Unanimous

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

It couldn't have been that much later when Kobe returned. Gail had been sobbing quietly because of the pain the homesickness and the cuffs both made her feel.

When she had wanted to talk to Kobe earlier he had just closed the door and walked away. Though she was quite naïve it didn't take her that long to understand how things were.

Kobe was the one who locked her in there.

That was why when she saw her supposed friend opening her prison door she shrunk back against the wall and made no attempt to make conversation.

The door opened with a lot of noise and Kobe stepped forward. He crouched down and unlocked the handcuffs. He then roughly pulled her up which made Gail cry even harder.

"Shut up," he snapped and dragged the still weak fairy behind him, up the stairs.

"W-why are you doing this?" Gail managed to say. The tears were now freely running down her cheeks.

Kobe's grip on her arm tightened and Gail cried out in pain.

"I thought I told you to shut up!"

Once they reached the ground floor Kobe took her to the biggest, most luxurious living room she had ever seen. The walls were a beautiful Venetian red that made everything in the chamber look both threatening and posh. There were two big couches, with a small expensive looking coffee table in the middle. The carpet resembled the colour of the walls and had golden, delicate drawings on it.

Against the right wall stood a huge book shelf, filled with thousands of books. Though Gail was not the biggest reader around, she sure could appreciate the marvellous sight, even in the current circumstances.

Kobe forced her to sit down in one of the couches, turned around and left the room without another word.

Gail was left startled and didn't know what to do. Should she flee? What if she got caught?

This Kobe certainly wasn't the one she knew. He had always been kind with her in the past and though he sometimes appeared a bit short-tempered, he had never hurt anyone.

She looked at her bloody wrists and sighed.

That moment the door opened again. Gail expected to see Kobe, but was left shocked instead.

She was looking straight into a pair of eyes she hadn't seen for over 3 weeks.

~

The candles shook dangerously when Matthieu placed Gail's schoolbag on the middle of the table.

"Watch out with those candles, Matthieu! You'll set the house on fire if you're not more careful!" Amber reprimanded him.

Matthieu simply ignored her and continued.

There stood 12 candles around Gail's red schoolbag, one for every youngling present. It had been Matthieu's idea to try something he had heard about in magical arts at Tormundia.

Magical arts was the one and only class both humans and supernaturals adored. It taught the students how to practise certain spells. The fun thing about those spells is that everyone can learn it. It doesn't matter if you're a human, midget or angel.

You have to be careful with what you teach younglings though. Not all of them are very responsible...

I once saw, for instance, a human use a memory-wiping-spell as revenge on a boy she really loathed. She had meant to make him forget only one day of his life, but that didn't quite work out. The poor boy didn't even remember how to tie his shoelaces afterwards.

"So you think that we'll actually be able to summon Gail's ... ghost?" Tessa asked sceptically. She sure wasn't the only one who was carrying a look of doubt and disbelief.

Matthieu finally looked away from the circle of candles and fixed his gaze on his human classmate.

"I know it's definitely worth a try."

After they had left the police station about an hour ago they had decided to go to Gail's house, in search of one of her possessions they could use for the ritual.

They had been very lucky, because not only had no one been home, but they had also found the key of the front door under the doormat. When they had used it and had successfully gotten in they had agreed to have a little talk with Gail about safety once they retrieved her.

Currently the twelve younglings were all sitting in an oval around the rectangular, small table. Matthieu's Magical arts book for beginners lay on the floor, open on the page about rituals.

He scraped his throat.

"So, according to this book, we can summon people by holding hands and staring into the fire of the candles. I also have to say these Latin words... Strigae vocantur." He looked at the rest and laughed. "I have absolutely no idea what that means."

"Doesn't matter, let's try it," Anaïs simply said, before they all grabbed their neighbour's hand.

When the talking stopped, it was like their hearing was heightened. The wind and the squeaking of the house could suddenly be heard. Yet it was still eerily quiet.

The silence was broken when Matthieu said the Latin words.

"Strigae vocantur."

The flames that had once danced so composedly now seemed to almost have a life on their own. They rose so high that the younglings let go of each other's hand and shuffled back in fear of getting burned.

And yet as quickly as it began, it also ended. It was like some upper power had extinguished the candles.

The smoke that now drifted around the room came together and formed three large abstract figures. It then started to change colour.

After a few seconds the younglings could see that three humanly like beings were appearing in their midst. They could make out a head, arms and legs.

Some of them crawled forward again, convinced that the three silhouettes were in fact Gail, Kobe and Kenneth.

But when all the smoke had finally vanished and nothing but three solid human bodies were left, they saw that the three unfamiliar females were definitely not their missing friends.