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Ch1: A New Discovery2,160 words
Ch2: Campus Dreams2,705 words
Ch3: Determined Theories2,231 words
Ch4: Moonlight Nightmare4,328 words
Ch5: Sad Stories3,856 words
Ch6: Transforming Circumstances3,880 words
Ch7: A New Beginning3,622 words
Ch8: Students4,440 words
Ch9: Surprising Developments4,408 words
Ch10: Awakening6,090 words

Ch2: Campus Dreams

Dustin was only sure of one thing; he was falling.

The wind roared in his ears as he choked on the smoke that seemed to be everywhere. As he fell, he found he was nothing more than a ragdoll; even his upper body couldn’t move as he continued his freefall.

After what seemed an eternity, Dustin could make out shapes in the pollution as the silhouettes of tall buildings began rapidly climbing past him. Looking towards his destination, Dustin’s eyes went as wide as saucers as he saw the pavement of Astraea’s business district fast approaching. Panic surged throughout his body yet he still couldn’t move, which only increased the fears presence. Dustin tried moving, angling himself towards a softer landing spot, but the only action his body would allow him was to scream.

As he reached about a hundred metres to impact, Dustin’s body was engulfed by a shadow, one which grabbed hold of him and began slowing his descent. It was now Dustin’s body began responding to his command and he looked up to the silhouette of a woman’s face, though no other features would reveal themselves. As the two were slowly descended to the ground the fear that had surged through Dustin’s body began ebbing away, as if the woman’s mere presence was enough to calm his fears.

But as they were to land, a loud explosion rocked the shadow, the sound reducing Dustin’s hearing to a loud ringing as he was violently thrown to the ground by the shockwave. He shook his head, trying to get rid of the noise in his ears as he looked around. The street resembled ones Dustin would recognise in apocalyptic movies and war or zombie games. The windows and doors of the nearby shops were broken, while some were buildings were leaning on others, or reduced to absolutely nothing but rubble.

Draped over the hood of a nearby taxi was Dustin’s savior. Despite getting a better look at her than earlier, Dustin could only make out a slightly tanned face grimacing in pain. Her eyes were hidden by the dark hair that fell in-front of her face. But another thing about her quickly drew Dustin’s attention and kept it there. Aside from her head and her out-stretched right arm, the woman was covered by two large navy blue wings, though the feathers near her back were singed from the explosion.

Without realising it, Dustin was reaching out for her, as if his body was aware of something his mind wasn’t. But pain flared in his hand when a dark combat boot stomped down hard on it, forcing a cry of agony to erupt from Dustin. Fighting through the pain, he looked up to see a young man in a dark coloured military uniform, looking down at him with a sadistic smile. Dustin froze in fear once more, because as the man pointed a gun at his head it wasn’t the prospect of imminent death that scared him the most.

