The brown autumn leaves fell outside the classroom door. Class had gone by much slower than usual. The growing breeze brushed away the dust outside, only to usher in more as the air cooled and the clouds rolled in. A stray coffee cup rolled around in response to the wind, dripping the remains of pumpkin spiced liquid. A bell rang, and the small swarm of students rushed out from their confinement, away from the teacher holding them prisoner for the last few hours.
Abigail watched her students leave, pulling out her third cigar today. As she exhaled, the smoke joined in with the wind, swirling and dissipating into nothingness while each next puff of smoke replaced it. For a moment, she could almost feel peace, something she hadn’t felt in a long time.
Then, a girl could be heard yelling out in the distance, swiftly jogging her way towards her; Abigail didn’t have to turn around to figure out who it was.
“You don’t have to yell every time you see me, kiddo,” Abigail said.
Jesse wrapped her arms around her anyways. “Aw, I can’t say hello to my own Mama now?”
Abigail chuckled. “I never said that. Just don’t do this when my students are around, them rats might get the wrong idea ‘bout me.”
The two ended their embrace, catching up on their lives since they last saw each other.
“Things are really cooling down now, ain’t they, Mama?”
“That’s one way to put it,” Abigail replied, puffing out another cloud of smoke. “Just another day to me.”
“I thought you liked the autumn weather.”
Her mother squinted.
“What? Did I say somethin’?” Jesse wondered.
“I ain’t looking at you,” Abi said, “Who’s that behind you?”
Jesse turned around. A small girl in a strange looking outfit stood a few meters away from the family, standing perfectly still. Her silky, black hair was braided halfway down into short, straightened twintails, and long, uneven bangs covered one eye at all times. She donned something reminiscent of a black trench coat fused with a colonial-esque dress, striped black-and-white leggings, and what looked like pilgrim shoes. Her face was completely pale white, and had heavy dark bags under her eyes. She smiled at the two ladies.
“Howdy, there! Didn’t see ya walk by,” Jesse greeted. “What’s yer name?”
The girl smiled.
“Jesse, get over here. We don’t know what this girl wants,” Abigial pulled her closer. “What’s your business here, stranger?”
The girl smiled.
“You gon’ answer me, or what? Got tar stuck in your mouth?” Abigail put her hands on her hips.
The girl smiled.
“Is she a student here?”
“Never seen her in my life.”
“Maybe she’s lost,” Jesse said.
“If she is, she’s better get lost again before she pisses me off,” Abigail took a step forward, shining her badge with a hand over her holster. “You’d best get the wax outta your ears and listen up, girl. I may be a teacher, but if yer fixin’ to trespass on this here property and harass me and my daughter, I’ll demonstrate my executive authority if I have to.”
The girl smiled.
“Wipe that smirk off your face,” Abigail moved in to do just that.
“Mama, no!” Jesse yelped.
Abigail had no time to react before a wispy figure took the place of the girl. Her body morphed and shifted until human form turned to feral animal. By the time Abi could activate her ability, a lion appeared mid-pounce straight at her.
The world slowed around the teacher. The lion stood near-frozen in air. But not for long. Pulling out her revolver from the holster, she fanned three rounds out the barrel, aimed dead straight into the animal’s head.
The bullets hit a stone pillar ahead. The lion was nowhere to be found.
“Rude way to treat a witch, innit?” A soft voice whispered into Abigail’s ear. A pair of soft hands latched onto her shoulder, but she pushed away in time to keep the girl off.
The sheriff whipped around to face her target, continuing her unsettling beaming. But before she could take a second step, her face met the concrete pavement with a loud thud. Confused and frankly embarrassed, she had to look back at what she even tripped on. When she did, she couldn’t begin to believe it was her own daughter she fell over, lying down and staring straight into the sky. How could she not see her there?
“Jesse!” she rushed back to her daughter, vowing to kill the witch the second she saw her again.
“…Mama?”
“It’s me, kid. Mama’s here.”
