After shrugging off the possession of Hailey’s body, the group continued cleaning her room.
“It’s so like her to eat all the Wishie-Washies after telling us to shut up and leave.” Abigail dropped the empty bag that once held the candies into a trash bag, the rest poured into a bowl.
“Is it? I feel like that was a weird thing for me to do,” Mk2 said, sitting on her bed.
“Oh, you’re here,” Abigail said wryly.
Mk2 tilted her head. “Did you think I wasn’t?”
“Well…it’s just difficult to register that you’re…Hailey.” Abigail leaned against the wall.
“Why?”
“Because…maybe my memories are just failing me, but you speak nothing like her.”
“You mean that I’m noncommittal, uncertain, and don’t seek attention?” Hailey Mk2 asked, surprisingly concise with her summary.
“That’s…yeah. I don’t think Hailey says ‘I think’ very often, for example.”
“If you want to know why, I just think I’m not Hailey…but I am also Hailey.”
“Mind giving me an explanation of any kind?”
“Well…perhaps imagining me as a spliced portion of her DNA would suffice?”
“Your metaphor needs some elaboration.”
Mk2 didn’t respond.
“So, you want to do that?” Abigail prodded.
“Elaborate?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, I think I meant that I’m just a part of her, spliced from her soul and copied, then imprinted upon a blank soul.”
“How do you know all this?”
“Intuition, maybe.”
“I’ll pretend you didn’t say maybe.”
Linne snapped her fingers, trying to grab Abigail’s attention.
“Huh? Oh, what is it, Linlin?”
“Mind working a little?” she said passive-aggressively.
“Sure, sure.”
Hailey Mk2 watched in awe as Taylor, Linne, and Abigail worked through the room, commenting on anything they found interesting. Mk2 saw them all working together to help clean Hailey’s room and thought, they’re all such good friends!
To Hailey, that was.
Suddenly, Mk2 crashed into Linne’s back, almost toppling the small girl over in a bear hug. “Waaaaaahh! I’m pretty sure Hailey missed you all so much,” she said in a heartfelt, babyish manner, burying her face in Linne’s slightly shaggy hair.
Abigail stopped what she was doing to pat the girl’s head. “Awww, she’s so cute like this! Can we keep her?” she asked.
“If we did that, we’d be tearing Hailey apart!” Taylor responded playfully.
Linne, who had frozen upon contact, timidly spoke, “Well she is cute…when she isn’t acting like a robot, that is.”
“Acting like a robot?” Abigail said curiously.
Two heads stacked atop each other turned to the girl. “You haven’t noticed?” Linne and Mk2 said simultaneously.
“Whoa, you better get to jinxing each other.”
The two simultaneously cocked their heads in confusion.
“Synchronicity overload! Neither of you know what it means to jinx someone?!” Abigail asked.
Taylor’s face scrunched up in suspicion. “You two do seem pretty similar.”
Abigail moved her face close to the embracing girls’ with interest. “Yeah. Noncommittal, uncertain, and unwilling to attract attention, you said?”
Mk2 nodded. “I think so.”
“Well, that does describe some of Linne. What do you think?”
“Me?” Linne said hoarsely, struggling to carry the girl atop her. “I don’t know!”
“Perhaps my personality is modeled in some degree off my third most trusted friend?” Mk2 said, looking at Linne’s face from above her head.
Abigail giggled. “Linne’s the third wheel, I see.”
“Well, I think the first wheel, Abbie, is broken,” Mk2 said decisively. “And Tera…she didn’t even bother to see if I…Hailey was fine.” A dark frown passed over Mk2’s face despite her lack of expressiveness. “So that actually makes you Hailey’s next best friend.” Mk2 patted Linne’s head.
The room was dead silent at Mk2’s strangely matter-of-fact statement.
She looked around the room. Each person looked at her with slightly different expressions, each some form of worry. I guess it’s strange to hear those kind of words from Hailey’s mouth. Mk2 suddenly felt very alienated from Hailey’s body, which had once naturally felt like her own. I think none of this was meant to happen. I probably wasn’t supposed to meet anyone besides Hailey, but now that I have…I feel like I’m separate from her.
