Disclaimer: I don't own W.I.T.C.H.

It was still late night so the corridor was very dark, the bad weather outside didn't help much either so Dean turned on his flashlight while Will created a dancing blue flame in her left hand. They didn't say much as they walked down the stairs, the dark shadows crated by their lights felt dense and threatening as if something lurked inside them. Will, Susan, William and Dean had reached the second floor when a sound made them all jump. It was a soft thump as if something fell down, and it came from the direction on the third floor where they just had been. Nobody dared to move, but all looked up to see if something came after them. Due to the nature of Will's light, she couldn't make it shine brighter in one direction so Dean pointed his flashlight towards the entrance above them. They waited, but nothing appeared.

"Do you think it was the creature?" Susan whispered to Will.

"It could have been," said Will, whispering back, "But I think it might have been some debris or bricks falling down from the wall in the room we just left, I did make some damage after all when I fought the creature."

They turned back again and Dean let his light sweep away from the third floor and pointed it back down the stairs. As they walked further on, it became clear when they passed some furniture or looked at their own shadows on the wall, that Will's living flame made every shadow jump and turn like dancing figures all around them. This made both Susan and Dean uneasy, even William seemed spooked by the dark figures that stretched and bended on the walls, eventually, Susan decided to speak.

"Will? Do you think you could turn on the lights here as you did in the basement? The shadows on the wall scares me; it is hard to tell if there is anything there or if it is just my imagination. And to be honest, it is quite scary when I know there truly is something out there."

"I agree," said Dean, "Besides, it would be much easier to see if the lights were on."

"No problem" Will said and spoke loudly to the lamps in the room, "Lights on please!" and the lights went on by themselves. Will tilted her head to see her parents and said rhetorically, "And do you know what the best thing is? It won't appear on the electricity bill!"

"I shall remember that when we are back home." Said Dean and smiled as he turned off his flashlight and stuffed it in his pocket.

With the lights shining, most of the shadows disappeared and only on places where no lamps where to be seen remained in darkness. They reached the first floor and the reception hall, from there on Will led them into the west wing where she said she had dropped the book. Unfortunately, there were less functional lamps there, but it was still enough to let them see without any other light source, and soon they found the room where Will had been when she heard her parents scream.

The door was open but there were no light inside so Will commanded them to turn on. It was a plain room of modest size and little furniture to fill it, but the book was there on the middle of the floor.

"Here it is," said Will and walked over to pick it up. "Now, let's see what the old man has written to us."

Her parents followed close behind. Dean carefully shut the door after him as he was the last one into the room.

"Do you think the book will give us any answers?" Dean asked curiously.

"We will find that out soon enough," said Will while she opened the book and started looking through the pages. The others found an old sofa covered by a white curtain and sat down on it. Will opted to stand at the middle of the floor, she found the beginning and started telling the story:

"Mr. Henderson writes that he bought this asylum in 1968, as in his own words; to renew the institute. He had been here before as a trainee and was highly educated and wealthy enough to take over it later…" Will skipped forward a couple of pages, "…. he seem to have been very skilled and worked on what he calls new methods to cure his patients, and he is quite interested in people who suffer from hallucinations, people who are traumatized and what he says; all sorts of fears!" Will lifted her head to look at her parents, "I understand that people can be hospitalized because of hallucinations and other things, but fear?"

Dean with his academic background decided to enlighten his stepdaughter, "Fear in this context usually means phobia. You know phobia like fear of highs, spiders, and some other animals, but there are also social phobia like fear of other people and crowds, others again can be fear of closed rooms and fear of darkness. Most people have a phobia of some sort at one point during their lives, but usually it is not that strong and it wear off as they grow older. However, sometimes a phobia can be so strong that it becomes a hindrance in a person's life and for the people around him. The traditional cure for those are to face their greatest fears and learn that there really is nothing to fear. But I find it strange that they take in those patients to an asylum, usually they are treated by specialists other places, does he write anything more about this?"

"Let's see," Will began to read more from the pages for herself until she spoke again," From what is written here, it seems the interest in fear is something personal and not something they treat here. His main work is treatment of hallucination and traumatization. He writes about their illness, it's suspected cause, how he treat them and the following results, quiet methodically."

Will read a couple of pages before she finally exclaimed "Hey, perhaps this is something?"

