“No. I cannot have them beyond my protection shield. Not even for a second.”
Since Molly wasn’t getting anywhere with the first topic, she brought up Allison. “I also wanted to speak with you about Allison.”
Bea’s left eyebrow went up. “Allison? What about her? Is her behavior too much to handle? She may just need to get used to you.”
“No, no,” Molly said. “She’s been fine, but the girls have told me some concerns they have about her medication and dosages.”
“Really? What are their concerns?”
“They think she’s taking too much medicine and that’s the reason she’s out of it all the time. They say that just when it seems like she’s about to come out of her stupor, Dr. Meyer gives her another dosage and then we’re right back to square one. Have you ever thought about talking to him about lessening her dosages?”
“No, Dr. Meyer is very good at what he does. I wouldn’t have brought him here if he wasn’t. I trust his judgement.”
“But, how can we know if she’s getting better or worse if she’s always doped up? How will we ever know if she’s getting better if she’s dependent on those meds? How long has she been this way?”
“Allison has been this way since she’s been here. She’s incurable. No doctor has been able to make her better. I can’t expect Dr. Meyer to do the impossible. He keeps her from harming herself as well as those of us who live with her, and that’s all I can ask.”
Molly felt her anger rising. More and more she was feeling like there was something sinister going on. “Ms. Bea, I know you love Allison, so you want the best for her as do the girls. If doing the same thing hasn’t been working all this time, why not try something different? Lessen the meds, and if that doesn’t work, he can just up her dosage again. We owe it to Allison to at least try.”
Bea seemed to think this over for a second. “You’re right. What harm could it cause? I’ll have a talk with Dr. Meyer to see what we can do.”
“Thank you.”
“I wanted to speak to you about something else,” Bea said.
Molly prepared herself for another bombshell. “What’s that?”
“This may not be a popular belief,” Bea said, “but I believe it is more effective to have the girls focus on one special gift and have them be an expert in that field.”
Molly liked the idea of that. It reminded her of trade schools where people went to work on a specific skill they could become great at rather than having every subject crammed down your throat—even the ones you weren’t good at and the ones that you would never use in life.
“Okay. What are their gifts?”
Bea turned her back to Molly and peered through the window. “Of course, as you already know, this is no ordinary school, so these are no ordinary gifts.” She took a seat behind her desk. “Tress’s skill is art. She makes tiles. Have you seen the floors and the ceiling?”
Molly remembered admiring the tiles and the lovely stories they told. “Really? Tress made those?”
“Yes. She’s done thousands over the years, but her tiles are not only beautiful, they are magical.”
“What does that mean?”
Bea twisted the silver ring she wore on her index finger. “Sometimes she’ll make a tile, the idea just comes to her, and later on we’ve discovered that the story on the tile has come true.”
“Like, she makes predictions through her tiles?” Molly asked.
“Yes. A lot of people don’t take Tress seriously, but somehow, she has this special gift. It has come in handy to us.”
Molly wasn’t sure if she believed that herself, but Bea pulled a tile from her desk drawer and lay it on her desk. “She made this one about a month ago.”
Molly reached to pick up the tile. It was heavier than she thought it would be. Holding the tile in her hands, Molly gasped. Although the style was mosaic, she could make out the picture very clearly. The setting of the tile seemed to be a large room filled with beiges and browns. In the center of the tile stood a woman with short blond hair, wearing a white blouse and a pencil skirt. It was her at the job fair. She set the tile back on Bea’s desk. “There’s no way. She had to have made that after I arrived. You must have told her about the conference hall.”
Bea sighed and tucked the tile back inside her desk. “You don’t have to believe me, Ms. Dillinger, but deep down, I think you do. I don’t know how Tress does it, but she does. Every time she creates a new tile, we take notice of it in case it shows us something important. Anyway, Isleen is our geography expert. She can tell you every continent, country, and city, along with its location according to its latitude and longitude. She can tell you how many miles there are between point A and point B—those points being anywhere in the world. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg.”
