Nightschool chapter 6

The Hunters walked up to one of the gray stone walls of the old, seemingly abandoned church, Teresa leading the way.

Cassidy and Ten held Terrance between them. Teresa had Noh draped over her shoulder, and Jaq was carrying J the same way.

Teresa walked up to a sealed-over doorway and fumbled for a dagger. She cut across her right palm, not letting Noh fall, and slid her bleeding hand across the stone.

"Passage," she said.

The blocks of stone scraped and fell away. A figure wearing all white, an opaque white veil covering their head, holding an oil lamp, stepped out from the shadow.

"Welcome, blood of Eden. Granting you passage." The figure looked at the vampire lingering on the fringes of the group. "But not to this one."

"She still has a reflection," Cassidy explained. "Is Mona around today?"

The figure was silent for a moment. "Go. I will look after her."

"Thank you, taker," Teresa said.

"Wh–what…" the vampire asked.

"It's alright," Ten said. Cassidy slipped Terrance's arm from around her. "This is a friend. Go with her, she'll tell you what you need to know." The four conscious Hunters started through the passage.

"Good luck," Ten said over her shoulder. "Stay away from bad places."

The passage re-sealed behind them. The vampire blinked, confused.

The taker took the veil off, revealing a careworn face framed by messy, short brown hair.

"Hi there," the taker said, smiling. "I am Mona. What's your name?"

The vampire blinked again, trying to understand.

"Oh, you are new," Mona said. "Still not used to the quiet being so loud, huh?"

She put her arm around the girl and lead her off. "It's alright, we'll fix you up."

***

The four of them walked through the tent-cluttered, expansive church, looking around at the other injured Hunters.

Teresa looked over and saw a boy with a black creature clinging to his shoulder.

"Argh!! I'm telling you, damn thing came of nowhere!!" the boy insisted, flinching in pain.

"Hold still," the taker behind him said, pouring something on the creature that made a hissing sound when it hit.

"Yeah, Taka, that's what you always say," the girl standing next to him said, laughing and playing with one of her two short braids.

Cassidy looked over and saw a short-haired girl sitting down, covering her bleeding eyes.

"She triggered a spelltrap," the ponytailed woman standing behind her said, her arms folded over the strap that tied a sword to her back. "Pretty old by the looks of it."

"Well-crafted one, too," the taker standing in front of the girl said. "She'll be blind for several days, I'm afraid."

"We need to find an empty one," Cassidy said.

"Looking," Teresa muttered, glancing around.

She lifted a tarp and looked into the tent to find a scruffy-haired man sitting by one of the six beds, staring down at a boy's body, the face covered by a white sheet.

He looked up at her, his eyes glazed over.

She stayed, looking at him for a moment, sympathy clouding her eyes.

"Can I help you?" a taker behind her asked.

She snapped out of it and looked back.

"Hey, Rese, over here," Cassidy said, waving her over.

A moment later, Terrance and Noh were laying on two of the cots, and Jaq was setting J on a third.

"What's wrong with them?" Teresa asked the taker that stood between her and Cassidy.

The taker walked over to Terrance, studied him for a moment, and turned back to them.

"I do not recognize this condition. Who was the attacker?"

"We… don't know," Cassidy admitted, looking away.

"Can't you do something?!" Ten cried.

The taker turned to her. "There is nothing I can take here. No spells, no injuries. They are feeling no pain." The taker turned to look at Noh. "They are not feeling anything, in fact. Hey are not dead… but they are not alive, either. They–" The taker turned around.

Daemon walked in.

"Teacher!" Teresa said. "How–?"

Marina peeked out from behind him.

Teresa rushed over to her. "Mar!! Are you back?"

Marina nodded.

Daemon looked at the three unconscious Hunters, then turned back to the two he'd left in charge.

"Explain."

***

Alex shuffled through the pile of photographs on the table.

"No, no, no…" she muttered. "She's gone from all of them…"

"Thank you for holding," the mirror behind her said.

"Yes?!" Alex cried, whipping around.

"I am sorry, but this person is not on any of our connection lists."

"That's impossible!" Alex exclaimed. "I talked to her just an hour ago! Are you calling the name right? Sarah, Sarah Treveney."

"That's what you said the last three times, yes, and I triple-checked. This person does not exist. Good night."

