Authors notes: I'm editing this story, so bare in mind, from now on the story might not make sense as I'm editing the second half. The next time I add new chapter to this story the edits for this arc will be completed. So please bare with me on this. If the story has been updated since 29/May/2020 then I've already finished editing.

Chapter 70

Antonia, Lisa and Sarah.

Outside the book shop Raven had butterflies again. Not because she was expecting to see Russel again, but because she was expecting to see those girls she'd met in the forest. Antonia, Sarah and Lisa. Raven really didn't want to, but if she was going to be normal then the goth girl guessed one of the fears she'd have to overcome is social interactions.

It had crossed Raven's mind that she could very easily find out who the psychic was between them if she ambushed them, drew them into her soul-self, and from there she could torture and scare them until someone admitted to having psychic powers. But then Raven thought of the Doctor, he would not approve. He'd try talking to them, get them to open up and from there dig for information. Plus, torture wasn't an effective method of getting information, Raven knew that from experience.

But it could be really fun. She thought. That it could be, but the girls didn't deserve such treatment. Not yet anyway.

Raven had to fight the anxiety down and think clearly. You've read enough books. You should be able to make conversation. Just remember not to upset them.

How? Upsetting people seems all to easy. Raven remembered the rule to never discuss religion or politics. So she'd have to avoid those topics. She'd spent a good few minutes just trying to figure out how she was going to approach this before she realised she was just wasting time.

Taking a deep breath, Raven took the plunge and walked into the book shop. Would they even be here? Especially after what happened at the forest with the Invisible Monster?

At the back where there were bean bags Raven saw Antonia, she waved for Raven to join them. She guessed the monster wasn't enough to put them off.

As Raven approached, she saw Lisa was sitting in a bean bag chair which was sinking so low it might swallow her up. Sarah sat daintily in a yellow bean bag chair, while Antonia sat on a vivid pink one.

"Hi, Raven." They greeted her. "We're so glad you could join us."

There wasn't another bean bag to sit on. Just plastic, children's chairs from the kids section. But there was a cushion on the floor that Raven removed and sat on cross-legged.

"Umm... thanks." Raven said a little surprised. "You're... not scared about that thing in the woods?"

"Nah!" Antonia scoffed, "I explained it all away. It was just toxic woodland gases making us all hallucinate, there are no such things as monsters."

That would have been a sensible conclusion if it weren't for three facts. One, there was a monster. Two, Raven was a monster among them right now. Three, the explanation was just as much a ridiculous idea as there being a monster in the woods. But it explained why they weren't scared.

"What about Sarah struggling to breathe?" Raven asked.

"The gas is toxic, she couldn't breathe it. So she choked. Then she fell to the floor where the air was cleaner." Antonia said.

"But she was floating in the air." Raven was getting a little irritated by this idiocy.

"A simple mirage, making us think she was floating." Antonia said, and spotted that Raven was not convinced. "Don't worry. We're all better now, aren't we girls?" The other two nodded in agreement. Then Antonia leaned forward. "So, Raven, tell us about yourself." Raven was put off by that. The three looked friendly enough, though the brutish Lisa had a sceptical look about her.

"Umm... I was born in a place called Azarath." She began without thinking. "It's in Ireland." She added hurriedly. But I have an American accent, apparently. Her brain reminded her. "I grew up in 'the States' but I recently moved to England."

"Wow, you've travelled a lot. More than Sarah has." Antonia teased Sarah.

"Majorca is lovely." Sarah said in a dignified voice, "Why go anywhere else?"

There was a pause as the attention went back to Raven. She really didn't feel comfortable. The atmosphere wasn't creepy or threatening, she just wasn't used to this.

"I left my mother in Azarath, and I've been travelling around with the Doc... my... my Dad." Raven said.

"What does he do?" Antonia asked, genuinely interested.

"Lecture people, mostly." Raven smiled at her little joke. "He's a doctor. A scientist." The girls looked impressed.

"Mine is a doctor too," said Sarah, "But he's a proper doctor."

"She means an M.D. not a P.H.D." Antonia added. Sarah did sound a little 'posh' -the word was for upper-class-, compared to the other two.

