She stared at her watch silently as the seconds ticked by, even though when she looked at her reflection in the mirror she appeared calm, inside her stomach was in knots. Laura had never done anything like this before, despite the confident display she performed to Violet. Laura hated the graveyard, it reminded her of a sad past she'd rather forget. And besides, she's never had a great time with spirits anyway, honestly they just freaked her out. She was always constantly cleansing her room, and always took precautions when wandering around where she could upset them accidentally. But she was prepared, to settle her nerves she'd open her satchel and peek inside to assure herself that nothing was going to go wrong, she had everything she needed, and would then close it again going back to staring at her watch. Finally, it was time. She took a deep breath and tried to let all the worries out as she exhaled. She walked over to the window and as quietly as she could manage she slid it open, the cold night air brushed against her pink cheeks. Before climbing out she placed a book on the window sill to prevent the window getting closed on her like it had times before. She carefully climbed down the vines, making sure to get a good foot hold before she slid the window almost shut with the book keeping it open. As she made her way down, she gave thanks to the plants that made a safe descent possible. As her feet finally felt the soil beneath them, she realised it was very bright. Turning to the sky, she saw that it was a full moon. She couldn't decide if she was grateful for the extra light to see, or queazy of the shadows that it cast on the earth.

Laura crept through the shadows cast by the trees, it was both eerily silent and full of sound. Frogs croaked, animals dug through the bushes, crickets played their songs and owls flew overhead in search of mice to eat. The breeze rattled through the treetops, Laura pulled her knitted jumper sleeves over her hands. She and Violet had decided to meet by the greenhouses, they were less likely to be caught if they went alone, but on this crisp autumn night Laura was beginning to regret it. The school was spooky, it's tall looming buildings stood all around, this wasn't even her usual route to the library. But still, she pressed on.

When she finally made it to the greenhouses, Laura realised most of her stress of the night walk was brought on by the fact that she was going to the graveyard. When she finally met with Violet, she gave her friend a hug in relief.

"Did you get here okay?" Laura asked, worried her friend might have ran into trouble.

"Almost ran straight into Mrs. Miller, but other than that it was fine. You?" Violet wasn't shaken like Laura was, but Violet did take Necromancy Theory classes after all.

"Yeah it was fine," Laura lied, "shall we make our way over?" She said unenthusiastically. Violet nodded before linking arms with Laura and they headed off through the greenhouse paths. As they walked, Laura gave Violet the bundle she had made during her greenhouse period. This seemed to actually make Laura more nervous rather than reassure her of her friends safety, but neither of them said anything. They reached the edge of the greenhouse boundary, and stared across the field at the wall that separates the school from the graveyard. They would have to make a dash for it, and help each other climb up the vine covered stone wall.

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"Why are we doing this again?" Violet's voice squeaked.

"To help Maggie, and stop whatever dark thing they have planned." Violet never questioned Laura when she told her about the feeling she got when she listened to them discussing their plan, because Violet had felt that same thing when Laura had told her about it too. Only foolish and naive witches ignore the feeling.

"Alright," Violet said after a pause, "let's do this."

They unlinked arms and looked out, before sprinting across the dew drenched grass. Laura reached the wall first, and locked her fingers together as a foothold. Violet stepped up and pulled herself up and sat at the top to help as best as she could to pull Laura up too. Once they were up they jumped over, plunging themselves into darkness. It was completely different on the other side of the wall, the many trees blocked the moon's light and a light fog curved around the tombstones and trees. Violet reached into her pocket and pulled out a bundle of wild flowers and in a whispered voice called out.

"Spirits of this place, we beg your forgiveness of our intrusion. We offer you flowers as a gift to grant us safe passage through your resting ground". She lay them gently under a nearby tree.

It suddenly dawned on Laura that the graveyard is huge, and she never heard Aaina say where they were actually meeting. Violet looked at her expectantly, so Laura just shrugged and took the first path in front of them.

"Let's not wander too far," Laura said suddenly, "we don't want to get lost, let's crouch by that bush back to back and look out. We've still got five minutes until they said they would show up" Violet agreed, and the girls sat, leaning on each other for support as they looked out into the gloom. Laura thought back to the time when she was friends with Aaina, and all the things she had said she was going to do, all Laura could do was hope she had changed.

Five minutes had passed when she heard a ruckus that could only be Aaina and Maggie.

"Ow! Aaina that hurts!"

"Shhhh!"

There was a thump, Aaina had toppled over the wall, after noises of struggle Maggie shortly followed. They both looked wild eyed and scruffled, Aaina was carrying a backpack on her back and had moss stuck in her shimmering dark hair. While Maggie seemed to have mud in her thick ringlet curls presumably from Aaina's dirty boot on the top of her head, and was breathing a lot harder from the climb than Aaina.

"This way" Aaina snapped, and they wandered off down a path further away than the one Laura and Violet were hiding near.

The two girls crept up, and in a crouch followed them as they started to quickly disappear. Laura's mind couldn't stop trying to think of what they might be up to, but Laura had a sneaking suspicion she knew what it was. The whole school could be in danger.