by Jo Ho
A cloud of black formed high up in the rafters of the building.
Marley squinted her eyes, staring up at the ceiling, wondering if her eyes were playing tricks on her… but no, there was definitely something moving up there. The cloud descended, slowly at first, then growing increasingly fast as it shot steadily down towards Eve. When the pulsating black mass was only a few feet away, it exploded outward, revealing bats that swooped down in every direction. They circled Eve, beating the air around her with their wings as the others looked on in fascinated horror.
Of Eve herself, she seemed not to notice what was happening, lost in her memories until Marley called out to her. At the sound of her voice, Eve’s eyes snapped open. Seeing the swarm of bats flying around her, her eyes went wide as she lost all control.
The bats shot away, leaving her shaking.
“Moths, crabs, rats and now bats. On the plus side, at least I’m getting a real handle on my powers now,” she smiled lightening up her whole face. “I’d love to see those girls try something on me now.”
“What girls?” Marley asked, confused by the direction the conversation had gone to.
“Oh, nothing, forget about it,” Eve replied shrugging her shoulders.
Though it should be a moment to celebrate, Marley couldn’t help but feel uneasy by her power. Shooting a look at Christian and Cassie, she saw that they too seemed more creeped out than they wanted to be, though they did well to hide it.
Marley’s eyes slid over to the last black shape as it disappeared into the rafters. She wondered if Eve’s power would keep evolving… would it eventually extend to… people?
An icy shiver ran down her spine, that would still be there hours later.
Chapter 5
Tyler squeezed her aching neck.
Wanting nothing more than to sink into oblivion, she hadn’t been able to sleep, however, try as she might. Exhausted from classes and then work, she had felt a weariness that she’d only experienced once before. Even more than the tiredness, however, was the knowledge that she had missed learning about her powers alongside the girls. While they had given her the rundown, it still wasn’t the same. She was behind something which her A-grade self wasn’t used to.
Which was why she was breaking into the science lab.
She gripped hold of the door handle, twisting it, but it stopped after only a quarter turn. Locked. She walked around the length of the classroom, hoping for another way in and found that one of the windows at the top of the wall was still open.
Studying the hall, her eyes swept over a display consisting of several chest-high units. Decorative bowls sat on top of the unit, which a small plaque helpfully explained were donated to the college from a previous student, Hank Wellington, who was now working for the Center for Disease Control and Prevention in a top capacity. Thanks, Hank, Tyler thought to herself as she carefully placed the bowls on the ground, then dragged a unit beneath the window. Grateful for the years of gymnastics that she had practiced since she was a child, Tyler climbed gracefully onto the unit, slipping through the window to land nimbly on her feet inside the lab. Still got it, she grinned to herself, throwing up her arms as if she were at the end of a floor routine that was being graded.
From what the others had described, Tyler knew the magic wasn’t so much literal as the combination of channeling her mental and emotional energy then adding this to her already vast knowledge of science. Grabbing a glass beaker, Tyler headed to the nearest sink, turned on the tap then filled it with water. If what she suspected about herself was right, then it was the particles and molecules she could affect. All she required was a substance she could manipulate.
Thinking of the effect she wanted in her mind now, Tyler pictured the molecules in the water changing. She imagined the end result of her potion, felt how she would feel after taking it, then channeled it all into the beaker. Nothing happened. She frowned, fidgeting on her feet. This is how it had worked for the others so why wasn’t it working for her? Trying to clear her mind, Tyler hunkered down until the sound dulled around her, and everything seemed much further away. There was nothing in the world, nothing but that beaker and the water that she willed to change.
As in the class before, the solution began to bubble though no flame sat beneath it. Wary of repeating what had happened in class the other day, Tyler kept a tight control on the solution this time. She wouldn’t have enough lab partners or cardigans left to ruin if she kept that up. Maintaining her focus was proving much harder than she expected, however. It might have been a result of her long day or that she wasn’t skilled in her powers as yet. She felt sweat gathering on her brows and her body began to shake from the exertion.
Hold it steady!
Just a little longer and the solution would be ready. Tyler wasn’t sure how she knew this though there wasn’t a doubt in her mind. She only had to keep it up a few moments longer. She held it there, her entire body trembling, until a small cloud puffed up from the solution and Tyler knew it was done.
She had brewed her first potion.
It all meant nothing, however, if she didn’t test it. Without allowing herself a moment of hesitation, Tyler picked up the beaker and drank the solution down in one gulp. It was like she was drinking liquid silk. It slid down her throat tasting like a salty lemonade, causing a pleasant sensation. Wiping her sweat onto her sleeve, she suddenly felt her body grow strong. Gone was the exertion from just moments before, she was now filled with a sudden energy that was euphoric! It was as if she had just drank a gallon of the world’s strongest coffee but without any of the side effects. Her heart was fine, there were no palpitations. She felt as if she could conquer the world.
