Mitch was preparing once again to go to his weekend classes on a Saturday morning, ensuring he had the essentials such as his clothes, some money, notes, and the obvious DvD they would always bring to watch together. This week's choice was “The Manglers” , a story of a group trapped in a subway where time itself seemed to halt and no one else was around. He liked the movie for its cheesy acting and psychological horror setting, but felt the ending truly ruined a good movie.
Slipping it into his bag he zipped it up and once again walked down stairs before the sun had risen to find his father inside drinking some coffee.
“Good morning” He said as he held the warm cup in both hands.
“Mornin'” Mitch replied, slipping two slices of bread into the toaster and rummaging through the overhead press to take out the peanut butter.
“Off to school already.” His father said sleepily “It's like we never get to see you around here.” By now it felt like every Saturday morning repeated itself.
Mitch could feel the sullenness in his tone, but had to keep a face around his family. “Yeah, I've been studying a lot.”
His father simply nodded, rubbing his hand against the side of the cup as if trying to summon some mystical genie of the coffee. “All to get into medical school, right?”
“Of course.” Mitch responded as he waited intently for his toast to pop. Turning to face him he mimicked his stance by placing his back against the counter. “Mom off to work already again?”
“She's a busy woman, don't forget to call.”
“I won't, don't worry.” He smiled warmly at him, in a feeble attempt to lighten the mood from the grieve tone he always managed to carry around with him when he was at home, like a pale cloak over his shoulders that would lessen the mood of anyone he came into contact with.
His father in turn would give back a smile and a nod. After a moment the toast would pop and Mitch turned quickly to pluck them out. When his food was ready he sat at the kitchen table to eat, where his father sat across from him with.
He could tell there were questions on his father's mind, he looked like he desperately wanted to ask. He chose not to pry and quietly ate. The less questions asked the better, and lower the chance that he would end up saying something he probably shouldn't.
Once he finished his toast he quickly filled up a travel bottle with some water from the tap. “I'll see you around.” he said to his father before quickly heading down the hall with his rolling suitcase.
“Be sure to let us know you got there safely.”
“Of course, enjoy the weekend!” Mitch called out before he left through the front door, taking his keys and locking it behind him.
The cold morning air always made him shiver even through the baggy hoodie he always wore. He walked down the long street that would eventually pass his school in the time of the morning where the sun was still in the process of waking up itself.
But it wasn't a time that he hated, barely anyone was awake and there were next to no cars on the road. It was a quiet, and peaceful time in Carlow.
The train station usually had a few people there who were most likely, but no one was loud. Everyone kept to themselves at this time, and no one was loudly on their phone talking about whatever party they scored at last night.
At most there was idle chit chat from a couple standing on the far right but they kept to themselves and were quiet so it wasn't too much of an issue. He wanted to call his mother but he usually found it best to do that once already on the train.
He had some time enjoying his music until the train pulled up, rather loudly, to the station and the conductor got off to let everyone on. All it took was a flash of his ticket to enter and take a seat on a mostly empty cart.
Now that he was seated he placed his headphones back around his neck and unplugged them so he could call his mother.
“Hey, you alright?” She would ask once she answered.
“Am I not allowed to call and say goodbye for the weekend?” He joked in response.
She let a short laugh escape on the other end before saying “As much of a smart ass as your father.” He could hear the hectic work environment behind her voice in the call, often feeling bad for how busy she seemed to be with very little time to relax, a feeling he could relate to. “So, what's on the class list this weekend?” she finished by asking.
“Nothing too exciting, just some physics and then advanced mathematics.” Drumming his fingers along the table anxiously since he didn't like lying all the time to them. “Might stop into the computer seminar.”
“Very good” she replied simply, not being a woman of many words. “Sounds like it'll be a busy weekend again.”
“Too busy.” Mitch smiled sadly as he stared down at his fingers drumming. “Love you all lots, sorry I'm always out.”
She seemed taken aback for a moment, she said nothing before finally replying “Well we love you too. You just have big plans, It's okay if you are working hard for them.”
Mitch nodded silently for a while as he thought it over, always having that nagging voice in the back of his head that shouted “Just tell them!” but now that he knew what would happen to them if he did there wasn't a chance that was ever going to happen.
“That's always good to know.” He replied sullenly “Shame summers are over, when we could just go to the park some days.”
