“No,” Jensen replied.
“I did,” Eleanor said. “Matthew told me all about it, bragging as usual. It’s no big deal, though, no one’s even sure if the ritual works.”
Once everyone had formed a circle, the senior students walked from group to group, placing a small Halloween pumpkin and a potion vial in front of every freshman.
I felt my hands getting sweaty, and I hoped Eiran and Jensen didn’t notice how nervous I was.
Everyone else seemed pretty relax about this whole thing, as if trying to connect to a wizard who passed away centuries ago wasn’t insanely creepy.
“It’s time,” Professor Thorne said once all the students had received their objects.
A low hum sounded throughout the room, an annoying noise that strained my ears.
“Magnus Thorne,” Professor Thorne said while raising his hands in the air. “On this first day of Halloween, I, your direct descendant eighteen generations apart, call upon your help.”
He paused, likely for dramatic effect, and then looked up at the ceiling, as if he expected a phantom would burst through the roof any second.
Jensen squeezed my hand reassuringly.
As my best friend, he could probably tell just by the look on my face that my heart was nearly jumping out of my chest.
“The veil between worlds is thinning,” Professor Throne continued in his booming voice. “Reach through the veil, Magnus, and grant us some of your magic. We have recreated the potion you made back in your youth, in honor of you and your legacy. Imbrue our potions with your magic. Come to us, Magnus Thorne!”
I knew there was nothing to be afraid about. Even if some spirit could cross the veil, there were a hundred-or-so people in this room, including teachers. I wasn’t alone, and it’s not as if the teachers would condone this if it wasn’t safe. Glancing around the room, most of the students, as far as I could see in the dim light, seemed happy or enthralled, with only a few looking slightly frightened.
But despite knowing objectively that there was nothing to be afraid about, an ice-cold finger ran down my spine, and my breath got stuck in my throat.
“Come to us, Magnus Thorne!” Professor Thorne yelled again, reaching up to the sky.
The room remained cloaked in silence, with all the students waiting in anticipation for something to happen.
Meanwhile, the cold at my back grew sharper, more frigid, as if the Ice Queen from my favorite fairytale was standing behind me. I had to resist the urge to turn around and struggled to keep focused on Professor Thorne.
“The veil…” Someone whispered from behind me.
I froze up, becoming as rigid as a statue. My eyes shot wide, and my mouth dropped open.
Just when I was starting to think I had imagined the voice, it spoke again.
“I can almost reach you…”
I swallowed hard, fear overwhelming me. Turning my head a little to try to glance over my shoulder, I couldn’t make out anything behind me. I was too afraid to disrupt the circle, but at the same time, I wanted nothing more than to bolt out of here.
“Do you hear anything?” I asked Jensen.
“No,” he whispered back. “What do you mean?”
A fingertip poked me in the back, sending a sharp, stinging sensation right through me. Immediately, I felt cold to the bone, as if someone had stolen all the warm§th from my body.
“Someone is standing behind me!” I told Jensen.
“There’s no one there.” Jensen looked at the empty space behind me, his frown growing deeper. “Liv, what’s going on?”
Just as I was about to answer, a thunderous boom resonated through the room.
Professor Thorne spoke again, a look of triumph on his face. “It’s done! Hopefully, Magnus managed to pierce through the veil and grant us his magic. Please lift your vials and bow your heads, thanking Magnus for providing us with this magic we can use today. Then, you can pour the contents of your vial over the pumpkin placed in front of you.”
My lips were as dry as the Savannah, and I was shivering from the cold.
Both Jensen and Eiran let go of my hands, and as soon as they did, I wrapped my arms around myself.
“What’s wrong?” Jensen asked, turning toward me. “Liv, talk to me.”
“Grab your potions, freshmen,” Matthew said.
I hadn’t even noticed he was standing just a few meters away from us, glancing warily at our little group.
“The power of Magnus Thorne will only last for so long,” the prefect added.