Buzzing from excitement, she quickly made several more, pouring the solutions into the water bottle she had brought with her. Tidying away the beakers so there was no trace of her experiment, Tyler went to the exit and was relieved to find that the door could be unlocked from the inside. Leaving the room, she stepped back into the hall, closing the door behind her. Jogging over to the unit, she had tilted it, meaning to drag it back to its original setting, when she discovered that she could lift the heavy metal cabinet as easily as if it had been made out of cardboard.
Her potion hadn’t just given her energy, it also made her physically stronger!
Grinning, Tyler set the unit down then jogged back to her room where, with energy to burn, she spent the rest of the night getting a head start on her coursework.
Chapter 6
The forest was dark and chilling.
She ran through it, branches whipping painfully against her skin, stones biting into her bare feet, but she couldn’t stop.
Something was after her.
Tossing a look over her shoulder, she could see nothing except a gaping chasm of darkness, but the thing was there, its evilness reaching out towards her. She hurried forwards, desperate for a light to break the night. Instead, the blackness only grew deeper, swallowing the space around her until it was only her that remained. Of the forest, there was no sign, not even beneath her feet, which she now saw ran on that inky blackness.
Rising up from the blackness now were wispy tendrils of hair. Black hair. They shot up from below, curving around her ankles until she fell, headfirst, into the black void.
She screamed.
Marley woke with a start, hearing the sound of her own voice coming from her dry lips. Though it wasn’t the scream of her dream, it was a pathetic croak. She wasn’t in the forest. She was in her dorm room. Cassie lay across from her sleeping soundly, out to the world. The sight of her stilled Marley’s thumping heart, providing some comfort, though she still had to fight the urge to flip on a light. She swallowed, memories of that nightmare still plaguing her mind. It had seemed so real that she could still see those awful black tendrils snaking towards her. She squeezed her eyes shut, willing them to go away. When she opened them again, the tendrils were still there. Blinking away the sleep, Marley peered into the blackness, trying to see if somet
hing was actually there or if it was just her eyes playing tricks on her.
A figure formed inside the darkness. Hazy at first, then growing rapidly clearer until a pair of eyes appeared inside the black void. Those terrifying eyes that Marley instantly recognized.
No God, please not again.
Fear shot through Marley as she scrambled away from the approaching figure until her back was up against the wall. Gripped by terror, she could do nothing as the ghost woman floated towards her, arms reaching out to her, those awful eyes burning into her soul. She screamed, louder than ever, hurting Marley’s ears. For a moment, Marley was hopeful that Cassie would hear and wake up… then she remembered. Not only did Cassie sleep with ear plugs, but she could not see or hear this ghost.
Marley was on her own.
Tears streaming down her face, Marley found herself calling out for the only other person who might be able to help.
“Christian…”
Her voice was shaky, but she clung to his name like a lifeline.
“Christian! Christian!”
Over and over she called, as the ghost reached Marley’s bed, covering it with that terrible darkness she had seen in her nightmare. As the ghost wrapped her hands around Marley’s shoulders, Christian suddenly appeared behind her in a spark of bright light. The ghost screamed, a howl of utter frustration then vanished, leaving Christian standing there confused.
“What is it?” he asked. “Why did you call me?”
Marley pointed at the space the ghost had only just vacated. “You didn’t see her? That ghost, the hanging woman, she was here again.”
She couldn’t stop herself from shivering. Christian looked though there was nothing he could see that shouldn’t be there.
“She must be coming to you for a reason. You need to learn how to make contact with her,” he began, only for Marley to cut in viciously.
“She’s evil! How many times do I need to tell you that?! I’m not going to make conversation with her, even if I knew how!”
“But this is what you do, Marley! You see dead people! I know it’s frightening…”
“Oh, do you?” Marley interrupted, unable to contain her growing fury. “How? Because from where I’m sitting, you’ve never seen her. You’re not the one she comes after, screaming and hurting me where she touches me, waking me from my sleep, so keep your useless comments to yourself!”
Christian came forward, forehead furrowed with concern by her words.
“She hurt you? Where?” he demanded.
Marley stopped short, confused by the sudden change in his voice before she realized it was just part of his Guardian duty. Dropping the covers that she had pulled around her, she gestured at her shoulders. Christian moved closer to inspect them, so close that she could feel his breath on her, which she knew was stupid as Christian didn’t breathe. He wasn’t corporeal. So why could she still feel his breath on her?
His eyes slid down her bare shoulders though he couldn’t see any sign of contact, any break on the smooth skin. Though the ghost’s fingers had burned where they had touched her, once again, there was no sign of anything. He moved his eyes back up to her face, taking in how fragile she suddenly looked. He was getting used to her annoyed outbursts, so seeing her so scared was a shock to the system.
One he wasn’t sure how to handle.
Uncomfortable with the effect she was having on him, Christian focused on the end goal.
“There’s no sign of anything on you. I know this is difficult and I don’t pretend to know how it feels to be haunted by a ghost, but this is your destiny, Marley. It’s your fate. You can’t run or hide from it. Neither can you ignore your powers or the ghosts who come to you. It’s your responsibility to communicate with them.”