The mirror blinked off.

"What is this?" Alex muttered. She brushed her bangs back. "I just talked to her."

She sorted back through the pictures, then realized her best bet.

She looked away, frowning.

"The school."

She took her jacket off of its hook, put it on, grabbed her bag, and stepped through the portal, her Astral following.

***

Daemon, Teresa, Cassidy, and Marina walked back through the graveyard to where they'd found J, Noh, and Terrance. Daemon looked at the set of footsteps that marked the path of the attacker.

"Whose decision was it to retreat instead of Hunt?" he asked.

"Mine, sir," Cassidy confessed after a moment.

"Teresa?" Daemon asked.

"I wanted to Hunt," she said.

Daemon was silent a moment. "Cassidy, excellent call. Teresa?"

"Y-yes?" she asked, gaze moving from Cassidy to the teacher.

"Send a double," he said.

She raised an eyebrow, but complied.

She took out a dagger, cut off a small piece of hair, a couple of inches long, and blew it off of her hand.

The piece of hair slowly formed a copy of Teresa.

The double looked back. Teresa gesture for it to walk forward.

It took a few steps until its foot landed next to one of the footprints, which glowed black with a symbol that looked almost like an eight, white lines like trip wires appearing above it.

Black roots erupted out of the ground, piercing through the double's body.

Teresa hunched over in pain. Cassidy stared at the double.

Its body hissed and fell to the ground, blinking back into a piece of dark hair.

Teresa gasped, clutching her abdomen.

Daemon set a hand on her shoulder. "Steady. Deep breaths."

"Laying spelltraps is illegal now!!" Teresa managed.

Daemon moved his hand back to his side. "Yes. For all that's worth to the night."

"Dammit…" Teresa muttered.

"Are you okay?" Cassidy asked, moving to put a hand on her back.

"I'm FINE!!" she snapped, swatting his hand away.

He moved back, surprised. His glasses clouded over, making his expression unreadable.

He turned away.

Teresa looked at him, regretful. She smiled a bit, sadly.

"See anything?" Daemon asked Marina.

She looked away, eyes gazing over. "Yes."

She saw a figure shrouded in white. It turned toward her, revealing a young, feminine face frame by short white hair, a smile the only feature.

"It's her," Marina whispered. "She… s-she took… time from them. As a warning to us."

"How much?" Daemon asked.

"I can't… I don't know." She thought deeply, frowning, the bags under her eyes growing deeper. "Hours. Days…? Maybe their whole lives."

Cassidy and Teresa stared, alarmed.

"Right," Daemon said, flexing his fingers. "That's definitely something we'll be wanting back."

***

Alex slipped through the other side of the portal and entered the darkened school hallway.

"The lights aren't on?" she thought out loud.

She looked around and started walking, her Astral floating beside her.

"School should still be in session, it's barely midnight…" she muttered. A pool of black slid behind her on the floor, reaching out toward her.

"Hello?" She stopped walking. "Is this the right place?" She looked around. "Can't even see anything…"

She held out her hand. "Light."

A ball of flame appeared, floating above her hand, illuminating the oily black substance surrounding her, reaching up toward her.

"What?" Alex asked, staring at it.

It wrapped around them.

Alex screamed, stuck in place by the web.

"Well, well, well," a figure walking toward them said, eyes glowing white. The figure grinned, revealing sharp teeth.

"Who have we here?"

Nightschool chapter 5

"Want to see you, yes!" Sarah found the words she was desperately searching for, blushing lightly. "I did, I did say that." She stuffed the paperback back into the drawer. "The yearbook, right."

"Do you really think you can talk Madame Chen into it?" Ronee asked. "She's turned us down cold both times before."

"I have a cunning plan," Sarah declared, grinning. "Her main problem with the yearbook–besides money concerns–is that vampires don't photograph, right? At all. So they'd feel excluded from the photo portions of the book."

"I'd be up to my neck in disgruntled sires and parents!" Madame Chen had said.

Ronee nodded. "Yes, that's the reason she gave me. What's your solution?"

Sarah summoned a folded sheet of paper, looking proud of herself. She unfolded it to reveal a very well-drawn picture of Nicholas, leather jacket and all, leaning back casually, arms across his chest. "Drawn portraits. The art club volunteered their best artists for this. I already talked to them."