“You… you were in the sky… I saw you fall…”
“Whatever that bitch made you saw, it ain’t real.”
Jesse quickly rose with Abigail’s help. It wasn’t over yet.
“Where’d the girl go?” Jesse asked.
“That little smiling brat could be anywhere. I can’t imagine she’d fuck off that quickly.”
As she said that, the soft voice could be heard again. “Me friend in the mask is gonna love this, won’t she? If only she could see what I could do wit’ me wand. I’m really throwing you two off your knockers.”
“Hey! There she is!” Jesse pointed, then jumped straight into a thorn bush.
“JESSE!”
Abigail took everything she had to suppress her primal instincts from taking over. Just before Jesse could land on her thorny demise, Abi slowed her senses again, carefully firing two bullets in her daughter’s jacket. Two loud metal clangs were heard as the lead pierced through the clothing, yet no blood was spilled. The impact of the rounds gave just enough knockback to push most of her body away from the bush. Jesse wrangled out the rest herself, obviously dazed and perplexed.
The girl appeared behind them again. Abigail swiveled around and drew her gun, aiming the barrel point-blank at her forehead. Her prey gave no reaction.
“If this were the Frontier I would’ve blasted your goddamn brains out already. You have one last chance to give me your name and business here before I personally see to it that you never see our faces again. Or yours, for that matter.”
The girl gave a cold grin. Finally, she spoke. “Me folks call me Gyssabel. And I’ve already finished my bus’ness here. Cheers.”
Just like that, the girl walked away. Seething, Abigail could take no more of the trespasser, and pulled the trigger again.
Nothing but an empty click.
Pulling out a shot-up canteen from the inside of her jacket, Jesse caught up to her mother, who was dumbfoundedly checking her cylinder. “I reckon that’s the real one right there! I can take care of her!”
“No… there’s no point in that, now,” Abi was sure she had only fired five bullets from the six-shooter, but the gun was completely empty. Her mind must have played tricks on her. “Whoever she is, she don’t belong here. And if she crosses me again, I doubt any other trick in her book will get the better of me.”
“Whaddya think she wanted from us, Mama? Where d’you think she came from?”
“Kid, sometimes there are things in this world that are best left unanswered,” Abigail said, pulling out another cigar. “That girl was a real mystery, but at least we know she’s rotten to the core. That bitch won’t bother us again, and I’ll make damn sure of it.”
“You reckon she’s messed with other kids ‘round here?”
“Like I said, Jesse, we shouldn’t bother ourselves with that girl.”
Jesse thought for a moment. Then, she nodded to herself in confirmation.
“If we don’t get ‘er now, she’ll just do her witchcraft on everyone else ‘til she comes back to us again! I’m goin’ after her!”
“Hey, I told you to-” Abigail began, but Jesse had already taken off. She huffed, then blew another smoke.
Jesse slammed the library door behind her. If she was going to find anyone to help her catch this so-called witch, they’d be in the library. That’s where all the smart kids were, right? All she had to do was find some students who had nothing better to do. She took a look around her. The room reeked of faint traces of wax, parchment, fake sugar and pumpkins. Several pairs of soft city folk loitered the chairs and benches, nose deep in books and new-fangled metal screen boxes. From the distance, she could hear a trio of young boys argue over some key with the librarian. Walking around, she finally came across a pair of promising individuals, a dark-skinned girl with an eyepatch and a much lighter-skinned boy with a rather odd hairstyle. They were both fast asleep on a leather sofa with a mess of papers and books on the table in front of them.
“Howdy, y’all!” she shouted.
The girl was the first to wake with a jump. “Ah! Who- what-” she rolled onto the floor.
The boy then spoke with a groggy voice, yet his eyes were still shut. “I told you I could outsleep anyone. Now pay up, I won the bet.”
“That’s because you sleep way too much already! You only won because of your screwed up sleep schedule!”
The boy awoke, sitting up from the sofa. “Hey, you’re the one who cheated by using the literal God of Sleeping to your advantage.” It was at that moment when a young Shiba Inu arose from a particularly large mound of papers, wagging its tail and rolling over to its back. The girl walked over to pet it.
