Page 77 of An Arcane Education
I can hardly breathe as I sit on the floor from my crouching position and unfold the note. The handwriting on it is the same looping script from the note on the back of the photograph. It’s my father’s.
AJ crouches beside me. “What's going on?”
“My dad wrote this.”
“Didn’t you say he passed away before you were born?”
“Yes,” I breathe. “He must have left this here for me to find before he left the academy.”
“Well, what’s it say?”
AJ rests a steadying palm against my back as I fumble with the paper, my hands trembling so badly I can barely hold it still enough to read it. The creases are deep from the paper being folded so long.
The letter is short, only a few lines written in that familiar handwriting.
V,
If you’re reading this, then that means you’ve made it to Arcadia and I’m not around to tell you everything directly. I know that leaving everything behind will come with risks, so hopefully this note is unnecessary and I’m around to tell you about it.
If I’m gone, just know that I did everything in my power to stay with you. I already love you so much, and you’re not even in this world yet.
I’m not sure what Arcadia Academy will be like when you’ve finally made it here, but it’s vitally important that you stay vigilant. Everyone here has an agenda, and they’ll stop at nothing to keep their secrets buried.
Trust no one.
Administrators, faculty, other students… It’s impossible to know who has your best interests at heart. I had to learn my lesson the hard way. I just hope you don’t have to do the same. If you come into contact with Charles and Melinda, do not trust them either, despite what they may tell you. Avoid them if possible.
Stay safe. I love you.
—C.L.
I read the short letter over and over again, tears welling in my eyes and dread sinking like a stone in my stomach with each pass. Trust no one. But he can’t have possibly known who I’d be around this many years ago. I have friends now who didn’t exist when he wrote this letter, and while some of the faculty here certainly have had it out for me, others have been kind and helpful.
And who are Charles and Melinda? The names are generic enough that they could be anyone, and without any other identifying information, finding them would be nearly impossible.
The bittersweetness of finding a letter from my father only for it to be a cryptic warning causes frustration to build in my chest. He cared enough to think about me, to warn me, but there are no real details here.
“What’s it say?” AJ asks.
I hand the letter to him, and he takes a moment to read it.
“This sounds like serious shit. Do you know who Charles and Melinda are?”
I shake my head. “No clue. They’re such common names, and they might not even be around here, let alone alive, anymore considering this was written twenty-five years ago.”
“Maybe they're in the faculty directory?” AJ suggests. “We could check the old records.”
“We can try,” I say, even though I’ve scoured the faculty directory and the yearbooks dozens of times since I’ve gotten here. I flip through the small book to make sure there aren’t any other notes or clues, but the book is just a book, a vessel he knew I’d recognize as out-of-place for him to hide the letter.
Another cryptic warning that leads nowhere.
CHAPTER 32
Ispend the rest of Sunday evening pacing my dorm room. Max is out, though I’m not sure where, and the silence only amplifies my racing thoughts.
What the hell is on this campus that I need to be so afraid of? Everyone seems to have a warning for me, including my dead father, and nobody seems to be able to give me any details about why I should be careful.
AJ and I had scoured the faculty directory and previous yearbooks, but as suspected, we found no leads. There were a few people named Charles and one named Melinda throughout the records, but the names are so common and random that we couldn’t assume any of them meant anything. I wrote down the information we found on the individuals just in case, but my gut told me they’d be dead ends.
