The castle seemed almost creepy now that there was no one in it. There were spots where plants had grown in through the floor, cinder blocks from the wall had been broken, and items had been scattered all around.

“What happened here?” Parker mumbled, loud enough for everyone to hear, but he knew there wouldn’t be an answer to it.

“I need to be honest with you kids,” Master Sora said, catching everyone off-guard. They turned and looked at him, waiting for him to continue. “I wanted to come here but not for the reasons I told you.”

They all looked at him confused. “What do you mean? You lied to us?” Parker asked.

There was a long pause and the master sighed heavily. “I don’t know what I’m doing anymore.”

“What do you mean?” Caleb asked. “You’ve been doing a great job leading everyone.”

Master Sora shook his head slowly. “No, I haven’t. I haven’t had a clue of what to do for as long as I can remember now.”

Everyone looked surprised at the master’s words. “But you’ve kept it together so well, what changed?” Alexis asked.

“I was just acting. Trying to do what I thought everyone wanted me to do.”

“Then why’d you want to come back here?” Parker asked.

Master Sora walked into the dining hall, up to the head table and took a seat. Parker could see the dismay on his face as he looked out over the empty room, imagining what it used to be like. “A feeble hope that I may figure out what I’m supposed to be doing in this new world.” He dropped his head.

Parker walked up to the head table and put his hands on it. “You’ve done a great job so far. I mean, you’ve kept us alive for over two years! No one else even tried to step up to the plate.”

“Regardless. I need to do a better job. I was hoping that coming here might give me some idea of what I’m supposed to do. I’ve always felt like the best version of myself when I’m here. Being a teacher is all I know. It’s what I’m meant to do. And I know that I was kind of in charge here, running my classes and taking charge for most other things, but the other masters were always right there with me. Here, I don’t know why, but it’s been mostly just me. Master Kingston has stepped forward a couple of times, but not nearly as much as I would like.”

“But you’ve always known exactly what to do,” Parker stated.

The master shook his head again. “It’s only looked like it. Contrary to popular belief, teachers don’t always have the answer. I’ve been riding by the seat of my pants this whole time.”

“Really?” the three of them asked in unison. Parker couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Master Sora had seemed so put together this whole time. To find out that he had absolutely no clue was scary, but oddly reassuring. To know that even when someone doesn’t know what to do, following your instincts can still drive you to make the right decisions.

“Well then, since it seems we’re all on the same page here,” Caleb started to say. “Let’s go see if our theory is correct. Can’t hurt anything right?”

The walk through the castle was eerie. Empty corridors, stairwells and classrooms everywhere made Parker’s skin crawl. They made their way slowly up to their old common room. When they got there, the silence was uncomfortable. No one said anything as they looked around.

A breeze rolled in through the open balcony and Parker heard a noise. He straightened up, spine stiff. There was a quiet laughter that paralyzed everyone. The laughter continued and Parker’s ears perked up. “Wait…”

Alexis turned and looked at him confused. “Wha—”

“Ava?” Parker asked out loud. “Is that you?”

There was another spell chilling laughter in the room. “I can’t believe you came back!” a young girl’s voice squealed.

“Have you been here the whole time?” Alexis asked.

Ava appeared from thin air. “What do you mean whole time?”

Parker looked at Ava confused. “Wait…” Parker mumbled. “You do know that things have changed right?”

Now Ava was the one that looked confused. “Changed? What do you mean?”

“You know… changed like we’re not on the same Earth anymore…” Parker was trying to lead her to the conclusion he was looking for, but Ava seemed clueless.

“I don’t understand what you mean Parker. All I know is that things were fine, you all left to do something and then never came back…” Ava’s head dropped, clearly upset. “I’ve waited…” she started to cry, making Parker remember to the time when they all met.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“Ava… remember how we were trying to stop that woman from destroying the Earth and making her own?” Ava continued to cry but nodded her head. “Well, we didn’t stop her. We’re not on Earth anymore.”

Ava stopped crying abruptly and scowled. “That woman, did it?” Parker couldn’t believe how angry she looked. The wind started to whip around them furiously. “How can someone be so evil?”

“She had decent motives…” Alexis said timidly. Everyone turned their heads to her, surprised. “What? All she wanted was to protect Hailee. Did she do it the right way? No. But I think I can empathize slightly.” There was a long moment of silence.

“But look at her now!” Caleb shouted. Everyone could feel the anger in him as he spoke. They didn’t take it personally though. Caleb typically got heated when anything about Hailee came up. “Not only did she get Hailee killed, but she’s also murdered billions of people and then some more on Earth 2. She has to be stopped!”

