It happens after we leave lunch on Friday. Something is going on down the hall we're walking along. And it's coming closer.
"Move out of the way!" someone yells and people jump to the sides while those who don't are forcefully shoved there by a girl dashing through the hall with incredible speed. Her eyes are wide with fury and she hisses as she slams another person to the wall. Her pupils aren't round.
I freeze for an instance, staring into the eyes of the being charging towards us. What an impossible thing to be happening, I think. Then I drop my bag to the floor and get ready to catch her.
She tries to push me but I dodge and grab a hold of her arm. She hisses again, surprised and annoyed, and goes to scratch me, but I catch her other hand as well and drag her to the wall. Gil and Alica are at my side, pinning her hands against it as she lashes and struggles to get free. I hold her head between my hands, forcing her to look at me. Her pupils are slanted, her eyes purple and glowing. Pixie.
"You have no business possessing this girl," I say in a low voice, tightening my grip on her head as she tries to lunge it forward in an attempt to bite me. "Leave her body."
She bares her teeth at me, growling and spits on my face. I don't flinch.
Then she grins madly, and opens her mouth wide. I only have a moment to realize what she's doing before the high pitch screech leaves her mouth. I don't let go of her head and grit my teeth at the ear shattering noise. Gil and Alica are both holding their ground too, but I can see they're failing. I need to do something, and fast, before all of us, and everyone else in the corridor as well, loses consciousness or worse, their hearing.
That's when I notice the string around her neck. I snatch it, pulling a small leather bag from inside her shirt and yanking it off her. The pixie stops and looks at me, her eyes wide with something that could be intimidation. She tries to struggle free again, to get the bag back, but Gil and Alica tighten their grip on her shoulders and hands and slam her back against the wall. She's breathing hard, the previous madness and fury replaced by pitiable fright. I lean in close to her.
"I said... Leave her," I snarl and smash the bag against the wall by her head.
There's a sickening crunch as my palm makes contact with the wall and the girl lets out an inaudible scream and leans forward. Gil and Alica are still trying to hold her up as she starts to shake violently. A wave of energy bolts through her, apparently burning as they let go of her with only a small yelp from Gil, and she falls forward. I dive to catch her as a small creature materializes from the purple glow that left her body. It shakes its head before freezing, looking over to us and bolting back into the direction it came from, only to run straight into a jar.
The animalogy professor screws on the lid as the angry pixie slams against the glass. He's slightly out of breath, no doubt having chased after the possessed girl for a while.
"Great job, master Woodsham," he says. "That was very impressive."
"Thank you, professor," I say, slowly kneeling to the floor, letting the still unconscious girl rest against me. Gil kneels down next to me, placing his hand on my shoulder. "Do you think she'll be alright?"
"She should be," the professor, Eclaise, says, putting the jar down and feeling the girl's forehead. "She's running a slight fever, I should probably take her to the hospital wing." I help him hoist her into his arms and then pick up the jar with the still struggling pixie and place it on top of her. He nods in thanks and turns to leave. "I'll tell her it was you who got the pixie out. I'm sure she'll want to thank you afterwards."
Then he leaves into the direction they came from. Another girl runs up to them a little later, her arms and face covered in scratches. She's likely to be a friend of the possessed girl as she engages in a frantic discussion with professor Eclaise and then tags along when he continues on his way, clinging onto her friend's shirt like a lost child. I watch them walk away for a moment and then turn to the bag that had fallen on the floor as I caught the girl.
"That was weird," Alica says what we're all thinking about.
"Understatement," says Gil, hugging himself. "She was possessed! By a pixie! What it Oz hadn't gotten it out? And it could've been anyone...!"
"No, it couldn't have," I say, dumping out the contents of the bag onto my palm. Dried herbs, broken bone pieces and locket of hair, among other things. Definitely not an accident.
"What's that?" Alica asks, peering over my shoulder.
"A hex bag," I say darkly. "That girl was targeted."
~x~
We should have animalogy next, but with professor Eclaise still in the hospital wing with the possession victim, a substitute teacher comes in to supervise us while we work on independent projects. I spend most of the class thinking about the incident.
It can't have been a coincidence... First faeries, and now pixies, neither of which live this up north? Is someone summoning these creatures? The pixie was, but what about the faeries? They are much more gentle by nature and while they too are known to play pranks on travelers from time to time, they are not malevolent creatures, nor do they generally inflict any lasting harm on their victims. Pixies of course are a different matter, little devious shits, but even they don't usually possess people, it limits their powers so much....
I poke at the remnants of the hex bag on my desk. Someone deliberately made a hex bag to draw in a pixie and make it possess the girl. The hairs in the bag make it clear that it was for her specifically, but why? She seemed like a perfectly normal girl, appearance wise anyway... Besides, I think I've seen her hanging around with first termers, meaning she probably is one herself, which makes even less sense, considering everything that has been happening in this school for years. Unless of course, this incident was completely unrelated to those, and was a personal attack on this girl, probably by someone she knows well. But what in her would warrant such hate that someone would want her to be possessed?
And more importantly, with sorcery outlawed, who would know how to make a hex bag?
Someone slaps me on the arm, waking me from my thoughts. I look up to see nearly the whole class empty and Alica and Gil standing next to me.
"Come on, Oz, we're gonna be late from arithmetics!" Alica is saying and I blink before stuffing my things into my bag and running after my friends.
We get to the third floor slightly before the professor gets there and I glance over at the closet, although I am not hoping. There has been no change in the key's position in two weeks, but I have to make sure. I have to do a double take when I notice the key is not there. My eyes widen.
Somewhere in the back of my mind I can hear Gil calling my name in confusion as I start to slowly walk towards the closet. My hand is trembling slightly and I can hear my quick heartbeat in my ears as I reach to the closet and pull it open. There is a piece of paper in the midst of the miscellaneous items of the lost and found box.
"We need to talk."
I can't help the grin that spreads on my face. Oh, how things are getting interesting.
________________________________________________________________________
Heehee. Look at that, I'm actually done on the right day for a change.
Things are happening. I am excite. (ʘ‿ʘ✿)
Your topic is "Strawberries". (Courtesy of Kristiina, who thought that a story can't be summer-y if it doesn't have strawberries. And I agree.)
Pie out.
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