“Y’all got a minute? I’d like to ask you ‘bout a girl claiming she’s a witch,” Jesse interjected.
The group turned to face the young cowgirl.
“We don’t know any witches, but we know who Joe is,” the boy said.
“I ain’t looking for a Joe, I’m looking for a young girl named Gizzabell, or sumn’ like that, making me see funny things where they ain’t.”
“Joe Mama…” he finished disappointedly.
“Who’s Joe Mama?” The girl teased back.
“Are y’all gonna help me or not? I ain’t got the patience to shoot the hay with folks that waste my time! I’ve gotta witch to hunt!”
“Well, we’d love to help you, but we don’t even know each other’s names yet.”
“Fine. I’m Jesse.” She took the girl’s hand to shake it, rather vigorously and without much warning. “One of y’all may have had a fine lady named Abigail as your teacher. She’s my Mama.”
“Wow, really? Now that I think about it, you look so much like her! I’m Knowledge, and that’s my friend, Lucas.”
“‘Sup?”
The shiba barked. What he meant to say was, You can call me Deg!
“Oh, and that’s Deg apparently,” Lucas pointed to the dog.
“So what’s this about a witch on campus? Sounds exciting,” Knowledge said.
“Right. I wanna put a stop to that lil’ girl and whatever she’s plotting before she terrorizes the whole school. She already got me and my mama.”
“Terrorize? What did she even do to you and Abigail, besides put stuff in your head and leave?” Lucas asked.
“She made new think my Mama was falling to her death, and she almost made me jump into a thorn bush.”
“That’s horrible!” Knowledge said.
“Did this girl have a motive?” Lucas said.
“All I know about her is that she says she’s a witch, and that she said she already finished whatever business she had with us.”
“So, a girl who makes people hallucinate, with a goal to make you guys scared, and under the belief that she’s a witch? You sure she’s not just an Electi?” Knowledge asked.
“Like my mama?”
“I think so. She might not know any better if she thinks her ability is due to witchcraft. What’d you say her name was?”
“Gyssabel,” Lucas answered for her. “She may not be a student here.”
“Then why is she here?” Knowledge said.
Lucas paced the area putting the pieces together, hand on his chin. Deg got off from the table to follow him around, curious to what the boy might be thinking of. After all, he was intrigued about how he could interpret what he said.
“Just one more question. Do you know where she is right now?”
“Afraid not. All she mentioned was going back to some friend with a mask.”
“Mask?” Knowledge and Lucas looked at each other. Of course Carrie was involved. Then, assuming the canon hadn’t changed yet, Lucas said, “Yeah, now it makes sense. I think I know where they are. I should be staying out of this, but we should probably stop them.”
“Really? You’ll help me catch the witch? Hell, I knew I could count on y’all!” Jesse exclaimed. “But just what are ya gonna do with all those papers lying out?”
“Oh, we can leave them. They’re all blank, anyways.”
In a weird way, the abandoned building looked worse than when it began its renovations. Now that the once soon-to-be recreational center had been repurposed to Carrie’s personal haunted house attraction for Halloween, the building gave off an eerie feeling. The wind seemed to howl harder, the clouds seemed to grow darker, and the ground seemed to moan under the group’s feet. Led by Jesse, who was feeling an odd sense of deja vu coming here, they stood at the double door entrance, listening to the walls creak for any signs of life. Much to Knowledge’s disagreement, Lucas insisted they brought Deg along. The dog would apparently be an important asset to their plan, which they admittedly lacked.
“Hey, shut up,” Lucas said.
“None of us were talking,” Knowledge replied.
“No, I mean I think I heard something upstairs.”
“They have to be in there, then.”
Oh, this suspense is so exciting! Deg barked.
“Then what’re we waitin’ for, an invitation? Let’s get this rodeo started!” Jesse prompted.
The four stepped inside, passing through the lobby to the staircase on the opposite side.
