The front room was like the rest of the manor; it had white and blue walls and was cold. There were plaques on the walls, stating previous teachers and current teachers at the manor. The front office just on the other side of the first door had its light on.
‘‘Watch out, someone might be in there.’’ Jay whispered to me.
‘‘No one is on duty for the next five minutes to take station in the office, everyone is supposed to be in class but since the Mountains are already here they might be in the practice wing instead.’’ I whispered back.
‘‘How do you know there’s no one currently in the office?’’
‘‘I know all the teachers and staffs schedules.’’ Jay gave me a weird stare. ‘‘Robert gives me the new list every month so I know who’s on duty, does that make more sense for you?’’ I asked staring back at him.
‘‘Yeah it makes sense, it’s just a weird thing to know.’’ He simply said.
‘‘Well, when moving into a new manor and always being on the run I need to know as much as I can find out. Robert and I can be paranoid and it can come in handy at times too, we always need to be prepared to leave at any given moment. It helps to know who you might run into and how to avoid them, that’s also why I have a digital scan of the blue prints on my cell phone to every manor that I have been in.’’ I explained as we rounded the corner and walked down the hall to the stairs leading to the girls rooms.
‘‘Wow, you two can be paranoid.’’ Jay said, walking up the stairs a little behind me.
‘‘But as I said, it comes in handy.’’ I said and we reached Calida and mine’s room.
‘‘I never thought the first time I saw your room it would be under these circumstances.’’ Jay said and I opened the door.
I walked over to my closet and started throwing things on the bed. ‘‘Under what circumstance where you thinking you were going to see my room?’’ I asked when I walked to Calida’s dresser.
‘‘I didn’t have one in mind but I didn’t come to think it would be this. Is there a way I can help, Ally?’’
‘‘Yeah, go to the end of my bed and dig out my blue and black duffle bag. Put the clothes in it as tightly as you can, there just clothes anyway.’’ I said as I carried some of Calida’s clothes over to the bed.
‘‘There’s another small bag in here, what you want me to do with it?’’ Jay asked as I started rummaging through the closet.
‘‘Can you see my laptop?’’ I asked.
‘‘Yah it’s here on you night stand, why?’’
‘‘Put that in the small bag and grabbed Calida’s laptop too.’’ I said and through some shoes onto the bed.
‘‘Kay, everything is in the two bags. Want me to close them?’’ Jay asked as I walked to my desk.
‘‘Close the bag with all the clothes and shoes, can you bring me the bag with the laptops please?’’ I asked looking over my shoulder at Jay.
He nodded and walked over; Jay sat the bag on my chair beside me. ‘‘What else are you packing?’’
‘‘Stuff that’s bound to come in handy, where is it?’’ I asked myself as I rummaged through my drawers.
‘‘Amarantha, you still there?’’ Mr. Reily asked through the earphone.
‘‘Still here, any news?’’ I said into the mike. ‘‘Yes!’’ I said when I found what I was looking for.
‘‘Music?’’ Jay said as I put it into the small bag. ‘‘Let me guess, comes in handy?’’
‘‘They seem to be all in the practice wing but we haven’t se-’’ Mr. Reily cut off suddenly. ‘‘Wait Calida just told me she saw two men walking into the manor, keep you eyes and ears out for any noises.’’ Mr. Reily warned.
I rummaged through the bottom drawer and pulled some more stuff out and put them in the bag. ‘‘Okay, will do.’’ I took my laptop out of the bag and put it on the top of my desk. I opened it up and went to my ongoing programs, there I found my camera live videos.
‘‘What are you doing?’’ Jay asked leaning over my shoulder to look at the computer screen. ‘‘Oh, you have camera’s in the hallways?’’
‘‘Good to know when someone might be lurking outside your door and so I can keep traffic of who I might need to keep an eye on.’’ I said as I opened the camera of the girl’s hallway up and made it fit the whole screen. ‘‘Crap, their coming here. Some of them must be keeping patrol and somehow they figured out I was here still. Frige! Their too close for us to make a break for it and I can’t lock the door or they’ll blast it down.’’ I walked over to the door and looked through the little peek whole in it, there were two men in dressed in complete black walking to my door. ‘‘Can you come here?’’ I said to Jay, he came over to stand in front of me. ‘‘I need you to stand right here.’’ I said moving him to have him stand in front of my closet door. ‘‘Keep your back against the wall and don’t make any noises, okay?’’ I asked looking sternly at him.
‘‘Yeah.’’ Jay whispered and nodded, staying against the wall.
I walked back over to the door and stood up on my toes to look in the peek hole and stared at the two men standing in front of my door. ‘‘Why can’t we just blast it down, Boss?’’ the shortest of the two said to the other one.
