Chapter XVI

“Um, yeah, I’m alive,” Audrey stuttered awkwardly. “Why wouldn't I be, Jay?”

This has to be some trick! It has to be! What did those goddamn sorcerers do to me this time?! Audrey can’t possibly be here! And she’s…older? She looks like a high schooler? But that’s impossible because she’s dead! I watched her die so what kind of fresh hell is this?! What did they do to me?!

“No,” he breathed. “No, get away from me!”

Jay frantically jumped to his feet, shoving the fake Audrey’s hand away as he nearly tripped over the seat he had been on. The girl flinched back as if he had just struck her across the face while Jay barely managed to stabilize himself. The throbbing from his headache was still coursing through his skull, and his memories were all a jumble of images that were either nightmarish or too good to be true. He didn’t have a damn clue what was going on, but he did know that the girl he was looking at was fake. All of them were.

Audrey was dead.

Rina would have never let herself be seen with him.

And Alice was missing a leg.

All three of these things were being contradicted by the scene before him, and after everything he had been through at the hands of those sorcerers, he knew as an absolute fact that he was being tricked. The last thing he remembered was Alice being released from their old hideout before they were attacked by Nigreos and Album. Everything started to get fuzzy from there, but he remembered Rina’s bloody form splayed out across the floor of the shack, followed by his violent rage toward that black-clad man. After nearly getting killed, he and Evan Wright gave one last ditch attempt to take them down, before everything went dark.

And then? What then? What happened after that?! Why can’t I remember?!

All he could see were happy images of him living the rest of his junior year, as well as the beginning of his senior year, with Alice, Rina, and Audrey, as if none of the pain they suffered had ever happened. He felt as if he had been living in a dream, one that had abruptly come to an end.

But it was a dream. It couldn’t have been real. I should be in the hospital right now! Either that or I should still be under the control of that monster Nigreos put inside of me! How am I here, at the school?! And what about the club?! What about Lilly and the others?!

“Jay? Don’t shove her away!” Rina snapped furiously. “Jeez, dude, what the hell is wrong? Do you need to go to the nurse or…?”

He could feel the eyes of a growing crowd on him as he quickly turned his head toward where Lilly Harper was getting to her feet, with Brad Fischer right behind her. He once again stared into her eyes before completely ignoring Rina and the others, focusing only on her.

“Lilly?” he uttered. “What’s going on? Where am I? What happened to Nigreos and Album? Was Alice saved? Did Rina get her away? Is she safe?!”

He was frantic, barely processing what was going on in his desperate attempt to figure out what was happening within his head.

“Jay, of course I’m safe!” Alice anxiously assured him. “I’m right here. Why wouldn’t I be safe? Just take deep breaths and explain what’s going—”

“Lilly, answer me!” he snarled when his friend remained silent, cutting off the now startled Alice. “Please, I have to know what’s going on! My head… It’s a jumble of information that doesn’t make any sense! Where’s Eric and the rest of the club? Where are Nigreos and Album? Where’s the real Alice and Rina, not these fakes standing here!”

He could see their stunned gazes out of the corner of his eyes, but he didn’t give a damn how the knockoffs felt. He couldn’t let himself be manipulated by Nigreos and Album any more than he already had been. He needed Lilly’s confirmation, and he was desperate to know if she was fake, too. For all he knew, everything surrounding him was fake.

“Just…come with me, Jay,” Lilly finally said. “I’ll explain everything.”

Jay nodded. “Alright, good. Yeah, please.”

“W-wait, Jay!” Rina protested, but he ignored her, following after Lilly and Brad as the two of them began hurrying from the courtyard. “Harper! Jay! What’s going on?!”

Lilly stopped, allowing Jay to catch up with her, before glancing back at them with a pained expression. “I’ll…explain it later. Just stay here for the moment!” She then turned to Jay and whispered, “Run.”

