“Glenda and I sat on a bench, staring at the office door in front of us. Both of us wondered what they were discussing. However, no matter how much I strained my ears, I couldn’t hear what they were saying. I felt terrible; all that boy wanted to do was save his father. Could I have gotten in his way?
‘Hey, Miss,’ I turned to Glenda and spoke up, ‘do you know dark magic?’
‘Dark magic?’ Glenda questioned. Her eyes widened. ‘Why do you know about that?’
‘I, well, I heard about it from…’
‘A dangerous man is being held in this school who conjures evil spells. Thankfully, he lost, and there should be no way he can ever—’
‘Is... dark magic evil?’
‘Well…’ Glenda paused, unsure of the answer to give me.
“We heard a strange, loud noise as we approached the door. The door blew off its hinges, and an explosion consumed the room. Glenda and I got thrown back, and I landed on top of her. We watched as the fire spread out in the hallway. Another explosion occurred as Glenda jumped in front of me to block the blasts.
‘What’s going on?’ I asked, having trouble breathing.
‘I don’t know!’ Glenda exclaimed, panicking. ‘But I have to get back and make sure everyone is ok!’
‘I’ll go too!’
‘No, it’s much too dangerous for you!’ Glenda used her magic to encase me in a sphere.
“With a snap of her fingers, I got whisked away back outside the school. The bubble popped, and I fell onto the grass. When I got up, I looked and saw the whole building got caught up in flames. I could hear the sounds of screaming and anguish coming from over there. Just then, I heard a familiar voice.
‘I... failed.’ I heard a whisper. It came from the boy from before. ‘I wasn’t able to save him.’
‘I’m sorry.’ I apologized, and something occurred to me. ‘Wait, what about my parents?’
‘They... didn’t make it either. I’m sorry.’
“I couldn’t believe what I had heard. I wanted it to be a nightmare I could wake up from, but it was no dream. My parents were gone. I failed to hold back my tears and cried with all my heart. That was the last time I cried in front of someone.
“The boy explained to me that the adults that had been talking with you, the Headmistress, were my parents’ allies in the past and that they had been fighting over who could control a planet. Those adults attacked them out of rage and jealousy. The boy’s father escaped and ended up dying to protect his son, who could not fight back. And now, everyone had to pay the price for his betrayal.
“The boy walked over to me, tears running down my face, and said, ‘Hey, I remembered something. Dad said that dark magic could do anything.
‘If we find his spell book, that contains all of his spells, we can use that to bring our folks back to life, and get our revenge on the ones that took them away from us.’
‘But how? Won’t we get caught like your dad?’ I asked, choking on my words.
‘Well, when we’re older, we will enroll here. We can find it easier that way.’ He extended his hand. ‘I need your help, though. You want to save your parents, right?’
I wiped my eyes and nodded. ‘Of course.’ I took his hand and stood up to look at him face-to-face.
‘Name’s Troy, what’s yours?’
‘Lauren, nice to meet you.’
Ever since that day, we have been planning, day after day, waiting for the right time to strike you down.”
.-.-.-.
“And is today that day?” The monster Principal asked.
“Yeah, it is. Do you still not remember?” Lauren inquired.
Horace walked over to the Principal and signed to get the Head Mistress’s attention. She caught on and realized what he was trying to say.
“Ah, right.” She said finally, “I remember now, but it seems you made some errors in your story.”
“What?” Lauren asked.
“Allow us to explain, from our point of view, if that’s ok with you.”
“Go ahead.”
.-.-.-.
“It happened during the time you had been waiting outside. I chatted with the grownups while Troy waited impatiently on the sidelines. Just then, I heard some strange sounds.
‘Does anyone else hear that?’ I had asked the others.
‘That must be my dad,’ Troy commented excitedly. ‘he must have escaped and is coming to get revenge!’
‘That man is your father!?’ I asked, shocked at his revelation.
‘Yep, and I came here to—’
‘Everyone hide!’ I shouted, not allowing Troy the time to finish.
“Before we had time to do anything, though, a Cosmic Electron Grenade appeared and exploded, spewing out electricity and allowing fires to spring to life and spread.
“I know Troy and Horace hid behind my desk to avoid the impact, but I, someone stuck inside the jar, had no way of avoiding it. The pot broke, and I was on the verge of death.
I faintly heard Troy saying something like: ‘He must not know that I came to save him.’
“I saw a glimpse of Horace as he picked me up, and a ray of purple light from the corner of my eye. I turned Horace’s arms over and saw Troy’s father, Trevor, with dark energy surrounding his hands and body.
‘You again?’ I asked weakly.
Trevor grinned as he walked closer. ‘At least you now know how I feel, being all helpless.’
‘Aw yeah, now I can see the action!’ Troy exclaimed quietly to himself.
‘Troy?’ Trevor looked over and noticed that boy coming out from behind my desk. But when Horace turned to him, he became hostile once again. ‘Hey, stay away from my son if you know what’s good for—’
“None of us had expected it to happen; not even I saw it coming. A green ray of light shot through the air and hit the man in the chest as he collapsed to the ground. Standing in the doorway, Glenda stood beside the entrance as smoke rose from her fingers.
She looked down at her hands and gasped. ‘What... what have I done?’
‘Dad? Dad!’ Troy cried. He rushed over to his father, who writhed in pain.
The father looked into his son’s eyes, his voice weak. ‘Son, I’m sorry... but you need to get…’ He wasn’t able to finish his sentence before he had drawn his last breath.
Troy glared at Glenda; there was a dark fire in his teary eyes. ‘You... monster! You’ll pay for this!’ He dashed out of the room in record time.
‘What happened?’ I asked in confusion.
‘We’ll explain to you later. We need to get out of here!’ Glenda exclaimed.
“She, Horace, and I were the only ones that made it out of the school. We couldn't save anyone else in time, as everyone else had laid restless on the floors of my office, and the school burned to ashes. It took another couple of months to fix everything, but we could do nothing to fill the holes in our hearts or bring the others back...”
.-.-.-.
“So, there’s our story.” The Principal finished.
“That’s it?” Lauren asked. “Even if you didn’t kill them as you claim, you still left them to die! You didn’t even try to get them out of the burning building!”
“We had no choice; we didn’t mean to—”
“Lies, all lies! How can I believe someone like you?”
“Don’t you realize who the real enemy is? Troy is deceiving you!”
“How do I know you’re not lying to me?” Lauren pointed out. “And besides, I still aim to save my parents in mind, and there’s no way I’m backing down! Not after all these years...”
“You can’t. Dark magic is dangerous. If you try to bring someone back to life via magic...”
“Try me.”
“I see.” The Headmistress spoke, chillingly, “Then you leave me no choice. I apologize for what you had to go through, but I will not allow your plans to succeed!”
She called for Horace to take her head out of the jar. He then placed her head on top of his body. Her hair went from wavy, blonde to straight and purple. Her eyes turned red, and took complete control of Horace’s body.
“Now that’s messed up,” Lauren said, as she scrunched up her nose in disgust.
“Are you ready, Lauren?” The Principal asked.
“Yeah, I am,” Lauren confirmed, determined.
