Day 1
I will never forget the day I left for Nightwell Island. It was September 7th, 2013. My mom was panicking about me being late, my sister Abby was crying about my leaving, and I was angry. The reason for my anger, was due to the battery of my father's watch dying right before I had to leave home. That watch was the only thing I had left that had once belonged to my father. When I noticed the lack of movement from the device, I cursed and ran down stairs to tell my mother.
My mother, a tall slender woman in her mid forties, was busy making me a quick breakfast while also trying to calm my young sister when I found her. Her brown hair had begun to show grey streaks in places, and a few wrinkles clung to the corners of her soft grey eyes. Despite these flaws, she retained a certain young look in her face that many women envied. I showed her the watch asking her what I could do.
"Nathan, it's going to have to wait till you get back. You have to meet your class in less than an hour." I could hear the impatience in her voice as she struggled to speak over Abby's crying. Abby had just turned six, yet acted like she was four. She had been in hysterics about me leaving all morning, which I found strange considering how eager she had been for me to leave all the days prior. Disappointed, I left to get ready.
The truth was, I didn't even want to go to Nightwell Island. When our class was given the opportunity to study abroad, I wanted to go somewhere warm and sunny. And yet my class chose Nightwell, an island so grim it could only be accessed by sea and was sunny for no more than a few weeks every year. That place was to be my home for the next 8 months. I felt miserable about the whole thing, and wished I could just climb back into bed. As I brushed my teeth, my reflection showed that my black hair needed cutting and my heavy blue eyes told me I needed more sleep. Grabbing the last of my luggage and putting on the dead watch, I ran down stairs and left my home.
The ride to the port was short but agonizing. Abby hung onto my arm for the majority of the ride, begging me to stay. As much as I wanted to, staying would be bad and embarrassing for me. I tried telling her this, but it didn't help. Her tears continued to fall, as she fell silent. It wasn't until we had pulled up and I was gathering my luggage did she speak again. She looked at me sadly with her big blue eyes.
"Nathan, if you go I'll never see you again.", she stated. In her voice I could not hear any sadness, but instead found something much worse. Fear. Her long black curls clung to her damp cheeks, but tears no longer ran down them.
"Of course you'll see me again.", I said trying to comfort her. For a moment I paused. Those were the same words my father had said to me before he left. I shook the thought from my mind and hugged my sister tightly one last time. She clung strongly and I had to fight to get her off. As I walked away, I turned back to wave at her. She just stared at me, before the tears returned and she looked away.
Me and my mom walked in silence till we could see the class in the distance. I took my luggage off her, and gave her a hug.
"I won't get a good night's sleep until you get back.", she said laughing. I could feel her crying. I could understand, this was the longest I'd ever been apart from my family. I would cry too, if it wasn't for the fact I had to join my class in a few minutes.
"I'll be back in no time. Plus I'll call you as soon as I can." I said trying to be comforting to the woman who usually comforted me. She smiled, but I could see that all this was hard for her. As I turned away and walked towards my class I looked down at my watch and sighed. I hoped I was on time.
My class was very small in comparison to others. Thirteen students and 2 teachers. As I approached the group, dragging my bags behind me, I could see I was the last arrival. Ms. Hackshaw smiled as I drew near.
"Nathaniel, I'm glad you could join us. I began to worry you wouldn't make it." It was hard to tell if that was genuine happiness, or just sarcasm. Her small glasses hung from the tip of her pointy nose as though they would fall off, and her short brown hair blew in the light breeze.
"Sorry, miss." I said not wanting to suffer any embarrassment at her hands. For a woman so small and weak looking, I had a fear of her that lay on the edge of being a full fledged phobia. I often wondered how a woman so young could be the head of class. A smug look hung on the face of Mr. Burt, the second head of the class.
"Go join the others Greyson.", he said smirking. The balding man in his late thirties was kind to almost everyone he met. But for some unknown reason he harbored a strong dislike of me.
I nodded and made my way towards the twelve other students. My best friend Paul smiled and waved me over enthusiastically.
"Nathan! I thought you weren't gonna make it in time!", he said giving me a high five. Paul Elbert was your stereotypical geek. Pale white skin that burnt easy, thin as a pole, thick giant glasses and braces. He always had his shirt tucked into his pants and would usually try and talk your ear off about some TV show or comic.
"I almost didn't." I said with a smile. To my left side, I heard Richard make an audible groan. Cindy looked at me with disgust while wrapped under his arm. These two were the perfect definition of popular assholes.
