Despite his nights still being plagued with nightmares, the last few weeks had seen a slight shift in Alex's mood. Sure, he regularly awoke in the middle of the night completely terrified but in the day time, things were on the up.

Ever since his talk with Bella, his friends seemed to be making a much more conscious effort to cheer him up. The other week they'd all gone bowling together. It was great. It'd been a completely stress free environment. No worries about work or school or relationships, just six friends failing at a simple game combined with some good old fashioned banter. It'd been the happiest Alex had been for at least half a year.

Alex and Lenny had become a double act once again. The two friends hadn't been that close after the summer break but now, they were back in full force with Alex trying his very well best to be a good friend for once. He was making a genuine effort to help Lenny out with the ladies as well as improving his battling skills and to Lenny's surprise, it seemed to be working. In the last month, Lenny had had two dates and whilst neither were successful, Alex could just tell that his friend had been buzzing with excitement both before and after the event. His confidence was growing and it wouldn't be long until he found someone who would stick around for a little longer.

As for Alex's chances with the girls, the same couldn't really be said. Even as he was walking down corridors in the academy, just on his way to classes, girls would stare at him and occasionally ask him out. He politely declined every single time but that would never stop them for long. However, he continued to secretly meet with Megan behind Thomas' back. Of course, it was perfectly friendly, all they ever did was have a drink, a small bite to eat and talked. It wasn't much, but it was enough to keep the smile on Alex's face.

Mostly, their meetings were just for Megan to let off some steam. Being in a relationship with an overly protective guy like Thomas looked extremely stressful, especially when he didn't even allow her to spend time with one of her friends. He'd allowed the bowling night because there were four other people there and that was about it. Megan often complained about him. She told Alex that she persistently tried to get him to loosen up but it never worked. It sounded as though she was fed up with him.

Alex tried not to get over excited at the thought. What if they broke up? All it would take would be one over the top row and he was convinced the pair would split. And if they did, he was ready and waiting to pounce. He was not going to miss his chance. He'd be a shoulder to cry on and then he'd slip in his feelings and if movies had told him anything, they would then proceed to have sex. It was a natural progression of emotional states. Alex chuckled to himself at his own weird way of thinking. He hadn't done that in a while.

"Hey Luce, have you seen Megan?" Bella asked.

"Yeah she went to the library with Thomas to study." Lucy replied, saying the word 'study' with air quotes. Anyone who knew Megan knew that she wouldn't go all the way to the library just to study.

"We'll just catch her up then." Bella said. "You ready Alex?"

"Let's go." Alex smiled. Probably the biggest factor in his minor resurgence of happiness was Bella. Oddly enough, it was due to schoolwork. He'd confessed to her that he'd been struggling and before he knew it, she had organised daily sessions in which they worked together. Sometimes they were alone, doing homework together in the library, sometimes all six of their group worked together. Whatever, the exact circumstances were didn't really matter. Essentially, Bella was making work... fun. She somehow made it seem easy, like all this time he'd just not been understanding stuff because he was thick. When she was helping him, everything seemed so much clearer and he was incredibly grateful.

Right now, they were going to the library to do the weekend's worth of homework together. Alex Bella and Lucy all made their way from the Azelf dorm to the main school building, where the library was located. Alex felt a smile come to his face as he realised Megan would be in the library as well. He could watch her from afar without getting into too much trouble with her man.

"Any plans for the weekend Alex?" Bella asked as she practically skipped through the corridors. Of course, the library was her favourite place in the school. It made her smile like nothing else.

"Nothing special." Alex shrugged. "I'm definitely gonna get to work on training up my Pokémon. I've got a newly evolved Chandelure and a mega evolution to get used to."

"Good idea." Bella smiled. As they approached the library, Alex started to feel cold. Odd, he thought to himself. Lately, the temperature had been on the rise as they headed into spring. He glanced at the two girls who were slightly ahead of him, both a little more eager to study than he was. Neither of them seemed to notice a change. Just as he was about to shrug it off as nothing, he began to hear noises.

"Can you hear that?" he pointed out. The girls stopped and turned to look at him. They then exchanged confused glances.

"I don't hear anything." Lucy said.

"Me neither." Bella shook her head.

"It's like some kind of murmuring or whispering." Alex said after a few moments of pondering. He waited for a moment, expecting the noise to no longer be there as if he had imagined it but no; he could still hear it. It was very faint but there was undeniably some kind of odd noise in the air.

"Maybe it was the wind." The girls carried on without really believing what he had heard. Still, as they got closer to the library, the sound seemed to get louder and louder until Alex could almost make out words.

"It's here..." he muttered to himself. That was what it sounded like. What was here? What was where? Where was here? It was vaguely familiar. He recognised the sound from somewhere but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. It wasn't until they were right outside the doors of the library and the sound was no longer a murmuring that he realised what it was.

