Ponyboy shot up from the ground, sharply inhaling a deep breath. His body was drenched in sweat, a cold shiver running over him. His stomach spun as if he was about to give a speech to his entire class. One of his hands were burning. It was the hand he used to shake with the shadow man. Ponyboy was scared to inspect it. Around him, the other's also shot up from the floor, sweating bullets. Soda reached over, grabbed a trashcan and vomited, body shaking.

"Fuck," Steve hissed. "What kind of messed up future did we see?"

"We died," Darry murmured, hands clenching into balls. "How did we get back? What happened?"

No one could answer. They just assumed that they all died, stopping the spell. Except for Ponyboy, who stayed quiet for the duration of time. No one thought weirdly of his silence.

"It felt so real," Soda whimpered. "I almost forgot it was a vision."

"Hey, Ponyboy, you okay?" Keith suddenly asked. Ponyboy's eyes lifted from the ground, now noticing that the group had stopped talking and were staring at him with concern in their disturbed eyes.

"You're freezing," Soda commented, putting a clammy hand on his forehead. "Like ice-cold."

"I'm fine," Ponyboy replied, shivering. It was cold like he had stepped into the artic without any clothes on. "Just a bit shook, that's all."

They looked at him doubtfully, but they moved on. "We can't let that future happen. We have to find a way to stop it."

"We'll die if we try anything," Darry reasoned.

"We'll die if we do nothing."

"Where would we even start?" Steve asked.

"We first need to find out what that shadow was," Darry answered. "It's getting late. Head back to your room before curfew."

When they left the classroom, Ponyboy turned over his hand, revealing an intricate symbol scalded into his palm.

'All the answers you need will come soon,' a raspy voice echoed in his head.

o-o-o

The next morning, Ponyboy wrapped his hand that was covered in graffiti in gauze. He walked to class, blocking the images of the bloody bodies scattered across the floor from his mind. Pony sat down at his desk in his first class, the session soon following afterward.

Pots were placed in front of each student, filled to the brim with moist soil.

"I think all of you can guess what you'll be learning about today. What plant you grow in your pot is up to your imagination. Since it's important to learn how to perform spells without step-to-step instructions, I drew the symbol of the spell on the board. Figure it out before the end of the period. You may begin," the teacher instructed.

Ponyboy scrutinized the series of circles, unknown shapes, and gibberish. Some students around him had already started working on performing the spell, but most students, to Ponyboy's relief, were stumped.

'Follow the smaller shapes with your hands and read the words that are printed,' Ponyboy heard the raspy voice whisper in his head.

Ponyboy followed the instructions. He raised his hands, slowly following the shapes while muttering the mantra. Before his eyes, a stem started to reach through the soil, growing quickly. The pot broke as roots spread across his desk. The stem grew thicker, bark spreading out of its sides. On the newly-formed trunk, thorny branches spread out, engulfed in thick leaves and small, white flowers.

The whole class was speechless, staring at him and the tree with their eyes blown wide in bafflement. The teacher's expression was by far the best. His mouth was hanging wide. So wide that Ponyboy was scared he was going to catch some flies.

"How did you manage to summon a tree?" he finally asked.

"Was I not supposed to do that?" Ponyboy said, swallowing thickly.

"You were. It's just a very difficult task to summon a tree, especially if you haven't done the spell before. I'm impressed. Good job."

Ponyboy gave him a tight smile as he ignored the incredulous stares from his classmates. He would have been proud and smiling widely if he wasn't so confused.

He walked out the classroom after the bell rang, instantly going to a hallway where no one was.

He wasn't alone though. Someone was there with him. In his head. "Who are you?" he asked with a shaky voice.

"I think you know who I am, Ponyboy,' the voice answered. 'It's rude that you would forget. You did meet me yesterday, after all."

"You're… You're the shadow. How did you...? When did you…?"

"You let me free. You were everything I needed."

"What are you going to do to me?"

"Hopefully, nothing if you follow my instructions accordingly. Ask again."

"What are you going to do?"

"I'm going to kill everyone."

