The Curse in the Candlelight

by Sophie Cleverly

  “Now,” said Ebony. “We are going to send her soul to the Other Side.”

  Everyone gasped.

  “Only briefly,” Ebony reassured them, though a reassurance from someone dressed like the inside of Dracula’s coffin was hardly reassuring at all. “This is not a curse. It’s a ritual. Or perhaps it is more of a journey. Now first we will try to lift her, using only our fingertips.”

  She placed her fingertips under Mary and looked at the rest of us until we did the same. Then she nodded slowly, three times, and everyone tried to lift Mary up. Nothing happened.

  I raised my eyebrows at my twin. What was this supposed to achieve, exactly? Of course we couldn’t lift her with our fingertips. And what did that have to do with magic?

  But what came next was when things really started to get strange.

  “I’m going to say the phrases,” Ebony said, her voice quiet so that we had to strain to listen. “And then we will all chant them. Three times. That’s important. And …” She took a deep breath. “Whatever you do, don’t look down.”

  “What …?” I started, but she silenced me with a look. I turned my eyes to the ceiling, alongside everyone else. Then she raised a hand, apparently signalling that she was about to start.

  “She’s looking ill,” Ebony whispered.

  I wondered for a second if that was just an observation, since Mary had gone rather pale when I’d last been looking at her. But I knew Ebony was staring upwards, just as the rest of us were. It was the start of the chant.

  “She’s looking ill,” we chanted. “She’s looking ill. She’s looking ill.”

  “She’s looking worse,” Ebony said this time.

  “She’s looking worse. She’s looking worse. She’s looking worse.” The chant grew. Our voices shook.

  “She is dying.”

  There was hardly room for shock or worry at this point. I felt swept away by the tide of the chant. “She is dying. She is dying. She is dying.”

  There was a pause and then Ebony spoke again, more slowly this time. “She is dead.”

  I gulped. “She is dead. She is dead. She is dead.”

  Don’t look down, I kept telling myself. Suddenly, just the thought of looking down became frightening. Our fingertips were still under Mary’s body … under Mary. Could I hear her breathing? I wasn’t sure, not with the frightened breaths of the others mixed in.

  “Her spirit has gone,” Ebony recited. “But soon she will return. For now, she is light. Repeat after me again: light as a feather, stiff as a board.”

  “Light as a feather, stiff as a board. Light as a feather, stiff as a board. Light as a feather, stiff as a board.”

  I could have sworn that I felt Mary go stiff, that perhaps she felt a little lighter, but it was hard to say. All I could feel for certain was the cotton of her dress on my fingertips and the weight of her lying on the floor. I kept my eyes up and hoped Ivy was doing the same.

  “Now we may lift her,” said Ebony. “On three. One. Two. Three.”

  And suddenly, we were lifting Mary. Like she weighed nothing. Just our fingertips, lifting her high in the air, almost up to our heads.

  Light as a feather. Stiff as a board.

  It felt like magic.

  Ebony’s voice rang out again, a little louder this time. “Her spirit will return. We must lower her. Don’t look down.”

  So with great care, we lowered her back to the floor. A shooting pain went down my neck, but I ignored it. I didn’t want to look down.

  Once Mary was back on the ground, there were a few moments of silence, of waiting. I almost wanted to scream.

  “She’s coming back to us,” Ebony whispered. “She is here. Mary, open your eyes. Now we may look.”

  We all looked down and I was strangely relieved to see that Mary was there, alive and well, blinking in the candlelight.

  “I can’t believe that just happened,” one of the other girls whispered. I knew how she felt. Things were getting curiouser and curiouser.

  “You have been to the Other Side, Mary,” Ebony said simply. “It’s an important magical journey. May it bring you great wisdom.”

  Mary shuddered a little before stretching out her arms and sitting up. She groped around for her glasses and Ebony placed them back on her face.

  “What did you see?” Agatha asked, breathless.

  “I saw … darkness,” Mary said.

  And then she fainted.

  A few moments later, Mary had been revived by being non-magically (but gently) slapped round the face by Agatha.

  “Are you all right?” Ivy asked her as she lay there, looking dazed.

  “I … yes … I’m fine …” Mary sat up again, spinning a little. “It was just a little scary, that’s all.”

