Capitulum XXXI
R igel and Lindy waited for me in the office, the latter strapped into her chair, grinning up at the ceiling.
Rigel, on the other hand, was curled forward and unresponsive.
"Sit down," Ephraim commanded, pointing to a third chair.
I did as I was told, eyeing the black door looming on the wall.
Once Rigel's face came into view, I found his eyes open, staring blankly at the floor. He wasn't moving, not even the compulsory rhythm of breathing, as if by remaining stone still, he could pause time and keep the next few minutes from transpiring.
Ephraim seemed to have something similar in mind, taking his time as he rounded the desk and took his seat. Something was hesitant in how he settled, looking between us in disappointment. He clearly wasn't savoring this any more than we were.
"From what I hear, you have been having an exciting year." Ephraim paused to stroke down the feathers rising around his neck. "Despite my very reasonable request that you don't..." He seemed to grapple with the rest of the sentence.
I couldn't blame him. How did one sum up the sheer number of rules we'd violated?
We all sat in silence before he finally continued.
"First things first, I need to know how you two found your histories."
"I found them," I said. "I searched through the archive until I found the room with the well."
I tried to get the words out before Rigel had the opportunity to incriminate himself. I was already screwed. I'd be damned if he went through the door because of me, whether he wanted to or not.
Ephraim nodded. "By yourself?"
I fought the urge to check Rigel's expression. "Yes."
"When did you manage this?"
"Over the summer. But it took pretty much all of last year to figure it out."
"And you're the one who gave it to Lindy?"
"Yes, at the beginning of the year, before she disappeared."
He pinched the bridge of his nose, the vulture on his neck squawking with agitation. Suddenly, his fist came down on the desk, making us jump.
"Do you see what you've done? Do you understand what I have to do now?"
I nodded.
"I told you to trust me," he whispered, the words barely audible.
He eyed me as if waiting for something, probably tears. But I was too drained to conjure anything like that.
Nothing felt real any longer. I was hoping he would just send me through the door and get it over with, but instead, his eyes slid over to Rigel.
"All right, son. Despite my strong suspicion that you're not quite so innocent in all this business as your friend here claims, I don't have enough evidence to expel you."
Rigel's eyes flicked up in shock, the first sign of life I'd seen from the man since entering the room.
"But," Ephraim continued, raising a warning finger, "you have not been deemed entirely innocent. I hear you've been hoarding mouse bones, seemingly for poor Lindy here so she didn't have to sign herself over to the bone program. Am I correct?"
Rigel's eyes flicked back down in confirmation.
"That's what I thought. I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and allow you another chance on the basis that you are a feeble, weak man but also an excellent student. Your punishment will be prescribed at a later date when I have the energy to decide. Understood?"
Rigel nodded.
He sighed, turning his attention to Lindy. "Unfortunately for you, my dear, even if we were to start you on your bone treatment, there is no longer a place for you at this school. Possession is a very serious crime."
Her foot was tapping aggressively, as if the whole thing were a boring inconvenience.
She seemed relieved to be addressed, nodding toward the window. "Whatever. Let me go."
"I can't do that. You need to go through the black door for your own good."
She laughed. "Good luck, old man." Leaning over, she opened her mouth in a vicious snarl, drooling all over his desk. "I took out the tooth. I can't go through without it. And you're never going to find it."
"You stupid girl." Ephraim rubbed the side of his head and turned his attention back to Rigel. "Do you see now the mistake you've made?"
Rigel nodded, eyes still on the floor.
"Look at me when I'm speaking to you, son." Ephraim's voice rose, making me flinch. When Rigel relented, Ephraim continued. "I don't often read through the histories of my students. It's not something I view as relevant to their time here. But I will admit that I did have a peek at yours prior to the end of last year. You had me curious. Who was this young man who was so talented and dedicated, one of the most exceptional students I'd ever encountered in my tenure at this school? Maybe I should have seen the danger in you then, how far you were willing to go for your obsessions. But I had faith that the flaw that killed you didn't taint who you could be in this life. I suppose I was wrong. But do know this, you will not make it to graduation behaving the way you have been." He turned his attention back to Lindy, who was looking out the window longingly at the trees beyond campus. "I will have to keep you here in the cathedral until we find your tooth."