It was the fact that Vince was the one who would kill him.

~~~

Dustin awoke with a shout, sweating as he propped himself up on his elbows. Catching his breath as he swiftly eyed every inch of his room, he quickly reached around his body, checking to see he was actually still in one piece. If there was a bullet fired, there was no hole in his head to prove it.

Releasing a deep sigh of relief, Dustin took one more look about his room, just in case he missed a disguised psychopath the first time. His bed stood in the corner furthest from the door, with a set of wooden drawers acting as a bedside table. On the wall opposite his bed were two more drawers, larger than the one near his bed, with an assortment of pictures and knick-knacks from before the accident.

Finally, resting next to Dustin’s bed was his wheelchair, right where he’d left it. Using his arms to help him shuffle along, Dustin approached the edge and positioned the chair facing the bed as close as possible before turning around and pushing himself into the seat. Dustin knew that Vince preferred to help him out, but already feeling like such a burden he wanted to at least move around the apartment by himself.

Once settled in the chair, Dustin wheeled himself to the door and entered the corridor. Directly in front of him was the door to Vince’s room, left open enough to glimpse the clothes that lay scattered across the dull navy blue carpet. Turning left took him past the laundry and toilet doors before entering the living and kitchen area of the apartment, where Vince sat at the couch to Dustin’s right flipping through the television channels.

“Morning sleeping beauty,” Vince said jokingly, though Dustin only grunted in response while moving towards the fridge. “Well, someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed.”

“Pretty hard to when your bed’s against a wall.” Dustin replied with a tired voice, despite the small grin on his face. “Besides, I just had a weird dream, that’s all.”

This captured Vince’s interest, as he muted the TV and turned to face his friend. “Weird dream?”

“Yeah,” Dustin shrugged while getting milk for his cereal. “It’s nothing though. I’m fine.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah.” Dustin nodded, though he didn’t fully believe it himself. There was still a part of him somewhere inside that was shaken up from the dream and it was that same part that preferred to not let Vince know he killed him.

Vince, however, wasn’t falling for the calm act and moved from the couch to his chair at the small table near the edge of the kitchen. “Come on Dusty. You really think after what I saw happen to you I don’t know what you look like when you’re shaken up?”

Dustin looked his friend in the eye, brown eyes flecked with gold meeting his own steely blue irises. For a moment they held each other’s gaze before Dustin sigh, caving in. “Fine, but don’t tell anyone. And don’t think I’m weird because I had a freaky dream like this.”

“I think you’re weird anyway.” Vince joked before leaning forward. “But I’ll keep it a secret. So, what happened?”

So Dustin recounted what he could remember, though like with most dreams the memory of it was disappearing before he could firmly grab hold of all the details. He explained the fall, then the shadow, the explosion and finally the end. Once Dustin had finished, Vince leaned back in his chair, arms folded across his chest as he thought about it. After a moment of silence between the friends Vince looked back up at Dustin, who was waiting for a response.

“Whoa. You weren’t kidding about it being a weird dream,” Vince stated.

“Yeah...” Dustin trailed off, looking out the window facing the car park outside, the leaves from a nearby tree leaving shadows on the glass.

“Hey, Dusty?” Dustin turned back to see Vince looking back at him, his face showing a mixture of concern and determination. It was the same look Vince had shortly after the accident; looking at Dustin’s injury and blaming himself for it. “Listen... I promise I’ll never try and hurt you like that, alright?”

Dustin raised an eyebrow. “Where’s this coming from?”

“I’m just saying what happened in your dream, it’ll never happen in real life.”

Dustin thought this over for a moment before putting his elbow on the table, pinkie finger extended. “Pinkie promise?”

“Dusty, we’re not ten anymore man. Besides, pinkie promises are for girls.”

“Maybe, but no one dares break a pinkie promise. So...?”

Vince looked at Dustin’s hand before sighing and replicating the action, taking Dustin’s pinkie finger with his own. “Fine, pinkie promise. Now hurry up with breakfast, class starts in twenty minutes.”

Dustin eyed the clock, seeing it read twenty to nine, before proceeding to wolf down his cereal.

~~~

Celeste Adams University was one of the country’s most prestigious schooling campuses despite its age, founded by and named after the former Prime Minister only forty five years ago. The campus sprawled over two blocks about half an hour’s drive from the city centre. Each building was networked together with red bricks paths, with small grassed areas and benches placed here and there. To the west of the campus was the large car park, directly next to the group of buildings that made up the student apartments.

It was near the car park that Dustin and Vince emerged from their apartment door, Dustin wearing a plain grey shirt with denim pants while Vince wore a black shirt with the initials of one of his favourite bands - S.I.Y.R - along with khaki coloured shorts. They were about to turn towards the centre space of the apartment blocks, aiming to cut through them on the way to the science block, when something caught Dustin’s eye.

Parked nearby was a sports car that not many students on campus could afford. It was sleek, sporting a dark paint job that turned navy blue when the light hit it at just the right angle. Silver wheel spokes shined in contrast, and further back above the rear tire, rested an image of four stars in a line before a crescent moon, almost as if it was taking on the roll of Pac-man.

“Hey Vince,” Dustin spoke up. “You know who that belongs to?”

Vince turned and quickly saw what his friend meant, giving a low whistle. “No, but whoever it is has to be loaded. Never seen that beauty around here before.” Dustin took one more look before turning himself around and heading off to class. The rest of the ten minute trip to the science block was uneventful, with the two friends idly chatting and jokingly throwing insults at one another.

Once inside Dustin was a little excited, as it had been two days since he had seen the relics. The dig team was unable to immediately examine the relics as the lecturers had to first inform the museum, who gave the university permission to dig in the first place. Then came the inquisitive news crews who dogged the lecturers, and even Dustin, for questions. By the time the whole ordeal was over, it was decided the relics would be locked up over the weekend and the class could start researching on Monday.

Dustin smiled as their destination was in sight. The science block one of the oldest buildings at the university; being scheduled for renovations during the break next year, most students that didn’t have classes there referred to it as the Slab. To be fair, it was a drab building; an unimaginative blocky grey building standing three stories tall with an orange tiled roof and windowpanes where the white paint was slowly but surely peeling off.

