The alarm on my phone buzzed at five minutes to four, so I quickly put away the last couple books then grabbed my backpack. I hurried to the study cubicles at the back of the library, where Kaylee was still working on some big research thing for history.

"It's time to go," I said quietly. "Club meeting starts in a couple minutes."

"Oh right," she grimaced. She didn't actually move though, she was still jotting stuff down in a notebook.

After another half minute I asked, "Kaylee? Are we going to the meeting?"

"I'm coming," she said with another grimace as she quickly finished scribbling something down. Then she stuffed all her books into her backpack and the two of us hurried out together.

"Bye Ms. Sutton," I said with a wave as we hurried past her office. "Have a good weekend!"

The librarian started to say something but I didn't hear it as me and Kaylee hurried out the doors. We ended up almost running as we rushed down the hall towards Miss Hawthorne's class at the back of the school.

We were both breathing hard as we opened the door and hurried inside. The candles were already set up and lit, but I knew Paige wouldn't have cast the circle yet. Otherwise I'd just break it when me and Kaylee came in.

Except I was working really hard to learn how not to do that, so maybe by next month I'd be able to pass through a circle without ruining it.

"Cutting it close to the wire you two," Paige commented as she glanced at the clock. Then she got up and moved to the north end of the circle so she could start casting it.

"Sorry," I apologized.

Kaylee took a seat and I sat beside her. Marissa and Melanie were already here as well, they were sitting together off to the left.

"Wait," my girlfriend frowned as she adjusted her glasses. "Where's Brooke? She's not usually late."

Marissa answered since Paige was busy casting the circle, "She's not coming. She skipped her last two classes and took off early for some reason."

"Got a head start on the weekend maybe?" Melanie added with a shrug.

This was only her third club meeting, but she seemed totally relaxed now. Compared to her first meeting back in January, when she was really jumpy and anxious. Now it felt like she was more one of the gang than I was. I figured she was probably more of a people-person though.

Kaylee frowned at her, "It's not like Brooke to cut classes, and she wouldn't skip a Club Luna meeting without good reason."

By that point Paige had finished the circle, the tall brunette moved to take her seat at the front of the group. She stated with a frown, "Brooke has a very good reason for not being here. Family emergency, she got the text just after lunch and had to leave. She asked me to take over for today."

"I hope everything will be ok," Kaylee said with a sigh.

"I'm sure it will," Paige said, though she sounded a bit worried.

Melanie frowned, "So you two seem to know what's going on, why not let the rest of us in on it too? We're all in the same group right?"

For a few seconds nobody responded, though I noticed Paige and Kaylee glanced at each other.

I realized this was probably something to do with the medical stuff Kaylee mentioned back when we were dealing with the witch hunter. I remembered there was some medical thing that affected one of Brooke's parents, but neither Kaylee or Paige wanted to talk about it at the time.

In the end it was Marissa who finally spoke up. The young blonde took a deep breath then said "It's Brooke's mom, she's got MS. It's the kind that flares up then goes dormant again."

Paige added quietly, "Her mom went into the hospital around noon today, Brooke's gone to be with her. If it's like last time, her mom will probably be there a few days before she's ok to go home again."

"Crud," Melanie frowned. "That's rough, I hope she'll be ok."

The rest of us nodded quietly, then I gulped and asked nervously "Um, can't we do something to help? Like with magic I mean? Can't we use healing spells or something?"

"I've tried," Kaylee said with a sigh. "And we've talked to May about it. Most of the healing spells are meant for fixing injuries? Like healing cuts, mending broken bones, that sort of thing? Some of them also work on diseases, but May said chronic or progressive diseases are the hardest to fix, and I just don't have the power to do it."

Paige added, "Healing spells don't really heal, they just boost the body's natural healing. Something you can heal from on your own, you can heal faster with healing magic. But something that can't be healed normally is going to resist healing magic too."

"There's some spells that can heal everything," Kaylee stated. "Trust me, this is something I specialize in. But like I said, I just don't have the strength to do it."

"Can't we get May to help?" I asked. "What if we all chipped in and did a big circle thing, like you all did for me last halloween?"

