The Curse in the Candlelight

by Sophie Cleverly

“So we need a different approach. What if … we got closer to her?” I winced a little at the thought. “What if we get to know our enemy a little better?”

  Ivy closed the book and looked over at me. “Are you suggesting that we join her? That … doesn’t seem like a good idea. Won’t that just lead us into trouble?”

  “Ah, but it won’t!” I jumped up. “You’ve seen how the teachers treat her. They don’t pay the slightest bit of attention to what she gets up to.”

  “Hmm.” Ivy tapped the book against her chin. “Perhaps you’re right.”

  “I am,” I said, pacing up and down between our beds. “We can just observe, without getting too involved if she does anything awful. But we need to –” I searched for the right word – “align ourselves with her. And not with Muriel. We need to gain her trust, just enough of it that she doesn’t mind us hanging around.”

  Ivy was silent for a bit. I thought for a moment she was just going to tell me to forget about it, that it was all too ridiculous. But instead, the words that came out of her mouth were, “Okay. We’ll try.”

  I wrung my hands. “Let’s get started today. We’ll tell Ariadne when she comes back. This is the best plan ever!”

  “That is the worst plan ever!” Ariadne’s jaw hung open.

  She had just returned from the nurse’s office and was standing in the middle of the room. I had just filled her in on my genius idea.

  “It’s foolproof!” I insisted.

  “But Ebony’s no fool, Scarlet! She’ll see right through you!” Ariadne waved her hands. “And she’s dangerous. They finally let me in to see Muriel, and gosh, she’s in a bad way. She looks terrible, poor thing. I talked to her a little, but she just seemed so confused and upset. And Ebony did that to her!”

  “Well, we think she did,” said Ivy gently. “That’s the point. We need to find out more.”

  “But we shouldn’t join her,” Ariadne said. Her voice quavered with desperation. “We should just … spy on her or something!”

  “That’s the thing.” I couldn’t quite meet her eye. I knew she wouldn’t like this part, but it had become clear to me while we were waiting for her. “It would just be us. You can’t join in on this.”

  “But why?” Ariadne’s face filled up with a mixture of puzzlement and hurt. And it felt awful, even as I was talking myself into it.

  “It’s too suspicious,” I explained. “You’re Muriel’s roommate! They know you like her. It has to be just us two.”

  “Oh. Right.” Ariadne stared at the carpet. “I suppose I can see what you mean.”

  “That’s not so bad, is it?” I stood up beside her. “I mean, you think it’s a terrible plan and here’s me telling you that you don’t have to get involved!”

  She gave me a weak smile in response. “I suppose that’s true. But what if you get hurt? What if you lose your memories too?”

  I glanced back at Ivy, who was starting to look worried. I had to convince both of them that this plan would work. “We’ll be together, we can look out for each other. She won’t hurt us.” I gulped, suddenly picturing the wound on Muriel’s head. No, don’t think about that. “And besides, she’ll just think we’ve come to join her scary gang!

  “Or at least that we’re interested,” Ivy said. “Have you noticed how spellbound all the girls around her look? If we act like that, she’ll definitely fall for it.”

  “Don’t fret, Ariadne,” I said. “Ebony’s no Miss Fox. We’re going to get to the bottom of this before she even knows what’s going on.”

  “All right,” Ariadne sighed. “I suppose I shall go back to my room, then. Perhaps I can do Muriel’s prep work for her. Just promise me you’ll be safe!”

  I gave her a hug. “It’ll be easy,” I told her. “You’ll see.”

  Our first task was to track Ebony down, which wasn’t easy on a Saturday. Many people trekked to the nearby village, to buy sweets or post letters. But it was a chilly day and you couldn’t see very far in front of your face in the fog. Besides, Ebony didn’t seem the type.

  “Unless she’s gone to buy frogs’ legs and bat wings,” I joked, as Ivy jabbed me in the ribs.

  We eventually spotted her and her gang, hidden in a far corner of the library. As soon as I saw them, I grabbed Ivy and pulled her back round the bookcase so that we were out of their view.

  “Okay,” I said. “We need to look starstruck, remember?”

