The deafening silence was enough to drive anyone insane. Parker’s mind went numb as he stared at the smoke and rubble that was The House of Erion. He knew that Caleb had stayed behind because he was sick, but had he been out of the room when it happened?

“Someone needs to go in there!” Hailee shouted. “Caleb was in there! What if something happened…” her voice fell away, as if it were snatched right from her throat.

Master Sora squeezed her shoulder. “Master Kingston and her top students are already on their way to put out the fires and as soon as the fires are out, Master Terra will go in with his top students to clear the rubble and see if they can figure out what happened.”

Smoke poured into the cloudless sky as the flames lapped at the air, thirsty for oxygen. It was hard to see if anything was happening from the ground. After what felt like an eternity, the fire had stopped but gray smoke still continued to rise.

“When can we go see if Caleb is okay?” Parker asked.

“We will clear the area first,” Master Sora said. Parker could tell the master was coming up with all of this on the spot. He’d never been through anything like this before. There was no given procedure of how it should be handled. “We’ll take all of your things out for you and give them to you. For the meantime, we’ll set up camp for The House of Erion in 23-D.”

The rest of the day moved by sluggishly. Class had been canceled for the remainder of the day while all of the masters worked together to clear everything up. Rumor had it that no one died in the collapse but there had definitely been injuries. Madame Sasaki had her hands full with injured students and the four whom she was still running tests. She was taking no visitors as she had enough to deal with already.

Parker and Alexis lay next to each other in the grass by the woods. It didn’t feel right to be at the bridge without Caleb. That was their spot. Together. Without him, it just wouldn’t be the same.

“When do you think we’ll hear?” Hailee asked, leaning against a tall tree.

“Who knows?” he partially spat out. Hailee could feel the frustration in Parker’s words.

“At least it sounds like everyone made it out okay. I mean at least no one is dead,” Ana said trying to lift spirits.

“Only if you believe the rumors…” Alexis added mournfully. “I mean, look at the damage that was done. A quarter of the top of the castle was destroyed and who knows how many were still in the house at the time…”

They sat next to the woods for a while without saying anything. Parker found that the longer he spent with his group of friends the less he had to actually say. He wondered if it was like this for the others or if they just didn’t have much to say. Everyone usually seemed in tune with what he was thinking and how he felt, for the most part he knew what the others were thinking as well.

Alexis rolled onto her side and rested her head on her hand. She looked at Parker who was staring at the smoke still rising from the wreckage of their house. After a moment of looking into his eyes she said, “Don’t even think about it.”

“Think about what?”

“Going in there to see what’s left standing.”

He turned his gaze to her. “But… how…”

“Because I know you well enough to know that you want to go looking around. There’s no way it’s safe yet. I’m sure the masters will clear it for us first and then tell us when it’s okay to go in.”

“But what if I used my Space Imperial? I’d be in and out before they even knew I was there.”

Ana thought that was actually a pretty good idea. He could get a look around without the risk of being hurt. “I’m with Parker.”

“Why? Nothing good can come of it. The masters already retrieved all of the students from the house. And anything in there wasn’t even technically yours. The school gave everything to you. Lancastre provides everything so it’ll just get replaced.” Hailee wanted to go looking more than any of them but she knew it was useless. Even with their Space Imperial they wouldn’t be able to do anything but look. They hadn’t found a way to reach through the dimension to take one thing out of one and into another. It was guaranteed that they would have to reappear first, which would put them at risk immediately.

Parker pouted and didn’t say anything in response. The sun moved slowly through sky. They knew it was time for dinner but none of them could work up an appetite. Parker would have happily given up his meals for a week to find out any information he could. The girls would have gladly given up their meals just to hear how Caleb was doing.

When they got into the dining hall, the conversations were a collection of hushed voices and sad body language. The head table was empty. Parker had been hoping to use this as an opportunity to figure out any information he could but figured they were probably in the Medical Ward.