“I’m okay,” I told Jensen, turning toward the potion. Despite my teeth chattering, I didn’t want Jensen to look at me like that, full of worry. I didn’t want to draw attention to myself—I was probably overreacting, and the voice I heard was just a figment of my imagination.
Or maybe it was the voice of Magnus Thorne, reaching out from beyond the grave…
Although it had sounded like a woman’s voice to me, although I could be wrong.
Jensen reluctantly let go of me, bend his knees, and took his potion before throwing the contents of the vial all over the pumpkin lying in front of him.
I took a deep breath, trying to calm down, and then I picked up the vial in front of me.
Immediately, an unearthly cold shot right through me, draining whatever warmth remained.
With my one hand, I held the vial, and with the other, I picked up the small pumpkin and lifted it in front of my face. Strangely enough, the movements didn’t feel like my own, as if someone else was using my limbs and making me move, but I had nothing to do with it.
“Mortis,” my lips whispered, although it wasn’t me doing the talking.
The contents of the vial seemed to boil for a few seconds, but too short for me to make out if it had really happened or if I had imagined it.
Then, I poured the contents of the vial over the pumpkin, my lips curling into a smile, but again, I wasn’t the one doing anything. Someone else was.
Panic flooded my thoughts while the pumpkin jumped out of my hands, landing on the floor several meters in front of me.
A sharp pain exploded in my stomach, like being hit with a baseball bat, and I doubled over, gasping for air.
Suddenly, I felt like myself again. The puppet master who had been pulling my strings seconds ago, who had made me move without wanting to, who had made me whisper that word, Mortis, had vanished.
“Liv!” Jensen put a hand on my back, supporting me. “Are you all right?”
Still clutching my stomach, I nodded at him, too shocked to speak.
Jensen’s own pumpkin bounced three times and then remained motionless.
Eiran’s pumpkin met the same fate, but mine…
Two meters away from us, in between our circle and the circle next to us, my pumpkin was bouncing from one side to another violently. An arm sprouted from the left side of the pumpkin’s body, followed swiftly by another arm on his right.
“The pumpkin!” I pointed at it, urging Jensen to look at what was happening.
From next to me, Eiran said, “What in the Goddess’ name is happening?”
I wished I had answers for him, but I didn’t.
In the few seconds it took for us to acknowledge the pumpkin’s erratic behavior, it had grown two legs, and was now walking around like a strange mix of horror and comedy: a living Pumpkin Man.
The pumpkin’s head burst open, revealing two rows of pumpkin teeth, resembling those carved Halloween pumpkins, except this one was very much alive. Two dark pits appeared where its eyes should be, and a maniacal laugh erupted from the once-lifeless creature.
I wanted to run, grab Jensen and pull him with me, but I was too shocked at the monstrosity appearing in front of me.
In seconds, the pumpkin seemed to have grown an inch, and then another, and yet another.
Somehow, by whispering that word to the vial, whoever was possessing me, by lack of a better term, had strengthened the potion to the point that not only did it make the pumpkin come to
life, but it had also turned it into a monster.
“What is going on?” Professor Thorne stormed toward us, the black cape he was wearing over his suit flowing behind him. He stared at the Pumpkin Man as if he couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
“Who did this?” Headmistress Wynona asked, appearing next to our circle.
“It must’ve been caused by one of the potions,” Jensen said with a pointed look at me.
I gazed back at him, wondering why he said nothing about my weird behavior, and then realizing he didn’t want to get me into trouble. If anyone knew I had willingly—even if I hadn’t really done it willingly, but to everyone else it would appear so—cursed the pumpkin to become a living and growing Pumpkin Man, I might get in trouble. Or worse, get expelled.
“The potions shouldn’t be this powerful,” Professor Thorne said while he moved in front of us protectively. “At most, they make the pumpkin bounce around for a few seconds.”
“Nothing should be this powerful,” the headmistress stated, also moving in a protective stance. “Not anymore.”
