,,Mily, we’ve been walking for HOURS. Just use a teleportation spell!!!” Erika complained again.

,,No” Mily bluntly said.

,,Mily, where exactly are we going?” I asked her.

,,You’ll see once we get there” she responded.

,,And when’s that?” Millie also asked.

,,In a few hours” Saki replied on behalf of Mily.

We were currently walking through the middle of nowhere. Mily was marching in the front of the group, while the rest of us were dying in the back.

,,Mily can we please stop walking?” Lord complained in Erika’s tone.

,,Shut up Lord, you’re not even walking.” That much was true: Erika was currently giving the kid a piggyback ride.

,,My soul is about to disappear” Wendy pretended to faint.

Meanwhile, the only other not tired person was obviously Midari. She was sprinting next to Mily and humming a song.

,,Luna I don’t feel so well” Eric told me.

,,What’s wrong…?”

,,Everything” he said ,,I feel like dying all over again.”

,,Oh my librarian, stop COMPLAINING!” Mily yelled.

,,Okay boss” Erika said.

Recently I had learned that Erika was in fact our boss, because she was the oldest. They actually lied when they said that Lord was in charge, but they had to do it, because at that time the kid was dealing with some self acceptance issues.

,,Are we there yet?” Lord asked.

,,Lord, this is the third time today when you ask that. I am sick and tired of listening to you talk” Mily said as she stopped and turned around to Erika and Lord.

,,Okay, jeez, calm down” Erika told her.

Mily turned around and began walking again, without looking back at us anymore.

At some point I started floating, but quickly got tired of it. After another hour of pure torture, Mily stopped.

,,Okay why are we stopping here? It’s the middle of nowhere!” Lord looked around.

Mily turned around to face us again.

,,Well, this is our parting point” she said. Saki nodded.

,,Okay, what?” Millie said ,,You’re leaving? And what are we supposed to do? Stay here the whole day? Walk away back home?”

,,That doesn’t really concern me. Do whatever you want. Just stay close in case I need help.”

,,Y’know if you won’t tell us what you need help with, who knows if we’re actually going to come to your aid?” Midari declared.

,,You will” Mily said ,,Now, go do something else.”

That morning Mily had told us that she needed help with something. We didn’t question her and because she’s our beloved witch, we decided to be nice.

But right now Mily wasn’t even telling us what she was up to.

Though we didn’t have much of a choice.

Mily and Saki left to Elizabeth-knows-where and the rest of us decided it would be best if we rested.

Millie had brought a blanket with us (my sister is so smart) and settled it on the ground.

,,What are we supposed to do now?” Lord asked.

,,Wait for her to come back obviously!” Midari responded. ,,This is boring” she then added.

,,Why do I get that feeling of being watched again?” Eric shivered.

,,Where exactly are we?” my sister wanted to know. Erika yawned and responded:

,,I have no idea.”

Edgar shifted away from us.

,,You okay?” I asked him. He didn’t even bother to look at me.

,,Yeah” was all Edgar said.

,,He’s not okay” Eric whispered to me ,,He’s been acting weird eversince we left.”

,,I know” I whispered back ,,But what can I do?”

Eric shook his head ,,I don’t know. I’m not very good with…people.”

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

,,Honestly neither am I. But like…I need people or else I’ll feel lonely.”

,,Extroverted much?” Eric teased. It was the first time he was actually acting playful.

,,You know what?” Midari said and stood up, interrupting all our conversations ,,I’m going after Mily.”

,,Don’t!” Edgar yelled.

We all turned to him. The man looked like he didn’t sleep in weeks. He even forgot to put on his tie.

,,Why not?”

,,Because…uhm…”

,,Let’s just stay here” Erika said. The two of them were suspicious like always. It was clear that Erika was helping Edgar make Midari stay.

Midari scoffed.

,,Anyway…this is so boring! What are we supposed to do?! We don’t even have Wi-Fi here…Wait…HOW ABOUT we call ELIZABETH and ask HER to give us Wi-Fi! And then I can beat her at card games. And before you wonder, yes. I play cards online with Elizabeth. It’s kinda cool, but I always loose…”

,,We can’t call her, are you mental? Only Mily calls her.”

,,I think it’s time for a change!”

,,Midari stop it” Erika told her ,,Let’s stop talking.”

Erika, Edgar and obviously Mily were acting very strange. I had to figure out what they were up to…

But then an uninvited guest appeared.

⋆⁺₊⋆ ☾⋆⁺₊⋆

Evil Luna wasn’t welcome, as always. She was pacing around her wonderful throne. When I arrived she looked at me with a worried expression.

,,You’re here” she said.

,,I am” I replied.

,,Something’s wrong.”

,,I know. You think I’m stupid enough not to notice?” I told her. She stopped in her tracks.

,,No, of course you’re not. What is Mily up to?”

,,I would very much want to know the same thing.”

Evil Luna motioned to a weird screen with her hand.

,,While you all were complaining, I took the liberty of spying on Mily.”

,,Creepy stalker..”

,,Shut up!” she yelled ,,I don’t…stalk…her. I guess.”

,,Whatever you say bestie…so…what did you find out?”

,,Take a look.”

My evil self turned to the screen and I could see an image of a scared Saki and Mily trying to comfort her friend.

,,How are you doing this? You’re watching them in real time?”

,,Duh, who do you take me for? I really have to teach you some stuff you could do, if you really wanted to.”

