Chapter Three

In Danger

Adam Conant looked around him at the sudden chaos in Diana's bedroom. He felt bewildered and a little annoyed at being awakened from such a lovely dream. He had been at someone's wedding, and it was very hard to tell whose wedding, because the whole of the circle had been in attendance and Faye, Diana and Cassie had all been wearing the dress that they wore at circle meetings. Cassie's had been the pure white one that Diana had given her, and Diana's had been a silvery colour, and Faye's colour had been red. She had a dress exactly the same in black, he remembered, but he supposed that black wouldn't be appropriate. He guessed it was one of the three girl's wedding, Cassie, Diana or Faye and it made him think about his own future. Did he end up marrying Cassie? He supposed that it was inevitable because their love was written in the stars, but were there to be no surprises? If it was Diana's wedding, he was glad that she finally found the happiness she deserved. And Faye, well, who could picture her getting married? Did she marry an outsider? He couldn't picture that at all. Was it some other witch? Were there other witches out there? Was there anyone strong enough to deal with her?

Then he was brought sharply back to reality when he heard a scream, Diana screaming. He stood up immediately, realising that the circle had been broken. "What's going on?" he demanded.

"I don't know," Diana told him frantically, pointing to Cassie. "I woke up to find the room a mess and Cassie like this. She looks scared to death. Cassie, what's wrong? Who did this?"

Cassie blinked and looked around her. "Diana?" she murmured groggily. She tried to stand up and wobbled slightly, feeling dizzy. Adam moved forward to steady her, catching her like he always did when she fell.

"Adam," she whispered in relief. "Oh, Adam, it's awful. It's so bad, we have to fix it."

"We will Cassie," he reassured her. "I promise we will, but first you have to tell us what happened."

He helped her to sit down on Diana's bed and after a few deep breaths and a glass of water that Melanie handed her, she felt a little bit better. She looked around the Circle, her friends, whose faces bore worried and anxious expressions. She started to try and explain what had happened, but then her voice faltered when she saw Doug and Chris. Oh, god. How was she going to do this? How was she going to explain to them that their sweet little sister was back, but she wasn't the same, she was different, she was angry. She was angry at Cassie for taking her place in the Circle. And Cassie didn't know what she was going to do next. The crazy thing was that she understood how Kori was feeling. She completely understood, but she didn't know how she could make things better for Kori, so Kori could accept it and move on. She didn't know how Kori had managed to come back and she wasn't the only one who was murdered by Black John. Maybe it was because she had been a witch, who knew? But how could she explain any of this?

She was just going to have to. She had managed to deal with everything else so far, she was sure she could deal with this. She looked at the Henderson brother's. "Chris, Doug," she began shakily. "I'm so sorry,"

It was like they knew what she was thinking, what she had been through. "It's Kori, isn't it?" said Chris sadly.

"We saw her too," added Doug. "Maybe it was because we were all distracted, we weren't totally in this reality or present or whatever, but as we were coming back to ourselves we saw her."

Cassie nodded. "She's been here a while. And, you're right. Because of the spell, the trance we were in, she was able to get us to see her more clearly. But I don't know what's going to happen next. I don't know what she wants."

The twins had no answers for her. Even though she had been their sister, they didn't know what she was capable of now. Things were different now.

"Can someone tell me what the hell you're talking about?" Faye demanded. "I didn't see anything."

"I didn't see anything either," Diana began, but was interrupted by Laurel.

Laurel turned angry eyes on Faye. "You wouldn't see anything, would you? You only see things that are to do with you. It's because of you that this has happened. Because of you we almost got hurt...again. When are you going to stop this Faye? When are you just going to be normal for once and not some crazy bitch?"

These words from sweet laurel had the entire circle stunned. Faye stared at her in shock and then she slapped her. "Big words from a little mouse, how dare you say those things to me? I was doing this for the Circle, thank you very much! I didn't bring Kori here didn't you hear what Cassie said? She has been here for a while. And you all agreed to do this spell. I am trying to play this game of being nice and I don't appreciate you all judging me on past actions. At this rate, I'm starting to wish that Black John had killed you all!"