Linne’s concentration on holding up Mk2 faltered, so the two plummeted to the ground in a heap. “Ow!” Linne yelped.
Mk2 didn’t react, only standing up from her Linne’s tangle of limbs, then turning to her two stunned friends. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing, I guess,” Taylor said.
Mk2 paced between the dresser and the door in thought.
“Is something wrong with you?” Taylor asked back.
She suddenly stopped, then looked between the people gathered around her. “Do you think…I’m a person?”
“Sure you are. You’re a bit weird, but I don’t see why you wouldn’t be.” He raised an eyebrow, unsure if that was the response Mk2 was looking for.
She sighed, looking out the window. “I think so, too.”
Taylor shrugged, then continued cleaning. The rest of the group followed his example, returning to normality. For the next five minutes, they cleaned, occasionally asking a preoccupied Mk2 where various objects should be situated. Kait also happened to walk past the door with a brand-new broom on her back and a bag and styrofoam cup in hand.
Taylor opened the bottom drawer of her dresser. “Wow, you didn’t even try to keep the clothes in here tidy. Guess I’ll tidy it up myself.”
Mk2 walked to Taylor and looked at the drawer. “If you do that, the real me might just strangle you once she’s back.”
“Why?” Taylor asked.
“Out of respect for your and her sanity, I suggest you close the drawer and walk away.”
“But why?” Taylor grasped a handful of socks, clothes, and underwear, ready to pull the clothes out for folding.
“CLOSE. THE. DRAWER. NOW. Please.” Mk2 said.
Taylor looked up at Mk2 to see a scowl on her face. “Okay,” he squeaked out.
“Eeek, I didn’t even know she could get angry!” Abigail said while fixing the misshapen blinds on the window.
Kait casually walked in a moment later. “I got my supplies.”
Mk2 asked Kait, “So you can help her?”
“Yep. I’ll need you to be on the bed to do it. ”
Taylor walked to the bed. “Then let’s get the bed cleaned real quick.”
Mk2 snuggled beneath her blanket while the cleaners straightened it out for the two sleepers.
“Is it comfortable?” Taylor asked once the four had finished and surrounded Hailey’s bed.
Mk2 nodded, “I think.”
“Well, that’s good to hear,” Linne said, upbeat.
Kait laid seven miniature dream catchers on Hailey’s bed, as well as a wristband identical to the one that allowed her to speak. After a moment of meditation, she took off her wristband and replaced it with the new one.
“What’s the wristband about?” Abigail whispered to Taylor.
And how did she get it? Taylor thought. The coffee I get, but the tiny dream catchers and the wristband? Before he could respond, Kait looked back at the group. “Don’t distribre ka, anvalshon?”
“What’d she just say?” Abigail whispered again.
“Don’t ask me.”
“What’d you just say?” she asked Kait.
Kait shrugged, then looked to Mk2. She closed her eyes, gripped a dream catcher, and touched Hailey’s forehead. She seemed to instantly fall asleep, her hand slipping off and to the ground.
Abigail shrugged. “I guess we’ll never know.”
Hailey appeared in her room.
It was the messy, disorganized heap she usually expected of it, but beside the door, a copy of herself leaned against the wall, a scowl on her face.
She listened with her double as Kait explained a pointless unlocking spell from behind the door.
“A spell?!” Abigail said in surprise.
“Yeah, we can talk about it later,” Taylor replied. “Right now…”
“Let’s not get distracted,” Linne said.
Taylor knocked. “Hailey, are you there…? Well, your friends and I have been talking for a while, and we wanted to talk to you,” Taylor said softly.
“Yeah,” Abigail said.
Linne agreed, “Mhm.”
The Fake Hailey rolled her eyes.
Hailey crossed her arms, her expression soft, but far from relaxed. Much to nobody’s surprise, I’m a brat. She took a second glance at herself. I just wanted to be left alone…at least, that’s what I said to myself.