Even though he couldn't see her through a call he could tell she was doing that over exaggerated nod she would always do with a hand on her hip “It is a shame, but there are times and holidays coming up soon that we can plan some family trips on. But, I have a meeting coming up so I need to run.”
It always felt like she was just as busy as Mitch, but with more normal real world things, and not dealing with ghosts and magic. “No bother. I'll be sure to call after my classes are done and I'm back into the room.”
“Cool, I'll talk to you then. Be safe and be careful, love you lots.” She rushed to say before hanging up the call.
“Love you too…” he replied as he put his phone away. He had ten minutes until they would reach Athy, where Saoirse would get on most of the time. All that was on his mind by this point was what had been going on. Jasper told him that Lara would be coming back to them early to be able to help them out with this issue with P.Normal, though he wasn’t exactly sure how early that was going to be. Along with it was nerve wracking every day they got closer to whatever announcement that the blog had to make. If they said they were waiting for cameras to come out, this was going to be an announcement beyond anything they could imagine.
What was usually a calm train ride where he got to either relax or catch up on some studying was instead a much more stressful period of thinking far too much on things he couldn’t do anything about at this time.
In the brief trip to the next station he decided to take out a physics book to catch up on what he usually couldn't pay attention to in class and read ahead to at least be able to answer questions.
He didn't get long to study though. “Cart five as always.” He heard. Saoirse sat across from him after putting her bag up in the overhead storage.
“It's easiest for you to find me.” he chuckled, closing over his physics book and putting it back into his suitcase before he put it up into the overhead as well. “How have you been?”
“Oh you know, good and stuff.” She chuckled, crossing her arms and leaning on the table “been doing jobs with my mother this week, gotta start preparing for the family festival later in the year.”
“They'll be simple as long as you practise now.” Mitch said, sitting across from her once his bag was settled “Be sure to study the other topics too. Demonology would be a good one to study closer.”
Saoirse groaned at the mere mention of the class, having always been one she would avoid going to each week “I know what I need to know.” she pouted.
“Well. These are stuff we need to know.” Mitch reasoned “This isn't like not like geography, or maths. This is we gotta know this stuff to help us do our job.”
They would feel confident in talking about it through hushed tones since at this time of the morning there was rarely anyone on the train. The cart they were in was currently empty, and given they were students, it wasn’t like anyone would take them seriously.
“I guess, yeah.” She sighed in defeat, leaning her chin against her arms on the table. “Should probably take that advanced class this week then.”
The conversation would soon devolve into idle chit-chat about weekday school, television, and other forms of entertainment that they consumed which easily lasted the near hour long trip into Heuston station in Dublin city.
They exited the train after grabbing their bags into the large train station that even this early was packed with other people waiting for trains all over the country. It was always rather loud with the trains pulling in, the people talking, and all the cars driving past the open wall on the left that allowed Taxis to park in the walkway next to where their train came in.
They saw the main plaza once they scanned their tickets to get through the checkpoint. The plaza itself was quite large with huge displays on the walls to the right when they entered that had timetables electronically displayed for the next 5 trains leaving. There were stalls scattered around that were selling mostly drinks, one that had assortments of hot chocolate and coffee and another that did smoothies and fruit juices.
Along the sides of the hall leading toward the exit there were a few places to eat, a bookstore, another coffee shop, and a donut place that Mitch would often like to grab a small box from before heading home each week.
“So, guessing Joel is here already?” Mitch asked after exiting the building. Across the street from the train station was another smaller station for the Luas, a tram system used to get around Dublin city.
“Most likely, he shows up at dumb hours.” She responded, swiping on her travel card against the machine which would let out a high pitched 'ding' noise to acknowledge her.
Mitch followed suit and did the same with his card, now turning to lean against the rails waiting for the tram which showed up every five or so minutes. Now they were much more careful about what they talked about since they were in public, always condensing the topics to general studies and some family events that are non intrusive on their work.
Being early morning on a saturday there was a large number of people taking the tram into the city centre so it was quite cramped. Mitch didn't mind standing, but he wasn't very comfortable in a large crowd, especially one that was pressed so close together they were almost squishing him.
But luckily it was only a few stops until Jervis, which was where a majority of the passengers would get off, including Mitch and Saoirse. They scanned the cards once more on the machines once they left which returned some of their balance based on how long it had been since they last scanned.
