hi everyone, sorry this chapter isn't terribly long but right now I'm kind of just trying to post as frequently as possible, so the content isn't very long. hopefully i'll get another chapter up tomorrow, too. also, I'd really appreciate it if you left a quick review, they make me incredibly happy and remind me to keep writing good (i hope) stuff! enjoy! (:
"Chris,
Sorry this took so long, we had to find the book with the information we needed to send back to you. We think the demon who captured Wyatt is Pengahl, this creepy vampire-like demon that consumes magical energies. If we're right, then she's also probably behind the collapse of the forcefields here. We don't know anything else about her though, so double check the BOS just in case. Please be extremely careful when pursuing her, as she probably used her powers to subdue Wyatt and possibly Ginger.
Good luck,
–Henry"
Chris looked up from the note in his hands at Piper, an identical expression of determination on both of their faces. "What do you say we track down this bitch and get my brother back?" he offered, heading straight back for the Book of Shadows.
"If we can even find her," sighed his mother as she sat in a chair and put her head in her hands. "She must have cloaked her hideout somehow since she got a hold of Wyatt, or else we would have found him by now."
"Maybe not," Chris replied, slowly flipping through the pages of the Book telekinetically. "I'm thinking the reason we can't find him is because she drained his magic. After all, that's how scrying works; magic reaching out to other magic. Maybe we can find a way to get ourselves to the demon instead — here she is!" Piper rose out of her seat and joined the young witch by the Book. "She used to be a witch, apparently," said Chris, reading through the small paragraph on Pengahl. "Wait…this is bad. 'She may live in the walls of magical beings' homes and slowly drain the magic they use.' Mom, that's how she's doing it. She weakened the barriers enough to get into Magic School, and must be working from inside the walls."
"But that doesn't explain why no one can get in or out," Piper questioned.
"Well," thought Chris, "she was formerly a witch. She must have cast a spell or something to create her own kind of forcefield around the school. That way she could consume all of its magic unhindered and become incredibly powerful. I mean, that has to be her motive for going after magic as old and powerful as this, right? If she can take in all that energy, she'd be practically unstoppable."
"Chris…" Piper said, placing an urgent hand on her son's arm. "If Pengahl absorbs magic from people living inside the buildings she goes into…"
"…Then everyone in Magic School is in more danger than we realized," Chris finished, his face going pale. "Oh God, we need to send them a fire message, now."
Meanwhile, the team back at Magic School was in a minor frenzy over a shrill scream that had just echoed down the main hallway. Parker and Kat, who were closest to the towering archway of the library's entrance, immediately sprinted down the grand hallway towards the source of the scream. Around the corner and about a hundred yards down the stretch of doorways and ancient murals, the two girls saw Miss Callaghan, a leprechaun who taught a class on magical creatures and beings, fallen in a bubbling puddle of shiny black ooze. Miss Callaghan was struggling and screaming, the black substance sticking to her short limbs and holding her down.
"Miss Callaghan!" Kat shouted, and threw her hands out in front of her, fingers spread, freezing both the leprechaun and the dark puddle. Within seconds she and Parker were standing over the frozen professor, breathing heavily from the run. Behind them, Melinda and Tamora followed, staring in bafflement at the strange sludge surrounding Miss Callaghan.
"What the hell is that?" Melinda exclaimed under her breath, pushing her long brown hair behind her ears. Up close, she could see that the black substance appeared thick and tarlike, and seemed to be oozing out of the floor, from the tiny spaces between the massive tiles.
"I don't know," Parker said with a grimace, "but we've got to get her out of there." The Cupid-witch reached her hand out and grabbed Miss Callaghan by the forearm, causing herself to let out a familiar gasp that her cousins knew to be the warning sign of a premonition.
"Parker? What do you see?" questioned Tamora. Parker's eyes were clenched shut, her mouth fixed slightly open.
"Nothing good," Parker muttered, slowly opening her eyes. "This black stuff, it's…a demon."
"What?" Kat gasped, looking down in horror at the sludge.
"This hideous, female demon," continued Parker, "with jagged black teeth like a shark, and creepy red eyes. She turns into this stuff and…attacks people, I guess. I saw her take Ginger."
Just then, the four girls heard Henry's voice echoing down the hall towards them. "Guys, guys!" he shouted, running towards them with a piece of paper in his hand. He stumbled to a halt, bent over with his hands on his knees as he caught his breath. "Chris…" he panted, "wrote back. We were right about the demon. He thinks she's here—what the hell is that?" Henry's eyes had fixated on Miss Callaghan and her ominous puddle, stopping his train of thought dead in its tracks.
"That," emphasized Melinda, "would be the demon."
"But," Henry began, but he was cut off by Miss Callaghan's screams as she and the demonic sludge suddenly unfroze.
"Oh my God," exclaimed Tamora. "Kat, freeze them!" she screamed, but it was too late; the blackness had quickly retreated, sinking back into the cracks between the tiles, leaving Miss Callaghan pale and half unconscious on the cold floor.
"Okay, we need to send a message back to Chris and tell him to hurry up and find a way to vanquish this chick," said Parker as she knelt down next to Miss Callaghan, brushing the leprechaun's hair out of her face.
"I'm on it," Henry answered. "Tam, come on. I'll need your power."