There was a slight shake of the doorknob. “I hadn’t ever been too close to Abbie, but I felt a bit of a connection with her.” Abigail chuckled. “Because we had similar names. Stupid reason to be hung up about it, right?”
The Fake Hailey clenched her hands hard. How dare she act like she knew the first thing about Abbie? About what she meant to Hailey.
Hailey sighed, looking back at herself with uncertainty. Why did that even make me angry? She didn’t do anything wrong.
“I know it impacted you more than it did me, and we weren’t ever good friends, and…I know I’m not the one who should be here. Tera should. She was your friend, after all. But…”
‘Good’ friends? We were never friends in the first place. Hailey thought, shaking her head. Abigail just says whatever keeps people placid. It’s so fake. I don’t know if that makes her a bad person, but I hate it. She grit her teeth angrily. But she’s a better ‘friend’ than Tera. She walked away when I needed her most. The rage quickly melted into sadness, but she pushed the feeling to the side as Abigail continued to speak.
“I figure, if I died, and Linne were you, shut in her room, I wouldn’t have any reservations about who helped her.”
Her fake shook her head, finding the sentiments to be pointless.
Hailey sighed. She didn’t care about Abigail at all. Abigail was just…just… What does she get from this? She was fairly confident in her ability to tell how fake Abigail was, but it just didn’t add up…was Abigail just like Taylor? Did she just want to feel good about herself? Or maybe…just because she’s holding back doesn’t mean she’s not telling the truth.
Linne spoke next. “I still can’t shake the feeling that it’s my fault, but…I know it isn’t. It isn’t yours either. I-I don’t know if you feel that way, but whether you do or don’t, I’m here for you. You’re my friend.”
The Fake Hailey unclenched her hand to place it on the door, guilt and sympathy briefly passing over her features.
Linne was always that way. She couldn’t help but put other people’s burdens onto herself. Even if it was contrived.
“I want to help you. I want to know why you’re so hurt. I–” There was a pause. “I’m here for you, Hailey!” Linne shouted through the door.
The real Hailey looked away. She couldn’t remember well what had come after this point, but she knew she’d blown up on them, especially Linne. She’s the last person who needs my anger. I don’t even know how she gets out of bed after what happened…and how much Abbie meant to her.
Taylor spoke next. “I hope you’re actually in there. That’d be embarrassing if you weren’t,” he said with a giggle. “And I don’t think there’s more I can say, aside from what they said. Hailey, I don’t know if you can even hear us, but I want to talk with you. I want to see y–”
Hailey paused the scene, a remote suddenly in her left hand.
A younger version of her appeared beside her, making the third version of herself in the room.
As it happened, the spirit had come only to be snarky. “What, scared to press onwards?”
Hailey scowled at her double…triple. The spirit had helped give her information, but it was quite the aggravating creature. The worst part was that she could buy her younger self acting that way. She rolled her eyes. “No.”
“Then why is your hand quivering? Last I checked, that wasn’t normal human behavior.”
“Oh, shut up! I’m trying to think.”
“You love telling your friends to shut up.” The spirit smiled mischievously, then spoke in a ridiculous, mushy tone, “Does that mean…maybe, just maybe, that we’re–”
“Erm, please may I respectfully ask that you elicit no more sounds fromith your mouthith. Is that better?!”
The spirit laughed.
Hailey shook her head and spoke softly as she looked at the ground. “I don’t need to see this.”
“Pfft. This is why I don’t hang around humans. You can’t stand to watch a memory, then you lie and act like you’re all high and mighty, able to overcome any obstacle. Get over yourselves. I’mma head out and play with my friends.” The spirit shook its head. “Freaking humans,” it said, then vanished.
Hailey shook her head. “But she’s not wrong…” Then she pressed play.
“–ou h–”
The Fake Hailey’s rage finally boiled up after hearing her brother speaking, and she tore the door open in a bold fit of anger. “You all sure have been talking up a storm, so how about I ask you a ques–”
Linne suddenly perked up, her hand falling. “Hailey!”
