Chapter 5: Skeletons in the Closet

Mrs Blaidd escorted all of them out of the exit with stairs leading to the garden at the back of the school. She brought them to the detention cellar underneath said staircase. The doors opened to stairs going down into an eerie dark bricked room with individual desks. All six of them took their seats as instructed by her.

"Daire Grayson, Griffin Schphetor, Heston Feldspar, Callidora Arison, Martessa and Marvara Aculus; care to explain what happened?" Mrs Blaidd looked at each one of them as she called them out.

"Well, we just hid under the tables when all the chaos went down!" Griffin lied and Daire nodded. Heston then continued, "That alpha wolf from senior year started all of it. He gave me a black eye!" "What black eye Mr Feldspar?" Mrs Blaidd questioned. Heston touched his eye to realize it had healed. "You mean Vince one of the alphas," Daire mentioned. "Vince has been here longer than any of you, and to my knowledge he is a good student," Mrs Blaidd explained.

"He's really pulling your leg on that one," Heston replied. "No! You're all pulling her leg!" Tessa voiced out. "Bloodfruit flew from a group of vampires which they figured out was Heston, then these two threw fruit which hit me!" she continued.

"To be fair, it was a faded fruit because I hate the fruit. And I did it because Vince was threatening Schphetor and Grayson. Then he grabbed me by my collar and they threw it to return the favour is all," Heston defended.

"No violence would've taken place if nobody threw food around in the first place!" Tessa went on. "I can back that, if nobody threw fruit around, I'd still have my food and that mess wouldn't have ensued," Vara continued.

"Why are you witches snitching so hard!?" Heston turned around and questioned. Vara, smug, closed her eyes thinking they were off the hook. "Then Vara used a fire spell which sent out fireballs everywhere!" Tessa spoke as Vara widened her eyes and shouted, "Tessa!" "Wait that was you who set me on fire!?" Callidora pointed at Vara.

"I didn't mean too…" Vara replied with a dead voice. "You didn't mean to do this!" Callidora showed her left shoulder with a burnt sleeve and slow healing burn marks. "And maybe it was kind of my fault too; I didn't need to throw food as well which probably created the chain reaction and-"

Tessa kept on snitching about everything. Vara quickly waved her hands and said, "Quiescis!" which rendered Tessa speechless. "Should've done that sooner;" he glanced over to the teacher. "A lot sooner," Heston's eyebrows twitched. Vara let out a sigh of relief but saw Mrs Blaidd who was overlooking everything that ensued.

"Do you have any evidence of Mr Mcmagnus being this bully you are painting him to be? Because everyone just admitted that they had a hand in this and have lied. I cannot trust your words," Mrs Blaidd questioned. "I had a black eye! And there were dozens of students you completely missed!" Heston replied which she ignored.

"I was just a victim of burning!" Callidora stated. "Ms Arison, you may have not a hand in this but you need to learn more responsibility; you were late to enter the school and dozed off and let loose a wolpertinger in class. Quite frankly, I'm not surprised that you're here. All of you need to be more responsible for your actions.

This school is meant to be for all species of creatures to get along and is the only school to do so. Pointing fingers at everybody is not helping your case. As punishment, I'm asking you to clear out extra storage; I will let the teachers know that you will be late for your next classes and they need to be wary of lying students," she dismissed them as the room grew dead silent.

"But-" Griffin tried to speak but "No buts! Follow me to the storage room now!" They got up slowly glaring at one another. Mainly, they were glaring at Tessa for blabbering everything. They followed Mrs Blaidd out of the school with their mouths shut.

Mrs Blaidd led them out to the left side of the school where there was another cellar door leading into a basement. They entered the storage area to see a mess of scattered objects, dust and cobwebs. Tessa walked into a spider web and couldn't shout or scream and let out a "HMMM!!!"

"Oh right, Contrarium," Vara reversed her spell. "Ha… Karma," Heston uttered. "This place has not been used since even before the school opened. I want everything cleaned and arranged before you leave. And no magic!" said Mrs Blaidd before slamming the doors and leaving.