Ronee took it, the other two looking over her shoulder. "This…"

The red-haired girl took it from her.

"Heeey, is that Nicholas?!" the blue-haired teen asked, chuckling.

"Ha-ha, it totally is!" the redheaded Weirn said. "The attitude is dead on. He's cutting school tonight."

"And if they don't like the drawings?" Ronee asked the keeper.

"They have the option of providing their own!" she answered, smiling.

Ronee thought a moment. "Clubs, working together, vampires getting socially involved, for once–this is clever on so many levels. There is no way she will say no."

She took the paper back from the other Weirn and placed it on Sarah's desk. "Miss Treveney."

Sarah looked up at her.

"You are new, so you may not know this. At the student level… I run this school." She turned away, looking at the keeper over her shoulder. "Get us the yearbook… and you'll never have to worry about anything from the students here."

Sarah blinked.

Ronee put a hand on the doorknob, the other two behind her. "We'll be in touch."

Sarah stared, then thought a moment.

"Ronee!" she called out the door a moment later, looking at the trio a few yards away. "I-if I get you the yearbook, can you do something about Mr. Roi, too?"

Ronee looked back at her for a moment.

"Mr. Roi does not obey any known laws of our universe," she said, turning back around.

"Awww…" Sarah muttered. "Dangit."

"It's true…" the redhead said, smiling.

"He looks hot doing it, too," the blue-haired student said, smiling, too, and blushing slightly.

A shorter, fair-haired student bumped into the blue-haired teen's shoulder, books clutched by arms wearing a pair of long, black leather gloves that matched the student's small, bat-like wings and baggy black pants.

"Hey, watch it," the blue-haired teen said.

The shorter student whispered something and slipped past them, eyes completely concealed by shoulder length, wavy hair. The student walked past Sarah's office, glanced back, saw they were out of sight, walked back over to it, and looked through the window.

Sarah mumbled to herself, rummaging through her purse.

"Aha!" she said, pulling out a compact. She flipped it open.

"Open," she said.

The mirror was taken over by white swirls that parted to reveal a dark-skinned woman with chin-length, platinum blonde hair, solid red eyes, short black horns and claw-like hands.

"Operator," she said.

"Um, hello!" Sarah said. "How are you? I would like to place a call."

"Name and location?" the operator asked.

"New York City, Queens, line crossing 234-Delta Hellgate area."

"And the name?"

"Oh, sorry! Alex, Alexius Treveney."

"Opening a line, please hold." The operator held a small strand of light on one claw and slid it to another of the hundreds of mirrors floating around her.

Sarah's compact blinked, and Alex's face appeared.

"Hello?!" Alex asked, surprised.

"Hey, hon!" Sarah said brightly. "Just checking in to see how you're doing!"

"Oh, fine, fine," Alex said, a big, fake, desperate smile on her face. "Doing great!"

She was distracted by a loud CRASH.

She turned around. "Hey, stop that!!" she yelled at the Astral scratching the wall behind her.

"Is-is everything alright?" Sarah asked.

Alex whipped back toward the mirror on the kitchen table. "Yes! Everything's perfectly fi–"

"Aaaalex?" Sarah insisted, eyebrows raised, amused.

"I-it's nothing!"

Alex looked at the papers being flung at her.

The Astral flitted around the room, tossing books on the ground, scratching at the walls, flinging papers up in the air, and messing up her hair.

"Well, maybe something," Alex said miserably. "Like, a little something."

"Alex, did you overfeed her again?!" Sarah asked.

"I didn't mean to!" Alex insisted, trying to pry her Astral from around her neck. "I made a new cookie batch and she liked them so much, I…"

"Oh, Alex…" Sarah said, smiling warmly at her younger sister through the mirror, face held in her hand. "You act so tough, but you're such a softie, I swear."

"Y-yes, softie, that's me. Er…" Alex said, watching the Astral try to braid her hair.

"Well, no worries," Sarah said. "I think we still have some Snakol."

"We do?!" Alex said, perking up.

"Yeah, on top of the shelf to your right, I think? Just give her a couple of spoons, she'll be alright. Oh, I think someone's at the door. Gotta go! See you in the morning."

"See ya!" Alex said, getting up and walking over to the shelf.

