Beating every traffic light and brushing past cars, Mrs. Crow drove as fast as she could, eyes focused on the road as she headed for Pizza Place.

  “This town is not under your spell, there are actual policemen that will chase us if you keep driving like this,” Joanna warned.

  “Come on faster, faster,” Anna muttered under her breath, as Pizza Place came into sight.

  Crow hastily parked by the building, everyone jumped down and ran into the building, ignoring the mascot at the entrance.

  “This is an emergency!” Mrs. Crow screamed, interrupting everyone’s meal.

  “We are looking for Ron!” she said to one of the waitresses.

  “Ron?” she asked, as she flirtatiously bit her lower lip. “He quit a few days ago.”

  “Maam, I’m going to have to ask you to leave,” a security guard said, his hand latching onto his metal baton.

  “We’re done here anyway,” Crow said, and hastily walked out of the building.

  They all entered the SUV.

  “Where are we going?” Annabelle asked, as she fastened her seatbelt.

  “Your house,” Crow said, zooming off, her leg hard pressed on the accelerator. She seemed to be more interested in finding her brother than Annabelle was.

  As they blew past traffic, Annabelle wished in her heart that she would see her family at home. They have to be there, Pepper has to be lying, she thought as Joanna held her hand, giving it a comforting squeeze.

  Not up to five minutes later, they arrived at the bottom of the hill which led straight to Anna’s house.

  Mrs. Crow, foot hard pressed on the accelerator, drove up the hill, not caring about anything else but finding her brother. She arrived in front of Anna’s house with an abrupt stop of the car.

  “Mom! Dad!” Annabelle screamed, running out of the vehicle, hoping her dad would open the door.

  “Mom! Dad!” she screamed as she kicked the door open, but no one was there. Just silence.

  She slowly walked into the house, an aura of vacancy overwhelming her as she blinked, tear drops trickling down her cheeks.

  “Mom? Dad? Josh?” she called out in a shaky low pitched voice as she sniffled and looked around. There were no signs of struggle or forced entry, but something didn’t feel right.

  “Mom?” she called out again, as she entered her parents’ room. The room was neat and well organized as usual. A coffee mug sat idly on a stool which was placed just a few meters from her parents bed.

  “Dad?” she called out again, nearly choking on her own voice as she caressed the white mattress with her hands.

  “They’re gone,” she muttered as she turned around to notice Joanna and the others standing at the entrance of the room.

  “I’ll be fine.”

  “I just want to be left alone,” Annabelle said, gently sitting on her parents’ bed.

  “You can’t be left alone, he will come for you,” Crow said softly as she placed Josh’s bag and cellphone on the bed.

  “Come for me…” Anna muttered.

  “Come for me?!” she bellowed, her heart thumping, nearly overwhelmed by rage.

  “What more could he want from me? He has taken my family, hurt me many times, nearly killed my friends, been under my nose this entire time. What more could he possibly do?!” Annabelle bellowed, and continued to weep.

  “And you,” she said, pointing an accusing finger at Crow.

  “You are supposed to be a powerful magician or something like that. Can you please explain to me why your brother is still alive?” Annabelle yelled, seeing Crow as nothing more than incompetent.

  “I’m not going back to that school until I find my family,” Annabelle said. She had already made up her mind.

  But what of our tests? Joanna thought, knowing it would have been a stupid question to ask at that moment.

  “Well, I’ll stay here with you,” Crow insisted.

  “What about school? What about us? There’s no guarantee that he won’t come for us,” Joanna said, hoping someone would back her up.

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  “So what? Are you saying Crow closes down the school for a few days while everyone comes here to live with me?” Annabelle said with sarcastic intent as she realized it was a bright idea.

  “Can you do that?” she asked, hoping Crow would say yes.

  “As a matter of fact,” Crow said, as her bones seemed to crack.

  She winced, cringing her teeth as her abdomen gave way, flesh and skin tearing apart as if something was trying to emerge. Annabelle and her friends watched in disgust as another woman gently crawled out of the gap in her abdomen, giving a sickening sucking sound.

  The woman, covered in blood and bodily fluids gagged as she stood to her feet wearing the same clothes as Crow. It was a clone.

  “Of course you can clone yourself,” Annabelle muttered as the gap in Crow’s abdomen closed up.

  “I’m on it,” the clone said, as it took a deep breath of relief, while the bodily fluid floated off its skin and clothes. It carefully studied the room with its eyes, looking at it as if it had been there before, after which it disappeared into thin air.

  Not more than thirty seconds after, the clone returned, a smile of accomplishment on its face.

  “Done,” it said, as it turned to Crow and reached forward as if it were trying to enter her body.