  “She’s going to see right through this,” Ivy hissed, her brow furrowed with worry.

  “She is if you don’t believe in it! Now come on – summon your inner actress.” I had always rather fancied being on the stage. I was even convinced Ivy and I would make it on to the silver screen one day, as famous ballet-dancing twins. But we had no chance if we couldn’t even fool a few teenage girls.

  We rounded the corner again. Ebony was sitting in the centre of the group and their heads were all bent together, their hair hanging forward and mixing. Blonde, black, brown, red. I wandered nearer, hands in my pockets, as if I were just looking for a book.

  They must have heard me because one of them suddenly looked up and jumped to her feet. I recognised the frizzy brown hair.

  “Sit down, Clarissa,” Ebony said, sounding a little weary. I could see her now. She had a book spread open at her feet, filled with strange drawings.

  Clarissa? I knew the girl’s name was Agatha, but this wasn’t the time to mention it.

  “What are you reading there?” I asked, gesturing at the strange book. “Looks interesting.”

  “Ah,” said Ebony. Her stormy eyes stared up at me and I had the uncomfortable feeling that she was looking right into my soul. “Are you interested in forbidden knowledge now, Scarlet?”

  I shrugged. Couldn’t look too enthusiastic.

  Ivy knelt down beside the group. “Can you read all that?” The book was full of odd symbols and a language I couldn’t understand.

  From the look on Ebony’s face, her desire to tell us to go away was conflicting with her desire to show off. “Oh yes,” she said. Her wry smile was back. “It’s easy, if you know how. But that doesn’t mean you should.”

  “Why not?” I asked, kneeling down beside them. I nudged my way into a space beside Clarissa/Agatha.

  “It’s dark magic,” one of the girls hissed, so quietly that I wasn’t sure if I’d even really heard it.

  Ebony waved a hand and the group’s eyes followed it the way they did her every movement. “It’s complex,” she started. “Deep. Only those who truly understand the darkness can even comprehend it. These girls have merely stepped up to the edge.”

  “And us?” Ivy asked.

  Ebony went silent for a second as a third former walked past us, only to grab a book and hurry away. “You are on the outside. It isn’t real to you yet. But it will be.”

  “And what about you?” I asked. The metaphor was swirling in my brain. It sounded like nonsense, but it was oddly mesmerising.

  She smiled and slammed the book shut. Clouds of dust puffed outwards from its pages. “I am the darkness,” she said.

  Chapter Twenty

  IVY

  e sat with Ebony and her crowd of admirers for some time. To my surprise, she wasn’t talking about cursing people or turning anyone into frogs, but was instead telling stories of her life back in Scotland. She spoke about living by a lake that she swore contained kelpies – grey ponies with manes that dripped with green water, who would entice you to ride on their backs, before pulling you down into the deep. The girls were hanging on her every word. It was almost a kind of magic in itself.

  She spoke about how they celebrated All Hallows’ Eve with carved turnip lanterns grinning fiendishly in the night, going from door to door with painted faces and tattered clothes, listening for spirits in the wind. “It’s my favourite time of year,” she said with a sigh. Her eyes had a faraway glitter to them. She obviously missed Scotland.

  “Perhaps we could bring some of your traditions here,” I suggested. It was
the first time anyone had spoken in a long while, and her eyes snapped over to me in surprise.

  I thought for a moment that she might shout at me, but instead she just said “That’s an idea,” and smiled.

  The dinner bell rang and Scarlet gazed up at the ceiling – her turn to look surprised. I realised she’d been caught up in Ebony’s words as well, and the time had flown.

  My thoughts went to Ariadne. We’d left her for so long. Would she be all right? Would she go to see Muriel again? The sudden guilt rose hotly inside me. At least we could go and find her at dinner.

  We stood up and I shook out my legs, which ached from sitting on the library floor.

  “WHEN SHALL WE MEET AGAIN?” Agatha asked in a shrill voice.

  Ebony gave her a look.

  “Sorry,” Agatha whispered.

  “Soon,” Ebony said finally. “Later. I have more to teach you.”

