by R K Dreaming
Shara nodded. “That’s what I heard them say.”
Percy felt a flood of relief, and then guilt because her first thought had been of Lucifer and not of Mrs Delancey herself.
“Poor Mrs Delancey,” she said. “I can’t believe it. She seemed…” She had been about to say ‘fine’ but that had not been entirely true. “She seemed a bit off I suppose, but I never would have thought she’d do this.”
Shara continued, “Headmistress Glory told me to stay here until she came back and to make sure no one went in.”
“But it’s not really a crime scene if she jumped,” said Percy cajolingly. “Can I just pop in to have a quick peek?”
Shara gave Percy a considering look, and then she shrugged. “I suppose. If you’re quick.”
Giving Shara a grateful nod, Percy turned the handle and went into the classroom.
Everything looked much as it had earlier this morning. The only difference was that the window next to Mrs Delancey’s desk had been pushed wide open.
Percy crept over to it, and cautiously peered out. Several floors below was a roof, and Percy could see the headmistress and two policemen standing near the body. One of the policemen was on his phone, probably calling in the troops.
Knowing it would be just her luck for Headmistress Glory to look up and see her, Percy quickly backed away from the window.
Her gaze lingered on the window sill, wondering what she had expected to see. A misty black cloud was what. That was what had alerted her that something was wrong during the beauty pageant. She had seen unexpected misty black clouds hovering around places where they did not belong, and they had given her an ominous feeling.
Clouds of doom, as she called them, had only started appearing to her since her car crash two weeks ago. Right around the time that her memories of being Demonling in her former life had come back to her. But even Nan had been skeptical when Percy had told her about the clouds of doom.
It had been a whole week since Percy had last seen one, and even she herself had been beginning to doubt whether they had ever been there.
Maybe they really had been caused by head trauma from the accident, which had been Nan’s theory.
Even so, Percy crouched to take a look under the desk, hoping to find Mrs Delancey’s handbag there.
A large plum handbag was indeed there, and so was something else. A black cat carrier was under the desk, and inside it was a tiny grey kitten. It was scrawny and miserable looking, and mewled very quietly when it saw Percy. The tiny thing looked far too young to have been removed from its mother.
Percy froze when she saw it, because a dark black mist was hanging all around the kitten. The cloud of doom.
The poor kitten. Was it dying? Was that why the cloud of doom was all around it?
The little thing lifted its head, still watching Percy. Then it crawled over limply to the door of the carrier. It couldn’t crawl out because the door was shut, making it look like it was stuck inside a prison.
Shara had followed Percy into the classroom.
“Is it the kitten?” she asked. “The policeman said it looks sick and probably needs to be put down. Mrs Delancey must have been off her head bringing that to school instead of taking it to the vet.”
“Put it down?” said Percy. “You mean kill it?”
Shara nodded. “That’s what they said.”
“The hell they will,” said Percy.
As if it knew what was being discussed, the kitten scratched the door and mewled weakly at Percy, as if it was begging her to let it out. To please not let it die. And it was such a tiny trembling thing.
Percy opened the door and tentatively offered her hand to the little kitten. She half expected it might be wet with poison or something, but the kitten was fluffy and dry as it climbed feebly onto her hand, shivering and seeming grateful for the warmth. Percy lifted it to her chest and cuddled it.
“I’m taking it with me,” she said. “You can just tell them that it escaped or something. Climbed out of that window.”
Shara nodded. “If you like,” she said half-heartedly.
Percy felt immensely sorry for her. Shara looked like she had as little energy right now as the poor kitten.
“Look, Shara, is there anything I can do to help about your brother?” she asked.
Shara shook her head. “Thanks for asking though.”
“Just stay positive,” said Percy, hating how shallow her words sounded. “That’s what my nanny used to say all the time. And sometimes it even helped. Your brother is going to get better. I know he will.”
Shara looked at her a doubtfully. “Yeah, I hope so,” she said.
But Percy had stopped paying attention. Her breath had hitched in her throat. The kitten was not the only thing with a cloud of doom around it. Now that she had moved a little away from the window and was no longer blocking the light, she could see a pale black mist hanging all over Mrs Delancey’s handbag.
With a curse, she placed the kitten carefully into the pocket of her blazer, and knelt to pull the handbag out from under the desk.
“What are you doing?” Shara sounded a little alarmed now.
“Just checking for something,” mumbled Percy, unzipping the bag and taking a look inside.
It was very large and full of many things — notebooks, stationary, make-up, hairbrushes — all in a jumble. Percy held the opening wide apart to let the light in, and the focal point of the misty cloud of doom became clear. It was a flattish bottle of dark brown glass, tucked into a side pocket.
Percy took the bottle out carefully, handling it with a tissue, and stared at it. The cloud of doom hovering all around it was so faint, that she felt sure that whatever was in it couldn’t be fatal. Was this what Mrs Delancey had fed the kitten? Or had someone else fed it to the kitten? Had someone fed it to Mrs Delancey too and put this bottle into her bag to make it look like Mrs Delancey had done it to herself?
Percy had good reason to worry about potions that did unusual things to people. She had encountered one recently. Had someone fed this one to Mrs Delancey to make it easier for them to push her out of the window?