“I might wanna stop off and get some new headphones by the college, see a place that has some nice ones for cheaper than usual.” Mitch said in a slightly louder tone than usual to combat the sounds of the loud city.
“No issues.” Saoirse responded, dragging her suitcase behind her along the hard pavement “Should be quick enough.”
They walked for some time until they came to a large bridge that crossed over the river which cut through the city centre. With some conversation of school topics to help pass the time they would proceed through town until they reached a small electronics shop that was in a smaller pathway close to Trinity. There was not much room to work with inside the store, barely enough room to hold four people.
The young man behind the counter stood in an upright position in a white suit shirt with his hands placed crossed on the desk in front of him. “Welcome.” He said politely, moving a hand to brush the scruffy brown hair out of his eyes. “Can I be of assistance?”
Mitch nodded as he said “Yeah, just looking for a new pair of headphones. Something that's comfy to wear with some decent sound.”
The boy behind the counter nodded and said “I have a set then.” Walking out from behind the counter to look over the several sets that lined the wall before he took down one in a nice cardboard box.
Returning to the desk he took them out of the box to show off a pair of large enough cushioned looking headphones “Want to try them out?” He asked as he offered them.
“Sure.” Mitch said as he took them and placed them onto his ears.
He fumbled with his phone for a few moments once he learned how to turn them on and then connected it to the pairing feature. Once satisfied he disconnected them and asked “These are pretty good, how much?”
“Sixty.” The clerk replied as he placed them back inside the box and left it resting on the counter between them.
Saoirse was looking over the other electronics lining the walls as Mitch had to think it over, before eventually coming to the conclusion “Sure, I'll take them.”
The young man simply nodded once again and picked up the box to slide it around, seeming to manually type the serial code of the object into the register that looked like it had seen more than its fair share of use and was most certainly outdated by most of today's technology. Mitch couldn't help but chuckle at the irony, fishing through his pockets for his wallet.
Soon enough the headphone box was placed inside a small paper bag and slid across the table “That'll be sixty euro please.” he asked politely.
“Cheers man.” Mitch responded as he looked back at Saoirse for a moment, giving her a quick thumbs up before he handed over three notes that covered the cost.
The young man opened the till with a few button presses and placed the notes inside, taking up the receipt machine and just waiting for it to apparently finish killing the robot that it needed to so it could print anything.
During this time he just glanced around the shop idly, holding the machine up until the receipt finally printed and he tore it off the top “If there's any problem with them, be sure to bring them back within 2 weeks and we can either replace, repair, or refund them for you.” he stated as if he was reading off a script that he had been doing every day.
“Thanks again.” Mitch responded as he took the receipt and stuffed it into the paper bag, turning and leaving the store with Saoirse into the large crowd that passed the small store on a daily basis, following the ebb and flow of the crowd towards the college they always met at. “Hopefully we haven't kept him waiting too long.” Mitch chuckled.
“Well with that detour, the blame is on you.” Saoirse added. Since the shop was close to the campus gates it was only a few moments before they could see the two waiting amidst the crowd.
After some brief hello and hey they were all making their way to the school house after dropping their bags off into the dorm. They took their seats by the front left side of the room and even though they were on completely opposite sides of the hall Mitch could feel the smug nature of Aoife taint the other side of the room.
When he looked he would be able to see her occasionally glance his way, and when their eyes met she would pull a sickeningly condescending grin that made him irrationally annoyed.
As he shared his silent feud with her the tapping of a cane against the ground was heard which would mean the assembly was about to begin as the same hunched over old man hobbled his way through the centre of the hall.
“Good morning!” he called out to the mostly empty hallway which had clearly been made for a much larger number of students. “I hope you all had a good week” He said as he hobbled to the front and turned to face them, a scene they were used to seeing almost scene for scene each week that he did the assembly.
He ran a hand over his chin as he said “It is good to see you all back again. To start off the weekend I would like to take a quick moment to go through the family creed.” as he would every week.
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
He glanced over the crowd of students before he fixed his gaze onto Mitch “Ah yes, you.”
Mitch froze up as he was addressed, not sure what he could have done wrong. He looked over himself quickly to be sure he was wearing his correct uniform, perhaps he left his headphones around his neck? In the mere moments it took for the old man, Lowe, to continue his line of thought Mitch had begun to panic.
