Oh my god they’re dead. Robert, Katharine, all five of them, they’re all dead.

Yesterday I was watching Robert teach Theodore how to click his heels in fountain square, the five of them visibly exhausted and loopy, laughing as Theodore used Rebecca’s shoulder to hoist himself into the air.

And now they’re dead.

Content warning folks — I’m gonna describe what happened and it’s bad. I’ll let you know when we’re gonna get to the bloody stuff, but just warning you

They were found out at the henge this morning after the jog. It took a while for anyone to realize they were missing — the five of them shared one of the little houses on the cliff, so they didn’t have roommates to notice they’d gone, and when they didn’t show up for the run this morning, everyone assumed they’d made some further discovery and were excused.

It wasn’t until Robert wasn’t in the auditorium that we wondered if there was something wrong.

After ten minutes waiting in the little auditorium we were all starting to get antsy but it was Marina — of course — who finally collected her bags and left.

“Marina —” Andie tried to interject, but she just shrugged over her shoulder and said, “if a teacher’s ten minutes late, we can go. It’s like… the student/teacher code.” And once she’d gone everyone else sorta started to go, too.

“Should we tell someone?” Rook asked, uncertain.

I was sorta with Marina — like ugh can’t we just go to bed? It’s not our fault they’re late as fuck.

But Bass said, “Yeah, let’s find Lydia,” and he seemed concerned, so I went along with them, even though my legs are sore af and my feet hurt.

Andie grabbed their bag and came too.

We didn’t end up finding Lydia. Professor Toussaint, the art professor, happened to be walking by the auditorium, saw all the confused minnows beginning to leave and asked what was going on.

When we explained she didn’t seem any more concerned than we did.

“They’ve been busy,” she said, somewhat mysteriously, eyes sparkling. “I’m sure they lost track of time. We’ll track them down.”

We went back into the auditorium, but we were only in there for 15 more minutes before a professor I don’t know came in and announced that our morning class was canceled and we had the rest of the morning free.

I had big dreams about a nap before lunch, but it was a beautiful day today, warm and sunny, so we all sorta congregated around the fountain, soaking up what’s likely to be some of the last of our really good weather before autumn starts in earnest.

Bass and I were so busy being lazy in the sunshine that we didn’t even notice as things began to unspool around us, but Rook did. He propped his chin on his hand and his dark eyes watched as the evidence of tragedy mounted around us.

“Something happened,” he said quietly tracking a professor as they jogged across the square and I met his eye.

Bass twisted to look. “Oh, I’m sure it’s nothing,” he said.

But Bass, for all his experience with magic, has spent his life living at the Red Rock Inn with his coven, where everything is peaceful and good and safe.

I met Rook’s eye and we both knew. We were already getting to our feet when everyone spotted Lana and Lily striding across the square.

“Minnows!” Lily called, raising her voice, potentially amplifying it with a little bit of magic. “We ask that you all return to your rooms for the time being! Thank you!”

We all sort of froze. Without Charles and Lydia’s corralling I don’t know we would have found our way back to Minnow house, we were too distracted.

“What happened?” Bass asked but Lydia only said,

“Anything you need to know you will be told,” as she funneled us all towards Minnow house.

“They don’t know yet,” Rook said quietly, craning his neck to look for Lana.

Most Minnows went back to their rooms — we didn’t know what had happened yet. But some of us — Bass, Rook and I, Andie, that kid Ichabod, a handful of others (I don’t know everyone yet) — stayed in the commons downstairs, sitting on the old armchairs, and on the rugs around the hearth, waiting for an explanation as the first and second floor Minnow house students filtered in from their classes.

“Look at all your faces,” Marina said, bag slung over her shoulder as she began to climb the stairs. “What are you expecting? Gruesome murders?” Her friend, Lynlea something, snickered.

Yeah, well she’s not laughing anymore so.

When Lydia and Charles rejoined us it was only to tell us that there had been a serious accident, and that we should stay in Minnow house for our own safety until further notice.

No one was particularly satisfied with that, but see, most people didn’t investigate interdimensional cryptids all last year, so they received the unsatisfying news with the appropriate uncertainty and concern, and then bunkered down to wait.

The moment Lydia and Charles left minnow house again, Rook twisted to meet my eye, and I could see all over his face that we were in full agreement.

“Yeah,” I said, and we both got to our feet.

“What?” Bass said, looking up at us from where he was leaning against Rook’s armchair.

“Come on,” Rook said softly, offering his hand.

“Where are we going?” Bass asked so fucking loudly, and Rook hushed him subtly with one hand, which only appeared to confuse Bass further so I swatted him. The three of us slunk out of the sitting room, and when we thought no one was looking, slipped out the back door.

“Now will you tell me where we’re going?” Bass said.

“To see,” Rook said, gesturing broadly, and Bass hesitated.

“Guys…”

Rook and I both spun to look back at him where he was standing between the chipped plaster wall of Minnow house and one of the grad student cottages, hugging himself uncertainly.

“What?” he said defensively. “They told us to wait inside! What if it’s dangerous?”

Rook and I exchanged a glance and Bass rolled his eyes.

“Oh fine,” he said and tramped after us.

I honestly didn’t even notice Andie catch up with us. One moment there were three of us skirting the edge of the fountain square, the next there were four.