“Shut up, Linne!” Fake Hailey looked to Taylor. “How about I ask you a question, Taylor? Do you think I’m deaf?”
Taylor let his hand fall as well. “Of course not!”
“Then why don’t you think I can hear you? My door’s locked. Did you think I’d snuck out of my window?”
“Well, n–”
“Oh well. Once an idiot, always an idiot.”
Wow, she really went off on them there.
Taylor didn’t look particularly hurt, though. If anything, he was stern.
Abigail quickly came to the defense of the other two. “Why are you treating him that way? He just wants to help you!”
“Just wants to help me? Bathing in his own self-importance by pushing his ‘help’ on me is just about all Taylor’s good for.”
If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
“Really?! That’s your issue with me?”
The Fake Hailey ignored him. “Anyway…Abigail. I don’t give a crap about you. We were never friends, and I don’t have any intention to ‘bond’ and ‘talk’ with you. You did have one good point, though; you’ve got a thatch thin reason for caring about what I do. As far as you’re concerned, I’m a selfish fracker who loves to throw insults and couldn’t care less in return.”
Hailey cringed in regret. Abigail’s just being too nice for her own good…has she always been that way? Did she really change that much without her knowing?
Abigail froze, her expression quickly turning inscrutable.
Hailey’s stomach churned as her next words came out, remembering each one just as they were spoken.
Fake Hailey looked at Linne. “Congratulations, you learned it’s not your fault she’s dead. Wow, I can’t believe it. You really learned basic cause and effect,” she deadpanned. “Look, friend, I don’t know what you think keeps me from school, but I think you should focus on yourself before you start trying to help me. If you really feel that guilty for not being killed, maybe the person dangerous to themselves is you. I know you almost tried to off yourself two years ago just because you jumped to conclusions, thinking you were rejected because you were ‘useless’ or whatever. And I know Abbie’s the reason you’re still here. So don’t think we are at all in the same boat.”
Hailey’s eyes widened, and she pressed the pause button.
Shit. She’d said that. She’d really said that to her friend, yelling in front of everyone about how she’d tried to off herself.
Why…why am I such a brat?
She’d excused her behavior under the pretense that her friend’s death changed her. But even so, she was over that. Sure, it was part of why she hadn’t left her house, but it shouldn’t have made her act with disdain toward everyone around her. No, there was something else.
Was it because she’d been stuffed in her house for two months? Well, no, probably not, but it contributed.
If she had to guess…she was always that way. She’d always been a brat. Everything that happened, her friend’s death and everything that came with that, being in her house, not talking to friends…it wasn’t those things that made her act this way. Whether she liked it or not, she chose how to react to them.
She’d acted so pathetic. They probably hated her and never wanted to see her again.
Taylor just tried to help.
Abigail just tried to help.
Linne just tried to help.
And she’d thrown their feelings around like rag dolls. Was she actually mad at them? Or was the unfiltered criticism she’d shoved down their throats simply projected?
The person she was most critical of was…
Hailey tried to keep tears of hatred out of her eyes, choking on her breath. I-I’m such a terrible person. I never should’ve opened that door. I should have just ignored them, let them leave, buried myself under my sheets to protect them from me…Kait, Taylor…they’re right. I deserve to be here, trapped in my own mind where I can’t hurt anyone else.
Hailey fell to the ground, her eyes drifting. Despite seeing no point to continuing, she felt compelled to raise the remote.
Linne burst into tears but kept silent, trying not to quiver.
“And Taylor, stop prodding into my life. Just let me grieve in peace. I heard you and Kait out there. You’re so keen to brute force your way through situations. Why don’t you just stop?!”
Taylor growled. “Maybe because you’re my sister, and I want you to be hap–”
“Blah, blah, blah. If you tried to think for once, maybe you’d realize you don’t need some magic hairpin to unlock my door! But that’s beside the point. You just want to feel like you’ve ‘helped’ me, and right now, you’re sure as a grass blade not helping. You’re trying to throw me in the deep end and walk away while I drown!”