  Scarlet still seemed a little hypnotised as we walked to dinner. “She has quite a way with words, doesn’t she?” she said.

  I nodded. Some of them were still echoing in my head. I looked out of the tall windows at the fog outside that seemed to be eating the world. I imagined the Rookwood lake, with its grasping skeleton trees, filled with misty horses just waiting to drag you down. I couldn’t help but shudder.

  “So what do you think?” my twin asked after a quick glance over her shoulder. “Do we keep following her around?”

  “I think we have to, if we want to find out more.”

  No one had said a word about Muriel, nor about curses. Whether that was just because we’d been present, I didn’t know.

  “What a strange afternoon,” Scarlet said.

  We found Ariadne standing with Rose in the dinner queue. I was pleased to see that she wasn’t alone.

  “I was just telling Rose about the plan!” she whispered. “Did you find anything out?”

  “Not really,” Scarlet said as she picked up her tray. “We wormed our way in, but she just talked a lot about Scotland.”

  Ariadne wrinkled her nose, looking a little confused while Rose just shrugged.

  “We have to go back tonight,” I said. “She invited us. I think.”

  “Well, be careful,” Ariadne replied. “You never know what she might be up to.”

  That was true, for certain. Ebony was unpredictable.

  “How are you getting on, Rose?”

  Rose smiled. She reached the hatch and held her tray up while one of the dinner ladies ladled out a big helping of stew. “Well, I like the food at least,” she said quietly.

  “Really? This slop?” Scarlet asked. The dinner lady glared at her.

  “It’s better than nothing,” Rose replied. I supposed it was. Rose had lived on asylum food, and then on the scraps that Violet could scrounge for her. Before that … I had no idea. I suddenly felt a little more grateful as I was handed my dinner.

  We walked past Ebony and her group, and for a moment I wondered if we ought to go and sit down with them. Weren’t we trying to convince her that we were as enamoured with her as all the other girls were?

  But I saw the look on Ariadne’s face and immediately realised it was a bad idea.

  She was afraid of Ebony. She was angry too. I knew that because I felt the same way, but I was trying to convince myself to keep going with the plan anyway.

  As we approached our seats, my hand brushed my pocket and I realised there was something in there. That’s odd, I thought. I put my tray down on the table and fished about for whatever it was, pulling out a folded piece of paper. When I opened it, it read:

  TOP SECRET MEETING

  MIDNIGHT

  IN THE ENGLISH CLASSROOM

  I looked back at the group surrounding Ebony. This had to be from one of them, but none of them was looking up or meeting my eye. Still, if it was, it meant we’d been accepted into their circle.

  I tapped Scarlet on the shoulder and held the note in front of her eyes. She blinked at it and then snatched it from me. “We have to go!”

  “What if it’s a trap?” I hissed.

  “Then at least that proves something! We’ll have caught Ebony in the evil act!”

  “What if we get caught?”

  “We never do! Sneaking around at night is our forté, remember?” She winked.

  Scarlet sat down then and I hastily tucked the note away again. She was right. We had to investigate. It was a risk I was willing to take, especially since we’d never been caught out of our rooms at night before. At least, not by teachers.

  Ariadne hadn’t noticed what was going on. She was chatting away to Rose and smiling. It was nice to see her looking happy again. I didn’t want to bring up the note and spoil it.

  That night, Scarlet and I pretended to get ready for bed. We showed Matron our freshly brushed teeth and waved her goodnight as she made sure our lights were out for the third time. We didn’t show her that we were wearing dresses underneath our bedsheets.

  Scarlet had insisted that we had to dress for the occasion, whatever the occasion was, so we were both wearing simple black dresses that were one of the few such things we owned. I supposed she was right – Ebony liked to look the part, so perhaps we should be trying to fit in with her.

  No matter how I tried, though, I couldn’t shake off my guilty feeling about not telling Ariadne what was going on. Especially since she had gone back to her room alone, with Muriel still in the sick bay.

  I had to admit, I was just a tiny bit excited to be going. I’d had a glimpse of how Ebony was entrancing all the younger students and I wanted to know more.