The Pumpkin Man smashed at the surrounding students, his long, twig-like arms growing to sneak around the waist of one of the freshmen girls.
She screamed as the twigs crushed against her waist and the Pumpkin Man lifted her up.
What have I done?
Wynona stretched her hands in front of her and sent a beam of dark-green energy toward the Pumpkin Man. The energy shot toward the pumpkin’s head, but he slapped it away with his other arm.
Another arm bust through the pumpkin’s body. He was sprouting limbs like a Hydra sprouted heads.
The teachers all blasted energy at the Pumpkin Man, bursts in various colors from Wynona’s dark-green to a midnight-blue from Professor Thorne, and a pink beam of light from a blue-haired female professor standing at the other end of the room.
Yellow, red, none of it mattered, the more they bolted spells and energy at the monster, the more arms it sprouted and the more students it latched on to.
Screams filled the entire room, and people rushed to the exit, trying to escape the mayhem.
Wynona shouted, “Evacuate! All students, get out of here!”
The blue-haired teacher pushed the door of the common room open and cried out, “Over here!”
The seniors flanked the freshmen and sophomores as they assisted the teachers in evacuating people from the room.
By now, the Pumpkin Man had snatched five students into its arms.
“Let’s go.” Jensen pushed against me, trying to get me to move toward the exit, but I refused to.
Eleanor moved behind us, fear resonating in her voice as she tugged at my arm. “We have to get out of here.”
“Eleanor!” The voice belonged to Matthew, who was rushing toward us, panic written all over his features.
It was only when seeing the fear on his face that I realized what the Pumpkin Man was doing. With most of the students disappearing through the exit doors and teachers blasting beams of energy at the monstrosity from all sides, somehow the Pumpkin Man had managed to block our direct path to the exit.
Matthew ran to the left, trying to move past the Pumpkin Man without getting caught up in the branches that kept on growing from the pumpkin’s body, while Eleanor screamed for him to get out of here.
I had to hand it to Matthew. Even though he was ten times more arrogant than he should be, he was still brave enough to try to save his sister.
The Pumpkin Man slammed a gigantic branch down onto the floor, sending us tumbling toward the ground, all the while cackling like a maniac.
The headmistress fell on one knee, sweat dripping from her forehead.
The combined blasts of energy from all the teachers seemed to have slowed the monster down a little, but still not enough…
“Get out of here,” I told Jensen, putting a hand on his arm. “Stay to the sides. I’ll distract that pumpkin.”
“What?” Jensen’s expression was pure horror. “No way. I’m not leaving you behind, Liv.”
“You have to. He’s closing in on us! Look around you; there’s no one left but us, and the students he picked up.”
“She’s right,” Eiran said. “That pumpkin is targeting us. Or well, some of us.” He shot me a meaningful look. Since he was standing right next to me when that ghost, or spirit, or whatever it was, seemed to possess me and made me curse the vial, he must have realized I was involved in all this, but so far he hadn’t ratted me out.
Maybe he planned to as soon as all this chaos was over.
If we survived.
The Pumpkin Man tossed a student to the floor, throwing her away like dirty garbage, and reached for the headmistress, its laugh piercing through the entire room.
Before I could stop myself or think about what I was doing, I moved in front of the headmistress, and shot a beam of my own energy at the monster.
It hit the pumpkin straight in the face, sending a chunk of his head flying to the other end of the room.
“Get away!” Professor Thorne yelled while he roughly grabbed my arm and tried to yank me behind the teachers, probably in an effort to protect me.
“Alastair!” Wynona shouted while pointing at the pumpkin. “It’s working. Her energy actually seemed to damage that thing!”
Professor Thorne’s frown deepened while he stared me up and down. Without further comments, he dropped my arm, and gestured for me to continue.
I shot another energy beam at the monster, this time hitting him in one of his arms. The branch snapped off, and the student locked up in the monster’s grip fell to the floor and then crawled away until the blue-haired teacher, whose name I didn’t catch yet, moved in front of the student to protect him.