"I can't see," Griffin said blinking his eyes. "Pila Luminus," Vara casted and held a red ball of light in her hand. "Thanks," said Griffin. "We're not supposed to use magic!" Tessa yelled in whispers.

"We're in this mess because of you!" Vara argued. "For the love of, both of you shut up! The sooner we get this done, the sooner we can get out," Callidora reasoned. "There're candles there, just light them up for the ones without night vision," Heston suggested.

"She has a point. Let's split up and clear the room," Griffin advised. Marvara, Martessa and Callidora took one side while the guys took the other. Daire found brooms and dusters and handed them out. Griffin picked up the items from the ground and placed them on shelves which Daire had dusted. Heston was sweeping up under the shelves.

Griffin faced Heston, "Hey, thanks by the way; for the bloodfruit to Vince's face," Griffin spoke. "No problem," Heston, dead eyes, replied facing the floor as he swept. "I'm surprised you weren't even mad when he called you a langnum," Daire stated. "What does that even mean?" Griffin questioned. "It means powerless or feeble human," Heston replied.

"Maybe, I just shouldn't be here," Griffin stated like he had just realized he was never meant for a school of supernaturals trying to make their way in the world. "Come on Griffin, don't blame yourself for bullies like Vince," Daire comforted.

"You must've done something to make the Council of the Dead and the headmistress let you enroll Schphetor. Try not to let others question your abilities," Heston rationalized.

"Guess you're both right," Griffin replied. Heston looked at Griffin who was still somewhat down. "Thanks for the save in the cafeteria. I still got punched to the ground and you missed; but thanks for trying," Heston attempted to make him feel better. Griffin felt somewhat better about Heston; like a friendship could start.

In the other end, Callidora picked up a dusty box and was moving it as she accidentally inhaled the dust and sneezed. "Tersus Sursum Pulvis," Vara casted, which removed the dust from the box. "Thanks," said Callidora while scratching her nose.

"Don't need dust flying all over my face," Vara replied. "Vara, we can't use magic," Tessa reminded again. "The whole reason were even here, is because of you!" Vara replied. Callidora put the box aside and got in between them, "Why are you two always at each other's throats?" she asked.

"Maybe if she listens to the rules and doesn't do dumb things that lead us into trouble, then maybe I won't criticize her every action." Tessa replied. "Maybe if the isles' biggest brown noser could be more spontaneous and actually think outside of the box once in a while we wouldn't get caught. Instead, she will be nagging about every decision I make," Vara defended. "Are all twins like this?" Callidora asked in a monotonous voice.

"Well, if I had other twins to tell me about their lives I would know, if it wasn't for the twin who constantly stays alone so nobody goes near her and her sister," Tessa kept on arguing. "You're not pinning this on me. Nobody wants to be with you because you're so… obnoxious!" Vara followed.

Callidora, hoping to break the tension only made it worse. "Look, maybe we started off on the wrong foot. Vara, I forgive you for setting me on fire; see it's completely healed. Tessa, I forgive you for making us all clean out this place. So now both of you apologize to each other and we can move from there," Callidora encouragingly suggested. "Fine, Vara I'm sorry for… nagging," Tessa replied. "And being a brown noser?" Vara asked.

"I try to apologize and you can't just apologize back!?" Tessa got angry once again. "You can't ever take a joke," Vara replied. They turned away and continued cleaning.

"You guys can't keep this up forever," Callidora stated. "Try me," they both replied. Callidora noticed how the guys were getting along but she couldn't get along with people who just refuse to do so. She shook her head and carried on moving boxes out of the way, stacking them on top of one another.

Griffin noticed a chest blocking a locker in a narrow space he could fit through. Thinking the chest might yield some kind of magical pay off he approached it. He could barely move as the space was a tight squeeze but he managed to open the chest which had even more cobwebs than the entire room.

He dug through breaking the cobwebs in case there might be something. Unfortunately, all he got were dirty hands and a small circular glass lens. Griffin, disappointed put it back in and moved the chest out. "What are you doing Griffin?" Daire asked. "Just moving stuff, she said she wanted it clean, right?" Griffin replied.