“The principal asked me to send you up, there is someone here to see you.” He said once he finally remembered.
“Me?” He asked curiously, though he thought then it could have possibly been Lara. She was texting him during the week about the progress of her lessons, so maybe there was a chance that she was ready to come back to the family home with him. She was trained in Dublin after all by the head family.
“Yes, you. Now run along.” He assured, gesturing to shoo him out with his hand.
Mitch picked up his bag and stood up, bowing to his elder before walking down the middle of the room towards the door. He felt every pair of eyes gazing at him like a set of hot lasers against his back, everyone as equally curious as he was to find out what was going on.
“Would have been nice to be told before the assembly.” Mitch thought sourly as he passed through the main door to the reception. The door swinging shut almost felt like a cool breeze, not because there was any wind, but those lasers were no longer focused on him.
Though a new problem struck him as he stood outside the assembly hall, he actually had no clue where the principal's office actually was. He had never wandered through the school since most of his classes were only over the course of two days, and they almost all took place on the bottom floor. Though it was an easy fix as there was a reception not too far from the assembly hall so he could ask there.
On approaching the reception desk he found a rather plump man sitting on the other side of the window “What's ye’ lookin for?” The man said rather unkindly in a thick Scottish accent.
“I was asked to go up to the principal's office.” Mitch explained “Someone is here to see me?”
The man behind the counter just hummed for a moment as he thought it over, his rather thick moustache dancing left to right as he did. He turned to check a pile of notes on the side of his desk before he said “Mitch, is it?”
“That's me.” Mitch replied, watching the man who just gazed back at him unamused.
“Well, then follow the stairs.” He explained, pointing to the assembly hall door, which had a set of stairs to the far left of them. “Then go to the top floor, ye'll find a wall of paintings'. There'll be a row of rooms to the right and left, head left, then left again.”
“Thank you, sir.” Mitch replied once he had gotten the directions, fixing his bag across his shoulder and turning to head to the stairs.
The first floor was mostly the same as the ground floor, just classrooms with double doors to his left which lead down to an art room from what he could tell through the window. To the right was just a row of generic classes and then behind the stairs there were more rooms, those classes labelled D-1, through D-10.
Up to the next floor he found what he was looking for, or so he would assume as there were no stairs going anywhere but downwards from here. To the right were classrooms, with a large set of double doors to the left which had “staff area” written over them. Ahead were the aforementioned paintings that were prize winners from several years of competitions the school held for the art class.
He spent a moment looking over the paintings, seeing a clear pattern in the winner each year, seeming to paint rather outlandish and confusing scenery with a very surreal feel to them.
“I don't think I'll ever understand art.” he thought, ending this slight detour and taking the doors to the left. He walked down another hallway inside until he came to the first, and only left turn, which led down to a thick brown wooden door that had “Principals office” written on a placard. After a knock he heard “Come on in!”
He pushed open the door and walked inside where he saw the principal sitting on the other side of her desk. “Thank you for coming.” She said as she motioned to the chair in front of her desk “Take a seat.” She was a kind looking old lady, her whitening blonde hair trailing over her shoulders and covering part of her face.
“What’s going on?” He asked concerned while taking the seat. “I’m sure I haven’t been breaking too many rules.”
“I’m sure you haven’t been.” Clara replied, if the plaque on her desk was to be believed that was. “I was asking you here to give you some news from Rin himself.”
That was a name he wasn’t expecting to hear after their last meeting. “What could he possibly want with me?” He asked, a flurry of ideas rushing about in the few moments before her response. Was he mad still about their last meeting? Possibly he wanted him to take some form of counselling for his outburst? Or had he heard about his fuck up with leaving the rune behind?
“Calm down.” She said while holding a hand up “It’s good news. He asked me to inform you that he has entered you into the family festival under his recommendation.”
This was so far away from what he had expected to hear that he could only sit in an awkward silence for a few moments before asking “What?...”
“While everyone can take part in the family festival if they qualify, a personal recommendation from any big family like this means people will have their eyes out on you and expect you to get far in them. It’s still a few months away but It’s best you know now so you can start practising for it.”
Mitch was left sitting in a state of profound confusion. He had nothing but a bad taste in his mouth any time he even said Rin after their meeting, and he goes and enters him in the festival?
