Alexander scrambled through the bushes and scrabbled onto a random gravel path. He knew if he went a certain direction, he would at least make it to the south end of the park. He remembered that he’d seen a sign for it the day the hunter called Mother drove him to the school. If he could just make it to the abbey…

He heard shouts over his shoulder above him and leapt into the bushes before a bunch of young witches breezed by overhead. Alexander could hear Blue Machine barking orders at them. Luckily, they headed further west.

Alexander knelt in the bushes, trembling from head to toe and finally threw up what was left of his meager meal from earlier. He thought hard and fast, remembering Ty saying something about that audio recording going to the students that ‘mattered.’ Alexander had thought it strange at the time, but chalked the whole thing up to a clique of bullies—who could have imagined that there was a whole—what should he call it? A coven of witches? Was that even a thing!?

Alexander gasped and threw up again even though there was nothing left in his stomach.

He curled up in the bushes, trembling. “Evan… I’m so scared,” he whimpered.

“You should be,” Blue Machine’s voice came from above him.

Alexander’s gaze shot upward. The other stood on a branch above him, grinning.

Alexander scrambled backwards, up against a tree and used it to push himself to his feet, his eyes flicking around the bushes to watch for the witch’s evil little machinations.

“It’s hard for me to make machines when there’s no parts,” Blue Machine lamented, idly inspecting the back of his gloved hand. His clothes were reminiscent of motorcycle gear, but much more mobile and light. “However, since you’re here, Hunter Princess,” he produced a red ampule from a pocket on his breast. “I guess I don’t need to dirty my powers with your blood after all.”

He snapped the ampule, the whole thing, contents included, shattering into a cloud of silver and red glowing mist. “I wonder,” he began with a casual mocking intrigue, “Have you ever seen a wraith before?” A dark grin swept over his features and he hopped off the branch. Midair, a flash of neon blue light coalesced under him and his scooter reappeared. He landed deftly and swept back his hair. “Enjoy, Princess Alex, while you can.”

He flew up high, circling around, more witches gathering high up around him.

Alexander was breathing hard, the night air cold and burning his lungs. The witches above him looked like horrible avatars of death, vultures circling, waiting for him to die so they could feast upon his remains.

He coughed, his breath coming out as a white puff of condensation. Then, his blood ran cold, his sweat trickling down his back turning to ice as a deep, hollow howl echoed through the dark woods.

“You better run, Princess! It’s coming for you!” a young witch jeered from above.

As if on cue, a thick branch snapped off a nearby tree, drawing Alexander’s attention.

The ground shook and a bush even nearer was crushed by something heavy and invisible, the imprint of its foot outlined in the crushed foliage. Just like the other day when the lights blew and he went into the forest with Ghost, Alexander saw something rippling in moonlight, a vague outline quickly taking shape, shimmering as its form became visible.

What he saw before him was virtually indescribable. All Alexander knew, was that this thing shouldn’t exist. A misshapen skull of some indiscernible animal with thorny antlers stalked out of the brush. It was about the size of a Clydesdale, maybe bigger, but closer to the shape of an emaciated gorilla, if a gorilla had nine inch long fingers tipped with even longer claws—protrusions of knife-sharp, steel-hard bone fourteen inches long. The skin on its skull stretched thin and splitting, orbs of orange light rolling around in hollow, black sockets.

Alexander wanted to throw up again, but there was nothing left.

His nerves were firing everywhere all at once.

His breathing rapidly intensified into short gasps as his limbs went numb.

The creature shifted, sniffing the air, allowing Alexander a view of the rest of its body. Mangy, wiry fur mixed with upturned scales, exposed bone, and translucent flesh showed its pulsing purple internal organs, a surge of blue-white chilling energy flowing through it like blood pumping through visible veins.

Alexander took a hesitant step backwards, crushing dead leaves under his heel.

