When The Snow Falls

Daniel didn't have time to digest the full impact of the boy bleeding on the snow turning out to be the person he had been waiting to see all afternoon because he heard quick footsteps approaching. He was relieved to see two people he recognised come out the darkness dressed in thick coats.

The Scarlet Wren house prefect and his cousin. He had never been so relieved to see Christopher.

"Daniel, what's going on?" Liam asked sharply. "Christopher said he saw something strange out his window."

Christopher was faster on the uptake and came to crouch on the melting snow next to him. Daniel didn't bother to swap pleasantries with his cousin, there were more important things to worry about.

"Have you called an ambulance?" he asked urgently.

"I did," Daniel confirmed. "I have to stay here and not move him."

Liam read the nametag on Felix's jacket and sighed heavily. He didn't seem to want to look at his face.

"I need to get the housemaster," he said and hurried back into the building.

This left Christopher and Daniel to watch over Felix. Daniel kept his fingers on his pulse and began to get concerned when it became even more erratic.

Christoper moved Felix's dark hair out of the way to reveal his pale and bloodstained face. As he did so Felix's visible eye fluttered open briefly and locked gazes with Daniel. His mouth twitched like he was about to speak and then his eye closed slowly.

"Did you see where he fell from?" Christopher questioned. "It can't have been the clock tower- he would be dead."

Daniel looked up again at the roof that corresponded with where Daniel was lying in the snow. If he remembered his tour correctly, it was the roof over the science block. It wasn't the highest roof, as Christopher had said, that was the clock tower. The thick layer of snow had prevented him from dying instantly. However, if the ambulance didn't arrive soon, Felix might pass away right in front of him. He thought of how long it had taken him to get to the school and winced.

"I can't believe it's happened again," Christopher muttered.

Daniel looked sharply at him. He was about to ask what he meant when he heard the faint sound of a siren. It was hard to hear due to the loud wind and snow buffeting his ears, but he was sure he could hear something.

"It's on the road behind the school," his cousin explained. "The road loops around, it should be here in five minutes."

The prediction turned out to be correct. Felix's unconscious form was taken away by paramedics and a police car arrived soon after. This drew a crowd of pupils from different houses in various states of dress outside in the cold.

The pupils were in varied states of shock. There were three figures at the back watching the proceedings with stony faces. The younger pupils were whispering eagerly. Daniel was only able to catch fragments whilst he was waiting for the police to speak with him.

"It's happened again..."

"....said it would be him next..."

"...it was going to happen sooner rather than later..."

It appeared that Felix was not the first student to be found dying in the snow. Daniel made a mental note to interrogate his cousin later. Christopher wasn't fond of him, but he wasn't the type to lie either.

***

An hour later found Daniel being half dragged to the canteen by the four house prefects. By now it was half seven and he was feeling the strain and the cold. He had given a statement to the police and to the housemaster. The canteen was mostly empty as everyone was either still outside gossiping or returned to their rooms.

The prefects led him to a table at the very back of the seating area. The prefect with impressively long and shiny black hair kept showering him with compliments whilst the one with heavy black eyeliner stared at him silently. Liam and the remaining prefect left and came back with five steaming cups.

"Here you go,Daniel," Liam said and gave him the first cup which had a different handle to the other four cups. "You look freezing."

Daniel accepted the warm cup and wrapped his almost frozen hands around it. The contents of the cup looked to be coffee which he hated so he took a small sip to appease Liam and put it back down.

"You reacted quickly," the long haired prefect commented. "I'm David Wang, by the way. I'm the prefect of the Golden Lion house. You can move to my house if you like. You're pretty enough."

It was hard to find a polite way to respond to those statements. David was clearly gay and might be sounding him out.

"...Thanks?" Daniel answered unsurely.

His eyes moved along to the dark haired one with a little too much eyeliner. Whoever he was, he looked like he would rather be anywhere else.

David handled the introduction for him.

"He's James Mackenzie, the prefect of the Violet Rose house. He hates being addressed by his first name. Call him Raven, he's a bit emo."

Daniel raised an eyebrow. To say he was a bit emo seemed to be an understatement. The more he looked at Raven the more giveaway signs there were from the bracelets to the piercings.

He turned his attention to the stoic looking one in the green striped tie. As far as Daniel remembered from the prospectus the green dorm was known as the Green Oak house.

"I'm Fenston Alderidge," the final prefect greeted pompously. "Aren't you going to drink your coffee? I made it especially for you. It's decaf so it won't keep you up."

When he phrased it like that it came across as creepy. Daniel pretended to gulp some down and held onto the cup so he could angle it out of view. He was beginning to feel like he shouldn't drink it. Something strange was in the air. His previous life as a detective useful for things like this.

"Are you going to be okay to sleep alone tonight?" Liam asked.

The thought of being too shaken to sleep hadn't occurred to Daniel yet. He had seen a lot in his past life.