We turned back to the screen. We couldn’t hear what Mily and Saki were saying, but Saki was clearly shaking. Just then, we saw a guy appear.

,,Who’s he?”

Evil Luna didn’t respond, but I understood that she didn’t know who the boy was.

The guy was frantically gesturing towards them. Mily appeared to be considering something, while also trying to prevent Saki from having a panic attack (she was clearly failing).

,,I don’t trust the dude” Evil Luna said.

Back to the screen, the dude was now gone and in his stead there stood a wolf.

,,What part of the movie did I miss?” I asked.

,,Uh…”

Mily extended her hand and Saki turned into a bright silver soul (it looked yummy). Saki’s soul then disappeared.

I knew that companions could turn into their soul form when the ghost commanded them, but I never tried it myself.

Then Mily hopped onto the wolf and off they were.

,,What the fuck just happened?” was all I could say.

,,Language, first. Second, I have no idea. Also Erika is currently shaking your body, in hopes of waking you up. She looks scared.”

,,And how do I wake up?”

Suddenly, Evil Luna appeared in front of me and touched my forehead with her thumb.

⋆⁺₊⋆ ☾⋆⁺₊⋆

,,LUNA WAKE UP ALREADY?”

,,Why is she sleeping in the middle of the day?”

,,WE’VE GOT TROUBLE YOU IDIOT WAKE UP!”

I opened my eyes.

,,Shut up everyone, I’m here.”

Erika shook my shoulders.

,,There’s that thing watching us again. I don’t know what’s happening. Put your companions away for safe keeping.”

Millie nodded and Wendy and Kevin turned into their souls, Wendy into a white one and Kevin into a grey one.

I looked at Edgar and Kevin. The younger one was basically hiding behind Edgar. I took a deep “breath” and motioned just like Mily and my sis.

Edgar turned into blue soul with glitter and Eric into a small yellow one.

,,Good work” Erika said ,,Now uhh…”

Just then, Lord fell to the ground.

,,The fuck?” Millie was confused. Then she fell to the ground, unconscious.

,,Uhh Erika??”

,,Uhh Luna??”

And then my-not-really-lil-sis attacked us.

Lyla punched me in the face and I fell, but Erika caught me. Lyla puffed and then attacked again, this time aiming for my stomach.

,,Lylaaaa?”

Lyla didn’t want to stop though and actually managed to hit me several times. Erika lifted her up the ground using her Spectre abilities, but then she let Lyla fall down with a shriek.

,,Erika…?”

The ex-teacher looked at me and mumbled something and then fell to the ground like the rest of the others.

,,Uh…”

I shifted my gaze towards Lyla. She looked almost the same she looked last time I saw her a few months ago, except her hair was braided now.

Lyla took a step towards me and I took a step back.

,,Relax” she told me ,,I won’t do anything to you!”

Somehow that wasn’t reassuring at all and I told her that. Lyla laughed, clearly amused. Then she pretended to wipe a tear.

,,For a moment there, I actually thought you were funny” she said ,,Well, it doesn’t matter anyway.”

,,Can you at least explain why you’re here?”

,,Oh right, I forgot about that part. I’m here to take your soul, but I let you stay conscious because I wanted to chat with you.”

,,What do you need souls for..?”

Lyla grinned.

,,For experiments duh! Do you know how hard it is to find souls of high ranked ghosts? Huh? Do you?”

,,So you’ve been following us around the whole time for…collecting our energies? To..experiment on us? I’m not sure I like the idea…”

Lyla raised a hand and the souls of our companions appeared in her hand.

,,Wait!”

Lyla raised her head to look at me. I wanted to teleport behind her and attack her by surprise, but I realized that my teleporting ability had suddenly disappeared, making me look like a fool in front of the enemy.

,,Okay, that was embarrassing…” Lyla snickered .

,,Shut up, you’re no better.”

Lyla tucked the two souls in her bag.

,,Uhm Lyla, will you stop if we try to talk this out?”

Lyla stared at me.

,,No” she shrugged.

I thought about what I could do. Lyla would steal my soul in the end as well, so was there any point in fighting? I considered praying to Elizabeth but then I remembered she doesn’t answer to pointless prayers.

I thought about running to Mily and Saki but I didn’t know where they were. So basically I ran out of options (because fighting wasn’t one).

But then I looked at my poor sister and decided that if I were to disappear, at least I would do it in a heroic way, so, I attacked.

Lyla was taken by surprise but I managed to injure her arm. I still did not understand how a human being could interact with ghosts the way she did but I didn’t dwell on it too much.

Lyla yelled in pain and held her other arm over her now bleeding wound.

I attacked again, this time aiming to kill the girl. It did not matter if she was my sister, what mattered was that she was the bad guy (and that I had to look cool).

But Lyla wasn’t that easy to kill. She dogged and stumbled on the ground.

I ran towards her trying to attack again, but she rolled over on the ground. The girl then kicked my leg with hers, but it didn’t matter.

I grabbed my sword and was about to stab Lyla with it, when suddenly she fainted.

,,What?” I said out loud. I looked at Lyla. Her eyes were a bit open and I figured she pretended to faint so I could turn my back to her which would have resulted in her attacking me.

Which is what I did, so I could then pull a surprise attack on her.

But before I could even fully turn around, Lyla attacked.

And then she got blocked by a silver scythe.