  When midnight struck, we slipped out of our room and into the corridor. We saw a few other girls disappearing down the stairwell ahead of us. I looked at Scarlet and took a deep breath.

  “Are we really doing this?” I whispered.

  She nodded at me and grinned in the moonlight. Scarlet believed more in Ebony’s magic than I did, and whether it frightened her I didn’t know, but she certainly seemed keen to get up close to it.

  We sneaked downstairs and along the darkened hallway until we found the door to the English classroom. I knew some of the classroom doors were locked at night, like those to the science labs where there were dangerous chemicals and strange things in jars. But this one was wide open – I wondered if it was kept open because it didn’t contain anything more valuable or dangerous than pencils and books, or whether Ebony had somehow stolen a key.

  Scarlet and I peered in, and the sight that met our eyes was a strange one. The desks had all been pushed to the side, with the exception of the teacher’s long one, which had been moved to the middle. There was a wide circle of candles round it, burning brightly, dripping wax on to the floor.

  Ebony and most of her followers were standing in a group near the blackboard. I looked up at it and gasped. It was covered in strange diagrams and drawings, similar to those that Ebony had been looking at in the old book. They were all written up in white chalk, a stark contrast to the black surround. I assumed Ebony must have been responsible for those too, but her hands were clean and her dress was immaculately black. So much so that she almost blended into the night.

  When she caught sight of us, she smiled, but said nothing. She was always smiling and it was hard to read – though I had to say, this one seemed triumphant. As if she had been convinced she would draw us into her world and now she had done it.

  I hovered anxiously by the doorway while Scarlet walked towards the group. They were all whispering amongst themselves, but they looked up when she appeared beside them.

  “Welcome,” Ebony said finally.

  Agatha (or was it Clarissa?) was the last to slip in through the door. She pulled it shut behind her and grinned excitedly. “Are we going to do more magic?”

  “Wait and see,” Ebony said. I stepped closer. Her eyes sparkled in the candlelight. “First, we need a volunteer.”

  I grabbed my twin’s hand to stop her raising it. We needed to observe what was going on, not become the v
ictim if this was some sort of trap.

  Several of the other girls raised their hands, while others just looked around, biting their lips.

  Ebony scanned the room before pointing to a smaller girl who I had barely noticed. I realised that it was another of Ariadne’s old roommates – Mary. Mary was shy with bottle-thick glasses and a perpetually frightened expression. She almost faded into the background, but this time, somehow, she had stood out.

  And as I thought that, I realised it had been me who had always faded into the background in the past. I didn’t feel that way any more, though, which surprised me.

  Mary pointed at herself and mouthed Me? Ebony nodded.

  “Are you ready?” Ebony asked.

  “For … for what?” Mary stuttered.

  Ebony walked into the centre of the candles and spread her arms wide. “Are you ready …” she whispered. “… to take a trip to the Other Side?”

  Chapter Twenty-one

  SCARLET

  had to admit it, Ebony had caught me in her spell.

  I was becoming fascinated. After what I had seen her do with the card trick, and the curse in the cemetery … anything seemed possible.

  We watched as Ebony lightly took Mary’s hand and led her into the candlelit circle. “You must lie down first.” Ebony used the same commanding, eerie tone of voice that she’d used when reading lines from Macbeth.

  Mary was shaking a little, but she did as she was told and lay down on the classroom floor.

  Ebony put a finger to her lips and then began to whisper in that strange language. Mary was blinking up at her, wide-eyed, until Ebony reached down and took off her glasses, putting them aside. Now Mary squeezed her eyes tightly shut.

  At this point, I couldn’t guess what was about to happen. I hoped this wasn’t a curse – I didn’t want anything to happen to Mary, the way it had happened to Muriel. If it was, I’d have to stop Ebony. And I didn’t think she’d take kindly to me getting in her way a second time.

  “All of you,” Ebony said, suddenly speaking English again. “Come round, in a circle. Kneel down.”

  With a wary glance at Ivy, I stepped forward and so did the rest of the girls. We knelt all round Mary, the floor cold beneath our knees, backs warm from the heat of the candles.