“And is today that day?” The monster Principal asked.

“Yeah, it is. Do you still not remember?” Lauren inquired.

Horace walked over to the Principal and signed to get the Head Mistress’s attention. She caught on and realized what he was trying to say.

“Ah, right.” She said finally, “I remember now, but it seems you made some errors in your story.”

“What?” Lauren asked.

“Allow us to explain, from our point of view, if that’s ok with you.”

“Go ahead.”

.-.-.-.

“It happened during the time you had been waiting outside. I chatted with the grownups while Troy had been waiting impatiently on the sidelines. Just then, I heard some strange sounds.

‘Does anyone else hear that?’ I had asked the others.

‘That must be my dad,’ Troy commented excitedly. ‘he must have escaped and is coming to get revenge!’

‘That man is your father!?’ I asked, shocked at his revelation.

‘Yep, and I came here to—’

‘Everyone hide!’ I shouted, not allowing Troy the time to finish.

“Before we had time to do anything, though, a Cosmic Electron Grenade appeared and exploded, spewing out electricity and allowing fires to spring to life and spread.

“I know Troy and Horace hid behind my desk to avoid the impact, but I, someone stuck inside the jar, had no way of avoiding it. The pot broke, and I was on the verge of death.

I faintly heard Troy saying something like: ‘He must not know that I came to save him.’

“I saw a glimpse of Horace as he picked me up, and a ray of purple light from the corner of my eye. I turned in Horace’s arms over and saw Troy’s father, Trevor, with dark energy surrounding his hands and body.

‘You again?’ I asked weakly.

Trevor grinned as he walked closer. ‘At least you now know how I feel, being all helpless.’

‘Aw yeah, now I can see the action!’ Troy exclaimed quietly to himself.

‘Troy?’ Trevor looked over and noticed that boy coming out from behind my desk. But when Horace turned to him, he became hostile once again. ‘Hey, stay away from my son if you know what’s good for—’

“None of us had expected it to happen, not even I saw it coming. A green ray of light shot through the air and hit the man in the chest as he collapsed to the ground. Standing in the doorway, Glenda stood beside the entrance as smoke rose from her fingers.

She looked down at her hands and gasped. ‘What... what have I done?’

‘Dad? Dad!’ Troy cried. He rushed over to his father, who writhed in pain.

The father looked into his son’s eyes, his voice weak. ‘Son, I’m sorry... but you need to get…’ He wasn’t able to finish his sentence before he had drawn his last breath.

Troy glared at Glenda; there was a dark fire in his teary eyes. ‘You... monster! You’ll pay for this!’ He dashed out of the room in record time.

‘What happened?’ I asked in confusion.

‘We’ll explain to you later. We need to get out of here!’ Glenda exclaimed.

“She, Horace, and I were the only ones that made it out of the school. We couldn't save anyone else in time, as everyone else had laid restless on the floors of my office, and the school burned to ashes. It took another couple of months to fix everything, but there was nothing we could do to fill the holes in our hearts or bring the others back...”

.-.-.-.

“So, there’s our story.” The Principal finished.

“That’s it?” Lauren asked. “Even if you didn’t kill them as you claim, you still left them to die! You didn’t even try to get them out of the burning building!”

“We had no choice; we didn’t mean to—”

“Lies, all lies! How can I believe someone like you?”

“Don’t you realize who the real enemy is? Troy is deceiving you!”

“How do I know you’re not lying to me?” Lauren pointed out. “And besides, I still have the goal of saving my parents in mind, and there’s no way I’m backing down! Not after all these years...”

“You can’t. Dark magic is dangerous. If you try to bring someone back to life via magic...”

“Try me.”

“I see.” The Headmistress spoke in a chilling voice, “Then you leave me no choice. I am sorry for what you had to go through, but I will not allow your plans to succeed!”

She called for Horace to take her head out of the jar. He then placed her head on top of his body. Her hair went from wavy, blonde to straight, and purple. Her eyes turned red and took complete control of Horace’s body.

“Now that’s messed up,” Lauren said, as she scrunched up her nose in disgust.

“Are you ready, Lauren?” The Principal asked.

“Yeah, I am,” Lauren confirmed, determined.