“Me too,” Dana replied.

  “Scrolls?” Katy asked Dana. “Why did she get you to draw scrolls?”

  Dana stood and looked back at Katy. “She didn’t. I didn’t do these. Someone else has, and recently too.”

  “They weren’t here when you were here?” Katy asked for clarification.”

  Dana shook her head, a knowing look in her eyes.

  “So she’s looking for a scroll,” Felix muttered.

  Katy sensed the disturbance a moment before something invisible hit Dana full in the chest and slammed her back. She flew against the wall with a crunch and dropped to her ass with a groan.

  “Ugh.”

  “Dana!”

  Katy concentrated and activated her Aetheric Sight, filling her vision with colours and energies.

  “Where is it? I don’t see it,” Yuki shouted.

  “Forget seeing it, we need to run,” Felix said.

  Energy flared again, and something invisible hit Felix in the face. He staggered into the hallway.

  “Felix!” Yuki shouted as Katy ran to Dana’s side.

  “Come on,” Katy huffed as she got an arm around Dana. “Get up.”

  “Oh my god, what was that?” Dana grunted.

  “She’s here, we have to go,” Katy said as they got to their feet.

  “Rocks and pebbles suddenly shot into the air and pelted them all. Katy yelped as a stone hit her thigh, and another her back.

  “Cover your heads,” Katy shouted and did her best to protect herself.

  Ahead, Yuki ran out to Felix and helped him up. “Come on, we’ve got to go.”

  Katy hauled Dana out of the room as Yuki and Felix set off up the hall. She felt more energy build in the room behind her. She turned and looked back to see red mist appear in the room and coalesce into a shifting whole. A face emerged from the centre of it.

  ~Leaving so soon?~ it said, its silky voice sliding into her mind like ice.

  “It’s her,” Dana gasped.

  Katy pulled her on, and out of sight of the ghost. “Which means we’re leaving. Come on, run.”

  Setting off, they began to pick up the pace despite the pain from several cuts and bruises. As she moved up the corridor, Katy felt the skin on her back crawl with terror. She felt sure that the ghost would be on her at any moment and try to do something horrific to her.

  There was a loud cracking sound up ahead. Katy peered into the darkness as they hustled along, wondering what it could be. Then she noticed cracks appearing on the ceiling ahead, threading their way over the stone and making dust spill onto the floor and their heads.

  “Come on!” Felix yelled.

  “Go, go, go!” Katy added. “She’s bringing the ceiling down.”

  “Keep moving!” Yuki shouted.

  The ceiling cracked above her several more times. Huge chunks of rock fell and smashed on the floor all around them. One of the larger ones caught Katy’s arm.

  She yelped in pain.

  Ahead, another one hit Felix on the shoulder, making him stumble. Yuki grabbed his arm, keeping him upright.

  “Keep going,” she urged, and practically pulled him along.

  The ceiling cracked again behind them. With an almighty bang, it suddenly collapsed into the corridor, missing them by inches. Katy finally made it back into the lobby and helped Dana cross it as a dust cloud billowed into the room, making the already-dark room even murkier.

  “Where’s the crack?” Felix shouted. “I can’t see it.”

  “It’s there,” Yuki replied. “Keep going. That’s it, in there. Go. Go on. Katy?”

  “I’m here,” Katy replied, her Aetheric Sight allowing her to see the exit clearly. Following Yuki, she pushed Dana into the crack ahead of her and looked back.

  In the centre of the lobby, the crazy red fractal of energy that was the Red Witch, floated in the middle of the room. Its body rippled and convulsed. The sharp-featured, feminine face in the middle of it laughed as it looked right at her.

  Terrified, Katy scooted through the crack as quickly as she could. She fell out of the wall onto the dirt outside.

  “She was right there,” Katy said, looking up to see Yuki and Felix helping Dana.

  “What?” Felix asked.

  “Where?” Yuki added.

  “The Red Witch. I just saw her in the lobby, laughing at us.”

  “We need to get back,” Yuki suggested.

  Felix nodded his agreement.

