She entered the hall.

  “Come on in.” It was empty.

  James, realizing the possibility of a trap charged at Anna as fast as he could in an attempt to grab her, but Crow was faster. Out of nowhere, she jolted out at a speed impossible for the human eye to see and knocked James to the floor. He tried breaking free, but she was too strong for him.

  She knocked him out, and then vanished with him.

  Everywhere was quiet, nothing moved. The only things Anna could hear were her thumping heart and the gentle ticking of her wristwatch.

  “Anna,” Joanna said, pushing the door open alongside Jackson and Jacob, startling Annabelle in the process.

  “Aah! You scared me,” she said, heaving a sigh of relief.

  “Guess we didn’t need plan B after all,” Joanna said, panting as she looked round the school hall.

  They hadn’t waited for long when Mrs. Crow reappeared in their midst. “It’s time,” she said, and then vanished into thin air with Annabelle and her friends. They appeared in Astra 12, the bright sun shining in the cloudless blue sky. Annabelle squinted her eyes due to the sudden change in light intensity.

  “He’s in here,” Mrs. Crow said, motioning for them to follow her into the cottage. On getting into the cottage, they all found James tied to a chair, a cloth over his mouth, looking helpless.

  “Mmmmph,” James muffled, rage in his eyes as he struggled to break free.

  “What did you tie him with? he should have broken free by now,” Annabelle remarked as she stepped closer to him.

  “I wouldn’t get too close,” Crow warned.

  “Ok so are we going to torture him or……” Jackson asked, shrugging his shoulders.

  “No, we are not savages,” Crow protested. “We are going to politely ask him then torture him.” Everyone laughed. Mrs. Crow took a step closer to James and forcefully removed the cloth she tied around his mouth.

  He breathed heavily.

  “I will get you for this!” he screamed, furiously shaking the chair trying to break free.

  “Looks like you can’t do magic,” Crow said, her eyes burning into his. He purposely fell to his side, alongside the chair, hoping it would break.

  “Sorry, you can’t break that chair,” Crow said as she effortlessly carried him right side up, placing the chair on the floor.

  What monstrous strength, Jacob thought, marveling as he watched Crow. He could perform magic, almost as well as Crow but when it came to brute strength, he was nothing compared to her.

  “Okay James, I am going to ask you only once. Where is my brother?”

  James just sat there with a smile on his face, refusing to talk.

  “Where… is…Pepper…Crow…” she asked, landing a slap on his face with each word she spoke.

  His pale face turned red with markings of Crow’s hand.

  “That hurt,” he whispered, and burst into laughter.

  “Okay guys, I’m going to check his memory,” Mrs. Crow said, almost losing her patience as she placed her hands on his head, each thumb directly on his temples. She closed her eyes and released her breath with a whoosh.

  She hadn’t moved for about thirty minutes, and Anna and her friends had begun to lose patience.

  “Why is this taking so long?” Annabelle asked, as she noticed Joanna smirking at her.

  “Was it this long when Crow checked my…….”

  “Yes,” Joanna replied before she could complete her question.

  About ten more minutes passed and Mrs. Crow finally let go of his head, staggering backwards and nearly falling to the ground.

  “What happened? What did you see?” Annabelle asked, not allowing her to catch her breath.

  “Nothing,” Mrs. Crow replied in confusion.

  “Nothing? What do you mean nothing?” Annabelle asked, also confused.

  “Doesn’t that thing have a memory?” Jackson said, warily looking at James who was grinning at them.

  “How long was I out?” Crow asked.

  “About forty minutes,” Annabelle replied, giving her wristwatch a quick glance.

  “You all… such fools… Pepper told me to kill Annabelle Peterson, but if my plan failed, I was ordered to relay a message,” James said, drawing everyone’s attention.

  “He said and I quote, ‘I will come for you Annabelle Peterson, I will come for you where it all started’.”

  “Where it all started? What does that mean? Crow asked Annabelle who didn’t seem to understand the message at first.

  “Oh no!” Annabelle exclaimed, realizing what James meant. A familiar chill ran down her back.

  “He means my house,” she said, her voice breaking as tears clouded her eyes.

  “The first dream you had,” Crow commented, understanding the statement too.

  “Such fools. He said it was nice meeting you Anna, he really enjoyed serving you pizza and driving you home in his convertible,” James said and vanished.

  This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

  “Where did he go?” Jacob asked, but Anna was more concerned about the last statement James made.

  “Oh no,” she said, softly as she realized what James meant. “What’s wrong?” Jackson asked, his heart rate increasing.

  “Pizza!” Annabelle and Joanna looked at each other trembling, teeth gnashing in their closed mouths.

  “He has been under our noses the whole time,” Joanna said, shaking uncontrollably.

  “What do you mean by pizza?! What Pizza?!” Jackson asked, trying to understand the situation.

  “Pizza place,” Annabelle said, her voice breaking. She wasn’t able to talk fluently due to the fear that gripped her.

  “You mean Ron is….” Joanna muttered, eyes wide open.

  “Who the hell is Ron?” Jackson asked, shaking Joanna furiously. He just wanted an explanation but the girls were too shaken up. Too shaken up to think straight.

  “Ron the Pizza guy is Pepper Crow,” Annabelle said, still in shock. She then described Ron to Jackson and Jacob who immediately knew the person she was talking about.

  “You mean that super friendly guy with a convertible? The one that works at Pizza place?” Jackson asked, ruffling his hair.

  “You didn’t tell me you’ve met him before,” Doom’s voice played in Annabelle’s head as she cupped her ears with her hands, trying to block out the noise. Everything seemed louder.

