'How long do we have to wait?'

'Not long, she said she'd signal us when we can go in.'

I was stood with Liam and Mr Evans who were chatting away about my Aunt, who had teleported in to the security guards room to sort him out; ready for us to sneak about the school without being undetected. Magic could only get you so far, I mean it's not like it could totally work on technology all the time. But Auntie M said she could probably send the night time guard to sleep or put him in a loop or something and maybe even tamper with the CCTV footage that would catch us and record our every move. But we didn't have long to wait as we could see my Auntie M peeking her head round the main entrance door signalling for us to come in.

We walked over and through the door, each of us turning on small torches we had brought with us. We weren't taking any chances of being seen from the outside by anybody walking past noticing all the lights were on inside. It was pretty cold in the school too so I'm glad I got wrapped up, but it was quite spooky; the sound of our footsteps were echoing throughout the halls and creepy shadows loomed across the floors where we shone our torches. I suppose it was pretty appropriate considering it was Samhain weekend.

'C'mon we got about an hour or so, hour and a half tops before the security guard comes out of his funk. I pissed about with the CCTV settings the cameras aren't recording us.' My Auntie M said.

'Great. First of all we need to find if there's anything in here that can give us some information.' Mr Evans stated.

'Or if there are any places of energy. Personally I haven't felt much during the day but I'm feeling some mojo kicking about now at night time.'

'Yeah I'm feeling something.' I added.

'Me too.' Liam also added.

'Let's get to it then, especially if we're on the clock.' Said Mr Evans.

We wandered about the ground floor for a short while. Auntie M suggested I bring my pendulum necklace and try it out in certain areas that I may have felt something. Liam was chanting something I couldn't quite hear; but it seemed like Auntie M and Mr Evans were leaving this to us to figure out while they just stood back and watched. Liam hadn't really gained anything with his chanting but I however was getting some movement with my pendulum.

'I think we're to go that way.' I said, pointing in the direction where the pendulum was leaning. It was pointing in the direction of the school library.

We made our way through the halls, following the directions my pendulum was giving us. It tilted about and twisted then sometimes it would go back to normal and just hang from the chain in my hand.

'Concentrate Maddie.' Auntie M said to me. I focused on the pendulum and took a few deep breaths and sure enough, the pendulum went back to showing us where to go.

'Hang on can anyone smell that?' Liam asked. He tilted his nose in to the air and sniffed slightly. We all followed suit and sniffed the air as well. He was right, there was a weird smell hanging in the air that just didn't seem right. Normally the school smelt of old wood and specialist furniture polish, occasionally of a bit of pine disinfectant that was used on the tiled floors. But this smell was odd, it smelt sweet but strangely kind of sour too, acidic almost. Then it smelt really sickly sweet and as soon as you could pick out that scent, it went back to a sharp tangy smell.

'It actually smells disgusting.' I managed to squeak out. It was beginning to make me feel a little sick.

'It smells like bin juice.' Mr Evans announced. He was exactly right. It was the smell of a festering bin, full up and rotting away with God know what in it.

'Well it seems like it's coming from the same direction that the pendulum is pointing us in.' Said Liam. 'Are we really going that way?' My Auntie M snorted at him with a slight smirk on her face.

'Of course. That's obviously where we're supposed to be going.

I really wish it wasn't. The smell was becoming more and more potent and nauseating the closer we got to the library. It wasn't until we got to the big double doors that led in to the library and actually opened them that we realised just how bad it was. The stench flooded out of the doors, literally flooded out. The wave of smell could be felt physically; it was almost warm and squishy but the worst kind. It felt like you were stuck in a stinking bog of stagnant water and mud.

'Oh my God what the hell is that?' I said pointing my finger over to the middle of the library floor. There was something parked on the floor, it looked like a skull complete with large horns or something covered in weird symbols, but there were what looked like a huge swarm of flies buzzing around it. I couldn't really tell though, the smell was making my eyes water so bad I was squinting to try and see. I felt a rush of air whip past me. Auntie M had bolted her way over to whatever the thing was and quite literally booted it across the library as hard as she could. She was screaming something at it in what sounded like Latin. I somehow managed to keep it all together and get my notebook and pen out of my bag and began scrawling down the symbols I saw on the skull. It was big enough to be from a bull or something.

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'Desine malum tuum, maledic alium locum!' She shouted at the skull as she punted it. 'Daniel! Portal now, ANYWHERE!' My Aunt carried on screaming, she looked like she was in pain down from kicking the skull about.

'Liam help me, this needs to go somewhere very far away. Concentrate on that back wall.'

