“Ah, just a slight personal emergency. I can take the call in the hallway–”
Both paused and glanced upwards to the overhead speakers as they crackled to life.
“Dean Anderson has issued a warning code four.” The voice of the new secretary came over the announcement system loud and clear. “All professors are to keep their students in their classrooms and remain there until the all clear is sounded. At no point is any student to leave the main building. Security groups one to three are to get geared and report to the guard room for further orders.”
Eva merely frowned as the speakers clicked off. However, at her side, Juliana actually jumped. The blood drained from her face as she snapped an accusatory gaze over to Eva.
“I didn’t do anything,” Eva said, holding her hands up to shoulder level.
“Last time I heard that kind of message was the day Shalise and I got trapped in Hell,” she hissed, leaning towards Eva.
“Like I said, wasn’t me.”
Professor Lepus sighed, breaking her gaze off Eva and Juliana. “Constant interruptions. How am I supposed to teach with all this nonsense going on? Well,” she said, raising her voice for the whole class. “As long as we have been told to stay here, we may as well finish our lesson. Has anyone managed to properly construct their insect ward?”
After sending a few nervous glances around, a handful of students raised their hands. Eva didn’t. She waited for Professor Lepus to move off to one of the students before pulling out her cellphone. Nel had called and apparently left a voice message. Eva quickly put the phone to her ear.
“Eva,” Nel’s recorded voice shouted in her ear. “I didn’t see any hunter. But those things are falling around the city. I counted only eight, but there could be more. I hope you’re alright. Ylva has already gone out to deal with the two near the dormitory. Maybe more? Not sure, gotta go meet up with her.”
The message cut off right after with her phone asking if she wanted to save or delete the message. Eva ignored either option and simply hung up on her voice mail and slipped the phone back into her pocket. As she did so, she stood and moved towards the windows with Arachne following just a step behind. If things had fallen to the city, the window seemed a good place to spy from.
And sure enough, Eva found herself staring. The violet streaks in the sky were pulsing. Rather than the faint purple, several were bright purple, standing out against the semi-gray winter sky. She couldn’t see anything falling from them, but that didn’t necessarily mean that nothing was.
“Is this my fault?”
Eva glanced over to where Juliana had moved up to her side. “No? Why would– Oh, right.”
The real question was what had fallen. Eva could feel something. Maybe something that was a demon. But not eight of them. Only one or two. Then, perhaps, were they enigmas? Really, Juliana opening a portal to Hell—especially for Zagan and successfully summoning him at that—could probably have started off everything. Though why there had been a few days between then and now was anyone’s guess.
Pulling out her cellphone again, Eva sent off a message to Zoe telling her to look at the sky. Though if Ylva was out handling everything, she wasn’t too concerned. Still, best to be ready for anything.
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Catch It
“Dean Anderson here.”
Eva sat on the edge of a table, staring out the window. So far, nothing had fallen from the sky that she had been able to see. Neither had anything approached the building. In fact, the pulsing of the violet streaks had died down to their usual levels of activity. Or inactivity, as the case was.
Around her, most of the students had lost their nervousness. They were going about class as normal. Even Juliana had gone back to her seat after watching and not finding anything too alarming after several minutes. Or, as normal as class got when they weren’t allowed to leave a full half an hour after class normally ended. Eva hadn’t actually continued with the lesson, choosing instead to stare out the window for the entire time. Surprisingly enough, Professor Lepus hadn’t objected to her watching out the window. She did walk past with a few disapproving looks every now and again, but apparently the situation was odd enough that she was willing to overlook a few people not studying.
Only Arachne sat with her.
She hadn’t yet received a response from Zoe, though telling her that things were falling from the sky probably wasn’t much to go off of. Neither had she received another message from Nel. Of course, Nel was probably out with Ylva and not looking at her phone at the moment.