Kait ran out of her room in a panic, but she paused, observing the situation thoroughly from afar.
What was that all about?
Taylor’s eyes almost teared up as his face filled with several indiscernible emotions. “Why do you resist our help so much? Your friends only came here because they wanted to see you…and this is how you treat them?”
He was, without a doubt, in the right.
The Fake Hailey simmered down as Taylor mellowed out. “Because I didn’t ask for any of your help.”
“SO?! Why are you acting like this! Why did you open the door if you just wanted to make us feel bad?”
“BECAUSE–” The Fake Hailey suddenly stopped, calming as a tear dripped from her face.
Hailey raised the remote. She’d seen enough.
But Kait began to rush forward. Why did she look so scared?
“Why can’t you just say it, Hailey?”
Kait stopped, seemingly confused by the sudden de-escalation of their argument.
Fake Hailey’s face relaxed just a bit. “Say what?”
A tear had met its natural end on Taylor’s face and fell onto his shirt. He took one heaving, sorrowful breath, then exhaled silently. “That you’re still hurt.”
Fake Hailey looked to her brother with a defeated expression, then looked down as she began to close her door. “I’m sorry…”
At least she made sure to say it. But in the corner of Hailey’s eye, she saw Kait.
She looked floored. Something about what Taylor had said seemed to impact her so much that she couldn’t move. Then, for a split second, if even that…
A blue aura shot from below Kait’s shirt and into Hailey.
Hailey watched, stunned, as the scene slowly faded to black.
“What, what?!” Hailey yelled, quickly pausing. She rewound the scene to when she’d seen the anomaly. Sure enough, some blue energy had erupted from below Kait’s shirt.
While Taylor and Kait’s actors didn’t flinch at the sight, the others couldn’t help but take a step back, confusion written on their faces as they broke character.
Hailey rushed to Kait and pulled a necklace out of her shirt. As if she had pulled out a flashlight, her eyes were immediately blinded by blue light. As her eyes adjusted, she saw what was in the necklace. It was difficult to describe—something both there and not there, as if she were cross-eyed. But what was inside of it was unmistakable.
Souls. It was difficult to tell how many, but Hailey was sure that the blue aura was emitted from the mass of souls inside her necklace.
Kait had seemingly unraveled souls into magical power to curse her.
Fake Kait’s eyes suddenly widened, and she scrambled to stuff the necklace back under her shirt, snatching it out of Hailey’s hand. At the same time, its illumination dimmed to the point that it was no longer visible under her shirt.
Hailey shuddered, taking a step back before finding herself bumping into someone.
“Ja hope haia werain’t vidus sounwhoun kiso.”
She yelped, “Eep!” and turned to see the real Kait jokingly smiling at her from behind. “K-Kait? You’re back?”
She nodded in seeming understanding. “Ja guess thu.” Then she put a hand over her wristband and closed her eyes. After a moment where Hailey was too shocked to say anything, Kait opened her eyes again. “Yeah, I’m back. I was just making a joke about how it looked like you were looking at my…uh…” She frowned. “W-well we used to joke about those sorts of things. A lot of the witches in the order were bi…Sorry, I’m ranting. What were you doing?”
Hailey glanced behind herself nervously, then to Kait’s shirt, her eyes wide. “Kait…are souls, like, something that witches work with?”
Kait’s eyes narrowed. “Yeah. Otherwise you wouldn’t be here—and sorry about that, by the way—but why did you ask?”
“No…reason,” Hailey badly lied. “Also, how did you send me here? It’s gotta be some strong magic.”
Kait’s eyes furrowed more deeply. “Well, it’s related to what we spoke about earlier. I made a serious mistake, not addressing your affinity as soon as I found out, but–”
“So, what? You just put me into a mysterious, endless sleep without even touching me, without even trying?”
Kait looked around herself, her eyes glimmering with recognition. “Kind of, yes…” she said.