  “Dana, are you alright?”

  She coughed. “Yeah…” She coughed again. “I’ll survive.”

  “Can we get back into the school, please?” Felix suggested. “I don’t feel safe here with that thing just in there.”

  Katy got back to her feet and peered into the darkness inside the crack in the wall. She saw nothing, but she did feel a growing sense of dread building inside her chest.

  “Yeah, let’s go.”

  Regroup

  Having emptied all the ice from the common room freezer in the small kitchenette in the corner, Katy quickly returned to her dorm where everyone sat, nursing their cuts and bruises.

  She wrapped ice cubes in whatever bits of cloth she could find and handed them out, making sure everyone had at least one before she placed her own against her injured arm. The bruise there was already quite nasty looking and hurt like hell.

  She sat back on her bed and closed her eyes as she thought back to their little raid on Tartarus, and put what she’d learnt together with everything else.

  “Alright, so this is what we know,” Katy said. “The Red Witch is still active in Tartarus, even after getting the book from Miss Hartman’s office. A few days ago, several people attacked me while I was out with a friend, wanting to know about the Red Witch and what had happened between us. We also know that someone is going to Tartarus and scrawling things on the walls in there, for whatever reason. So, I don’t know about you, but this is all sounding a little too suspicious to me. Something is going on, for sure.”

  “Yeah, but what?” Felix asked. “What is going on? What does she want?”

  “Power,” Dana replied. “That was my take away from my time under her sway. She wants power, and as much of it as possible.”

  “But power to do what? Does she want to rule the world or something?”

  “Dunno,” Dana replied.

  “That’s not usually what ghosts want, though, is it?” Felix suggested. “I mean, when we talk about ghosts hanging around after death and communicating with people, usually it’s because they have unfinished business, right?”

  “So, what unfinished business could she have that leads her to steal Magic books and scrolls?” Katy asked.

  “Well, I don’t know,” Felix said, trying to lean back against the wall. “It might help if we knew who she was, though.”

  “For sure,” Katy replied. “But we don’t even know if the teachers know that.”

  Felix nodded, and winced with pain, hissing through his teeth as he rubbed his neck.

  “Jeez, be careful,” Yuki exclaimed, sitting beside him and helping him sit back upright. “You took a nasty hit in there, don’t make it worse.”

  Felix groaned. “I know. Thanks.”

  Katy smiled. After their recent issues because of Josie, it was nice to see them getting along again. It was just a shame it took a malevolent ghost to do it.

  There was a knock at the door.

  Everyone looked at one another with expressions of shock and worry. They’d just broken school rules by visiting Tartarus, and Katy wondered if it might be a teacher who’d stopped by to reprimand them.

  Katy whispered. “Any idea who it is?”

  Everyone shook their heads.

  “You should answer it,” Dana said, her eyes tick-tocking between her and Yuki.

  “Why us?” Katy asked.

  “It’s your room,” Dana replied.

  “Good point,” Yuki replied.

  “Katy shuffled over her bed, struggling to move as she held the ice pack on her arm, wincing at the pain from the other bruises on her legs and back.

  “I’ll get it,” Yuki spoke up. She was the only one of them who’d not been hurt. She climbed off her bed and opened the door a crack.

  “Oh, hello,” Yuki greeted the person behind the door. Katy couldn’t see anything from where she sat and waited to hear the voice.

  “Is Felix in there?” It was Josie. Katy looked over at Felix who rolled his eyes and then shuffled off the bed. She could see him gritting his teeth against the pain in his neck and face. He was already sporting a nice bruise that was threatening to turn into a black eye, and Katy wondered what Josie would think on seeing him like this.

  He stepped up behind Yuki, who yielded the door to him.

  “Oh my god,” Josie gasped. “What happened?”

  “Nothing, really. Just an accident, I’m fine.”

  “Did someone hit you?” Josie asked.

  “No, nothing like that. I tripped, that’s all. It was stupid.”

  “You have to get that looked at.”

  “I will, don’t worry,” he reassured her.

