Chapter 16: Sunday Bloody Sunday

 'WHO DID THIS? HOW DID... AGH! WHAT THE HELL?'

Sunday morning. Early Sunday morning. Anybody who stayed at the school that weekend was rudely and violently awoken by the groundskeeper, Marshall and his loud voice that echoed around the entire school and seemed to make the windows shake. He was a man in his fifties maybe; salt and pepper haired with slightly crinkly skin that was constantly burned by being in the sun all the time. He lived in a small cottage on the school grounds so was always around. The kind of guy who wouldn't say boo to a goose. But right now at half past six on a Sunday morning, he was stood in front of the fountain on the front lawn of the school absolutely screaming his head off. And I mean screaming, he had gone the same colour as beetroot. Apparently there had been some issues with the fountain this past week, I don't know the water pump had stopped working or something so Marshall had replaced it and now it was working.

Oh boy, it was definitely working now.

People were gawking out of the windows, but most of us had actually gone outside to see what the commotion was all about. Katie, Victoria and myself as well as the rest of our dorm had all rushed outside. It was weird seeing everyone, at least forty plus students and teachers alike stood in their pyjamas and bathrobes looking at the bright red screaming groundskeeper, who was now kicking the fountain like it would do something.

There was red stuff coming out of the fountain. Not just any red stuff but I'm pretty sure it was blood. Not a single drop of real water in sight.

'Yeah it's blood. Sunday Bloody Sunday indeed.'

I heard that in my head. Wow I was gonna have to get used to this telepathy thing.

'Sunday what?'

'Sunday Bloody Sunday, the U2 song about that massacre that happened in the seventies in Ireland. Except we have a bleeding fountain.'

Okay so it was way to early for me to completely understand what she was talking about, so I just nodded like I did.

Auntie M had walked behind me where I was stood with my friends; she was wearing a long fluffy black bathrobe, UGG boots, a huge pair of oversized Dolce and Gabbana sunglasses and had a cigarette hanging out of her mouth. She looked pretty rough actually. I tried speaking in my head, I had to try and get used to this ability we witches had and I'd had little practise up to now.

'Auntie M won't you get in trouble for smoking in front of the students, like... setting a bad example?'

'Nah I've put a glamour over myself, they can't see me smoking right now.'

Auntie M didn't smoke often but it was reserved when she was stressed out or when she was drinking or, hungover.

'You're hungover aren't you?'

'Yep.' Auntie M drew out that yep and continued puffing on her smoke. 'So Maddie, welcome to your first properly weird supernatural encounter, I'm thinking possession. Maybe...' She trailed off as if she was looking for the words.

'Possession can cause this? For real?'

'Real.'

I watched Auntie M scrunch the nearly finished smoke up in her palm and as she opened her palm back up, the cigarette had disappeared. Somebody had called the headmaster Mr Banks who was now racing up the drive in his Range Rover and practically drifting on to the gravel in front of the main building. He flung himself out of his huge four-by-four and started screaming along with Marshall at the bloody fountain. It was a spectacle for sure.

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'What's the deal then? And Why am I not freaking out?' I thought, hopefully loud enough for Auntie M to hear. She was grinning at me.

'Believe me there's plenty of time to get freaked out. Possessions whether it be demonic or by a malevolent spirit usually start off with things like this. They feed off fear and panic.'

So now the bloody fountain made perfect sense. Well, not really. Auntie M continued talking to me telepathically.

'So it's either a demon or spirit that's strong enough to possess objects on its own, or it's possessed someone already and it's playing it's little tricks. Or, it could be something else entirely.'

'You mean you can't tell?'

'It's difficult with certain supernatural entities; demons especially because they have such erratic energy and can freely bounce from host to host when they please.'

I was not liking the sound of this at all. We continued watching Marshall and Mr Banks shouting and screaming. Nobody even moved when Mr Banks yelled at us all to go back inside. I saw something move out of the corner of my, I turned my head to look thinking it was maybe something weird but no; it was just Mr Evans moving to stand beside Liam who had wandered out with the other guys from his dorm. I glanced at Auntie M who was now looking at them both then I went back to looking at them. Then in a split second, Mr Evans and Liam looked at us both. It was weird, it was like they knew something we didn't. Although in saying that they were probably looking at us thinking the exact same thing for all I know.

'Well whatever it is, it's picked a fine time to come out and play.' Auntie M's voice sounded in my head. 'It's Samhain soon, the bastards come out a week early.'

'It's drawn to the school, isn't it Auntie M?'

'Clever girl. Yep. I wouldn't be surprised if there's something here that magic can't completely keep out. Seems like Mrs Clarkson managed to keep it at bay during her time here. Heck, it was probably something that managed to escape her protection magic and kill her as her health was deteriorating.'

Okay now I was really hating this. Mr Banks had eventually had enough of this charade that was happening and instructed absolutely everyone be in the dining hall at breakfast time at half past nine so he could address all of us on this issue. I reckon he thought this was some pre Halloween prank or something.

'I'm going back to bed.' Auntie M spoke out loud. 'See you girls at breakfast.'

Katie, Victoria and I watched as she shuffled her way back round to where the teachers dorm was. We decided to go back to our room. Katie went for a shower whilst Victoria took her washing basket down to the laundry. I ended up searching through the wooden box my Aunt had got me which I was now keeping some of my spell supplies in. and pulled my spell book out of my bedside drawer. I retrieved a small lavender scented tea light candle, rock salt and some dried sage and dried lavender. I mixed a few pinches the two herbs together in a small crystal dish then added a large pinch of the rock salt, carefully combining the mixture in the dish with my index finger. I then went hunting for Katie and Victoria's hairbrushes. I pulled a few clumps of hair from each and scrunched them together in my right hand and concentrated on sending some good energy in to the hair before I added it to the dish with the salt and herbs, mixing again so the concoction mingled with the strands of hair. I felt compelled to do a protection spell now knowing there was definitely something nasty at the school. And according to Auntie M, it would be difficult to get rid of if we couldn't find out more information about it such as what it was exactly, or even who it was.

'Katie and Victoria, I bless you with protection and safety from things that would harm you.'

Okay so that wasn't the exact chant but I was making that up as I went along, except the recipe. I did exactly what the recipe stated. I repeated the chant a few more times then held the clump of herb in fused hair to the candle. It went up in smoke in a split second and thankfully, there wasn't any weird burnt hair smell.

'Blessed be.'

I quickly cleared away my things and set the tea light in a safe place for it to gather energy whilst lit, then burn out to signal the completion of the spell. I figured now would be a good time to get my head down again for an hour or so. Today was not going to be fun.

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