Hailey studied Kait with restrained worry, or fear. She’s not a bad liar, but…I know she’s lying. What is that necklace she’s wearing? She’s worn it since the day we met, but she’s never taken it from below her shirt. Her suspicions confirmed, Hailey sidestepped Kait and walked toward the stairs. “Wow, witchcraft is super strong, I–”
A hand stopped Hailey in place, grabbing the collar of her shirt. Kait spoke, still looking at the fake in front of her, with a serious, even dangerous tone. “Hailey. You haven’t berated me even once this conversation. That’s not like you.”
Hailey chuckled nervously. “I just…l-learned that I was being too mean to you, that’s–”
“I need you to answer this honestly, Hailey. What did you…what exactly did you see just now?”
Hailey’s breath caught in her throat, leaving her unable to respond for a moment. Then, she stood straight, composing herself. “I saw your necklace. I saw…souls. What are you doing with those? W-where did you even get them from?”
Kait clicked her tongue, sadly shaking her head. She remained silent for a moment before sighing. “I’m sorry, Hailey. I have to erase your memory.”
“What?!” Hailey yelled, lunging away from Kait. She tripped to the floor in her attempt to escape her grasp, and scrambled away, terror passing over her face as Kait unclipped a broom from her back. “What the actual muck?! Y-you can’t be serious, Kait!”
Kait turned her head, a stone-cold mask over her expression. “I–” Her eyes widened, then she suddenly leaped to the side, crashing into the drywall as a bolt of flame seared through the wall between the hall and Kait’s room. Kait’s imposter then held out her hand and fabricated a number of metal spikes in midair, which blasted toward her. In a panic, Kait yelled, “Teretes!” Before they could tear through Kait like butter, her necklace flashed from beneath her shirt, then her body turned into mist for only a moment, reforming a second later.
“Shit!” she yelled, charging into Taylor’s fake, whose hand was outstretched from creating the fireball. She thrust a punch into his gut as a flame began to spark between his hands, and the force of her trained strike caused him to stumble to the wall in pain, disrupting the spirit’s magic. Kait then skidded to a stop beside him as he tried to run out of her grasp, and yanked his arm, nearly tearing it from its socket with her adrenaline and strength as she pulled him in front of herself, putting him between her and the spike-wielding spirit.
She breathed quickly, terror clear on her face as she restrained Fake Taylor and locked eyes with her imposter. “Fucking spirits! What is the meaning of this?! I-I can’t believe you would dare attack me. Not only am I a succession candidate, but if you kill me–”
“I don’t care,” Fake Kait said, sweeping out her arm. Hailey, who had been stunned with shock, yelped as deadly sharp spikes grew out of the stairs of her home, covering its surface entirely. “And I definitely don’t care about whether I hurt that spirit you’re holding.”
“W-what is the point of this?” Kait asked. “I don’t understand. You’re risking so much for this. Elemencia might even kill you two for trying to kill me…” Her eyes widened even further as she glanced at Hailey. “So that’s your plan. You set all of this up so that Hailey would see what was in my witch’s catalyst. If it’s revealed that I let someone learn about its secret, then I might be disqualified from the succession…so you’re forcing me to leave or die! Are you kidding me?!”
“Nope!” Her fake said cheerfully. “And all we did was sneak a few souls into this little simulation to make it a little more realistic. Nothing treasonous. So we can do this the easy way, or the hard way. Leave, and you’ll be spared. Otherwise…”
“I don’t even want to be part of the succession. Just leave me out of this!”
“That’s a lie and I know it. You’re the last witch alive. Kaetha wouldn’t choose anyone else as her representative.”
“But I–”
A fire lit up above Kait’s head and fell toward her.
She glanced between the stairs, the wall, and the other spirit, who had raised her hands and materialized another set of spikes.
With no option remaining, Kait shoved Fake Taylor away to avoid the attack, then lunged toward the stairs. As Kait leaped over the deadly spikes, she slid her broom, still in her left hand, between her legs and floated diagonally, avoiding the spikes.
As she did, the flame burned into its caster, then a number of spikes impaled him. Instead of blood, yellow dust puffed out of his body, and he fell limp, his physical faculties incapable.
