2: Screeching and the Resources Department

That night as Alex returned to the dorm early after dinner while Grey was meeting his friends and catching up. There was a small bag kept on the study table beside his bed. From that he took out a photo. It was of him and his dad. His dad seemed in his 40’s whereas Alex hadn’t changed much. It seemed quite a recent picture of him.

Feeling a little sleepy he kept the photo back inside but just as he did his hand touched something hard. He grabbed and removed it, only to find a pentagon shaped wood. It was the same thing which had crawled into Alex’s bag from the old man’s suitcase.

Alex furrowed his brows observing it closely wondering how it got in his bag. After fidgeting with for a few minutes he decided to give up on it and tossed it on the study table before going to sleep.

"5 more minutes" Alex moaned and grabbed tightly to his pillow, at least that was what it seemed for him.

There was giggling between the boy's standing in order beside their respective beds. Suddenly Alex fell down with a thud and his sleep evaporated and what came afterwards was shock and pain.

The warden, Mr. Redfoot who came to wake the students and take their roll call at 6:00 a.m. in the morning was emanating fumes as his hand was just now used as a pillow for someone.

The nearby boys started giggling uncontrollably trying their best to suppress their laughter as best they can, not wanting to become a target of the warden. Even the prefect's turned their backs and were trying to suppress their laughter. Alex on the other hand was grabbing his head throbbing in pain. For some reason he saw a very weird dream last night.

The warden grabbed Alex's collar and made him stand forcibly on his feet which brought his senses back to his surroundings. "Looks like a new face to me, still, I am going to make a perfect example out of you" the warden said in a curt manner.

To this all the boys had fallen silent because everyone knew that if the warden wanted to make an example out of a person it would surely be horrible, aside from the punishment the humiliation itself would be too overbearing.

Alex didn't know whether to laugh or cry, not even the first day had started and he was getting into trouble. He then looked around for Grey who was clearly giving him a devilish smile. 'What a nice trouble maker I have made for myself' Alex thought to himself sarcastically as he recalled the events of last night.

Last night before going to sleep he had asked Grey about the warden' s roll call timing which was falsely told to him as 7 a.m. being it a first day and the warden going easy. Alex did feel it was a little strange but didn't gave it much thought with that straight face of Grey's and set the alarm for 6:30.

After that incident, all the students were made to take a bath and change in their uniforms. Each student gets only ten minutes of bath time which was really less but since six students can take bath at a time in separate shower space it wasn't much hectic.

But what ticked Alex off the most was that the senior students took a good relaxed period of 15 to 20 minutes which resulted in most of their juniors being left out.

But then again, he was an exception as he was made to go in the bath first by the warden in order to give him his punishment soon. The classes started at 8:00 a.m.

Sometime later.

'This is simply childish!’ Alex thought to himself as he looked at the elevated figures in front of him. It wasn't that the people before him were large it was just that he was made to kneel down in front of his own class and catch his ears for the first two periods with each period being 40 to 45 minutes long and the class professor didn't oppose it as well.

All the students were looking at him like he was a foreign object or a species from another planet which resulted in getting them a number of reminders from the teacher for paying attention but there were still some glances towards him.

But Alex didn't pay it much mind as things like this would barely have an effect on him unlike others who might feel really awkward. He didn't really care much about how people would watch him or talked about him.

People will judge that's just human nature. Alex's goal from the start had been to get the knowledge he came here for and nothing else.

However, his knees were starting to feel pressured and pained from this. When the second period got over and he was about to get up the warden continued to make him kneel down for the 3rd period also, he was allowed to join the lectures from his seat along with a warning from the warden from the 4th period.

By the time he got up and went to take his seat his legs were visibly shaking a little. 'Is he a warden for school students or prisoners' Alex thought as he rubbed his knees.

"Did you hear, there were whispers near the chapel at the well. What? I had heard it too."

"The library books were found like that the same way; the prefect had told so."

