Chapter 55.3

Tessa: did u guys get that email too?Vee: Yeah, we’re on our way now. 5 o’clock?

Chloé: That’s what we saw. Do you think they know???

Vee: It can’t be a coincidence, can it? That all four of us got it? Do you think anyone else will be there?

Tessa: we were hangin wit imani when it came in, she didnt get it

Chloé: I’m also not seeing any chatter in the AV Club group chat. Plus, if we’re meeting inside the actual Dean’s office, there’s no way they can fit more than five or six people.

Amara: Chloé, should we tell them you couldn’t make it? Then you can be invisible the whole time.

Chloé: Oooh that would be way easier. I’ll keep Nick updated as the meeting starts!

Tessa: so wtf fuck is our cover story?

Vee: We need to put together a cover story if they start asking questions.

Vee: Oh, lol. What Tess said.

Chloé: Obviously we’re LARPers and spent the entire break making props for a campus wide event XD

Amara: Wait what’s a larper?

“You’ve never heard of LARPing?” Vee asked, turning to Amara. “Aren’t you the one always hanging out with Chloé?”

“Oh, is it a game thing?” Amara asked in return.

The two of them were slowly closing in on Whitmore Hall. Vee didn’t have any classes here, and had only visited it recently to help restore its basement classroom for the AV Club. Many faculty members had offices here, and that included the Dean’s office on the top floor.

“It stands for Live Action Role Play,” Vee clarified. “It’s like our D&D game, but everyone is actually running around pretending to be the characters themselves.”

“Huh, I guess that makes sense. So, we’re supposed to tell the Dean that the reapers, the magic, the damage, all of that was a LARP gone wrong?” Amara asked, grabbing the door to Whitmore Hall and opening it for Vee. “Or, maybe a LARP gone very, very right?”

“I think Chloé was being sarcastic, love,” Vee said, gently grabbing Amara’s hand.

“Ugh, why couldn’t that stupid email have told us what this is about? Maybe we’re overreacting, and this is just us missing Finals week,” Amara grumbled.

“Except Chloé and Tessa didn’t miss their finals,” Vee pointed out.

“Shoot, you’re right.”

The two of them fell quiet as they navigated towards the large stone staircase wedged off to the side of the main floor. Its steps were deep and shallow, with small black strips to make walking safer, and Vee cursed each and every step that brought her closer to this mystery meeting. Halfway up each flight of stairs was a small landing that held a few benches and large windows that looked out over campus, through which Vee saw the last remaining rays of light that were attempting to crest over the horizon.

Vee’s stomach twisted itself into knots as she thought about her past actions, and before she knew it, they’d arrived on the third floor. They took a right turn, walking down the hallway until they finally saw the place they’d been summoned to. A simple wooden door with a large window sat waiting for them, the glass heavily clouded for the privacy of those inside, and black letters in the center of the window read “Samuel Halsen, Dean.”

“Alright, we’re a few minutes early,” Vee said. “Let’s wait here for Tess and Chloé.”

Amara nodded as she leaned against a nearby wall for support. A second later, she pushed off again to instead get a drink of water at a nearby water fountain. Instead of returning, however, she began pacing back and forth while she fiddled her thumbs together. Every so often her hips twitched to one side or the other, a behavior Vee recognized immediately; she was trying to fidget with a tail she currently didn’t have.

When Tessa finally arrived, she was completely out of breath from trudging up three flights of stairs. “Stupid… campus… having stairs and shit…”

“Tessa, you really should take Nick up on his workout offer,” Vee said. “Or maybe join Amara at the gym sometime?”

“Why the fuck does Amara need to go to the gym?” Tessa asked. “No, actually, that doesn’t matter. We need to figure out what we’re telling the Dean; there’s no chance in Hell this meeting is just a chat about our grades.”

“Is Chloé here?” Amara asked, looking around briefly.

“Yup!” Chloé whispered, her voice somewhere above the staircase. “Just got here, but I’m keeping to myself.”

“Alright, so, what’s the plan?” Vee asked. “Should we try to stall and see how much they—”

Before Vee could finish speaking, the door to the Dean’s office opened behind them, presenting a middle-aged woman with loose black hair, a teal blouse, and simple black pants. “Ah, it looks like almost everyone is here,” she said happily. “Is Ms. Belmont on her way?”

“She, uh… isn’t feeling well and can’t make it,” Amara nervously muttered.

“Aw, what a shame,” the woman said, seemingly genuinely disheartened by the news. “No matter, Dean Halsen is ready for your meeting. If you would all follow me, I’ll show you inside.”

First, the woman brought them into her office, which immediately preceded the Dean’s. A series of large filing cabinets sat against the wall to the right, while a large wooden desk rested in the back left corner. Atop the desk, Vee noticed a small golden plaque that read “Ileana Doherty.” The last time Vee had been here, several simple chairs had been resting against the left wall, presumably for those waiting to talk with the Dean, but two of those chairs were conspicuously absent at the moment.

Miss Doherty walked them across the room, gently knocked on the door leading to the actual Dean’s office, and Vee heard the familiar rasp of the Dean’s older voice.

“Come in!” he called out.

The assistant opened the door, then gestured for everyone to walk through. After it became obvious that she would not be joining this meeting, Vee made an effort to smile at the older woman as she passed. “Thank you, Miss Doherty.”