The mirror blinked off.

Alex held her hand up and a corked glass vial, half-full of black, oily-looking liquid flew into her hand.

She looked down at the paper tied to the lip of the vial by a piece of twine.

"Snakol*
Ingredients:
 dried newt eyeballs
 beetle juice
 vegetables
 snake oil
 really foul-tasting mushroom

(*may contain peanuts)"

Alex stuck her tongue out, disgusted. She turned to the Astral, grinning desperately. "Mmmmm, delicious!"

The Astral started and dashed off.

"Hey, come back here!" Alex yelled.

She chased the speedy spirit around the room.

***

Sarah opened the door to her office. "Oh, hello!" she said to the small, fair-haired student standing outside.

The student looked up, startled, hair still not letting the bat-winged teen's eyes show.

"Are you lost?" Sarah asked. "Do you need something?"

The student pointed to the left, looking down again, and whispered something. The gloved arm quickly returned to clutch the pile of books to the student's gray, short-sleeved hoodie.

"In the west wing…?" Sarah asked. "Let's check it out."

A few minutes later, the pair was walking down a flight of darkened stairs, the way only illuminated by the small flame floating above Sarah's hand.

They stopped in front of a doorway opened in the middle of the floor of the dark hallway. Sarah checked the map in her other hand.

"Oh, this hallway isn't even in use tonight…" the keeper said. "This definitely shouldn't be here." She looked over her shoulder at the young-looking student. "Wait here, I'll check it out and be right back, okay?"

The student nodded.

"Hello?" Sarah called down the portal, the light now floating behind her. "Is there someone here?" She started down the stairway, the light staying just above ground. "You have to keep you presentations to the east wing tonight, please!" Her head disappeared down the stairway. "Hellooooo!"

The door to the portal creaked, shut, and sealed into the hallway floor.

"It's done."

The student turned slowly and walked away, leaving the hallway seemingly abandoned but for the fizzling light floating above where Sarah had disappeared.

***

"I am sorry, she is in a committee meeting right now," the secretary in the main office said to the mirror in front of her, one dark-skinned, claw-like hand holding a small notebook, the other a pen. "Would you like to leave a message?"

"Agreed, then?" one of the dozen of mirrors floating around Madame Chen's desk asked.

"No objection here," the night principal said, taking a sip of coffee.

"Good with me, too. Anything else on the agenda?" another mirror asked.

"I think that's it, actually," another said.

"Oh, finally," a fourth sighed, relieved.

"Haven't had lunch yet…" the second said. "Oh, Sue…"

Madame Chen looked up from the pen scribbling on a floating notepad.

"Did you ever find a night keeper replacement?" the mirror finished.

Madame Chen smiled, eyes closed, looking proud of herself. "Yes, we did! She's new, but she's a gem."

"Oh? What's the name?"

"It's…" Madame Chen started. Her eyes opened. She frowned, looking away.

"Uh, we…" she said, "we don't have a new night keeper. Why did I say we…?"

"Well, I have a recommendation. I'll send it over."

"Er, yes, thank you," Madame Chen said, eyes glazing over in thought.

"This meeting is adjourned. Back into the breach, guys!"

The mirrors blinked off and floated back to Madame Chen's wall, the night principal staring blankly.

She poked her head out of her office. "Shelly, do we have a night keeper?" she asked the secretary.

Shelly shrugged, one fleshy hand running through her fizzy, almost-white hair. "Not since you fired the last one a month ago. Really need one, though.

"Huh," Madame Chen muttered, slipping back into her office. "I was so sure. Hm."

She summoned a stack of paper and flipped through it. "Well, there is definitely a contract. It must have a name."

She found the signature, the name Sarah Treveney fading before her eyes.

"It's blank?" she asked.

The vague image of a smiling, short-haired young woman popped into her head, evaporating even as she thought about it.

She blinked. "Why was I looking at this again?"

She thought for a brief moment.

"Oh, that's right, we need a new night keeper."

***

Ronee eased the door of Sarah's office open and poked her head in. She took in the abandoned desk, the only things still on being Sarah's purse and the computer.

She stared a moment, then looked away, frowning.

She flicked the light off, closing the door behind her as she slipped back out.

***

Alex glared at the Astral now dozing on the couch.