Molly couldn’t imagine why Isleen’s gift would be so important if the girls were never allowed to leave the academy, but she was interested.
Bea continued. “She knows all the hidden realms. All the secret places most of mankind will never hear about. She can tell you where they are, how to get there, and the dangers that lurk there.”
“Oh, that’s impressive,” Molly commented. She wanted to know more about secret realms, but she didn’t feel as if her head could take in any more information. It would be best to save that discussion for another time.
“Protector fairies like me are granted a trove of magical items once we reach our full magical potential. We reserve the right to gift those items to whom we see fit. One gift I had was an enchanted map. The map won’t show you any parts of this world, but it will show you everything else. Only the owner of the map can read it. I gave this map to Isleen when the girls first arrived here, so it belongs to her and there’s nothing I could do about it.”
Molly tried to imagine what such a map looked like. “Oh. I have to say that’s a little surprising. The map seems special and important and you don’t seem to like—”
“As I said, I gave it to her when we first arrived—before she’d had a chance to show her true character.”
Molly was sure Bea would take the map back if she could. “So, when it comes to finding the location of something in a secret realm, we’re at Isleen’s mercy?”
Bea sighed. “Exactly. She can tell us whatever she wants, or she can tell us nothing and we have no way of knowing whether she’s telling the truth. On a lighter note, Lily is my nature girl. She knows every tree and plant known to man. She can read the wind and tell the story of the clouds and talk to the moon. Whenever there is danger near, Mother Earth is always the first to know.”
Molly felt as if she should have been writing everything down. There was no way she would remember it all. “May I—”
“Sure.” Bea removed a notepad and a pen from her drawer and handed them to Molly. Molly scribbled down the information as fast as she could. Dru was a master of science. Jolie’s gifts were botany and herbology. Marina was an expert in history. She knew everything about all the civilizations of the world. Gretchen was the chef. She could fashion a meal that could make you tell her all your secrets, or a dessert that could kill you. Scarlett could communicate with animals, and Oriana had what Bea considered the most important gift of all—being an expert of astronomy.
“I have given Ori the diamond compass. She is the one who keeps track of the blood moons and finds the patterns. She can read the constellations and tell you all about planets and galaxies. The diamond compass is probably the most precious gift of all.”
“What does it do?” Molly asked. “I mean, aside from what a normal compass does.”
“For one, it spins if a witch is anywhere near us. Also, it sort of works like an otherworldly GPS. It will guide her anywhere she wants to go.”
Molly finished jotting that down and then looked at Bea expectantly. “What about Allison?”
Sorrow flashed in Bea’s eyes. “Allison hasn’t been here as long as the others. She’s not as new as Scarlett, but she wasn’t here from the
beginning. I found her in a mental facility. She had only been there for a few months as a ward of the state, and no one knew where she had been before that. All they knew is that she’d been found in an alleyway using a cardboard box as a blanket.”
Molly felt even more sorry for Allison than she already had. How much had that poor girl been through?
Bea swiveled in her seat to face the window. “In her condition it was impossible for me to tell what gift would be fitting for her, and she wouldn’t be able to use it anyway.”
Molly understood. “Thank you for this information, Bea. It’s very helpful.”
Bea nodded. “All I ask is that the girls do something to hone their skill each day.”
“Got it,” Molly reassured her. She ripped the sheet she’d written on from the notebook and handed it to Bea. “Thank you.”
Outside of Bea’s office, once the door was shut, Molly collapsed against it. These girls were more brilliant and powerful than she would ever be. How was she supposed to teach them?
13
She was so handsome that she was called “The Beauty.” Known by this only, what more was required to increase the jealousy and hatred of her sisters.
-Beauty and the Beast
Gabrielle-Suzanne de Villeneuve
Molly made her rounds for the night just as she had before. When she got to Jolie’s room, she found the girl staring into a mirror just like the last time. Just as Molly was about to slide the window shut, Jolie said, “You may come in.”
