It all happened on an evening after curfew, but before bedtime, where like usual, Nastya was spending some time with me in my room talking before we had to go to sleep. This had become somewhat of a ritual since it was our only moment of free time that could not be changed into practice time.

Everything was going as uneventful as usual when suddenly we were interrupted by loud bangs on my door and heard Sara desperately screaming “Fleure, please help! It’s Axelle.”

From the sound of her voice, I could make up that she had been crying. This sounded like a real emergency and not one of her usual irrational panics. What on earth could have happened?

When I opened the door she immediately “Please come. It’s Axelle, she isn’t moving. I don’t know what to do.”

Nastya jumped up immediately too and we followed Sara to Axelle’s room. On the way, Sara told us that Axelle suddenly had started saying she was cold before collapsing on the floor.

When we entered the room, I could not help but feel an eerie presence. Like we were being watched. This all reminded me of what happened to me in the chapel. So, I instinctively touched my hairclip to gather courage.

“It’s him alright,” Lise said inside my head. But how? My instrument was back in my room.

“The hairclip silly. If he is near, it activates. We told you we would protect you.”

“What can we do for Axelle?”

“Put your hairclip on her. This is why enchanted it after all. We will take care of this. He won’t be able to touch us.” Rosalinde answered.

“This is your father’s doing,” I whispered to Nastya, whose eyes immediately turned big. I removed my hairclip and put it on Axelle while saying “For now let’s get her to the infirmary.”

---

Axelle’s POV right before the attack

I looked up happily when I heard that knock on my door. It was finally time for some quality time with my girlfriend.

When I opened the door and saw her smile, my evening was already complete. I quickly let her in.

“You know that stuff from last time? I did some research, and I think I can make it feel even better.”

“Even better?” I gulped. She sure was a dangerous one, unlike her innocent looks suggested, she moved incredibly fast. I do not know where she did her research, but I feel she already knows more of this stuff than I do. It was safe to say that dating Sara was an overwhelming experience.

“Yes. Even better.” She said while hugging me and closing her eyes, lifting her chin to beg for a kiss.”

“Who was I to refuse my adorable girlfriend when she was being this cute?

Our lips touched, but instead of warm, they felt cold. What was this?

“Aren’t you cold today?” I asked.

The sensation was even so cold that the cold started spreading through my body. This started to hurt. What was this? I felt myself fall to the ground as my legs lost power.

I could see Sara was crying and shouting at me while she was holding me. A sharp pain went through my entire body as I screamed out.

The room around me was completely dark. I could see Sara holding me through what appeared to be a window. I saw her run out of the room in a panic.

“Don’t leave me.” I thought.

Feelings of loneliness started to wash over me. Here I was in this darkness completely alone…

“Not quite!” A low ominous voice suddenly said.

A dark hard-to-make-out shadow moved toward me in the darkness and before I knew it, it was restricting my arms and legs. While a man-shaped shadow appeared in front of me. The feelings of loneliness were quickly replaced with fear. What on earth was going on?

“I had been so focused on the girlfriend, that I missed the sister. Now… Where is she?”

A sharp pain went through my entire being as his hand moved inside of my chest.

“I do not know what you are talking about.”

“Oh, don’t act innocent. You reek of ghosts. It’s clear she has been near you. Now tell me. Where is your sister?”

“M-My sister? She’s dead. I never knew her. Please stop this.”

“Of course, she is dead. Now, where are you hiding her ghost?”

The man moved his hand back toward my chest, I braised myself for impact against that excruciating pain. “I really have no idea what you are talking about!”

“Suit yourself.”

Again, that excruciating pain went through me. This man was crazy. I looked back to the window and wanted to shout out for help. I noticed Sara had gotten Fleure and Nastya.

“They can’t hear you. You are in limbo after all.” The man said.

“I am not sure how many of these you are going to be able to take before the damage becomes permanent. Last chance to answer me.”

He lifted his hand again, but suddenly a bright figure in a Victorian dress popped up between me and him holding his hand at bay.