"We travel around in a junk heap." Raven said, again a personal joke at the TARDIS's expense.

"You mean that old bug?" Lisa asked, "The purple one? God, how can you stand being in something so tiny?" Raven glanced at Lisa and looked at her wide girth, a million and one responses entered her head, but she kept them down. It wasn't worth it just to defend a stupid car.

Raven continued to tell them about herself, it wasn't all nonsense, it was all half-truths but they seemed to swallow them up easily. Maybe a little too easily. As for the other girls, they were all born in this area, Antonia was a single child who lived in an orphanage for most of her life. Sarah was a posh girl who lived with rich parents and originally went to a private school. Lisa used to work on a farm with her family, she was expected to help out with a lot of the heavy lifting since her parents hadn't sired a son. Hence her brutish exterior. There was some underlying tone to her voice which told Raven that things were not all sunshine and rainbows in her family.

Listening carefully, Raven tried to hook onto something, anything, which might indicate a connection to the Creature from the forest. So far Antonia living in an orphanage might indicate resentment and anger. After all, who likes to be an orphan? Lisa on the other hand sounded like there was some unhappiness there. Sarah was rich, what did she have to be in turmoil about.

But it wasn't obvious who might be conjuring that creature. Raven disconnected from the conversation to think. Maybe she'd be able to detect any residual psychic abilities from who she was looking for. But a quick scan of their aura told her none of them had residual psychic powers. Though a couple had potential that told Raven nothing. Most people had potential, but not the mind to use the power, and when they did the best they could do was move a few air molecules around. But that still didn't dismiss them. Sometimes dormant powers had the same signature of low usage.

"What do you think, Raven?" Raven was snapped back to attention when Antonia spoke.

"Huh?"

"You're very quiet. What do you think about the relationship between Ron and Hermione?" They were talking about Harry Potter.

"Umm... I think..." Which answer won't make them hate me? "I think, they make a good couple?" That seemed to make them nod and agree. Raven didn't think that at all. She couldn't see what a girl like Hermione would see in an immature dweeb like Ron. In her mind, Hermione didn't need a love interest. She didn't need anyone but her books.

Sarah was talking. "I personally don't see what she sees in Ron. I prefer Harry."

Well, you're not Hermione, not everyone thinks like you. Raven wanted to say, but she bit her tongue.

"I like Neville." Said Lisa, "He becomes such a powerful guy."

"Malfoy." Antonia said, "I think Tom Felton is hot."

Who? Raven wondered. Is this what young girls usually talk about? Raven kind of felt disappointed. She wanted to talk about deeper subjects. The nature of magic, the mysteries of darkness and the universe. Raven wanted to talk philosophy, alchemy. Something interesting. But the girls just kept talking about... well...girly stuff. Internally she groaned. Sometimes she felt like being a human girl was just as much a curse as being half demon. She wasn't technically either category.

"Do you like cute animals?" Sarah asked Raven suddenly. Raven couldn't stand animals, cute or otherwise. "We volunteer at the local animal sanctuary. You're more than welcome to join us."

"Umm... maybe later." Raven trailed off making her disdain for 'cute' things known through the way she leaned back away from Sarah. The girls didn't seem to mind.

As they talked Raven tried to scan their minds for any hint of psychic abilities. But she found nothing, no indication whatsoever. Perhaps their powers were dormant. Raven tried to steer the conversation back to them and their personal lives, not because she was at all interested, but because she had a hunch. Sometimes the lid gets blown off one's psychic powers after a suitably traumatic event. So Raven was going to fish for something to indicate deep trauma and potentially her suspect.

The demon girl picked up on how the girls were asking questions. Questions like, "Have you ever tried this, or have you ever done that. etc." and so Raven decided to ask one herself.

"What... is the most traumatic experience you've ever had?" The girls looked a little taken aback, but intrigued.

"I was riding a horse once." Lisa started, "I was young and my dad wasn't supposed to let me ride it. But I fell off, got caught in the reins, the horse took off, dragged me across the ground." Antonia and Sarah listened, utterly horrified. Raven tried to faint interest. "The horse jumped over the hedge and stopped. It was a good thing too, because if he'd kept on I'd have been pulled into the blades of the harvester. It wasn't running, but I'd have been impaled." Not exactly what Raven was looking for, but that was a close call for Lisa.