Richard Fredrickson was athletic, smelt like body spray, and loved making everyone's life a living Hell. The only people who were safe from his constant teasing were Cindy, her friends, and anyone who enjoyed sports as much as he did. And even they had to deal with the occasional annoying remark. Despite all this, he managed to obtain the popular title thanks to his girlfriend.
Cindy Leigh had dark black hair like me, but had soft brown eyes. She had the unique gift of being friendly to all the right people and a complete and total bitch to anyone else. I wasn't lucky enough to be one of the "right people". I did my best to stay out of her way and keep my life free of drama.
"Just ignore them.", Paul said comfortingly. Richard grinned and whispered something into Cindy's ear. Cindy giggled, looked at me, then giggled some more.
"This is going to be a long 8 months.", I moaned. I had no idea how true that statement would be.
The large boat sailed across the ocean at a comfortable pace. Many of the other students were lounging around, laughing and talking to each other. Paul was going on about some new game he brought along with most of his collection and console. I pretended to listen, staring out into the dark waters ahead of us. The clouds seemed to get darker the further we traveled.
Then I saw it. At first it was nothing but a dark spot in the horizon. But as we began to get closer it grew in size. The island was 4000 square miles, and was dotted with hills that ranged in size. Small towns dotted the coastlines while the center was sprayed with villages and farms.
The boat pulled up at the Nightwell port, the largest and main port of the island. We all grabbed our luggage and began to exit the vessel and walk onto the docks. Waiting for us was Mrs. Kline, director of the island's tourism board. She was old, probably in her early seventies, and wore a bright lime green dress with a matching fancy hat. Her face was covered in wrinkles and her hair was an almost florescent white. She beamed a smile so wide I thought her face would tear. I knew in that instant she would be an annoyance.
"Hello ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Nightwell Island!" For a moment no one did anything. Then Ms. Hackshaw started to clap rapidly while shooting daggers at the rest of us. We all followed suit, and soon we were all applauding our welcome. I'd laugh if it wasn't for the fact Hackshaw or Burt would kill me. Mrs. Kline did a little curtsy, which did make me laugh, but thankfully neither teacher heard.
"We're happy to be here.", Ms. Hackshaw said after the clapping had ceased. Mr. Burt simply nodded. Mrs. Kline's smile stayed glued to her face like it was etched into it. I didn't like the look in her eyes. I'm sure everyone else simply saw it as eagerness and excitement, but something about seeing that much energy in a woman so old left me uneasy. Not to mention her eagerness seemed a bit extreme.
"The Islanders have been buzzing about your arrival all week, and we're so excited to have people living in the castle again. Maintaining it simply for tourism has felt wrong, a place as grand as Nightwell Castle deserves to be lived in." Her eyes seemed to grow and shrink with every word, giving her the appearance of a crazy cat-lady.
"May we head there now? I'm sure the students would love to unpack.", Mr. Burt said in an overly polite way.
"Of course! Right this way! Right this way!", Mrs. Kline said turning and leading us towards a small coach. We made quick work of placing our bags into the bus, although Richard did shove me during the commotion.
As we drove up Castle Road, Mrs. Kline gave us a bit of history on the island. I do not remember everything she said, as I was only half paying attention. However I can recall some parts that I found interesting.
"The Nightwell line came to an end three years ago, with the death of Karina Nightwell. The only daughter of Jason Nightwell, and the youngest of ten children, she was the only one of her siblings to die of old age. All of her brothers, save for Lance Nightwell, died in mysterious circumstances."
"How did Lance Nightwell die?", I heard Madison Green ask. She seemed to be one of the few who had been paying attention since the beginning. Mrs. Kline's smile grew even larger at the question.
"He was murdered by the other members of the Nightwell family." At this the bus grew silent, even Richard and Cindy who had been the loudest out of everyone.
"Why?", asked Felicity Lark, the tough and strong willed tomboy. Mrs. Kline looked at all of us before speaking.
"Well, the Nightwell family had a very peculiar rule, which was that they only married natives of the island. Lance, who was the eldest and most respected of the ten children, was to inherit the entire Nightwell estate, so obviously whoever he chose to marry would become one of the most important and influential women on the island. But Lance did not want to marry any of the respectable island natives. No woman seemed to earn his interest.