He did as she ordered, deciding to trust Lilly until he had a better idea of what was happening. Jay, Lilly, and Brad all took off running for the school’s entrance, not paying any heed to the protests from Alice, Rina, and Audrey behind them. His mind was in tatters and he couldn’t bring himself to look back, so he just stared at Lilly as they rushed into the building and headed down the hall. He didn’t know where she was taking him, but as they were pushing past the few students still walking around, one of the classroom doors swung open, though Jay couldn’t see who opened it. All he heard was a hushed, “In here,” as Lilly darted inside, followed by Brad, and then him. Once they were safely in the classroom, the door shut and locked itself without anybody touching it, leaving Jay’s already confused state even more intense. This was only furthered by the sudden appearance of a young man Jay had never seen before popping out of thin air.

“What in the living hell just happened, Harper?” he demanded, his features contorted in fury. “I was just heading back here to make contact with you when I felt Noctis’s magic surge, and then all hell broke loose out in the courtyard. What did you do?”

Jay stumbled backwards, grabbing an empty desk to balance himself as he glanced around the room. The classroom was devoid of anybody save for an old man that must have been the teacher, snoring at his desk, his head resting on its surface. Lilly glanced past the newcomer, but he waved in impatience.

“He’s under a sleeping spell,” he told her. “He won’t wake up for a good fifteen minutes or so. Now, explain yourself, damn it!”

“H-hold on just a moment!” Brad intervened, seeming just as surprised by his appearance as Jay was. “I don’t know who the fuck you are, but don’t you dare talk to her that way! I don’t care if you've…got magic or whatever!”

Lilly took a deep breath and rubbed her temples before glancing back at both Brad and Jay. “It’s okay, Brad, he’s an ally. His name is Rista Pine and he’s an Ijirian that Album erased before coming to Wilham. I told you about him, remember? He might be a bit rude at times, but he is on our side.”

Brad clenched his teeth and glared at the man named Rista before taking a step back and allowing Lilly to handle the situation. Jay was content to do the same, feeling his body trembling in the presence of who he now realized was yet another magical individual from the realm that Nigreos and Album came from. Just knowing he was the same as them made him want to run, but when Lilly gave him a quick comforting smile, he felt some of his fear ease up.

“I don’t have a damn idea what just happened,” she explained calmly, facing Rista once again. “I was hoping to try and gain the trust of Jay, Alice, Audrey, and Rina, so I approached them to talk when The Angel suddenly got all antsy. It then proceeded to ignore me and reached out to whatever it was feeling and when it did, Jay’s memories returned. I…don’t fully understand what happened, but…”

Rista narrowed his eyes then turned his sharp stare toward Jay. “So then, Brooks? You have your memories? You remember magic and the real world?”

“The real…world?” he stuttered. “I don’t… What do you mean? I do remember magic and all that but why wouldn’t I? I mean, I don’t understand what’s happening. Lilly!” He turned away from the Ijirian and instead faced his trusted friend, who he far preferred to have this conversation with. “What’s happening? Why is Audrey here? How is she alive and…and older? Are Nigreos and Album doing this? Is this some trick?”

Lilly took a deep breath and nodded. “Yes, this is their doing. The Audrey you see out there is not real. Album created her to manipulate you guys. In fact…this entire world is a sham. Almost nothing here is real.”

“What?” he uttered in disbelief. “But how is that…?”

“I’ll tell you,” she answered. “But it’s going to take a bit so…”

He shook his head. “That’s fine. I just…need some sort of explanation as to what the fuck is going on! Please…”

“Okay then…”

Lilly didn’t waste any time as she got into explaining what she referred to as the erased realm. She told him what erasure was and that Album had erased them all, save for Eric, which caused them to be sent to the fake Wilham they were currently in. In addition, she also explained that their memories had been altered to accept the new world as the one they’d always lived in, and that Jay, himself, had been blissfully ignorant to it until just moments ago. Since he hadn’t been present for the majority of their fighting with Nigreos and Album, Lilly also went on to describe those few weeks where the Magic Club tried to stop the Ijirians before each one of them eventually went down, though Jay noticed with a twinge of dread that Lilly failed to elaborate on what happened after he and Evan were erased. Finally, she explained Rista Pine and how he was there to help them break the erased world open so they could get back to their own realm.