"When I was ten." Sarah said, "While at the beach my family drove off without me and forgot I wasn't in the car. They were so used to me being quiet that they didn't notice I was missing until they got to the petrol station, twenty miles away." Okay, that was more like it. Not that Sarah's experience wouldn't be traumatic, but what Raven was looking for was more a deep betrayal of trust, and your parents forgetting you and leaving you on a strange beach was a start.

Next was Antonia.

"In my Orphanage, the woman in charge was a nasty, manipulative piece of work. She was called Grettle. She usually got a government grant if the place was being ran properly. So whenever the inspection came she'd clean the place up and threaten us to be happy while the inspectors were here, or else." Now this was more like it.

"Did they ever find out?" Sarah asked.

"No, but I got her into trouble." Antonia grinned, "I broke into her bedroom and while she entertained the inspection team I made sure to hide a stash of cigarettes under her bed. Then I gave some out to the kids pretending they were candies. I then lit one up. They caught me smoking, asked where I got it from and I told her Gretta gives them to us and pointed in the direction of the hiding place. She was fired shortly after that. I'm surprised it worked."

Now this really was more like it. Raven thought, perhaps a little too excitedly. Trauma caused by abuse in an orphanage. Perfect grounds for psychic powers to slip out.

"What about you, Raven?"

Shit, I have to share now. She felt her face start to glow a vivid red. What trauma could she say? Her abuse at the Temple on Azarath? Watching Armstrong be devoured by Cyber-nano's? Feeling the Doctors wrath? When her friends in the Land of Fiction turned on her? Having her perfect life destroyed by some selfish bitch who wanted to control her? The time she nearly committed suicide? Her failure to save Kasey? When she fell for Gallrick and he'd...

Raven decided to go for something that painted herself sympathetically, but not pathetically.

"I... my... my uncle, Uncle Kasey..." and she described his depression, how she'd tried to help, about how she'd failed.

"Oh, I'm so sorry." Antonia said, placing a hand on top of Ravens own. Raven looked at it like one might look at an intrusive insect, but let it slide. "Was it quick for him at least?"

"I think he's finally at peace." Raven said.

As the evening wore on Raven began to relax more around the girls, though her social skills meant any information gathering was difficult. But mostly they talked about books. They didn't have any interest in romance novels either as it turned out. Raven decided she liked these girls more and more. But then came a turn in the conversation when Antonia said.

"Hey, look what I found in the forest." From her little bag she produced a book. A sketchbook. It was Russel's sketch pad!

"You've got Russel's drawing book!" Sarah exclaimed.

"Yeah," Antonia said, letting the book fall open. "I bet he's drawn some really weird shite in here."

The three girls bunched up to look at the book. Raven didn't need to, she'd seen the book already.

"Wow, he's actually become very good." Sarah said, a twinkle in her eye.

"I've seen better." Antonia dismissed, flipping through pages.

"Hey, there's Miss Flavershum, my old teacher." Lisa chortled. "She actually looks old and crusty in that!" Antonia turned another page and the three girls froze.

"Oh, how sweet of him." Sarah said with a nasty tone to her voice Raven couldn't understand.

"You mean 'what a creep'!" Antonia said, "He barely knows her." They all looked at Raven.

"What?" the goth girl asked, feeling a tad uncomfortable. The girls turned over the book to show Raven.

Russel had been drawing her! The picture was in the back of the book. It wasn't finished, her body, arms and hair had only been roughly sketched out, but most of the attention had been given to her face. The picture had a frown which looked, not upset but bored. The expression was altered however by her eyes. Cold, dark, and attentive, yet he'd somehow gave them a hidden life and warmth to them, as if reflecting a hidden person inside.

"He's made you look like an 'up-yourself' kind of girl. Stiff, and bored as hell, like you're already dead!" Lisa growled a little. "What an arsehole!" That's not how Raven saw it, was that Russel's intention? To make her look stiff, up-herself and bored? Was she just seeing more in the drawing because it was of her?