Only halfway through the room Knowledge held out both her arms to stop the group. “Wait!” She pointed to a string an inch or two above the ground. It stretched from either wall on their sides.
“A tripwire,” Lucas said. “Must be expecting us.”
“Or it could be part of their attraction,” Knowledge mentioned. “Either way, you can’t trick a trickster.”
Just then, a loud squeal sounded throughout the lobby. After a few puffs of a microphone, a loud voice boomed.
“AH! New attendees! And one returning visitor! I commend you for seeing through the first scare, but there’s more where that came from! Have you come for the scare of your lifetime? Step right upstairs, don’t be shy! Admission fee is only five dollars!”
“We ain’t got time for games! Where’s the damn witch?!” Jesse said.
“Oh. Her. I see…Yes, my subordinate will be working with me from now on! And by the time I have spent my use for her, she will have converted from her Pagan ways to the might of the Great Old Ones in no time!”
“So you’re telling us that all the things you made that girl do was because of you?” Knowledge said.
“Come upstairs to find out… if you dare…” the speakers cracked, and the lobby went dead again.
What an odd mortal, Deg barked. She seems to bring the most unlikely of individuals together.
“I’ll say,” Lucas remarked. “Carrie always had a habit of starting conflict. Or being the root cause of one.”
“I’m tired of waitin’. If that Carrie’s been takin’ that witch under her wing all this time, there ain’t no telling what else she’s up to,” Jesse said, starting up the staircase ahead of her.
The climb up took much longer than the four wanted. Fake slime drenched the concrete stairs, making them almost trip all the way down more than once. Not to mention the cheap cobweb they had to shake through just to even see the next step in front of them. It was so bad for Deg he had to hitch a ride on Knowledge’s shoulder, for it got to the point where he couldn’t walk at all.
Finally, they made it to the second floor. Passing through a hallway or two and opening the door to a large room ahead, they found it decorated with nothing but vintage furniture. At the far end of the dimly-lit wall, a small desk and leather chair could be seen. A surplus of toy plushies and stuffed animals that looked straight from a county fair lay scattered across the floor. Then, the chair swiveled, revealing Carrie rubbing her hand together in a fit of menacing scheming.
“I see you’ve finally arrived,” she said.
“Y’all better explain yourself and turn that witch in to us right now, before I finish what my mama started,” Jesse said.
“Yes, of course… but first! Five dollars for admission!”
“Are you serious right now?” Knowledge said.
“Geez, what a scam. Just take the damn thing,” Lucas threw a crumbled 5-dollar bill. He didn’t tell anyone it came from Knowledge’s wallet. “Now spill.”
Accepting the fee, Carrie began. “This may come as a surprise, as I have been gifted with the wisdom and cunning as the True Gods themselves, but even I have come across many struggles in preparation for my attraction! So the fortnight prior, I recruited a young, high-spirited assistant fresh from the enrollment center, albeit misguided in her beliefs, to gather information on all the students’ fears to report back to me!”
“And why would she agree to help you in the first place?” Lucas inquired.
“Ah, it is simple, Omniscient One,” Carrie pulled out a carved hazel wood stick. “Because I have the one thing she desires most! And, she will earn it back once she proves herself to be of great use to me! As it stands, the Pagan One is not far off from that goal.”
Jesse and Lucas raised an eyebrow. Deg sat in confusion.
“You took her wand?” Knowledge exclaimed. “So you’re been blackmailing a transfer student to do your bidding for two whole weeks, scaring innocent people, just so you can collect fear data for your stupid haunted house?!”
“You dare question my methods?”
“Carrie, you can’t just-”
“Silence, Cyclopean One! Your words are insult to the Great Old Ones!”
“Even for a prankster like me, this is a new low! You’ve really outdone yourself with how crazy you can be!”
“HOW DARE YOU-”
A buzzer sounded, halting the tension. A girl could be heard from Carrie’s handheld radio speaker. “Yo, anyone here? I’m supposed to find some chick with a squid mask!”
