onyx: poltergeist

twenty-two

CELINE

This was it. Today was the day when everything goes back to normal.

I flew up to the front lawn bright and early as always, waiting by the faculty entrance for Jayda to arrive. Now that Martin and I got rid of that problematic pendant yesterday after school, the curse should have undone itself and both Jayda and Mr Lambert would be back in their own bodies again. If only Jayda came to school earlier, I just couldn't wait to meet her again, in her own body that is, and damn I really missed talking to her face to face as ordinary friends.

I stood rooted to the concrete step in front of the door until I finally made out the familiar figure of a brunette with blazing amber eyes framed behind a pair of black framed glasses. Jayda!

I took off running down the steps, almost tripping on one of them before collapsing into her arms and wrapping her into tight embrace. "Oh my god Jayda! So good to have you back again!" I huffed.

Jayda immediately pulled away uncomfortably, her face falling. "Celine...I'm not-"

Wait, what?

"You're not what?" I asked. She's definitely not being herself, maybe something was up.

"I'm...not Jayda," she sighed, as though she was defeated, "the effect didn't kick in last night."

How? Martin and I, we practically destroyed the necklace and released the spirit. That was why all the lights in the Chemistry lab died.

"Mr Lambert? It's still you?" I asked again, confused by what I just heard. If we already did enough damage to the cursed pendant, why wouldn't the curse undo itself? It's already been an entire night, don't tell me the curse was permanent.

The figure standing before me shook its head. "Yeah, I'm still Mr Lambert," it sighed.

"Oh," I looked back at a disappointed looking Mr Lambert who was still stuck in Jayda's body, "sorry Mr Lambert, but I don't think we should give up just yet. There's still hope, maybe the effect is just...late."

"Hopefully," he forced out a small smile on Jayda's face, "I'm sure you and Martin did a great job in destroying the pendant, so the effect should kick in soon."

"Yeah, we did," I shrugged, "everything disappeared eventually." I slid out my phone from my pocket to check for the time, and it just so happened to be five minutes before our first lesson. So much for punctuality.

"We should go now," I advised, "our lessons start in five minutes and we can't afford to be late. Tell us if you feel anything weird okay?"

"Got it," Mr Lambert nodded, "I'll see you and the rest during lunch then, hopefully something kicks in by then. Bye."

~

MARTIN

Throughout every lesson I had to sit through before lunch I found myself blindly taking down notes listed down the whiteboard in front. I had absolutely no idea what they meant, my brain was too preoccupied with something else for me to pay attention to whatever the notes I took were talking about. Guess I really had to study in depth when I get back to my apartment.

Every single time I jotted down one word, my mind kept going back to the recurring thought of what might happen to Jayda and Mr Lambert after Celine and I destroyed the necklace in the Chemistry lab yesterday. I still have yet to meet the rest of our group today, and judging by the clock ticking away on the wall in front, it was just a mere half a minute away till the class gets dismissed. God, waiting was so tough today.