As every clock in the dream castle struck the midnight hour, the sun orb illuminating the cloud wall switched off and Mena and Janus began their nightly prowl. They tiptoed sideways down the wall, stealthily; though Men wished Janus hadn’t worn that rustling skirt. As they reached the bottom of the wall, they approached the edge of the tunnel leading to the Cloud Hall. Mena peered inside it—there were no guards or anyone else wandering about. “The coast is clear,” she whispered to Janus and the pixie reaper gave her a bone’s up. The two strolled down the hallway, and only the moonlight in the cloud hall guided them through it.

“Wonder where the Lollypop security taskforce are tonight?” Mena asked Janus. “You’d think they’d step things up after the Nightmare Calamity.”

A strange whirling sound filled the air. “W-what is that?” Mena asked.

“Quick,” Janus said, “get off to the side.”

A pale light entered the tunnel, emitting itself from a small orb. Mena pushed her thin, bony frame alongside the icy brick wall

The light drew closer and closer until it revealed itself to be a spherical metal eyeball with a white light beam shining through the pupil.

Mena held her breath, feeling this magical device might be able to sense it. Unfortunately, her lung capacity was slightly bigger than two peanuts. She gasped, red faced. The light immediately turned in her direction. She ducked as the eye light hovered right above her head. The beam was about to descend on her, but a rustle drew the eye away.

Oh nosy, Mena thought, Janus’ skirt.

The light swung in the direction of Janus’ body, but the pixie reaper had removed her shirt and the light went through her skeletal rib cage. The eye hovered for a few seconds before resuming its patrol and flying over to the start of the tunnel.

Once it was gone, Mena approached Janus, who looked oddly perturbed.

“Janus are you ok?” she asked

Janus, whose full skeletal torso was on display covered herself. “I feel so exposed,” she exclaimed, but she smiled. “At least now I know the meaning of ‘strip down to your bones’”.

Mena patted Janus softly on the back. “But at least that fooled the eye-robot,” the young witch said. “What do you think that was?”

“That must be their new Lollypop security system,” Janus responded. “It’s a lot more efficient since it doesn’t need to take donut breaks.”

“True that,” Mena said, “Guess we gotta be extra careful.”

Much to Mena and Janus’ good fortune, they encountered no more eye-robots on their way to the auditorium. Mena had never been to the auditorium at night and when she opened the metal doors, she was in for a surprise. The painted backdrop that depicted a sunset over a cliffside ocean was now replaced with a glowing silver moon. “Wowie zowie,” Mena exclaimed. “This castle really is magic.”

“How many years have you been at this school?” Janus smirked as they made their way past the endless rows of seats. They climbed the stairs leading up to the backdrop.

Standing at the edge of the stage, they looked around. Everything was dark with the sole exception of the artificial moonlight.

“So, what do we look for?” Mena asked Janus, eyeing her friend suspiciously.

“Phantoms normally aren’t visible to the naked eye,” Janus replied, she smiled and pulled out a piece of pale piece of chalk. “We have to DRAW them out.”

“Wait,” Mena gasped. “What are you doing?” Janus began tracing a glowing pentagram on the concrete stage; it resembled the kind pentagram earrings she’d often wear.

“Oh no…” Mena moaned, backing away from the pentagram. “I hope we don’t get trouble for this.”

“Relax,” Janus said, smiling wistfully at her handiwork. “We’ll simply erase it before anyone shows up.”

“What kind of ritual are you going to do?” Mena asked, covering her hands with her face.

“One my mother taught me,” Janus said softly. “She was a bokur from the Mind Jungles. She knew how to summon the unruly spirits of the dead.”

Janus clapped her bony hands together, causing them to rattle like a bunch of hollow drums. Her eyes turned jet black and she chanted the following words:

“Life is death, death is life

Draw the wrathful spirits into sight

Death is life and life is death

Awake the black spirits from their rest”

The pentagram shined ominously in the darkness, and a harsh wind spun around the room, shuffling the curtains on either side. Mena held onto her nightgown to prevent it from flipping upwards and exposing herself.

Janus’ eyes returned to normal as the winds settled. Mena and Janus looked around the room. Everything was silent and still. A few minutes elapsed before Janus stomped her feet, causing her skirt to bristle.

“Phony bones,” Janus swore. “If the phantom was in here, it definitely would have awoken by now.”

“Perhaps we need some bait,” Mena asked.

“Hmm,” Janus said, rubbing her pointed chin. “We could have some bait.”

“What do phantom’s eat?” Mena asked, curiosity in her eyes.

“Souls,” Janus exclaimed. “I don’t have one but fortunately you do.”

Mena shook her head. “I don’t know about that, Janus. People tell me when I dance and sing, I don’t have any soul.”

A soft moan interrupted their banter and reverberated through the theater. “OoOoOoOohhhhh…”

“What was that?” Mena asked, shivering. She wanted to run and hide behind the curtains but a chill in the air kept her frozen in place.

Janus excitedly looked around the theater. “Either May has a terrible case of the runs and she’s looking for some antacid or…”—the pixie reaper gave a wink—“We’ve found our phantom.”

Janus’ icy hand reached out and pulled Mena out of her stasis and they ran off the stage, taking refuge behind the curtain. The phantom of the auditorium moaned softly again. “oOoOoOoOohhhhh…”

And then, the phantom materialized. It had short, black hair, a moon pale face and glowing green eyes. It let out another moan and Mena realized: It was Caligari.

”Oh…” the phantasmic woman bemoaned. “Why did that Willow have to make that rash decision after I had gotten sooooooo close to Gemini—the phantom removed a strand of curly brown hair from her pocket—“All I have to remember him by is this lock of his hair.”

Caligari pushed it up against her nose and sniffed it.

Mena winced. At least being trapped in the Nightmare Void meant Gemini didn’t need to get a restraining order.

Caligari cursed and growled. “At least Willow’s getting what’s coming to her.”

The hair on Mena’s neck stood on end when she heard that. What did her professor mean by that? Almost like…no…Mena didn’t have time to meditate on it because Caligari was floating towards the stage.

“We got nowhere to go,” Mena whispered to Janus as they hid behind the stage curtain.

Janus winked and held out the fabric. “You could say it’s curtains for us.”

Mena was dead silent, and she glared at Janus. “You’re as dead as your sense of humor.”

But before Janus could respond, they head a scream. Both of them looked to the stage and they gasped.

Caligari had become encircled by a white forcefield from the pentagram. She struggled and moaned, giving off loud hisses and protests.

“Well well well,” Janus whispered. “Looks like we did catch a phantom.”

“Now’s our chance,” Mena said, and they made a break for it

Caligari carried on as the two scrambled off the stage. Mena hoped that their professor was in such a state of mania that she wouldn’t recognize them

Running up the aisles, they burst out the auditorium, panting. Well, Mena was panting, Janus had no lungs. “That was a close one,” the pixie reaper said, but Mena didn’t answer. She wore a troubled expression on her face.

After hearing what Caligari had said about what was coming to her, she had to add her phantom professor to the list of suspects trying to murder her. Tonight, she had gone to the auditorium seeking answers, but the plot had only thickened before her eyes.