"It's here!" the voice practically screamed, the sound waves bouncing around the inside of Alex's head. He dropped to his knees, overcome with fear. How could he hear that voice? Could it be that his greatest fear from what he thought was a nightmare also existed in the real world?

"What the devil are you doing young-"

"No!" the voice yelled, cutting off what sounded like Mr Tobias, the librarian. What followed was an explosion of sound, a mixture of an old man's scream, a tremendous crashing and the yelps of students. Bella had swivelled around to see Alex on the floor and then almost fell over trying to swivel back around and enter the library to see what all of the commotion was about. She opened the door and gasped, almost fainting as she staggered backwards.

Alex just about found the strength to stand and see for himself what was going on. He saw why Bella had reacted in the manner that she did. The library was a complete mess. Bookshelves lay hazardously on the floor and piles of heavy textbooks were strewn all over the place. Tables and chairs were scattered and turned over, computers were broken and everyone in the room looked terrified.

"Help me!"

"I'm stuck!"

"Get this off of me!"

"Alex!" Alex's head instantly jerked towards the sound of his name. His eyes widened as he saw Megan, her leg trapped underneath a heavy bookshelf. He didn't bother attending to the other cries of help; Bella, Lucy and other students could help out with them. He ran across the room, hurdling over misplaced desks in record time before he managed to reach the redhead.

"Bloody hell this is heavy!" he cried out as he lifted the shelving unit with all of his might. He tensed his muscles as much as he could but he could only manage to lift the object a few inches higher than before. Still, it was enough room for Megan to wriggle free. As soon as her bloodied leg was no longer trapped, she leapt at him, hugging him tightly.

"Thank you." she whispered, kissing him. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her head underneath his chin, making her feel warm and safe.

"It's ok. You're ok. You're fine now." he breathed, kissing the top of her head. His heart was beating like crazy. It thumped away, pounding his ribcage, sending minor shockwaves throughout his body. His head darted around the room, looking for the source of the voice.

"One of them has it..." the voice seemed to say as it faltered away before disappearing completely. Half relieved that he wouldn't have to meet the body of the voice, Alex breathed a sigh of relief.

"It all happened so fast." Megan stuttered. She was shaking badly. The hospital wing needed to be informed of this as soon as possible. There were several injured students in here and some of them could go into shock. "I was just talking to Tobias and then something hit me out of the way. Then there was this... this bang and everything was everywhere and..."

"Shh." Alex whispered, trying to calm her down. "Everything's fine now. I'm here now. You're ok." He ran his hand over her head, stroking her. For a while they just sat there in each other's warmth. He felt her tears run down his shirt and he tried not to shed any of his own. He had a feeling that this attack wasn't the cause of her tears. Eventually, they stood up and headed for the exit.

Megan's leg injury thankfully didn't look to bad, it was some kind of sprain at worst. Even so, Alex took her hand and properly guided her through the wreckage, making sure that he helped her over any tricky obstacles. At Tobias' desk, there was a gathering of students from all years. Most looked shaken but only a few seemed to actually be hurt. Bella, Lucy and a few other students who had come upon the scene were helping to gather everyone together in an effort to calm the situation down.

Alex looked around the group of them. There were a couple of first years that he didn't know, several third years and only a handful of faces that he actually recognised from his year. He locked eyes with an oddly cool looking Cooper. He had apparently been in the store cupboard just behind Tobias' desk when the incident took place. The last person to arrive at the scene was a frantic Thomas who had apparently been searching for Megan the whole time.

"Thank Arceus you're ok." he said, roughly pulling her away from Alex. He wanted to hold on and keep her in his arms forever but he knew he shouldn't. After all, Thomas was shooting him a look that could kill a dozen people. Avoiding the wicked stare, Alex moved over to Bella who was crouching by Tobias' desk.

"Tobias?" Alex asked as he saw what Bella was looking at. The librarian was lying on his back, completely unconscious with a look of absolute terror etched on his face.

"He's out cold." Bella whispered. Just as she said it, the old man began twitching. Then he started rolling around and then his hands were covering his ears and he was moaning and groaning, shouting and begging for 'it' to stop.

"No he's not." Alex shook his head, his heart skipping a beat. "He's asleep. He's having a nightmare." Even as he said it, the realisation didn't quite kick in. Someone, or rather something, had done this to the poor, frail librarian. The old man was now being subjected to the same torture that Alex himself had been suffering. This was scary. Properly, well and truly terrifying. Whatever the voice was and whatever it wanted wasn't the main concern. The point was, the voice was out there. It was real and it was dangerous. New Moon Academy was no longer safe.