“Where are we going?” Bass asked as we rushed past the cathedral towards the grove.

“The teachers were all heading this way,” Rook said, but before any of us could say anything else, Professor Protsman swept across the grove, heading downhill towards the docks, which was direction enough.

We followed Protsman at a distance, down past the arena, then the stables, then through the meadows and finally up the slope in the shadow of the orchard. I’d never been that far across the island before, I didn’t even realize there was anything out here — but up on the bluff there was a circle of huge, mossy stones reaching tooth-like towards the sky.

“Now what?” Bass hissed. The top of the hill was swarming with professors, all of them waiting to send us back to Minnow house.

“Do we want to see what happened, or not?” Andie asked, and strode on up the hill without looking back.

Rook and I exchanged a look, silently decided there was no point in hiding since we were bound to be sent back the moment we were seen anyways, and hurried to follow them. Bass groaned but panted after us.

I’ll point out at this point that we knew it was bad, what with the being confined to Minnow house, and all the professors being freaked out and everything. But we’d been told there’d been a bad accident — how were we supposed to know it was five-dead-students bad?

The professors were all huddled in a circle at the center of the stones, and they appeared to be arguing, which meant no one noticed us at first. We had just long enough to see what had happened before Andie started screaming.

There were five bodies at the crest of the hill. There was no mistaking them for sleeping.

I’m going to describe exactly what I saw because I want to get the image out of my head, but if you’re reading this and you don’t want to know the details — and they’re gruesome — skip the next paragraph.

Robert and Theodore were nearest the center of the henge ring, Robert partially covering Katharine. Theodore’s arm was reaching in their direction, and had been severed cleanly between his wrist and his elbow, his hand lying disembodied in the grass. Robert’s face was unrecognizable, had been raked through by something sharp. Oscar was slightly further towards the cliff, and his torso was a several feet away from his legs. Rebecca was even further, closest to us, her face a mask of terror. Her feet were soles-down in the grass, and were not attached to her ankles, as if she’d been running and her feet had been sliced off mid step, leaving her to topple forward into the grass.

So yeah, Andie started screaming, which makes sense.

Which of course cued the professors in to the fact that we were up there. I swear Lana turned immediately white. Forget expelled I thought we were gonna get our asses kicked, but instead she just strode forward, turned Andie around by their shoulders and said, “back to Minnow house. Right now.”

I was shell shocked, obviously, and Lana said, “Shiloh, right now. Go on.” Endymion appeared at my shoulder and made to shepherd us back towards Minnow house, but I dug in my heels.

I said, “What did this?”

Lana’s lips pinched. “Now,” she said and physically turned me by the shoulders — and in case you forgot Lana has literal super strength so it’s not like I could resist.

All four of us, closely followed by Endymion, strode down the hill. Bass had to detour towards the orchard to throw up.

None of us left Minnow house again until dinner. We all went up to our rooms. None of us wanted to tell anyone what we’d seen, and from the looks on our classmates faces, they were all going to ask.

At dinner tonight, Lana explained to a shocked, silent room that Robert Pennington, Katharine and Theodore Trevelyan, Oscar Fingal and Rebecca Meinmarre’s bodies had been found at the henge. She said that, “given the condition of the bodies, it is apparent that some aspect of their studies had gone wrong, resulting in their deaths.”

I cannot imagine what the fuck they were studying if it could go as wrong as that.

Okay no that’s not quite true. I can imagine a lot at this point, I’d just prefer not to.

Lana also said, “we will of course do everything we can to keep all of you safe.” Then she sighed, and added, “This is not the first tragedy I have seen in my time on this island, and it will not be the last.” She seemed to pause and compose herself. “We, all of us who come here to study, have made it our business to battle with monsters, and gaze into the abyss. We all know the risks. We can only hope that when the abyss gazes back into us we are able to meet that gaze with clear eyes, as I know Bird, Katharine, Teddy, Oscar and Rebecca did.”

She paused for a long somber moment. The whole cathedral seemed to hold it’s breath. Then Lana said, “We will hold a memorial on Sunday. The ferry will run every day for the next week should anyone care to leave.”

And then she sat down and left us all to our dinner.

“She didn’t say anything about what they were studying,” Rook said softly.

“Can you blame her?” Bass replied. “Look what happened.”

Andie didn’t say anything. They didn’t eat anything either, and they’ve been lying in bed doing nothing, not even reading, all night. I don’t even think they’re asleep, I think they’re just staring at the wall.

God I just remember them cheering and hollering at the feast last week, remember? When Lana was telling us we all might die here?

I wonder if they knew, then, how their research was likely to turn out. I interpreted their enthusiasm as just trying to scare the shit out of the new kids. Maybe combined with some like… being edgy on purpose.

But now they’re dead and I kinda can’t help but wonder like… did they know? Did they know how this was going to go? Was it less to frighten us, and more to brace themselves?

I want to call Neal and Julian, but god only knows how they’re going to react. Maybe they’ll just come get me. Here’s hoping hahahahahaha

No I’m sorry it’s just hitting me, they literally sent me here to keep me safe and now it’s been LITERALLY two weeks and five people have died.

Okay, I didn’t want to think of this but it’s itching at me it’s itching at my brain and I can’t stop myself — could I fix this? Could I bring them back?

I feel sick. I feel so sick.