Ponyboy's heart dropped. There was a lump in his throat that he couldn't swallow. He clenched his clammy hands tightly, digging crescents in his palms. "You said you weren't going to kill anyone."

"You should know to never trust a shadow."

A hand grabbed his shoulder and turned him around. Soda stared at him with a worried expression. "Ponyboy, are you okay? You've been talking to yourself."

"You can't tell anyone. Tell them and I'll make sure that you kill them with your own hands."

"I'm fine. I'm just not feeling well," Ponyboy answered, grabbing his hands so that it wouldn't be obviously shaking.

"You look really sick. Do you want me to try to heal you?" Soda asked. Another voice came through right after. It sounded like Soda's voice, but he didn't even move his lips. 'I hope he's alright. I don't know if my healing magic can help him.'

"No. It's alright. I just need to take a walk."

Soda looked at him doubtfully. "If you say so… If you need anything, don't be afraid to ask."

"Thanks, Soda." Ponyboy gave him a soft smile and turned around to walk away.

"Find out about the mark on your hand," the raspy voice said again.

"Why don't you tell me what it means? You obviously know what it means."

"But what's the fun in that?"

Before Ponyboy knew it, he was standing outside the library. He pushed open the big doors and entered the quiet space. Ponyboy racked the shelves, but he didn't know what to look for. Where would he begin?

Ponyboy was so invested in looking for a book that would pop out to him that he didn't notice the person in front of him until his body crashed into something hard. "I'm sorry. I wasn't paying attention to where I was going," he apologized, looking away from the bookshelves. "Oh, hey, Johnny."

"Hi...Ponyboy, right?" the other boy greeted shyly.

"Yeah. What are you doing here?"

Johnny looked at him curiously. "Getting a book to study for a test. What are you doing here?"

"Just trying to figure something out."

"Figure what out?"

Ponyboy froze. "I had a dream… I saw something and I wanted to know what it meant."

"Sure…"Johnny's curiosity turned into wariness.

"I tested out as a psychic."

"What did you see in your dream?"

"A symbol."

"You have to be clearer than that."

"I don't know. I'm hoping I'll recognize it when I see it." He couldn't possibly just show Johnny his hand. That would be too suspicious. But maybe he can inform Johnny about what is happening to him conspicuously. "Can you help me? It'll be a lot faster if more people are looking."

"Sorry, I can't. I have to go." Johnny started to walk backward away from Ponyboy. 'I can't associate with him.'

"You don't want to associate with me?"

"What? I didn't…"

"I can read your mind, Johnny. Why don't you want to hang out with me?"

Johnny bit his lip but finally gave in. "You don't want to be seen with me. I'm 'trouble'."

"Yeah? So am I. I don't really care what people think about me. I want to be friends with you. You shouldn't push people away."

"You want to be friends with me?"

"Of course. You remind me of someone I know. He was a pretty decent guy. So, please help me. I don't really want to be alone."

Sighing, Johnny finally resented. "Fine."

The two looked through the bookshelves (Johnny even looked at the second and third-year shelves) but they couldn't find anything. Johnny walked down the stairs back to Ponyboy with a frown. "Whatever you're trying to find, isn't in the library. If it is, it's on the shelves for the higher years."

"Check out the forbidden shelves," the raspy voice in his head said.

"What about the forbidden shelves?" he asked, watching Johnny's face pale.

"We can't go there. I don't know where a first year had even heard about the forbidden shelves, but we can't. Like the name said, it's forbidden. Students can't go there."

"Why not?"

"It has a lock that's really hard to break, and if it does, the school would know and find out who broke it. Plus, if they find out that we went inside, we would get expelled. Getting expelled isn't something you would want to do."

"Can I see the lock?"

"You're seriously going to try to break in, aren't you?"

"I don't really have a choice." He let it slip. He shouldn't have. He was risking so much.

"Ponyboy, what's going on?" The tone of Johnny's voice turned from concerned to serious.

"So much is going on… I'm wrapped-up in all of it."