Alexis held out her hands defensively. “I didn’t say she didn’t need to be stopped or that what she did was okay. I just said that I think I can sympathize with how she must’ve been feeling.”

The ground under Caleb’s feet caved in. His fists were clenched, causing his knuckles to go white. Parker grabbed his should, “It’ll be okay. We’re going to fix this. I promise.” Caleb turned his head and glared at Parker for a moment and then stormed off down the corridor.

“But that’s—” Alexis started but stopped when Parker grabbed her hand.

“Just let him go. We’ll check on him in a minute. I’m sure that’s all he needs.”

Master Sora sat down in one of the chairs near the fireplace. “So, what now?”

Parker looked at him, slightly afraid of the new persona he’s taken on. The master was supposed to be the one with the answers, not the other way around.

“Well, I was going to check our room for some of Hailee’s stuff, but that’s where Caleb just went…”

“I see,” the master responded. “So, what now?”

“Stop that!” Parker shot at him.

The master’s eyes went slightly wide. “What?”

“Stop asking us what to do now. You’re supposed to be the one—” Parker stopped abruptly. He took a deep breath before speaking again. “Sorry. It’s just, you’re the one I’ve always looked up to. Ever since I got to Lancastre, you’ve been like my idol. Always knew what to say, what to do, how to do it.”

Master Sora held up his hand as Alexis had earlier. “I-I’m sorry Parker.”

“Why?”

“I’ve given you a false impression. It only seemed like I knew all the answers because I was teaching something I knew a lot about and when I didn’t, I relied on those around me for help. There’s a lot that you haven’t seen since you arrived at school that would completely change your opinion of me.”

Parker shook his head. “Try me.”

Master Sora chuckled softly. “Well, for starters, I sent four children after someone I knew was kidnapping my students.”

“But you knew we were capable of handling ourselves.”

“I should never have sent you. You were first years for heaven’s sake.”

Parker shrugged. “What else do you think would change my opinion?”

The master thought for a moment. “I, again, sent four young children to stop a woman who was trying to murder my students.”

Parker shrugged once more. “Still not convinced. Sometimes, we all have to make sacrifices for the greater good.”

“That doesn’t make what I did acceptable. I should’ve been the one to go after her.”

Caleb shook his head. “We don’t know what Lara would’ve done if you’d gone after her.”

Master Sora shook his head. “No, no, no. I shouldn’t have risked the lives of more students.”

“But did you ever think that she had us doing all of that because she was confident that she could stop us, whereas she couldn’t be so certain as to be able to stop you and the other masters?”

“Plus!” Parker blurted. “She probably wanted nothing to do with the idea of Master Terra stepping in either.”

“I suppose so, but it’s still doesn’t excuse me sending children. No matter what you say, what I did was unacceptable. If a teacher did that to one of my own children, I would be livid. I don’t care how ‘okay’ with it you were.”

A while later, Alexis walked back out into the common room holding onto something. Parker couldn’t tell right away what it was that she was holding. She sat down on one of the armchairs and held a brush out in front of her.

“What’s that?” Parker asked pointing at the brush.

“It’s Hailee’s hairbrush…” Alexis looked down at it and Parker could’ve sworn he saw a tear drop from her face.

Parker reached for the hairbrush, hoping to take her mind off it. “Here… let me…” When his hand touched the brush, a weird sensation ripped through him. It felt the way he remembered Lara’s core to feel.

-----

The next thing he knew, he was staring Lara dead in the face. His eyes went wide, and he looked around quickly. “What in the…”

“Parker?” Lara asked, clearly confused.

She was sitting in a fancy computer chair at a long wooden desk. Parker was standing at the other end. He started to quickly count the people sitting around her and counted six. Everyone looked to be the same age, except for one guy, who had to have been just a little older than Parker was. Parker thought the guy looked familiar but figured he had just been one of the students he’d seen in the corridors at Lancastre; he wasn’t even sure how old he was.

“Parker, how did you find us? Even I’ve barely been able to sense—”

----

Parker was looking at Master Sora now, sitting once again in his old common area. He shook his head back and forth quickly, like he was trying to shake something off himself.

“Parker, what just happened?” Master Sora demanded.

Blinking a lot, Parker didn’t know what to say. He had no idea what had just happened.

Master Sora clapped his hands in front of Parker. “Parker,” the Master sounded irritated. “What. Just. Happened?”

“I-I don’t know what just happened. One second I was here, the next I was sitting at a desk with a bunch of people… and Lara…”