"Stop it!" Diana shouted at them both. "Stop it before you say anything else you don't mean. Laurel, that was out of line. We did all agree with Faye to do the spell. This is all of our faults. And Faye, I know you didn't mean that about Black John. But this behaviour isn't appropriate!" She gestured at Chris and Doug who were watching events, and being strangely quiet. It was strange for Doug anyway.

Faye stood up anger still flashing in her eyes. "I mean whatever I say Diana. I'm sick of all this bullshit. I'm trying to change, I've apologised and apologised to both you and Cassie, and I don't know what else you want from me. None of this is my fault, and what happens after this isn't my fault. And if you need my help again, you're not getting anything. I'm done." She stood up and packed her things away, and walked out of the room slamming the door loudly. Laurel looked rightly ashamed and had tears in her eyes. "I'm just angry," she said to them all in her defence. "I'm just scared and angry and confused...after everything we've been through I thought we were past all the trouble and now this. I just snapped that's all. I didn't mean it. I should go after her."

"She'd probably slap you again," said Deborah with a sigh. "It's ok, Laurel. Let me talk to her and then in a couple of days you can apologise and she'll get over it."

"We're going to need her," said Diana, sounding tired. "All of us at some point are going to need her. You should say sorry Laurel."

Laurel nodded. "I know. But Deb are you sure she'll listen to you? You're not as close as you were."

"I just think Laurel was saying things that needed to be said," said Nick coldly. "I wish I had said it to her before after what she's done."

"But none of that is the point," said Cassie. "She was right. What's done is done and in the past. The point is that we have a situation now, with Kori. And I don't know how we're going to deal with it. She needs to know what's past it past too, and that we're sorrier than she will ever know about what happened to her and we wish we could change it but we can't."

"Maybe we can change it," said Doug thoughtfully. "Maybe we can bring her back. I'm sure there's a spell somewhere and now we have the Master Tools,"

"No Doug," said Melanie quietly. "That's not the way. We don't know what Kori would come back as. She would be something darker than she is now. It would be worse than what she's going through now."

"And that's not what the Master Tools are for," said Nick unexpectedly.

"Just an idea," murmured Chris.

Everyone was quiet for a minute. "An idea for us to forget about," said Diana finally. "I know how much you miss her. We all miss her, but Melanie's right. That's not the way."

"What do we know about ghosts?" Adam asked the group.

"Well, I thought that they could only be called up on Halloween, like when we called up Black John's ghost?" asked Cassie, confused. Although she was still so new to the craft that she still felt bewildered by it all sometimes.

"That's the general idea," said Nick. "But they're around us all the time. A ghost is someone who cannot move over to the other side where ever that is, heaven or hell. They can't accept their death as a fact so they're stuck here. Most humans can't see them. They can sense them sometimes, some humans are gifted with the sight and this is how we get claims of haunted places or buildings. We had to use all our power to control black John and because we are witches and it was Halloween night, that's how come it was so easy to see him, so easy to call him up. With Kori, we can't see her all the time, because maybe you can only properly see a ghost on Halloween. Unless you're gifted. We may be witches, but none of us have that power, thank God. And we could only see her tonight because we're distracted."

"So you mean Jeffery and our old principle could be wandering around right now, because they were murdered?" asked Suzan in horror. "And Kori can only get through to us because she's a witch?"

"It's possible," Nick answered her. "It's possible she wouldn't know about the other two victims because she's so intent on her own purpose, and because they would all be in denial maybe they wouldn't see each other anyway. Or if they did they would think they are all still alive and human."

"Like in sixth sense," murmured Chris, trying to see the humour in it and failing.

"So how do we communicate with her?" Cassie asked. "How can we make her see reason? We can't wait until next Halloween, Can we?"

Nick looked away from her, out of the window. "You may never be able to."

"How do you know so much about this anyway?" asked Suzan, bringing up a good point.

"I looked into things when my mum and dad died," he said simply.

No one had anything to say to that. "Well, it's been a long day, I think we should call it a night," Diana told them all, standing up.

"I'll walk you home," said Adam, taking her hand. Cassie noticed Diana looking away from the hand holding, and knew she had been right about her friend not being totally over things. They would have to have a talk soon.