"No more cookies for you, ever, ever, ever…" she grumbled, cleaning up the mess the spirit had left in her wake.

"Phew," she said, wiping the sweat off her forehead. She looked around the now-pristine room, smiling to herself.

"Probably too clean," she muttered, still smiling. "Sarah will just mess it up again."

The picture one of the lower bookshelves tipped over, landing facedown.

Alex turned around, surprised. She walked over and lifted it up, studying the picture of her and Sarah, the older sister's arm around her, laughing, the younger looking insecure.

A sudden wind blew through the apartment, blowing sheets of papers around the girl, who looked around nervously until she heard a crack.

She looked back at the photo, the glass now cracked between the two of them.

The older girl faded, then disappeared, leaving only Alex in the picture.

The girl stared, alarmed.

Sarah?!

Nightschool chapter 4

Alex slammed the door behind her, gasping for breath. Her knees buckled under her and she slid down against the door, her Astral hovering protectively over her.

"W-what… happened?" Alex said to herself, her hand on her head. "How did I get home…?"

***

Teresa, Cassidy, Ten, and Jaq ran toward the three other Hunters.

Teresa knelt down beside the girl and put her hand on her neck.

"Not dead," she said after a moment.

"But just barely breathing," Cassidy said, kneeling next to the African American boy.

Jaq lifted J's head off the ground and shook him, more than gently. Ten stood over them and stared, gaping slightly, eyes wide. The vampire girl stood behind her, uncomprehending.

"Whatever happened, happened fast," Cassidy continued. "No struggle, or we'd've felt it."

He and Teresa both looked at the footprints that lead out.

"Let's go," she said, starting to get up.

"Wait!"

She turned toward Cassidy.

"We can't," he said. "Not right now." He looked back at Jaq, who was propping J up, stone-faced. "We have no idea what's wrong with them. Need to get them to St. Luc's, get help." He looked at the vampire, who still looked like she didn't understand the situation. "And look after her. She still has a chance."

"Trail's gonna get cold," Teresa insisted.

"I know. But also…" he started. "J's a lightweight, okay. But whatever that thing was, it took out Terrance." He looked at the African American boy. "And Noh." He looked at the girl. "Without even a fight. This is out of our league. We have to tell the old man."

***

"I can't remember," Alex said to herself. "Four Hunters, I saw them. Did they see me…?" She shook her head. "No, no. I was hidden. And far. And they were busy with the vampire missing link and his girlfriends. I grabbed my bag, ran, and…" She paused. "And then what?"

She searched her mind.

Three fuzzy silhouettes, two of them saying something she couldn't make out…

Shhh.

She sighed. "Ugh. Nothing. I must've been so freaked, I blanked out all the way here."

Her Astral tugged on her sleeve.

"What?"

It held a tissue above its head and pointed at it.

Alex raised an eyebrow. "I don't get it. Trying out a new look or something?"

The Astral dropped the tissue and folded its arms across its make-shift chest.

"Or maybe not, heh." Alex shrugged and smiled a bit. "Well, all's well that ends well, right? Narrowly escaping danger, kinda exciting, huh?"

The Astral looked at her meaningfully.

"I can't tell Sarah, are you kidding?!" Alex exclaimed. "She'll ground me for life!!" She paused, then looked at it, eyes narrowed. "How many cookies to keep you quiet?"

It thought a moment, then held up five fingers.

"Deal." Alex got up and started walking, unzipping her jacket. "I might as well make a new batch. Could use some too… Can't believe I almost ran into Hunters face-to-face, urgh."

The Astral tugged on her sleeve. She turned to it.

It held up eight fingers.

Alex's mouth dropped open.

"What?!! You are not getting eight cookies, you'll get sick!! I'd rather deal with Sarah being mad!"

***

Sarah sneezed hard.

"Are you feeling under the weather, Miss Keeper?" the handsome man standing in front of her asked, one hand holding a lacy handkerchief out to her, the other brushing a strand of wavy blond hair out of his eyes.

She took the handkerchief and sniffled, an eyebrow raised. "No, I am allergic to vampires hitting on me."

"Now, now," he said, putting an arm around her waist and smiling wide enough to reveal a pair of fangs. "All I asked was if I could interest you in dinner."

