As Mena plummeted towards an untimely death, a cold presence loomed over her. It chilled her as thirteen short years flashed before her eyes. She flew headfirst, waiting for her somewhat big head to smash against the concrete floor. Closing her eyes, she screamed, but as she did, something wrapped around her body.

She opened her eyes and found herself wrapped in Tal’s shadow-black arms. They were icy, but not as cold as the feeling of sudden death. “I got you, Miss Shiny Teeth,” he said, a confident smile on his face. Mena’s head was reeling but she immediately flashed back to the manly Tal that had protected her at home coming. “My hero!” she exclaimed dramatically, swooning as if she were Julianna herself. “Doth hath rescue me!”

She stretched her arms out, motioning them to her head, but Tal only looked more concerned. “Uh Mena,” he said, “I think you might need medical attention.”

The adrenaline in Mena’s body finally gave out. “Thou art correct,” she said, fading into darkness. “I bid thee goodnight.”

Mena awoke in the infirmary bed. The miniture Lollypop doctor stood over her with a wry smile on his face. “Welcome back to your favorite bed, Mena. It missed you from two days ago.”

“Yeah,” Mena grimaced. “I seem to end up here a lot. Let’s not make this a reoccurring thing.”

“Mena,” May and Janus cried running towards her. “Are you alright?” May asked, breaking into a cold seat.

“Yep,” Mena said, looking at her friends. “Because of Tal, at least.”

Janus giggled. “Fortunately, I checked my father’s schedule, and you are not due for any reaping appointments…yet.”

Mena sighed and pulled the cover over her rosy face. “I should doubly thank Tal then…”

Stellaris approached the bed, her sun orb accessories brightening the otherwise dim room. “Mena, dear. Thank the stars you are safe and sound. If it wasn’t for that gloomy, loner boy, I feel you wouldn’t be.”

Before Mena could thank Tal a third time, Stellaris said, “Mena, I know you’re a bit woozy, but can tell me exactly what happened up there?”

Mena pulled her hand out from the covers and put it on her chin. “Umm,” she said, her mind still quite foggy. “I felt a hand on my back and before I knew it, I went over the edge.”

Stellaris was silent, but her eyes of lapis lazuli glowed in the dark. “A hand…” she said. “I see.”

Mena squirmed in her bed. “Do you know who could have done it?”

Stellaris shook her head. “I’ll have to question some other students to see who was where at what time, but I didn’t see anyone up on the ledge…”

Stellaris placed a consoling hand on Mena’s shoulder. “But don’t worry, honey, we’ll get to the bottom of this.”

Stellaris exited the room with her jewelry clinking. The tiny doctor trailed after her.

Mena did not feel any better, even with Stellaris’ promise to figure things out.

“No one up on the balcony,” she murmured.

As May and Janus looked equally confused, Mena had a sinking feeling in her gut. What if…Arabella was behind it…

Only Anguish would want to harm Mena in such a gruesome way…

Perhaps when she chanted the spell in the playbook, she had cursed herself and the play.

“What’s wrong?” Janus asked. “Mena, you’re looking a bit pale and when you’re not a ghoul or a ghost, that’s not a good thing.”

The words were on the tip of her tongue. Mena wanted to admit to her friends that she hadn’t told Stellaris about her performance enhancing spell. “I…” Mena started but she was interrupted.

Tal burst into the room carrying a bouquet of black roses and a long sheet of parchment. “Mena,” he cried, breaking into a run. “Are you in critical condition?”

“She fainted,” May muttered.

“I’m fine,” Mena said, her eyes shining as Tal reflected in them.

Tal knelt and lay the roses at the foot of the bed. “I conjured these up for you, my queen of the night.”

“Wowie zowie!” Mena exclaimed. “Really?”

“Yes. They were meant to be red,” he remarked. “But they came out black. I think they look better this way.”

Tal stood up and held out his piece of parchment. He seized a singular black rose and held it with a brooding pout, adding, “I’ve prepared a poem for you.”