“And that’s…more or less everything,” Lilly muttered, glancing up at the clock on the wall as if afraid that lunch period would soon be over. “Rista’s the one who gave Brad and Natalie their memories back, but I don’t really know why you returned to normal. I didn’t actually do anything so…”

Jay swallowed back his fear and looked down at his hands. “You said…your memories only came back because of whatever angel thing is inside of you. So…what if my memories are back because of that thing Nigreos put in me? What if it’s still inside me, Lilly?”

His recollection of it was hazy, but he knew that the monster inside of him was violent toward everybody he loved. If his erasure didn’t flush that creature out, then it was possible that he could turn on them again, and that wasn’t something he wanted.

Lilly shook her head. “I don’t know, honestly. I still don’t even know what that thing was. Rista? Do you…?”

“I don’t,” he said firmly. “When you first told me about it, I did my best to try and remember everything I’d ever read but unfortunately, I’m not very educated on dark magic. I’ve never even heard of a monster that could control someone’s body like what happened to Brooks. It could still be in him but at the moment, I don’t sense anything off.”

The girl let out a breath of relief. “Well, that’s at least good. The Angel went quiet again, so maybe it was something else. I really can’t be sure.”

Jay, however, didn’t find that comforting in the slightest. If there was even a tiny chance of that monster coming out again then he wanted to get away from people and hide somewhere he couldn’t hurt them. According to Lilly, he nearly killed Eric twice, and he even tried to kill her. If anybody died by his hand then he wouldn’t ever be able to come back from that. He still struggled to move past Audrey, after all.

“And this angel,” Brad cut in. “You didn’t tell me about this before. What exactly is it?”

Lilly shrugged. “I really don’t know. That’s why I didn’t bring it up. It’s just…something that can supposedly take down Nigreos and Album. It allows me to use magic, at least to an extent, but it’s really easy to lose control over. So far, I’ve been mostly keeping it at bay, but I was told that using it to its full potential could…result in my death so…”

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“What?!” the larger boy exclaimed. “Then don’t use it! If it’s dangerous then we should find some other way to fight this damn realm! You can’t die, Lilly! Not after—!”

Brad caught himself before he went on, but Jay didn’t miss the sidelong glance he sent his way. Even though he had so much to process, and his mind was still pulling itself together, he was able to tell that Brad and Lilly were keeping something from him. They were holding information back, and he had a disturbing feeling that he knew what it related to.

“Not after what, Fischer?” he whispered, and when neither Brad nor Lilly managed to say anything in reply, he pressed forward with the terrifying question nagging at his mind. “What happened after Rina and Alice escaped the shack that day? Evan and I were erased, but what happened to them? And don’t lie. I can tell that you left a detail out.”

Lilly’s features tensed up and he could see her mind working through various responses she could give him. Yet, in the end, she slowly stared down at her feet, and he could tell by the look on her face that whatever she was about to say would be the truth.

“I’m sorry, Jay.”

He clenched his teeth, his heart beating so fast that it felt like his ribcage was shaking. “Sorry? About…?”

“Rina… She managed to get Alice safely to Eric’s house, but by the time she arrived, she was already beyond saving. She…” Lilly’s voice trembled. “She’s dead. She died saving Alice.”

“Oh,” he breathed so softly that he doubted anybody else in the room could hear. “Is that…so?”

Rina’s dead? She’s gone… So when Nigreos hit her with those shadows, it really was enough to kill her?

“Alice was eventually erased so she’s really here,” Lilly went on. “But the Rina you saw out there…is fake, too. She isn’t real. I…I’m so sorry, Jay. I’m sorry that Eric and I couldn’t be there to help her! I’m sorry we failed her!”

