The school looms over us with its massive gothic structure stretching up like teeth. Dolly coos over Hartley's bloody nose beside me. It's long since gone dark and I'm glad I don't have class the next day.  I'm definitely getting nightmares tonight. 

"What's your room number?" Dolly asks. She's surprisingly gentle considering what had happened. Hartley leaves with his posse of useless clubmates, still clutching at his face.

I tell her and she thinks for a minute before nodding. She's still got both hands on my upper arms like she's afraid I might sprint back into the woods, and it's close enough to a hug that nobody really takes notice. Dolly knows the campus better than I ever could. She finds a door I didn't even know existed and pushes me through, guiding up a set of stairs and down a dingy narrow hall.

"What was that?" I finally ask.

"What was what?" She's nonchalant.

I almost let it pass. I almost want to keep going in silence, forget everything that happened and that there's a self-taught magician named Smiler in the woods and maybe a true necromancer. I don't. Not this time. Petra's not here. She either left without saying goodbye or she's doing her own thing, so I have no reason to keep my mouth shut.

I stop walking. "That thing with -- what's his name, Smiler? What the hell was that? Why did Hartley basically bully him?"

Dolly rolls her eyes and groans. She crosses her arms and looks me up and down. "The locals don't like us. Like -- really don't like us. Every student's first spell is a protection one specifically made for the townies. It bounces any physical attack back at the townie. It's why we were all so worried about you -- you haven't done the spell yet."

I bite my lip. "Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why do they hate us?"

Dolly shrugs. "You'd have to ask a prof. I wasn't there when it happened."

"But that guy wasn't going to hurt me. He was helping me."

She snorts and starts walking again. "That guy you were talking to is the Smiler. He killed a girl once."

"What?"

"Okay, fine," she put both hands up, "nobody ever proved anything. But he's an untrained magician so it wouldn't surprise me if he used a student as a sacrifice. Besides, he's creepy. He's cute, but he literally smells like -- "

She cuts herself off when we round a corner and the hall is full of people. Maybe fifteen of them, all well-dressed adults so I assume they're professors, silently shuffling around the small space of the hall. They crowd around an open doorway. I lean around Dolly to squint inside. It looks like a teacher's lounge.

Both of us pull back to hide.

"What happened?" I ask.

Dolly shrugs and reaches into her bra. She pulls out a ballpoint pen and scribbles a set of lines onto her forearm. Runes take shape in the fat streaks of ink. Silence, darkness, distract, attention, and more, each packed onto her skin. She finishes with a flourish and smiles at me. "Let's find out."

She flips the pen around, and there's a needle taped to the end of it. She drags it lightly down the middle of the runes. Dots of blood well up in its wake.

Dolly grabs my hand and my eyes throb hard enough to make my vision black out. I close them and cling to Dolly.

"What --"

She shushes me and presses a finger to my lips.

I open my eyes. The world blurs around me like I'm underwater, colors taking a greenish cast. I look at Dolly and she's the only clear thing in the hall. She stands straight up, locking her fingers in mine, and steps into the hall.

The professors don't notice us. Even when Dolly leads me right through them, weaving like it's mission impossible. They're pressed too close together for us to see into the room at first.

A distant noise jolts everyone. The professors scatter. I look up. It's a tall, stern-looking woman with blonde hair and a small nose. Her mouth moves, dark lipstick moving around white teeth. I can barely hear the echo of her voice even as she shoulders past us.

Dolly's hand strangles mine and I turn my attention back to the room.

A man lies face-down on the carpet. His skin is bluish-purple, skin waxy and standing out against his stark white hair.

It's professor Everett. The man with the shrikes.

Oh, fuck.

Those birds in the chapel, they were shrikes. They must have been. They were his shrikes.

I pull back, taking Dolly with me. She doesn't resist. After a few steps, she takes the lead and climbs another set of stairs until I recognize the dark wood of the dorm room hallway. She lets go of my hand, our combined sweat suddenly going cold. The spell breaks around us and I almost fall over with relief, the pounding in my head ceasing.

Dolly trips on her own feet and props herself up against a wall. She gags and I take a step back as she splatters the wood paneling with vomit. Her entire body shakes and heaves with it. The smell of regurgitated alcohol fills the air.

I look away as she draws herself upright. She still looks a bit green around the edges and I don't know if that's from seeing the body or the spell. Probably both.

Dolly coughs and clears her throat, sidestepping her mess to lean against the wall with her back. "Oh, never cast drunk," she sighs.

The spell, then.

"That was Professor Everett," I say.

Dolly opens an eye to peer at me. "You know him?"

I nod. "Yeah. My sister introduced me to him this morning. He's – he was nice?"

"Now he's dead. It happens, he was old," she says. Her voice is a bit too high for me to believe her.

All I can think about are the birds.

His channeling magic was a neat trick, but it left him vulnerable to things like this. My breath caught in my chest. Why take the trouble of getting a human sacrifice in the right place when you could just get his birds and take his life from them?

My eyes shoot up to Dolly. The Resurrectionists. They said it was just a name. It's just a name.

"Thanks for..." I trail off, not knowing what to thank her for. I turn on my heel and hurry past her, ignoring whatever she says as I go.

It's not that hard to find my room from this hall. I get there in a couple minutes. My key is still in my jeans pocket – thank God – and I get the door open on my second try.

I slam the door shut and sag against the wood. My heart beats so hard I swear the neighbors will hear it.

Jane is staring at me.

A blonde girl stares at me, too.

I blink. Yes, there is a girl sitting on the third bed. Wavy blonde hair is all I really register before I groan and walk past them, stripping my shirt as I do. It's covered in dust and dirt. My two roommates are silent as I change into pyjamas. They don't stop staring, even when I get down to my underwear. I pull my hair out of my shirt and turn on them.

"Should have stayed in," is all I offer as explanation before collapsing face-first into my bed. It creaks and bends under my weight. Fantastic.

"Uh, hi? I'm Allison," says New Roommate. I uncover my head and eye her. Jane just looks spooked, but Allison seems amused. She's pretty in a soft, freckled way.

"Sadie." All manners have been leeched from me.

Jane gives me a concerned look. "I tried texting you? Maybe I got the wrong number but –"

Fuck, my phone.

"Fuck, my phone," I say.

--

a/n

im probably gonna come back and revise this chapter and the last bc it's not as strong as the others but i want to get to the Action