Griffin looked at the locker and rubbed of the dust on what seemed to be a plaque. It read, "Davy Jones' Locker." Griffin intrigued tried to open it but the door was rusted shut. "Hey Heston, can you help me open this?" Griffin requested. Heston put aside his broom and looked at Griffin, "Why open a locker Schphetor?" he asked. Griffin pointed to the nametag and Heston said, "Huh. My curiosity's peaked."

Heston nudged his fingers into the locker vent and pulled it open. Heston opened the locker with immediate regret; a skeleton fell on top of him. Startled, he threw it to Griffin who jumped backwards at the sight of it. Daire turned around to see a skeleton lying on the floor and shrieked gaining the attention of the others.

Heston came out of the narrow space as the others came closer to the skeleton. "Is this Davy Jones?" Griffin asked. "Probably," Heston replied. "Did you guys just open the containers we were supposed to be arranging?" Tessa asked. "Hey, Mrs Blaidd said clean the storage; she didn't say open or don't open," Griffin replied.

"Can we put it back, I feel like its hollow eyes are following me," Callidora requested. "Guys, every story about Davy Jones' Locker has signs of bad luck or a curse. Let's get a teacher to deal with this," Daire suggested. "The only curse here is the hilarious way he died. How do you end up at the bottom of the ocean inside of a locker?" Heston mocked.

"Daire's right let's get a teacher to deal with this," Tessa backed up the plan. "What makes you think any teacher's going to believe us when we have reputations of 'bad lying students' on the first day of school?" Callidora opposed. "She has a point; they'd probably think we just did it to get out of doing this," Griffin agreed.

While they were discussing on what to do, the skeleton slowly started to move beyond anyone's notice. Daire felt a bony grasp around his right ankle, "AHH!!! Get it off me! Get it off me! Get it off me!" Daire cried out kicking away the skeleton's hand.

Everyone moved back at the sight of a slow-moving skeleton. "Ok, that's enough," Heston grabbed a shovel from a shelf and went towards it hoping to shatter its skull. "You can't just kill it! It needs to be assessed and the teachers need to know," Tessa stated. "It's getting destroyed right now," he replied.

"No, Heston wait. I'm with her on this one. You saw how bad we got it when we said Vince bullied us and we had no proof. Plus, it's just a skeleton, you guys must've seen worse," Griffin replied.

"As many supernatural creatures exist in the isles, living skeletons aren't one of them!" Daire replied. His eyes were fixated on the skeleton trying to figure out how it was crawling around still alive and connected to its limbs.

"It's probably just enchanted and the teachers can figure it out properly," Tessa continued. "Ok put it up to a vote," Griffin suggested. They all circled sort of around the centre of the room except Daire who was still fixated in the same spot staring at the skeleton.

"All those in favour of getting out of here and reporting it to a teacher?" Griffin and Tessa had their hands up. "And all those in favour of ending it right now and not having the teachers believe us?" Heston and Vara raised their hands. "If we report it, they're going to think I cursed it to move; so," Vara replied.

"You've got the deciding vote Arison," Heston stated. Callidora looked at everyone and said, "Neither. I say we kill it, clean the place up and then report it. Whether or not they believe us is up to them but we did what was asked," Callidora reasoned.

Daire's eyes widened as the skeleton started to grow skin around its bones. "Guys…" he called out. "Well, the vote was kill it 3, spare it 2, so," Heston stated. "That's not how it works, she had a different vote," Griffin replied. "Guys…!" Daire called out further as the skeleton grew more skin.

"Well, we can kill it, then report it I guess," Tessa agreed. "Is 'kill' the right word for a skeleton?" Callidora questioned. The skeleton started getting up with sharp bony fingers and body wrapped in leathery skin. "Guys!!!" Daire yelled. "Oh right, Grayson you haven't vo-" Heston stopped talking as he turned around to notice a walking zombie. "RRRRR," it snarled.

"Ok, kill it, kill it, kill it," Griffin changed his mind real quick. Heston hit it with a shovel to the head, "Clang!" the room echoed. However, to no avail on their undead friend. "I hit it with full force how is this thing- Get off me!" Heston was face to face with the zombie and kicked it forwards towards Daire.

