Ashwock Academy ✓

C H A P T E R - N I N E

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"Wait, that enchantment murders people?" Damien asked, nervous.

"Look for yourself," Raven said, pointing to the page that was open. In fancy, cursive handwriting was one paragraph written after the enchantment;

"If you said that enchantment aloud, then dark magic has spread around you, and most likely found a host. Just remember than no harm can come to you from the dark magic unless the dark magic possesses you or possesses someone else. Now that you have seen how that works, I have listed ways to get rid of it, if it's not too late."

"Oh my god," said Fletcher, realizing something. "I think I know how Jessica died."

"Somebody said this curse," Damien caught on.

"And the magic found a host that helped kill Jessica," said Jackson. Raven gasped. Somebody had been possessed with dark magic at Ashwock.

"Wait, how did you find that page?" Damien asked Raven, suspicious.

"It was flipped to that page when I picked it up!" She protested.

"Likely story."

Fletcher watched as they went back and forth, and realized something. "Wait, what about Marisa?"

They all looked around, but Marisa was nowhere to be seen. They all started to worry, and climbed up the ladder, Raven still holding the book on her hand. Once they were all out of the trapdoor they looked around, hoping Marisa was somewhere close by. To their disappointment, even after they called out her name she was nowhere to be found. They looked across almost the whole first floor, and eventually gave up.

"Guys, she's not here," said Jackson. "Probably on the second floor."

"No," Damien said. "If she wanted to be alone she wouldn't be on a floor that people were looking on." They all realized what he meant and ran up the stairs that they hoped would lead to the third floor and what they found was one last entrance to the second floor. Hopelessly sighing, they went back down and turned a corner, finding one last spiral staircase.

How many stairs are there?  Damien thought. They all ran up and, to their relief, found the third floor. They ran through the hall and checked the second door, which held a small couch and a small girl with straight blonde hair.

"Marisa, we need to tell you something. It's about something we found in the cellar," Damien said, the first into the room. Fletcher and Jackson followed him, Raven still behind.

"Oh no, is everybody okay? I told you not to go down there, the book could be dangerous." She looked at everybody, nervous.

"Yeah, everyone is-" Fletcher stopped. "Hang on, we didn't didn't mention a book."

Marisa started to sweat. "Yeah you did."

"No, he didn't," Raven said, barging on. She was carrying the book, and showed it to her. "You couldn't have seen it from where I was."

Damien gasped. "You've been down there before! That's why you ran away, and how you knew about the book!"

"And why it was already flipped to that page," Fletcher said quietly. "You said the curse that set the evil loose. That's why Jessica's dead, you killed her."

Marisa sighed. "Alright, I said it but I didn't kill her! I swear!"

"Yeah, but you released the magic in the first place." Fletcher was getting upset, and started to lash out, even if he didn't mean to. "If it wasn't for you, Jessica would be alive and Mr. Barla would still be here! We wouldn't be trapped in this hell! And now, people are dying because of what you did!"