She was crying now and he could see just how torn up she was to bring him this news. He realized that it didn’t really process at first. He had believed that when he woke up from that coma, he and Rina could start taking steps to patching their relationship up. He entrusted her with Audrey’s piece of their medallion as a symbol of his willingness to come back to her and give her a second chance, as well as earn one from her. He wanted to start putting everything back together again.

But I always forget…my life has never gone my way. Every time I think I can be happy, that happiness is taken away from me. Audrey’s gone. Rina’s gone now, too. And Alice… I failed her miserably. We lost everything. That place…is a living hell, isn’t it? I always told myself I’d protect Alice and look what I’ve done? I led Rina to that shack! I brought her to her death! It’s my fault! It’s my fault, goddamnit!

He felt his legs suddenly give out and he collapsed to the floor of the classroom in a daze. Lilly and Brad called out to him and rushed to his side, but their words weren’t reaching him. All he could see was the two images, side-by-side, of Audrey and Rina being taken away from him. Wanting to free himself from that torment, he instead thought about other memories, the ones from the past few months. He had believed they were fake, but according to Lilly, his time in this erased realm had actually happened, even if the setting and people were all fake. What he focussed on the most was Alice’s smile. She was happy here. It was…

“...a paradise,” he muttered.

Yeah…I couldn’t protect her there, but here, she can be happy. We haven’t lost anything here. If we just stay here… But…Lilly wants to destroy this place. She said that’s the only way to escape, but if this realm gets destroyed, then Alice has to go back to that hellish reality. If we just stay here…

Jay slowly raised his head and looked Lilly in the eyes, seeing her lips moving but still not hearing the words of concern she was almost certainly speaking.

I can’t let her… I can’t let her ruin this world. I can’t let her take Alice’s paradise away from her… I understand why Lilly would want to escape but…

I can’t let her do this…

***

When sixth period ended, he genuinely considered just going through his normal routine of collecting his books from his locker and leaving the school. Every part of his brain told him that abiding by Lilly Harper’s request and going to room 3-5 was stupid. More likely than not, the strange girl probably had some prank up her sleeve and this was some other method by the popular assholes of the school to try and get another rise out of him. That was how it always went for Damien Clark, after all, so why should he let it happen again? The only reason he found himself heading up to the third floor of West Wilham High was because of something that Lilly had said to him when she approached him that morning.

“Eric Reiner is calling together a meeting of the Magic Club, so that obviously means you have to be there. Trust me, Damien, you won’t want to miss this. It’s really important.”

Most of that should have been nonsense to him. He didn’t know who Eric Reiner was and he’d never heard of the school having a “Magic Club”, yet despite that, those words had sparked such foreign yet familiar emotions in him that he couldn’t even come close to explaining, and to top it all off, it seemed like the girl had expected such a reaction from him. She knew something he didn’t, and while that could definitely mean he was walking into a prank, he just had to know what her deal was. He needed to know who Eric Reiner was, and he wanted an explanation about the Magic Club.

And not to mention, there was something about her. Almost everybody else in this school looks at me like I’m some sort of fucked up monster, but Harper talked to me like I was her friend even though I don’t think we’ve ever talked before. Nobody’s ever treated me that way. She didn’t even seem like she was pretending. She actually seemed comfortable around me. But why? What have I ever done to earn Lilly Harper’s trust? I didn’t even know her damn name until she introduced herself.

Damien sighed as he arrived on the third floor before turning and heading toward Mr. Lowe’s room. As he walked, he could feel the ever present glances his way, as if every student in that hall thought he was about to go on a sudden rampage and start beating the shit out of them all.

What kind of brute do they take me for? If they don’t do anything to me then I won’t touch them.

While rumors always made him out to be the antagonist, it was rarely ever Damien to start the fights. Yet, because it was the popular guys who often went after him, they got to tell the story to the student body because their opinions were more valued and respected. Nobody cared what he had to say, so people like Brad Fischer and Evan Wright could lie all they wanted and as far as anybody was concerned, that would become the accepted truth. It didn’t matter how many fights Evan started. Damien would always be seen as the aggressor, and there was very little he could do to change that. His only option would be to refrain from fighting back, but if he did that then Evan and Brad would only walk all over him. At the end of the day, his only option was to keep fighting and when high school finally ended, he could go to a college so far from Wilham that nobody would know a thing about what his past was like.