Molly hadn’t been expecting that. Reluctantly she twisted her key in the lock and let herself in. She closed the door behind her. Slowly she made her way to Jolie’s bed and took a seat at the edge. She didn’t quite know what to say. Even when she went through her awkward stages, Molly had always been called pretty. She couldn’t imagine what it felt like to have the face of a monster. Relief washed over her when Jolie spoke first. “Are you afraid of me?”
Molly admitted to herself the first time she’d seen her that she had been afraid, but that was something she would keep to herself. “No. No matter what you look like, I know who you are.”
Jolie smiled, although when she was in beast form you could barely make out the expression. “You’re sweet, Ms. Dillinger. Have you read Beauty and the Beast? The original version by Gabrielle-Suzanne de Villeneuve.”
“Yes, I have.”
“The part is true about my father being a rich merchant and me having six brothers and six sisters. The part is also true about my father losing all our wealth in a great fire. That was why he participated in the witch hunt. The kings were offering hefty rewards for the heads of witches. Father was only doing what he thought was best for our family. He had no idea that this would happen.”
Molly had questions she wanted to add, mainly about the beautiful red rose Jolie kept under the glass, but she decided to keep quiet and let the girl tell her own story. “Once he collected his reward, he was going away to do business. He promised he would bring us each back a gift. As always, my sisters asked for the most expensive, luxurious things, but all I wanted was a rose. It was stupid of me to ask for that because they weren’t even in season, but at that time I wasn’t thinking. That’s how Father stumbled across the witch, when he was picking the rose from a garden.”
Jolie pointed to a crimson rose under a glass case resting on her dresser. The rose stood upright on its own. “That’s the rose. Ms. Bea enchanted it for me so that it will never die, and I’ll always have it to remind me of my father.”
“Oh,” Molly said. “That’s nice.”
“He didn’t mean any harm by it. There were so many roses he thought one wouldn’t matter. As soon as he plucked the rose, the witch appeared and cursed me. She knew I was Father’s favorite. She told him ‘The one you call Beauty will live her life being the exact opposite.’”
Molly exhaled. “Jolie, I don’t know what to say.”
“I should have never asked for that stupid rose.” She turned the mirror away from her as if she were tired of looking at herself. “Help us, Ms. Dillinger. Help us get out of here.”
Molly left Jolie’s room not too long after that, but she couldn’t sleep. At almost 2 a.m. she was awakened by the sounds of creaking floorboards and hushed voices. She heard soft footfalls passing by her room. After waiting a few seconds for the sounds to stop, she cracked her door open and stuck her head out just in time to see the tail of a white nightgown disappear around the corner.
Who was up at that time of night, and where were they going? Was it Bea or Ms. Halifax? It hadn’t sounded like them. Molly slid into her furry, black slippers and hurried down the hall after the voices. After all, it was her job to make sure everyone was tucked away just where they were supposed to be.
At the end of the hall, she rounded the corner. The dark hallway was lit by a lantern someone carried. In the dim light she could make out the figures of Gretchen, Lily, and a girl in a hooded cape, disappearing through a door. Molly had no idea where the door led, but she was curious.
Molly edged closer to the door. After a moment, she took a deep breath and pushed it open slowly. Thankfully it made no noise. She could see nothing but darkness inside. Where had the girls gone?
Since everything was pitch-black, Molly felt in front of her, moving forward an inch at a time. After what seemed like forever traveling down the long, dark hallway, she could finally see the warm orange glow of candlelight. She kept moving forward until she heard voices. She paused. Although she couldn’t see the girls, she could hear them clearly.
“So, what’s next?” That was Jolie’s voice. Molly figured she must have been wearing the hooded cape to conceal her face from the others.
“We have the numbers right now,” Lily answered. “Although they can’t come to the Midnight Society meetings, Scarlett and Oriana are very much a part of this. Then there’s the three of us and Allison. It’s six to four.”
“I can get Dru,” Gretchen said. “Why don’t you let me try?”