He took his seat next to Alexis and Hailee. They started eating without saying anything. Sitting at their table without Caleb felt bizarre as well. They’d eaten without him several times over the past week with him laying down a lot but it was nothing like this. Not knowing how he was doing was starting to really take its toll on them. No one could even muster up the energy to eat their Element Bars.

“Hear me out,” Parker started to say. They all knew this was going to be a poor idea but listened anyways. “What if we sneak into the Medical Ward to see how he’s doing?”

Ana sat up straighter. “That’s a great idea. We can figure out exactly how many were injured and how Caleb is doing!”

“Wrong,” Hailee said. “We won’t figure out anything without showing up, in person, to the Medical Ward. We can’t see anyone in our Space Imperial so we’d have to reappear in the Medical Ward.”

Parker’s head dropped after having his idea shot down yet again. “I really wish we knew how to see others in our Space Imperials. Lara knows how to so at least we know there’s a way. Maybe next time she appears to me I’ll ask her how she does it.”

“Are you even listening to yourself anymore?” Alexis asked.

“I know. I wouldn’t actually! I just want to know how Caleb’s doing. This is killing me!”

“We all do but there’s nothing we can do about it. We just have to wait.” He loved when Alexis was right but there were times where he wanted her to be wrong. If she were wrong that time, he would know how his friend was doing. Instead, he sat in the proverbial dark not knowing whether or not his friend was okay.

They made their way to room 23-D since there wasn’t a common room to go back to. The flight up the stairs felt like they were flying through honey. Each floor passed, one by one, in slow motion. When they landed on the twenty-third floor there was a smattering of students walking down the corridor in the same direction as them.

“Hold on, I don’t want to catch up to that group.” Parker held his hand out to stop his friends from advancing down the corridor. “Let’s go to the Medical Ward. Right now. The worst they can do is tell us that we have to come back later.”

“Or… they could yell at us. Give us detention for not following the directions and then tell us to come back later.” Alexis suggested.

“They’ve never given us detention before for breaking the rules and look how many times we’ve done that.” Parker had a smirk on his face telling Alexis to try her best to top his reasoning.

“But they haven’t known when we’ve broken the rules until well after and something good had already come out of it.” The smirk faded from his face quickly. He knew she was right but wasn’t ready to give up.

“That’s true. But we’re not really doing any harm with this right?” Parker started to walk back to the staircase to go to the Medical Ward. “If you’re in, come with me. If not, head to our ‘new room’ but I’m going no matter what.” He gave a small laugh and continued walking. After a moment of victory, his saunter froze in spot. Parker struggled to move any of his muscles no matter how much effort he put into it.

Alexis stepped in front of him. “I’ll let you go on one condition. I do the talking.” Parker couldn’t give her any hint that he agreed with her condition until she unfroze him, so they were at a stalemate for the moment. After a second of Alexis waiting on a response it clicked that he couldn’t respond and realized that she’d have to let him go regardless if she wanted an actual answer from him.

Parker snapped back to life and agreed to her terms. “You’ve gotta stop freezing me like that. Really.”

“Well, stop doing stupid stuff then,” she shot back, then flicked him on the forehead.

The two of them made their way to the Medical Ward figuring they had a better chance the fewer of them that showed up. The walk seemed to drag on forever. Any discussion went to whether or not they thought Caleb was going to be okay. They knew that he survived, but was he injured somehow?

The doors seemed grander than they ever had. Parker’s knock echoed through the corridor, bouncing from wall to wall. After a moment of silence, the door creaked open enough for them to see part of Madame Sasaki’s face. “What?” the medic spat.

“We were just…” Alexis began to say. Parker could see that the sharpness from Madame Sasaki was making Alexis choke on her words.

“Is Caleb okay? Who else got hurt? Can we help in any way?” Parker threw question after question at her knowing that he’d just broken the one condition Alexis had given him. She gave him a look that wasn’t angry but appreciative that he’d stepped forward knowing she couldn’t do it.

“We’ll fill everyone in on everything when we’re ready to and not a moment sooner.” The door slammed in their faces.