Daire terrified pushed it to keep it away from him. The zombie was pushed towards an unsteady cabinet which promptly made it fall over. The zombie went for Griffin and the cabinet was going to fall onto Tessa. Callidora speeded and carried her out of the way. "Conseco!" Vara shot the skeleton directly scattering pieces of it across the room.

This only made it worse as the individual parts started twitching about. It was not long before the shattered pieces moved around. A foot was kicking Griffin in the shin, a hand grabbed onto Daire's nose and the skull was hoping towards Vara. Callidora simply crushed the pieces under her shoes.

Heston noticed that the bones were breakable and whacked the hand off Daire, breaking it. Griffin kicked the foot across the room and it shattered against the wall. Tessa grabbed a vase and threw it onto the skull fracturing it. The skull was still moving but was only barely doing so.

"Maybe we can catch it in a pot…?" Tessa suggested before "CRACK!" Heston crushed it. All the body parts still intact stopped moving and started losing its skin. The room was filled with quietness and panting. "Well that was eventful," Griffin broke the silence. "Don't mock Davy Jones; I'll keep that as a mental note," Heston replied.

"What now? We should've been done cleaning and going to classes by now," Callidora reminded. "Can you clean it in Vamp speed?" Griffin asked looking a Callidora and Heston. "That's just going to tire us out. It's not one task, it's arrangement which takes speed and patience," Heston replied.

Vara looked at Tessa with a plan in mind. "Fine… just this once," she knew exactly what Vara was thinking. They held left and right hands and magical particles flowed through making their arms glow yellow.

They closed their eyes, focused and said, "Tersus Sursum Locus, Disponere Obeiectum!" The room's dust started to flow and went through the seams of the walls, the cabinet put itself up and all the items started arranging themselves in the room.

They let go off their hands as Heston said, "I've seen a single witch do that much faster." "We're 16 and nowhere near advance levels of magic," spoke Tessa while shaking her head. "Why do you think we had to channel each other," Vara continued. "We need to figure out what that thing was. How about next free period, we gather up-" Griffin stated before being interrupted.

"Woah, woah, woah… When did we become a gang? And why do we have to figure this out?" Heston replied. Griffin saw that he was surrounded by people who he could actually be friends with for once in his life; pile that on top of a mystery they could work on.

This was his forte; figuring out magical problems. He may be not be able to make friends in the most normal way but this would suffice. His curiosity in the matter overthrew his introvertedness for just a moment.

"I'm a human, which puts a target on my back, Daire got bullied and shamed in front of a cafeteria with no other wolves around, you got punched to the ground in that same crowd and Callidora has been all over the place. It just seems right we'd be the underdogs," Griffin elaborated.

"Underdogs?" Daire questioned. "To simply put, losers who seem like they have no chance but prove people wrong in the end. Besides, am I the only one curious? You said it yourself Daire, skeletons don't normally come to life here; and the teachers aren't going to believe us," Griffin continued.

"Fine, I'll help you as long as you never call me a loser again; I'm just doing this figure it out," Heston responded. "I'll take it. Daire?" "I think I'll sleep better knowing what that was and how it works than not knowing," Daire replied.

"Well, my perfect student dream went out the window the minute I fell asleep and now I'm here. Figuring it out and letting the school know might get me some good recognition back so, yes," Callidora agreed.

"The leaves in your hair are nice though, so not everything's gone bad," Vara complimented her. "I have leaves in my hair!?" Callidora started picking them out like a dog chasing its tail.

"Wait, how do we come into being losers," Tessa asked. "…You guys got caught with us and that makes you, by association a los-" "Okay, we get it," Vara stopped him.

"We will research it later after school hours in the library. I want to stick to the timetable for at least the first week," Tessa stated. Heston opened the doors and headed back into the castle followed by Daire, Griffin and Callidora. They headed to Superno Biology while the Aculus twins headed for General Spells.

The odd event had led to questions on everyone's mind. "Why was a cursed skeleton in the storage? Why did it attack? What exactly was it?" all was on hold and kept in their minds as they experienced their first classes…