The Opulent Quarrel - Round One: Mademoiselle Primfel's

The courtyard was empty when Will was frogmarched through by Yana and her holo-duplicates, though there were still some students lingering in the corridors of the main building. Any other time Yana would have admonished them for loitering when they should have been in class, right now all she was doing was making a show of Will.

“This new girl thought she could violently assault a prefect and not face any consequences!” she called out something to this effect whenever there was someone around to hear her.

Will of course couldn’t hear that, but from the way girls were looking up as they approached she guessed that Yana was intentionally flaunting her victory. The girls would turn their heads and whisper to each other, and once again Will didn’t have to see their lips to guess they were probably gossiping about how much trouble she was going to be in. She was also pretty sure that Yana was taking her the long way around to parade her in front of as many students as possible before taking her down to Ms. Gibarti’s classroom.

This all came to an abrupt end in a corridor near the main cafeteria. “You there - just feel lucky that I’ve got my hands full taking this new kid to Ms-” She stopped in mid-sentence, frozen in place by a sudden ominous presence filling the hallway.

In the distance the lights flickered and died (made even more alarming by the fact that the hall was lit by sunlight and not any kind of light source that should have been able to flicker and die in this way) and then that darkness moved closer, step by step down the hall, until finally it was upon them and they were plunged into oppressive blackness.

It was difficult to breathe. There was this whole body tightness, as though every part of her was being gripped all at once. For an awful moment it was as if she was back in the oblivion that she’d been forced into when the Strangler had stole her senses. It was only when she glanced down at her own body, that she realized that she was still able to see,  and somehow the rest of the world had been blotted out. She glanced behind her to see Yana, just the one of her, cowering with her gaze fixed to the ground before her.

Before Will had time to react beyond the white hot feeling of instinctual danger, she felt herself being pulled up from the floor, held aloft by something unseen and twisted this way and that. She tried to look at what was in front of her but she couldn’t. Her eyes seemed to reject whatever it was and just looking at it triggered panic responses in her brain, intense feelings that screamed she was about to die. All she wanted to do was run; run and run forever and never stop, never slow down she could never be far enough away from here, from now. This was it, this was the end.

“Acknowledge me Ms. Pell.”

The voice was like it was coming from inside her own skull, louder and more important than any thought she’d ever had in her entire life, rendering, at least for a moment, her own self insignificant in comparison to the speaker. Will screamed and thrashed in the grip of the unseen thing and after a moment she was tossed away, through the ground and falling, falling through the darkness.

She felt herself hit the floor, it was an uncomfortably heavy impact but less than she would have been anticipating given the perceived distance. As it was she wasn’t really in a reasonable state to be analytical about her situation. Her brain still felt like it was on fire, like she was dying, like she was suffocating, like she was already dead. She was crying and scrabbling at the walls and she was pretty sure she was still screaming.

—

At some point Will had passed out. When she awoke she was in a small dark room, not enough light to really see by, only just enough light to remind her that she still existed. It was really difficult to make it out, given her lack of touch but after a cursory examination she was pretty sure she wasn’t in a room so much as a pit. She looked up; the room above was better lit, but not much and she couldn’t really see anything from this angle anyway.

“Hello?” she called out. “Is someone there?”

Someone leaned over the pit, their shape blotting out much of what little light there was. Will was able to just about make out the shape of a hand, and she grabbed hold. It was tricky but with the person’s help she was able to climb up out of the pit. She took a moment to catch her breath and look around. It was a dreary grey bricked room, small and circular, its only notable features the pit she’d ended up in somehow, and a wall sconce near the door with a dimly burning torch jammed into it.

Someone gripped her by the shoulders and bodily turned her around, causing her to stumble with the unexpected movement. Luckily Will managed to catch herself and turned around the rest of the way on her own.

“replied to me before so I know you can hear me somehow.” Will groaned out loud upon seeing that her rescuer was Prefect Yana.