  “Come on, we’ll go to the infirmary now.”

  “No.”

  “What?” she asked, clearly surprised.

  “I’m not going yet.”

  “Why not?”

  “I’ve got stuff to do first, I can’t go yet.”

  “Like what? What stuff. What are you doing in there?”

  “Nothing. Look, I’ll find you later, okay?”

  “I don’t like this, Felix. Why are you hanging around with these other girls? What are you up to?”

  “I’m not up to anything. I told you. Yuki and Katy are my friends, that’s all. It’s nothing for you to worry about.”

  “So let me in then,” she demanded. “If it’s nothing to worry about, then you won’t have an issue with me coming in.”

  “No, Josie. We’re busy.”

  “What are you hiding?”

  “Nothing. It’s nothing. I’ll see you later,” he said with finality and shut the door on her, much to Katy’s surprise.

  “You’re damn right, you will,” she called through the door. With a grunt of frustration, they listened as thundering footsteps stormed off up the hallway.

  “Sorry about that,” Felix said. “I think she’s just concerned about me.”

  “You could have let her in,” Yuki said from where she sat on the bed. “I wouldn’t have minded.”

  “But she doesn’t know. I didn’t tell her about the Red Witch or anything, so we couldn’t talk about it and work out what to do. So what would be the point?”

  Katy nodded along with the others. “Fair enough.”

  “Speaking of which,” Dana asked, “what are we going to do?”

  “I think that’s fairly obvious now,” Yuki replied. “We have to tell the staff.”

  “I agree,” Katy replied. “I think we have more than enough evidence that something is happening. They have to listen to us now.”

  “Do you think they’ll do anything though? Listening is all well and good, but it doesn’t necessarily translate into action.”

  “All we can do is try,” Katy replied.

  “When do we go?” Yuki asked.

  Felix lay back on Yuki’s bed with a groan. “Not yet. Give me a minute to rest up some more, yeah?”

  Katy smiled and sat back. “Absolutely. I’m all for that.”

  The next twenty minutes consisted mainly of groans and hisses as they winced from their various aches and pains, mixed with several colourful insults directed at the Red Witch. Until eventually, they all agreed that they really did need to go and speak to someone and get themselves looked at.

  Katy’s worst injury was her arm. She felt sure it wasn’t broken, but it had taken a bad blow and the black and purple bruise on it was nasty. The ice seemed to help, and by the time the others were getting up, Katy was more than ready to get it looked at.

  The trek through the Academy was uneventful, and they didn’t see anyone they hung out with, which Katy was grateful for. She certainly didn’t want to see Mikayla like this.

  About ten minutes later, they were up in the foyer outside the Headmistress’s office, where Katy knocked on her door with her good hand. Katy had heard talking on the other side, which stopped abruptly, until several moments later it opened, and Miss Hartman stood and faced them.

  “Oh, it’s you lot. What is… Oh my, what’s happened?” she asked, noticing their bruises.

  “We need to talk to you,” Katy said.

  “Um, now’s not exactly a good time,” Miss Hartman replied, regaining her composure. “And besides, it looks like you need to see Nurse Jennings.”

  “It’s about the Red Witch,” Katy pressed on, feeling a little annoyed that she would turn them away.

  “Look,” Miss Hartman replied, “we’re in the middle of a planning meeting, and we really don’t—”

  Frustrated by her excuses, Katy ducked past and moved into the room. “No, we need to see you now. I’m sorry, but this is important.”

  Miss Hartman stepped back and frowned at her. Katy noticed Mr Spiros, Miss Hunt, and Mr Spencer sitting in the room too and looking back at her.

  The Headmistress sighed. “Alright. Okay. Go on, then, what’s so important?”

  “We just encountered the Red Witch again,” Katy said in an effort to grab their attention.

  “Where?” Mr Spiros asked.

  “In Tartarus.”

  “Why were you in Tartarus? You know that’s against the rules,” Miss Hartman remarked.

  “I noticed the gate was open yesterday, so someone’s been over there.”