It was hard to even think about what reason he would have for doing this.
“Well I do hope you prepare to take an invitation like this seriously.”
“Yeah, I’ll do my best.” He replied, trying to sound confident.
“You may return to your classes now, be sure to take some classes in whatever aspect you feel you are lacking in for the festival.” Clara finished, returning to her paperwork once he stood up and left.
He walked out for now and just spent a moment standing out of view of the door in thought. He had read up on the family festival before when he was interested in participating a few weeks back. It consisted of several events that students take part in to do with each class, from rune deciphering and drawing to a practical hunt in a family setup environment. This was all in view of the family where they would all be graded for their performance.
It wasn’t for some time as Clara had said while inside but if he was going to have all eyes on him he should definitely cover the bases that he was struggling in. The first to come to mind would have been spirit control after what had happened at the manor earlier in the week.
When he returned to class there would be a buzz about him of course that he had been called out to the principal, of course Aoife had a form of grin on her face as she seemed to have it out for him for a reason he never truly understood.
“What were you called out for?” She asked as she came walking up, standing next to his table since class hadn’t started yet. “Botch up another mission and get scolded?”
“What’s it to you?” He spat in response “Though I guess it is like you to butt into other peoples business all the time.”
Though this used to upset her when he started here about a month or two ago, she had grown some thicker skin it seemed. “Either you can tell me, or I’ll find out another way. So you might as well.”
“We are kinda curious too.” Saoirse added from the same table.
Though Mitch was one to roll his eyes at people prying into his business, he felt he could use this as a time to make Aoife’s blood boil with the truth. “Well, the truth is.” He began, watching her grin as if she had won the battle “I have been recommended by Rin himself for the family festival.”
In an instant that smug grin sank into a pale shade of the woman she was moments ago “You’re lying.” She quickly replied “Not a chance he would recommend a country bum like you.”
“You jealous?” He asked, a hint of smugness coming through as he couldn’t contain that warm feeling inside of having one upped her.
“Really?” Joel asked with a raised brow, leaning on the table lazily as he often did “I could see that happening, yeah.” He spoke with a very comical tone to overplay his contribution.
Aoife clearly looked like she regretted coming over to them and just said “Just means you can disgrace yourself in front of the family.” before she stormed back to her own table.
“Man, what in the hell is her problem?” Saoirse asked.
“She’s been like this forever.” Mitch shrugged, kicking back in his seat “But being recommended is true, so I need to think of a way to train up for that.”
By the time the general class had ended and lunch had begun Mitch stood outside with his friends before saying “I think I’ll head back to the dorms for lunch today. Got a lot to think about.”
“I see. Already too big to hang with us?” Joel teased.
“Not at all!” Mitch quickly replied, offended at the notion.
Joel shook his head and put a hand on his shoulder “I’m joking you gobshite. We are still down for movies later right?”
Mitch nodded and fixed his bag onto his shoulders, adjusting it “Yeah, can’t turn that on down.”
The two waved to him as they left and he gave a half limp wave back. As nice as burgers sounded at the moment he felt he would just be dead weight, so he decided to return back to the dorms which was a quiet journey since no other student seemed to come back here during lunch.
Returning to his room he snatched up those new headphones he had gotten and put them on, climbing onto the bed and connecting them when he placed his back against the headboard.
He took his phone out and after switching on some music he messaged Jasper about the sudden message. “Principal told me today that Rin recommended me for the family festival.”
Since it was mid day Jasper was actually awake for once when he texted him and he got a swift reply of “That’s a bit odd. Wonder why he would recommend a failure.”
“Aren’t you funny.” Mitch quickly sent back, rolling his eyes. “Just like you, all jokes, all the time.” he said out loud to no one in particular.
“Still, it is an honour to be recommended. Means all eyes will be on you, be sure to not disappoint!” Jasper responded, in what seemed to be the most effort he put into a text.
“I guess, It’s still weird that he recommended me of all people.” He sent in response. Following it up with “I don’t even know the man.”
After another ding indicating another message from Jasper which read “Perhaps he is choosing at random from the classes. We do a lot of work that gets reported to him.”
All his thinking was doing nothing for him, and time had flown by because of it. In almost the blink of an eye he had blasted through his playlist and lunch was coming to an end.
