Fall in love in a weekwe get by

I wouldn't have thought of it! Here the hum was strong and powerful, sounding like an alarming, terrifying symphony. Like an organ in a church, on which they play something completely inappropriate, some kind of hard rock. Only I have never been so scared from rock. “My hair stood on end with horror” immediately seemed like a less figurative expression. Where are we? There was no need to ask. I recognized the dungeons of the Academy. The same ones along which Charlotte led me that ill-fated night. And not only then. Somewhere here is the same laboratory in which for the only time in my life I observed practical alchemy… and a arrogant attempt to combine it with poetry.

Now Dhugal did not run. He walked slowly, warily, as if listening – although I didn’t understand what else could be heard in this deafening ro?-symphony. Unless… as soon as I asked this question, I thought I heard voices, quiet, as if coming from afar. Emotionless, just like Charlotte. And scary – very scary. It chills your skin and makes you feel a toothache.

Dougal stopped, and at the same moment the door ahead opened and a student jumped out into the corridor. Course two or three, perhaps. What is she doing here?! She looked around wildly and squealed:

– Professor! There, there!..

– Portal! – Dougal yelled, breaking into a run again. – Call the headmistress! “We found ourselves next to a frightened girl. He grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her: “Now!”

– Ah… And there…

She paused, nodded sharply and disappeared. And Dougal stepped towards the door.

I looked over his shoulder. It seems that this was the very ritual room in which Charlotte did her deeds. Or exactly the same. The circles of candles and symbols on the floor looked very familiar, as did the floor itself, gray with whitish streaks. Around the same central circle where once… an eternity or five days ago? I woke up, there were students standing. Ten people… no, just seven. Tense backs, clasped hands. Recitative in Latin – discordantly, in trembling voices. Their horror washed over me like cold swamp water. Horror and… stubbornness? Determination?

One of them, red-haired, curly-haired, twitched, turned around impulsively, I saw a white face, a panicked look, and an instant flash of hope. “Save!” – To Dougal, with just his lips.

– Circle! – someone shouted.

Someone else screamed and jumped to the side. The ring of students broke up. Only the red-haired one was still standing in place, raising his hands in a protective gesture – the same one with which I put up the shield. The rest were swept away by panic, I barely had time to jump back, otherwise they would have been knocked down.

– Go away! Portals through the corridors! – Dougal yelled.

The fog swirled in the center of the circle, getting thicker every second. Or is it not fog? very dense for fog, materially. Faces and hands are guessed. Twisted fingers, mouths open in a scream. Ghosts?!

What to do?!

I think I said it out loud, maybe even shouted it. But the answer immediately became clear. Dougal rushed towards the redhead, and I followed. I know how to use this shield. I can! And the strength should be enough.

I raised my hands and sent a stream of magic into my palms. It seemed that she had hit a barrier. Alive, aggressive, predatory. Press. Like the moving walls in Star Wars – no matter how much you push, just a little more and it will flatten out soft-boiled.

I bit my lip. A red-haired man nearby was muttering something, and she listened:

– Hold, hold… hold…

I didn’t see Dougal, but I felt her somewhere nearby. I recognized his magic, something sharp, prickly, tough, but giving a feeling of security. I felt it in that same laboratory, but then I didn’t understand what exactly I was feeling.

And I just believed that everything would be fine, because Dougal, of course, would cope… The foggy ball of ghosts swelled, filled with a deathly blue-white light and… exploded? A roar and what seemed like a triumphant, victorious howl hit my ears. I was knocked over, carried through the air and slammed into the wall. A sharp pain in the back of my head and back was the last thing I felt before falling into the darkness.

The darkness dissipated slowly. Strange silhouettes emerged from it, black outlines of either mountains or some strange pointed structures. The fog, for some reason also black, was creeping in, making it difficult to see better. But it seemed like I had been here before. I saw these mountains, and vague figures of either people or animals, rising on their hind legs. I saw it, but… erased it from my memory as something too incomprehensible, alien, unreal. It does not coincide with the usual picture of the world.

I tried to move, at least blink, but for some reason it didn’t work. What is going on?!

And then I heard a voice, unfamiliar, as strange as everyone else here. It sounded like it was in my head. There was an unpleasant ringing in the ears and a nagging pain in the back of the head.