The two made it to the door. The forbidden shelves were in a separate room. The door was made of iron. Ponyboy now understood why they couldn't get in. Magic, as he had learned, didn't work on iron. It was the only element that was immune.

"Well, this is great," he whispered, waiting for the voice to come back and help him through the door. The voice was silent.

Johnny fiddled with his hands. "You're really adamant about what's going on, huh?"

"Yeah."

"If I help you get in, promise me you will do whatever it takes to make sure that no one would get in trouble and you would tell me everything eventually?"

"What are you thinking, Johnny?"

"You can read minds." Johnny readjusted his bag and walked away, but not before his voice popped into his head. 'Dally.'

Ponyboy stalked him outside the library and to a hallway that was dimly lit by flickering candles. Not many students were there and it was quiet, setting an ominous atmosphere. Johnny led him to a dead-end, making Ponyboy look at him funnily. "What are we doing here?"

"I can trust you, right?" Johnny stared straight into his eyes with hope and determination, but they were also filled with weariness and fear.

"Of course."

"Alright. Don't tell anyone about this. I'm really trusting you on this."

"You can trust me. You won't regret it."

Johnny gave Ponyboy one more scrutinizing look. He pulled a sleeping fairy out of his pocket. "Hey, Puck, go inside now. I'm shifting." The fairy woke up and sheepishly nodded, disappearing into a hole in the wall. Johnny's body began to glow. He shrunk down into a small ball on the floor. When the light subsided, standing where Johnny used to be was a hamster. His beady eyes stared into Ponyboy's eyes as if waiting for him to join him.

"Johnny?" Ponyboy asked, bending down. The hamster squeaked, motioning to a small hole in the wall. "You want me to go in there? Johnny, I can't shapeshift."

Maybe he was imagining it, but if a hamster could roll its eyes, Johnny just did. He entered the hole, leaving Ponyboy alone in the hallway. What should he do?

'Body large or body small, shift my body into which I need to call,' the shadow's voice chanted.

Ponyboy repeated the words, subconsciously moving his hands like he had performed the spell a hundred times before. At first, nothing happened, and he was about to try again before pain erupted in his body. He gasped in pain, unable to produce a sound. Bones were breaking as the image of a hamster appeared on his face. His body glowed as he shrunk down, hair growing longer. When the light dispersed, he was no longer a human. Suddenly he could smell things far greater than he did before.

He squeaked as he ran into the hole to Johnny who was waiting for him. They scurried through the labyrinth in the dark until they finally entered another room. Johnny shifted back to human and looked down at Ponyboy.

More pain erupted in his body as he shifted back into a human. He gasped as the glowing subsided, touching his body all over. "Holy shit…" he murmured. "That was… indescribable."

"Yeah, you get used to it. You managed to perform the spell first try. Where did you learn how to do that?"

"I read it somewhere." Ponyboy hoped Johnny wouldn't catch the lie.

"Oh." Johnny nodded and turned to a door. "Dally, you in there?"

Dally walked out of the room, crossing his arms. There was a brown bird perched on his shoulder. "Hey, Johnny." His eyes turned to Ponyboy. "Who's the kid?"

"Oh, I'm Ponyboy," Ponyboy introduced.

"Dally, we need your help," Johnny said. "We need to get into the forbidden section of the library."

Dally raised his eyebrow. "Johnny, you know that's risky. Why are you doing this? Is he making you do this?" Dally gestured to Ponyboy with a glare.

"No! I am not using Johnny. He wanted to help me," Ponyboy answered, waving his hand to dismiss the idea.

"And you trust him?" This question was directed to Johnny.

"We'll see," Johnny answered.

"What exactly are you looking for?" Again, attention was turned to Ponyboy.

"I saw a symbol in a vision I had. I'm a psychic type, you see. I'm trying to find out what it meant. It seemed really important," Ponyboy replied.

"So you plan to break into the forbidden room for a vision?"

"Yes… So, will you help me?" Ponyboy bit his lips, worrying that this version of Dally would decline.

"Sure. It sounds like a lot more fun than waiting around this boring-ass school. We'll go tonight when everyone is asleep and the monitors are done checking each room."