The following day was supposed to be pizza day in the cafeteria at school, but because of “supply issues” all the pizza had mysteriously vanished and instead meatloaf was being served. Just one more reason they had to get the imp queen out of their school ASAP.

  Jesse went to his and Siobhan’s usual table in the corner, only to find her so completely absorbed in a book she didn’t even notice him sit down across from her.

  “What are you reading?” he asked, startling her. She snapped the book closed with a guilty expression.

  “Okay, don’t be mad-”

  “Not a great way to start that sentence,” he noted, narrowing his eyes.

  “But it’s a beginner’s spellbook Bella gave me.” She moved the book so he could see it better; yellowed pages bound in dark leather, no title explaining its contents, only a circle with runes similar to the ones he’d seen Bella draw to perform a ritual.

  “When did she give you that?”

  “Last time we visited her, as we were leaving. I-” she hesitated. “I hid it from you ‘cause I thought you’d be mad.”

  Jesse blinked. “And why would I be mad about that?”

  “You aren’t?” she said, surprised. “I kind of expected you to be, seeing how you’re always like, ‘oh, all this supernatural stuff is dangerous’ and ‘we shouldn’t go to Gravewood.’”

  “Well, it is and we shouldn’t,” he grumbled. “But you’ve always been into that witchcraft stuff, so this isn’t that much different from what you usually do.”

  “Except, it kind of is? This is a real spellbook from a real witch. I could do actual magic with this.”

  Jessie paused, the sandwich he was eating halfway to his mouth. “Wait, you can? Like the stuff that Bella does?”

  “I mean... I haven’t tried it out yet,” she admitted. “But Bella told me that I had the magical potential. The capability to do magic,” she added at the confused look on his face. “It’s something you have to be born with and not everyone has it. Anyway, we got so sidetracked with everything happening with the imp queen, that I haven’t had the time to test it yet. That’s actually what I was looking for right now; I’m trying to see if there’s anything in here that can help us with the queen.”

  “Is there?”

  “Not really.” She flipped through the pages. “I mean, there’s this spell called True Sight that can see through illusions and stuff, which would mean we wouldn’t need to deal with Brom to see the imp queen, but its components are kind of...” she made a face. “Like, I don’t know where we would even get yeti pee.”

  “What kind of conversation did we just walk in on?”

  Noah plopped his tray down next to Siobhan while Alicia slid next to Jesse on the other side of the table.

  “We were just talking about the imp queen,” he said.

  “Don’t go planning anything without us,” Alicia said with mock indignation. “We know you two are super close, but we’re in this thing, too.”

  “Maybe we should form our own imp-hunting group,” Noah suggested. “And let them come crawling to us when we catch it before them.”

  Siobhan snorted. “You two wouldn’t last one second without us, right Jess?”

  “Uh, right.” Even though he had invited Noah the other day, having them both at their lunch table kind of threw him for a loop, and apparently, he wasn’t the only one.

  “Alicia, what are you doing?” A pretty, brunette girl had approached them from one of the other tables.

  Every time Jesse saw Adrienne, he had to reconcile the fact that she was Siobhan’s older sister, as the two girls looked similar enough, but couldn’t be more different. While Siobhan kept her brown hair shoulder length and un-styled, Adrienne’s was long, falling down her back in a painstakingly straightened sheet, and though they were roughly the same height, she complemented her trendy outfit with a pair of heels, making her several inches taller than her younger sister. And all that was without even mentioning the stark personality differences between the two. Adrienne fancied herself as a social media influencer, and while Jesse didn’t keep up with that sort of thing, even he knew that if follower count determined your ranking at school, she would be the queen while he and Siobhan were at the very bottom.

  She was flanked by a group of other popular kids in some sort of posse. Among them, Jesse was quick to notice, was Kevin.

  “I’m eating lunch?” Alicia answered, as though it were obvious, which it kind of was.

  But Adrienne looked at her like she just sprouted a second head. “Okay, but... why are you here with... them?” Her eyes briefly darted to Siobhan and the book she was holding, clearly marked with an occult symbol on its cover, before giving Noah and Jesse a once over as well.