Tal closed his regular eye as he swept the dark locks from his face.

“My black rose,” he read,

Worthy of prose,

When you strike an elegant pose,

My black rose…”

“This is so on the nose,” Janus smirked.

“It’s going to make me doze,” May muttered and Tal glared at them. He was about to throw a fit, but Mena tried to defuse the situation.

“No Tal, it’s alright,” she said, raising her hands. “They’re jealous they don’t get poems and flowers.”

“Not really,” Janus snickered, but Mena hushed her.

“Yes…” Tal said, his one brown eye downcast. “I don’t know what I would do without you…my star-crossed lover.”

Mena clutched his hand and rubbed it.

Tears trickled down Tal’s eye. “Pardon me, Mena,” he said, pulling it away. “When I get like this, I want to sit alone and listen to Carton of Dirt.”

Tal turned around dramatically and ran out.

“Gee,” Janus said. “And I thought I was the gloomiest person around here.”

Mena sighed. “You guys don’t understand his feelings. He’s so in touch with them.”

The dinner bell chimed throughout the castle, interrupting the comradery; immediately, Mena’s stomach rumbled. Mena looked at her friends and rubbed her tummy.

“I bet all that near death delirium made you hungry,” Janus said, and May eagerly nodded.

“Want us to get you back some food?” May asked

“Heck yeah,” Mena said, and May hustled out at surprising speeds.

“Looks like she’s almost as hungry as you are,” Janus giggled, and suddenly Mena’s expression changed.

“Janus?” Mena asked.

The young witch was meditating on telling her reaper friend about the play and how it was potentially cursed. Unlike May, Janus wasn’t quite the blabbermouth or one to judge.

Mena looked around making sure the mini doctor wasn’t there. “Do you think that me chanting those words cursed the play?”

“In your mother’s playbook?” Janus said, her eyes expanding in their skeletal sockets.

“Yes…” Mena said and quickly muttered, “Please don’t tell May that I told you this.”

The chaotic yet composed pixie reaper seemed shocked at first, but then she smiled and nearly exploded in her exuberant and flighty voice, “Ooh Mena, you know what this means? This is a real gothic fairy tale: The Phantom of the Performance Arts Center.”

“The what?” Mena asked, her face twitching.

“Perhaps Anguish’s playbook has conjured up a phantom that is playing tricks on us and attempting to murder you.”

“Janus, you’re a genius. That’s so great,” Mena smiled…and then her face dropped. “Oh, wait…killing me… that’s not good!”

Janus leaned in close. “It’s great because we know what it is, Mena. And now we can tell Stellaris…”

“Oh wait, please no…” Mena said, squirming around anxiously. “Then I’ll be barred from the play…Is there anything else we can do?”

Janus rubbed her gaunt chin. “Hmm…perhaps we could try to dispel it ourselves. There are a few rituals we could perform in the auditorium if we had the right goodies.”

“Let’s do that,” Mena nodded frantically. “Anything to keep my position.”

Janus thought for a second, but then tilted her head and grinned. “Sure thing, Mena. I’ve always wanted an excuse to pull off a real voodoo ritual in the school; now I’ve got a legit reason to.”

Mena put her hand behind her head and giggled. “Thank you, Janus,” she laughed. “You’re the best.”

But right when Mena was about to relax, she heard voices coming from the far end of the room—right outside the door. She recognized both voices instantly—the kind motherly Stellaris and the theatric, boisterous voice of Electra. “Where are you going, Stella?” Electra said to Stellaris.

“Ah,” the sun-centered headmaster responded. “I’m going to check on Mena again.”

“I don’t know if you heard,” Electra said, her loud voice echoing. “But one of my students has told me something right now.”

“Can it wait, Maxine?” Stellaris responded.

“I think you’d like to know this juicy bit—” Electra said, ever the gossip. “There was another student up on the balcony with that Phenomena girl.”

“Who?” Stellaris asked.

Mena gasped as she heard their name straight from Electra’s mouth. “Ashlan O’Ryan.”