by Amber Benson
His words made Noh shiver.
“It bestows the last power it has magnified on the next person who possesses it—even those who would use it for evil.”
Noh swallowed hard.
“Yes, my dear, it is you who are gifted with the ability to see and interact with the dead—and the stone only magnified your power,” Karl said gravely. “I was able to view your ghostly friends while I held the stone, and so now I, too, know your secret. You must be very careful with whom you share this information. There are many, like the dastardly Caleb DeMarck, who would steal your gift and use it to further their own means.”
“He was pretty dastardly, wasn’t he?” Noh whispered.
“Yes, he is,” Karl agreed.
“Wait, you just used the present tense,” Noh wondered out loud. No sooner had the words flown from her lips than she realized what this might mean: Caleb DeMarck was still here among them!
“I know what I am about to tell you will seem highly improbable, but it is the truth,” Karl Freund said.
“After all the strange things I’ve seen over the past few days, I’d pretty much believe anything,” Noh said.
This seemed to give Karl Freund more confidence.
“Caleb DeMarck and I share the same body—”
“Wow,” was all Noh could manage.
“Even now he seethes because he is trapped in here with me and cannot steal the Power Magnifier,” Karl Freund added. “For now, I can control him, but not forever. That is why I must go and find one of Professor Druthers’s other assistants—wherever they may be after all these years—so that I might be cured of this strange and unsettling dilemma.”
His story finished, Karl Freund got up and put his fedora back on his head.
“Well, at least we are safe from Mr. DeMarck for now—and I am very pleased that you are feeling better,” he continued. He tipped his hat and moved toward the door. “You gave your poor aunt a horrible scare. I am afraid she will be watching you like a hawk for a long while to come,” he added, his hand on the doorknob.
“Wait!” Noh cried, stopping him. “You never said how you got in the machine in the first place.”
Karl Freund gave her a pleased grin as he stepped away from the door. “A freak accident. We were testing the Matter Re-Former and something went wrong. I was sucked into the machine and remained there, frozen in time, until you rescued me from my prison. Upon my release, my spirit attached itself to the first body it came in contact with: your physics teacher.”
As crazy as the whole thing might sound to someone else, it made perfect sense to Noh.
“But how come no one ever tried to get you back?” Noh asked, concerned.
Karl Freund shook his head sadly. “That I do not know—”
“But how long were you trapped in the machine?” Noh interrupted, trying to get all the facts.
Karl Freund thought about this question for a moment before answering. “The year was 1951… and I was seventeen.”
Noh quickly did the math in her head, the number causing her to cringe inside.
“It was a very long time to be left alone. And I hope, in my travels, to discover why it was so,” Karl Freund said as he picked up his briefcase again and returned to the door. He stopped in the doorway and turned back around, pulling a folder from the briefcase and handing it to Noh.
“Until we meet again, Noleen Maypother.”
Then he tipped his hat to Noh one final time, opened the door, and was gone.
“He’s like a different person,” her aunt Sarah said as she came back into the room, marveling at the change in her coworker. “I bet you didn’t know that Mr. DeMarck and I went to school together—”
Noh almost toppled her tray onto the floor.
“You went to New Newbridge?” she said, staring at her aunt.
“Of course I did,” her aunt said. “On scholarship, mind you.”
“No one ever told me that,” Noh said. She couldn’t believe that she hadn’t known her aunt had gone to school here. It was weird, like finding out that your parents weren’t your parents, or something.
“New Newbridge has always had a place in its heart for special children,” her aunt began. “In fact, it seems to call to them, inviting them to learn and explore their talents here.”
“What do you mean by the word ‘special’?” Noh asked curiously.
“I think you know exactly what I mean, Noh. You’re a scholarship student like I was,” her aunt said mysteriously. “That means New Newbridge called you here—and it’s why the evil eye stone found you. Special things are attracted to special people.”
Noh asked her aunt Sarah to explain more, but her aunt shook her head.
“You need to rest now. I’ll be back later to check on you.” That was all her aunt would say. Noh nodded, closing her eyes to show that she wanted to get some rest too. Her aunt gave her a kiss on the forehead and gently shut the door behind her on the way out.
Noh waited until she couldn’t hear her aunt’s footsteps in the hall anymore, and then she opened her eyes and slid open the folder that Karl Freund had given her.
“What’s that?” Trina said, popping up beside the bed, her riding helmet askew on her head. She’d been in the middle of refereeing a chess game between Henry and Thomas when she had remembered that she’d promised to check on Noh.
“Look,” Noh said as she held up the two secret lemon-inked papers covered in spidery equations.
“I wonder how many other secret papers are hidden in the school,” Trina said.
Noh shrugged, her eyes finding the evil eye stone where it was sitting in a place of honor on her dresser top. Just knowing the stone was nearby made her feel stronger and braver… ready to take on as many mysteries as the world saw fit to throw her way. The evil eye stone wasn’t the key to Noh’s ghost sight, it only enhanced it.
“I know another secret place,” Trina offered. “Behind the mirrors in the girls’ bathroom. I bet there’s lots of cool stuff there.”
“Yeah?” Noh said, thinking about her toothbrush that got stuck in the bathroom mirror.
“It’s pretty neat,” Trina said. “I can show you, if you want.”
Noh didn’t have to think twice about her answer.
“Count me in, but first, let’s find the nasty thing that tried to eat me,” she said. “The other students will be coming back to New Newbridge really soon, and we can’t let it hurt anyone else!”
“Deal!” Trina said, excited by the idea of another adventure coming so soon after their first. Without thinking, she held up her pinkie so they could pinkie swear and seal the deal, but it wasn’t until Noh grinned sheepishly at her that Trina remembered her friend was a realie—and realies and ghosts couldn’t touch.
“Deal,” Noh replied instead. And then the two girls—one a ghost and the other living—hunkered down and began to make their plans.