16. October 1971.

I have for six month attempted to treat Mr. Carson for his hallucination, but he is despite all my effort not getting any better. When he first came here, his family told me he claimed to be able to see and speak to creatures that no one else could see, nothing special about that as far as I have met a fair share of those before. Usually they give up their fantasies after some talk and treatment, Carson however, refuse to end his illusions. I have spoken to him, given him the usual pills, electroshock therapy and the other usual means, but nothing works, today I therefore tried a different approach. In treatment of fear, you have to confront what scares you, Carson doesn't seem to fear his imaginative creatures, therefore I thought to give him a shock to let go of his illusions.
Carson claim he can see creatures that somehow is connected to his feelings, if he fells happy, he see a creature that make him happy, if he is sad, he sees a creature that make him sad. My plan was to try to let him meet some of those in real life and show him afterwards that they weren't real. I went down to the basement to find some equipment when I discovered a small door I hadn't seen before. It was at the far end of the basement and led into another room that was empty and had no floor except from the bare soil further passages. The room had no windows or other light sources and gave off a creepy feeling; I decided there and then that I wanted to use it to scare Carson to see his reaction and observe how he would treat his creature. I also knew from experience that he was easy to scare. All I needed was some stuff from the other room to hide behind and some disguise to fool him into believing I was his imaginative creature, whereupon I afterwards would reveal it to be me. I found a wardrobe in the other room, managed to get it through the small door, and placed it in the middle of the room. Then I found a robe and made a frightening mask for myself to put on.
When all was rigged and in place, I went to Carson's room and told him that I needed some help from him in the basement later that evening and asked him to come, and so he did.
Later, right before he left his room, I hurried downstairs, put on my mask and robe, and hide in the wardrobe.
I waited for five minutes before I heard the door into the room open and Carson walked in.
He called on me, but I didn't say anything from inside the wardrobe. I heard he was approaching me as the sound of his footsteps came closer and stopped in front of the wardrobe.
"Hello. Dr. Henderson are you here?" I heard him call. His voice sounded nervous but still I didn't say anything. He stood still for a little while because there was no sound from the outside, finally when I heard he started to walk back I began open the door.
"Hello" I said with the most eerie voice I could muster, "Are you seeking someone?"
The response was immediate as he spun around on his heel. "Who are you?" he said with a thin voice.
"Who I am?" I said as I stepped out to reveal myself "Don't you recognize me?"
"What do you want, I have never seen you before?" The man whispered as he stood frozen to the ground, probably frightened to his core.
"What I want?" I proceeded with a haunting voice, "I want you to tell me who I am!"
"Go away"
I took a couple of steps forward and said again, "I am the one who always come in the night when the shadows reach your fantasies. We have met before."
Carson was going to say something when he stopped breathing and just stared at me. He stared hard and it felt like he was looking through me at something behind. Seeing his face, I barely managed to avoid looking back myself and I was going to take a few steps further towards him. But as I did so, he suddenly started to run back to the door. However, he didn't make it through because in his hurry, and perhaps because of the dark, he swung the door open while he stood too close and hit himself hard in the head.
Carson must have lost his conscious for a moment because he fell to the floor and didn't rise.
Immediately I took off my mask, rushed to his side and knelt beside him. But when I did so, I had to turn around a little and got a glimpse of where I had been standing a second earlier. There, barely visible in the dark in front of the wardrobe it seemed to be an eerie dark shadow looking back at me.
"Who are you?" I asked just like the unconscious Carson had asked me moments before.
It was silent and I hardly expected any answer and I was sure it was the dark basement playing a trick on my mind.
"Creation of a frightened imagination" a voice said. It was a hoarse voice, barely a whisper, but somehow it managed to fill the entire room with it's presence.
Unlike many people, I am not easily scared and was going to say something more to it when the shadow that already was quite transparent, began to dissolve.
"Wait!" I shouted, and was going to stand up and walk to it when I felt Carson begun waking up in my arms. And when he did so, the shadow disappeared.

I had a heck of a time trying to explain myself to Carson when we arrived upstairs afterwards. I took him to my office where he was angry that I had tricked him down to the basement just to scare him. But when I asked if he had seen something behind me, he got a strange look on his face and said there was nothing there. I tried to persuade him by telling that he might have seen one of the special creatures that only he could see, but he stubbornly refused. He claimed there was nothing there, only I who had dressed up to scare him. We discussed this until our temper began to rise, and we were nearly shouting to each other when he finally said, "Would you stop this, there was nothing there. Is not that what you have been trying to tell me since I first came to this place? I did not see anything behind you, and I don't see anything now, that must mean I am cured for my "creative imagination", as you call it, therefore I would like to leave!"
"You did see something, your so called fantasy creatures are real and I know it because I saw it too." From the fear I saw in his eyes, I knew I was right. "Besides," I informed him, "It is I who decide if a patient is ready to leave or not, and I want to see if you can produce more of your creatures."
The man turned sickly pale and tried to run, but I had prepare with a couple of strong doctors who were guarding the outside of my office door and they caught him. The doctors managed to get hold of him and I told them to bring the patient to his room and guard his door because he was in a mental state where he might try to escape.

From what I have seen today, fantasy creatures, or perhaps it is supernatural beings, are real and I want to find out more about these. Perhaps their presence is triggered by strong emotions and only seen by some few, but if the feelings become stronger or last longer, maybe the creatures will last longer too?
If they become real enough, I could even perhaps manage to capture one and study it…

Will took a break from the reading to digest what she just had learned.
"I don't understand, if the monk had repaired and hidden away the artifacts that bound the creature, why would it appear again, and on the same place where it first had been defeated?"

Her mother looked at her, "Perhaps it's essence somehow is stronger in the basement because one of those sealing objects could still be hidden there and maybe it is broken, or perhaps the creature feeds on peoples fear and all the mentally ill people with all their fears may have drawn it back?"

"That could be a possibility," said Dean, "But why don't you read more and see if this doctor have any explanation for this?"

Will opened the book again and read fast trough the following pages while she quickly summarized the content to her parents. "Henderson came up with several schemes to trick other patients to come down to the basement. Some of them seemed to be able to somewhat summon the creature by exhibit a large amount of fear when scared, but nothing that could hold it for more than a moment. He also write that he was puzzled by why the creature only appeared in the basement as he tried to summon it other places too. Hmm." The red haired Witch turned another page while she mumbled for herself. "Aha" Will exclaimed, "He found the old annals and learned about the monk and the legend!"

"And now we know it too," her stepdad said and stroked his mustache.

"Let's see what more there is to learn."