now."

She walked around a bit.

"Something's beckoning me here."

She stood still and stared at a part of the cave that just seemed to be a normal stone wall yet it seemed unique from the rest as well.

She came closer, hearing quiet whispers suddenly, each step closer made the murmurs slightly louder.

She placed her hand on the wall, caressing it slightly, feeling the texture of the wall on the tip of her fingers-

The wall disappeared!

She felt her body tilt to the direction of the edge, she saw her feet part with the platform she was standing on.

And suddenly, everything felt swift as she closed her eyes midair.

....

She had found herself lying on a piece of leaf, in a deeper part of the cave.

There were two figures she could see as her eyes opened.

"Hey..Are you okay miss?"

A boy called out to Silvana as she was lying down.

"Hm."

A girl spoke side by side with the boy..She looked familiar..by the first glance, you could already see it was Fier.

Silvana finally spoke.

"Isn't it wonderful that I didn't hit my head as I fell down?"

She said with a small smiling mouth...

The boy nervously laughed at Silvana's strange statement.

"That's...Great, I suppose?..haha..?"

"Great."

Fier said sarcastically as she cast a suspicious glance at them but couldn't help but feel familiarity by this situation.

Silvana sat up still with a small smile despite the confusion the situation was drowned in.

Fier looked up and down at her before finally speaking a full sentence. "How strange.. when I was with the other students the wall didn't disappear at all, so how did you..? no.. that's just my conjecture."

Silvana just looked at Fier and just had her usual smile despite the situation as if she was about to say something but changed her mind.

She finally took her eyes off Silvana and glanced at the boy next to her in turn.

'He said he's Theodore, he's not wearing a school uniform nor has an I.D He can't prove his identity but he has this aristocratic air about him.. despite his clothes being slightly tattered and his hair disheveled. Just how long has he been here..?' She thought to herself as she also looked away to stare at the floor so she could think.

"Maybe he's the spirit that so many speak of within the school grounds."

Silvana joked with a certain tone of her voice as she stood up and brushed off the dust from her uniform.

Upon hearing her sarcastic comment prompted Theo to nervously laugh "A Spirit..?"

Fier had multiple thoughts but she couldn't voice all of them out, as she stared at both of them again when she raised her head. "Perhaps he is? He looks.. Pretty despite his clothes, dainty even."

Theo on the other hand was lost for words upon hearing this and was flushed as a pink rose as he chuckled sheepishly.

'How lady-like..' Fier thought to herself.

Fier assessed the situation as she looked around the cave.

Seeing the ivy on the cavern's wall, she assumed this place was quite old. The smell that permeated through the air seems to belong to the boy next to her, who smelled like ocean water and a gentle perfume.

An odd combination indeed.

Without thinking, Fier poked Theo's rosy cheeks. His temperature was cold but Fier also felt that he was slightly soaked, so she decided to write it off as him being clumsy and staggering onto the cavern's pond.

Silvana broke the awkward silence between them all, She rested her eyes lids and looked at Theo.

"I don't want to make assumptions..but rather an observation, you seem helpless, fragile in your current state."

She said bluntly.

"But that's just my take, What's your story behind this hm?"

She said reaching out her hand to adjust his hair as it seemed messy.

Theo just shook his head refusing to say another word.

Fier, who blatantly rubbed off her hands on her clothes after touching Theo, glanced at him looking hesitant and explained to Silvana, as if it was the most natural thing to do in the world.

"He is suspicious, he only spouts a few words since I met him and he just parroted any statements he finds strange."

After a pause she said.

"What should we do with him?"

Theo looked slightly nervous from all the blabbering about his suspiciousness.

Silvana looked at him with squinting eyes, observing his facial expression.

Silvana looked at Fier.

"Perhaps, we're too focused on common sense...rather than that, maybe we should focus on making him feel welcomed first before we ask the bothering questions."

Her eyes turned back to Theo.

"I'm Silvana." She said having a wondrous smile at him.

"I do apologize for such intruding questions and blunt statements, dear anonymous"

She said softly while she held up her hand to her chest, a gesture to represent she doesn't mean any harm but genuine intentions.

She looks at Fier, expecting her to go along with the flow she set up.

"Fier Aster." Fier was sitting next to Theo for a while now, finally getting sore from sitting for a while she stood up.

Theo, who was sitting down, felt quite intimidated by the two figures standing in front of him and stood up in turn. "Theodore Wol- just Theodore."

Noticing Theo hesitates at his name, Fier raises a brow at this.

Upon closer look, Theodore's lips seem to have a little hue of blue which oddly compliments his frail look and his rosy cheeks.

Fier unconsciously starts to reach for her vest but upon remembering that Theodore is a stranger, her hand paused and reluctantly withdrew.

"You don't look injured but your clothes are a mess." Fier abruptly brought up as she stared at Theodore savagely.

Feeling uncomfortable, Theodore adjusted his collar and patted non-existent dust off his shirt.

"Let's bring him to the infirmary just to be sure." Fier signals Silvana to help her pull him out of the cavern.

Fier acted so casually like this was a common situation made Theodore slightly crawl back until his back was touching against the cavern's wall.

Silvana tilted her head at Theo backing away. "It seems like you're uncomfortable with that, are you?"

Theo immediately nodded his head at the question.

Silvana placed her hand on her chin. "Hmm.."

Theo looked worried at what she was thinking and even more worried overthinking what the next course of action will the two decide to do.

"Would you prefer if I handed you a pair of new clothes instead? We can't let you go and catch a cold in this dark and cold cave now."

Fier was reluctant at letting a suspicious individual stay at a school property but looked at Theo's frail demeanor and sighed. Deeming him harmless, Fier just tacitly agreed with Silvana's solution as she waited for Theodore's response.

Theodore just nodded vigorously, adamant to not leave the cave.

Silvana had an uplifting expression as she spoke to Theo once more in hopes he'll feel better.

"Do you feel as if we can be friends, Theo?"

Theo looked at her with wonder on why someone would offer to be friends with him, someone they don't know, but he couldn't just say no as well.