"I would prefer to be alone," he answered. "I'm going to bed now. Goodnight."

He stood up from the table, still holding the cup and walked across the canteen until he saw the area for used cups. He discreetly poured the coffee into the other dirty cups and walked out the canteen.

His suspicions about something not being quite right at Kingston Royal Academy had been building up and he didn't trust the four prefects. Their insistence on making him drink coffee had been odd. Tea or even Horlicks would have been the more typical drinks to offer him. Coffee was too bitter on its own to be a comforting drink.

When he reached the area outside where Felix had landed, he looked up again. Had he been imagining the figure he saw? If there had been someone up there with him it would mean that they were keeping quiet about it. Either it had been an accident and Felix had lost his footing or he had been pushed off.

There was also the suggestion that something similar had happened before. He would have to find Christopher and ask him. As far as he remembered from awkward family gatherings, Christopher was in the Green Oak house.

***

Once he had reached his room, he placed his suitcase in front of the door so he could have a warning if someone opened it. Then he crossed over to Felix's side. He still wasn't sure what had led to Felix bleeding out in the snow, but he knew something was off about it.

He opened the wardrobe first and his resolve wavered because he was being stared down by three cats.

The body he had been reborn was strongly allergic to cats.

In his past life his death had been caused by a cat.

The best way to sum it up would be to say that he hated cats with a passion.

He closed his eyes and opened them. The cats were definitely there, it wasn't his mind playing tricks on him. By now the cats had lost interest in him and were more focused on l.i.c.k.i.n.g each other.

Daniel waited for the inevitable itchy feeling his nose and for the sneezing fit. It appeared that Felix was one of those annoying people that sneaked animals into places they weren't welcome. He decided to ignore the cats and look around the wardrobe. From a brief look, all he could see were clothes and Felix's open suitcase that the cats were residing in.

One of the cats mewled at him and he noticed that it had damp looking fur. It suggested that the cat had been outside in the day. It couldn't have found its way into the wardrobe by itself, Felix must have picked it up and put it there to keep it out the snow.

Due to the lack of warmth in the room the fur wouldn't dry very fast. It had snowed on and off all day, but it had been snowing when he had arrived with his father. Daniel himself had reached the room mid afternoon. That meant that Felix been outside, picked up the cat and taken it back to the room sometime shortly before he had been given a tour.

He closed the wardrobe. He wasn't sure what to do with the cats yet. Whilst he hated cats, he wasn't the type of person to let them die. If the worst came to the worst he could get Chrisopher to feed them. He knew that his cousin had an annoying affection for cats.

The next place to search was the bed. The mattress proved to be difficult to pull up and ultimately revealed nothing so he moved onto the pillowcase. His hand hit something hard and flat. He pulled it out and found a notebook.

If it had been a movie, the notebook would have detailed something important that he needed. Instead it was just full of recipes and photos of cakes. The cake reminded Daniel that he had missed dinner and he sighed.

Perhaps there wasn't anything mysterious going on at Kingston Royal Academy and he was being too paranoid. Then he turned to the most recent page to find nothing written apart from a date.

11/12/18

He committed the date to memory just in case it was useful and hesitated on replacing the notebook. If it wasn't important there wouldn't have been a need for Felix to hide it in his pillow so he concealed it under his own mattress for safekeeping.

Felix's desk revealed nothing of interest apart from his high grades and a polaroid of himself with another pupil. As Daniel had only seen his face in poor light, he had no real idea of what Felix looked like in normal conditions.

He had piercing green eyes and uncannily pale skin. His black hair was well styled and tidy. The other person in the photo was unfamiliar to Daniel . He had a much smaller frame and was the polar opposite of Felix. He looked shy, had tanned skin and had long fair hair.

He turned the polaroid over to check for something on the back and found nothing. He replaced it where he had found it. The only notable discovery apart from the cats and the notebook was the lack of a personality. There weren't any family photos or any letters from parents. Daniel had taken a few photo frames of his family, or rather his mother had forced them on him.

With nothing else to do, he prepared for bed. He repositioned his suitcase against the door again after leaving to use the bathroom. He was still feeling jumpy and the lack of a lock was not helping him feel secure.

***

A clattering noise very close by woke him from his sleep. He was about to reach for the bedside light when he realised that there were people in his room who had knocked over his suitcase when they opened the door.

"Are you sure he's asleep?" a voice that sounded like Liam whispered.

"I checked the cup after he left; he drank enough to be in deep sleep," Fenston hissed back.

"Hurry up!" Raven growled. "He might be unable to wake up, but we didn't drug the whole floor."

"Raven's right," David drawled. "We need to find what Felix found and get out of here."

Daniel knew his concerns about something suspicious at Kingston Royal Academy had been fully justified. The prefects had drugged him so they could search the room.

He had to find out the truth or he might end up the same way as Felix.