Right before the wake-up bell rang, the nurse walked from bed to bed waking each of us so we could go back to our rooms to get dressed for breakfast. Lucas was still out cold from the tranquilizer and Lolly didn't want to leave his side. But after I explained to her that she needed to get dressed and at least eat something she finally agreed, vowing she'd be right back after breakfast.

After getting dressed and heading down to the cafeteria, we were all shocked when Mr. B informed us that Declan and Wes could sit with us instead of at the class B tables. We were even more shocked when we got to our usual table and found Lucas sitting there.

"Pookie!" Lolly yelled and ran over to him. 

He still seemed out of it because when Lolly jumped onto him, she nearly knocked him off the bench. I was so surprised to see him, it took me a minute to notice the nurse standing behind him.

"As soon as he woke up he insisted on meeting you all here. I told him he should rest but there was no keeping him there. I trust you all will look after him today."

We all agreed and the nurse gave Lucas one final look before leaving us in Mr. B's protective watch. "So how are you feeling?" Lolly asked as she played with the red strands of Lucas' hair. 

He shrugged and quietly answered, "Tired." She nodded and pulled his head down onto her shoulder. Declan wasn't going to leave it at that though.

"So how did it feel?"

Lucas looked at him with narrowed eyes and asked, "How do you think?" 

His narrowed eyes softened and his gaze turned to the floor.

"It was scary as hell, I couldn't control it. When the fire started in my hands it didn't hurt or burn. But I panicked and it got bigger. Mr. B and Ms. Pierce busted in and all I could think was that they were going to get hurt. Which made me panic more. Then they were coming at me with a needle and everything went black." He closed his eyes almost as if just talking about it made him tired all over again.

That was until Alicia started with her usual snark.

"Well looks like you and Lolly are the lucky two so far."

Lucas opened his eyes concerned and asked, "What do you mean?"

Sage shot Alicia a look as if to say "big mouth" but continued anyway, "Lolly teleported into the fire to find you."

That got Lucas' attention quick. His head snapped up and he caught Lolly's face between both of his hands as he asked, "Why did you do that? How did you do that?"

She didn't seem intimidated by his intense stare and just simply answered, "Declan and Wes were holding me back. I needed to get to you, and then I was in the room. When I saw you weren't there I knew I needed to get out before I couldn't breathe. Then I was back outside."

He nodded seeming to understand what it felt like to do something you never thought imaginable. I couldn't help but wonder how that was going to feel. The way Ms. Pierce talked, it was only a matter of time before we all found out.

Before breakfast finished Ms. Pierce walked into the cafeteria and straight for our table. She didn't look tired like yesterday but the intensity and stress on her face were still there. She gave one of her brilliant smiles though, clearly trying to hide her emotions.

"Good morning."

The looks on the faces around me clearly showed that they were not pleased with her. Sage's question made it even more obvious.

"Morning, planning on filling us in on everything today?"

I flinched like it was directed at me, there was just so much venom in her voice. But Ms. Pierce didn't even blink an eye. Instead, she kept her smile and fake happy attitude.

"Yes, but like before I can show you better than I can tell you. So, ladies and gentlemen, we're going on a field trip."

Her words filled me with dread. All I kept picturing was that thing in the basement. Screaming like he was in so much pain until his skin and face shifted into a monster. I really hope what we were going to see was nothing like that.

After eating we all followed Ms. Pierce and Mr. B through the metal detectors and out the front doors where a yellow school bus waited for us. I was the last to get on the bus and quickly noticed my seat choices were either with Alicia, by myself, or with Wes. Lolly and Lucas were snuggled up and Declan was next to Sage trying to unsuccessfully sneak his arm around her shoulders. After last nights conversation with Wes, I wanted so badly to sit next to him. But he likes a chase right?

I kept my eyes on an empty seat and headed for it. Though as I walked pass Wes, I felt his hand grab mine and lightly pull me into the space next to him. I kept my smile to myself. Once through the fence, I convinced Wes to let me have the window seat. He seemed to like the idea of having me trapped next to him so it wasn't a hard negotiation. I even let him throw his arm around me while I looked at the city through the windows.

When I first got here the ride from the airport to Landry's was relatively short. So I didn't get to see much of New Orleans. This time I got to see more. I'm not sure how long the ride was but at one point Wes informed me that we were in the French Quarter. He started pointing out different places like Jackson Square, Cafe Du Monde, and the Old U.S. Mint. He pointed out his favorite places to hang out, and different landmarks he thought were interesting. Coming here I never thought I would have my own tour guide.

After a little while, the bus finally came to a stop on the side of a road. We got out and right away noticed the buildings along the side of the road we were parked on. On the corner was a small grocery store, beside it was a two-story building with a shop on the lower level. The sign on the lower level read "Madam Bavoux's VooDoo Shop". I couldn't see much through the windows or the door, though the door frame did have a few shrunken heads hanging from it. The outside of the second level had a balcony, much like the ones I'd seen in pictures of Bourbon St.

"Well, here we are."

I thought Ms. Pierce was talking about the voodoo shop until I noticed she was looking at what was on the other side of the shop. It was a building, well part of a building. Most of it was crumbled and broken gray stones covering the lot. Some were small, smaller than my hand, while others were almost as tall as Wes. On the back of the lot though looked like the back half of what may have been a church a long time ago. The columns were cracked and some completely broken in half. Only one wall was still completely in tack, with a window. The window had just a few remaining shards of stained glass left and as the sun shone through, it displayed different colors over the gray rocks. I bet this was a beautiful place once.

