Violet was crumpled up in a bush, crying so hard but trying not to let out a sound. She had never been so scared in her life. Every noise or shadow had her jumping, ready to run for her life again. The sound of a voice froze her to the spot, her eyes searched around trying to find who it was, desperately hoping it wasn't Aaina. Around the corner came Laura, barely managing to keep up a ghostly Maggie beside her. Violet scrambled out the bush, letting out a sob at the sight of seeing her friend.

"Violet?" Laura called over to her, "Oh my god, what happened to you?" Violet ran into her best friend's arms.

"They chased me, I didn't think I was going to get away!"

"Who? Who chased you?" Laura said distressed.

"The dead! Aaina sent them after me, well she didn't know it was me, but I was the one who had set off the alarms." Violet was shaking badly again. Maggie had gone completely limp at Laura's side, Laura looked over at her, just as she passed out and fell to the ground.

"Maggie!" Laura calls out, kneeling by her side. Laura looks over to Violet with a stern look, "we need to get her help, now."

"There's no one around here, as far as I know... where do you think everyone is? I haven't seen any teachers or night patrollers anywhere"

"We'll have to try and get to the dormitory infirmary to Mrs Lake," Laura reaches into her pocket and pulls out a black marker, "Hold out your hand, I'm gonna draw on a rune for strength, hopefully it helps." Laura marks Violet's hand, then does the same on her own. Together they pull Maggie up, she is still hard to carry, but Laura notes that her body is somewhat lighter than before. Laura fills Violet in on what Maggie had told her, her face says it all.

"Take over the school? With the dead? For all that's crepid, how can we stop her?" Violet says with a frail voice.

"I don't know if the teachers can stop her..." Laura trails off, she didn't have any more comforting words for her. "Let's go round the back of the food hall, so we're not in plain sight." They sneak around the back, struggling to hold up Maggie, who is drifting in and out of consciousness in their arms.

"Stop." Laura whispers to Violet, something has moved in the shadows, her heart beating deep in her chest. Looking out over to the dorms, she can see that Aaina has gathered with her army. In her hands she has some rope, it's been knotted up over and over. Laura turns round to Violet, who couldn't see past the food hall building.

"It's Aaina, she's cast some kind of rope spell." Violet clamps her hand over her mouth to stop herself from crying out, the girls shared a distressed look. "We need to figure out a way to get past her..."

"Maybe we'll just have to leg it." says Violet, "It's not a good plan, but if you know some runes for speed and quiet then maybe we can get past."

"Ah I guess that will have to do, hold out your hand again." Laura again marks Violet's body with runes, putting in all her effort into its manifestation, then for herself.

"You ready?" she asks Violet, she nods and together they get a good hold on Maggie, "Three, two, one." Maggie's feet drag across the ground as they run, Laura can't hear any commotion behind them yet. It felt like it took them ages to cross the distance of the buildings, but in actuality it only took them about twenty seconds. Just as they near the wall of the dormitories, Laura steals a look over her shoulder. Her blood runs colder than ice, Aaina and all the dead are standing still watching them run. If she's not sending the dead after them, then Aaina must have done something, but the question is what. They reach the fire exit around the back of the building, Laura whispering to Violet what she saw.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

"Maybe it's not safe to go inside then." Says Violet on the verge of tears again.

"We have to, for Maggie." Laura pulls open the fire door, alarms begin to sound and with a frightened look from Violet they step inside. The hallways are dead, there isn't a sound inside. They reach the infirmary to find nobody there, the sound of their shoes is the only thing to bounce between on the empty walls.

"Let's lay Maggie down on the sick-bed." Together they gently get her down, Violet jumping at every noise. "Okay I think maybe you should stay here with Maggie and try and bandage her arm and I'll go see if I can go find Nurse Lake. Or anyone for that matter." Laura says trying to sound like she knows what she's doing, for Violet's sake.

"Okay... but be quick, please." Violet pleads. Laura reaches out and tightly squeezes her friend in a hug before turning around and out into the dark corridors.

Laura makes her way upstairs in a steady jog, her blood hammering in her ears. She reaches the second floor, where the oldest student's stay, and opens the first door to her left. It's the room of a girl called Janna, Laura had taken a two week Japanese tea ceremony class with her two years ago. Pushing the door open, the room is pitch black, Laura reaches over and flicks on the light switch. Laura sucks in a loud breath, shocked. On her bed, with her arms and legs tight at her side, is Janna. Her eyes wide as she struggles like her body has been tied up with ropes and her mouth gagged.

"Oh my god, Janna!" Laura rushes to her side, "why can't you move?" Janna just looks at Laura terrified, a slight relief that someone has found her at last. She must have been lying in the dark terrified for hours. Laura wonders if everyone else is tied up like this, she can only assume that they are.

"It's Aaina," she tells Janna, "she's performed some kind of rope binding spell, I don't know how to set you free." Janna starts wiggling around, trying to pull Laura's attention to something on the other side of the room. Laura turns to look at Janna's small bookcase, which has a large amount of crystals lying all over it, it's filled mostly with unreturned library books.

"You mean this? What is it?" Janna keeps wiggling, her eyes staring at one particular book. Laura slides it off the shelf, Binding and Protecting: Knots of Rope Spells and Beyond.

"Oh, Janna this is perfect." Laura flips open to the index, Janna's version of the book feels well worn and used compared to Laura's untouched copy. Everyone in their grade has one, Laura's sat unused on its shelf for the whole year. Rushing, Laura's finger runs down the index page until she finds the chapter she's looking for. It had been a chapter she had skimmed through at the beginning of the year, they weren't going to be tested on it, so why bother, ropes didn't interest her anyway. Page 194, Rope Spells 101. An image lay under the title of a rope in the midst of being pulled into a knot, the image was well drawn, sparing no details of a very intricate knot with a web like effect. It made her stomach turn, it looked exactly like what Aaina had been doing outside. Her eyes skimmed through the sections until they lay upon the title Tying Up. Laura skipped through the part about tying someone up, to when it began to discuss the ways of untying someone.

To untie someone, there can be many ways of undoing the spell. The first (and simplest) is by reversing the spell, knot by knot. It must be noted that it is not necessary to verbally reverse the spell, as long as the caster is conscious of the undoing.

Another method is to physically break the spell, by destroying the bond.

Laura sat back against the bookshelf, and looked at Janna, who was lying there looking at her expectantly. It dawned on Laura what she will have to do to save everyone, she was going to have to fight her for it.