That got a reaction out of her. Her head whipped back around, eyes wild with rage. "You can't do that."
"It's for your own good."
"I'll be down there forever then, so get used to me, and—"
Rigel began digging around in his collar, distracting her from her threats. Pulling the chain free of his shirt, he tugged hard, snapping the silver links and slamming the jewelry onto the table.
A moment of silence lingered as everyone took in the tooth before Lindy lunged at Rigel, toppling both chairs.
I leaped up to grab her, trying as hard as I could to pull her off him.
"Lindy, please," he gasped, curling away from her gnashing teeth.
"I'm going to destroy you, you motherfucker. I'm going to kill you."
"Lindy, please," he said again.
Ephraim ran around the desk and lifted her by the hair.
She thrashed wildly, turning her feral eyes on him.
"It's too late, you know. There's nothing you can do to save any of those people. There's nothing you can do to save any of us." Her face contorted into a grin, revealing both rows of teeth. "I've seen it out there in the woods. It's much smarter than you think. It's not afraid of you."
He didn't respond, reaching over to the desk and snatching up the tooth as he dragged her toward the black door, chair and all.
Her voice shifted, the rough sound melting into a saccharine whine. "Wait, no, Ephraim. I'm sorry. I'll behave. I'll drink the tea."
"I'm sorry, little girl. It's too late for that."
Rigel got to his feet. "Lindy, wait, I'm sorry. This is for your own good. I love you."
Her eyes flicked to him, burning with hate as her voice darkened once more. "You were a waste of fucking time."
Then Ephraim shoved the loose tooth into her mouth and chucked her through the door.
It seemed to swallow her like black water, cutting off her cry abruptly, leaving the room unnervingly silent.
Rigel was frozen, staring into the doorway.
I began to worry he would run in there after her. Wondering if this was going to be the last time I saw him regardless, I took his hand, holding him in place.
Jolting back to life at the touch, he turned to me. A rawness crossed his face I'd never seen before. He hardly looked like himself.
"That was the right thing to do, right?" he asked in a broken whisper.
I squeezed his hand.
Ephraim cleared his throat. "I think you should return to your room, Rigel."
He didn't move, fingers winding protectively into mine.
Ephraim sighed and walked around the desk to lay a heavy hand on Rigel's shoulder, his earlier rage softening. "You've done your part here, son. Go and get some rest."
Rigel looked back at me, and I nodded. If I was about to be sent in behind Lindy, I didn't want him to have to watch. I wasn't sure he'd be able to handle it.
He let go, and Ephraim went to open the door for him, revealing his trashed room.
"Once you've rested, you should really clean in here, son," Ephraim said, clearly trying to force levity into the situation, but Rigel only nodded as he passed him.
Before the doors closed, our eyes met one last time, and I shot him a tiny wave, trying to convince him I wasn't afraid.
"Oh, Agnes," Ephraim groaned, returning to me, "why couldn't you have just listened to me?"
"I — "
"Do you not see what you've done? This is all because of you. Everything that happened to Lindy, to Rigel, to Cassidy, and to your own daughter. All of that damage is on your hands."
I nodded, not sure what I could even say. Despite my lie, it wasn't an entirely inaccurate statement. This was, at its core, all my fault.
"Do you think you deserve to stay here?"
I shrugged, hoping that, despite everything, I could stay.
"Incorrect," he snapped, jabbing a finger in my face.
I nodded, looking at the floor between our feet.
"Unfortunately, whether or not you deserve it is secondary to your utility."
I looked up at him in shock.
He frowned at my expression. "Don't get too excited. With Lindy gone, keeping you might be unavoidable. I will have to convene with my colleagues to decide the best course of action and whether the benefit of keeping you here outweighs the risk."
He paused, weighing my expression.
I wasn't sure how I looked to him, much less how I even felt. It was a strange emotion, something akin to relief but also fear.
"There's no telling how long that will take, so you will be confined to your room in the interim. You will be expected to complete your school work on time and pass your finals regardless, just in case it's decided that you'll say. But you will not be granted any social privileges."