“Ugh, one moment,” Carrie held up a finger to the group, pushing the talk button on her microphone. “Yes, Miss Splats. Speaking.”
“Oh, sick! You have an intercom now? You really did this place up, bet ya hook up with a lotta dudes here!”
“What is it, Lustful One? I’m in the midst of a heated argument with my patrons!”
“Oh, yeah! Almost forgot! You know that furry twink, Leaf? He told me to find you for help, Brown and Saki are stuck in a basement like idiots with some monst- WOAH!”
A loud click could be heard, followed by a hiss, a scream, and vigorous spraying from what Splats’s friends upstairs assumed to be her spray can.
“I take it you activated the tripwire?”
“What the fuck, Carrie?! Why did a big ass bat drop down from the ceiling?!”
“Were you frightened, girl?”
“This is why I’m evicting you from my dorm, you bitch!” she whined. Lucas couldn’t help but laugh.
“I’ll take that as a yes. Be right down.” Carrie turned off the microphone, then addressed the group. “Apologies, everyone. I must attend to more pressing matters. My assistant will keep you busy while I’m gone, will she not?”
“Ye can count on me, ma’am.” a familiar soft voice said from behind the group, who turned in surprise to meet the witch.
“You! What’s the meanin’ of-” Jesse faced back to Carrie, but when she did the masked woman was nowhere to be found.
“Man, I hate when that happens,” Lucas said.
“Sorry lads,” Gyssabel beamed, wispy forms and shapes appearing in the group’s eyes, “Didn’t want to do this, I swear, but me wand’s at stake here.”
The room went dark. The series of wisps took the bodies of the stuffed animals around them. Growing and shifting and changing, the plushies turned into creatures they’d never seen before. Some of the creatures’ skins were slimy, green, and wrinkled, and stood hunched over with claws for digits. Other creatures are quadrupedal, bearing yellow boils for skin with platypus beaks for mouths and heads like a kappa’s. Even more creatures turned into more recognizable animals, yet these were just as bad to the group. Some were giant eight-legged arachnids that had already started to climb the walls with their spindly, hairy legs. Some were black mantids that blended into the darkness, ready to prey on their new victims. And some were oversized cockroaches with antennae so long they looked like fishing poles. The room resonated their collective shrieking, groaning, and moaning. The door disappeared, along with Gyssabel.
Jesse retracted into a defensive position, revolver drawn. Knowledge gasped. Lucas quipped to himself. Reading the room, Deg whimpered.
Then, the entire room changed its setting. The vintage walls gave way to an endless expanse of dark, uncharted forest. The ceiling above them faded into a cold, endless night sky, halfway covered in thick foliage from the trees. The wooden splinters on the floor shot up like grass—in fact, they now were. The monsters moved in, gaining ground against the students. Knowledge tried to push back the hallucinations with her telekinesis, to no avail.
BANG! BANG! Jesse fired one shot directly into a yellow quadruped’s deformed head, then fired another round off a tree to ricochet into the back of its neck. All that the bullets did was go right through, the ricochet coming back to graze Jesse’s pant leg, drawing blood. She groaned in pain.
“What do we do?” Knowledge cried. “We can’t defend ourselves like this!”
An arachnid dropped down straight on Knowledge’s head. She screamed, furiously waving her hands around to shake the spider off. Her arm phased through on several occasions.
“The damn witch is gone again!” Jesse kept firing and reloading her gun.
Deg barked and growled at the inanimate stuffed animals. Whatever they were doing to his friends, he was sure they were no good.
“Wait a flipping second!” Lucas exclaimed. “These monsters are still just the stuffed animals, aren’t they? Man, are we stupid. This is all just part of Gyssabel’s ability, she’s making us hallucinate everything.”
“R-really…?” Knowledge stopped screaming.
“Dammit! Fool me twice, shame on me. Alright fellas, I have an idea,” Jesse said, fruitlessly shooting one of the ugly green bipedal creatures grabbing her jacket. “Y’all have one of those red barrels with the nozzle and the fire-stopping powder in it?”
