Blytonbury town auditorium
"Annabel, is it true that you have been writing Nightfall for 147 years?"
"Annabel, what is your favorite installment of Nightfall?"
"Annabel, what future plans do you have for Nightfall?"
"Annabel, can I have your autograph?"
"Annabel, what are your opinions about the rival franchise, Spell Cast?"
"Annabel, what was the gift that you just gave to the winner of the quiz?"
Most of the Nightfall fans in the auditorium swarmed up the stage toward the author of their favorite franchise to ask her some question the first chance they get.
There is however, a slight problem with exactly what they are doing...
That is not Annabel Creme they're swarming upon.
Lotte became terrified of the crowd of fans that are swarming up to her, not just because of their numbers...
But also because of the fact that all of them are calling her Annabel.
Lotte, along with Akko and Sucy, have no idea what exactly is going on. But they do know that they need to get away from the mob of rabid Nightfall fans as quickly as possible.
"Sucy, do something!" Akko panicked over the increasingly thick mob.
"I was going to." Sucy said indifferently as she took a flask out from somewhere in her robes. Upon being uncorked, the flask released a thick smokescreen that briefly blinded the mob, allowing the Red Coven to get away.
...
"What was that all about?"
Hannah looked at the stage in confusion, immediately before a smokescreen erupted from the middle of it and blinded the rabid fans up there.
"A fan beat another fan in the Nightfall quiz, and got a present from Annabel Creme herself." Barbara recapped the events. "Then the winning fan literally disappeared into thin air. And then everyone started swarming the stage in order to have a face-to-face meeting with Annabel."
Hannah rolled her eyes. "Really? I still don't see how a piece of crap like Nightfall can become so popular. Come on, Barbs, we're leaving..."
...
Blytonbury
The Red Coven quickly got away from the mob thanks to Sucy's smokescreen potion, and emerged from the back entrance of the town auditorium.
"What was that?!" Akko asked Lotte out of utter confusion. "Annabel, wha-" She stopped herself again upon realizing that she just did it again. "What is going on?! Why am I calling you Annabel?! I'm not supposed to be calling you Annabel! Why can't I say your real name?!"
"I don't know!" Lotte said, panicking over what had just happened to her. "My name is not supposed to be Annabel Creme! It was supposed to be-" The Finnish girl tried saying her real name, but found that something is preventing her from even uttering the first syllable. "W-why can't I say my real name?! What is going on?!"
"What are you two so worked out for?" Sucy wondered out loud, still being indifferent about the situation. "Nice fountain pen, by the way."
Speaking of the fountain pen, Lotte realized that she is still holding on to it. She and Akko turned their attention onto it.
"What is going on with this pen?" Akko wondered. "It all happened the moment you touched it, Annabel..."
"Oh, look..." Sucy suddenly said as she pointed elsewhere. "There's your biggest fan, Annabel. I guess she still wants to gawk at you a bit more..."
Akko and Lotte turned toward where Sucy is pointing, and saw Annabel Creme - the real one - standing there in the middle of the street, observing the Red Coven.
Annabel turned and walked away almost immediately after the Red Coven noticed her.
"Hey, you!" Akko impetuously - and furiously - chased after Annabel.
The writer isn't even trying to run, so the Japanese girl caught up with her very quickly.
"What did you do to Anna- What did you do to my friend?!" Akko furiously interrogated Annabel, even pulling her wand out and pointing it at the author in a threatening way.
Annabel paused for a bit. She then responded without turning around, "So your memory is not affected by the Curse of Annabel Creme..."
"The Curse of... Is that what is going on?!" Akko continued her interrogation.
"If you put it that way, yes." Annabel answered straightforwardly.
Lotte quickly caught up with Akko.
"Annabel, it turns out she put you under a curse!" Akko told Lotte, then cringed at the fact that she just got forced by reality itself to call her friend by someone else's name.
"Actually, I just passed it on to your friend..." Annabel corrected Akko. "You see, I was a victim of that blasted curse myself. And now I'm finally free of it."
"Are you actually... gloating?" Akko felt disgusted by what she just heard.
"Maybe..." Annabel answered with a nonchalant shrug. "Anyway, Annabel Creme was never a person, or even a pseudonym. The curse is Annabel Creme, and I became a victim of it ever since I inherited this... thing-" She then pointed at the fountain pen in Lotte's grasp. "from its previous owner, the previous Annabel Creme, who probably inherited it from the one before her, and so on..."
Akko interrupted Annabel's spiel by touching the tip of her wand against the writer's chin. "Why? People loved you and your work, so why are you dumping it all on Anna- on my friend?"
Annabel, with a swift motion, grabbed Akko's wand, and then snapped its tip off with her bare hands. "I sacrificed a lot just to become Annabel Creme..." She explained as she dropped the severed tip of Akko's wand on the pavement. "But looking back at what my life has become, I regretted making all those sacrifices..."
"Your sacrifice...?" Akko and Lotte repeated what they just heard.
Annabel then took several steps back. "I'm sorry for the young lady whose identity that Annabel Creme just overwrote." As she said that, a magical glow just like the ones that preceded her teleportation earlier enveloped her again. "Good bye, my number one fan. I hope you enjoy your prize as the next Annabel Creme. From your former idol figure, Mary-Ann Lait..."
For a split second after she finished her speech, the former writer can be seem smiling before she teleported away to who-knows-where.