"I don't think that's how you're supposed to view it." Raven said a little defensively of herself, and a little of Russel. After all, Russel had been nice to her. Sure he'd mocked her a little, but he was mostly complimentary about her appearance.

Antonia snapped the book shut. "That's what some people are like." She said with a hint of bitterness. "You don't see how nasty they really are until it's too late." Antonia put the book back in her bag. Raven eyed it as it vanished. That belongs to Russel! "You have to read between the lines with such people so you can tell who they really are."

"Yeah, you want to talk about trauma, just look it in the dictionary and it'll say, 'Russel, the cause of.'" Lisa said.

"Me and Lisa used to go to school with him." Antonia said. "When we first met him, he decided he didn't like us. We didn't know why, but one day he just came up to us and hit us."

"Yeah, then he mocked us for just being 'silly girls.'" Lisa scowled at a memory, "and me for being fat. So we hit him, and like a big baby he ran away crying." That didn't sound like Russel. From what Raven had seen Russel was mostly gentle. A little 'awkward' perhaps, but not mean or nasty.

"Yeah, he has an anger management problem, he always gets angry at his girlfriends." Lisa said, "I reckon his mum abused him or something, so he resents all girls." Antonia nodded as if it was a fact.

"He hurt Sarah, too." Lisa added, "Tell her, Sarah."

Sarah looked taken aback at being asked to speak.

"We met in college." Sarah said, "We started going out. I was enchanted by his drawings, his sense of humour, he had such a passion to him. Antonia and Lisa tried to warn me about him, but I didn't listen." Sarah sounded like she was giving a warning to Raven. "Then, one dark night, he did... something and I had to smack him." Through Sarah's body language Raven was getting the hint of what Sarah was trying to get across. "He just slinked away after that."

"Yeah, like the worm he is." Lisa spat. The spark of dislike in the air was almost crackling.

Raven was sure what she was hearing wasn't the Russel she knew, at all. But the anger Sarah was saying all this with, the anger within her made it difficult for Raven not to believe her. But then, Russel had plenty of chances to 'take advantage' of Raven while down by the river, and he'd kept his hands to himself. Raven, said this.

"It would've been a matter of time." Sarah said. "Thank goodness we got you away from that dreadful boy before anything happened to scar you for life."

If he tried anything like that with me, I guarantee, he'd be the one scarred for life. Raven thought darkly.

"Trust me, boys are a waste of time." Antonia said, "Men and boys are stupid. Too stupid for girls like us to get along with." Some part of Raven agreed with that.

For the rest of the evening, the girls just chatted, had cake, and tea, and 'biscuits' and just talked, and talked, and talked. They started talking about something called 'Disney movies' and Raven had no idea what they were.

Weirdly, Raven again felt like a girl, only a girl with friends. Not made-up friends, nor fictional ones; but proper, real friends. She also felt like she was getting the hang of this 'conversation' thing.

Her mind briefly went back to Russel. He was a little like that short boy from the Land of Fiction who stood up for her. What was his name again? Gar... something or other. But he was only fiction, a fantasy of her deluded mind, Russel was real.

Raven gently sighed. It felt nice, but no, she refused to develop any form of attachment to Russel. Just because he was similar to the boy from her fictional life it didn't mean he was exactly like him. Best to just forget him. Just forget him.

Forget.

"Half a pound of ground up bone mead. Three petals from a weed. Fifty litres of pure water." Young Raven muttered as she added the ingredients to the bowl. To say Raven was annoyed was an understatement. She'd lost her friend to three people who hated her. No doubt they filled his ears with sweet little lies about her, and he'd just believed them.

Maybe she shouldn't have been too open about herself. Maybe she'd shared too much too fast and it overwhelmed him. Maybe she showed him something that made him take a step back and wonder if it was worth being friends with her. Then those three swooped in and painted a different view of her.

If there was one thing Raven was aware of, it was that people will always listen and believe complete strangers when they pointed and called someone 'nasty,' 'weird,' or 'evil'. It didn't matter what the person was like, public opinion would still call her evil. Showing him her collection of dead spiders probably didn't help matters.

The next person I meet I'm going to be a little more reserved. She decided as she sprinkled salt into the mixture.

