Raze and the rest of the group headed out toward the venue. As they walked, a faint tingling sensation ran through their bodies, one that seemed to grow heavier the closer they came to the arena. The Wilton students especially felt it, the anticipation that wrapped itself around their nerves like a tightening coil. The teachers beside them were no less uneasy. They, too, felt the pressure of the moment, though their anxiety was tied to something else entirely.
The teachers still hadn't been able to reach Wilton himself. The silence, the lack of response from their principal, hung over them like a looming shadow. During the course of the day, he should have replied at least once, yet no word had come. The absence felt ominous, as if it were the quiet before a storm, a dark prelude of what was about to unfold.