“A fire extinguisher?” Lucas clarified. There wasn’t one in the room; the only usable extinguisher on the floor happened to be in the hallway outside, collecting dust and cobwebs.
“I think I saw one in the hallway outside,” Lucas said.
“But how are we gonna get there? The door is gone! And we’re in the middle of a dark, scary forest!”
“Again, that’s what she wants us to think, Knowledge. Deg, where’s the door?”
The dog sniffed his way around the darkness of the room, tackling and growling at several stuffed animals in his path. The monsters’ images attached to the plushies wavered and dissipated accordingly, but soon returned even bigger and uglier than before. Deg eventually found the door again, yelping and barking to get their attention.
Slipping off her eyepatch for a brief moment to reveal a strange emerald gemstone eye embedded in her socket, Knowledge was the first to spot and fumble her way to the handle, frustratingly finding it locked. Jesse came next and pushed the girl aside. She drew her gun again and lodged a bullet into the mechanism, creaking the invisible door open. The women motioned Lucas to follow them outside.
Backtracking through the hallway they came from was no small feat, either. As soon as they shut the door behind them, the hall seemed to expand another mile outwards. The dull office colors of the wallpaper turned black and white in a mesmerizing spiral pattern the further down they looked. A blaring siren went off around them, disorienting everyone but Deg. The group couldn’t keep their eyes and ears open for long; any more exposure to the nauseating, hypnotic illusions would soon make them hurl.
“Where’s the damn fire stopper?” Jesse yelled through the blaring.
“Agh, this is giving me a headache,” Lucas crashed to the floor. “It should be here. Deg, can you find it for us?”
He and Knowledge opened their eyes for just a split second, but found Deg’s body lying motionless on the floor. The latter screamed again, the former just staring in shock.
“D…Deg?” he tried.
“This charade has gone on for far too long!” Jesse fired one of her last bullets off a wall, bouncing across the hall until it struck what they heard through the sirens as glass. The emergency case had been struck open.
“Knowledge, pull the extinguisher to Jesse!” Lucas said. But all she could do was stare at the unmoving dog, unresponsive to any of her calls, gasping through her sobs.
“What did they do to him…”
“Pull yourself together, woman!” Jesse grabbed the girl by what she assumed to be her fancy poncho and slapped her across the cheek. “We ain’t got time to mourn now, we gotta get out of this damn realm of witchcraft!”
“Ow! But… but-”
“We can deal with your pet later, but now’s the time to use whatever anti-magic ya got to find that damn exting-issher!”
Knowledge sniffed, making her headache worse. “A-alright…” using what focus she had left to sense the hallway telekinetically, she could feel a large cylindrical object just a meter or two away. Not having anymore strength to walk due to the grossly disorienting room, she pushed away the glass with her ability and hefted the extinguisher to the group. The process was nauseating and near painstaking, as she never lifted something this heavy with her power before. She was about to vomit when the invisible extinguisher floated into Jesse’s hands.
“How do I work it?!”
“There’s a pin on the very top, you can’t miss it,” Lucas instructed. “Pull it out and aim the rubber nozzle where you want the extinguishing stuff to go. All you have to do is squeeze the metal handle. Whatever your plan is, it better be good.
“Yeah… how is the fire extinguisher going to help us against Gyssabel’s ability, anyway?” Knowledge wondered, semi-conscious.
“It ain’t. The only way to kill evil is to cut off its source!”
Jesse sprayed the extinguishing agent out from the nozzle, blanketing the surfaces with a coat of white. It helped somewhat with the dizzying walls, but what really got everyone’s attention was the whited-out silhouette of a Shiba Inu, jumping all over the place in the next room down.
“Deg?!” the students turned back to the dog’s body, which was starting to dissipate from everyone’s eyes, losing its corporealness even for a creature such as the demigod.
“The critter must’ve found the witch over there!”
“So Deg isn’t…” Knowledge began.