The wraith’s attention snapped to him, it having been momentarily distracted by the witches circling above it. Now, it glowered at him, its rolling eyes coming to a narrow-slitted reptilian focus on Alexander. It rolled its shoulders, lowering itself close to the ground, eyes focused, mouth opening in a horrible hiss—a python mixed with the relief of a truck’s air breaks—its body bobbing slightly.

Alexander’s pupils shrank and he suddenly bolted as the thing launched at him with the most blood-curdling screech one could imagine.

He scrambled on the fine gravel of the trail and tore down the path at breakneck speeds, too terrified to scream.

The wraith behind him screeched and snarled, bounding after him on all fours, its two-foot long barbed tongue lolling from its razor-toothed jaw with streams of glowing saliva that dissipated into ether before ever touching the ground.

Alexander exploded through the bushes onto the hexagonal interlock path of the park proper, leaping over a bench that exploded behind him as the wraith charged right through it like it was tissue paper.

“AH! AHH! SOMEONE HELP ME!” Alexander screamed.

His lungs burned.

His muscles were on fire.

His mind was screaming.

“HEEEELLLP!!!”

He jumped over a ledge and ducked behind the central fountain just in time, the concrete structure saving him from the creature’s jaws.

Above him, the young witches circled and jeered, whooping at their sport and whipping more ampules down at him onto the concrete around the fountain.

Whatever it was they were throwing, it drove the wraith into a greater frenzy. It snarled and hissed, snapping at Alexander from around the fountain’s upper tier, water splashing its face and driving it back when it lost sight of him each time.

Alexander jumped out of the fountain in a moment when the wraith was distracted, tripping on an unbroken ampule and slipping on the wet bricks as he tried to take off again. He slammed face first into the interlock, cutting open his chin and crushing the small glass container beneath his hand as he tried to get up again.

A deep growl above him made him freeze as the strange mixture of the wraith’s moon-cast shadow and its own eerie light washed over him. It raised up, squaring its shoulders over him with a snort—as if angry that its food had put up such a fuss.

Alexander went numb as its eyes flared a burning bright red and its maw opened.

Three flashes of coloured light and a ear-piercing pitch preceded three sparkling roman candles slamming into the side of the wraith’s head. It screeched in agony, writhing as it fell over, grabbing its head with its clawed hands.

Above it, a figure flashed by, flipping over in the air, his dark grey-blue poncho fluttering in the wind, black cloud under his feet, guiding him between the witches and the wraith. With a flair and a cool swipe, he repeatedly hurled sparkling blobs of coloured gel at the monster. They stuck to its back and then exploded in a flash of blinding fireworks.

The wraith screeched with fury, forgetting Alexander and turning on the tall young man instead.

“Star Catcher!” Lemon Sunrise’s voice called out from behind Alexander, “They’re using Wraith Lure! Watch out, it’s already frenzied!”

Alexander turned to see her fly by behind him at top speed, Citrus Sunset on her heels.

More flashes drew his attention back to Star Catcher, who duplicated his cloud and hid behind it. The wraith chased the decoy so he could fly down, skirting the paving stones to slam a powerful blast of sparklers into its exposed soft belly of pulsing organs.

Star Catcher skidded to a halt, sliding to a stop in front of Alexander, his back to him. The wraith was maybe twenty meters away, recoiling and hissing, unknown substances pouring from its body and dissipating against the stones.

Star Catcher stood, looking over his shoulder at Alexander with a practiced coldness in his endlessly dark blue starry-sapphire eyes framed by hair so black that it drew in the light around it. The wind caught his poncho, making it flutter to reveal the inside was a star-field, complete with shifting nebulous clouds and twinkling light. “Hmph,” he scoffed at Alexander and turned away to face the monster. “Get out of the way, you’re a nuisance, hunter.”

Star Catcher steeled himself, stretching his slender, half-gloved, fingers to summon an orb of glass wrapped in bands of carved gold. He held it tight and took off running at the wraith.