While I received a tap on my back and all the bindings released me at the same time and the fear subsided. I was being held by a younger version of myself.  Was I losing my mind?

“Hush now. We will take care of the bad guy. We will talk later.”

She laid me down on the floor where a soft mattress appeared right under me before she joined the other girl. I felt my powerless body press deeply into the mattress.

“Now just like I thought you, Lise.” The girl in the Victorian dress shouted at the girl. Lise... So that means she is my sister. How is this possible?

Both girls joined hands and a bright light blasted away all the shadows around man.

He looked up staring shocked at his hands. “What is this? How did you that.”

“You are getting corrupted by those wraith powers of yours. You really should not be using those like that.” The girl in the Victorian dress answered. “Or you will lose yourself completely.”

He tried to conjure the darkness again, but the girl just swiped it away with a single movement. “I came prepared. There is no way for you to win today.”

“Then how am I going to see her again.” The man said in a desperate voice.

“You won’t, and deep down you know it already. You know it does not work that way.”

“Lies! They promised!” The man put his hands on his ears to stop himself from hearing what the girl was saying.

“I guess I will give you some time to think it through.”

The girl then snapped her fingers and the man vanished in thin air.

Suddenly we were all sitting in an 18^th-century salon. When I looked out of the window, I saw that the school nurse was shining a light in my eyes, but time seemed to have stopped.

“You are safe now,” Lise said.

The girl in the Victorian dress was looking at me with inquisitive eyes.

“The two of you really look the same!”

“I know right? It’s crazy to know that I have a twin. If I had been still alive, we could have had so much fun with swapping games.” Lise answered.

“Stop putting those kinds of images in my mind. That is just gross. She is your sister!”

“I wasn’t. You have to stop blaming me for your own imagination.” Lise scoffed. But I felt she was only pretending to be angry. I could see that she was even blushing a little.

I looked around with big eyes as I watched this comedy sketch unfold and I started laughing. I did not really understand what was going on, but those two were fun to watch. The difference in atmosphere and how I was feeling was like night and day in comparison to just a few minutes ago.

“Good, it seems like you recovered.” The girl in the dress said. “My name is Rosalinde.”

Lise then started to apologize for what happened, “Sorry for getting you into this mess.”

They started explaining to me what was going on. Fleure certainly got herself in a serious mess, and now I was being dragged into it too. I wasn’t certain how I felt about that.

As if she was reading my mind, Lise said: “Please don’t blame Fleure. She is working hard to solve this situation. She has it hard enough as it is.”

“But…” She put her finger on my lips to shush me and said “No. The bad guy is gone for now. Fleure did not ask for that, did she? Knowing her, she will blame herself for this enough already.”

I looked into my sister’s eyes. I could see she wasn’t about to take no for an answer. “I guess…” I looked at where I was attacked and noticed dark cracks and scars on my skin.

Lise followed my eyes to my chest and whispered, “I’ll fix this for you, so don’t you worry.”

She then put her hands on my chest where the man had pierced me with that black stuff. She put her hand on it and a light suddenly flashed removing the dark scars. She looked really exhausted after that.

“Why on earth did you do that for?” Rosalinde suddenly shouted angrily. “Do you know how much time it will take you to recover from that?”

“But she’s my sister and she got hurt because of me.”

Rosalinde looked at her with worried eyes. “You really say that after that whole speech of Fleure not being responsible? Why do you always do things like this? You are making things so much harder for me.”

Lise scoffed at that. “Doing the right thing is almost never the easiest road, but that does not mean you should not do it.”

“You don’t understand. I am so close now, and if you continue like this, I won’t be able to…”

I coughed to let them know I was still in the room before they were off in their little world again.

Lise looked back at me and said “I would have loved to get to know you better, but our time is running out. If you want to do me a favor, just accompany Fleure on the piano from time to time in my stead. Your music will let me know how you are doing.”

She then walked up to me and kissed my forehead.

The room started to spin and suddenly I noticed I woke up in the infirmary. Sara, Fleure, and Nastya were looking worried at me while Tine, the school nurse was still shining a little flashlight into my eyes.