  “I knew it was weird,” Annabelle said, drawing everyone’s attention.

  “What was weird?” Jackson asked.

  “The way he looked at my amulet, like he recognized it.”

  “Now that you mention it, he looked at mine the same way too but I just assumed he liked it,” Joanna commented.

  She was really disappointed that the person she had a crush on turned out to be the one who wanted her friend dead.

  “But I don’t understand,” Annabelle said, stroking her chin.

  “He could have killed me right there in his car, why didn’t he?”

  “My brother always liked to play games,” Crow said.

  “And knows how to prevent himself from being seen by you,” Annabelle said to Crow.

  “Okay so what are we going to do now, we don’t even know where he went,” Jackson said, pointing at the empty chair James sat in.

  Annabelle thought about what James had said for a moment, and on realizing she was the only one at home when she was attacked in her dream, “My family! Joshua!” she screamed, her mouth wide open and vibrating in terror.

  “What about Josh…..” Crow was about to ask, as she also realized Anna was home alone when she checked her memory.

  “We can’t let him take my family!” Annabelle protested as she furiously tapped Crow, motioning for her to take them back to the mortal realm.

  “We have to go to school now, Josh might be in danger,” Annabelle said, as Mrs. Crow vanished with all of them.

  On getting to the school, Annabelle ran as fast as she could, headed for Joshua’s class. Her throat felt dry and her heart made her feel like it was going to give up on her as she picked up the pace, running even faster.

  Breathing heavily, she ran into the school, ignoring the teachers who called her in the hallways. Josh be in class, Josh be in class, Josh be in class, were the things that ran through her mind as she pressed on.

  On getting to the class, she pushed the door open, interrupting the class which was going on.

  “Excuse me, you can’t just barge in here!” the teacher protested, quite irritated and annoyed.

  “Where is Joshua Peterson?” she asked, panting as her eyes scanned through the students in the class.

  “Where is he?!” she screamed, not being able to find him.

  “Miss, I suggest you leave or I’ll report you to the principal,” the teacher warned but Annabelle just ignored him.

  “This is an emergency; did he tell you where he went?” Annabelle asked, her trembling eyes burning into his.

  The teacher, seeing the terror in her gaze, told her he went to use the toilet and, “Thanks,” she said, as she whirled around and ran out of the class as fast as she could.

  Joanna and the others who had been chasing her were having a hard time keeping up. “Relax, she’s headed for the toilets, we will meet her there,” Crow said as the others tried to catch their breaths.

  Please be in the toilet, please be in the toilet, was the thought in her mind as she ran through the hallways, her hair bobbing up and down.

  On reaching the male toilet, and without thinking twice she pushed the door open to meet Mrs. Crow and her friends already there. They shook their heads as if to say he wasn’t there and, “No, no, no, no!” she muttered, heart pounding, sweat trickling down her face.

  Her friends knew that trying to calm her down at that moment would have been a dumb move so they just let her be.

  “I have to call my parents,” she stammered, her hands shaking as she dialed her father’s number which went straight to voicemail.

  “No, no, no, no,” she said, tears clouding her eyes as she dialed her mother’s number which also went to voicemail.

  “Maybe he used another toilet,” Joanna mentioned as Annabelle dialed Joshua’s number, not caring if he was in class or not. At that point she would have preferred his phone ringing in class than it not ringing at all. She pressed the dial button and BEEP BEEP the phone started ringing. It was in the toilet with them.

  It wasn’t there when we checked, Crow thought, as Annabelle slowly opened one of the toilet stalls, breathing heavily as she saw Josh’s phone on top of his bag which was on the floor.

  He saved her number as GOOFY SIS and Annabelle, hanging up, noticed he had received a text from an unknown number.

  Heart pounding, throat dry and hands shaking, she read the contents of the text out loud, her voice shaking as she did.

  “I have your entire family Miss. Peterson, meet me where it all started, tonight at midnight,” she said as she broke down in tears.

  Jackson gave her a comforting hug, his eyes clouded with tears as she buried her head in his broad chest and wept.

  Joanna, being unable to stand the emotional trauma started to cry too, the only people who didn’t cry were Crow and Jacob.

  I’m going to make sure I kill that bastard, Mrs. Crow thought, as she clenched her fist with murderous intent. She wanted nothing more than to kill her brother and she had never felt a stronger desire throughout her entire life.

  “Pizza Place,” Annabelle said, sniffling with tears in her eyes.

  “We have to go to Pizza Place,” she said as she darted out of the toilet.

  “Anna, wait,” Crow called out.

  “We should follow her, I’ll give her a ride,” she said, running after Anna.

  “Did you find your brother?” Joshua’s teacher asked, as Anna blew past him, heading to the school’s entrance.

  “Hey!” he called out, with Crow, Jacob, Joanna and Jackson running past him, too.

  What’s going on? He thought as he followed them to find out what the matter was. Students, hearing the commotion started to emerge from their classes and soon there was a stampede of students right behind Anna and her friends.

  “Get in the car,” Crow insisted as she entered her brand new looking car, ignoring the students who were watching them.

  “Isn’t that our librarian? What is she doing with those kids?” they murmured as they watched.

  Soon, the parking lot was filled with students.

  “Well, you control the school, make them go away,” Joanna suggested, as Crow gripped the steering wheel unsure of what to do.

  “No time, they won’t squeal. I control them, remember?” Crow said, a smirk on her face as she turned the ignition of the car and zoomed off, leaving tire marks on the ground.