The weekend had come along faster than expected, with Truvius taking the day to finish Ronan's stash of earthly textbooks and Jeremy on his way with a thank you letter in tow to whatever rock his uncle was hiding under. Ronan hadn't seen Red since their last encounter, so he'd awoken at an ungodly hour with the intent of getting the battery out of the way for good. They wandered into the half-clean room and Ronan approached the second Ceptrum he had concealed under a grimy, metal chest plate, opening the 'secret' secret room. "Alright, one more time." Phantom cooed. "I think I've got it," Ronan sighed, holding up a crumpled slip of paper that he'd scrawled the spell on. Even after ten minutes of Phantom berating him for messing up the sounds, the phrase still looked like murder. He sucked in a breath, reading it out and stopping dead when Phantom's repeated nods ceased. "What did I do? I'm saying it right, yeah?" Phantom bobbed his head from side to side as he twirled his hands.

"Make sure you get that off your hand as well," Phantom said, motioning to the black scribbles littering Ronan's palm like fresh blood after a murder."Yeah I know, there isn't exactly a bathroom down there," he replied, hiding the mark in his pocket with a sour frown and closing up the secret secret room.As he went for the stairs a strange vibrating sensation rattled at his wrist, causing him to jump and feel around for his phone. The box remained lifeless in his pocket however, coaxing him to lift his sleeve and stare at the little shaking sender.Ronan blinked in confusion. "Why's it doing that?"Phantom was equally perplexed by the bracelet, craning over Ronan's shoulder to inspect it. "Is there a button somewhere to stop it?"The bracelet continued to vibrate as Ronan looked at it from every angle for a button, the silver bracelet completely bare of any bumps or switches. It persisted, growing more restless by the second, until Ronan poked the centre of it, silencing it with a s

Veronica froze at the doorway, registering the chalked circles before the dim lighting could even disturb her. She was expecting a ghost, or maybe even a secret hobby Ronan was using the room for.Her lip twitched in a mix of fear and relent.This technically was a hobby.She paced herself, slowly closing her mouth when she realised it had been hanging and eyeing Ronan with a shaking calm. "So... was this here when you...?" She stopped when Ronan shook his head, a spike of irritation flaring from his grin. "Okay. So you—"Ronan didn't even let her finish. "Yup."Veronica's eye involuntarily twitched at the hint of power peppering Ronan's tone, prompting her to bring her own set of false confidence to the skit. With a wicked grin she walked up to the circles of chalk, pretending to admire their details. "So..." she started, her smile growing ever so slightly as she still caught a lick of worry plaguing Ronan. "What was it that you needed help with?"Ronan sucked in a deep breath, flick

Truvius rubbed his eyes, clenching his jaw to keep a yawn from escaping as he blankly stared at the text of his book. He didn't know when Ronan planned to wake up, and not wanting to miss his chance at taking a step closer in debunking the mystery of his roommate, he hadn't slept a wink. A shuffle broke his dreamy trance. Ronan was shifting in his sheets with a tired stretch. This was it. Truvius straightened, quietly placing his book to the side as Shriek waddled off his pillow to hop onto Ronan's night stand, two sets of eyes drilling into the drowsy teen as he leaned up. "Morning," Truvius blurted, a delayed smile curving on his face as Ronan struggled to register his roommate, giving him enough time to notice a stretch of bandage covering his hand. "Sleep well?" Truvius kept back a grimace as Ronan scrunched his brow in confusion. That sounded creepy. He waited for his roommate to lazily slip out of his covers, grabbing Shriek before the bird could fly at Ronan's exposed ba

Ronan couldn't believe his luck. A tense truce with Veronica had willed her to play Truvius like a puppet and although he hadn't caught a syllable of what she'd told his roommate, Truvius had followed her to shop for clothing without a word of protest. This left him with a few timid glances and priceless window of privacy to remove the tattoo plaguing his palm.He pinched at the tight knot Veronica had made, cursing the rough fabric while he bit at the knot to loosen it. They were almost at the little shop, Ronan's boots carelessly clapping against the stretch of stone, while the luring scent of fresh food faded to a dingy tang of stale puddles and waterlogged vines. He liked the solitary chill alleys had; it sure beat the crap out of thick crowds of chattering students.He finally loosed the bandage, working at unwinding it while he cooked up a plan to get Luren not to talk about the symbol to anyone. Hopefully his pockets were heavy enough to seal the information broker's lips to th