“I love Dru,” Jolie said, “but she’s really one of them.”
“So’s Lily,” Gretchen argued. Everyone fell quiet for a moment.
“That’s not fair, and you know it,” Lily said. “You know there’s a difference between them and me. I may have been the princess of my tribe, but I never lived in a palace or attended fancy balls or owned jewels and tiaras. I also don’t believe in Izzy’s sense of entitlement.”
Jolie sighed. “I know. It’s just that sometimes I think she might be successful in bringing you over to her side.”
“It’s never going to happen,” Lily proclaimed defiantly. “Never. I know she looks at me as if I’m beneath them. She only butters me up with that princess stuff because she wants me to be loyal to them. Now, we don’t have long. We need to talk about Allison.”
“Right,” Gretchen said. “What about her?”
Lily continued. “Marina and I spend more time with her than anyone. When her meds are wearing off, just before she needs another dosage, sometimes she says things. Important things.”
“Like what?” Jolie asked.
“Like pens. She always says something about pens, and sometimes she mentions the names of our authors like the Grimm brothers and Hans Christian Andersen. Also, she’s been saying something about a big, bad wolf.”
Everyone was quiet once again. “Okay,” Gretchen said. “But Allison says a lot of things that don’t make sense.”
“Does she?” Lily asked. “When she’s not well, she might grunt and scream but she doesn’t say words. I think these words mean something because she says them over and over.”
“So, what can we do about it?” Gretchen asked, moaning. “Pens and authors’ names aren’t much to go on. You spoke to Ms. Dillinger, right? You think she’ll help?”
Molly’s ears perked up at the sound of her name.
“Yeah,” Lily replied. “They won’t listen to us, but maybe they’ll listen to her.”
“I hope so,” Jolie said softl
y.
“Sorry, I have to go eat,” Gretchen announced. Molly heard bodies shifting so she hurried down the dark hallway toward the door. She let herself out and closed the door gently behind her. She walked quickly to her bedroom. Just before she made it to the door, she was stopped by a figure at the end of the hall. Isleen.
“Up late, aren’t we, Ms. Dillinger?”
Molly hated that her cheeks felt warm. This girl shouldn’t have been able to put her on the spot like that, but there was just something about her.
“Shouldn’t you be in your room?” Molly made a concentrated effort to be firm.
“I should, but it seems like quite a few rooms are empty tonight. I wonder where they are.”
Molly figured the girls would probably be coming down the hall at any moment. Though they were where they weren’t supposed to be at that time of night, she didn’t want to have to punish them for having a secret meeting—especially one that had been very informative to her. She also wasn’t about to get into an argument with Isleen. “Good night, Isleen.”
Isleen turned and disappeared, and Molly slipped into her bedroom.
There in her bed, she made a mental note of what she had learned.
There are two alliances: The princesses: Isleen, Tress, Dru, and Marina; and others: Scarlett, Oriana, Jolie, Allison, Lily, and Gretchen
Pens and authors may be important. Keep a close eye on Allison.
14
The following day Molly released her pent-up energy by going for a run. She slowed down to a jog as she rounded the corner of the house, allowing her heart rate to drop gradually. She came to the motorcar she had arrived in sitting in the circular driveway. Through the dark windows, she spotted Randolph. He sat in the driver’s seat looking straight ahead. Molly wondered what he was doing and if he were preparing to take Bea somewhere. Maybe he could tell her where Bea went when she left the academy.
Molly cupped her hands around her mouth. “Hey, Randolph!” she shouted. He didn’t respond so she jogged over and tapped on the window. “Hey, Randolph.” Again, there was no response, and something eerie and sinister crept up her spine. Molly reached for the door handle and pulled it open. “Randolph?” The man, still wearing his maroon cap and uniform, sat frozen, staring straight ahead. Molly called his name again, this time poking him in the arm. He remained motionless. She observed his chest. There was no rising or falling to let her know he was breathing. She pushed against him, and he slumped over in the seat.
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