"Oh, dinner, sure!" Sarah said, amused. "The one involving my neck, right? All you vampire want the same thing."

"Maybe I am different," he said, looking at her neck.

"My face is up here, Mr. Kristepher," Sarah said, pointing up.

"Ahhh, the beautiful face of an angel, the promise of redemption for this tortured soul," he continued, not looking up.

"You are still talking to my neck, Lars," Sarah said, smiling. "Also, soul, what…?"

"Mr. Kristepher!!"

The two of them turned, surprised.

"Don't you have a class to teach?!!" the night principal continued.

He did.

He sighed. "Alas, cruel fate cuts short our tryst…"

Sarah giggled.

"Until we meet again, sweet angel of the night," he said, disappearing in a whirlwind of light and shadow.

"See you at lunch, heartthrob," Sarah said, smiling.

The principal walked closer to the keeper, suddenly dwarfed by the keeper's not-quite-impressive-but-slightly-more-than-average height. "Are you two… friends?" she asked suspiciously.

"Yes, ma'am, Madame Chen!" Sarah said, smiling, the other woman's tone not getting through to her. "We went to college together."

"But not dating?" Madam Chen asked, taking a sip out of her ever-present coffee cup.

"Oh no, no!" Sarah said, all smiles. "Workplace dating = can of worms, I know. And he's not really my type."

"Oh good…" the older, if noticeably shorter woman said. "I'd hate to fire you, you've been ever so wonderful here."

Sarah pulled back, eyes wide and moderately terrified.

"So, I must agree with Mrs. Hatcher's note wholeheartedly!" Madame Chen said, taking another sip. "You've done impressive work in your short time here."

Raise? Sarah thought hopefully.

"I can't give you a raise," the older woman said quickly, as if sensing her thoughts.

Sarah blinked, surprised at the precision.

"I can, however, see about the club budgets!" Madame Chen said, smiling.

She pulled out a sheet of paper. "Exactly how many have you, erm, started, let's see… amin/mehnga?"

"Anime manga," Sarah corrected brightly.

"I see, I see," the principal said. "A writer's group, a Midnight News Daily–oh, a student newsletter, that should be fun!"

She stopped suddenly, seeing the next one on the list.

She turned toward Sarah. "A "Vampires Suck" club…?"

"That one wasn't my idea, it was Lars!!" the keeper said quickly. "I-it's to help promote a positive counter to the negative stereotype of vampires in our society."

"Oh, Lars is the last person who should be doing that," Madame Chen said, chuckling and walking again. Sarah sighed with relief. "I will need to have a talk with that man."

"Oh! Do you mind have one with Mr. Roi, as well…?" Sarah asked.

"Uh-oh, what's he done now?" Madame Chen asked, turning back toward her.

"H-his… His class presentations–" Sarah started.

She was interrupted by a loud RUMBLE.

The cement underneath their feet cracked.

"He didn't," Madame Chen said, dropping her mug, eyes wide.

"Ah!!" Sarah cried, clutching her head. "Oh no, not the floors! The daytime keeper is going to kill me!!"

Madame Chen's hands clenched into fists. "He's opening dimensional portals indoors!! Again!!" She put one hand on her hip, the other pointing an accusing finger nowhere in particular. She looked so enraged, Sarah could've sworn she was literally encased in blue flame. "THAT MAN NEEDS A REMINDER THAT THIS IS A RENTED PROPERTY AND NOT HIS PERSONAL LAB THAT HE CAN BLOW UP TO SMITHEREENS WHENEVER HE LIKES!!"

"Yes, yes!" Sarah agreed, smiling and nodding vigorously.

"You go right ahead and tell him I said that," Madame Chen said, setting a hand on the keeper's shoulder. "I have a committee meeting now."

The principal dashed off. "And be nice!" she yelled back. "We're so lucky he's teaching here!"

"Don't make me go alone…" Sarah whimpered, a hand still reaching out in the direction the other woman had disappeared in.

She frowned, suddenly overcome with wrath toward the teacher.

She started stomping toward his classroom. "Okay," she said to herself. "I can do this. I will tell him off once and for all!! Who does he think he is?!"

She took a short stop by the bathroom mirror.

"Does my hair look okay?" she thought out loud, blushing slightly and trying to fix it.

