“Avalon, open up!” He called through the door, “What’s wrong with you?” The doorknob rattled as he tried to open it.
Once my bag was full of all of my possessions I put my coat on and flung the bag over my shoulder. I wish Jack wouldn’t draw attention to the fact that I was currently busy running away.
“Let me in, for god’s sake!” Jack called.
I threw the door open and stormed out of the room. Jack looked after me, bewildered by my sudden change of heart.
“What are you doing, Redding?” He said hurrying after me, struggling to keep up with my fast pace.
“Be quiet, Jack.” I hissed.
“Why are we being quiet?” He said incredulously, “Why is your bag packed? Where are we going? Avalon?”
My fast pace had now turned into a jog as I hurried through the halls.
“Why aren’t you telling me what’s going on?” Jack whispered angrily.
“Jack, I have to leave.” I murmured under my breath.
“Why?” Jack demanded.
“I did something terrible.” I groaned as we entered the kitchen. No one seemed to have noticed that anything unusual was going on, as staff bustled about doing their jobs. Jack and I passed through the kitchen silently, hurrying to the back entrance onto the grounds. Once we were outside in the moonlit night the freezing atmosphere slapped me and I was instantly shivering. Jack held me at an arm’s length and looked at me seriously. I tried to wriggle free of his grip but he just fumed at me silently. He really did hate it when I withheld information from him.
“Just tell me what happened.”
“Oh, Jack, what hasn’t happened to me since we’ve met.” I said incredulously.
“Fair point.” He allowed, “But you have to tell me so I can help you.”
“Master Sebastian is going to kill me.” I breathed.
Jack managed a smile, “I’m sure it can’t be bad enough that you have to run away.”
“Jack, I have to leave now, before he catches me!” I hissed urgently.
“Okay, okay. What did you do?” He rolled his eyes. Obviously Jack didn’t believe that I could have done something so bad that it would result in my instant death.
I wrung my hands together, which I noticed were shaking, “I kicked him.”
“You kicked him?” Jack’s eyes popped.
“In the face.” I mouthed. “In the-?!” Jack blanched.
I winced before wrenching myself free of Jack’s loose grip and started running towards the stables.
“Okay, so that’s quite bad.” Jack admitted running after me, “Nothing I can’t fix though. So what? Maybe a broken nose-?”
I stopped on the spot and spun around to face Jack, who skidded to a halt, spraying me with icy snow.
“It’s worse than that!” I stressed, “I was cleaning his study, and got a little curious, so I went upstairs to his landing, where the big telescope is.”
“Oh no.”
“There was another room up there, it was unlocked so I thought I’d have a little peek.” I groaned, putting my face in my hands, “He had this collection of-of-of-” I found it hard to continue.
“A collection of?” Jack prompted.
“A collection of pre-apocalyptic artefacts, thousands of years old. Priceless. While I was in the room, the Master came back from dinner, so I hid in a wardrobe so he wouldn’t find me.”
“But he did.” Jack guessed.
“Obviously!” I said, almost pulling my hair out in tufts. “But I don’t think he knows it was me. It was dark”
“Then why are we running?”
“He got a clump of my hair!” I remembered with a groan, “Who else here has hair like me?” I said pointing to my thick, wavy, waist length locks of black hair.
“I still think you’re over reacting.” Jack shook his head.
“As I was trying to escape the pitch black room I knocked over all the artefacts and broke them, Jack!” I spat.
Jack was silent for a moment, “I see.” He nodded in understanding, “Right well … I suggest we run.”
With that we began hurrying to the stables together.
“Where are we going?” He asked as we were a few meters away.
“We nothing.” I said, “I’m getting Hawthorne and flying home to Mortlock.”
Jack skidded to a halt, “Avalon, Hawthorne hasn’t come back yet.”
“What?” I slowed to a walk before I came to a stop, “What do you mean he isn’t back yet? It’s been hours.”
Jack shrugged, “I don’t know, Ava. We don’t know where he is.”
“What am I going to do?” I fretted, “I need to get out of here!”
Just as I spoke those words a commotion reached my ears. It sounded like shouting. Angry yells and thundering footsteps were close by. I looked back towards the manor fearfully. Obviously the news had spread and people were looking for me. It wouldn’t be hard to guess whose hair Sebastian Forsythe had ripped out. Who knew that the day I would die would come so soon? I hadn’t expected to fall this very night.