My Hockey Alpha novel Chapter 199

Nina

The next morning, after managing to get a few hours of sleep following my stint in the forest, I woke up with one goal in mind: to contact that witch that Lori found and see if she could offer any help.

I knew that it could be a scam, but I had to try. So, after finding the forum thread that Lori showed me, I finally found the witch’s profile and decided to send her an email.

Although it took me a long time to finally formulate my thoughts enough to get them out, I did eventually manage to write an at least semi-coherent email to the witch. I begged her to help me, and although I did keep the details vague just in case it was a scam, I told her that I needed someone to open a portal for me. When I was finished and finally hit send, I let out a sigh of relief and shut my laptop.

That afternoon, I went to work in the infirmary. Since no students came in, I was able to work more on Tiffany’s antidote. And I was pretty certain that I was coming extremely close to figuring out the formula.

Lori and Jessica, who tagged along to keep me company, sat on the other side of the lab table while I worked. I still hadn’t told them about how I sleepwalked out into the woods the night before, and I planned to keep it that way so as not to scare the hell out of them.

“How are you gonna test to see if this actually works?” Lori asked, her chin resting in her hand as she sleepily watched me while I worked.

“The only real way to find out is to just try it on a rogue,” I responded as I carefully dropped two drops of hydrochloric acid into the solution inside a glass flask.

Jessica furrowed her brow. “What if it doesn’t work?” she asked. “Won’t that be a waste of time and resources if we take the antidote all the way to one of the neighboring towns, only for it not to work?”

Now that I thought about it, Jessica was right. I hadn’t thought much about how we would test it, and with the Fullmoons planning on leaving, it could be risky to leave the campus unprotected.

Suddenly, Lori spoke up again before I could answer. “This might sound crazy, but… What if someone volunteered to be bitten, and we tested the antidote on them?” she asked, causing both Jessica and I to stare at her with wide, disbelieving eyes.

“Lori!” Jessica exclaimed. “That is crazy. And dangerous!”

“I guess you’re right…” Lori’s shoulders slumped defeatedly and she stared down at her coffee with a bit of a pout.

“You might actually be onto something,” I said. “We could do it in a safe, controlled environment; only when I’m ninety-nine percent certain that it would work.”

Jessica frowned. “And if it doesn’t work? What, we’ll just let a rogue hang out on campus?”

Suddenly, I turned to look at the supply closet. The doors had stayed firmly shut since everything happened, but of course the tunnels were still there; and there were still plenty of rooms down there that could easily house a rogue safely, away from other students. If the antidote didn’t work, then our volunteer could stay in there until we did figure it out… And I was certain that we would figure it out.

Jessica, seeing where I was looking, groaned. “I guess you guys are right,” she said. “But it will have to be a willing volunteer.”

“Of course,” I replied, turning back to my workstation. “Don’t worry. We’ll figure this out soon, and then we can begin distributing the antidote to anyone who needs it. I promise we’re almost there.”