Akko and Lotte both stood where they are, trying to process such a dramatic turn of events, and the exact meaning of what Annabel - the previous one - just said.
"So, what did I miss?" Sucy asked nonchalantly as she joined Akko and Lotte, while holding a mushroom that she found under a dumpster in a back alley.
...
After their confrontation with Annabel, the Red Coven quickly left the busy part of Blytonbury in order to get away from all the Nightfall fans that are swarming Lotte (who thanks to the Curse of Annabel Creme, think she's the author). Their escape led them into a quiet part of town where the crowd are small in numbers. Conveniently, that's where Akko's parents happened to be, as they also have the same idea when it comes to avoiding the crowd of Nightfall fans.
So while Akko stood by her parents' side in the background, telling them what had happened with her in the past week (in Japanese), Lotte and Sucy sat at a table at a nearby cafe, as the former tried to figure out precisely what is going on.
Lotte decided to discuss with Wispy, her spirit companion, on what to do about the Annabel Creme situation (the spirit only "speaks" in squeaks, but Lotte can understand it just fine). But the discussion didn't even last a minute before the Finnish girl ended it with a sigh.
"Wispy thinks I have always been Annabel Creme..." Lotte muttered, depressed with the response she got. "Just what kind of curse this is? I never knew being the author of Nightfall comes with such a curse..."
"Whatever you say, Annabel..." Sucy responded indifferently.
Speaking of Nightfall, Akko had apparently just started a rant about the franchise and its author (going by how she mentioned "Naito Foru" and "Anaberu Kuremu" in her rant) to her parents, who seemed confused about what they heard. Akko must've been really furious about Annabel Creme, as the third instance of the former writer's name in Japanese is immediately followed by the phrase "kuso", a Japanese profanity and the one Japanese phrase that Lotte understands the meaning of (due to having heard about it in an episode of the Nightfall TV series with subtitles on).
Akko's parents, who remained confused throughout their daughter's rant about Annabel Creme, responded with a shrug before bidding Akko farewell, at which point Akko returned to rejoin her friends, carrying what looked like a small box with her.
"So, what now?" Akko asked as she sat down at the table with her friends. "We don't know where the original Annabel went to, so there's no use going after her right now..."
Lotte seems to have become gloomy upon hearing that. "Let's just go back to the campus. Hopefully we can forget all of this ever happened..."
...
Luna Nova campus
It seems Lotte is never going to be able to forget about the Annabel Creme situation.
The Curse of Annabel Creme is still in effect, leading to the other students calling Lotte "Annabel", as though it had been her name all along. Even Wangari and her friends from the Yellow Coven, who ran the academy's news network, are assaulting the Finnish girl with a barrage of questions related to Nightfall and her being its creator (which is absolutely false, but the Curse prevents them from knowing that).
Lotte recalled what Annabel - the previous one - told her back at the auditorium...
"I hope you won't be missing your real name... I'm sorry it had to be this way, though..."
In hindsight, the author's smirk that she had at the beginning of the quiz should've been a major red flag...
The thought of learning about her idol's true colors and the consequences that befell her as a result angered Lotte so much that she broke out in an uncharacteristic furious scream "ARGH! PERKELE!"
Lotte's furious scream is so uncharacteristic that the Yellow Coven decided to cancel their "interview" and walk away from her without another word.
Even Akko and the normally indifferent Sucy reeled back in surprise in reaction to the scream.
"She said she sacrifice everything she had to become Annabel Creme, and regretted it..." Lotte said depressingly, referring to the previous Annabel. "Now, the same thing happened to me, and I too regretted it..."
Akko slowly approached Lotte, and put a hand on her shoulder in a comforting manner. "I'm so sorry about that, Annabel..." The Japanese girl said. "Maybe we can find a way to lift the curse, or even learn to live with it..."
Lotte sniffed, too sad about the revelation to say anything.
Before anything else can be said, however, a looming shadow approached the Red Coven, sending chills up Akko's spine.
"Miss Kagari, Miss Manbavaran, Miss Creme!" Professor Finneran as she cast an intimidating glare on the Red Coven. "Come to my office, now!"
Wait, Professor Finneran too?!
Annabel Creme as a (anti-)villain. Bet you weren't expecting that.
So in case you still don't get it, Annabel Creme here isn't a person, or even a pseudonym to begin with. It is sort of a "curse", where whoever gets to inherit Annabel Creme's fountain pen essentially have their old identity hijacked and overwritten by Annabel's. The "Curse" also cause everyone in the whole world to believe the poor shmuck who owns the pen right now has always been Annabel Creme, as is the case with Lotte here, who is prevented by the "Curse" from being able to even utter her own name. Just how bad is the "Curse" that Mary-Ann Lait, Lotte's predecessor as Annabel Creme, is so desperate to get rid of it, and is being smug about it when she succeeds?
However, the weird thing is that Akko is the only person in the whole world (for now) who isn't affected by the "Curse", with the only effect being that she's forced by it to call Lotte "Annabel", and even then she's aware she shouldn't be doing so. A blessing from Shiny Rod, perhaps?
But for now, the Annabel Creme arc will have to be put on hold, as Red Coven has another problem to deal with...
"Just remember: a believing heart is your magic."
Afterwords end here.
NOTE: this is the last chapter of School For Witches I can post in FF Dot Net before my four-day vacation ends and I go back to my home country where I won't be able to access the site again for a long time...