I watched as Mr Evans and Liam directed their hands towards a bare wall next to some bookcases containing the sci-fi section. I watched as they concentrated on making a portal on the wall; a large swirling illuminated portal formed in the shape of a door. When the portal was established, we all instantly feel a powerful sucking motion from it and the sparkling swirling inside had tured pitch black. It felt like what I would imagine being caught in a huge hurricaine would feel like, books had started to fall off shelves and chairs were being dragged toward the portal at some speed. All of us were trying to stay upright and planted firmly where we were stood. The skull however was only just moving toward the portal, almost as if there was something keeping it back. Auntie M was now trying to push it away using her boot but now it was just not moving.

The wooshing and hurrendous gushing continued and now I was finding it difficult trying not to get sucked in to the portal vortex. Liam and Mr Evans were clinging on to each other whilst trying to keep the portal open. My Aunt however who was having trouble with her hair being blown about her face was still chanting in Latin. Her chanting had increased in to a gutteral yell directed at the skull which looked to be moving just a bit more than before. I couldnt stay on my feet for much longer, I was loosing grip on the floor quickly and I was skidding in the direction of the portal. I tried to fight my way over to one of the big heavy mahogany desks that were dotted around the libray in hope I could grab hold for dear life. I managed to get to the desk, nearly falling a few times on my way over. The portal was still going full force, drawing everything it could in to it including us, it was actually starting to get harder to breathe.

Oh God no. That portal didn't lead to... Could it?

Auntie M was getting angry by this point as she could barely see because her hair was being dragged and blown about all over the place, her foot was obviously sore from kicking the stupid skull as she'd switched to using her other boot to try and uproot the damn thing and her chanting Latin seemed to be doing nothing.

'AH FUCK IT! HOLD ON YOU LOT!'

I heard her shouting at the top of her lungs in attempt to be heard over the awful stormy sounds the portal was causing. Then it happened; she stopped masking her power and let it all out to the point where she was practically glowing. As soon as she did, Liam and Mr Evans dropped to the floor in sheer agony but battled through it as they tried to keep the portal open. I winced slightly as my Aunt's energy hit me but I persevered. She screamed something in a language I'd never even heard before then growled as she gave the skull yet another almighty kick toward the portal. It moved at great speed this time and finally, better late than never; made its creepy disgusting way through the portal. Mr Evand and Daniel closed the portal the millisecond after the skull hurtled through the odd inky vortex. My Auntie M however was now in a heap on the floor. I went running over to her, soon joined by Liam and Mr Evans.

'Auntie M! Auntie M are you okay?' I squealed, kneeling down beside her and trying to raise her head up carefully. Her eyes were rolling about and she was panting heavily.

'Hey kiddo.' She croaked at me.

I could barely feel her energy right now which was worrying me. Whatever that was and whatever she had just done had really taken it out of her. I never thought something as dumb as a stinky fly ridden bulls skull would take that much just to get rid of it; especially of my Aunt who I thought was quite literally the strongest person ever. Seems like she had her limits like the rest of us.

'Come on we better get out of here.' Mr Evans stated, reminding us we didn't have long till the security guard came round. I watched as he gently guided my Aunt to her feet and took her arm around his soulder to help her walk.

'Wait a sec, let me try this out.' I said just before we were about to leave. I pointed to the carnage that was left after this fiasco; the books littering the floor, the desks and chairs all out of place, papers everywhere.

I stood upright and closed my eyes and took in a deep breath. Carefully I held my arms out with my palms to the floor then slowly brought them up toward my torso; arranging my fingers and thumbs in a weird diamond shape.

'Everything back in its place.'

I said these simple words and by actual magic, everything slowly returned to where it belonged. I continued concentrating and kept my stance until all of the books, desks and chairs were back where they belonged. Satisfied, I broke my stance and dusted my hands off.

'Very nice Maddie.' Auntie M smiled at me. 'You're getting better, you didn't need to rhyme.'

I eventually made it back to my dorm room, exhausted and feeling quite gross. So I decided to take a quick shower. Mr Evans took Auntie M back to the faculty dorm and promised he'd take care of her. I felt a little bad that I wasn't helping her myself but she insisted I myself get some rest as tomorrow was my big initiation day. Mr Evans told me that he'd wait on my Aunt hand and foot so she would get her strength back quickly. I needed to get mine back too after casting a spell that was a little more powerful than some of the basic ones I had been using. So after my shower, I made myself a big cup of tea and polished off half a pack of custard cream biscuits.

Scratch that, a full pack of custard cream biscuits.

And a six pack of cheese and onion crisps.