Feros and the Underworld Prince (25 page)

Nearly five minutes later, the elevator dings and the doors open to reveal an underground cavern that contains a dozen other elevator doors. We step out of the elevator as about ten people walk down a hallway to the right marked ‘Students’.

“
Well it was nice meeting you all; see you around campus!” Natasha says and heads towards the left hallway, marked ‘Faculty’. Naia, Cheza, and I follow the flow of students down the right hallway.

“
Name?” A preppy blonde with a tablet asks.

“
Cole Treyfair.” I reply.

“
Alright, it looks like you have been assigned to Graythorn Hall. Despite the ominous name, it is actually a pretty nice dorm. Just head up the stairs and follow the signs. Name?” The blonde says as she turns to Cheza.

I consider waiting for Cheza and Naia, but I figure that may look a little bizarre for people that supposedly just met. I proceed up the stairs and find myself looking at clear blue skies, an expansive grass lawn, and loads of gothic architecture in the distance; I guess the elevator acts as some kind of portal.

There is a post with ten signs directly in front of me, along with a three-way split in the path. I see a sign marked ‘Graythorn Hall’ with an arrow that points left so I follow the cobblestone pathway in that direction. A forest of evergreen trees is to my left before I come across a fork in the path with a sign that indicates that Graythorn Hall is to the right; I follow the sign and continue to the dorm. Passing by some kind of sports field, I see a tan guy that is a couple inches shorter than me, cursing in a language that might be Greek.

“
Umm, what’s up?” I inquire.

“
This stupid sign. I’m trying to find Graythorn Hall, but now I’m lost.” He responds without an accent, despite his earlier use of Greek. I look over his shoulder and see a sign that is like the other two signs I passed, except this sign doesn’t have an arrow.

“
Hmm, this seems to be a problem. I’m trying to find Graythorn Hall as well; I’m Cole by the way.” I say.

“
I’m Travis.” Travis replies.

“
Well, I think that if we were to take another right, we would have traveled in a circle, in which case there would have been no point in taking a left when we got to the stairs when we could’ve gone straight. So I’m thinking that the left path will take us there.” I suggest.

Travis takes a pen out of his bag and draws an arrow leading to the left; I suppose he can always change it on our way back through if I end up being wrong. We start walking there in silence.

“
So what are you going to school for?” I ask after about a quarter of a mile.

“
I’m not really sure at this point. I’ll probably end up joining The Agency out of school anyway.” Travis replies.

“
Yeah, I’m right there with you. I didn’t even sign up for my classes; I just had my advisor do it for me.” I say.

“
Ha! I wish I could have done that. It took me an eternity to pick my classes! So what sports are you in to?” Travis asks.

“
I’m not all that big into sports, but I’ve been doing martial arts for the majority of my life.” I reply.

“
I’ve been kickboxing for the past few years and I played lacrosse in high school.” Travis says.

“
What a coincidence, I’m pretty sure that I’m taking a kickboxing class.” I respond.

“
They have kickboxing here? Because that would be awesome if they did.” Travis replies.

“
I’m pretty sure it was on my class list… look, there it is.” I say when Graythorn Hall comes into view.

The dorm has really creepy gothic architecture; the kind that makes you hear organ music and a thunderstorm despite the fact that neither are present. We walk through the wrought iron gate, up the front steps, and into Graythorn Hall. I’m expecting evil scientist’s lair, or haunted mansion with paintings that follow your movements, but the lobby area is rather warm with modern furniture and a large ski lodge-style fireplace in a partitioned area of the lobby to the left, and a large staircase to the left of the partition.

We head over to the reception desk to the right of the entrance, where I see a familiar looking mousey girl that is reading a manga. I notice that the manga she is reading is yaoi at about the same time that I realize that she is the mousey chick from the night club in Minneapolis that I almost had to punch; this seems a little too coincidental. She quickly puts her manga away when she notices us.

“
Hello and welcome to Graythorn Hall. Names?” The mousey chick asks as I read her name tag that says ‘Rita’.

“
Cole Treyfair.” I reply as I look around the lobby and notice a pool table in the partitioned area with wooden bar walls that are pretty much see-through, across from the desk. With how the partition is fashioned, you can see the whole lobby area at certain angles; when it’s styled like that, what’s the point in having a partition in the first place?

“
Travis Stamos.” Travis replies.

“
Hey Travis—” I start.

“
Despite my last name and my likeness to him, I’m not related to John Stamos.” Travis answers wearily.

“
I was going to ask if you like to play pool… who’s John Stamos?” I ask.

“
You don’t know who John Stamos is!? Dude, I think I’m officially in love with you.” Travis says in the same fashion as when I told Katie that I loved her, while I hear Rita gasp. I turn toward her to see her eyes wide in excitement as she smiles and bounces slightly.

“
No Rita, these are not your yaoi fantasies come to life.” I tell her with a scolding tone.

“
Yaoi?” Travis asks.

“
It’s the shortened form of shounen-ai, which is Japanese for boys-love, a genre of manga about gay guys that is disturbingly popular; although, I guess it isn’t as disturbing as the popularity of lesbian characters…” I explain.