Kait swerved to a stop beside the door as the floor turned to spikes below her, but she paid them no mind, flying above them. Her fake leaped over a frozen Hailey with a scowl of annoyance and shot another barrage of spikes, but as she did, Kait reached her hand out to the living room’s window and reflected her foe’s expression. As the spikes hit her, their momentum completely reversed, and they shot back toward their creator.
“You can do th–” they began in confusion before being cut off by a number of spikes impaling their body, sending them sprawling to the ground.
Kait breathed a sigh of relief, then a voice caused her to look up with fear. “By the way, Kait…” Linne stood unconcernedly in the kitchen, along with Abigail, who looked more resigned than anything else. Linne was eating a cup of pudding and swallowed before continuing, “that’s not going to put them down for long.”
Kait wasted no time flying up the stairs as she yelled, “Then why aren’t you two helping me, if you’re not against me?”
Linne shrugged as she yelled back. “Look, my specialty is food. I wouldn’t be very helpful. I don’t want you to die anymore than g-ma, but neither me nor Insecaba over here are paid enough for this. Also–”
Kait grabbed Hailey’s hand. Hailey, who was more terrified of the murderous spirits than of Kait, didn’t resist. “Vergo!” Kait yelled, causing her necklace to flash again.
Suddenly, the two of them appeared above a white void, with nothing more than a few blocks of a street visible, nearly a mile below them. Hailey yelped as she fell over, and was left hanging in midair, only supported by Kait’s arm as she hovered.
“I-I’ve had enough!” Hailey yelled. She imagined herself and Kait hovering in midair, instead of painfully pulling at her arm. It didn’t work. “W-what?” Hailey tried to click pause on her remote. It didn’t work.
“Enough of what?” Kait said with confusion as she reeled her in, then looped her arms under Hailey’s, scooching back to give the other girl room to sit on her broom.
“W-wha- I can’t…”
“Can’t manipulate the world?” Kait said. “I wasn’t sure what I was getting myself into, so I cast a spell to block reality-warping before I did anything else…a spell Kaetha taught me so that spirits couldn’t just will me dead if I was in the wrong places.”
“G-got it. But you’re not seriously going to–” Hailey turned her head, and she froze as Kait put a dream catcher on her forehead at the same time.
“I can’t let you know about the witch’s catalyst. I’m sure it’d bite me in the back later if I did.”
“But I…” Hailey blinked with confusion as Kait’s eyes flickered sleepily.
“Nooow,” she yawned out. “Goodnight. This was all just a weird drea—OH FUCK!”
The two suddenly lurched as Kait flew away, narrowly evading a blast of fire with Hailey being jerked around.
The other two spirits flew up, meeting the two of them in the air. Unlike Kait, they seemed capable of flight without any particular magic.
Kait glanced between them, then shoved Hailey off her broom, who cursed at her as she fell to her seeming doom. “Oh, you’ll be fine!” Kait yelled back before gritting her teeth, glancing between the two spirits. “You all regenerate fast.”
“And we’ve got more than enough magic to keep doing it,” Taylor responded.
“That’s really damn annoying.”
“I know, so why don’t ya just give up?” he asked. “If you care so little about the succession, that is. You’re risking a lot by staying and fighting us.”
Kait opened her mouth, but no air came out.
“What a terrible liar,” Fake Kait said. “Can’t even make her lies make sense.”
“I just…don’t want to cause Kaethy any trouble.”
“She’ll die, and so will all of her freakin’ children and all of their magics. You do realize just how much you’re putting at stake by giving us any chance to kill you, right?”
Again, Kait’s breath caught in her mouth.
“And we know it ain’t like you’ve secretly made any other witches to stop that from happening, since Kaetha’s ritualization rights have been halted until The Succession is complete.”
“I–” She shook her head. “I have no plan to think about any of this. I know in my heart what I want to do, no matter the danger…besides.” She scoffed. “You two are far too pathetic to pose a challenge to me.”
