Fowler School of Magic's

Ashes

She took Francine to the ladder that morning. She'd retrieved Emily's bone even earlier that that. She ordered her to wait outside and descended the ladder with Hugo and Emily behind. They helped her turn the wheel and she prepared for the smell.

Emily screamed.

She jumped into the empty pit, sifting through the ashes. Calla remembered how cloudy and grey the sky had been, how she'd thought she'd seen smoke. She felt nauseous, a feeling that was becoming way too common nowadays.

Emily was on her knees now, hands buried in the ashes. Calla tried not to remember the eyes staring up at her the first time she'd been here as Emily looked up. "I'm going to find whoever's doing this, and then I'm going to break their skull into pieces."

The bone in her pocket felt heavy. It was all that was left of Emily now. An entire lifetime and the only evidence it existed was a piece of her skeleton.

The room felt hot. She stepped back into the ladder well, watching Francine look down from above. She moved her hand in front of her throat. Francine obviously didn't get the gesture. How were you supposed to silently tell someone Hey I know I dragged you out here before class to resurrect a girl we both didn't really like all that much and who I might've had a hand in murdering but as it turns out her body has been cremated and all that's really left of her body is the bone in my back pocket, my bad.

She gave her another shake of her head before moving back to the doorway a few feet away. To her surprise, Emily was crying. She was hunched over herself, body shaking as she sobbed. It was strange to see her experiencing something other than anger.

"Emily," she said softly, "Emily it's time to go." Her head snapped up, eyes ablaze with something bone-chilling. She got up like she was pulling herself off the ground and moved toward her. "I wanted my body back," She started, "where's my body?"

She kept coming closer, not stopping until she had backed her against the ladder, stopping maybe an inch from her face. Francine banged on the metal walls around them.

"Hey! What's going on down there?"
"Say it's fine."
"It's fine! Just give me a few minutes."

Emily nodded, dragging her fingers across her face. It reminded her sickeningly of Rhiannon. Fingertips turned to fingernails and she found herself reaching for the bone in her back pocket.

"I'm sorry you died Emily and I'm sorry your body's gone and I-" it was barely a whisper, afraid Francine would hear and come down to help her or she would somehow anger Emily further. She angered her anyway, slapped across the face. She caught herself on one of the lower rooks of the ladder but not before she hit her face on one.

Emily pulled her up by the hair, "I don't want your apologies. Here's what's going to happen," she saw Hugo appear behind her faintly. Emily was using too much energy. He was helpless to help her. "you're going to take to that gate you were at the first time you got taken, you're going to be taken to that room, and I'm going to kill whoever's down there."
"Emily-"
"I don't give a fuck about your morals. Take me there or I will."
"I can't do-"

Emily forced herself into her body. Calla was thrown to the backseat but she wasn't going down without a fight. As Emily tried to climb up the ladder she threw their now shared body to the ground. Emily clawed at her face, Calla's face. She felt the pain vaguely, it'd probably hurt a lot more later.

She tried again to get up, ramming the body into the wall. She tried to climb the ladder again, only to fall back about seven rooms up, sliding down the inner walls and dropping to the floor. Her ankle flared in pain as they landed. She'd deal with it later. Emily couldn't kill anyone else. Not yet. Not in her body.

"Fucking stop!" Francine was staring now, looking terrified. "I'm fine!" Calla mustered, drowned out by Emily reaching for the throat. She held it until she couldn't breathe and then stumbled back into the room. She tripped over the edge of the pit and fell into it, landing on her back and effectively knocking the wind out of both of them.

The chute rumbled above them. Calla tried to get her body to move but Emily had the power. She has control over her limbs, she was just trying to injure her enough that Calla would give up. She didn't know what was worse, being beat up by her own body, or the body that fell on her.

It knocked what little air they'd gotten back out and Emily beamed as she stuck two fingers in the hole in the body's throat. "Give it up to me Calla," Calla slammed her arm into the ash on the floor, pain flaring in her own arm. Emily regained control easily, scooping up blood with her now ash-covered fingers, forcing their mouth open.

"Emily don't."
"Stop fighting then."
"You cant kill everyone. We need to know what's happening before we-"

The taste in her mouth was worse than the texture. Emily licked her fingers clean and swallowed hard, Calla gagged and Emily pushes the body off, giving it a small kick and ignoring the blood on them.

"Calla?" They looked up. Francine had descended the ladder at some point and was now standing at the bottom of it.

"If I can't kill them-"
"No."
"-maybe I'll just kill her."

"Calla? What are you talking about?"

Emily lunged forward but Calla forced them back down, a cloud of ash temporarily blinding them. Emily recovered quickly, climbing back onto the platform from the pit. Calla forced them back in, falling on their side this time. Emily dragged her back toward the body, wiping her palm in their neck and licking it herself.

"Stop!" She threw them backward and Emily used the force to get them on the platform, grabbing the door to keep from being throw backwards.

"Calla? What's wrong?" Hugo stood in the hallway but they passed right through him. Emily swung, despite being several steps away from Francine, and Calla redirected the into the wall. Emily grinned and punched it over and over until she heard a crunch and blood was left on the wall.

"Run." She choked out, "I'm-" But Francine didn't move. She was either paralyzed or stupid. Either way, Emily was back to swinging. She missed, Calla having redirected it, and went to choke her instead. Calla got all the energy she had left in her to shove her out as she wrapped her bloody hands around Francine's throat.

Emily fell to the floor and Calla was left standing. She threw up on Francine who gagged appropriately and caught her when she collapsed.

She woke up alone. Well, not entirely. Hugo stood over her in the dark tunnel. Then she wasn't alone. Nathan walked through the tunnel from somewhere unseen and looked at her, covered in blood, ash, and vomit. He grabbed her shoulder and she fell against a door. Francine pulled it open and she fell to the floor as Nathan said something she didn't catch and Francine apologized.

"Cash and Max have been building this place. They have a bathroom, a bedroom, and this room so far. You can show-"
"What the fuck happened?" Rhiannon yelled, moving to her side. Francine held up something white. Calla blinked, realizing it was Emily's bone. Emily. She gagged and Francine kicked a trash can toward her before she and Rhiannon led her to the bathroom.