And that’ll be for the best. It’s not like I’d be leaving anybody behind.

Damien kept his head low, refusing to look at anybody, until finally coming to the closed doorway of room 3-5. He gazed at the white lettering on the door for a moment, feeling the same odd emotions he always felt when he arrived at Mr. Lowe’s classroom. He exhaled softly, then shook the feelings off and pulled the door open. He wasn’t really sure what he had been expecting upon his arrival, but at the very least, he thought he’d find Lilly already there. Yet, there was no sign of the girl. Instead, there were two other students from his year sitting at desks on opposite sides of the classroom: Elizabeth Tao and Vinny Mickelson. Both of them looked up at him in confusion and he could only stare back with a similar look.

What the hell is going on? Why are Tao and Mickelson here, of all people? Did Harper invite them, too?

“Uh, yo,” Vinny grunted. “Why…are you here?”

With Lilly absent, he found himself really wanting to turn around and leave, but he forced himself to instead go inside. “Harper asked me to stop by. She said she had something she wanted to talk to me about.”

A bitter smile twisted the blonde boy’s lips as he leaned back in his chair. “Of fucking course she did. What is going through her damn head?”

Vinny muttered the words under his breath as he turned to gaze through the window on his left. The way he spoke pretty much confirmed that Damien’s earlier assumption had been correct, but he still felt the need to be sure, so he turned and looked at Elizabeth.

“So…Harper asked you guys to come, too?” he inquired.

The girl nodded, eyeing him now with an expression of curiosity. “Yeah, she did, though she didn’t really elaborate on why. She just said…something about a Magic Club and…”

“Eric Reiner?” Damien finished.

“Uh, yeah, exactly that,” she confirmed. “Do you know what that means cause I don’t have a clue, and Mickelson said he wasn’t sure either?”

The boy slowly shook his head. “N-no, I don’t. In fact, I’d never met Harper before today, so I’m still not sure what her game is. I’m even more confused now that I see I’m not the only one she talked to. How do you two know her?”

“Oh, well, I don’t really,” Elizabeth murmured. “I mean, I’ve had my fair share of classes with her but we’ve never really talked. What about you, Mickelson?” She then turned to face the other boy in the room, who still had his head turned away from them. “Are you friends with Harper?”

Vinny snorted and smirked. “I would say no, but apparently she would disagree.”

“What does that mean?” Damien asked with a cocked eyebrow.

“I don’t fuckin’ know. Two days ago, out of the blue, she asked me on a date even though we hardly know each other,” he answered. “I was suspicious but I went anyway, and when I did, she went on this rant about how I’ve helped her and how we’re such good friends so she’s gonna save me or whatever. Not sure what she’s saving me from though.”

Both Damien and Elizabeth just stared at Vinny as he finished his explanation, and the boy wasn’t really sure what to make of it.

Okay, now I’m really confused. What the hell is going on here? Why would Harper want to talk to us? Not only do they clearly not know her well, but the three of us have never even spoken either. I don’t fucking get it.

“So, Clark, are you gonna sit down or…?”

At Elizabeth’s question, he realized that he was still standing like an idot at the front of the room, so he moved to take a seat at one of the desks closest to the front. He didn’t feel like talking to the two any more than he already had, so his plan was to sit quietly and wait for Lilly to arrive. As strange of a group as this was, he found himself lucky that neither of them seemed to harbor any ill will toward him. While he didn’t know Vinny all that well, he did know that the boy was in a similar situation as he was. They were both loners who were rejected by the rest of the school, and so he felt a certain camaraderie with him.