“Keep on going!” Wynona shouted.
Matthew, desperately trying to get to Eleanor, also shot a blast of energy at the monster, and Eleanor, Jensen and Eiran all did the same.
Different colors hit the Pumpkin Man from all sides, but only my attacks seemed to have any effect on him.
Blasting off the Pumpkin Man part by part, until he was nothing but a squirming pumpkin head lying on the floor, I finally fell on my knees, exhausted.
My arms trembled from effort, and I felt like I could sleep for months on end. Taking deep breaths, I tried to find my strength back, but even when I tried to get back up, all I did was tumble back to the floor.
“You did it, girl,” Wynona said while she put an arm on my back. “You defeated that monster.”
“Is it… over?” I asked, seeing nothing but stars.
“Are you okay?” Jensen appeared next to me, but I couldn’t make out more than a faint shape. If I hadn’t recognized his voice, I wouldn’t even know it was him.
“That was very brave,” Wynona said. “Foolish, but brave. Luckily your attacks at least had an effect on that monster, otherwise we would all be doomed.”
Slowly, my vision returned, and I saw Jensen on his knees next to me, looking more concerned than I had ever seen him look before.
Eleanor and Matthew stood to the side, and Matthew held his sister at arm’s length, probably inspecting if she was all right.
To my left stood Eiran, still with that curious look on his face. I wondered how, while everyone else had been panicking, he had stayed calm and undisturbed.
Did he have something to do with what happened? Was he involved somehow?
I wouldn’t put it past him, but I also immediately felt guilty for even thinking that. No one would willingly put others in danger like this, would they? Besides, Eiran knew something had happened to me, and he hadn’t spilled the beans on that yet, so maybe I should give him some credit as well. Maybe he was just good in crisis situations.
Or maybe he was involved.
“Jensen!” A voice ripped through the room, followed by a flurry of movement. “I came over here as soon as I heard something was up.”
From my hunched-over position, I looked up at Flynn, Jensen’s older brother, as he pulled Jens
en into a hug. “Youall right?”
“Yes, I’m fine.” Jensen gently pushed Flynn away. “It’s Liv I’m concerned about.”
Flynn blinked and turned his attention to me.
I looked away, not wanting to meet his gaze. For one, I probably looked like crap, and secondly, after that awkward summer where I had fallen head-over-heels with Flynn and tried everything I could to get him to even notice me, I had been relieved when he left for All Hallows Academy. In fact, the only downside of going here myself, was the prospect of facing Flynn again. And now I did, but in the most horrible circumstances imaginable. Even in my worst nightmares, our next encounter had been less awkward than it was now.
“May I ask concerning your whereabouts, Mr. Blackwood?” Professor Throne asked, addressing Flynn. “Since you just came barging in, I don’t assume you were present at our welcoming party, and one can only wonder why.”
Flynn turned pale at Thorne’s question, but still kept his gaze on me for a few more seconds, before finally turning toward the professor.
“I…” He paused, looking for an excuse. “I was still getting ready.”
“You missed the entire ceremony because you were still getting ready?” Thorne shot Flynn a mocking glare. “Somehow, I have trouble believing that, Mr. Blackwood.”
“I hope we can assume that you’re not behind this mess, Flynn?” Headmistress Wynona asked. “The Goddess knows you’ve pulled enough stunts already to get expelled three times over.”
Flynn held up his hands in surrender. “It wasn’t me, Headmistress, I can assure you.”
“Then I suppose you were messing around with an impressionable young woman again,” Professor Thorne said. “After all, Mr. Blackwood, it seems that when you’re not causing havoc, that is just about the only other thing you’re good at. One would assume that eventually, you would begin to realize the importance of your studies.”
Flynn turned red, but I didn’t know if it was from embarrassment or from anger. “I hardly suppose my studies should be the topic now, Professor.”
“You’re right.” Wynona strode toward the pumpkin which, after a few more twitches, had now finally returned to its lifeless form. “We have to figure out what happened.”
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