"Understood," I croaked.
He collapsed back into his chair, rubbing his temples. "Now, get out of my office."
~
The following weeks consisted mostly of me wallowing in misery. My coursework was delivered under the door or via my window sill, along with a handful of confused notes from my friends.
I tried to pass the time doing school practice, but that activity didn't have an endless shelf life. There wasn't much of interest in my room to fill the long hours. Though I was able to bribe Arlie into slipping me fiction novels through my window.
As the end of the school year loomed, I wondered if they would ever free me. I imagined my door permanently barricaded on the outside, sealed off like a tomb. Maybe that was going to be my punishment.
As my finals came around, I received a letter detailing the nature of my final exams. Certain aspects had been modified, and a few tests would have to be taken in person, in my room.
Professor Beck made me a variation of the final where I had to read through different famous hauntings and explain the utility or downfall of their methods. She had multiple books delivered to me from the Hauntings portion of the library, all named things like The Haunting of Lee Miller and The Haunting of Corcoran Marina .
She'd mentioned in a note that this was more akin to something I would have done the following year in a different class. I tried not to feel too nervous about her describing it as something I "would have done."
Despite her pessimism, I finished her final early, and a few days after I delivered it to her, I received a letter telling me I'd passed.
As Professor Arnold couldn't quite come to my room to examine me and probably didn't exactly savor having to see me after what I'd done, no doubt, I was given a tentative pass on the basis of my performance earlier in the class.
Professor Algenette was the first final exam I had to have in person. It was surreal to see another human in my room after so many weeks. I'd made a point of cleaning up, but I was sure there was still a stale reek in the air, like you could smell exactly how many times my lungs had cycled the oxygen in the room.
She brought in some objects and a roll of tape, which she used to outline little targets all over the floors and walls for me to guide said objects telekinetically. The hardest part was honestly the heavy silence as I cycled through each exercise before she told me I'd passed.
With that over, there was only one more final to face down, and luckily, it was the only one I was looking forward to. Even if it was being monitored, just being in the same room as Professor Faun sounded so nice I could hardly stand it.
I lay in bed that night, imagining the best possible outcome. If I were miraculously allowed to stay in school, I would keep my nose down and behave like a regular student. I would be good. If it meant staying on campus with my friends and Professor Faun, I would do whatever they needed of me.
Just as the palatial images lulled me into sleep, a knock came from my door. I shot up, my heart leaping into my throat. It wasn't the hour for anything school-related, as I wasn't exactly allowed to have social calls.
Flipping on the desk light, I got to my feet and called, "Come in," since I couldn't open the door myself.
The knob twisted and then Professor Faun slid inside and closed the door.
Letting out a gasp of relief, I threw myself into his arms, happy to finally touch another human.
"Oh, thank god," I wheezed against his chest. "I was so worried I wouldn't see you again."
As I pulled away, he looked like he was about to speak, but I didn't give him the opportunity.
Sliding up onto my toes, I pressed my lips against his, silencing whatever he was about to tell me.
None of it mattered. He could even fail me for all I cared. The warmth of him was too addicting.
He froze, like he was shocked, before his arms finally wound around my waist, tentatively gathering me against him.
Perhaps it had been so long he'd forgotten what it was like to touch me.
His lips parted, and I felt his ragged gasp more so than heard it.
I was about to pull away to see why he'd done that, but he dove back in before I could even open my eyes.
That time, the kiss was languorous, savoring. One of his hands disappeared from my back, and I heard the sound of him bracing it against the wall like he was having trouble standing.
Then, almost as abruptly as it had begun, he turned away. Head down, his hand came up to cover his mouth like he'd said something he regretted.
"What's wrong?" I asked, touching his shoulder.
But that's when I saw it. There wasn't that familiar ribbon on his neck to hold his head on, in fact, there was no seam in his neck at all.
"Faun?" I squeaked.
Slowly, he turned, and his face wasn't even really his face. I'd been so anxious to see him my brain hadn't even picked up on the slight distortions in his bone structure.
His appearance morphed, though the guilt remained fixed. I stepped back as the body in front of me stretched and twisted, growing upwards and darkening until he revealed himself.