Marissa pointed out, "Mrs. Tremblay would have to be there in the middle of the circle, and I think she might have some questions about what we're up to if she saw us doing that."

"Cass, you're the only one who's parents know about Club Luna," Kaylee added. "Or at least, your parents are the only ones who know what the club really does. None of our parents know we're witches."

"Oh," I grimaced. "But wouldn't it be worth it, letting Brooke's mom know about the witch stuff if that meant maybe curing her?"

The others were quiet again, Kaylee and Marissa and Paige all sort of exchanged glances. It looked like none of them were sure how to answer my question though. Melanie looked frustrated, and I kind of felt like that too. We had all this magic and stuff, but if we couldn't use it to help our friend's mom then it seemed sort of pointless to me.

"Maybe I'll try and talk with May about that," Paige finally responded. "You all know we're supposed to keep magic and witchcraft secret, but you're right Cass. And the truth is, trying to help her mom is why Brooke got involved in the occult in the first place. I know she's disappointed that she found real magic but still couldn't help. And she'll be feeling even worse about it right now while her mom's in the hospital, so as acting-leader I'm going to tell you all not to discuss this with Brooke. Ok?"

The athletic brunette's eyes swept over the room and we all nodded quietly in agreement.

"Ok then," she sighed. "On with the meeting. The first thing on our list is Kaylee and Cass."

She looked at the two of us and asked, "The other night you two were talking about Cassandra learning to not break circles and dispell everything she comes in contact with. How's that going?"

My girlfriend looked at me and smiled, she obviously wanted me to do the talking this time.

I cringed slightly as everyone looked at me. "So um, you know how I can see magic right? I can also feel it when I touch it? Like I guess I never thought to mention that because I assumed you could all feel it too? But when I dispell stuff it feels a little like a tingle down my back and over my skin?"

They were all still staring at me, especially Melanie. I had no idea why but I was sure she didn't like me for some reason. It made me kind of sad because I really wanted to be friends with her, but every time I tried to talk with her she just got quiet and acted tough.

I forced myself not to worry about that for now as I continued, "Anyways um, I can't really explain it but I think I can choose not to dispell stuff? I guess it's kind of like a muscle that I haven't learned to control yet? Absorbing magic feels like the 'natural' thing for me, but I'm trying to fight that so I can touch stuff without dispelling it? It'll probably be something I have to focus on though, like make an effort to not dispell stuff. Otherwise it'll just dispell automatically."

Paige asked, "And you two are working on that?"

Kaylee nodded, "I'm not great at enchantments but I've been casting little tiny circles, and Cass is using those for practise. So far she's dispelled them all, but instead of it happening instantly she can delay it a bit. She's up to five seconds."

"And all the magic she absorbs that way turns into power she can use herself?" Marissa asked.

I blushed but nodded, "I guess so? It doesn't come out in a big surge anymore, but it's really easy to cast stuff after I've dispelled a bunch of other things like that."

"Weird," the young blonde commented.

That made me cringe again, but I was used to being different.

Our temporary leader nodded, "It's unusual but it seems useful. Moving on, the second thing on the list is..."

Paige sighed and rolled her eyes, "Marissa and her zombies."

Kaylee groaned quietly while Marissa grinned.

The tall brunette looked at the brash blonde witch and added, "After you brought up the subject at the restaurant the other night I did some 'research' like you suggested Marissa. I checked social media and local news reports. I can confirm there have been zero sightings of shambling undead, nobody has been wandering around groaning 'braaains' and no-one has reported any zombies attempting to consume their brains or anything else for that matter."

Marissa rolled her eyes, "I never said anything about brain-eating or shambling undead. And when I said you should read up on zombies I meant the real kind, not zombie movie tropes."

"Fine," Paige sighed again. "So enlighten us Marissa, what did you see and why do you think it's a zombie?"

With a flourish Marissa pulled a notepad out of her backpack. She opened it to a bookmarked page and glanced at some notes she had jotted down, then began talking like she was giving a lecture. Except she was a little too enthusiastic, considering the subject matter.