"Interesting night," Adam observed once they were outside.

"I know. I feel so bad for Chris and Doug. As if they haven't been through enough. But Adam, I was wondering, about the future..."

They were suddenly interrupted by a scream that seemed to last a long time. "Adam," Cassie breathed.

He was already ahead of her. Faye hadn't left that long ago, and if anything happened to her it would be their fault for not checking on her. But how could Kori, even if she were a ghost make Faye scream like that? Faye was one of the strongest people Cassie knew. She knew they had to hurry, and she started to run after Adam.

...

Faye Chamberlain had left Diana's house in a fuming rage, her high heels clicking fiercely on the pavement, the sound echoing around her in the quiet night. How dare they all judge her like that? She had been the perfect example of goodness for the last month, she hadn't even asked to look after the Master Tools once, even though she was itching to look at them and see the true extent of their power. Not for any evil purposes, just ones to benefit her. She had only said that crap about no personal gain to please Cassie and Diana; she had been desperate to see how her on future turned out, to see if she ever made it and became someone important, if she ever escaped from this place. Maybe she was a famous actor or singer, or she was in theatre. Lawyers and Doctors were all very important too, and she could save lives if she wanted, she really could, but she didn't know if she had the patience for the long years of studying, or if she was even that sort of person. She knew it was what her mother waned for her, but her mother was in bed most of the time with hangovers and nightmares of the past. She did not want to end up like that.

She was suddenly aware that the night had grown very cold, even colder than it usually was in winter time. The street light above her head suddenly exploded and went out, and then the one behind her and the one in front of her exploded at the same time and she was plunged into darkness. She could see her breath and she started to shiver uncontrollably. "Kori?" she whispered. There was a sudden sharp pain in her head and it made her fall to the ground, screaming. "No, Kori stop it! Leave me alone I didn't do anything."

It felt like something was invading her, and now she knew how Sean must have felt when Black John had taken control of his mind. Kori was trying to posses her, take her over. Well, she wasn't having that.

I'm more like you then any of the circle thought, Kori's voice in her mind, trying to scare her. Well, it was working, and not many things scared her. You wanted me on your side, well here I am. This is my chance at being part of the Circle, finally, like I was always supposed to.

Not by being me! She shouted back angrily. There can only be one of me, now leave me alone! With all her will power she had left, she reached up and touched the powerful star ruby crystal necklace that she always wore, and started to chant. "Power of fire have I over thee, Power of fire have I over thee."

"Faye!" she heard Cassie and Adam, they seemed so very far away, but she managed to look up at them all the same.

It seemed their very presence was enough. With one last shout of the chant she felt Kori leaving her mind before she had had a chance to get a firm hold, a vision of a barrier of bright orange and gold flames circled her, protecting her and then with a shimmer they vanished. She stood up looking proud and strong, a true witch.

She turned to face Cassie and Adam with a grim smile. "What was that?" Adam exclaimed.

"I'm protected now," Faye told them. "I was stronger than she is, but she isn't done yet. She's going to try and find the weakest person to posses. We all have to be ready to face her."

Cassie nodded. "Do you think she'll try again tonight?"

Faye shook her head, not knowing how she knew these things, she just did. "I think we have some time. I think she's used up some of her power trying to get at me."

Cassie looked impressed. "I don't know why she even thought she could try and mess with you. I'm sorry about earlier Faye. We all are."

Faye's smile faltered a little and she looked upset, but then she seemed to come back to herself. "It's ok Cass. I guess old habits die hard don't they? See you around."

"So Kori's not in denial any more, she's just pissed. We're going to get through this aren't we?" she whispered.

"If Faye can, I'm sure we can," he tried to reassure her. But she knew they were both thinking the same thing, not all of them were as strong as Faye was

TBC

It's always nice to know what you think, so please leave me a review telling me, good or bad. Thanks for all the reviews so far! By the way I know that sixth sense movie was maybe after the Secret Circle was written but I had to put it in somewhere lol, so I did. Also, I hope all the ghost information made sense, and I'm trying not to have any mistakes in this with stuff like that, but I'm sure there are some somewhere, I just hope I explained it alright. Hope you enjoyed