“I wasn't even having fun.” Mitch joked to an invisible audience and chuckled pathetically. “I gotta go back to class.” He replied to Jasper. He made a quick stop downstairs after he was sure to lock his room, going into the bathroom to wash his face off and perk himself up before heading back out to the old school house.
He checked his phone to see if the others had texted about what class they would be taking. Sadly there was nothing, so he had to choose what class he wanted to take and just hope they would also be there.
Mitch was considering taking up runic studies, one he quite enjoyed and helped him with the severe puzzle that Jasper had left for him. On the other hand, potions were incredibly useful and practical. Though he finally made his choice, taking the stairs to the upstairs classes where the only class that was held up here would be starting.
“Afternoon lads.” The teacher would say in a thicker than thick cork accent while he sat behind the table looking over his notes. He was a rather short man for his age, only about half a head taller than Mitch with some neat combed black hair and a thin pair of glasses resting on his rounded nose.
“Another week, another practical lesson.” Justin said while standing up hard enough to slide his chair back on its wheels into the wall.
Mitch quickly took a seat by the back of the room when he saw that the class was starting along with a brief scan of the room that showed that none of the others were here. “Now, this is the hardest class of the lot so don't feel bad when ye' can't get it right away.” Justin explained, standing in front of his desk “But I don't wanna see anyone in their bodies until ye' can't hold it anymore.”
It would seem like second nature for him to step out of his own body into that very vague looking spiritual form. The lights would be turned off a moment later once he asked someone to shut them off and instructed everyone to “Follow his lead.”
One by one he would see students begin to channel the natural mana of the world so Mitch would be quick to join in. The room itself felt like a storm with the mana swirling about and the sheer power that was coming from the centre of the room where Justin was standing.
Mitch could only jokingly refer to the feeling as suddenly walking into a boss battle in an old video game where they would be swirling with energy ready to take out the party, and in this case he would easily be able to destroy them. Real life was a lot harder to grind out killing small monsters for days on end to become stronger than the destroyer of worlds. Real life took practice that they couldn't do without an instructor who truly knew what he was doing.
After his little laugh session to himself he would join the rest of the class in shifting from his corporeal form to his incorporeal form where they were instructed to stay for as long as possible.
“This is one of the most important skills we have.” Justin explained, walking around the room that they could only see as a dim and dull reflection of their own world. The tables would still exist, along with the walls encasing them in the room. They would be able to feel them when they sat or placed a hand against them, though they would find they couldn't actually move them in any way.
It was a taxing skill when enough time passed, as the spirit would not like being away from the body for too long and oftentimes would be drawn back to it by an invisible tether they would describe it as.
“There are certain spells that can also only be used in this form too.” His demonstration involved him walking through the tables in front of him, which they found they weren't able to actually do naturally.
“People always say that a spirit naturally cannot interact with the world. Which is true, but they also say that spirits are able to freely walk through corporeal objects, which is false.”
They would all try to push through the desks in front of them, and the chairs they sat on before Justin explained “We cannot do so, because the spirit realm is a reflection of our own. It is almost a carbon copy in nearly every way. Though it is devoid of light and sensations of the weather, a chair in the real world will be a chair in the spirit realm.”
“Why is that?” Mitch would ask once he had his hand in the air.
Justin would take a moment to think of the best way to describe it, tapping his foot with a low hum, soon saying “Well, if ye' think of this realm as a waiting room composed entirely of magic. It is all chaotic energy that goes nowhere and eventually it comes to a point where it begins to mimic our world.” He would once again push his hand through the table “So the reason ye' can do things such as this, is in this realm we are made of that same chaotic energy. It is what the soul as people call it is made out of. Because each object here is made of magic that has found something to mimic, we can then tune our own inner magic to match that of these objects and we can easily slide through because it can't push away what is essentially the same.”
It was a long explanation that only led to a lot of the students staring up at him in confusion. “Oh, right.” He sighed heavily, placing his hands on his waist. “Imagine if ye' will, a shower that spits out red water. If you were any colour other than red, the water would feel like a wall that blocked you from walking through.” He had walked to the board and shockingly was able to pick up the marker resting against it.
Mitch noticed his hand would glow and pulsate slightly as he was holding the marker, moving it around to draw up the shower with red and a blue man struggling to push his way through he drew with the other marker.
