They were cooked!
Seven and Miguel stared at each other as they saw their efforts flop, hitting rock bottom.
They questioned the efforts they had put in; was it really worth it?
Were they ever destined to find the answers, to save the school? To save themselves.
But oblivious, Simon continued, laughing in a second, scared in the next, and sobbing in the next after that.
"A burial, a blessing, they were listening, maybe bowing, he was trying, the tree was bleeding, I'm still hearing, he's clawing, thanking, isn't he sweet?"
They stared at him defeatedly, almost pitifully, their eyes squinting. They wanted Simon to talk, and here he was doing a lot of that.
How useless can the words of a madman be? Definitely not much to two spiritually aided teens.
Seven's clairsentient was already at work. Insidious and slow, careful not to startle him...
Would it work? One way to find out!
"Have you ever wondered why the tree grows when it's been fed by truth? Hehe, if you look for him, ask the roots, they always remember. You shouldn't have come, not now when the air is heavy, poor Marcus."
"Marcus? Seven, he's probably not making sense, but I'm sure I'm not the only one who thinks a tree is very much involved in this?!"
Laughter echoed once more, and Seven bore a contemplative look on his face,
"We do know his spirit is connected with the tree, resides in it even, but nothing we've tried has worked. He is obviously holding an unfinished business, revenge...
"But what can we do to help if we can barely get close to the tree. It gets harder these days, he's stronger. Only if we could find his burial place..."
"Burial place?!"
"Yes. In some customs, you could get rid of malevolent spirits or any spirit by torching their remains. This is only when a proper burial or cremation doesn't work. But we lost his death file and..."
"The day of judgment, stupid Marcus felt the roots growing in his veins," Simon interrupted. "He will, in the festival of nights. The scream!" Simon stood abruptly and walked towards Seven.
Surprisingly, they didn't back away. Feeling no resentment from him, they stood rooted as they watched him approach.
"We did it! We buried him, not his rage. You think Earth can cage a soul like that?"
Stopping just a few inches away from Seven, his expression softened as he gazed down into his eyes:
"He won't stop till we are all one with him. He's inside me, and I'm in him. Jace found chaos in him, too."
"Marcus has the roots on his tail, and tonight he'll bleed into them. Inseparable, he'd become with it, so the leaves never fall. Not in the morning, no, before the sun rises, before dance fades, before the music stops!"
Turning, he went back to where he had crawled up, his face beaming with a smile that rivaled that of the sun.
"Until the roots are full, the tree can rest!"
Seven stared at Miguel, each knowing what the other was thinking.
"How much time do we have left?" They both asked and, bolting out of the room, they sneaked through passageways, unseen by anyone. And through the path they came, they escaped to find the other.
---
Approaching the location where they split, Seven and Miguel saw a vague figure, and assuming it was Cordis's, they hastened up their pace.
Getting closer, they noticed she was standing still, her eyes digging holes in the ground. Worried, they slowed down their steps, unable to afford any other surprises tonight.
It was dawn, and only a few more hours, the sun would be upon them, right above their heads, so they couldn't see their shadows.
They couldn't afford to stay that long, lest their absence be noticed in school.
"Cordis?" Seven reached out, noting her tensed shoulders. She shivered lightly like she was extremely scared by whatever had all her attention on the ground.
"Guys..." She dragged out, visibly trembling now as she turned slowly like she was too afraid to startle whatever she was now pointing at.
Rushing up to her before the horrendous little thing lurched at her, their jaws dropped as they saw what she was so shaken up about...
"Oh my...you can't be serious, Cordis?"
*Squeak squeak*
The sound from the fairly huge rat confirmed that it wasn't some possessed, brain-eating skinwalker.
"A rat? Seriously?" He asked, disappointed
"After everything you've seen that doesn't come close to anyone's nightmare, you're afraid of a rat..." Miguel complained, inwardly disappointed at the lack of something credible to let out his frustration on.
This was by no means what he was expecting, and though it was only right for them to be thankful, their heart sadly didn't react as such.
The night has really messed up their emotions.
'Bet Seven won't be talking in a month!' he thought.
Seven, on the other hand, let out a breath he didn't realize he was holding.
All he could think of now was CRAP! Everything had him on edge, and now he was ready to go into full battle mode for a rat.
"Pure raw crap!" He gritted, frustration setting in.
Everything from the moment the dancing phantom revealed itself had been nothing but crap!
