“Oh well this place brings back memories, doesn’t it James?” Pepper asked, Dinkley being unable to pinpoint his exact location.

  “Show yourself!” he said forcefully.

  “I’m right behind you,” Pepper said, startling him.

  “Let me go! How could you?! After all the things I did for you!” He struggled to break free but the knots were too tight.

  “Well,” Pepper said, pulling out a knife, the knife glistening as rays of moonlight reflected off it from different angles.

  “What do you plan on doing with that?!” Dinkley yelled, his heart throbbing as Pepper approached him with the knife.

  “Oh this knife?” he asked, as he gave the knife a quick glance, a sinister smile on his face.

  “I’m just going to kill you.”

  “Why, after all I’ve done for you?!” Dinkley asked, still struggling to break free.

  “Oh, because I’m bored, that's why. By the way, my real name is Pepper Crow of the Blackwaters,” he said, slowly pushing the tip of the knife into Dinkley’s throat.

  Dinkley tried screaming, but all one could hear was the gargled sounds he made as blood filled his mouth. Slowly, Pepper pushed the blade into his throat until the entire knife was in his neck.

  “You,” he mouthed, as he slowly lost consciousness, the last thing he saw being Pepper’s evil smile.

  “Ok that’s done, eat!” Pepper screamed, and James pounced out of nowhere, digging his colossal teeth into Dinkley’s corpse.

  “Next, Annabelle Peterson,” he said, letting out an evil laugh.

  ***

  Annabelle had completed all her tests for the day, so many questions on her mind. She was in the school cafeteria, refusing to touch her food no matter how many times Joanna had persuaded her to. Jackson, alongside the other seniors, were still having their rigorous back-to-back classes in preparation for their exams, not allowing Annabelle to see her boyfriend most of the time.

  The sweet aroma of pastries filled the atmosphere alongside the chattering sounds of numerous students as they ate.

  “Can’t they eat without talking?” Annabelle said, scowling.

  “You need to eat your food, please,” Joanna insisted, her hand placed over Anna’s.

  “He must want something,” she mumbled under her breath.

  “What? What was that?” Joanna asked, not being able to make out what Anna had said.

  “The killer,” Annabelle said, taking a bite out of her apple.

  “The sorcerer, this um Pepper guy,” she said, taking a second bite.

  “What do you think he wants?” Joanna asked. She was just happy her friend was eating and, “If he really wanted you dead, you’d be,” she added.

  “I think he wants me dead but why?” Annabelle asked, trying to remember if she had done something during her childhood to warrant all the death threats and dreams.

  “I think it’s all a game,” Joanna said, a piece of cake in her mouth.

  “I know it’s a game, but what kind of game?”

  “Come to think of it, he had the chance to kill Mrs. Crow and all of us when she was much weaker so why didn’t he?” Joanna asked.

  “Because he probably knew Crow would look for power,” she said, answering her own question as Anna sat there in complete confusion.

  “Look, he wanted her to get stronger so he could savor the battle,” Joanna added.

  “You think?” Anna said, unsure of what to believe.

  “The dragons, Opsilion 12, we could have died at any of those times but here we are. Your amulet, he could have killed you when you took it off or before you even got it, but here you are,” Joanna said, quickly putting some pasta in her mouth.

  “Think about it,” said Joanna as she chewed the food.

  “So this is all a game,” Annabelle said, getting riled up.

  “Hey,” Joanna sharply whispered.

  “Getting angry here won’t get you anywhere, use your head,” she insisted as she looked at Annabelle intently giving her a quick but true smile.

  “What do we do from here?” Annabelle asked as she hastily ate her meal which had gone cold.

  “We can’t do anything so we wait for Crow to show up. There are a lot of questions I have to ask her,” Joanna said quite conclusively with a determined look on her face.

  They hadn’t eaten for long, when “Hey guys,” Jacob said, a tray in his hand and a bright smile on his face.

  Annabelle shifted to the side, shooting Jacob an unsure look as he sat beside her.

  “What’s up?” he said, meeting her gaze as he took a bite out of an apple.

  Summoning courage, “Where have you been?” Annabelle asked, her eyes burning into his. Joanna decided not to interfere in what was going on so she just watched them as she finished her meal.

  “Been where? What do you mean?” he asked, averting his eyes.

  “I didn’t see you during the test,” she said.

  “What do you mean? I was right there, we wrote English first,” he said, focusing more on his meal.

  “Prove it,” Anna said, just above a whisper as she studied him with her eyes.

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  “The last question told us to find the word that consisted of vowel sounds,” he said, scooping spoons of rice into his mouth. He ate a lot, but looked like someone who suffered from malnourishment and Anna and her friend had concluded it must have been a medical condition.

  “Oh and you left before the time for the mathematics exam was up,” he said, seeming to be more interested in his meal.

  How come no one notices him in school? Anna thought to herself as her eyes narrowed in suspicion.

  “How do you do it?” she asked, refusing to drop the issue.

  “Do what?” he asked, as he looked at her, some food packed to the right side of his mouth.

  “The disappearing act,” Anna replied. She had already begun to lose her mind and was almost completely convinced Jacob was the one who was after her life. A stupid assumption.

  “What disappearing act? I’m not a magician,” he said, quite impassively as he peered at her.

  “How come no one notices your presence until you announce it?” Joanna cut in.

  “Uhhhh,” he said, his mouth wide open as he stared at Joanna.

  Meanwhile, somewhere in another realm, James was tied to a tree. He was calm, seeming to be okay with it as he studied his environment with his lifeless red eyes.