“
Hey, this is a light novel, not a manga! Reading something with pictures would be incredibly inappropriate while I’m at work!” Rita expounds.

“
Yeah, no. Sorry Rita.” Travis says.

“
I really need to stop presuming things… anyway, you’re in room 602 and you’re in room 606.” Rita says while handing Travis his room key before handing me mine.

“
Read the informational pamphlets on your desks. It’s just some basic guidelines, but it also tells you how to get online. If you have any problems, just call down here and someone will help you out. The number is on the back of the pamphlets.” Rita informs us and then we head for the stairs.

That’s cool that phones work here, but they normally don’t in other worlds like Tir na nOg; satellites tend not to cross planar boundaries. So does that mean that Fogquartz isn’t on another plane? Maybe the connection works using the same method as the one in the Underworld…

Six flights of stairs with heavy baggage isn’t as fun as it sounds. Travis and I walk into our respective rooms that are down the hall from each other. I unpack my stuff and see a copy of my class schedule as well as my id card on my desk, next to the pamphlet that Rita mentioned. I put my id card in my wallet, pocket my schedule, and start thumbing through the pamphlet.

The pamphlet is mostly rules and/or information that isn’t applicable to me, like how vampires aren’t allowed to drink from students or people in town, and that they don’t have to worry about the harmful effects of sunlight because of some kind of barrier; or how weres are only allowed one change per month and only in the designated areas. Although I hadn’t been aware that there was a town, the only useful information is the wifi login password. I’m making sure my laptop can connect properly when I hear a knock at my door.

“
Hey, you up for a game of pool? I just realized that there’s fuck else to do until tomorrow.” Travis says when I answer the door.

“
Sure, let’s go.” I reply.

We walk down the six flights of stairs and up to Rita at the front desk.

“
May we borrow the pool set, please?” I politely ask.

Rita nods, pulls out the set of balls from beneath the desk, grabs two cues off of the wall behind her, and passes them to us before going back to her light novel. Travis and I walk over to the table, twenty feet away, and set up our game. He breaks and gets stripes. We get about halfway through our game when I decide to play a little joke on Rita.

“
Follow my lead.” I whisper to Travis.

Travis looks at me and I flick my eyes toward Rita; he smiles and nods in response. He lines up his shot and I do a smacking-ass-grab move that echoes through the empty lobby. Rita looks up from her light novel.

“
Tonight, I’m going to fuck you so hard, you won’t even remember what year it is.” I say loudly enough for Rita to hear. Her eyes go wide and she smiles as she puts her book down. Travis stands turns around to face me.

“
Oh, you tease!” Travis replies.

“
You’re right… who needs to wait for tonight?” I ask as I push him on top of the pool table.

I see Rita start bouncing out of the corner of my eye. Travis grabs the back of my head and pulls me down towards him. Rita start quietly squealing as my face gets closer to Travis’s. We stop when we are about six inches from each other’s face, and just start cracking up as we look at Rita.

“
Oh damn; that was just too good! Rita, your face is fucking priceless!” I exclaim through my laughter as I look at Rita.

Then the joke becomes really not-funny, really quickly as I notice Cheza and Naia staring at me in shock from the stairs

“
So is this what guys feel when they see two hot chicks make out?” Cheza absentmindedly asks.

“
Oh… so you guys are in this dorm too, huh?” I ask with a quiet, uninflected tone.

“
Yeah. You would know that, had you waited the five minutes it took us to find out.” Cheza replies.

“
Hello ladies! I’m Travis and I’m not gay.” Travis introduces himself.

“
Hi Travis; I’m Chezarei and I’m not interested. This is Naia. We came here in the same group as Cole.” Cheza replies.

“
Well she certainly is as cold as ice, isn’t she?” Travis mumbles to me.

“
Dude, you have no idea.” I chuckle.

“
Anyway, Naia and I were just about to go check out the campus; you guys want to come?” Cheza asks.

“
Sure!” Travis replies for both of us.

We spend the next three hours exploring the campus. The architecture is all gothic and relatively creepy looking, but also interesting. It appears that all of the buildings are at the center of campus, the entrance is to the south, Graythorn Hall is on the west side, and four other dorms are to the north with two more to the east. The path that leads into town is to the south-east and cuts through the pine forests that surround the campus. There is also a lake to the north-east that is for the water element related students like mermaids, naiads, undines, sirens, etc.

“
Well I think that about covers the whole campus; let’s head back now.” Cheza says.

“
Yeah, I promised I’d call home right about now anyway.” I respond.

We reach Graythorn Hall just as the sun sets. We climb the stairs and I learn that the girls are in rooms 510 and 515; I inform them that I’m in 606. Travis and I continue up the stairs and into our respective rooms. I boot up Skype and then I call Sara on my phone when I see that Sara isn’t on.

“
Hey Cole, how’s the campus?” Sara asks.

“
It’s pretty nice. Naia, Cheza, and I are all in the same dorm so that’s convenient. Anyway, get on your laptop and grab Addie please.” I request.

“
Sure, see you in a sec.” Sara replies and hangs up. About thirty seconds later, my Skype starts ringing. I press accept and Addie pops up.

“
DADDY!” Addie shouts.

“
Hey sweetie, how are you?” I ask.