After receiving a kind smile in return, Vee looked into the room ahead of her. The first thing she noticed was an incredible collection of historical items adorning the various shelves and walls throughout the room. She saw ancient books, large framed maps, a few gorgeous geodes, a thick length of decorative rope, various small statues, and dozens of other small objects. In the back right corner, a massive ornate cabinet seemed to loom over the rest of the office, clearly locked up tight, and many more historical objects sat comfortably behind its glass windows. The floors were made of old, polished dark wood that faintly reflected the glow from the warm lightbulbs hanging in elaborate brass fixtures in the four corners of the office. Just in front of the desk, a thick red carpet with intricate stitching had been spread out and several chairs rested atop it. Two of them were much nicer, made of simple wood carved into a rounded shape with comfortable armrests and cushions, but the other two chairs had been taken from the preceding room, and were simple, square items with no cushions or armrests to speak of. A massive wooden desk, far larger and more elaborately carved than the assistant’s, sat in the center of the room. Just behind it, a large chair upholstered with deep red fabric and gold accents held a single figure, one that looked far too small in comparison to the grand seat itself.

Dean Samuel Halsen.

He was currently hunched over his desk, resting his elbows on a leather mat that covered roughly half the surface of the desk itself. His brown tweed suit had flickers of gray lines running through it, and despite seeming like it had been custom tailored to fit him, it still managed to look ill-fitted and disheveled. The Dean had a full head of short, silvery-gray hair that occasionally fell across his thin wiry glasses, which themselves were very subtly bent in a few places. His eyes were greyish-blue, and prominent crow’s feet alongside them hinted at his age. He stared at the three girls as they entered, a somewhat tired smile lighting up his thin face as he welcomed them.

“Ah! Come in, come in, I’m so glad you had time to come see me today,” Dean Halsen said. He stood up from his desk, walked around it, then shook everyone’s hand as they found their seats. “Amara Lamour, Vee Bennett, Tessa Blackwood, and… oh, could Miss Belmont not make it?”

Vee shook her head. “I’m afraid not, Dean Halsen, she wasn’t feeling well.”

“Darn shame, that is,” the Dean muttered. “I was hoping to thank her for all her diligence with her charity efforts.” He shuffled around his desk one more time before taking a seat. He then opened a small drawer to his right, pressed a button, and looked towards the wall on his left.

Vee followed his gaze, expecting to see something, but nothing appeared. Instead, automated shades hummed to life against the back wall, sliding down to block the windows.

“Shoot, hold on, I can do this…” the Dean muttered. He clicked another button, then a third, whispering to himself the entire time. After the third click, another hum reverberated through the office, this time coming from the spot to the Dean’s left. A large projector screen slowly descended from the ceiling, and moments later the implied projector whirred to life from the opposite wall.

“Uh, not that I’m trying to be disrespectful or anything,” Tessa started, “but why exactly are we here?”

Dean Halsen reached for the laptop on his desk, cracked it open, and began typing. “I’m getting there, I just need to get everything set up…” With a quiet scoff of disbelief, he gestured in frustration at his computer. “What do you mean, I’m logging in from a new location? This is the only computer I use! And I only use it here! Ugh, hold on…” He then stood up, walked to a jacket hanging on a coat rack in the corner, and pulled a phone out of the main pocket. When he returned to his desk, he began poking at his phone while periodically glancing back at his computer. “Okay, two-factor authentication… I don’t see anything. What the heck?”

A speaker atop the desk blared to life, and Miss Doherty’s voice came through. “Mr. Halsen, you put my number into your account again. The security code is 853479.”

“Ah, that explains that. Thank you, Ileana, you’re a lifesaver, as always!” the Dean muttered, chuckling to himself soon after. “Okay, that should do it. Now I just have to find the presentation… Hold on, I know it’s here somewhere…”

Vee looked to her friends sitting next to her, and caught Tessa in the middle of rolling her eyes. Amara reached over to grab Vee’s hand, softly smiling at her as they suffered through another few minutes of the Dean rummaging through computer files. When the images finally appeared on the projector screen, Vee tapped Amara’s hand and gestured towards the screen with her head.

At first, she didn’t fully understand what she was looking at. It appeared to be security camera footage of a random hallway, albeit one with several shuttered stalls lining the wide path.

A few seconds into the video, three shapes wandered into view. It was obvious they weren’t supposed to be there, as all the lights in the building were off, but they wandered through without a care in the world. Vee struggled to make out who they were, and just before her eyes could adjust to the darkened image, a burst of light appeared on the video, courtesy of a small ball of flame hovering above one of the figure’s hands.

It was now clear as day; these people were Tessa, Amara, and Nick.

Her stomach dropped, and she clutched Amara’s hand tightly as the video changed to a new feed. They were now looking at the football field directly, watching Amara as she tried to take off into the sky. Her attempts failed repeatedly, and in her rage over losing her flight, she screamed at the sky while releasing a torrent of hellfire.

Minutes passed, and the three girls watched a veritable clip show of their events over the last few months. They saw a reaper charging across campus, then being tackled and beheaded by Amara. They saw Vee unleash a flash of Enochian energy to try and convince Ruby to run towards the cafeteria, and they saw Tessa sneaking into several buildings after hours while her tattoos subtly glowed beneath her tight-knit beanie caps. There was even footage of Chloé, barely visible and only partially present, phasing through walls at several points across campus.

As the video montage came to a close, just as Vee’s face felt it couldn’t get any redder, the Dean finally spoke up.

“Would any of you care to offer me an explanation?” he asked.