As everyone was taking in the crumbling church, a woman came walking out of the voodoo shop. Her eyes shot to Mr. B and she took off in a full sprint towards him.

"Xavier!" She yelled.

Mr. B's head turned in her direction and a smile spread across his face. I didn't even think he knew how to smile. His bright white teeth were such a contrast to his dark skin and dark eyes. Even his posture relaxed as he caught the women who jumped into his outstretched arms.

"Oh, Xavier its so good to see you." He placed her back on her feet. "You should have called and told me you were heading this way," she said while playfully punching his shoulder.

It was a light punch but my eyes nearly bugged out of my head. I don't think anyone would ever dare to punch Mr. B, even playfully. I sure as hell wouldn't.

Ms. Pierce walked over to stand by the women with a small look of annoyance on her face. The women either didn't notice or didn't care. She turned and gave Ms. Pierce a small side hug.

"It's good to see you Madison."

"You to Freya."

Mr. Pierce turned to us and motioned towards the woman.

"Everyone this is Freya Bavoux, Mr. B's sister."

A couple of us said "Hello" while the rest were probably stunned into silence. Except for Lolly, of course, she looked disappointed as she asked, "So B is for Bavoux?"

Ms. Pierce nodded.

"I'm still calling him bubbles," she said crossing her arms over her chest.

Ms. Freya was a good foot and a half, maybe even two feet, shorter than her brother. They had the same dark skin tone and though she wasn't as buff as Mr. B, she definitely worked out. Her black hair was braided into thick braids that wrapped together into a big ball on top of her head, with a purple headband that wrapped around her hairline. Mr. B looked at all of us and gone was the loving brother. Instead the intimidating statue I had grown used to returned. Ms. Freya looked to us as well and then turned to Ms. Pierce.

"Is this them?"

Ms. Pierce nodded.

"Mind if I tag along?"

Ms. Pierce looked like she wanted to say "No." but instead said, "Sure." Ms. Freya ran back to her shop, turned her open sign in the window to "closed", and then shut and locked the door. Ms. Pierce motioned for us all to follow her as she headed towards the church ruins. "Be careful." She called over her shoulder as she weaved her way through the big rocks and stepped over the smaller ones. We each did as she said and carefully followed behind her.

Sage and I both slipped a couple times on the loose rock. Thankfully Declan and Wes helped us. But where Declan grabbed Sage's hips to catch her, Wes grabbed my ass to help. I had to keep shooting him looks but each time he looked at me like he didn't know what he was doing. Lolly was the luckiest though, Lucas' gave her a piggyback ride through the rubble and didn't slip once. Alicia was all the way in the back, being so careful she was a good ten feet behind us.

Ms. Pierce lead us behind the wall with the broken stained glass window. On the ground, right up against the wall, was what looked like a cellar entrance with two metal doors. The handles of the doors had an extremely thick chain wrapped around it with a padlock holding them shut. Ms. Pierce pulled a key from her pocket and in seconds had the lock and chains removed. She reached into the bag she had hanging on her shoulder and pulled out several flashlights. Every other person received a flashlight.

"When we head down the stairs you need to all take your time and watch your step. It's going to be very dark and we still have a ways to walk."

Ms. Pierce didn't wait for us to reply before opening up the doors and stepping down a set of stone stairs into complete darkness. When we all reached the bottom of the stairs the darkness had lightened with everyone flashing their lights around to get a better look at our surroundings.

We were standing in a tunnel that looked as if it when on forever into complete blackness. The tunnel was a good six feet wide and ten feet tall, with cement walls all around. Mud and rocks covered the ground we stood on. It looked as if it hadn't seen activity in years and was showing signs of erosion. The air was cold and damp, which was a shock to me after just being out in the humid Louisiana air.

Once Ms. Pierce made sure we had all made it down she let out a low whistle and Mr. B closed the cellar doors behind him. He flashed his light at the back of the group to signal Ms. Pierce and then she started off down the tunnel. We all followed along and this time when I felt Wes wrap his arm around my waist I could tell he didn't do it to be a perv. We kept walking for what felt like a half an hour when I noticed a light. We crossed the short distance left till we reached the light.

At the end of the tunnel, the walls opened up to create a massive underground cavern. The room was rounded and the walls reached up to a cement ceiling at least five stories high, if not higher. I hadn't even realized we were that far underground but the tunnel must of went further down the longer we walked. It was what stood in the center of the cavern that really held my attention. It seemed to hold everyone's attention.

Stairs led down to a large circular stone in the middle of the cavern. On the stone were two more stones, perfect rectangles straight up. The surface on the right one looked as smooth as marble, no cracks or signs of erosion. Like it had been placed there recently. The stone to the left was the exact opposite. Cracks covered its surface. Bits and pieces were broken off scattered on the ground around it. On each side of them were torches of fire already lit as if this place was just waiting for us to arrive. As each of started down the stairs, the flames grew bigger. When we all finally reach the circular platform the flames had grown to the size of a beach ball. Ms. Pierce went to stand in between the two rectangular stones. She turned to face us as we all spread out to form a semi-circle. Guess it was time for show and tell.