  “You mean besides you?”

  “Obviously,” Katy snapped, and half-regretted her rash answer, wondering if they might call her out on it.

  “What proof of this do you have?” Miss Hunt asked before anyone else could say anything.

  “We found new markings in the room that Dana used to meet the Red Witch. New markings. Someone’s been going over there and talking to her.”

  “What markings?” Mr Spiros asked.

  “They look like drawings of scrolls, I think. I can draw one, if you like.”

  “That’s okay,” Mr Spiros replied, dismissing the idea.

  “No, I’d like to see it,” Miss Hunt replied, and conjured a notepad and pen onto a nearby desk. Katy picked it up and began to scribble the marking from memory.

  “Why on earth did you go over to Tartarus?” Mr Spencer asked.

  “Because we knew you wouldn’t believe us,” Katy replied. “We had to find proof. We had to know for sure.”

  “And what proof do you have?” Miss Hartman asked.

  “The attack on me the other day for one, so we know there are people out there interested in the Red Witch. Then, the open gate, and also Dana’s dream.” She finished her drawing and handed it back to Miss Hunt.

  “Her dream?” Mr Spiros replied. “What dream?”

  “I had a dream that the Red Witch was puppeteering people,” Dana replied.

  “That doesn’t mean anything,” Mr Spencer answered.

  “Hmmm,” Mr Spiros said, rubbing his chin, and looking around the room.

  “We don’t know that,” Miss Hunt replied. “Dana had a close relationship with the Red Witch, and could still be linked to her in some way we don’t know. It’s entirely possible that Dana’s picking up on something that’s manifesting in her subconscious, and appearing in her dreams. It’s happened before, so it could certainly happen again. Brushing it off won’t get us anywhere.”

  “So you went into Tartarus, against school rules, and you encountered the Red Witch?” Miss Hartman clarified.

  “She attacked us, started throwing rocks and stones,” Yuki said. “She nearly brought the corridor ceiling down too.”

  “It was a close call,” Katy agreed.

  “So, what are you going to do?” Dana asked.

  The Headmistress sighed and placed her hands on her hips. “Well, firstly, thank you for bringing this to our attention. I don’t like that you went against school rules and went over there, but I understand why you did it, and given prior events, you weren’t going in there blind, at least. Still, you really should have come to us first. Anyway, what’s done is done. That said, and with the school trip tomorrow, I’m not sure how much we can really do right now. I promise I will look into it, but not tonight. Maybe once your year has left on your trip, I will find the time. In fact, this is kind of good timing, because you’ll be away from school. Which means you’ll be away from the Red Witch.”

  “So, you’re not going to go over there?”

  “Not tonight,” Miss Hartman reiterated. “But thank you for bringing this to our attention. Now, please, you all need to go and see Miss Jennings. She’ll fix you up, and then you need to go pack and get ready for tomorrow.”

  Katy sighed. It wasn’t exactly the answer she wanted, but she guessed it could have been worse. They could have dismissed their claims entirely.

  With a sigh, Katy nodded. “Alright, thanks,” she said and turned to leave the room.

  Setting Off

  “Got everything you need in there?” Yuki asked as they left their room, pulling their cases behind them.

  “I think so,” Katy answered, glancing at her case. “You?”

  “I guess we’ll find out, hey? If I come asking to borrow a bra, then you’ll know the answer.”

  “If you ask to borrow one of my bra’s, then I think you should get your eyesight checked.”

  “Oooh, harsh,” Yuki replied with a smile.

  Katy winked at her as they reached the stairs and clumsily manoeuvred down them. Carrying their cases, they walked out into the courtyard where several students were already waiting, with more joining every minute.

  Yuki sighed. “She just can’t keep away from him, can she?”

  Katy followed her gaze and spotted Felix stood with Josie. “I guess not,” Katy answered, but as she watched, she noticed their demeanour with each other seemed a little different. They weren’t being as cuddly as they had been, and Josie, especially, looked like she was being a little standoff-ish with Felix.

  No doubt because of their little disagreement last night.