She turned the bottle over, inspecting it from all sides.
“What are you looking for?” said Shara curiously, who couldn’t see past Percy as she crouched over the bag.
“Nothing,” said Percy. She didn’t know Shara well and certainly had no intention of sharing her thoughts with the girl.
Annoyingly, the bottle had no label and no etchings. No mark of where it had come from or what it contained. And Percy did not particularly want to open it up and sniff it.
Shara bent over Percy’s shoulder and caught sight of the bottle. “Ooh, potion do you think? Can’t be. Mrs Delancey is a Humble.”
So were the police who were investigating the case. Humble police who would not be able to recognize magic if it hit them in the face.
One thing was for certain. This bottle could not stay here. And if its contents were what had made the kitten sick, then Percy had better find out soon what it was.
Then Percy had an even worse thought. Why had Mrs Delancey given Lucifer those macaroons? And had she put this potion into them?
Percy hurriedly slid the bottle into her blazer pocket, the one that did not have the kitten in it.
“You can’t take that,” said Shara. “The police will want to have a look at it.”
“You really want the Humble police taking a look at that bottle?” said Percy. “They might not see magic, but it can still affect them. And anyway, you said they think she jumped by herself.”
Shara nodded. “There was a witness. A girl was waiting outside the class at lunchtime to speak to Mrs Delancey. The blinds on the door were down so she didn’t actually see in, but she did say that she heard a funny noise and when she opened the door, Mrs Delancey was gone.”
“And there was no one else in the room?” said Percy.
“Why would anyone else be in the room?” Shara’s eyebrows shot up.
“You don’t think… No. It wasn’t. You’ve just got the creeps because of the murder at the beauty pageant.”
Percy was taking another quick peek through the window. Outside, there was a wide ledge not far beneath the window that ran all along the side of the wall. A person could have climbed out onto it and made an escape that way.
Percy nodded, to reassure Shara she did not think it was a murder.
But something wasn’t adding up about all this. It was the potion. Mrs Delancey, a Humble, should not have had it. Percy’s mind would not be able to rest until she found out what it was. For all she knew, it might just turn out to be cough syrup.
She zipped up Mrs Delancey’s bag and put it away.
“Look, Nan’s mum is a witch,” she said to Shara, “so I’m going to ask her to check the stuff inside the bottle just to make sure it’s nothing dangerous.”
“Oh,” said Shara, her expression clearing. “I suppose that’s okay.”
Clearly Shara trusted Nan and Mrs Gooding.
She followed Percy out of the class and shut the door firmly behind them both. And only just in time too. They heard the sounds of Headmistress Glory and the police officers coming back up the stairs.
Percy dashed into an empty classroom to hide until the headmistress and the police officers had gone into Mrs Delancey’s room. She saw Shara waving the all-clear at her through the glass in the door, so she scooted out of the classroom, crouched as she went past Mrs Delancey’s door, and hurried back down the stairs.
There was no fooling Headmistress Glory. If the headmistress got a whiff something was wrong with what had happened to Mrs Delancey, she’d think of Lucifer immediately too.
The crowd of students waiting at the bottom of the stairs was eager for Percy to tell them what was going on, but all she said was, “You’ll soon find out. And you’d better get out of here if you don’t want the headmistress to find you.”
Headmistress Glory was already well known for dispensing harsh punishments.
Complaining, they dispersed.
The first thing Percy did was run to the library to find Lucifer, but she arrived to find the library door locked. With a groan, Percy slumped outside the door, hoping he would be back. She had to wait for Nan’s lesson to finish anyway.
If Lucifer had locked up after himself, it meant he must be okay, she reasoned. He couldn’t be laid passed out on his office floor after munching those macaroons. He was probably out on the town already having a right laugh. There was no need for her to worry about him.
But she would have felt better if she’d been able to speak to him.
She was going to have to get him a phone. She couldn’t believe she hadn’t thought of this already.
By the time Nan arrived, Lucifer had not returned. Percy explained what had happened with Mrs Delancey to a dismayed Nan, and showed her the bottle.
“Do you think your mum could find out what it is?” she asked anxiously, and was immensely relieved when Nan nodded.
“Careful!” said Percy, handing it over with the tissue. “It could be dangerous.”
For some reason she did not want to mention the cloud of doom to Nan. Maybe because last time she had spoken of it, it had immediately made Nan skeptical about anything she’d said after that.
“Relax, I’ll be careful,” said Nan. “And I’ll warn mum too. But seriously, it is probably nothing. I mean, Mrs Delancey is a Humble, right? And she seemed so…” Nan hesitated, clearly not wanting to speak ill of the dead. “She didn’t seem the sort to be dabbling in potions, did she? If she was, she’d have got herself a Perk-Me-Up potion so she wasn’t feeling so miserable all the time.”
This did not make Percy feel better, because if Mrs Delancey wasn’t the sort to dabble in potions, then why did she have it? And had someone else put it in her bag?
4. Lucifer & The Kitten
The following morning Percy rushed to get to school and found Nan was waiting impatiently for her outside of the gates.