“Another stupid hallucination,” Lucas deduced, the nausea subsiding. “I guess she noticed Deg wasn’t affected by her power. She blocked herself and the real Deg out of our sight and hearing so we wouldn’t figure her out that quickly.”
“So if Deg can be exposed by this stuff through her hallucinations-”
As if to finish the revelation, Jesse had already started spraying the room ahead, prompting the students to follow. Even though there was no door attached this room and the hallway, it had about the same dimensions as Carrie’s “office” room. The only differences were that this room was full concrete, with no decorations anywhere to be found, aside from a stray graffiti tag depicting a soggy, stab-wounded pumpkin with a top hat, captioned “FUCK PUMPKINS” over it. This was the room the group had entered from the staircase, which was left wide open.
“You don’t think she already escaped, do you?” Knowledge said.
“If she did, I don’t think her ability’s range would be able to cover this,” Lucas indicated the room start to shift again, starting its new illusion from the bottom up. The theme now was a bottomless ocean, and the group was about to go down the deep end.
“Oh, hell naw, I ain’t starting this shit again!” Jesse groaned.
“Where do you think she is?” Knowledge said. “How could she hide anywhere in this empty room?”
Deg stopped his jumping. His eyes locked onto an unassuming steel girder joist on the top of the ceiling and barked incessantly. I found her, everyone! Here she is! He yelped.
“Only in plain sight,” Jesse pointed the nozzle directly up at the girder, emptying the agent directly above. The white gas began to blanket over a small, invisible feminine figure sitting on top, holding out her arms to block the spray from hitting her face. Nevertheless, she started to cough and choke, the new hallucination slowly fading away. Soon enough, everything had turned back to reality. The now-visible witch sat atop the girder, yielding an obviously frustrated grin.
“You- eugh!… how did you- ack!” Gyssabel choked.
“Terrifying as your power may be, it got kinda repetitive at the end,” Lucas said. “Kinda sucks to have your ass handed to you by a bunch of secondary characters, doesn’t it?
“Lucas, that doesn’t even make sense,” Knowledge said. “And speaking of talking sense into people, this had gone way too far, Gyssabel! You don’t have to use your Electi like this for Carrie!”
“Electi…what…”
DONK! As soon as Gyssabel could catch her breath again, she planted face-first all the way down onto the hard wood floor. She was out like a light.
“You didn’t have to throw the fire extinguisher at her, Jesse!” Knowledge pointed out.
“Serves her right for trippin’ Mama.”
Gyssabel awoke to a blinding light. Peering her eyes, she could just barely make out the office-like ceiling paneling above her. She gave herself another moment to collect and assess her situation, then slowly sat up on the bed beneath her. Despite her blurry vision (and splitting headache), she could make out a small collection of humanoid figures in a heated discussion over something about witches. She craned her ears to eavesdrop, having an idea this was about her.
“…-topsy is totally out of the question, Ernst! She’s just a kid!”
“AGH, vhy must you kids always be so squeamish vith standard medical procedure?! I’ve already healed her, so vhat’s ze issue?!”
“Yeah, we just wanna find the good bits.”
“We should’ve just found a regular nurse, instead.”
“Arf! Arf!”
“Will y’all pipe down? I think she’s wakin’ up now.”
“OH! YES, OF COURSE!”
A peculiar mummified man in a white lab coat strode his way toward Gyssabel’s bed, followed by a considerably shorter man with a strangely-symboled hat and blue overcoat. The mummy leaned uncomfortably close into her face, his bright red goggles whirring in and out of focus.
“Are ye the nurse?” Gyss smiled.
“NURSE? No silly, to you I am no mere nurse! In fact, I am ze one and only Doktor Ernst!” he took a deep bow.
“Yo. I’m James,” the blue-coated man said.
“Yes! zat man is my nurse for ze day! He’s usually my lab partner, so to speak, but since my real assistant, Mr. Brown, iz out for errands, Mr. James vill have to do! Though, we must make zis quick, I must return to my dormitory before he comes back vith my library book, haha!”