Then came Celina White, a fair maiden with long golden hair and eyes that were an even brighter shade of yellow. She moved to the island and managed to catch Lance's eye shortly after. They began a love affair that made the family very angry. They refused Lance's constant requests to marry her into the family and urged him to leave her. When he did not leave her and threatened to leave the island with Celina, the family plotted to kill him and her. However, he was warned by his young sister Karina and was able to get his love to safety. Unfortunately, to secure her escape he had to stay behind and was killed by his brothers that very night.
His remains were buried at the very edge of the family plot, and viewed by his family as a shameful traitor. No one has heard from Celina to this day, and we only know the story thanks to Karina Nightwell. Over the next few decades, the rest of the Nightwells would die in strange and mysterious ways like..."
Mrs. Kline went on about the deaths of the eight other boys as well as some other less interesting facts. Finally, we drove through the estate gates and pulled up to the main entrance.
I spent a good portion of the day getting unpacked in my room. The building was so large that we were all able to have our own rooms. I chose the room in between Paul and Hector Drake, a slightly over-weight movie buff who constantly went on about how he would be the greatest director in the world one day. He was a bit of a pain, but it was hard to hate him.
The main building was an immense structure, that from the outside looked more like an abnormally large mansion. I was a bit let down, as I was picturing large towers stretching into the dark sky, and cold stone lining the walls. The name Nightwell Castle was a misnomer, and would have been better off being called Nightwell Mansion. Apparently, the Nightwell family had originally wanted to build a castle there but were unable to, and so Nightwell Castle was given it's inaccurate name.
One thing that they got right, was the dark narrow corridors and creepy oil paintings that hung from the walls. Most of the floors in the building were a hard dark wood, apart from the tiled bathrooms and carpeted bedrooms. My room was on the second floor, and was one of the few with a balcony.
The first time I ever spotted him was I was unpacking. I was moving back and forth trying to get the job done quickly when I noticed something strange in the mirror above the dresser. Standing in the mirror was a man in a full suit and tie, with a black bowler hat. I made an audible gasp, to which the man snapped his eyes to meet mine. At first he seemed confused, but before long he slowly stretched his mouth into a smile
I quickly turned around to face him, but the room was as empty as it had always been. When I turned back to the mirror the man was gone. My first instinct was to rationalize the situation as nothing more than my mind playing tricks on me. But deep down I did not believe it. The man had seemed too real to simply be a figment of my imagination. The event had scared me, but in hindsight it was nothing in comparison to the things that would come to pass during my stay on Nightwell.
Nothing of interest came to pass till after dinner. I had told Paul about what I had seen but he laughed it off as me being stupid. I wanted to believe him. Richard and Cindy had vanished before dinner, only to return sweaty and with giant grins on their faces. It wasn't hard to figure out what they had been up to. As I started to tell Paul how pissed I was with my dead watch, I nearly jumped off the chair I was sat on when a hand firmly gripped my shoulder.
I turned to see and older looking man, staring at me with blue eyes behind long dirty black hair. He smiled at my jumping, his white teeth shining through his thick bushy beard.
"Sorry there, son. But I couldn't help but hearing your watch problem.", he said in a voice that was oddly soothing. I calmed a bit before speaking.
"Yeah, the battery died."
"I see. Well, I'm the caretaker of this fine estate and am quite handy. I've replaced watch batteries before, and would be happy to fix yours, free of charge." He offered.
"That's kind, but this watch has a lot of value. I don't really feel comfortable handing it to anyone, even my closest friends."
"It's true.", Paul chimed in.
"I understand. How about this, if you ever feel like getting it fixed in your time here, you can visit me in my office and I'll fix it there with you watching. That way you can make sure I don't steal it." I didn't really feel comfortable having this stranger around, but if what he meant what he was offering then I'd be a fool to turn it down.
"Maybe, sir." I answered. Just then, Mrs. Kline approached us. At seeing her, the strange man said his goodbyes quickly and walked away in the opposite direction. By the time Mrs. Klein had arrived at our table, he was already near the door.
"Was the Caretaker bothering you boys?", she asked looking toward the large figure of the man as he left the dining hall with what appeared to be anger in her eyes.
"It's fine, miss. He wasn't disturbing us." I said quickly. Mrs. Kline smiled at that.
"Well if he ever does, you just let me know." With that she turned around and rejoined the teachers. Paul turned to face me, with a look of confusion on his face.
"What the Hell just happened?", he asked.
