UNIVERSITY OF BLACKTHORN*
"I brought your favorite black woolen sweater. Can't believe you forgot it" Greg said after breaking the hug.
He brought the small bag containing the sweater out of the second taxi.
"Thanks pa" Twilight smiled again.
The first driver is still looking at Greg's eyes somehow, so he quickly used his shades back.
"If you find anything horrible, call me and I'll come get you. If you can't reach me on phone, then write me a letter. I heard the post office works well here" he told Twilight.
"Sure...will do" she replied.
Greg gave her one last hug and stroked her chestnut hair affectionately before getting back in his taxi.
He was waving through the window as the taxi drove down the hill till it went out of sight.
Twilight got back into her own taxi, and the driver blew the honk. A man in brown suit came out to them.
He's holding some files, wearing perching spectacles.
"Name?" He asked.
"Twilight Kent" Twilight replied, and he took a short glance at his files before looking back at her weirdly.
"Your admission letter?" He asked, and she gave it to him.
He looked at the name of the sender, and a small frown formed on his face.
"You received this from Jenna Parker?"
"Yes?" Twilight replied, more of a question than an answer.
Was it a fake letter? Will she have to go back home?
"Welcome to UOG" the man finally said, returning the letter to her.
She took a breath of relief as two doormen opened the wide gate, and the taxi driver drove into the compound.
It's a castle with exactly fifteen towers piercing the sky, several lecture halls and administrative buildings, all with stone walls.
Whatever this place is, it's not a joke cos she felt goosebumps rile up her skin immediately the air hit her.
There are overgrown gardens sprinkled around the centers, and the air is heavy with the scent of damp stone.
Open-mouthed statues of dragons stood in front of every building like stallions, and water is flowing out of the mouth of some of them.
The driver pulled up softly on a good spot, and she stepped out on the cobblestoned ground.
She got her trolley bag out of the car trunk and payed the kind driver.
"I'm sure you can feel it too. This school is something else" he said, still smiling as he got back in his car.
"Goodbye, Miss Twilight" he saluted before driving off
Twilight then saw another girl at a short distance, carrying a trolley bag just like her, and she looks confused as she stood alone.
"Are you new too?" The girl asked, coming closer.
"Yeah" Twilight replied politely.
"Thank gawd! I'm new too and I lost my navigation map. I'm Tanya, and I love how you scent like jasmine" she confessed with a smile.
"Thank you. I'm Twilight, and you smell nice too" Twilight replied.
"I'll just call you Twi, do you like it?" Tanya winked.
Twilight liked her immediately. No one has ever shortened her name. Not her father, not her crazy mother.
"I'm cool with it" she said.
"First year psychology student" Tanya said.
"Same here" Twilight replied.
"Yes!" Tanya squealed cheerfully with a lively gleam, and Twilight chuckled.
Gawd ... She loves this girl already.
Before she could talk again, another girl in glasses appeared, arms folded on her chest.
"The two new arrivals? Follow me" she sternly said, leading the way.
The two girls exchanged glances.
"Who are you?" Tanya asked, and the girl turned back to them.
"Your tour guide, call me Rihannon" she said and continued walking.
The two quickly started dragging their bags after her.
Two minutes after they left, several students trooped out of a lecture hall, chatting amongst themselves about the just concluded lecture.
Everything was in order till one of them sighted someone coming from the gate entrance.
Her books fell from her to the ground, raising dust.
"He's back" she muttered.
That made everyone else turn to the direction she's looking at, and their eyes widened too when they say him.
Slade?
Jesus!
Slade is back!!!
Who the hell woke him from coma!!
Run!!!
The hall never remained the same, cos everyone ran off in different directions as fast as their legs could carry them while the daring ones watched from the windows.
Slade's eyes were rolling back and forth as he continued supporting himself with the walls, literally crawling on the stones till he entered the first administrative building.
Thankfully, he's out of the sun, so the weakness is not very much anymore.
The hallway is lined with candlebras which has burning candles on them, and he's doing everything possible to avoid them, but he wasn't very lucky.
His shirt curled the open string of one of the candlebras, and the shirt caught fire at the back, burning into his skin.
"Dang it!" He gritted, taking off the burning clothe, but the fire already affected a part of his back.
The hiding students were peeping cowardly at him as he made his way to the council office.
Rihannon hasn't even started showing Twilight and Tanya around when the screams of the students reached them.
The three stopped on their spots, but Rihannon didn't take it serious. Maybe it's one of the students silly tricks again.
"Is it true that a student go missing here every month?" Tanya suddenly asked.
"Yeah" Rihannon faced them casually.
"Then why aren't the cops investigating?" Twilight asked, and Rihannon snickered.
"Cos no one cares"
"No one...cares?" Twilight dragged her statement.
"Listen, in this school, there are three categories of students" Rihanna said.
"Yes?" Tanya urged.
"Students from rich families, students from poor families, and students from the orphanage. Students from the orphanage are the only ones who go missing every month, and no one knows why or where they go. No one cares cos no one asks for them anyways" Rihannon explained.
Twilight and Tanya exchanged puzzled glances again.
"The family of the rich students are the sponsors of this school, and that's why no one pays tuition here, so the rich students are like gods" Rihannon said and led them out to a lawn.
From the lawn, she pointed at a tower, the tenth tower.
"That's the tower of the rich students, and no student from the orphanage or from a poor family can enter, else, you can be killed" she said.
Twilight and Tanya swallowed.
"In that same tower, there are top 3 richest students, and those three are the badasses here... Trust me" Rihannon continued.
"Intense" Tanya said, but Twilight kept quiet, feeling goosebumps again.
"Anyways, every single student here have a weird, dark family background. No one is normal here" Rihannon said.
"It's obvious... I'm not normal too" Twilight said slowly, and Tanya looked at her.
"Good, but apart from the missing students every month and the richest 3 students, do you know what's scarier?" Rihannon smirked.
"What's that?" They asked at once.
"Slade. But thankfully, he has been pushed into coma" Rihannon replied.