“On the day that it happened, my parents took me to an open house to try to enroll in your school. I was so excited the night before that I couldn’t even sleep. I wanted to be great at studies just like them. As we talked about the tour, I saw a young boy peeking from the side of the building. I said nothing, though, because I thought I had imagined things.

“When we entered the building, a tall woman immediately greeted us. It was Glenda.

‘Hello there.’ She greeted me with a wave.

‘Um... h-hi?’ I tried my best to say something but ended up choking on my words. I ran behind my mom’s legs and shook uncontrollably.

‘Long time no see, so you’re here for the tour, correct?’ Glenda asked my parents. ‘You know some areas of the school are off-limits because of an accident yesterday.’

‘Yes, we’re aware.’ My dad replied.

‘I see.’ Glenda then turned to me and squatted down to better talk to me on my level. “I hope you enjoy your time here and end up liking the school.”

“Well, I hope so too...” I replied.

“I didn’t want to hurt her feelings, so I lied and gave her a weak smile, even though we had just got here.

‘There’s a lot of neat stuff around the school. I want to show you if you don’t mind.’

‘That sounds wonderful, Glenda.’ My mom replied.

‘I can even introduce you to the Principal—’

‘Uh, let’s not.’ My father interjected.

‘Why not? I’m sure she’d be delighted to see a fresh, new—’

“At that moment, I drew my attention to a shadow watching us from the corner of the hallway. I was about to tell my parents about it, but before I could, the shadow ran off and curiosity got the better of me as I chased after it.

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“I ended up in a dimly lit room. I heard the door close behind me and panicked. Backing up against the wall, I accidentally knocked over a skeleton that had been standing in the corner, causing it to fall on the floor. I looked over and saw boxes tumbled across the floor with a boy on the ground. Said boy noticed I was staring and tried to run away.

‘Hey, wait, where are you going?’ I asked.

‘Why are you following me?’ The boy asked back.

‘What are you doing?’

‘Why do you care?’

‘Um…’

The boy sighed in disbelief. ‘Ugh, look, if I tell you why, will you keep it to yourself and not tell anyone else? You don’t seem like the type who’d do something like tattletale, but I want to make sure…’

‘I won’t tell. Your secret is safe with me.’

‘All right.’ He took a deep breath and exhaled before explaining. ‘I’m here to save my dad. He was supposed to teach me how to use dark magic this week.’

‘What happened to him?’

‘He got captured and taken into custody by this school.’

‘Well, dark magic sounds creepy…’

‘Creepy, are you kidding? It’s the coolest thing ever like you would not believe!’

‘Oh, but do you know why they took—?’

“Before I could finish my question, lightning struck the space between us. We turned around and saw a tall man with no head standing beside a window looking all menacing. We screamed and rushed over to pop open the air vents and went to crawl inside.

“I couldn’t believe what I was doing. I wasn’t thinking straight at all and assumed that he wasn’t either. We soon ended up at the Vision Library and exited the vents. To our dismay, Horace had been waiting for us there and grabbed the boy by his shirt collar. I ran over to hide behind one of the back bookshelves and saw the boy struggle. I tried to push the bookshelves down but wasn’t strong enough.

“Horace eventually found me as he dragged us to your office, and that was when I first met you. You had been talking with two other adults so you could ask who we were. Glenda and my parents showed up. Horace let go of us, and I reunited with my parents. The boy wasn’t so lucky.

‘That was troublesome.’ I heard you say under your breath.

‘We’re so glad you guys solved that minor issue.’ The older woman chirped.

‘We should go.’ My mom said.

‘Why not stay here and chat?’ The older man suggested.

‘We’d rather not.’ My dad insisted.

You then said, ‘Now that you mention it, there is something I’d love to discuss with you two.’

‘What about the kids?’ Glenda questioned.

‘I don’t need your pity!’ The boy retorted.

After thinking about it, you decided the boy could stay, but I had to wait outside with Glenda.