  Siobhan looked away, face flushing, and Noah scowled. Jesse sighed inwardly. It wasn’t the first time he’d been passive-aggressively insulted by his friend’s sister.

  “I’m allowed to sit wherever I want, you know,” Alicia said cooly. “And there’s nothing wrong with them.”

  After their argument outside the girls’ locker room the other day, Jesse was shocked to hear her defend them, but not nearly as much as Siobhan, who stared at her with wide eyes.

  “But you could sit with us,” Kevin piped up. “I mean, we have a lot to talk about with all the crazy stuff going on with the football field and-”

  “No thanks.”

  Jesse had to fake a cough to hide his laughter at the crushed look on Kevin’s face.

  “Seriously?” he said, trying to regain his composure. “Why would you want to-”

  “She said no, so why don’t you take the hint and leave?” Noah’s voice had a threatening edge to it as he glared daggers at the popular kids.

  “Fine,” Adrienne said, tossing her hair back. “Enjoy your lunch.”

  She left without so much as a glance back at them, the rest following her like a flock of mindless drones.

  “Thanks for that,” Siobhan mumbled. “Did you really mean it? About there being nothing wrong with us?”

  “Of course,” Alicia said. “And I know I already told Jesse and Noah this, but... I’m sorry. About what I said before. I think I was just frustrated at the situation, and I took it out on you.”

  “I’m sorry, too,” she blurted out, turning red again. “I didn’t even stop to consider from your perspective, how all this magic stuff might affect your brother and how you would want to protect him. I should have at least heard you out before I jumped to conclusions.”

  “Well,” she said dryly. “With a sibling like Adrienne, I can see why you did. I had no idea she treated you like that.”

  Jesse exchanged a glance with Noah, feeling relief wash over him at the girls’ reconciliation. He did not want to have to do the rest of their imp-catching with the tense atmosphere between them.

  “I think you just made her list, by the way,” Siobhan told her.

  “Whatever, we have more important things to worry about.”

  “Right. With Dr. Rotbart’s trap, it’ll hopefully be easy to capture the imp queen. We just have one problem; finding her.”

  Alicia nodded. “Cheerleading and football are still on hold, so that means the pest control guys haven’t been able to find the roost. It must be hidden somewhere hard for normal people to find.”

  Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

  “When they attacked at the pep rally, it looked like they came from inside,” Noah noted. “Like where the locker rooms are. You haven’t noticed anything strange in there?”

  “No, and I’ve been in the girl’s locker room a lot. I think I would have noticed a whole roost of bats.”

  “Maybe they came from somewhere else,” Jesse suggested. “What else is in that area?”

  “The custodians office, and... the boiler room!” Alicia lit up. “Dr. Rotbart said imps like to hide in dark places, and the janitor only goes in there like once a month to check on the piping.”

  “But wouldn’t the pest control guys have found the nest down there already?” Siobhan asked.

  “Maybe not. Imps are supposed to be smart right? Well, smart-ish. Like Alicia said, they could have made it so normal people can’t find their nest.”

  “This is a great theory and all, but how are we supposed to get in there to investigate? I thought students weren’t allowed in the boiler room, and they’d definitely catch us trying to sneak in.”

  She was right. The custodian's office was right next to the boiler room and any attempt to break in would be painfully obvious.

  Noah, however, didn’t look worried. “Leave that to me.”

  Noah cryptically refused to let the rest of them in on his plan, so Jesse found himself anxiously waiting with Siobhan and Alicia, hiding just out of sight in the bleachers near where the girls’ locker room and boiler room were after school, as per his instructions.

  “Anybody else have a bad feeling about this?” He couldn’t help but remember how Noah’s last “plan” involved ambushing Alicia outside the school and started tapping his fingers anxiously.

  Siobhan rolled her eyes. “You have a bad feeling about everything.”

  “I’m sure whatever Noah’s doing, it won’t be that bad,” Alicia said comfortingly.

