Anna could hear the rumour going around the crowds outside the buses. "What! No way!" She hissed to the girl who'd told her. "There's no way someone's dead. That's ridiculous." But was it? Someone related to the school had already died that month. "Don't tell anyone else that," she scolded, like a disgruntled employer would scold someone spreading chainmail. She was hoping that her popularity would influence the spread. It didn't. She didn't want to believe that someone else had died. She'd assumed that the last death had bene solved, the killer locked away. She hadn't actually heard anyone say that, though.
The gossip continued on the bus. Despite her inside worry, she did her best to tell the other girls that that death wasn't the reason they were being sent home. She was proved wrong at the assembly, an audible gasp coming out of her at the announcement. No way. One death was bad enough, but two? In one month? Were they killed by the same person? Why was all of this happening?
She looked up at Heinrich when the assembly was over. "Please don't go to the forest any more, Heinrich," she said, voice just barely audible. "I know the headmistress said they were going to improve security, but it's not a good idea to take any sort of risk." Anna knew what she had to do, because if they could take down a student taller and stronger than her, than they could take her down, easy as pie. Safety in numbers. She would stick with the crowd.
The next morning, Anna was in the lunch hall with her cereal. She was already taking her new motto into effect, sitting with her friends. Still, she had been careful to keep an empty seat next to her, just in case Heinrich came around.
All Mia had wanted was to get to her dorm. Make a cup of hot cocoa, get under the covers, and fall asleep early. Let herself forget. When she and Ishade were taken off the bus, she knew that this wasn't what was going to happen. The questions shouldn't have been too difficult. They were all just about remembering, which Mia was pretty good at - look at her grades for reference. What made them difficult was the thing that she was having to remember. A bloody, brutalised dead body. She came out with tear stained cheeks, eyes rubbed red and a tissue up her sleeve, but she did her best to hide it from Ishade. She didn't know if they'd had a connection, but considering how bad he'd taken it, she guessed there was something.
When they were brought back to Altsoba, Mia went to the kitchen, made her cocoa and then headed to her dorm room. She kept her head down the whole time, not wanting anyone to see that she had cried. Her curly haired roommate was sitting on the settee, feet up on the chair and a letter grasped in her eager hands. "You got a letter," Maxine said, not looking up. "I put it in your room."
Mia's face brightened. "Great, thanks!" She said, trying and failing to muster up her usual cheeriness. She retreated to her room, head still down, just in case the water sorceress noticed her fake happiness.
She sat down at her desk, letting her messenger bag drop to the ground. She slipped the letter slowly out of it's envelope and into her hand, feeling her cheeks warm like they always did. She sighed as she read it, the bad thoughts of the day and of the previous few weeks melting away. The loss of communication, however brief, had worried Mia, more than she would have liked to admit. It was just a simple misunderstanding. Things were okay. She opened her desk drawer, pulling out a piece of light red lined paper, cherries drawn in the corners. She picked up a brown gel pen and went to write, but the words in her head disappeared. She sat there for minutes on end, but at the end all she had was three new bits of paper in her wastebasket. She sighed, sipping her drink that was quickly cooling. She could write it tomorrow, when she had her thoughts straight.
Mia had never been so thankful for censorship. In the morning, she saw a newspaper in so many peoples hands. But none of them were looking at her. She bought her own copy, and found that neither her or Ishade's names had been put in. She had solace in that, at least. She sat down in the lunch hall, reading over the rest of the newspaper and letting herself fall into one of the calmest states she'd been in in the past day. As long as nobody mentioned it, as long as nobody asked about it, as long as nobody found out that she was one of two witnesses, things would be alright. And as long as she didn't close her eyes for too long, she wouldn't have to see it.
