Chapter 22: The Laboratory in the Old Ruined Building
AFTER sundown, Mia and the others snuck out of their dorms.
Then, they headed to the ruined building. They tried to locate the hidden door they’d found that afternoon, but without success. The door seemed to have vanished.
“It doesn’t make sense. It should have been here, on this stretch of wall between the dorm and the medicinal herb garden.”
Mia frowned. The events of the afternoon hadn’t been a dream. The scratch on her hand, courtesy of Luna, was proof enough of that.
She looked around, her gaze falling on Mathias. Hmm…When Mathias had been carrying Luna around campus, he’d managed to avoid the rabbit being noticed by anyone. All because he was using a deception spell to hide her.
“Mathias! Tell me again how you managed to keep the rabbit hidden from view?”
Felix and Henrik both turned to look at Mathias as well.
Mathias gasped, his face lighting up with realization.
“An air-based magic spell. Using a heat haze to obscure something with hot air from above.”
Mathias was rubbing his chin, nodding to himself, his expression growing solemn.
“Oh spirit of air, reveal unto me that which is hidden! Vocale, sceptos, forium, ventos, flume!”
A sudden breeze seemed to blow in from nowhere, and a section of the wall in front of them seemed to shimmer and falter before appearing to almost peel away like wallpaper and reveal the true section of wall underneath, the section with the ivy-strewn door they’d found that afternoon.
Mia’s jaw dropped. Air magic really was amazing. She hadn’t seen it put to use like this before. Even more impressive coming from Mathias, who looked more like a military heavyweight than a mage.
The wind died down, and the heat haze dissipated.
Mia reached out to push on the gate, but it was locked. He had made sure to securely lock the door on top of obscuring it with magic.
But who was the mysterious culprit, really? Mia had her suspicions, but then it was Associate Professor Bahr who had chased Mia and the others out earlier. Could it be him? But if so, why?
“What should we do now?”
The four of them exchanged glances.
“Let me handle this.”
Felix suddenly swung himself up on top of the wall where he wiggled his way over the gate and dropped onto the other side and then unlocked the gate for the rest of them. They were all surprised by this unusual display of nimbleness.
Oh, this reminds me of the time he jumped down from the window.
But that memory would lead to another memory, a memory Mia didn’t want to be reliving right then. She tried desperately to think of something else, but it was too late.
She was reliving it…Felix administering medicine to her, using his own mouth…
Yeeeek!
As Mia blushed bright red, Henrik looked at her in alarm.
“Mia? You’re very red in the face. Do you have a fever?”
“N-N-No! I’m fine! It’s just kinda hot out, is all!”
“In this weather? Oh no, I hope that scratch from earlier hasn’t gotten infected.”
Henrik’s gaze was sharp but filled with concern. Mia stepped back in alarm. In the excitement of Felix’s return, she’d almost forgotten how Henrik had pulled her into his arms to comfort her after Felix had announced he was through with the group.
“It’s all right. I’m right here for you.”
Mia hadn’t been able to think too deeply about Henrik’s actions. But when she considered the green frog brooch—the same green color as his eyes—she couldn’t fool herself it was only a hug.
Mia felt afraid all of a sudden. At moments like these, she felt her thoughts slipping worryingly away from her mom. When she was with these two boys, it felt like her heart might sway away from its true purpose.
It’s like I’m not myself… I have to focus on Mom above all else.
Felix’s words could make her pause. Henrik’s eyes could stop her in her tracks. That side of Mia—it scared her. A strong sense of self-hatred suddenly overtook her.
No, that’s not the real me…it’s not!
“I’m fine, really.”
Mia shrugged off their concerns and hurried forward, snagging her foot on a loose brick and falling forward.
“Mia?!”
Felix bellowed in alarm. “Shhh!” hissed Mathias. In the moment, they had all forgotten they were meant to be undercover.
“I’m okay! I’m fine. Really!”
Mia looked down, trying to hide her misery.
She took a breath and told herself to get it together. If she carried on like this, she was going to be sorry in the end.
Finally, she looked up, making herself smile. She was relieved she could still smile.
The three boys all looked like they had something to say but kept silent as they took in Mia’s firm, composed expression.
“Let’s go.”
Mathias spoke up, breaking the awkward silence. They all nodded and carried on.