Tightening his jaw in annoyance and not getting what he didn't even know he wanted, he breathed:
"We have to go now. Marcus might need our help..."
Watching as the rat squabbled away, Cordis's breath immediately stabilized at the very hint of a promising lead.
Composed, she took in their healthy figures in her eyes, smiling widely at the fact they survived the expedition...
"You guys made it!" She squealed, resisting to hug them both.
"Yeah, barely," Miguel stated simply, as Seven joined him in glancing through the surroundings in search of the relic.
With the little silver bell not anywhere in sight...
Nothing out of the ordinary, too. Seven inputted:
"You good?"
Reading the room, Cordis nodded and explained:
"Turns out, I didn't have much essence to spare. The silver bell wiped my reserves clean. I'm so sorry, I had to be a burden letting you guys do the work alone..."
With their eyes lingering for a few seconds on her, they could see the remorse in her eyes, but it was still hard not to get angry.
Without the mysterious helper, which was another question mark that begged for an answer, the mission would have been a failure.
Well, she did buy them enough time, and too exhausted to talk about anything, they nodded curtly with stoic expressions and mouthed, "It's okay..."
In the end, they made sure not to give her the luxury to feel less guilty while at it.
Cordis, whose hope of having more than that said to her, was disappointed; she really needed more consolation, sigh...
The night was tough for her, too!
She kissed her tooth and pushed on. Asking about the new lead, Marcus.
"The third bully. We need to get to school fast!"
"Why? What did you guys find? Is he in some kind of trouble?" She asked, following suit as they made their way back to the car park through the woods.
"We just have a vague idea of everything, can't say anything for sure, as it is. We have little time, that's all that matters now!" Seven said, not looking back.
"I'm sure we have enough time to spare if we are saving a murderer..." She said nonchalantly, not even noticing as Seven and Miguel stopped in their tracks.
'No, she didn't!'
And most importantly, 'Why did they care?'
"What did you say?" Seven asked, his brow arching.
"What's that look like? He's a murderer, they all were, and you know it!"
Silence slipped in, Seven visibly struggling to find his words...
Shortly, he let out a small laugh and, with an amused look, he turned and kept on walking.
"I knew something was extremely wrong with this school the moment my mum said that it was more...understanding. Cordis. Do you remember that night? The night with Elias?"
Pausing to get a reply, he continued, not waiting long for Cordis to recover from that blow:
"After that exorcism, you saw it. Elias died and I caused it!"
"No one is blaming you! It's not your fault." She refuted, suddenly finding her voice.
"But it's my problem!" Seven snapped.
"Do you have any idea the panic I felt, the thoughts that ran through my mind those moments I held his corpse in my hand?"
"What was I going to do? Who would believe me if I told them the truth? Clearly, wouldn't I be held accountable for whatever means he ended his life with before the spirit took complete control?"
His voice broke as he continued:
"That night, they locked the dancing phantom in the library; of all ways that night could end, they found him dead instead. They were bullies, sure, but obviously, nothing confirms that their intention was to kill him!"
Stopping to look at her from above his shoulders, he muttered:
"Maybe a month ago, I wouldn't give a rat arse about what was right or wrong here. I still don't have the answers, but one thing was for sure: they didn't handle his death well. And that was their crime..."
"And if we had retrieved his death file or as much as checked the missing people file, we would have found out the truth. A truth the school didn't, or never even bothered to"
"How did it get this bad? Was it all swept into the rug?"
"Dancing phantom's body was never recovered and somewhere among those roots that stretch out to half of the school, he rests. It was injustice, and everyone is to blame as much as those bullies because...
"Because who knew what I would have done if you didn't arrive that night? You and I and no one has the right to judge!"
Turning, he continued walking, his steps a little out of place, like his legs couldn't bear his weight anymore.
'He's not alright...' Cordis deduced, staring at Miguel with concern, whose eyes were now the size of saucers.
Shocked, having heard all the information all while being treated like air. He was a little bit offended, but it was good tea.
'Very bad, Miguel,' he lampooned, guilty, and joined Seven, who was almost sprinting away now.
"I'm sorry, okay?" Cordis ran after them and, after contemplating, she bit her lips hesitantly but picked up the courage and asked...
"But how does it explain the school being more understanding?"
It wasn't necessary, but if he was saying what she thinks he is, then maybe their secret group wasn't secret after all.