He knew the minute he stopped talking that he had said all the wrong things. The vulnerability vanished from Marley’s face to be replaced by a scathing hardness that she directed at him.
“I don’t know why I bother to explain myself! You don’t care about how I feel. You only care about avenging your precious Eric! You can’t stop for even a second to understand how hard this is for me, for all of us. You were dead long before I killed you.”
Jumping out of bed, she pulled out a shoebox from beneath it. Reeling from her words which had cut deeper than even she realized, Christian watched in stunned silence as Marley pulled out a vial of her meds. Snapping off the lid, she poured two pills into the palm of her hand then swallowed them.
“Luckily for me, I’ve got these. So long terrifying ghost woman. Goodbye Christian. You know what you can do with your responsibility?”
Christian opened his mouth to reply but he could already sense that he was fading from her view. What had she done?
By the time Marley settled herself back in bed, she couldn’t see him anymore.
Chapter 7
His eyes ran over the ads section.
Supes Daily was a newspaper put together by the supernatural community for the community that contained interesting articles as well as recipes. A section called “Supes Soups” seemed very popular, as was a delicately worded section of ads where one could hire any kind of muscle that one desired… for a price.
A price that wasn’t usually money.
Take Fink: he would do almost anything for human meat. Others desired blood or black magic. Almost everything was a currency that could be exchanged. Michael scanned through the ads, searching for a particular type of service.
Though supernatural beings had existed beside humans for thousands of years, it wasn’t until the last few centuries that laws were put into place, laws that governed that they couldn’t mess with humans. The laws had been created by those meddling Guardians, whose sole focus was to stop any enjoyment it seemed.
Fury burned inside him now as he thought of all they had endured while the humans carried on with their humdrum lives without any concern for how shackled the supernatural community was. Here they were, the ones with all the power, yet they had to hide away, to limit what they could do, just so the tiny humans could think they ruled the world.
Their time was fast approaching.
If Michael was successful — and he would be, make no mistake of that — he would usher in a new age, a new rule for all. The humans, these girls? All they cared about would be no longer.
Michael would have his revenge.
A revenge that had been over three centuries in the making. Michael circled an ad with a pen, smiling, though it never reached his eyes. His plan would start with this simple ad.
Chapter 8
The girls sat on the carpeted floor, a mound of books before them, sequestered between several shelves containing massive tomes with unappealing titles. Head tilted to one side, Eve ran her eyes over some of them.
“The complete volume of 8th century Eastern European existential poetry. Wait, that’s actually a thing?”
Pulling the book off the shelf, she flipped it open. “Apparently nobody else thinks so either since this book has never been checked out.”
“You’re supposed to be looking for any buildings or artifacts that were around during the 17th century and are still here now!” Marley pointed out, not bothering to hide her annoyance anymore. She popped her neck, aching from being hunched over so many books for what seemed like an eternity.
“We’ve been at this through my sub and now halfway through my apple,” Eve replied waving the last of her lunch around. “We’ve found nothing, just that mosaic, which we already knew about.”
“That doesn’t mean we should give up, does it? What do we know about the seals?” Marley said. They were missing something, she just knew it. After last night’s horror, she had woken up determined not to feel helpless like that anymore. Fueled by this need, she corralled the others into joining her in the library, where they had decided to research Boston’s history.
They settled on the 17th century, having pinpointed the rough era of the ghost woman’s clothes with the stories of The Hanging Elm. The
mosaic was proving harder to find information about. While they researched, Christian hovered close by though he had barely said a word to Marley. She knew she had hurt him yesterday, but she wasn’t able to address it in front of the others even if she knew what she wanted to say. It wasn’t as if she was sorry for any of it. She had meant every word. So if he was going to sulk all day, so be it.
“They were created to keep evil at bay, and they can be any object apparently,” Cassie answered.
“Well that narrows things down considerably,” Eve replied, snark flashing from her eyes.
“Maybe we’re going about this wrong,” Tyler began. “Maybe instead of the seals, we should be looking at something else.” Her eyes gleamed brightly despite the dark shadows under them. Beside her sat a mountain of books, two or three times more than the others, which she had already gone through and discarded. She seemed to read at an incredible pace.
“Like what?” Eve asked, deciding she’d finally had enough of her apple, tossing it into a nearby bin.
Tyler tapped her fingers on the ground, drumming a beat. “Christian mentioned before that we aren’t the only supernatural beings. Well, what if others know more about this than we do? Is there a place they’re known to hang out?”
“Like a bar?” Eve said, laughing at the thought, when Marley saw a strange expression flash over Christian’s face. She knew they had hit on something he wasn’t comfortable about discussing.
“What is it?” Marley asked, finally talking to him. He shook his head, folding his arms across his chest. Unable to see him, the others still managed to pick up on her thoughts.
“What’s going on?” Cassie asked.
“Christian knows something, but he’s not telling,” Marley replied. Eve stopped laughing, her eyes growing suddenly wide.