"I have no idea.", I answered with a laugh. He also laughed and we soon went back to our conversation.
It was close to ten in the evening when I decided to turn in. I had called my mom to let her know I was safe and promised to call her in a few days when I could tell her more about the trip. I got changed and climbed into bed. I was exhausted after a long day, and found myself falling asleep in almost an instant.
As I began to lose consciousness, a bit of movement in the shadows caught my eye. I opened my eyes wide, but found myself unable to move anything else. I couldn't even open my mouth to scream, as the man in the suit stepped out into the moonlight that streamed through the curtains and stood at the foot of my bed.
He smiled at me before speaking.
"Don't be afraid, Nathan. I'm not going to hurt you. I come to you now simply to warn you that if you aren't careful, you won't last long on this island." He began to walk around my bed and sat on the edge of it.
I tried to speak, but my mouth would not move.
"You needn't speak, just listen. In a few moments you'll hear screaming from across the hall. It is important that you do not run straight into the room. Instead, wait ten seconds before leaving your room. Do this, and you'll be safe from harm." His voice was serious, and his words chilled me to the bone. He stood up and headed into the shadows again.
"Remember. Ten seconds." Then he was gone. Feeling began to slowly return to my body, and soon I was able to sit up. Sweat drenched my body, and I was panting like a dog.
I was seriously starting to think I might be going crazy when I heard the scream. It was blood curdling and loud. Most importantly, it was coming from across the hall. I sprang to my feet and headed towards the door. It wasn't until I had my hand on the handle that I remembered the man's words.
I paused, took a deep breath and began to count down from ten. Once I had reached zero, I ran out the door to see others gathered in the hallway. Mr. Burt had burst through the door and was in the room. The source of the screams had been come from Cindy's best friend Kaitlin Herrera. Kaitlin was sat on the floor in a fetal position and crying.
Mr. Burt attempted to calm the girl to no avail. Finally after a few minutes, she looked up, her green eyes red from crying so hard.
"S-someone tried to attack me. I woke up and saw them standing over me. They grabbed my arm and said..." She stopped and began to shiver.
"What did they say?", Mr. Burt asked softly. Kaitlin just shook her head.
"T-they said they were going to rape me. Once I heard that I screamed with all my might and they ran off." She then collapsed back into a fit of tears. Ms. Hackshaw sat next to her and said she'd look after her for the rest of the evening. By this point all of the students were present in the hall.
Mr. Burt shut the door, before facing all of us, anger in his eyes. He focused on my sweaty and panicked face and lingered there for a while, then he snapped back and looked at the rest of the students.
"Whoever thought that was a funny joke is a very sick and cruel individual. And if I find out who did it-" he looked at me, making his beliefs on who did it painfully clear "- let's just say you'll regret it."
As we all headed back to our rooms, I could see people glancing at me. I worried that they now would think it was me thanks to Mr. Burt. I fell back into bed, but did not fall asleep for hours. The last thought I had before I fell asleep was one that had been on my brain all day.
This was going to be a long eight months.
The ride to the port was short but agonizing. Abby hung onto my arm for the majority of the ride, begging me to stay. As much as I wanted to, staying would be bad and embarrassing for me. I tried telling her this, but it didn't help. Her tears continued to fall, as she fell silent. It wasn't until we had pulled up and I was gathering my luggage did she speak again. She looked at me sadly with her big blue eyes.
"Nathan, if you go I'll never see you again.", she stated. In her voice I could not hear any sadness, but instead found something much worse. Fear. Her long black curls clung to her damp cheeks, but tears no longer ran down them.
"Of course you'll see me again.", I said trying to comfort her. For a moment I paused. Those were the same words my father had said to me before he left. I shook the thought from my mind and hugged my sister tightly one last time. She clung strongly and I had to fight to get her off. As I walked away, I turned back to wave at her. She just stared at me, before the tears returned and she looked away.
Me and my mom walked in silence till we could see the class in the distance. I took my luggage off her, and gave her a hug.
"I won't get a good night's sleep until you get back.", she said laughing. I could feel her crying. I could understand, this was the longest I'd ever been apart from my family. I would cry too, if it wasn't for the fact I had to join my class in a few minutes.
"I'll be back in no time. Plus I'll call you as soon as I can." I said trying to be comforting to the woman who usually comforted me. She smiled, but I could see that all this was hard for her. As I turned away and walked towards my class I looked down at my watch and sighed. I hoped I was on time.