“Well, we should probably leave it at that…” Parker said, not sure how Alexis was going to handle the news. “Who knows what one of the masters would have done if that’s how Madame Sasaki reacted?”

——

“So, what did Madame Sasaki say?” Hailee asked, clearly still worried about Caleb. Parker was trying to imagine how she must feel after how close they’d become lately.

“Nothing really. They won’t tell us anything other than that they’ll tell us when they’re ready.” Alexis said dropping her head.

Hailee’s face showed a look of defeat as she sighed, “Oh…”

“It’ll be okay,” Alexis said, reassuringly patting Hailee on the shoulder.

The rest of the night dragged by like molasses. The mood never seemed to rise above the feeling that they’d never figure anything out. Sleep didn’t seem to be in the mood for them either as they each lay in bed, eyes open, staring at the ceiling.

Parker turned his head and stared out of the window as the sun crept over the horizon. The sky lit up as though it were on fire. His mind raced back to watching the smoke rise from the top of the castle. Fear filled his body again thinking about Caleb laying in his Hospital Wing bed, not sure what condition he was in. He hadn’t heard anything about any other students being caught in the destruction but he figured that Caleb couldn’t be doing overly great.

Sitting up in bed, he turned and looked at Caleb’s neatly made sheets and started to get ready for the day. The last thing that he wanted to do was go about his normal business without Caleb by his side. It was almost time for their break before the new school year and just like the last year it was likely there wouldn’t be any new students again. They were lucky to have even gotten Ana.

The three girls were waiting in the corridor outside room 23-D when Parker finally made his way out. No one said a thing as they made their way to the dining hall. When they crossed the threshold they noticed the room was silent. No one was saying anything. Parker had never seen this happen in the two years he’d been at the school. He looked at the head table and saw the masters sitting, eating their food in silence. That was another thing he’d never seen happen before. He noticed that the masters were wearing black robes instead of their usual house colors. A third thing he’d never seen happen before.

They could tell that something terrible at happened and the second they put a thought to it their hearts fell into their stomachs. “No…” Hailee muttered. “It’s not possible…” The four of them were still standing, the only ones in the room that were still standing. A few others made their way in and took seats immediately.

“Please rise,” a voice whispered sullenly in everyone’s ear. The entire hall stood in unison. Master Sora walked to the side of the room and opened a door. Parker realized this door had to connect to the secret corridor that ran alongside the dining hall and then realized that he’d never noticed the door before.

A minute passed, then two more, each taking longer than the last. When the master walked back in, a coffin floated through the air behind him. A collective gasp rippled through the hall. Tears started to roll down Hailee’s face as she stared at the front of the dining hall. Parker slowly shook his head, refusing to believe where his mind was racing. Alexis slid her hand into his and squeezed harder than she ever had.

The master stopped at the middle of the head table and paused as the coffin floated in front of him. When it came to a rest it spun so that it was sideways to everyone. The master didn’t say anything for what felt like an eternity.

“Evelyn Quinn was taken from us earlier in life than anyone should ever be.” A sob ripped through the silence. Parker saw a couple sitting to the side of the head table sobbing uncontrollably in each other’s arms. He figured it had to be her parents. “Master Kingston found her next to a table and stack of books. She was such a wonderful student, person and most importantly, a friend.”

“It’s not fair!” Cassidy screamed. Every head in the dining hall turned to her, eyes wide with surprise. A friend next to her wrapped his arms around her.

“It never is my dear. It never will be. Sadly, these things happen. The best thing that we can do now is remember her for the amazing person she was. Her parents have asked to speak for a moment.”

Parker watched a man that looked to be about forty walk to the coffin. He cleared his throat and tried to speak but started to cry again. No one said anything as they waited for him to gather himself once more. He cleared his throat again. “Thank you. Truly thank you for being friends to our daughter. If it weren’t for you being in her life…” his voice trailed off and Master Kingston put her arm around him. Parker could tell he wanted to say more but wasn’t going to be able to and he couldn’t blame him.

Another sob rippled out from the back of the hall. Master Sora took his spot back. “Honor her memory, as she will live on forever through you.”