Percy was tired. She had barely got any sleep all night.
Partly because she’d been worrying about what might be happening to Lucifer at that very moment if the macaroons had been poisoned or spiked with a potion.
But mainly because the kitten’s frantic mewling had woken her up every time she had managed to drop off to sleep, as if it was afraid to be on its own. Plus she had needed to wake up all the time anyway, needing to drip feed it milk out of a dropper bottle. Jeeves had refused to help with this task. The sick kitten had only managed to take a few drops at a time, and had needed to be fed every hour. It wasn’t looking much better this morning either.
Percy had brought it to school with her, safely tucked into her blazer pocket, where it was shivering under the warmth of her reassuring hand.
She had arrived early, eager to find Lucifer, but was waylaid by Nan, who had been pacing outside of the school gates. When she laid eyes on Percy, she ran over to her.
“That potion was a weird one,” Nan whispered. “Mum said she thought it was a love potion at first because it had all the ingredients of one, but she looked closer because there was something wrong with it. Turns out it was a fake. Not a real love potion, not a potion at all. That’s good news, right?”
It felt like a load had dropped off Percy’s shoulders. Just a love potion! One that didn’t even work.
“And it’s not poison either?” she asked.
“Not as far as mum could tell, and she’s pretty good at this kind of stuff. She did say that she hoped Mrs Delancey hadn’t given too much of the stuff to anyone though. It seems to be mildly toxic. Might give them a nasty upset stomach.”
“Hmmm,” said Percy thoughtfully.
Nan raised her brows. “Hmmm what?”
“It’s just… why would Mrs Delancey have that potion even if it was a fake?”
“Why do you care? Whatever she needed it for clearly did not work. And it is too late to help the poor woman now.”
“I guess I just got this crazy idea into my head that maybe the whole thing is not what it looks like. That maybe someone made her jump.”
Nan’s eyes went wide. “Why would you think that?” she demanded.
“Er… because I saw one of those clouds of doom hanging over the potion,” admitted Percy.
“Cloud of doom!” hissed Nan. “I can’t believe you left that part out!”
“You never believed me last time,” said Percy defensively.
“That was different. And it turned out you were right in the end, didn’t it?”
“I guess when I saw that cloud I got worried it was Lucy’s bad karma making stuff go wrong again. That was what Headmistress Glory said would happen at school now he is here. And yet she won’t fire him. She wants him where she can keep her eyes on him.”
Lucifer had told Percy that the headmistress had some sort of supernatural hold over him to force him to work at the school.
“Hmmm…” said Nan.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” said Percy, mildly offended at the skeptical look on Nan’s face.
“Maybe it was his bad karma that made it happen.”
“He didn’t make her jump!” protested Percy.
“Not directly maybe.”
“Good,” said Percy. “Or we’ll be blaming him for every drink that spills in the dining hall. But since you also think Mrs Delancey’s death seems suspicious, we should—”
“No, I do not!” said Nan. “I think it is exactly what it looks like. And Headmistress Glory is no fool. She would know if something was off.”
“Well I do think something is off,” said Percy stubbornly. “I’ll be glad if I’m wrong, but I don’t think I am.”
“Let’s hope you are,” said Nan briskly. “But you should still have a word with him to make sure he’s not getting too excited by a death at the school. It’s just the sort of thing that sent him on a downward spiral last time, remember?”
“I plan to,” said Percy.
Percy had to r
un to get to Lucifer’s office and arrived just as the first bell rang. She was going to be late. English Literature was up first, and mild mannered Mrs Delancey was no longer there to not mind if Percy turned up late. Percy hoped the replacement teacher would not be a dragon.
Percy popped her head around the door of the library office and was most relieved to see Lucifer there. He was lounging in his armchair, snoring lightly. She hurried in, and poked him.
“What?” he gasped, waking up with a start.
He looked rumpled, his clothing very much the worse for wear. It was the same stuff he had been wearing yesterday.
“Ruthless Glory is going to be fuming if she sees you like that,” said Percy despairingly. “Couldn’t you at least have put on something different?”
Lucifer yawned widely, and stretched as languorously as a cat.
“Why would she see me? She never comes to visit. Can’t stand the sight of me, I expect. And I like it that way.”
Percy rolled her eyes. Her parents bickering in Hell in her previous life had been bad enough, frequently driving her up the wall. She had no desire to get pulled into their fights now, so she ignored what he had said.
“Glad to see you looking fairly alive. Did those macaroons yesterday… er, make you feel funny or anything?”
“I feel dandy as candy.”
“I think the expression is fine and dandy,” she said.
“Mine is better,” he insisted.
“Good,” she said, and dumped the kitten into his lap. Ignoring his look of alarm, she explained what she needed, finishing with, “She needs to be fed every hour with that dropper bottle. Don’t you dare forget. She’d better be healthier when I come to pick her up after school!”
Percy was sure that the cloud of doom hanging over the kitten seemed a little fainter this morning, and she hoped she was not imagining it.
“But… but I don’t want to!” Lucifer complained. He was eyeing the kitten much the same way a mortal might eye a hellhound.
“I’ll be able to tell if you haven’t looked after her properly,” Percy warned.