“Of course I can hear you.” Will said through gritted teeth.

“Don’t fricking lie to me.” Yana snapped. Will chuckled at her choice of almost expletive, and Yana clenched her fists tightly and took a deep breath. “Look, Mademoiselle Primfel says you can’t hear anything, so you can stop pretending you’re normal and just tell me how I can speak to you clearly.”

“Primfel is a 'fricking' lying bitc-” Yana’s eyes widened and quickly she covered Will’s mouth with her hand.

“You can’t say that!” She squealed. After a deep breath she pulled her hand away and continued: “Mademoiselle Primfel has been very generous with you. Girls who get thrown into these cells, well usually they don’t come out again.”

“Oh how generous of her.” Will said bitterly. “To be allowed the privilege of leaving the pit I got thrown into for no reason.”

“You were thrown in here to cool off after kicking and screaming when Mademoiselle Primfel tried to speak to you.”

“Have you ever had her speak directly into your brain?” Yana shook her head nervously. “Don’t recommend it.” Will sighed. “Is that everything? I’ve probably missed fuck knows how many classes at this point and I still don’t have my equipment from my dorm.”

Yana smiled. “Well actually.” She shimmied out of a brown leather satchel she’d acquired at some point and knelt down to open it up. She was continuing to speak but Will couldn’t read her at this angle, and anyway her attention was drawn by her equipment contained within, and most specifically her crossbow. There was something attached to it. A large yellow and black box that seemed constructed to prevent usage.

“What the fuck is that?” Will asked.

Yana looked up at her, and then down at the open satchel. “Sorry, it’s really hard to know where you’re looking with these creepy pearl eyes.” Will sighed.

“The yellow box thing.”

“That’s a safety lock. Most weapons that are brought onto the grounds are sent to the Contraband Locker. You probably only got to keep this because you’re enrolled for Marksmanship with Ms. Puska. At least I’d guess that’s why.” Will’s horrified expression didn’t change. “Don’t worry, she’ll unlock it for you during class.”

“I hate this school.” Will said sadly.

“Yeah…” Yana said softly as she closed up Will’s satchel and handed it over.

“Oh fuck off Yana.” Will snapped. “I can see what you’re doing. You got chided by the headmistress and now you’re trying to come off all remorseful and relatable. All, no yeah, I hate it here too, when it’s obvious that you’re part of the reason this school is the hellhole that it is and you like it that way. You can go fuck yourself. I can find my own way to class.”

Will thought she saw maybe just a little genuine hurt in Yana’s face, but fuck her. She turned and started to leave, and then once again Yana was grabbing her from behind.

“What? What is it now?”

“I just said…” A pause. Will shrugged irritably. “I said that I’m sorry. I know you’d rather be on your own right now and thats fair… but Mademoiselle Primfel told me to take you to the nurse. So I’m taking you to the nurse, and then we can happily never speak to each other again.”

“I’m fine. I don’t need to see the nurse.” Will insisted. In response Yana just pointed to her hands, and it was only at this point that Will noticed that her fingers were scratched up and covered in dried blood. She was reminded of her fall into the cell, and she reluctantly admitted that yeah maybe that wouldn’t be such a bad idea after all. “Okay fine.”

“And I’m still giving you some demerits for punching me in the face.”

“Well okay I suppose. Just don’t talk down to me and we won’t have a repeat performance.”

Will and Yana left the cell and down an empty corridor, pitch black but for the light that Yana carried. It was an oppressive space, even further beneath the school than Ms. Gibarti’s basement classroom. As they walked Yana teased Will about how she never would have found her way to the surface if she had stormed off alone, and Will teased her back about how maybe she should have spent some time in the pit to make it equal. They continued to bicker, but the tone had subtly changed. Will couldn’t help but notice that Yana was consciously looking at her directly whenever she spoke, and she couldn’t bring herself to be too mad about it.