My class was very small in comparison to others. Thirteen students and 2 teachers. As I approached the group, dragging my bags behind me, I could see I was the last arrival. Ms. Hackshaw smiled as I drew near.
"Nathaniel, I'm glad you could join us. I began to worry you wouldn't make it." It was hard to tell if that was genuine happiness, or just sarcasm. Her small glasses hung from the tip of her pointy nose as though they would fall off, and her short brown hair blew in the light breeze.
"Sorry, miss." I said not wanting to suffer any embarrassment at her hands. For a woman so small and weak looking, I had a fear of her that lay on the edge of being a full fledged phobia. I often wondered how a woman so young could be the head of class. A smug look hung on the face of Mr. Burt, the second head of the class.
"Go join the others Greyson.", he said smirking. The balding man in his late thirties was kind to almost everyone he met. But for some unknown reason he harbored a strong dislike of me.
I nodded and made my way towards the twelve other students. My best friend Paul smiled and waved me over enthusiastically.
"Nathan! I thought you weren't gonna make it in time!", he said giving me a high five. Paul Elbert was your stereotypical geek. Pale white skin that burnt easy, thin as a pole, thick giant glasses and braces. He always had his shirt tucked into his pants and would usually try and talk your ear off about some TV show or comic.
"I almost didn't." I said with a smile. To my left side, I heard Richard make an audible groan. Cindy looked at me with disgust while wrapped under his arm. These two were the perfect definition of popular assholes.
Richard Fredrickson was athletic, smelt like body spray, and loved making everyone's life a living Hell. The only people who were safe from his constant teasing were Cindy, her friends, and anyone who enjoyed sports as much as he did. And even they had to deal with the occasional annoying remark. Despite all this, he managed to obtain the popular title thanks to his girlfriend.
Cindy Leigh had dark black hair like me, but had soft brown eyes. She had the unique gift of being friendly to all the right people and a complete and total bitch to anyone else. I wasn't lucky enough to be one of the "right people". I did my best to stay out of her way and keep my life free of drama.
"Just ignore them.", Paul said comfortingly. Richard grinned and whispered something into Cindy's ear. Cindy giggled, looked at me, then giggled some more.
"This is going to be a long 8 months.", I moaned. I had no idea how true that statement would be.
The large boat sailed across the ocean at a comfortable pace. Many of the other students were lounging around, laughing and talking to each other. Paul was going on about some new game he brought along with most of his collection and console. I pretended to listen, staring out into the dark waters ahead of us. The clouds seemed to get darker the further we traveled.
Then I saw it. At first it was nothing but a dark spot in the horizon. But as we began to get closer it grew in size. The island was 4000 square miles, and was dotted with hills that ranged in size. Small towns dotted the coastlines while the center was sprayed with villages and farms.
The boat pulled up at the Nightwell port, the largest and main port of the island. We all grabbed our luggage and began to exit the vessel and walk onto the docks. Waiting for us was Mrs. Kline, director of the island's tourism board. She was old, probably in her early seventies, and wore a bright lime green dress with a matching fancy hat. Her face was covered in wrinkles and her hair was an almost florescent white. She beamed a smile so wide I thought her face would tear. I knew in that instant she would be an annoyance.
"Hello ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Nightwell Island!" For a moment no one did anything. Then Ms. Hackshaw started to clap rapidly while shooting daggers at the rest of us. We all followed suit, and soon we were all applauding our welcome. I'd laugh if it wasn't for the fact Hackshaw or Burt would kill me. Mrs. Kline did a little curtsy, which did make me laugh, but thankfully neither teacher heard.
"We're happy to be here.", Ms. Hackshaw said after the clapping had ceased. Mr. Burt simply nodded. Mrs. Kline's smile stayed glued to her face like it was etched into it. I didn't like the look in her eyes. I'm sure everyone else simply saw it as eagerness and excitement, but something about seeing that much energy in a woman so old left me uneasy. Not to mention her eagerness seemed a bit extreme.
"The Islanders have been buzzing about your arrival all week, and we're so excited to have people living in the castle again. Maintaining it simply for tourism has felt wrong, a place as grand as Nightwell Castle deserves to be lived in." Her eyes seemed to grow and shrink with every word, giving her the appearance of a crazy cat-lady.
"May we head there now? I'm sure the students would love to unpack.", Mr. Burt said in an overly polite way.
