The Secret Door (#Wattys2016)

Chapter XV The Dawn Spirit

"I see, you know Hanan, my mother," Ana laughed, and only meaningless blabbers escape from Van's lips.

"She's your mother?" Van managed to say.

"Glad you still remember me Van," Hanan said. And for Van, there is nothing stranger than seeing a mother that looks younger than him.

"How can I forget how you almost caused me my school diploma," Van muttered, as flashbacks of the Principal's office replays in his mind.

"You know her Van," Don whispered as the rest try to relate to what is happening.

"Remember when I was caught in the restricted hallway, and I kept saying I'm seeing an invisible girl?"

"You mean that's her Van..."

"Yup, here she is," Van answered.

"And I didn't believed you Van," Alice said, her voice small and guilty.

And their conversation is briefly interrupted by something grey and feathery.

"Are they okay, I heard Azazel got them," the Pigeon said in a panicky voice.

"They are okay, don't worry," Ana answered as the Pigeon lands on Hanan's shoulder.

"Goodness! And I bet that the Biting Cage was her doing," the Pigeon clicked its' beak madly.

"But what exactly are you doing in school when Van found you," Cara asked.

"I'm checking the miniature shrine your Principal put there to bribe me."

"Bribe you... I don't understand Hanan."

"So I will forget the deal we made Van."
"Van, the question here should be what's your school doing in our sacred ground," Ana said vaguely and Van's head turns.

"The one you are calling as the Principal are keeping lots of things from you. Do you know that your school was built on our home, the land of the nature spirits," Hanan added. She is smiling but there is a hint of aggression in her voice.

"So he knows you exist, and he called me an idiot after I told him I could see you," Van said furiously.

"And if that's the case, the school ground is crawling by spirits!" Alice added.

"Don't tell me that is why there is a parallel world in our school."

"The energy from our sacred ground is now seeping into your school Don. It's starting to be consumed by the land, that's why there are chasms there that open to our world," Ana explained, "that's the after effect of putting a building in the home of the spirits."

"That's why the Principal never allowed us to loiter in the school hallways," Cara said, her eyes rolling.

"We tried to explain to your Principal that there should be no school here since this land is granted to the spirits, but he never listened. I tried to approach him but he thought I'm a hallucination," the Pigeon said

"We then resorted to things like sending curses, inducing illnesses and other forms of intimidation. We only stopped when we nearly killed his daughter, and in the end it was agreed upon that the school could stay..."

"But only for twenty years Ana and after that the school will start to return to our sacred ground," said the Pigeon.

"And twenty years had passed and your Principal forgets what he promised..."