.4.

You would think three boys following a madman would think twice before actually following him. If you thought we were smart enough, then you'd be wrong.

"What do we do?" Geo asked as we both looked at Row. His palms were on the surface as he listened to the wall.

"You hear anything?" Row asked and I shook my head.

I looked around again, rubbing my hands together. The place was dim but not dark. The traces of even light were no doubt magic...

"I think we're under the girls' dorm." I announced this as casually as I could, with surprise written all over me.

They both looked at me, waiting.

I pointed to the nearest of the corridor.

"So we get out if we go that way?" Geo asked and I nodded.

"I'd get out through the floor using dark energy. I'm not sure how you guys would get out though." The both looked at me glum. "What I meant was, do you remember the girl that I used to hide from? The one I said looked like a comet?"

They nodded, probably remembering my odd behavior.

"I think her room is somewhere above us." I pointed up. "Her light seems to have reached us through the floors. I think that's why Señor Secor brought us down here."

Rowan nodded and filled Geo in. We'd have to get some of her light energy and take it back to Señor Secor to get him to do the tracking spell. He would never do a tracking spell without asking questions without a bargain.

"I won't be able to help you guys though." I told them directly.

"We know." Geo said like he understood what was going on. "We'll have to collect light on our own." And maybe he did.

They continued talking about how they would secure light while I remembered why the girl was dangerous.

We'd been kids when we met. Magic hadn't been a nuisance then. I rarely went dark and it didn't quite bother people that much. Dad and I had first entered this very building to have me enrolled.

I had accidentally brushed hands with her while we were walking the halls and my hands had been singed.

Five years later, I'd been about thirteen then, while waiting outside for a school trip, she had come outside. Her surrounding light, her magical aura, had been so bright that I'd started burning up while she was simply walking down the stairs.

To compensate for the bright light, I'd started giving off more dark energy and ... it isn't as cool as you'd think.

It was broad daylight and the yard was covered on one side with white light and the other end in complete darkness by two kids who fainted before the place looked normal again. Only one kid, one of her friends, had gotten injured by staying beside her. She'd gone blind. Everyone else had walked over to the dark end the second our energies had gotten strong enough to feel.

Fainted.

I see her from time to time but like myself, she sticks to her own schedule, the one the school made so we'd almost never cross paths. She looks the same as before but she knows how to control her magic, same as me. We can be in the same room but we could never come within a foot of each other.

"Oscar?" Row was snapping his fingers in front of my face. "You in there?"

"Yeah." I nodded and waited.

He looked and Geo and grinned. "We have a plan." They smiled.

I knew what it was immediately.

"Fine." I said, knowing it was probably the only way out of here to begin with.

I'd have to get us out. The only way to do that, I'd have to go through the darkest part of the floor and up into the girls' rooms above.