"Of course! Right this way! Right this way!", Mrs. Kline said turning and leading us towards a small coach. We made quick work of placing our bags into the bus, although Richard did shove me during the commotion.
As we drove up Castle Road, Mrs. Kline gave us a bit of history on the island. I do not remember everything she said, as I was only half paying attention. However I can recall some parts that I found interesting.
"The Nightwell line came to an end three years ago, with the death of Karina Nightwell. The only daughter of Jason Nightwell, and the youngest of ten children, she was the only one of her siblings to die of old age. All of her brothers, save for Lance Nightwell, died in mysterious circumstances."
"How did Lance Nightwell die?", I heard Madison Green ask. She seemed to be one of the few who had been paying attention since the beginning. Mrs. Kline's smile grew even larger at the question.
"He was murdered by the other members of the Nightwell family." At this the bus grew silent, even Richard and Cindy who had been the loudest out of everyone.
"Why?", asked Felicity Lark, the tough and strong willed tomboy. Mrs. Kline looked at all of us before speaking.
"Well, the Nightwell family had a very peculiar rule, which was that they only married natives of the island. Lance, who was the eldest and most respected of the ten children, was to inherit the entire Nightwell estate, so obviously whoever he chose to marry would become one of the most important and influential women on the island. But Lance did not want to marry any of the respectable island natives. No woman seemed to earn his interest.
Then came Celina White, a fair maiden with long golden hair and eyes that were an even brighter shade of yellow. She moved to the island and managed to catch Lance's eye shortly after. They began a love affair that made the family very angry. They refused Lance's constant requests to marry her into the family and urged him to leave her. When he did not leave her and threatened to leave the island with Celina, the family plotted to kill him and her. However, he was warned by his young sister Karina and was able to get his love to safety. Unfortunately, to secure her escape he had to stay behind and was killed by his brothers that very night.
His remains were buried at the very edge of the family plot, and viewed by his family as a shameful traitor. No one has heard from Celina to this day, and we only know the story thanks to Karina Nightwell. Over the next few decades, the rest of the Nightwells would die in strange and mysterious ways like..."
Mrs. Kline went on about the deaths of the eight other boys as well as some other less interesting facts. Finally, we drove through the estate gates and pulled up to the main entrance.
I spent a good portion of the day getting unpacked in my room. The building was so large that we were all able to have our own rooms. I chose the room in between Paul and Hector Drake, a slightly over-weight movie buff who constantly went on about how he would be the greatest director in the world one day. He was a bit of a pain, but it was hard to hate him.
The main building was an immense structure, that from the outside looked more like an abnormally large mansion. I was a bit let down, as I was picturing large towers stretching into the dark sky, and cold stone lining the walls. The name Nightwell Castle was a misnomer, and would have been better off being called Nightwell Mansion. Apparently, the Nightwell family had originally wanted to build a castle there but were unable to, and so Nightwell Castle was given it's inaccurate name.
One thing that they got right, was the dark narrow corridors and creepy oil paintings that hung from the walls. Most of the floors in the building were a hard dark wood, apart from the tiled bathrooms and carpeted bedrooms. My room was on the second floor, and was one of the few with a balcony.
The first time I ever spotted him was I was unpacking. I was moving back and forth trying to get the job done quickly when I noticed something strange in the mirror above the dresser. Standing in the mirror was a man in a full suit and tie, with a black bowler hat. I made an audible gasp, to which the man snapped his eyes to meet mine. At first he seemed confused, but before long he slowly stretched his mouth into a smile
I quickly turned around to face him, but the room was as empty as it had always been. When I turned back to the mirror the man was gone. My first instinct was to rationalize the situation as nothing more than my mind playing tricks on me. But deep down I did not believe it. The man had seemed too real to simply be a figment of my imagination. The event had scared me, but in hindsight it was nothing in comparison to the things that would come to pass during my stay on Nightwell.
Nothing of interest came to pass till after dinner. I had told Paul about what I had seen but he laughed it off as me being stupid. I wanted to believe him. Richard and Cindy had vanished before dinner, only to return sweaty and with giant grins on their faces. It wasn't hard to figure out what they had been up to. As I started to tell Paul how pissed I was with my dead watch, I nearly jumped off the chair I was sat on when a hand firmly gripped my shoulder.
I turned to see and older looking man, staring at me with blue eyes behind long dirty black hair. He smiled at my jumping, his white teeth shining through his thick bushy beard.