“In the air?!” Fake Kait said with a laugh. “Witches need materials to use their magic. As if you–”
Kait smirked before suddenly swerving to the side. A fireball had shot at her from behind. Both spirits’ eyes widened in surprise as she blasted toward them immediately after avoiding the sneak attack.
“Pyra! Why would you attack her like–” Fake Kait said before flying away as quickly as she could, second to flee from Kait’s offensive.
Kait easily flew past a barrage of spikes, then flew out of the way of a few stationary balls of fire that manifested in her way. She grabbed the edges of her skirt, balancing perfectly on her broom as she drifted past her fake’s next barrage, then flapped it with a smile. She cast a spell that increased her speed, managing to close the distance between her and the spirit. Kait reached out as she did, and touched her shoe’s tread as she gritted her teeth.
“Ah! What did you do!” her fake yelled as the wind suddenly began assaulting her skin far more than it had before, causing her to slow down.
“I just increased your friction!” Kait yelled, quickly overtaking her double. As if she’d practiced it, Kait grabbed a loose thread on her shirt and tugged on it before seemingly stabbing down with the cloth, killing intent forming in her eyes.
Kait then drifted away as her fake continued flying into a number of needles, which appeared in their path, impaling her.
Kait found an enormous fireball forming above Fake Taylor, ‘Pyra,’ who swept his hand out. “I am not that easy to defeat!”
As the fireball shot toward her faster than she could evade, Kait’s hands moved about herself, looking for some way out. Just before it landed, she put a hand on her pendant and whispered, “Sorry about this, all of you…Taiga!”
As the fireball enveloped her, she held out her hands. Her necklace flashed yellow, and at the same time, Kait was suddenly pushed back, bracing against the fireball as though it were a physical object. She then shoved it away with some difficulty, sending it slowly moving to her left.
“W-what?! My fireball! How did you…”
Kait wasted no time explaining, flying toward the stunned spirit.
“There’s no point to that, by the way,” a voice cut in.
Kait moved to a stop, glancing toward Linne, who flew to her level along with Abigail. “Did you bring in a superior to handle this problem yet or something?” While she spoke, Fake Taylor was incinerated in an explosion of fire.
“Nah, but as I was trying to explain to you, we’ve already figured out what’s going on here.” As he heard that, Fake Taylor grimaced, looking like a deer caught in headlights. “These two have no…scuse’ me, not much intention of killing you.” Fake Linne took another bite of her pudding, then chuckled. “They’re just trying to scare you into leaving. They don’t actually have the stomach to kill you. Since I’m sure that they have at least a few friends that’d die if they did that. Like me. I’m sure they’d all be very sad if I died. Right, you two?”
Kait glanced between Taylor’s fake and her fake, who was busy cursing under her breath as she ripped sewing needles out of her body. Both of them looked like they’d much rather never see the spirit acting as Linne again than not. “Riiight. So you’re saying that I just shouldn’t take them seriously?”
“Couldn’t have said it better. Politics isn’t worth killing friends over. Now let’s go back to the ground and erase Hailey girl’s memories. And the two of you; why don’t you unblock this room and leave this project. You’re really hurting our feelings, betraying us like this.”
Kait shrugged, then flew down along with the other two spirits, leaving the others up in the air, growling with anger, yet not following her.
They landed back on the ground not long later, where Hailey boredly laid in the street, unharmed from the nearly mile-long fall.
“So you’re going to erase my memory?” she asked Kait as she stepped off her broom.
“Just of what happened here,” she said, kneeling to hastily set the dream catcher back on her forehead.
“Oh, well you did not specify that.”
“You really thought I’d…” Kait drifted off, her eyes flickering again as she tried to feel sleepy. “Anyway…this was all just a weird dream…” She closed her eyes, and Hailey’s eyes began to flicker closed.
“I’m still pissed that you…” Hailey’s eyes closed, and she peacefully slept.
Kait sighed. “Now all I have to do is wait for those jerks to leave, or do it myself…”
“Oh, they’re already gone,” Linne said. “Just don’t let this happen again, capiche?”
Kait looked back at her with shocked indignation as the world grew dark.