"So last Friday afternoon there was a car crash on Main Street. Some kid ran across the road, a driver had to swerve to avoid the kid, hit a utility pole, pole fell on the car. Main Street was closed for a few hours, a few shops were closed too because the power went out after the pole fell down."

Paige nodded, "I know about that accident. Brooke and I had to take the long way around town to get home from school that day."

Marissa ignored the interruption and continued, "The driver was killed. There were a bunch of witnesses who saw the accident, including my cousin's girlfriend. She worked in a bakery there, the accident happened right outside the store. They closed because the power was out, and she had to hang around to give a statement to the cops. So she got a good look at the victim before the emergency people showed up."

She paused a moment to check her notes again, then announced "Thing is, the victim showed up again Saturday afternoon. My cousin's girlfriend was back at work, said she heard someone bump the windows of the store? She looks up, and there's the dead woman standing there leaning against the window looking inside. Cousin's girlfriend freaks out, dead lady walks away, heading west on Main Street."

We were all quiet for a few seconds after Marissa finished talking.

Finally Kaylee asked, "What makes you think this is a zombie? It could be a ghost, and it's not uncommon for ghosts to appear at the place they died. Especially if the death was sudden and unexpected."

Marissa shook her head, "I've already done some digging. First thing, the woman died in hospital an hour after the accident. Second thing, I talked to my cousin's girlfriend and she said the zombie left hand-prints on the bakery window. Ghosts can't leave finger prints."

She added, "One last thing? Cousin's girlfriend quit on the spot, she told her manager she was too freaked out after all that. She grabbed her purse and headed out the door, and she says when she left she spotted the zombie further west on Main Street. The zombie was looking in another shop, before it turned south on Mill Street. Cousin's girlfriend ran the other way, so that was the end of the sighting."

"Dang," Melanie commented as she looked at her girlfriend. "This is for real huh? You're seriously talking about a real zombie sighting?"

"Yup," Marissa nodded with a grin. "So that was a week ago, but someone around here's raising the dead. We need to find out who, and why!"

I asked quietly, "So um, what do we do? The zombie wouldn't still be around would she?"

Paige sighed, "So far all we have to go on is third-hand testimony from someone who was shaken up by a disturbing situation. Having a fatal accident happen outside the shop probably left her with some trauma, and her imagination is just acting out based on that."

Marissa started to protest but our temporary leader cut her off, "I'll email May and let her know what you said Marissa. I'll ask if she knows anything about real zombies, and we'll go from there."

"This is all a week old now," Kaylee pointed out. "And there's only been one single unsubstantiated sighting, right? Even if it was a real zombie, or some other supernatural situation, it might be over and done already."

I offered, "I'll keep an eye out Marissa. If I hear anything or see anything I'll let you know. My mum works in a shop on Main, maybe I could ask her?"

"Thanks Cass," the young blonde replied with a smile. Then she frowned and told the others, "I'm not going to give up on this, so keep an eye on the club's group chat. As soon as I find something else I'll let you all know."

"Anyone else have anything to add?" Paige asked as she glanced around the room.

Nobody else had any news or topics, and it felt like we'd already spent long enough talking about Brooke's mom and Marissa's zombie. And everyone seemed eager to head out for the weekend. I dispelled the circle like usual, the candles were put away, and we all gathered up our things.

"What are you two up to next, anything fun?" Marissa asked me and Kaylee.

My girlfriend smiled, "Me and Cass are going to hang out at her place tonight. How about you two?"

I smiled too. My parents were going out tonight, so Kaylee and I would have the house to ourselves for a while. It wouldn't be like going out on a proper date, but it was better than hanging out with parents around.

Melanie replied, "Me and Marissa are heading over to my place. We're probably going to play some games, maybe do some magic, then watch a movie."

"I got a bunch of burgers and sausages from my uncle," Marissa added. "We're going to have a BBQ."

Paige rolled her eyes, "You know it's snowing out there again right?"

Neither the young witch or the werewolf cared about that, and with Marissa's huge hat it's not like she had to worry much about the snow anyways.

As we all finally headed out I moved closer to Paige and asked, "Tell Brooke I'm thinking of her please? And that I hope her mom's better soon."

"Thanks Cass," Paige nodded. "I'll let her know."

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