"Sorry there, son. But I couldn't help but hearing your watch problem.", he said in a voice that was oddly soothing. I calmed a bit before speaking.
"Yeah, the battery died."
"I see. Well, I'm the caretaker of this fine estate and am quite handy. I've replaced watch batteries before, and would be happy to fix yours, free of charge." He offered.
"That's kind, but this watch has a lot of value. I don't really feel comfortable handing it to anyone, even my closest friends."
"It's true.", Paul chimed in.
"I understand. How about this, if you ever feel like getting it fixed in your time here, you can visit me in my office and I'll fix it there with you watching. That way you can make sure I don't steal it." I didn't really feel comfortable having this stranger around, but if what he meant what he was offering then I'd be a fool to turn it down.
"Maybe, sir." I answered. Just then, Mrs. Kline approached us. At seeing her, the strange man said his goodbyes quickly and walked away in the opposite direction. By the time Mrs. Klein had arrived at our table, he was already near the door.
"Was the Caretaker bothering you boys?", she asked looking toward the large figure of the man as he left the dining hall with what appeared to be anger in her eyes.
"It's fine, miss. He wasn't disturbing us." I said quickly. Mrs. Kline smiled at that.
"Well if he ever does, you just let me know." With that she turned around and rejoined the teachers. Paul turned to face me, with a look of confusion on his face.
"What the Hell just happened?", he asked.
"I have no idea.", I answered with a laugh. He also laughed and we soon went back to our conversation.
It was close to ten in the evening when I decided to turn in. I had called my mom to let her know I was safe and promised to call her in a few days when I could tell her more about the trip. I got changed and climbed into bed. I was exhausted after a long day, and found myself falling asleep in almost an instant.
As I began to lose consciousness, a bit of movement in the shadows caught my eye. I opened my eyes wide, but found myself unable to move anything else. I couldn't even open my mouth to scream, as the man in the suit stepped out into the moonlight that streamed through the curtains and stood at the foot of my bed.
He smiled at me before speaking.
"Don't be afraid, Nathan. I'm not going to hurt you. I come to you now simply to warn you that if you aren't careful, you won't last long on this island." He began to walk around my bed and sat on the edge of it.
I tried to speak, but my mouth would not move.
"You needn't speak, just listen. In a few moments you'll hear screaming from across the hall. It is important that you do not run straight into the room. Instead, wait ten seconds before leaving your room. Do this, and you'll be safe from harm." His voice was serious, and his words chilled me to the bone. He stood up and headed into the shadows again.
"Remember. Ten seconds." Then he was gone. Feeling began to slowly return to my body, and soon I was able to sit up. Sweat drenched my body, and I was panting like a dog.
I was seriously starting to think I might be going crazy when I heard the scream. It was blood curdling and loud. Most importantly, it was coming from across the hall. I sprang to my feet and headed towards the door. It wasn't until I had my hand on the handle that I remembered the man's words.
I paused, took a deep breath and began to count down from ten. Once I had reached zero, I ran out the door to see others gathered in the hallway. Mr. Burt had burst through the door and was in the room. The source of the screams had been come from Cindy's best friend Kaitlin Herrera. Kaitlin was sat on the floor in a fetal position and crying.
Mr. Burt attempted to calm the girl to no avail. Finally after a few minutes, she looked up, her green eyes red from crying so hard.
"S-someone tried to attack me. I woke up and saw them standing over me. They grabbed my arm and said..." She stopped and began to shiver.
"What did they say?", Mr. Burt asked softly. Kaitlin just shook her head.
"T-they said they were going to rape me. Once I heard that I screamed with all my might and they ran off." She then collapsed back into a fit of tears. Ms. Hackshaw sat next to her and said she'd look after her for the rest of the evening. By this point all of the students were present in the hall.
Mr. Burt shut the door, before facing all of us, anger in his eyes. He focused on my sweaty and panicked face and lingered there for a while, then he snapped back and looked at the rest of the students.
"Whoever thought that was a funny joke is a very sick and cruel individual. And if I find out who did it-" he looked at me, making his beliefs on who did it painfully clear "- let's just say you'll regret it."
As we all headed back to our rooms, I could see people glancing at me. I worried that they now would think it was me thanks to Mr. Burt. I fell back into bed, but did not fall asleep for hours. The last thought I had before I fell asleep was one that had been on my brain all day.
This was going to be a long eight months.
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