The witch giggled along with him. He seemed nice, and if it weren’t for the evil craft of science plaguing the poor man’s mind, she might have thought to make friends with him.
“Ernst, take those discs off her forehead. You just can’t probe into someone’s brain to see how her Electi works,” Lucas scolded, frankly just exhausted from the conflict prior. It was only then did Gyss noticed the electrodes suctioned to her head.
“UGH, vhy not?! Can’t you see zis is critical to my studies in brainwave manipulation!” He stuck a couple more electrodes onto her head, more data filling into a sophisticated EEG scanner. “My patient’s brainwave patterns are off ze charts! While you four vere still in ze waiting room, juzt look how much activity she expressed vile still unconscious!”
“Woah. That’s pretty wack,” James said.
“Haha! VVack indeed, my friend!”
“Okay, okay, maybe we should get to the root of the matter here,” Knowledge butted in, placing a hand on the patient’s shoulder. “Gyssabel, right?”
“Aye,” the girl confirmed, her voice as soft as before.
“Listen. I understand you only did what you did in that building because Carried told you to, and I don’t hold that against you. I just want you to know that what she wanted you to do to us and all those people before us isn’t what you use your Electi for.”
“Electi?” the witch’s brows furrowed, still confused but smiling nonetheless. “I wish I knew what you meant. S’ppose this new witch school has a lot to offer, yeah?”
James was about to say something, but then Knowledge interrupted him before he could get a word out. “You bet it does. Only here, everyone calls it Electi. We all have unique abilities nobody else has, and I guess the school thought your, uh, talents, made the cut.”
“Really?”
“Of course! You wouldn’t be here if they thought your powers weren’t as incredible as they are!” Knowledge assured.
“I-I’ve ne’er felt so welcome before…” For the first time, Gyssabel’s smile somehow felt…genuine. Warm.
“That’s what students like us are here for,” Lucas said. “Just try not to hang out with the wrong crowds. Especially crazy women in masks that make people do crazy things for a haunted house attraction.”
Gyss lowered her head, her unbraided hair falling over her eyes. “But… what about me wand…”
“Wand?” James said without warning. “Yo, is she still on this? I thought witchcraft and magic wands don’t ex- oof!”
Knowledge punched James in the gut, then pulled him in to whisper something harshly in his ear.
“I mean, uh, forget that piece of junk, anyways. You’re too good for that old stick. I can make you a better one in no time at all.”
“R-really? A new wand?”
“I am an engineer, last time I checked. I guarantee you’re getting hooked up with the good stuff. Just, uh, don’t follow the squid lady around anymore, capiche?”
Gyssabel didn’t know what to say. All she could do was smile brightly. Deg climbed up to the bed, laying down on top of the witch. He wagged his tail. Jesse stood against the wall near the door, chugging a mug of coffee, just content that the witch wouldn’t bother anyone else any longer.
“Ah! Just one thing!” Ernst held up a finger. “I predict zat project vill have to be put on hold for now! I promised Mr. Brown we vould make him and his friend Halloween costumes of their choosing, once he finds my book!”
“Oh, I believe you’ll need to make costumes for more than just one friend…” a powerful, feminine voiced boomed. A large dragon-like humanoid figure, clad in a shiny purple suit and a top hat, slinked her way into the patient room of the nurse’s office. “Hello, Doctor.”
“AH! Lady Skyber!” Ernst bowed. “Vat brings you here?”
“It’s come to my attention that you’ve been expecting your lab assistant to return with your little assignment by around this time,” Skyber announced.
“Oh! Is it nightfall already?” Ernst said.
“Yes, it would appear so.”
“Excellent! I hope Mr. Brown has my snailz encyclopedia!”
“About that,” Skyber unfolded her wings, revealing a number of steaming splotches of ooze and slime stretched out over her wingspan. “A little birdie told me you value a reward being deserved by hard work.”
“Here it comes,” Lucas quipped.
“Of course I do! Vhat of it?”
“Let’s just say you’ll have to put you plans for this Halloween on hold. You and James, my friend, have a lot of rewards to work on.”