“Now, if this man suddenly, say, became red.” Erasing him he drew a red one next and added an arrow to show walking through and added another red man on the other side “He could walk freely through it with no issue, and that is how the magic works. Match it, and it can’t prevent you from moving because we are made of the same energy.”
He placed the markers back down, and around now was when students would begin to be visibly straining having stayed out of their bodies for so long. Mitch was feeling the strain rather hard, though he couldn't use many normal bodily functions in a spirit form he could certainly feel sweat dripping down his face. When he looked at his actual body, sitting not too far away, he would be sweating profusely as he tried his hardest to not get pulled back.
“I can see the difficulty is setting in.” Justin noted, walking around the class once again to look them over. Mitch strangely found that it felt easier to hold his form when Justin was standing closer to him, and even though he had no physical differences he would feel like a refreshing wind was constantly surrounding him that felt soothing.
“Be careful and focus, conserve energy and hold your form.” He was starting to sound like those personal trainers you would see in movies, but it was helping somewhat to have a calm voice tell them what to do.
It didn't help the physical strain much which felt like his body was burning up, and a weight had been put onto his back that was making it hard to even move his head after long enough.
He wasn't able to handle it much longer and found himself briefly blacking out before he gasped in shock, suddenly feeling his entire body again as he had been tethered once more. His face coated in sweat and arms trembling he would still be able to see all the other students and Justin still in his own spirit form which led to a feeling of embarrassment, being the first one to fail.
“Take a break” he said to Mitch when he noticed he had failed “Deep breaths, then join us again.”
Mitch nodded as he hunched over and took deep breaths, hearing other students soon gasping in the same way until Justin said “Okay, everyone take a breather and we will get back into it after a short rest.”
That was followed by the last gasp of the one student who had managed to last that long. Upon checking who it was, Mitch was not surprised to see Aoife. She was probably smirking to herself as she often did and while he couldn’t see her face he could just tell by the aura.
“Just my luck, she takes the class I was going to.” he thought while he sat in a cold sweat, taking time to wipe his forehead clean.
“While most spirits naturally exist in the world as their bodies have passed, our cases are rather unique.” Justin explained returning to the board. Wiping off the previous drawing he then had a simple diagram of a body leading to a little cartoon ghost “Normal people when they die exit their body which is no longer inhabitable for the spirit.” moving over to then add someone who was alive leading to the ghost drawing, but the ghost drawing would then lead to another man. “However, how we do it is much more complicated and it is why it is physically taxing.”
He walked back over to stand by his body which was still standing in its original position at the desk “A spirit cannot be removed from a body, and have the body still be semi-conscious. What we do is more akin to astral projection where the spirit we create is a copy of ourselves that inherits our characteristics. The reason it is so hard to use and maintain is that constant stream of magic needed to fuel it along with the focus needed to maintain the form.”
“Once again, follow me” he added as he waited for them to take this form once more.
It was bizarre to Mitch to think he had done this so many times, but he had no idea how the spell itself had actually worked. Up until now he thought he was using his own spirit to leave his body and do his work.
The rest of the class was composed mostly of trying to maintain that projection they had created and move while that same strain was kicking in. It was perhaps the most physically strenuous class the weekend school would have and Mitch would end up leaving the class looking like he had just ran a marathon.
“You look absolutely shattered.” Joel commented, slapping a hand onto his shoulder when they met up downstairs by the main entrance.
“I was taking the spirit thing class...” He felt too tired to articulate his thoughts properly and blurted out whatever came to mind first.
“I can tell, no one comes out of normal class looking this exhausted.” He mocked, taking his hand away to wipe the sweat off of it.
“Perhaps you should train more.” Aoife mocked as she passed him “You’ll be an utter embarrassment to Rin if you compete in this state.”
Of course she had bounced back from the shock of what she was told, and even managed to turn it into a way to be condescending. It seemed to be a form of super power she had, “Super Bitch” As Mitch would call it.
The feeling of the fresh air hitting him when he left through the front door was the most refreshing thing he could ask for besides a nice cold drink to go along with it. His uniform had wound up soaked in sweat, he was quite glad he had decided to get two uniforms when it came to his first few weeks here.
“Come on.” Joel said as he walked ahead “Lets get some snacks for movie night.”