Shit.
“Go before he turns around!” Harlow yells.
Riddle jumps onto my shoulder, and I slam the gate closed.
We rush over to the first building and stop at the archway entrance. A huge, reptilian head blocks the hall. As I glance down, I see the body of an immense dragon. I immediately recognize him as Cackus. “Principal?” I slowly approach. Who knows what a waking dragon will do to me? “Principal?”
His heavy breaths come in long drawls. He’s deep in sleep.
Behind us, Harlow is tap-dancing around the rock monster, keeping its focus on him and not on us. I turn back to the immense sleeping dragon and realize there’s no way to get into this part of the school. Not when Cackus is clearly protecting it. I look around and try to remember the layout of this part of the academy. “Riddle, do you know where Riven’s office is?”
If I can get to Riven, I can at least warn him and tell him who the necromancer is. Unless Faunus has already gotten to him.
Riddle flies up and into the air towards another building. He looks down at me and squawks as if telling me to follow him. So I do. At least someone knows where he’s going.
Once inside, I start to get a feel for my way around. Riddle flies through the hall, and I rush to follow. He turns a corner, then another, and then I can’t see him.
“Riddle?” I run down the hall, but he’s nowhere to be found. “Great.”
I keep my voice down while travelling the corridors, trying to catch up to my golem. “Riddle?” I whisper-call. “Where are you?”
Click. Click. Click.
The sound of metal on tile sets my teeth chattering. I turn around but see nothing. After a few more steps I hear it again, click, click, click. It’s right behind me and from the sound of it, it’s coming closer.
Again, I spin around, and this time, I catch movement. Whatever it is, it’s close behind me. I lean right, then left. The light from the overhead lanterns outside hits the thing behind me just right, and a long, thin pole glimmers in the sliver of light from the window.
What is that?
Then it moves. It’s not a pole. It’s a leg. A long spider leg.
I run. I want absolutely nothing to do with whatever that thing is and judging by the fact that it’s right behind me, it wants lots to do with me.
The thing is right on my tail, and the click, click, clicking of its eight legs as they stab the tile floors echo the thrumming of my heartbeat.
I turn another corner and see a familiar office. Riven’s office. It feels off though, somehow wrong. I’m not sure why though.
It’s Riven’s office, I tell myself.
Butterflies churn in my gut, and I’m afraid for what I’ll find behind the door. I stumble at the feeling of a pinch in my calf. As my hand reaches out for the doorknob, I feel disconnected from everything. It’s like swimming in a pool, wading through the viscous water. I open the door and pull myself inside, slamming it hard behind me. A thunk lands on the door, but the spider doesn’t try to come in. My head swims, but I breathe and everything comes into focus.
Riven’s desk chair is vacant. The headmaster isn’t here.
Standing in front of the dark fireplace is an elemental with a lopsided smile and messy hair.
“Grim?” My elation battles through the fog of my mind and I feel shock down to my toes. “You’re alive!”
He’s surprised, but he smiles and looks at me with a strange expression on his face. One I can’t place. There’s something… different about him. He acts a little unsure, a little bit hesitant. But who wouldn’t after what he’s been through?
“Are you okay?” I look at him, searching his features for signs of torture, ill treatment, or any other indication that Cackus hasn’t held up his part of the deal. It’s enough having to owe a dragon a favor, but if he hasn’t kept his end of the bargain, I’m really going to be pissed.
He nods.
“Do you know where Riven is?”
He shakes his head and I wonder over the fact that he won’t talk. And that vacant expression is in his eyes again. But I don’t have time to ponder it. I have to find Riven. I have to make sure he’s okay.
Grim passes me, goes to the door and lays a hand on the handle.
“Wait! There’s a…”
He opens the door to an empty hallway. No spider.
Grim walks out. Tentatively, I peek out the door and look both ways. Still empty. I follow Grim because he knows this place better than I do.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” I hurry behind him. He turns around and gives me a quick smile. He nods. It’s so weird that he won’t just speak.
Nothing more. Just a nod. No emotion. No flourish of fire. It’s like his soul has been taken away. At that thought, my entire stomach drops. I can only hope they haven’t done something so terrible to him that he’s never the same again.
We go down a hall to familiar ground. This is the way to Ms. Fernren’s class. The same area where I first met Faunus.
“So are we just blindly looking for Riven?”
Grim gives me an annoyed side glance.
My feet slow. Grim leads me down a corridor with a slanted arch-like door made from trees. It’s the same one we passed when going to Ms. Fernren’s class. He opens a door opposite that one and waves me in. Stairs lead down into darkness.
“This way?” I ask, frowning.
He nods.
I pause and peer down