She really wasn't supposed to be practising this stuff. It was considered evil. But Raven was curious. She didn't believe this type of magic was evil, what was wrong with Dark Magic? Were the elders scared of it just because they didn't understand where it came from? That they couldn't do it? That it was more powerful than they could handle? Considering the treatment Raven got she did wonder if everything they pointed and called evil was just misunderstood.

This spell was just a weakening spell. Once cast it'd slowly sap the magical strength of whoever came into contact with it by blocking out the signals to their charkas. The book she had in her possession was filled with dark magic spells. She'd snuck the book out from under the librarians nose, and through all the magical alert spells. The one thing about being utterly alone is that Raven had plenty of time to practice her powers and her spells. No one suspected a ten year old of being able to do this stuff.

There was a danger warning in the book that the spell had to be corked and bottled and kept sealed for 14 hours or else the unfinished mixture would cause intense, mind numbing pain. Raven had made potions before, she was careful with it. With the mixture finished she funnelled it into a bottle and corked it. It should be sickly green, but right now it was a dark purple. Raven kind of liked the shade but it was just wrong. She guessed she'd need to practice a little more. Whatever this did she didn't know. Tipping the bottle it looked more like weapons-grade sludge.

Raven was being so careful to pour the stuff and not get any on her that she nearly dropped everything when she heard a knock on the door. Fearing discovery she cried, "Just a second," and quickly finish pouring. She corked the bottle and put it on her dresser. The best place to leave it was probably in plain sight, especially considering it looked just like purified wormwood. A useful ingredient in a common spells, so she labelled it as such and just put it in the corner of her dresser. Along with all the other potions she was not supposed to brew and were labelled up wrong. Yeah, this wasn't her first dark magic spell. She then hid the book itself and stacked the cauldron in such a way to suggest she had left it in that state for a few days without cleaning it. She'd get a scolding for not taking care of her equipment, sure. But it'd be better than if they found her brewing a dark potion.

"Hello Raven." It was Gallrick! He'd come back!

"Gallrick?" Raven asked, "I thought… never mind." She stepped aside and invited him in. The young girl smiled and laughed nervously as he swept in, his own, black cloak billowing out behind him. Raven shyly hunched her shoulders to hide herself and make herself look smaller.

Gallrick was distracted by the still damp cauldron in the corner. He seemed rather quiet. Maybe he was shy too.

"Can... can I get you something?" Raven asked, she had plenty of water, all clean, mostly used for potions. Or there were snacks she'd snuck away from the table.

"I'm fine thanks." Gallrick said, "I just want to meditate." Raven was happy to.

They both adopted the lotus position, facing each other, and together they began to meditate.

Clear minds, all anxiety flushed away. Just blankness and calmness. After ten minutes Raven began to notice something was wrong. She couldn't sense Gallrick, at all. Was he suppressing his presence? Why would he do that?

Raven opened her eyes to check. Gallrick was on his feet and inspecting the bottle she'd just corked. What the hell was he doing?!

"No, don't!" Raven screamed as Gallrick pulled the cork out.

There was a flash of darkness as smoke erupted from the bottle like a genie from a lamp. Gallrick tried to scream, but his voice was cut off by the smoke. When it cleared Raven was horrified to see the black material all over his arm as it began to eat away the flesh from his bones. He tried to move, but Raven could feel he was in too much pain. He stumbled and went for the door. If someone found him then Raven would be in dead, dead trouble.

Gallricks pain receptors were so lit up by the spell that he couldn't stop Ravens powers from paralysing him and rooting him to the spot as well as paralysing his tongue so he couldn't scream. He was now frozen, and in great pain.

"Please, don't panic." Raven said, "and don't worry." She began to work her own healing abilities to numb the pain, then pulled the book across the room to her waiting hand to search for the counter jinx to heal him. "I can fix you." She ran her fingers through her hair in a panic as Gallrick's blackened arm began to bubble, "I can fix you. I can fix you!"

Oh God, I hope I can fix you!...

To Be Continued...

Authors notes: I am going somewhere with this, so hang on. ;)

The next update might take a while because I'm currently scratching my head about how to execute it.

Cheers