As for Elizabeth, she was a total enigma. She was one of the most popular girls at West Wilham High, so she should hate him just as much as people like Evan Wright and Charlotte Banks did. Yet, she was the only one who never looked at him like he was scum. In fact, just that afternoon, she’d smiled at him in the halls and it hadn’t seemed like it was fake.

And now, she talked to me like I was a normal guy. Is it possible that I just misread her? Is she actually a decent person?

Against his better judgment, Damien glanced over his shoulder to where she was sitting, absently fiddling with a strand of her hair as she stared at her desk. He found himself realizing that she was actually quite pretty and for a moment, he couldn’t help but watch her. Yet, she soon noticed him when she raised her head and looked right at him. He expected her to scowl or to call him out for staring like a creep, but once again, she just smiled.

“So, what’s your story, Clark?” she asked.

Damien frowned. “My…story? Meaning what?”

“I don’t know. I guess…I’m just curious to know what your deal is? Obviously I’ve heard all the rumors and such. I mean, I doubt anybody in our grade hasn’t heard them, but…I suppose I’ve just always gotten this feeling that there’s more to you than what I’ve been told.” She shrugged nonchalantly. “And I was just curious what that might be? Of course, if the rumors are true then fair enough but…” Elizabeth paused, and as she did, Damien noticed Vinny turn his attention toward them, as if mildly curious to hear his answer as well. “...I really don’t think they are.”

“You…don’t?” he parroted. “Why not? I mean, I’m sure Wright and Banks and Fischer have told you all about me. Isn’t that enough?”

She laughed. “Come on, give me more credit than that. Charlotte and I might be good friends but it’s not like I take everything she says as gospel. And as for Wright, well, I can tell he has his own issues. So…what is your side of the story?”

As nice as she was being to him, Damien knew he should be as guarded as possible around her. She had never done anything to prove that she was different from the others, so her words could just be a hollow way to manipulate him. Yet, he really did believe she was different from the other popular kids. He prided himself on his ability to tell if he was being lied to—a skill he had picked up after getting tricked by his supposed “friends” plenty of times in the past. He didn’t think she was lying and because of that, he would have chosen to open up to her had the door to the classroom not opened at that very moment.

He quickly spun around, wondering if Lilly had finally arrived or if it was somebody else she had invited, only to gape as a boy from their class walked in. His name was Jay Brooks and all Damien knew about him was that he was on the cross country team. That told him that Jay at least had some connection to Lilly, but just as he was about to ask what he was doing there, another boy walked in behind him, and this time, both Damien and Vinny jumped to their feet in fury.

“What the fuck are you doing here?” Vinny spat as Brad Fischer slowly surveyed the room before glancing over at Vinny.

“You’ll see, Mickelson, but I promise I’m not here to bother you,” he murmured.

Damien narrowed his eyes as he glanced between Brad and Jay. The former didn’t have his typical, arrogant look and he spoke in a calmer tone from the one he was used to. As for Jay, the boy looked like he could drop over at any moment with how much his legs were wobbling, and he was looking at the three of them with a mix of fear and grief.

“What the hell does that—?!” Vinny began, but he stopped midsentence as the very girl they were waiting for walked through the doorway.

All five of those who were already gathered remained quiet as they watched Lilly Harper slowly stare at each one of them in turn, a determined look on her face as she moved to stand behind the teacher’s podium at the front of the room. Damien wanted to immediately demand what was going on and why Bradley Fischer had come, but before he could speak, the girl suddenly grinned. It wasn’t the soft smile she had given him that morning, rather it was one of pure excitement that looked out of place with her typically bored-looking features. And then, she threw her arms out wide in an extravagant manner and began to laugh in an almost maniacal way.

“I thank you for coming here on this lovely afternoon, my dear friends!” she began theatrically. “And I assure you that this will not be a waste of your time, for we have important matters of the supernatural realm to discuss here today!” She chuckled almost to herself then continued. “For I am officially declaring this the first meeting of the Magical and Other Anomalies Investigation Team for our senior year of high school!”

She paused for effect.

“And attendance is mandatory.”