The tallest guy shook his head, making his long black hair move with it. ‘‘We can’t just blast it down because this is Amarantha Saffron’s room and we don’t know what kind of spells she might have put up against the room. We need to be careful when dealing with her, she’s one of the best we ever had and it’s coming to bit us in the a**; that just means we need to be a whole lot more careful or you might just find yourself retiring earlier then you thought.’’ He said gesturing several times to the door.
‘‘Then how are we going to get into her room? That’s if we don’t blast down the door.’’
‘‘I was thinking maybe we might just knock and see if she opens the door for us.’’ The tall guy said with a light smile. He reached out a hand and knocked on the door three times. ‘‘Amarantha Saffron, we know you are probably in there. We just want to talk to you, we mean no harm.’’ He said loudly enough so that his voice was clearly heard through the door.
‘‘You may want to come back another day; today I’m not in the mood to have an argument with you, Boss.’’ I said looking through the peek hole.
‘‘We can’t come back another day, we like to keep tradition. You should know that better than anyone else, Amarantha. But it is so good to hear your voice, we haven’t been in contact with you for over seven years.’’ The tall man said still wearing a smile on his face.
‘‘Well if you remembered, I’m not on for liking traditions especially the ones that I’m involved with, I would have thought you would never have forgotten that Boss.’’ I said starting to wear a smile myself. ‘‘Is that a new black coat you’re wearing, Boss?’’ I asked intriguingly.
‘‘Why yes, I am glad you noticed. Remember? You destroyed my last one when you set it on fire.’’ He said smiling up at my peek hole.
‘‘Oh, dear me, I’m sorry I almost forgot. Did you get hurt in the fire?’’ I asked with fake concern.
‘‘Just a couple of small burns but as you can see I’m perfectly fine, it was seven years ago. My, I have missed speaking to you. I had forgotten how good of an actor you can be at times, it still incredibly amazes me.
‘‘Well you know me, I love to amaze people.’’
‘‘Okay, enough of this talking. Just open the damn door already, girl.’’
‘‘I’m disappointed in you, Boss. I would have thought you might had of trained your employees more, why I don’t think I remember this one. Is he new?’’ I asked.
‘‘Yes, Amarantha, he is new and has training. I’m just presuming that he is ignoring his instructions right now.’’ The tall one answered back giving the other man a disapproving look.
‘‘I think you need to be harsher on your men, Boss. This one is going to get himself in trouble some day.’’
‘‘I have warned him of his early retirement but he seems to think he can handle you by himself, why don’t you open the door and prove him wrong for us?’’
‘‘Oh, Boss, I would love to but don’t you know? I have been informed that it is not nice to use violence to cure your problems, you taught me that remember? Every time I saw you, you told me that it was not polite and now when I think of it I may have to start to agree with your judgement.’’ I paused and smiled at Jay, he looked slightly frightened and amazed at what was happening. I’m having fun with this, probably some of the most fun I’ve had in weeks. ‘‘Ah, but you are also very hypocritical in your judgements. Don’t you agree, Boss?’’ I asked.
‘‘Why I might just be. Would you mind doing me a favour, Amarantha?’’ He asked still smiling.
‘‘I will try, what might that favour be?’’
‘‘I have not seen you in over seven years and I would be delighted if I could see your face again. Please for me, your old friend.’’ He slightly begged.
‘‘Oh, Boss you can be so polite to me sometimes and don’t worry you are not old. Just hold on while I take the charms off the door, okay?’’ I asked still looking through the peek hole.
He nodded and said. ‘‘I can wait just a little more.’’ He said and backed up several steps.
‘‘What are you doing?’’ Jay came over to me and whispered. ‘‘You’re not actually going to open that door are you?’’ He asked frightened by the thought.
‘‘Yes, Jay. I am going to open the door, he’s an old friend and I want to see him on last time.’’ I said reaching for the doorknob.
‘‘You’re going to get yourself killed.’’ Jay whispered grabbing my wrists and pulling me away from the door. ‘‘I don’t want to lose you and here you are putting yourself in their hands, the people who want to hurt you.’’ Jay looked scared, not by the fact that I could get him killed but by the fact that I could get killed.
‘‘Do you trust me?’’
‘‘Of course I trust you, Ally. I could never not trust you.’’ Jay said staring into my eyes, his blue eyes sparkling so much with concern.
‘‘Than you have to trust me on this, I’m going to open the door and get us out of here. I’m not going to get hurt and neither are you, okay?’’ I asked staring back at him.
‘‘There’s no way I can change your mind is there?’’ I didn’t answer Jay’s question. ‘‘Fine but please be very careful, I still don’t want to lose you.’’ He said softly letting go of my wrists and stepping back to the wall.
I stood there for a minute surprised; I didn’t think he was actually going to cave in that fast. And then I walked I walked back to the door, I turned the knob and opened it up to look at the two men standing there.