Yet despite this, Dustin didn't care about those things when he and Vince entered, as the feel of the building changed once inside. The floors were covered in white tiles while white neon lights illuminated nearly every space below them. On the wall near the door was a thumbtack board, littered with photos from the dig team on site as well as photos from other classes in the science block.

As they made their way to the lift, Dustin spotted their lecturer, Mr. Bunt, talking with two men and a woman, all dressed in expensive-looking business suits. He was curious as to why they were here but his curiosity about the artifacts was much stronger. It had had been a few days since he was able to see them after all.

Out the elevator and through the third door on their left, Dustin and Vince entered the lab the dig team used for archaeology. But as soon as they entered Dustin could tell something was off. One of the high windows on the far side of the room was shattered and cordoned off with yellow tape. Another thing amiss was one of the wooden workbenches had its corner torn off, like as if someone had taken a swing at it with a sledgehammer.

But then Dustin saw the two glass cases at the back of the room, in which the relics were meant to be kept, and saw one of them was wide open; the flag no longer in its spot.

“Hey, Claire, what happened in here?” Vince asked cautiously as he and Dustin moved further down the near wall towards the back of the room. Claire leant against the benches on the side of the room with her arms crossed, wearing a white shirt with random splotches of sky blue, yellow and red adorning the front and denim shorts.

“Not sure.” She shrugged. “Apparently someone tried breaking in last night to steal the relics.”

“What?” Both boys asked at the same time, disbelief etched onto their faces.

Before either of them could ask any more questions, Mr. Bunt walked in, holding a clipboard underneath his arm. Mr. Bunt suffered from many insults from the ‘cool’ clique of uni students, being slightly overweight, balding and having a surname like his. But, to his credit, he didn’t let it get to him, much. Today he was wearing a beige button-up shirt and dark pants, his dull brown eyes looking over the class behind his think-rimmed glasses.

But it wasn’t Mr. Bunt that commanded Dustin’s, if not the entire class’ attention; it was the person who followed him in.

It was her.

Like before in the entrance to the science block she was wearing a navy blue suit/skirt combo, with a white shirt underneath and modest black shoes. Like the sports car in the car park, her dark hair almost seemed to take a bluish tinge if looked at in just the right way. Her skin showed signs of a light tan that complimented her bright blue eyes, which shone like stars in the night sky. Dustin nearly pinched himself, thinking he was dreaming again.

“Ahem,” Mr. Bunt cleared his throat, drawing the class’ attention back to him. “Hello everyone. Now, I know what you’re going to ask so I’ll explain as much as I’m allowed to.”

Allowed to? Dustin thought to himself as Claire and Vince looked to each other in confusion, Vince shrugging.

“As you can see around you, someone tried breaking in to steal the relics we uncovered on Friday. Thankfully, Miss Regal of the Department of Special Investigations was around to help stop the perpetrators. The flag from Equia has been transferred to a secure location by Miss Regal’s department on the wishes of the museum board for security. However, we still have the shield to research, so I say we work with what we have and see where that gets us.”

“What about her?” Vince asked, nodding towards Miss Regal. A few other classmates nodded in agreement, Dustin included. After all, this seemed too coincidental for her to just show up and now be here before them. Before Mr. Bunt could reply the woman stepped forward, looking around at the class.

“I can understand that this situation seems suspicious.” She spoke calmly, yet her voice held a hidden authority. “But rest assured that I will not interfere with your research. I am only here to make sure that the remaining relic is secure, in case anyone is foolish enough to try and steal it again.”

The class stood still for a moment, considering Miss Regal’s words as she looked each student in the eye to make sure her message got through. No one dared to move until Mr. Bunt clapped his hands, bringing everyone back to reality.

“Right. Well with that out of the way, why don’t we get started? Grace, Arthur, carefully take the shield out of the case so we can begin.”

As the class began buzzing with activity, Dustin glanced back Miss Regal’s way once more. What he saw was her staring back at him, a small smile standing in contrast of a face where concern seemed to be the dominant emotion. But before Dustin could be sure, someone walked around him, drawing his attention away for a second. When he turned back, Miss Regal was gone.

Author's Note:

Hey everyone. Man I suck when it comes to keeping up with updates. I'm so sorry I keep slipping up, but the next chapter will hopefully be done by the end of the week (if I don't slip up.) I actually had a tough choice whether to end the chapter here or keep it going, but I think ending it here is better for the story, otherwise this chapter will be overloaded with words while the others wouldn't be. But enough of me rambling. Thank you for reading, and I'll (hopefully) have chapter 3 up soon.

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