When Tuesday morning arrived, the expected tragedy didn't happen.
Shonte opened his eyes to the soft twilight of his dorm room. He sat up quickly, his hands flying to his face. There was no pain. No blood. His uniform was clean, resting neatly on the chair beside his bed. When he walked out into the common room, the others stared at him as if he were a ghost.
"Shonte?" Riri asked, stopping dead in his tracks. He was holding a cup of coffee, his dark hazel eyes wide with cautious relief. "How...how do you feel?"
Shonte shrank back slightly under the sudden attention, making him look back down at the floorboards. He cleared his throat quietly. "I'm fine," Shonte muttered, genuinely confused by the intense looks everyone was giving him. He kept his shoulders hunched, trying to make himself look smaller. "I just felt like I slept for a really long time. Did something happen after we left the cave?"
"Nothing happened, Weldon," Malik said lazily, leaning against the kitchen counter as he scrolled through his phone. "You passed out from running too much. You're out of shape."
"Oh," Shonte muttered as he looked at his hands, though his face ached.
"Oh! You're awake?" Adrian asked rubbing his eyes, he had just woken up. "How are you feeling? And how did you shoot tha-" Malik quickly covered his mouth before he spoke anymore.
Few hours later.
The school bell rang signaling the beginning of school. The doors opened and students rushed in, gossiping about random stuff, although the looks the group had been getting were still there but had subsided.
"Ugh...why don't they just move you guys to a different building for school? No one wants you here," a girl with dyed hair and a purse that screamed 'rich girl' stood in front of the group, checking her makeup with her mirror.
"Who's this bitch?" Min-soo asked smiling.
"Don't worry I'll take care of her," Adrian said as he stepped forward. "Camilla darling, it would be much appreciated if you stepped out of our way."
"Why should I?," Camilla asked closing the mirror. "You don't belong in this school after all Cross, Plus, the schools Chess competition is coming up and I'm going to crush you and send you back to France."
Adrian let out a long sigh and then laughed. "Darling, you know you can never beat me chess and we both know the reason why you got into the club? Or do you want me to tell everyone that you sl-"
"STOP! You fucking bastard! How dare you!" Camilla hissed, glaring at him.
A crowd started forming around them and it started getting noisy. Then a teacher came.
"What is going on here?" The teachers asked as students started to disperse.
"Mr. Gregory! He called me the b word!" She whined, tears forming in her eyes.
"Adrian is that true?" Mr. Gregory asked, raising an eyebrow.
"No Sir, she's just mad because I didn't listen to her," Adrian answered, obviously fed up with this.
"Well, as long as no one was hurt in the process, i don't see anything wrong now all of you hurry to your classes." Mr. Gregory said, rubbing his temples.
As they walked to class, Camilla glared at the muttering stuff about how this was unfair and how she deserved more attention. When they got to class, they sat down and Luxor was already waiting.
"Good morning my children! I hope you are all well rested...and Shonte...Are you feeling better now? You fainted on the test and I'm sorry I wasn't able to see you guys this morning I had important work to attend to," Luxor said as he adjusted his gloves. "Anyways, you all passed but this time I'm picking the book you go into next."
They all looked at stared at him in disbelief.
"What the heck? You expect us to go into another book after what happened?" Mia asked as she looked like she was about to kill someone. "We almost died!"
"Exactly!" Tyler agreed. "You just left us there to die! And you didn't give us anything to protect ourselves!"
"But you didn't die, did you? Almost means you're still breathing and the lesson is not over yet. I did give you something to protect yourselves and those monsters were the lowest level and they wouldn't have killed you because I was watching."
"You were watching?!" Farah yelled as she slammed the table with her fist. "So much for our benefactor."
"Please be quiet. I have no intention of letting anything else hurt you from now on." Luxor explained as he tried to calm the class down
"How can we trust you? After what you did," Elena asked as she eyed him.
"Because you have now other choice, Mrs. Mire. I have had to rush your training because the competition is in 3 weeks and if you don't this school will be set on fire by the goblins in your school who were sent to punish you by the higher council," Luxor said.
Everyone went quiet. No one knew what exactly this competition was about but they had to go for it if they didn't want the school to be set on fire. Luxor brought out a book with the title "Utopia".
"This the book you will be entering tonight," Luxor said as he kept the book back. "Now who can tell me what organelle is the powerhouse of the cell?"
Later that day.
They all gathered in the common room, talking about what to do when Luxor appeared in the center of the room.
"AGH! FUCK!," Tyler yelled, jumping off the couch.
"Language, Mr. York," Luxor warned him as he held the book up. "Shonte, please come here."
Shonte stood up, walking towards Luxor and stopped in front of him. Luxor gave him a necklace that had a strange glow to it.
"Mr. Weldon, I have noticed you don't speak with your fellow colleagues. This will help you be more brave and outgoing," Luxor said as it gave Shonte the necklace.
Shonte stares at it for a very long time before wearing it. "Thank you."
Luxor nodded and beckoned the others to come closer, it then opened a vortex.
"This will take you inside the book and i'd advice you to not kill anything here, be quiet and whatever you do, do not bleed. Once you enter you will find out what you're meant to do. Now goodbye my children," Luxor said as the vortex started sucking them in and they landed in the middle of nowhere.
"Ouch! My butt!" Tyler complained as he rubbed his bottom.
"Shut up you idiot. Don't you remember the rules Luxor gave us?" Malik glared at Tyler as he helped Aiden up.
"To hell with the rules! I'll shout as much as I want!"
Suddenly, they heard static noises and because they weren't paying attention they didn't notice they were surrounded.
"Team A waiting for orders in sector E. We found survivors that need to be quarantined."
These people had masks and guns. Quarantined? Survivors? Just what the heck was going on?
"Shit they have guns...what do we do?" Elena asked as she looked around.
"Running isn't an option this time," Adrian answered, thinking about how they'd escape.
"Hey! Shut up, if anyone of you brats talk again I'll shoot," One of the people holding guns spoke, pointing it at them.
"Awaiting further instructions from headquarters."
"Bring them in," the person on the radio answered.
"You heard the boss...you brats better stay quiet and follow."