Alex heard many strange discussions among the students.

Alex had forgotten that aside from being a top school, Green Tales was also famous for its stories. Every school over the years would naturally develop some weird horror or superstitious stories but Green Tales was different there were constantly some myths or rumors which would continuously go around everywhere.

In spite of this people didn't hesitate to send their children here because at the end of the day rumors were just rumors.

At lunch break Alex went to the cafeteria which was on the ground floor. As he was heading in the hall Grey put a hand around his shoulder and said "Want to sleep 5 more minutes huh, Alex boy, hahaha."

"Sure, over your dead body" Alex replied in an uninterested manner. "Oh, don't be like that, to your good brother, the warden never comes for the roll call on the first day, so I thought the prefect's will tug you a little and that's it." Grey said while nudging him.

After that they took their lunches and were looking for a place to sit and suddenly someone was calling Grey. "Hey Grey over here buddy."

Both of them turned to look at the origin of the voice as Grey recognized his friend. "Let's go we'll sit there" Grey said while signaling him to follow him. Alex recognized the group; they were in his class at different periods today. Grey and Alex took a seat at the table.

"Everyone this is Alex, Alex this is Tom Dice, Nova Lite, Madison Blair, you can call her Maddy for short and Nina Kristen."

Tom was a little bulky having slight long black hair and a little taller than Alex at 5'6 wearing only his shirt with blue house tie and folded sleeves. Nova was a little shorter than Alex at 5’4 having blonde hair. His face gave a decent person like vibe. He was with his proper uniform of yellow house blazer.

Maddy, same height as Alex, was wearing her red house uniform along with a blazer too and she was having burgundy hair tied in a pony tail. She gave off a tomboyish face but pretty at the same time. Nina again same height as Alex, was also in her uniform being in the blue house with black hair having two tied knots.

"So how does being famous feel like?" Nova asked Alex. "What do you mean?" Alex asked confused from the question. Nova gave him an obvious look. Alex sighed "Does everyone already know about it?"

"Almost the whole school knows about it now but you don't have to worry you'll stay famous for about a month" Nina replied. "But still a great way to make a first impression" Maddy commented to which everyone laughed.

After classes were over at 4:00 Alex went to the resources department to get his greenhouse tie. He had been asked to come and take it after class today.

The resource department was on the third floor. Walking towards it, Alex faintly remembered the directions. All of a sudden, he felt that it was too quiet.

The classes had just gotten over so students should be all over the place. But he couldn't find anyone in the corridor except for himself and neither was he able to hear anything downstairs except for his own footsteps.

*Screeechhhhh*

'What was that!!' Alex was startled with the sudden loud screeching voice. It came from the resources department. He started running towards the room. The resources room was at the end of the corridor on the left and Alex was just few strides away from it. As he reached the room, he saw that the door was slightly ajar, he then slowly and cautiously opened the door.

Alex's thoughts were running wild, it was a very unusual sound. 'Could it be an animal but that's not possible I am currently on the third floor and that too 30 ft. above ground with the forest some distance away.' Alex thought as he opened the door.

There was no one in there. There were empty chairs, table books, cupboards, blackboard but nothing seemed out of order. ' Did I just hallucinate or something?' Alex had clearly heard it. He started looking at things closely to check if something was out of order.

*Screechhh...*

*Ssscreeech...*

This time it came from the corridor outside. Alex rushed outside only to find nothing. 'What the hell!! this time I clearly wasn't hallucinating.' Alex had heard the same screeching voice again and that too clearly. He took a run to the other side of the corridor and to the stairs there was nothing there. He then returned back to the resources room trying to contemplate what had just happened.

He sat on one of the chairs and stared blankly. 'Am I going nuts? but I clear—

Suddenly his gaze went on the blackboard and his eyes went wide from shock. It was unusual. This is because there was nothing wrong with the blackboard when he came to the room the first time. But right now, it had several deep claw scratches!

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