A girl races down the hallways of the biology building at Liberty University. Her face bears telltale tear marks from her harrowing experience in the bathroom. But her eyes show no such weakness. Her firm gaze fixates on the hallway in front of her and her stride never falters. One would hardly guess that this is the first time she has strode through these halls!

Yet as she turns and weaves through the corners, she marches onwards with such a command of the space that she appears to be a queen of everything in front of her. Finally, her gait begins to slow as she reaches the entrance to the labs hallway. A guard stands outside the archway, speaking animatedly to himself.

"Man I'm ta luckiest guy alive! Who'da think I'd be sittin' right where ta Roman would show up? Fame an' glory, I'm a hero! An' then ta ole boss calls up lookin' fer a way ta 'pologize bout leavin' me on ta docks! An' ta Minutemen finally win a game!"

The animated guard then notices Bella standing at the end of the hall. He quickly walks over and asks her, "Watcha doin' down here lady?"

Bella smiles contritely. "I'm lost sir. Would you mind helping me find the way to the nearest bathroom?"

With a smile, the guard agrees and walks her down the hall. As she enters, he turns around to walk back. But Bella does not stay ensconced in the bathroom! She quickly steps back to the hall before the door swings shut and shadows the guard on his way back. Of course, she is hardly a master of stealth, but the guard's preoccupation with talking up his own good fortune masks the sound of her footfalls.

Just before he reaches the end of the hall and turns back around, she reaches up and shoves his hat off his head. Bella pauses for a moment in amazement as his cleverly concealed wig falls on the floor as well. The guard drops down to pick up his hat and hair and Bella steps neatly around him. He stands, turning around and staring at the empty hallway and Bella slips through the awning and into the lab hall.

Pacing down the stretch, she ducks under a desk as a set of assistants walks past. Then Bella makes her way further down the hall into to the section labeled "Botanical Gardens." Stepping past the mundane plants, she moves to the more exotic offerings. Past rare and beautiful growths, Bella winds her way to the back towards a locked door marked "Dangerous Plant's Lab."

The lock on the door hardly causes her to pause. In a few hits, the rusted thing falls right off. Bella then ducks inside cautiously, looking for anyone else. When no one appears or investigates the sound of the lock breaking, Bella smiles and straightens.

She takes only a few minutes to find the worst of the poisonous plants near the back. Then she carefully clips the leaves of nightshade and deposits them into a nearby test tube she then stoppers and places into her pencil bag along with the other spell components.

As she moves to leave, Bella notices a spare keycard and guest I.D. laying on the table. With a smile, she pockets the pair of them and sneaks back out. When she walks past the guard for a second time, he gives her a confused look but makes no move to stop her. Moving back the way she came, Bella has no trouble slipping into the press of students moving throughout the hallways.

Of course, her flushed and agitated look draw some questions, but Bella laughs it off as the excitement of the visit and anticipation of what is yet to come.

Up ahead, Mr. Laurisden shouts to the group, "Okay kids, you've seen enough of the Biology department. On to the physics classrooms!"

Bella zones out as Mr. Laurisden drones on. Her father is a teacher in the physics department so she is already familiar with the building. She also made a point to ask both her parents not to single her out today, and they being painfully aware of some of her issues with bullying, do not hesitate to honor that request.

But while Bella might have made a point to have a quiet conversation with them before moving on, today her mind is on other things. For the past week, she has thought long and hard about the origin of the book in the altar.

Clearly, the lock on the box and hidden nature of the text mark it as something the creators of the altar wanted to remain hidden. The question she finds herself asking, however, is what motive they had to do so. The box might be a byproduct of a forgotten age's dislike of witches, or it could be a legitimate effort to conceal a dangerous artifact.

The second purpose of her visit today, beyond her hasty decision to acquire the nightshade, was to discover more about the book itself in an effort to acertain if the spells written inside will really work. Bella's research on spell books took her to a page run by a professor of the history of the occult at Liberty University. She plans to slip aside one more time to have a conversation with him during the group's trip to the history department.

As the group nears the history building, Bella finds herself wishing she had not made the offhand mention of her desire to see this section of campus. It is not her bullies that torment her this time, but rather her friends! They, in contrast, do not seek to hurt her but rather support her.

Stolen novel; please report.

With a smile, Missy gently elbows Bella. "Hey Bella, these old fuddy duddies are who you want to hang out with?"

Bella smiles nervously, "Yeah, I think we really should try to discover the secrets of the past."

Hailey leans into the pair, "You're preaching to the choir girl! I heard one of the professors here is all about magic, how cool is that?"

Theo and Jake both approach the girls. Theo speaks up with a hint of wonder in his tone, "Magic? You mean like what Eldritch uses? I bet he's a popular professor lately."

Jake groans, "Aww man, ya gonna do this again? Ta whole time we were in ta engineerin' departmint it was Gingey Snaps this an' Gingey Snaps that."

Missy smiles, "Hey now! That suit of hers is a real mechanical marvel. Did you guys hear she tangled with the Aces last week?"

Hailey turns sharply and looks at her. "No. What happened?" She asks urgently.

Theo looks at her askance, "Nothing bad, don't worry she beat them. Well it was more of a stalemate I guess? But either way she's been off the radar for a bit. Guess they spooked her."

Hailey visibly relaxes, the tension leaving her small frame. "Well thank goodness! The Aces are pretty awful."

Missy grimaces, "You wouldn't believe some of the stuff my dad says they're involved in. I don't know how well you remember that whole museum thing from a month ago, but apparently the Bokuti diamond was almost stolen by them!"