  “Did you feel anything?” One of the other girls asked.

  Mary shook her head.

  “See anything?”

  Mary’s face was white and drawn. “I think I’d like to go to bed now,” she said.

  I noticed that Ebony was beginning to look a bit unhappy, presumably because things were no longer as mystical as they had been. “No more questions, Xenia,” she said.

  Even with the strange atmosphere, I had to stifle a laugh at that. I didn’t know the girl, who had freckles and pigtails, but I was fairly certain that no one at Rookwood was called “Xenia”.

  Ebony took charge again as Mary got to her feet. “It is done. Now we must move on to the next stage.”

  Next stage? I had no idea what she was talking about.

  “It worked,” I heard Agatha whispering beside me. “We lifted her. And the curse worked too … It’s real …”

  “Will there be more curses?” the girl who was definitely not named Xenia asked. She seemed oddly excited about the idea.

  “Perhaps,” said Ebony. “But we cannot curse the same person twice. Though perhaps –” and she looked directly at me and Ivy as she said this – “you can curse someone close to them.”

  A shiver went down my spine. If she moved on from Muriel … then who was next? Ariadne? Us? Where would it end?

  “But that’s for another time,” Ebony continued, and I wondered if I was right to read into it that she was planning something for when we weren’t around. Suddenly, the spell that surrounded Ebony and made her so enchanting seemed to slip. Magic isn’t magic if you use it to hurt people, I thought. Then it’s just malice. Now I was wishing I was back in bed and away from all of this as well.

  “We have to go,” I said, forcing a yawn. “It’s really late.”

  Ivy nodded in agreement.

  Mary was leaning on Agatha, looking wobbly and exhausted.

  Ebony folded her arms and then she nodded too. “You’ll all be told the time of the next meeting. You may go.”

  The rebellious spark that had been kindled again in my chest made me want to challenge her then, to ask who made her the boss of everybody, but I thought I already knew the answer.

  She did.

  Everyone began to filter out of the classroom, slowly and silently. I grabbed Ivy’s arm as we left, wanting to wait a moment, to see what Ebony did next. But all that happened was that she blew out the candles one by one, and then stood there alone in the sliver of moonlight that remained. She was just staring out of the windows. I couldn’t read her expression.

  “Come on,” Ivy whispered. “We need to get back.”

  The other girls had all gone on ahead, and for the moment we were alone in the hallway when a sudden movement and a dark shape crossed our path. Ivy gasped, but as the thing moved again, I realised it was the flicking of a tail. It was the black cat! It slunk away into the shadows.

  I didn’t know where it came from, but there in the darkness, I had a flash of my old self. That horrible feeling of being trapped, of walls pushing in on me. Of asylum whispers and clacking heels. My breathing sped up and my heart pounded.

  Ivy sensed something was wrong and she took my hand. “Together,” she said.

  I squeezed
her hand back, tighter. No matter what was in those corridors, whether it was dark magic or ghosts or worse – Miss Fox – we were together. I told myself that over and over again as we walked. Whatever happened, we could face it.

  But then we climbed the stairs and walked back to our room …

  Only to find Matron standing right outside.

  Chapter Twenty-two

  IVY

  felt my heart skip a beat. Matron was standing right outside our door. Matron who slept like a log, who never left her room past ten o’clock. Matron who had told us we were on thin ice.

  And she had seen us.

  There was no use in running away now. There was nowhere to hide. In fact, I knew running away would just make things worse. Then we would definitely look as if we were up to something.

  Matron held out her torch and we both shielded our eyes from the beam.

  “Matron?” Scarlet asked, her voice laced with innocence.

  “Girls?” she answered, pointing the torch back down and keeping her voice low. “What are you doing out of your room?”

  I fumbled for an explanation. I was about to say that we were going to the lavatories, which would be the easiest excuse, but then I looked down at myself and realised that both of us were wearing dresses and not nightgowns.

  Scarlet was faster than me. “We saw the cat again, Miss!”

  “What?” Matron screwed up her face, her eyes wrinkling at the corners.

  “You know, the cat? That we told you about?” Scarlet gestured at her. “We saw it. It’s running around the school. We thought we’d try and catch it.”