  “Eww, that’s disgusting, can’t you just make it vanish or something?” Annabelle said, a disgusted look on her face.

  Seeing Crow’s abdomen open up once was enough for her.

  “What did you do exactly?” she asked Crow as her abdomen opened up again, bones shifting and breaking, body making sucking sounds.

  “Well, I set the school on fire,” the Clone said, its hand already inside Crow’s abdomen.

  “You what?!” Annabelle and her friends screamed unanimously as the clone probed deeper into Crow.

  “Don’t worry, everyone is safe. I just set it on fire and burnt it beyond repair. You should see it in the news,” the clone said, climbing into Crow’s abdomen. Annabelle peered into her abdomen as if she were trying to figure out how the clone managed to stay there.

  “Oh, and I made your parents agree to each and every one of you staying here at Anna’s house till we figure out what’s wrong,” the clone said, poking out its head. Its entire body had already been submerged into Crow’s body.

  “Oh, just get in already,” Crow said, her abdomen still wide open as she pushed the clone’s head in after which her abdomen closed with a SNAP and a SUCK.

  “That…. was…. disgusting….” Joanna said, her mouth opened in bewilderment.

  “Well, that’s how we make clones,” Jacob said, a smile of pride on his face. Annabelle shook her head disapprovingly.

  “So what are we going to do now?” Annabelle asked Crow, feeling more at ease. The fluttering in her chest had died down and her heart had almost reassumed its normal rhythmic pattern.

  “We wait,” Crow said, and walked towards the door, her heart throbbing in her chest. She was scared, but she knew showing it there wouldn’t have amounted to anything.

  “He said where it all started, so we wait,” she repeated.

  “So he will come here and you’ll take him out right?” Joanna said, completely confident in Crow’s abilities.

  “Well, yes…” Crow said, even though her actual answer was no. She hadn’t figured out how to beat the wraith and she knew if her brother brought it along, she wouldn’t stand a chance.

  “So, any plans?” Jackson asked as he slowly stepped towards Crow.

  “Well, I have one but it’s going to involve at least seventy clones and a magical barrier to keep my brother in,” she said as she clenched her fists hoping her plan would work.

  “We kill my brother, we save your family.”

  Meanwhile, in a well-lit but old looking apartment, Anna’s family members were bound to one another, sitting in a circle, their features tight with fear.

  Pepper Crow didn’t bother to gag their mouths, knowing no one could hear them due to the absence of neighboring houses.

  “Where are we? What do you want with us?!” Mr. Peterson demanded, trying to sound fearless but his shaky voice said otherwise.

  “Oh, you’ll know soon Riles, you’ll know soon,” Pepper said, as he smiled at Riles as if he had known him for a long time.

  “Who are you? How do you know my name?!” Riles demanded, saliva flying out of his mouth.

  “Oh, relax,” Pepper said, and pulled out a napkin to wipe the beads of sweat off Riles’s face. He turned his head away, rejecting Pepper’s offer to help.

  “Don’t touch me you filth!” he screamed, snorted and spat right on Pepper’s face.

  “Well, you’re bold just like your daughter.”

  He slapped Riles hard on his face, the sound echoing through the room.

  “Please stop!” Mrs. Peterson pleaded, tears filling her eyes.

  “Please just stop,” she said, more softly as she tried to look at her husband but they were tied to one another’s backs, all seated on the wooden floor.

  “Awww, even your wife seems to be wiser than you,” Pepper said, his blond hair looking all spiky.

  He slowly walked towards Joshua.

  “Wait,” Joshua said, recognizing him.

  “You’re that pizza guy! Ron!” he exclaimed as Pepper stooped down and peered at him, his red eyes burning into Joshua’s.

  “Of course, I’m Ron the super nice guy,” Pepper said playfully as he let out a loud triumphant laugh.

  “James, come!” he called out, James stepping out of a corner of the empty room. He had been there the whole time.

  “It’s you,” Josh said, recognizing James as he approached them, his eyes burning red.

  “See to it that they don’t escape. Oh I forgot, they can’t!” Pepper joked and laughed again, this time louder than before.

  “I don’t understand, why is he here?” Josh asked, but was ignored.

  “I’ll be back, I have to fetch Annabelle Peterson,” he said, pulling out a mask from his dark coat.

  “What do you want with us?!” Riles bellowed again. He had this look which made it seem like he was going to fight if only he could break free.

  “I’ll be back,” Pepper said, and slapped the mask on his face.

  “Oh, I’ll be needing this.” He grabbed the summoning orb from the top of a black shelf which seemed to appear out of nowhere.

  “Taadaa,” he said and then vanished into thin air, leaving Annabelle’s family awestruck.