Boarding School

"I'd call you a fool if you weren't." Sweat broke out on his fore-head as he went to sit up again. "But there's a way out of this. And we'll find it. You're going to be fine." He touched her hand with his thumb, stroking it softly.
He caughed again, face twisting. "Ow..." He muttered.

 

Alyce smiled. "You give good advice, but you don't take mine. Is there something wrong with the world?"

 

"Wrong?" He raised an eyebrow, managing to prop himself up against the wall. "What makes you say that?"

 

"Well, for one, you're being an idiot and not resting." Alyce told him dryly.

"And I'm pissed off at whoever ruined the cover of my sketchbook..." she muttered.

 

Jake's face hardend. "You're sketchbook?" He paused, apparently thinking. "May I see it?" He ignored her first comment.

 

Alyce sheepishly pulled out her sketchbook and tossed it to him, knowing what his reaction would probably be. "Whoever it was only scrawled something on the cover. Everything else is fine...none of my drawings are even missing."

 

Jake stared at the cover for a moment. "I'm watching you..." He muttered to himself. "And you're sure nothing is missing?" He went to open it.

 

"Not that I know of. I flipped through it quickly before I left..." she answered slowly, and shrugged.

 

He pulled it open, flipping through a few of the drawings. He'd been looking for another message at first but a few of the sketches caught his eye and he found himself sidetracked. "Alyce... these are really good."

 

"You really think so? I mean, my dad's told me I'm good at drawing, but I mean, he's my dad." Alyce said, as she watched him flip through the sketchbook.

 

They were all dated. He scanned through each one, looking for another message like the one on the cover but also admiring her work at the same time. He slowed as he got to the last few pages.

 

Alyce noticed him look through it, interested, then looked at him in confused when he slowed down. "Is...something wrong?"

 

Geryl woke up. WHa happened?

 

"No...Nothing..." He scanned the drawing closely. "Um...Alyce...when you draw these...do you draw everything you see in that scene exactly how it is?"

 

Alyce shrugged. "I usually try to draw without anyone knowing because it makes for better art...it looks more natural. But yeah, I guess I do...why?"

 

Jake showed her the page he was looking at. It was the first day they had arrived at their dorms. It was an arial veiw so he knew it had been drawn from a window or something. There was himself sitting by the school fountain, and against the wall, almost invisible in the picture, was a shadow.
But there was no one there. No body to create it. It was just there.
"I think we've been being watched longer than we expected." He whispered. "And we didn't even know it."

 

Geryl walked out of his room wincing in pain and saw Jake and Alyce. WHat's going on?

 

Alyce paled. "Let me see that."

She looked closer at the drawing. "This isn't my drawing. It looks like it, but it's not." The drawing looked almost identical to her usual ones, but she knew she hadn't drawn that...in fact, she hadn't looked at her sketchbook since just a little earlier today...

She turned to Geryl, who had limped over. "Jake thinks we've been watched longer than we thought...and I'm starting to agree with him."

 

What?He said.

 

Jake swallowed, shaking his head. He quickly turned the page, searching for more. "There was another one." He skipped to a page near the end of the book. "Did...did you draw this one?" He knew the answer was no though.
Across the page was the picture of the two of them outside, He was propped up against the wall and she was standing over him, both looking at a sketchbook in horror.
It was another arial view, and Jake slowly looked up at the window it had been drawn from. He caught sight of a black shadow watching them, then it was gone like it hadn't been there at all.