Seeing that the rest of the students had begun to leave, Durant came back to himself. His eyes followed them, and he smiled. He knew that they would all recover from this ordeal, as they had each other. He looked down at his feet, and gently shook his head. Then he composed himself, and walked purposefully down the corridor back towards the cafeteria.
Reaching the doorway, Matthieu peered inside. He noticed immediately that Adarius' body had vanished, and he was slightly relieved. Sadly, the body of Rozu still lay there, now lifeless. Walking slowly across to her, Durant first recovered his jacket from under her head, and put it back on. He smoothed out his sleeves, then crouched down to pick up the body. As the girl's head came close to his, he whispered one final apology, and his sadness returned - though somewhat lessened - at his failure to rescue either of the students. Carrying the body to the infirmary, the tutor laid the girl down on one of the beds there, draping a spare sheet over her. He left a brief note for the infirmary staff, simply saying:-
"My apologies. Send for me tomorrow, and I will explain as best I can.
Sincerely,
Matthieu Durant"
As he passed his office, he gathered his briefcase from inside, pouring himself another small glass of blood, and pocketing the bottle to take with him. Then, shutting the door behind him, Durant locked the room, and headed solemnly for the staff accomodation, where he would try to plan something for his later lessons, and attempt to get some rest.
...
Sitting quietly at the table in his room, beside open textbooks and scattered papers, Matthieu sighed as he reordered his lesson plan. His work finished, he reached into one of the drawers, and took out another book. Its' worn pages had been thumbed through many times, and even now, Durant opened the book somewhere in the middle. The book resting comfortably on his hand, he stood, launching himself onto his bed, and his eyes fell to reading as he relaxed.