The door to the old building was locked as well.
“This one’s sealed with magic. A pretty secure spell, too.”
Mathias frowned.
The door looked old and crumbling, but oddly, it was firmly closed and wouldn’t budge.
“What are we going to do?”
They would have to use their smarts to get out of this one. Henrik rubbed his chin, deep in thought.
“We still don’t know who the culprit is, but even if we did, asking him to open this door would be an exercise in futility. We have no other choice but to break it down.”
Henrik looked at Felix, who grinned back.
“I guess it’s my turn to shine, eh?”
…What?
Why was it Felix’s turn? What was he planning to do? As Mia watched, Felix turned to Mathias and said, “Let’s roll.”
Mathias nodded, then began nervously chanting an incantation.
“Vocale, salfatio, ventos, flume. Cintium principium!”
All of a sudden, her ears felt like they had been stopped up with cotton. It was the work of a magic spell.
Felix took several steps away from the door, waving Mia and the others aside as he did so. Then he ran towards the door, jumping into the air and kicking it hard. Even though there was no sound, Mia could almost imagine she heard the door shaking in its hinges. A second later, the door fell off its hinges, toppling through the open doorway. They were in.
Mia was half worried Felix might have broken his foot.
“Felix?!”
“Be quiet! I only blocked the sound waves nearest the door!”
Mathias’s face was stiff with tension. Mia was relieved Felix wasn’t hurt but did the boy have steel feet or something?
It’s hard to believe he suffers from a chronic illness…
Mia felt an urge to protect Felix, who was so strong, even with the weight of the chronic nervous condition he had to suffer with.
Three more attacks by Felix saw the old door falling with what should have been a heavy thud revealing a dark hall ahead.
Mathias’s soundwave blocking spell seemed to have been effective. No one was rushing to stop them after the door fell in.
With Mathias’ spell removed, the group proceeded further into the gloom, where they could hear rustling further inside. The hallways of the old school building were all empty, yet still, they heard noises. Finding the old stairs leading to the second floor, they hunted for the source of the noise.
As they advanced up the stairs to the second floor, they finally found the source in one of the abandoned classrooms. They could make out the shadows of stacks of cages containing rabbits scattered about on carefully organized tables.
The windows in the room were covered with blankets, keeping attention off any light inside. The entire space appeared clean, almost spotless. It smelled of hospital sterilization. Mathias stepped in front of everyone else as they filed into the room.
Mathias murmured to himself, lighting the tip of his wand.
“Red eyes…”
All of the rabbits in the cages had red eyes. Responding to Mathias’s light, they began to bare their teeth. Just like Luna, Mia thought.
There were numbers written on the cages.
And each had a label attached, with “Dosage Amount” scrawled in messy handwriting.
“Dosage?”
Dosage of what?
Mia turned, seeing a large metal workbench with a huge injector syringe on it.
There was a notebook next to the syringe. Mia leaned in, trembling.
Amidst the jumble of figures and formulas, one phrase leaped out, imprinting itself on Mia’s retinas.
“Magic Injection.”
Could it be?
“He’s been injecting them with magic?”
A strange feeling of triumphant excitement was welling up within Mia, alongside her fear. The feeling felt so inhumane, Mia struggled hard to shove it back down inside.
“I think it’s safe to say…we’ve found out the truth about the preventative medicine.”
The three of them turned to Henrik, repeating what he’d just said.
“Preventative?”
Henrik pointed to the notebook. As Mia looked down at it again, she felt her head spin. “Safe Dosage Limit Exceeded” was scrawled there with a big black X slashed beside it. The coldblooded implications of what that symbol meant made Mia’s eyes swim as she struggled to focus on it.
“I had a hunch when we were checking out the past theses. The number of patients dropped off all of a sudden, right? A huge reduction. You could be forgiven for thinking it was the result of some new type of effective drug. But no. They just managed to calculate a safer dose, using these types of animal experiments.”
“But that’s insane!”
Mathias yelled out in anger as Felix paled and clutched at his chest. Mia reached out to stroke Felix’s back, choking down her own tears.
Solemn-faced, Henrik muttered under his breath.
“But what I’d like to know is…how did they get their hands on this magic power? And how did they manage to inject it?”