  The orange sun hovered in the sky, gray clouds partially blocking it as they glided past it.

  The trees weren’t so tall, and their barks were thin and black.

  “Okay, I have a job for you,” Pepper said, as he approached him. His hoodie had been taken off his head and his eyes burned into James’s as he spoke.

  “You will listen to me carefully,” he said, as James nodded his monstrous head, paying close attention.

  After a moment of screaming, James Bludovitch was human again. Human but not himself.

  It was still the messenger, but in James’s body.

  “I understand my purpose,” he said, as Pepper snickered, trying to contain his happiness.

  “Now go,” he said, opening a portal which led to the mortal realm.

  “I will bring back Annabelle Peterson,” James said, his eyes flashing red as he walked into the portal.

  ***

  After a long string of interviews and accusations, Anna and her friend had discovered that Jacob was just a normal guy who liked horror things and had no friends.

  Or could that have been what he wanted them to think?

  Anna, feeling sorry for what she had done, tried explaining herself to Jacob but he slapped her hands away, storming out of the cafeteria in anger.

  “Jacob, wait!” She screamed, drawing the attention of the students as she followed him.

  “Well, guess I’ll go too,” Joanna said, shooting the students dirty looks as they stared at her and murmured.

  She followed him right to the entrance of the school, but then, she stopped.

  “Impossible,” she said in jaw dropping shock.

  “What?” Jacob said as he looked behind him to see what shocked her so much. It was James Bludovitch, walking right towards them.

  “Get back,” Anna said to Jacob, as they staggered backwards, nearly tripping.

  “Hey Anna!” Joanna screamed, trying to catch her breath.

  “Wait u…….” she paused, noticing James.

  “How is he alive,” she squealed in fear.

  Not long after, most of the students, both senior and junior, had gathered outside the school, teachers too, throwing different questions at him.

  “What happened? Are you okay? We need to call 911!” different voices clustered together, causing noise.

  “That’s not James,” Annabelle said, as she watched him smile at the crowd, answering every question he could. He glanced at her for a moment, giving her a brief but mischievous smirk and then looked away.

  “If he isn’t, then who is he?” Joanna asked, her mouth wide open.

  “And why is he here?”

  “And where the hell is Mrs. Crow?!”

  Two days had passed after the return of James. Mrs. Crow was still nowhere to be found, and James Bludovitch somehow managed to avoid talking to Anna and her friends.

  He always found a way of vanishing each time they thought they cornered him. His parents, blinded yet overwhelmed with joy, hadn't noticed anything strange in his behavior and he somehow managed to take the makeup tests without stress.

  There was something about him, something strange. The press was all over the school, asking him questions about where he had been and “Oh, the abductor let me go just like that,” he would always reply with a mischievous smirk.

  Annabelle was in the test hall taking a social studies test, her mind focused on James. She stylishly looked behind her, and on noticing he was staring at her, she quickly averted her eyes. Something felt off; something she couldn’t explain.

  After the test, Anna, Jacob and Joanna were just a few meters away from the test hall, caught in a deep conversation.

  “What do you mean that isn’t James? You have been saying that for the past two days,” Joanna said, her eyes darting all around like a deer on alert.

  “I just know it isn’t him. He can’t be alive,” Anna said, her eyes warily looking around and her voice down.

  “What if Crow lied? What if he never died?” Jacob said, just above a whisper.

  “What would she gain from it?” Joanna asked, gesturing.

  “Well, if she were here she would have told us but where the hell is she?” Annabelle said, as she looked at where James was seated, but he was gone.

  “Guys, James is gone,” she said, her voice slightly trembling as she noticed her friends were staring behind her, their eyes telling her someone was behind her.

  She turned around.

  “Wonder where Crow is, I haven’t seen her lately,” he said, a bright smile on his face.

  “Who are you?” Annabelle asked, looking him intently in his eyes. His eyes seemed to have changed color, from a pale black to a deep red.

  “Nice contacts,” she said, trying to force a confession out of him.

  “What? This is my eye color,” he said, brushing his perfectly groomed dark hair with his hands.

  He wore a leather jacket, and black denim trousers with a silver chain hanging around his trouser pocket.

  The jacket didn’t seem to make him feel hot, and Anna’s eyes warily studied him as she wondered why he wasn’t feeling hot.

  “Answer the question,” Joanna said, stepping closer to him.

  He smirked at her, giving off a sexy villain vibe and then kissed her on the lips. Dazed, but not mad, Joanna stood there unable to do or say anything.

  “What the hell did you just do,” Anna said, trying not to cause a scene as she tried to slap him.

  He caught her hands and tsked as his red eyes burned into hers.

  “Who are you?” Annabelle asked, as he let go of her hand and, “Follow me,” he said, heading for the school hall.

  “Hey you, get me some food and bring it to the hall,” he ordered a male student who was about twice his size.

  “What for? Get your own food!” the student, confident in his size, said as he brushed past James.

  “What’s he thinking? He’s never bullied that guy before,” Annabelle muttered to herself.

  “Hey pissface!” he yelled, drawing the attention of a small crowd of students.

  “James is about to get beat by big Mitch,” a girl in the crowd said, as everyone watched expectantly.

  Mitch was the only person, other than Jackson that hadn’t been bullied by James. He tried it once, but Mitch was just too strong and too rough for him.

  “What did you just call me?” Mitch said, dropping his books on the floor as he turned around.

  “I……. said……...piss……face……” he said, as slowly as he could, raising his finger as if he were trying to say Mitch couldn’t do anything about it.