Alex planted his feet as the rabbit teacher attempted to drag him out of the school. He didn't want to blow their cover if he didn't absolutely have to - but if he didn't, she'd drag them out the main entrance into the sunlight! If it was get in trouble or wind up changed...
"You don't understand!" he yelped. "Sally and me...we're not changed! If we go out that door..."
Ms. Maple stared at him in disbelief. "You...oh, there'll be time to deal with you later. Quick, the cafeteria kitchen has a service exit on the other side. That's the fastest way out. Go!"
Panicked and relieved at the same time, Alex grabbed Sally by the wrist and dragged her along towards the back of the school. What was happening!? What was going on that they had to evacuate the building!? There was another school...what had happened there? Was...was anyone killed? He felt like throwing up, but forced himself to keep moving.
They slipped into the kitchen and wound their way to the exit. Alex hesitated a moment - what if he was wrong? What if his timing was off? But no, if there was something dangerous going on...at the very least he had to make sure Sally got out. Taking a deep breath, he threw the door open.
It was light out, but looking at the ground around the door, he could see the shadows cast by the eaves - good and dark, and they went out a good three feet from the wall. This would be tight, but it should work. He stepped out and sidled off along the wall. If...if something happened to the building, they'd have to make a run for it, but if it was a false scare, they should be safe.
Brittany sighed in relief as the two made it outside. She didn't know exactly what was going on, but if something dangerous was happening, she was glad they were safe. She wondered about herself; she had no corporeal presence outside the walls of this school...what if it was destroyed? Would she be nothing but a spirit thereafter? She didn't know.
Truth be told, she didn't really understand her own nature - it wasn't knowledge that she possessed normally, nor revelations like those that came in her trances. When she had first learned that she could not be seen by the unchanged, and that she could only manifest within this school, she had thought herself a true ghost, a spirit of the dead.
Her conversation with lady Haru, however, had given her cause to reconsider. The girl with the third eye had spoken of seeing through her into the distant past, of seeing her in another time and another place - the land that she knew in the time that she knew it. Did this mean that she was really there, and her existence in this place was only a shadow? Could she ever reconcile her true existence and her ghostly projection?
And if she could...where should she then find herself? Would she return completely to that long-gone Britain she knew, to live out her days in what the people around her thought of as ancient history? Or would she find herself brought forward to exist wholly in this strange future? And if she was given the choice...which would she take?
Anneza had put about a mile between herself and the school by the time she stopped. She didn't want to look, but she couldn't keep herself from turning back the way she'd come. Off in the distance, she could see the building, a glowing pinprick on top where she had left the package. Oh please don't let them get hurt, she thought. Please...I never wanted this...
How could she have been so stupid? It should have been obvious from the moment they asked her to something they wouldn't even explain to her that something was wrong! All they'd had to do was dangle the prospect of maybe getting what she wanted, and she stopped thinking entirely...
...was she really so easily bought? No, it couldn't be that. They'd just caught her at a weak point, exploited her emotions - there was no way she'd endanger other people to serve her own goals at any other...
She trailed off, unwilling to complete that thought but unable to keep it from nagging at her conscience. What should she do now? She thought she had gotten away without being noticed, so maybe she could just go home...she'd been duped, but this really wasn't her fault, was it?
No, she couldn't keep that one from ringing hollow, no matter how much she wanted it to be true. Why even bother? She hated this stupid body, she was probably going to lose her job, and lose her home, and...and...who even knew what would happen to her in the long run? What did she really have to lose?
There couldn't be more than eight minutes left by now. Dejectedly, mechanically, she drifted back to the school building and laid herself down on the roof.
Jenny looked around. There was the device, now lying inert on the roof of the school. The hole it had been making had vanished from sight, but maybe she should get Tetra later and make sure it was all closed up...wait, who was that over there?
There was someone lying on the roof, a little ways away on the other side of the device from Jenny and the little witch. She must not have noticed until now because she was busy with this...
"Girls!" the teacher said. "Come on, we need to get you out of here!"
Jenny shook her head. She wanted to help people, like Muriel did. "We gotta wake her up!" she said, pointing to the person. She walked over towards the figure. It looked like a grown-up lady, only she had green hair and some antenna things on her head...
Jenny knelt down beside her and gently nudged her shoulder. "Lady?" she asked. "Are you okay?"
Anneza tried to ignore the nudges at first, but looked up. Through the mess of hair hanging down over her face, she saw a little girl with a kind, concerned face and snow-white hair...this? Was this who she was helping to kill? This innocent little child...why was she here? There wasn't time to send her away, it was a lost cause, the bomb was...
The bomb was deactivated, apparently. She felt a relief as crushing as any tragedy. She had almost...even if she hadn't meant it, she had...she took the little girl in her arms, clutching her tightly and sobbing. She felt the girl's slender arms embrace her, which only tore her up even more.
Becca was breathing a little easier now, resting on the grass out in front of the school. A few minutes before the evacuation had started she'd had a horrible sinking feeling in her gut - something was terribly wrong, and she didn't know where or why. When she'd heard about the other school, she began to wonder...was one of the other numbers in danger?
She realized that she didn't know who they were or even where they were, even though she knew it was important to find them...and now one of them might be fighting for her life! But...now the feeling had passed. Whatever had happened over there, she knew it was safe now even before the teachers told them.
Still...she had waited too long. She needed to find the others, before something like this happened again...
Not too far away, Tiffany was fuming to herself. So the other school had had a bomb threat or something - there was no evidence that that had anything to do with their school! Why did they have to drag everybody out here, out where it was so bright, so uncomfortable...
Agh, god, this was right on the side of the school with the most sun, too. Maybe around back there would at least be some shade...and it's not like there was anything to do over here.
Alex and his sister were breathing a little easier now. It had been several minutes since they'd left the building, and there was no sign of a change. He still felt tense, but at the very least the danger was lessened.
Suddenly he was overcome with a feeling of dread, a dark fear like a punch in the stomach. He turned to see Tiffany standing near him and Sally, glowering at them, her dark aura crackling around the edges of her body. "I'm gonna be over there," she said, pointing to the wall on the other side of the door. "Stay away from me."
He couldn't even think - the fear was too much. All he wanted to do...every fiber of his being was telling to get away. He bolted. Sally gasped. "Alex! Stop!" She dashed after him, trying to hold him back.
Tiffany's eyes went wide. "You dumbass!" she shouted. "Get back here!" But that only frightened him further. Shit, shit! They were going to...she was going to get the blame for this, she just knew it! SHIT!
Alex didn't stop until Sally tackled him to the ground. He rolled over onto his back...
...and saw the sun.