  A few seconds later, a deafening CRASH sounded from the direction of the of the boys’ locker/training room on the other side of the field.

  “What was that?” She was suddenly not so sure of their friend, and sure enough, they saw Noah run out from the room, heading in the direction of the school.

  A door slamming open caused the three of them to duck as they saw Mr. Nelson rushing towards the noise, swearing under his breath.

  A ping alerted Jesse to a new text message. “You’re good to go.”

  Or at least, that’s what, he assumed it said. The short message had so many typos, it was as if Noah had written it with one hand while sprinting at full speed, which was definitely what he did.

  “That’s our cue,” he told the others.

  They hurried over to the boiler room door, and just as Jesse started to think this plan might actually work, he tried the handle to find it locked. He kicked himself mentally. Of course it would be locked, why wouldn’t it be locked?

  “That’s just great,” he said. “Can we get the key from the janitor’s room?”

  “Also locked,” Alicia said, jiggling the doorknob for emphasis.

  “Hold on, I have an idea.” Siobhan dug through her backpack until she found the spellbook from earlier, flipping its pages until she found the right one. “Incantation of Unlocking.”

  She raised her hand over the knob and started reciting the spell, the same ancient, rhythmic chanting Jesse remembered Bella using during her ritual. When she tried the handle again, it was still locked.

  “Come on,” she muttered before reciting the incantation again.

  The door remained stubbornly locked. Jesse didn’t have it in his heart to suggest that maybe Bella had been mistaken about Siobhan’s potential as a witch.

  “No, wait, hang on,” she said. “Maybe if I-”

  “Sorry, but this is taking too long.” Alicia nudged her out of the way and pulled a bobby pin from her neatly styled ponytail, inserting it into the lock. After a moment of fiddling, she pushed on the door and it swung open easily.

  “Woah, where’d you learn how to do that?” Jesse asked.

  “YouTube,” she said simply. At the looks on their faces she continued, “What? I have interests other than cheerleading, you know.”

  On the other side of the door was a set of stairs that led down into darkness. Jesse took the lead and together they descended into the basement, footsteps echoing on the cement stairs. Once they reached the bottom, the automatic lights finally decided to flicker on, revealing the boiler room in all its musty glory.

  “Okay, keep an eye out for anything suspicious,” Jesse told the girls as they spread out to search the room.

  He remembered hearing once that Oak Hollow Middle School had been built way back in the early twentieth century, and judging by the looks of the boiler room, he guessed it hadn’t changed much from its original design. With huge metal pipes and austere concrete walls, it definitely looked like the kind of place where a slasher movie would set its big finale. He could see why the janitor only checked in on the place once a month.

  Scouring the room for any signs of imp activity, Jesse was reminded of the escape room that they did on Halloween night, and he fought back a smile. Looking back on it now, that might have been the only time post haunted house where they weren’t actively fighting for their lives, and it had actually been kind of fun.

  “Hey guys, come check this out.” Siobhan called them over to a corner of the room where a wide piece of plywood was propped against the wall.

  “What about it?” Alicia asked.

  “Stand over here,” she instructed, pulling the other girl over to where she was.

  “Woah.” She blinked. “That’s trippy.”

  Curiously, Jesse moved to stand next to them as well, and at first he couldn’t tell what they were talking about, because the corner looked just the same as it did from where he had been, until it hit him.

  It looked the same; the plywood board had shifted to be at the same angle from one spot to another, still covering the corner. He moved from side to side, but no matter where he looked at the board from, it was always facing him, as if it was on a swivel, constantly spinning in perfect sync with his gaze. It reminded him of video games that sometimes used 2D assets in a three-dimensional environment.

  “How is this even possible?” he asked, as Siobhan moved the board out of the way, revealing a large hole in the wall. He used his phone’s flashlight to get a better look, illuminating a tunnel that turned from concrete to dirt as it led deep into the earth, away from the school.

  “Didn’t Dr. Rotbart say something about imps being able to wrap themselves in the veil?” Alicia said. “Maybe that’s what the queen did here, so the regular humans wouldn’t be able to find her roost, and the only reason we noticed the effect is because we can see through the veil.”