She could see the echoes of light and shadow coming from the room in question halfway down the hall. She stepped in against her instinct to make a run for it, making sure to step over the holes in the floor and looked at the silhouettes of students, anything else concealed by the light emanating from above, the only other source of darkness being the symbols swirling in the brightness.

She walked up to an African American girl scribbling in a notepad, her shoulder-length, thin braids swirling in the wind.

"Hi, Ronee," the keeper said.

The girl looked back, amber eyes seeming to glow in the white light.

"Hello, Miss T," she said. "Any news on the yearbook?"

"I am this close to convincing Madame Chen," Sarah said, holding her fingers a centimeter apart. "Come see me after your class, okay?" She glanced around. "Is, um. Where's Mr. Roi?"

Ronee pointed up.

Sarah looked and saw a giant hole in the ceiling, a figure floating above it in the middle of the whirlwind.

"Should I be seeing the sky in here?!" Sarah exclaimed.

"Not usually, no," Ronee said, smiling.

"Mr. Roi!!!" Sarah yelled up. "Mr. Roi, please stop this presentation immediately!!! Mr. Roi, do you hear me??!! Mr. R…"

The man in the center of the storm looked down and smiled slightly, seeing the keeper standing in the midst of the swirl of light and symbols.

"Ah," he said, making her blush deeply. "Hello, Miss Keeper. I am in the middle of a lesson. Is this urgent?"

She frowned, one eye twitching.

"You are wrecking the school!!!" she yelled up at him, her hands balling into fists. "Disrupting other classes!! Are you trying to make me lose my job?"

He stared down at the angrily flailing woman, not able to make out a word she was saying.

"One moment, Miss Treveney, your voice is not carrying in all of this." He snapped his fingers.

"Restore."

The classroom returned to its previous pristine condition.

"Aw crap, I didn't get that last pattern," one of the students grumbled to another. "Do you have it?"

Mr. Roi brushed off his hands, then ran one through his unkempt, short black hair. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"U-uh. Umm," Sarah started, blushing again. "Do you… I have… A message! From Madame Chen! …A rented property… Not personal lab…"

The smile melted off of his face.

"Smithereens…"

He turned away.

"Please?" Sarah finished meekly.

Mr. Roi flexed his hand, not turning back to her. "One: if Madame Chen has something to say to me, I encourage personal contact in the future. Two: These premises are inadequate for my lectures. As long as I am to suffer these ill teaching accommodations… the ill teaching accommodations are to suffer me. Good night."

Sarah found herself being swept outside, the door slamming in her face.

She fumed.

She leaned in toward the door, pulled her bottom eyelid down, and stuck her tongue out.

The door opened.

"Oh, one other thing, Miss Treve…"

She froze, wide-eyed. Mr. Roi stared at her.

"You know, it really can get stuck that way," he said a moment later.

She dashed off. "Please stop wrecking the school, thank yooooouuuuu!!!!" she yelled over her shoulder.

He watched her a moment, then smiled a bit.

***

Several more small disasters later, Sarah dragged herself into her office.

"Ugh, all the crazy is loose tonight," she muttered.

She walked over to her desk, patting the ash off her shoulders, having literally put out fires.

She plopped down in her chair, shuffled through a stack of papers on her desk, put them down, and enjoyed a brief moment of peace.

She thought a moment, smiled mischievously, and pulled a paperback out of the desk drawer.

"Hello," a voice said from behind her as soon as she picked it up.

She jumped and whipped around.

Ronee was standing a few feet into the room, an Astral behind her. The wisps it was made up of were tightly wound, almost curly, and its mask of a face resembled a gray-toned traditional Mardi Gras mask around the arched-up, slightly rectangular eye sockets, with a thin line under it forming the basic shape of a jaw.

On her right was a red-haired girl, only the outline of her eyes visible under her hair, another Astral wound around her outstretched arm. Its face was a simple circle with a slight point on the bottom. A good portion of the sides of the circle were white and the center, which was left in the shape of a funnel, gray, with a thin black counter-clockwise spiral hanging from the top.

On Ronee's left was a vaguely masculine figure with short blue hair, black swirls tattooed around the neck, and solid red eyes like Mrs. Murrey's.

"You said you wanted to see me?" Ronee finished.

"How did you get in here?!" Sarah said, surprised. "So quietly…"