Page 12 of Spirit Witch

Scurrying down the stairs, instead of opting to ride the elevator, I almost ran right into Dram Pile and his merry band of fuckheads, as Mabe had dubbed them.That was one group of wizards I wanted to avoid like the plague.They had major issues with everyone, and it didn’t seem to matter they were currently covenless as well.

“Look who we got here,” Dram sneered.“What’s the matter, pretty girl?”

“I think she needs a big, powerful man to sit by her today,” one of his idiot friends remarked.

“No thanks,” I mumbled, trying to get past them, but the idiots kept stepping in my way.

“Not so fast.I don’t see your friend with you today.Maybe you need to give us a moment of your time.”

“Um, no thanks,” I replied, trying to calm my breathing.

“No thanks, she says,” he said, looking over his shoulder at his cronies before backing me up into the wall.“You know, I’m only in this loser group because my brother inherited all the water magic in my family’s cache.I’ll be working for him soon as I graduate.My future is all set, pretty girl.Ooh, yeah, you are pretty, aren’t you?I think you could do worse than hang around with a guy like me.So, what do you say?Sit by me and maybe after class I’ll show you a good time.”

The idea of doing anything with a guy like Dram repulsed me to no end.There was something inherently gross about a guy who thought he could bully a woman into dating him.But I sucked at confrontation, and coward that I was, I hoped Mabe would come down the hall soon to save my ass.

Then I remembered she was out with Fin for the afternoon.They were supposedly hunting down an old Lorekeeper the Enforcers used sometimes whose name Enok had confirmed among his books.The man might be someone who knew something about all this mess we were in.

“Assembly is going to start.Move, please,” I mumbled.

I hated that I was a coward, but I really did not like confrontations.They never ended the way I expected, and I would rather not get in it with anyone.Especially a bunch of sexually frustrated wizards.Suddenly, an image of dream boy flashed in my brain.Big, tall, ridiculously hot.He would never have to do something like this to get a girl’s attention.

Not that I thought Dram was really interested in me.More like he was interested in terrorizing me to get back at Mabe.Still, I wondered if he would stick up for me if he were there, and if he were real, of course.

Fuck.

I was sick.Wishing my fantasy lover was a real guy like some sort of weirded out version of Pinocchio.

“Aw, isn’t she cute, sayingplease?That’s right, baby, you’ll be saying please to me later tonight,” he whispered in my ear, causing bile to rise in my throat.

I wanted him to get away from me.Like, immediately.But Dram was a man, and even being a feminist, I had to know my limitations.He was bigger, stronger, taller, and meaner than me.And he had his friends to back him up.

Crap.

I hated this part of me.The scared little girl who hid in the closet at every foster home I’d ever lived in because I was afraid.

Damn.

When did I do that?

It was not the right time for me to go on another memory search.Dram leaned in, sniffing my neck, and I had to work hard not to gag.I thought he would have learned something from when he messed around with Mabe, but I guessed not.He was too much of an egomaniac and narcissist to ever change.But all the pseudo psychoanalysis would not help me.

What can I do?

I tried to think of something, anything, to get the wizard to back off, and just when he leaned, licking my cheek, and giving me the worst feeling ever, I saw my salvation.It didn’t come in the shape of Mabe or Fin or any of the faculty or friends I’d made on campus.It was the fade with the hollowed eyes who’d chased me to Armstrong’s office the other day.

The shadowy, non-corporeal figure was floating down the hall, closing in on us.His eyes glowed brightly, leaving tears of ectoplasm trailing down his pale face.I’d been avoiding this hallway ever since the last time I made the mistake of looking at the ghost, and I’d hoped to rush inside the classroom before I spotted him.But right then, I was super happy to see the creepy, slime dripping spirit.

But Dram couldn’t see the fade like I could.He didn’t feel the slight drop in temperature or the way the lights flickered down just a fraction or two from their original brightness.The walls were closing in on me and I moved back, trying to create some space between myself, Dram, and the fade.

Fades tended to haunt the same area, though I wasn’t sure why.But it was why I avoided plenty of common areas at the academy.The places that didn’t have as many protection wards as the classrooms and offices were hotspots for spirits, or whatever you wanted to call them.But there I was.Stuck in the hallway.Being accosted by that turd, Dram Pile.

FML.

The wizard had just licked my cheek and was making some raunchy comments to his friends, who were laughing and egging him on.But things suddenly shifted when the fade, who I was sure had been looking for me the past few days, reached inside Dram’s brain with a sickly squelch that only I could hear.The arrogant wizard twitched, shaking his head as the fade continued to muck about in his brain with his ghostly hand.

“Dude, you okay?”one of his buddies said as Dram slumped forward, pinning me to the wall.

“Ow!You’re crushing me.Dram?”I asked, struggling against his weight.His head tipped back just in time for me to watch his eyes roll back inside his head.

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