Absentmindedly, Hailey replies. "Not them, the Deuces." Her face screws up in an expression of intense thought.

Missy frowns, "Oh yeah that's right, hey how'd you know that anyways?"

But Missy's question remains unanswered and ignored by the group. For they have just realized that Bella disappeared!

Looking around confused Theo interjects, "Hey where's Bella?"

Glancing about, the group searches for the wayward teen for a minute. Afraid of getting their friend in trouble, they try to keep an eye out for her without telling Mr. Laurisden she has left them. Hailey in particular thinks back to what her mother said about Bella's bullying problem and starts to worry. But those worries will need to wait! For as the group searches, our attention turns to the missing girl directly.

Standing in an out of the way office on the third floor of the building, Bella confronts a seedy looking man in a worn jacket. Books on sorceries and spells written in different languages cover the small room they share. Atop the piles sits a collage of newspaper clippings on Eldritch and the flickering computer screen betrays that the professor was writing an article on her power before Bella so rudely interrupted him.

Annoyed, he asks her again, "You want to know about what now? Look all the myth and legend surrounding something like that is difficult to parse, half of its just religious mumbo jumbo crap and the other half is the actual witches trying to overinflate what the artifact can actually do. It takes an exceptional researcher to sift truth from deception."

Impatient, Bella taps her foot. "Well? You're supposed to be an exceptional researcher."

The man blinks. Then he continues in a confident tone. "Oh I am no question about that. I'm just saying that what you're asking about is difficult to study. So you should really appreciate what I'm about to tell you."

Bella waves her hand imperiously. Then in a magnanimous tone she says, "Well then let's hear it."

Shaking his head the man pulls out a pair of reading spectacles and walks over while muttering to himself about 'kids today.' Once he finds a particular tome from his shelf, he whirls about and speaks in a clear and powerful voice, "Chapter Four: The book of poisons, an artifact of terrible and insidious power. This what you want to know about?"

Bella nods and he continues. "A Witch's Guide to Poison: Spells, Brews, and Ingredients. The mundane name obscures the true nature of this tome. Fortunately, while many a copy exists, the true article demands a price of blood to read. Without which words do not appear." The man looks up, "See what I mean? What a load of religious hokum. 'A price of blood?' Please! It's absolutely nonsense."

Bella nods again, this time impatiently, "Yes, I'm sure that's not real. But I still want to hear what this has to say anyways."

The professor waves his hand to clear some dust. "Whatever, tenure is just a year and a half away. All right, where were we... ah yes price of blood. The true text contains an element of mystic power that allows an otherwise powerless combination of ingredients and chants to produce a spell. The book itself is part of a set of five guidebooks covering cursing, poisons, hexing, deception, and Death. Odd that they would capitalize death like that, almost as if it’s an actual thing you can interact with. Apparently that last one's destroyed though, there's a note here about some guy named Atho-."

Bella interrupts, "I don't care about the rest of the set. What powers does the poison book have?"

The professor shakes his head, "God, a year and a half seems so far away." He mutters in an aggrieved tone before continuing.

"The poison guidebook covers toxins of all kinds. The book also teaches spells related to poisons that will work for a witch even without the spell book in his or her possession. Which if you think about it, doesn't really mesh with what it said earlier about needing the book to make the spells work." Looking up, he says, "Again, just mumbo jumbo."

The professor then looks down again at the text and continues to read. "Finally, the book carries a spell of revenge that temporarily allows a witch to channel her toxic emotions into a transformation. But it doesn't really say what you transform into, just that it lasts until the emotions fueling it run their course."

He closes the book. "Man that seems like a terrible idea. I mean, what if you transform for revenge and then the person you want to kill dies choking on a fishbone? You'd just be stuck in some monstrous form until you got your desire for revenge under control. Which probably would take a while considering you were angry enough to enact the spell in the first place."

Hesitatingly, Bella asks, "Does... does it have anything else in the book on the spell?"

Frowning, the professor opens the book again and turns a few pages before going back to his original place. "Not really. Just a mention that the witch needs to be careful with it, apparently I was on the right track about the dangers of holding on to toxic emotions. Oh! Actually, here's a bit more on that. Once cast, the spell allows transformation back and forth whenever the witch desires. But I see here the change becomes permanent if they lose themselves in the emotional state. Apparently that's not hard to do because anything that reignites those feelings can force the transformation involuntarily if they're intense enough."

Bella smiles at the professor. "Thank you, I'll definitely be able to write that paper now."

The professor grunts and tosses the book back on the shelf. Then he turns back to his article on Eldritch Maiden and begins typing furiously. As Bella turns to leave, he mentions offhandedly, "Hey kid, if you see two girls who look like sisters out there tell them I'm not home. Also, tell them that I'm not going to sponsor any Eldritch fan club. Also, tell them I can't teach them magic and I'm not teaching a class on magical superheroes next semester. Also tell them to stop tagging me on Instagram."

But the last bit falls on empty air, for Bella has already left the room. Once again, she rejoins the group albeit with a bit more explaining to do. But her cover story, getting distracted by a professor she wanted to speak with and forgetting to keep up with the group, assuages all concerns and the group leaves the school together.

Next week, the sound of panic falling reverberates throughout the once-quiet stacks of St. Cecilia High’s library. Is it Bella, having endured another round of vicious torment at the hands of her demons? Or is it the students of St. Cecilia's, reacting to the vicious transformation of Bella from girl to toxic avenger? Or, dear reader, is it some other tragedy come to strike at the hearts of the students? Could it be that the Martyr's have lost? Has Mr. Laurisden given out a fresh ream of homework? Find out next week in... "Student for a Day!"