Abby flinched, stopping dead in her tracks, not daring to make a single move, a single sound, and hoping and praying to any God willing to listen that her stomach wouldn't make any weird gurgling noises in a time like this.

"It's been a while since I've been able to get you alone," the (young?) voice started, "Abigail Henson."

All Abby could think at that moment, was oh hell no and without thinking anything through, she swiveled around and made eye contact with the figure behind her (too upset to even notice how good looking he was) and she stomped like she's never stomped before.

"Don't." stomp "ever." stomp "call me Abigail." She made it to the man who, irritatingly enough, stood in front of Abby with his arms crossed over his broad shoulder and a smirk sent from hell placed on his face.

The man chuckled, "Feisty, as they all were. I like it," taking a look at the girl's taken aback face, the man's smirk grew even wider if possible. "I'm not going to kidnap you, if that's what you were wondering," the guy stated simply. Abby took a step back anyways. "Would it help if I told you my name?"

She shook her head, opening her mouth to speak while simultaneously forming an escape plan in her head, when the guy blurted out, "Nicholas Scratch."

"Excuse me?" Abby asked, furrowing her eyebrows in confusion.

"My name," the guy explained, "is Nicholas Scratch."

"What kind of last name is Scratch?" Abby blurted out. She felt her cheeks redden in embarrassment, but given the fact that this has never happened before, she chose to ignore it as best as she could, even though she wasn't doing a very good job.

Instead of looking offended, Nicholas laughed (which automatically made Abby assume this guy was crazy) and as she watched him practically double over, she couldn't help but notice him, really notice him.

His dark brown, almost black hair, was styled and his deep brown eyes sparkled in the little sunlight creeping through the tall trees. As Maddie explained before, he was wearing all black and was certainly good looking.

"Done staring, darling?" His voice snapped Abby out of her trance and her cheeks reddened yet again.

"I-I-Uhm-dammit," the girl cursed. What the hell is going on? Abby thought to herself. This doesn't usually happen. But yet again, she never usually hangs back with a mysterious man in the woods on her way home either.

"Cat got your tongue?" Nicholas teased, not letting go of his stupid smirk. Abby shook her head quickly, refusing to use any words and embarrass herself any further. Nicholas noticed this and fixed his composure, going from carefree to professional in a matter of seconds. "I came here for a reason, Ms Henson, by the way," he spoke, using the girl's last name, making the situation about a million times weirder than it had to be.

"And that reason was..." Abby trailed off, waiting for Nicholas to continue. Nicholas gave her a look as if to say 'I was getting there'. Knowing this, Abby gave him a sarcastic smile and leaned most of her weight on one leg, giving him that 'hurry up, I'm bored' impression.

"The Church of Night wants–" he started, but was once again cut off by Abby.

"Wait, wait," she waved her hands mentioning him to stop talking. Nicholas shot her a dirty look (which Abby ignored). "What the fuck is the Church of Night–"

Nicholas stepped back, a look of surprise clear on his face, and it didn't seem like it was because Abby swore.

"You don't know what the– but I thought– the High Priest said–" Nicholas stuttered, raking his hands through his dark hair, messing up the style. He took a deep breath, exhaling heavily and looking into the slightly amused and slightly terrified eyes of Abigail Henson.

"What's the Church of Night?" Abby asked again. "Is it some sort of cult hangout place, 'cause if it is, I'm totally down with that and won't rat you out to the cops–" through her rambling, the girl didn't even notice Nicholas slowly walking towards her, until he was so close she could hear his heartbeat. "What are you doing?" She whispered carefully, unsure of what tone of voice to use in an unusual situation like this.

Nicholas didn't say anything, only stood close to her and muttered a few words quietly to himself, in a language that sounded like English, but she couldn't tell for sure for how fast her heart was beating at the moment.

The man finished a few seconds later and he stood, waiting for a reaction to come out from the girl in front of him. He let out a sigh of relief when Abby asked where she was.

"You're in the woods, miss. You got a bit lost on your way somewhere and you just asked me for directions," Nicholas spoke innocently, his brain still trying to formulate everything that happened in the last five minutes. How could she not know? Nick thought to himself.

Abby nodded unsurely and muttered a quiet thanks in his direction, before quickly walking off the other way, following the path towards the main road sidewalk.

Neither Nicholas nor Abigail knew what just happened, but both were confused about entirely different things. One thing was for sure, though, and that is Nicholas will be insanely screwed if he can't come up with an answer to give to the High Priest when he returns to the Academy without Abigail Henson.

(note!)
a bit of a shorter chapter but hopefully they won't all be like this. hopefully.
what are your thoughts so far, guys??
i promise this isn't going too fast if it seems that way we got a bumpy ride ahead of us

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