  “I... guess that makes sense,” Jesse said. “Then that means we found where the queen is hiding.”

  “Only one way to know for sure.” Before he could react, she was already crawling through the opening.

  “Hey, wait-” he cursed. “Siobhan, could you keep watch?” Alicia couldn’t go alone and the last thing he wanted right now was for Siobhan to have an asthma attack while crawling through some dank tunnel. He would have to join her himself.

  “You got it, captain.” She saluted.

  He cast a quick glare at her before getting on his hands and knees and following Alicia.

  The tunnel was just big enough for him to not-so-comfortably crawl through, his head bumping against the top if he wasn’t careful, and given that the sides were roughly dug out from the earth, the motion would send handfuls of dirt falling on top of him. The only saving grace was that the passage sloped at a gentle decline, making the trip easier than if it had been going uphill. Still, the thought of heading deeper underground made him uneasy.

  Alicia, only a few feet ahead of him, seemed unbothered, crawling forward like a girl on a mission. How she was able to stay so determined was beyond him, but it did give him an extra boost of encouragement. The others were all doing their best to solve the imp problem, with searching for spells and causing distractions; he couldn’t let himself drag them down.

  The tunnel went on for a lot longer than he had initially expected, and it felt like forever before Alicia called back, “I see something up ahead.”

  A few minutes later and she was lifting herself out of the tunnel, Jesse scrambling behind her. He still had his phone out with its flashlight and used it to get their bearings.

  The two of them now found themselves in a large cavern underground, rocky walls leading up at least thirty feet; the tunnel must have led them farther than he realized. He slowly lifted the light to the cavern’s ceiling to confirm his suspicions. Hanging from the stalagmites were hundreds and hundreds of bats, all sleeping away soundly. Jesse suddenly became very aware of every little noise in the cave; if they weren’t careful, they could easily give the bats an unwelcome wake up call.

  Well, Jesse thought dryly. We found the bats’ roost. Mission accomplished.

  But something was missing; no matter where he looked, he couldn’t find the imp queen anywhere. Exchanging a glance with Alicia, who he could tell from the look on her face, she was thinking the same thing, he slowly made his way forward, scouring the cave for any sign of the queen.

  He kept his light fixed on the ceiling. The imp queen was like four times the size of a regular bat and had horns, there was no way he could miss her. But the further they looked, the more he began to accept the truth; she wasn’t here.

  That’s when it hit him; of course the queen wasn’t here. He’d encountered her in the school right after class, and she’d been pulling pranks around campus during the day. She must go on her own little rampage before coming back to the roost to gather the bats for their nighttime hunt.

  As he was putting the pieces together, his flashlight still trained above him, he wasn’t paying attention to where he was stepping, until his foot came down on something with a loud crunch!

  He quickly looked down to find hundreds of shiny little pellets strewn across the floor. He cursed under his breath, backing up the way they came, but the damage had already been done.

  The sound normally wouldn’t have been so loud, but with the acoustics of the cave it might as well have been played through an electric amp; reverberating out for all the bats to hear. One by one, they started waking up.

  Realizing what was about to happen, he quickly pulled Alicia down to crouch behind a stalagmite nearby, shooting as quick a text as he could manage to Siobhan. Just in time too, as when enough of the bats had woken up, their cries echoing throughout the cave, they made a beeline for the entrance to the tunnel, grouping together in a chaotic formation.

  It was a frenzy as every single bat tried to leave the cave through the tiny entrance as one. Jesse had turned his flashlight off to try not to draw attention to their hiding place, and without the light he could only hear the deafening noise of the bats fighting their way out. Alicia was right next to him, and although he couldn’t see her face in the pitch-black darkness of the cave, she must have been as anxious as he was, judging by the way her hand clamped around his wrist.

  Eventually the thrum of noise died to only a few sparse squeaks as the last of the bats left through the tunnel. Only when it was completely silent did Alicia let out a shaky sigh, releasing her death grip on Jesse.

  “I think that’s enough investigating for one day.”