  “Because … because cats aren’t allowed,” I added, silently thinking that this was the worst excuse we had ever come up with.

  “And that’s why you’re dressed?” Matron asked. “Girls, honestly, I—”

  “It’s true,” Scarlet said. “I swear.” I was fairly certain she had crossed her fingers behind her back.

  “Well,” said Matron, putting her hands on her hips. “I think that excuse is rather stretching it. Now, are you going to tell me why you’re really—”

  She didn’t get to finish that sentence because something slipped out of the darkness and began curling its tail round her leg.

  A look of horror descended over Matron’s face and her eyes went slowly downwards until they came to rest, finally, on the black cat.

  “Oh,” she said.

  “See,” said Scarlet, who I thought was about to burst with self-righteousness. “I told you so.”

  The cat gave a dissatisfied meow, obviously realising we weren’t about to feed it, and trotted away in the direction of Ebony’s room.

  Scarlet said nothing this time and just raised her arms in a gesture that expressed rather a lot.

  Matron gaped after the cat. “Just go to bed, girls,” she said.

  We shut our bedroom door behind us.

  “Ha!” Scarlet laughed as she pulled her dress over her head and changed back into her nightgown. “Matron has to believe us now! We have a smoking cat!”

  I gave her a look and then began getting changed myself. “True,” I said with a yawn. “But weren’t we trying to stay on Ebony’s good side? If she gets into trouble over the cat, then …”

  “Then how will she know it was us?” Scarlet asked. She threw herself on to her bed with a thud. “Nobody saw anything. She’ll just think Matron spotted the cat herself.”

  I didn’t feel quite so sure. Ebony always seemed as though she was watching everything, all the time. I knew it was ridiculous, but I couldn’t get the idea out of my head that she was one step ahead of us. Especially after what we had just witnessed in the classroom.

  It had to be a trick.

  Didn’t it?

  I climbed into bed and shut my eyes, exhausted. But all I could see on the back of my eyelids was Mary, blank-faced like a death mask, being lifted into oblivion.

  I jumped awake as the morning bell rang, throwing back the covers. I couldn’t get them off fast enough. I’d been dreaming that it was a sea of black spiders.

  As I got my breath back, the real world seeped in. Scarlet was looking at me strangely. “Nightmare?”

  I nodded. I hadn’t had nightmares in quite a long time, until Ebony had come to the school. I shuddered at the thought.

  We hurried down to breakfast. We left the queue with our trays of porridge and milky tea. Something felt a little off, but I wasn’t sure what. I wondered if I was still simply feeling strange after the night before.

  We headed off to meet Ariadne. I wanted to talk about what we’d seen the previous night, but … it didn’t seem right. Especially not when I saw her sitting next to a bandaged Muriel, the two of them chatting away happily.

  I swallowed my guilt and smiled at the two of them. “Good morning,” I said as I sat down with my tray.

  “Morning!” Ariadne said cheerfully. “Muriel’s been allowed to come and sit with me. I’m to be her chaperone while she’s recovering.”

  “Do you get a badge?” Scarlet teased, sitting down beside me. “I’m glad you’re feeling better, Muriel.”

  Ariadne grinned at her. Muriel, on the other hand, had a somewhat glazed expression.

  “Thank you S … S …” she tried.

  “Scarlet,” Scarlet said.

  “Sorry,” Muriel said. She gave Ariadne a desperate glance.

  Ariadne put her hand on the tall girl’s shoulder. “It’s okay, Muriel.” She turned to us. “She’s not feeling quite right yet. I think some of her memory is still jumbled.”

  Muriel smiled then, but that blank look didn’t leave her eyes. She swayed a little in her seat.

  I had to admit, the sight of her made me feel a little queasy. It wasn’t just that I remembered what her wound had looked like under the bandage, or that I kept thinking Ebony might have been the one to do this to her. It was the faraway gaze she had in her eyes now. That was somehow the worst part.

  I don’t believe in curses, I told myself.

  But I didn’t like having to tell myself that. It was what Ebony wanted, surely? She wanted us to believe that she had the power to curse people. But why?

  “Did you have a good night?” Ariadne asked.

  I gulped my mouthful of porridge. What did she mean? Did she know about us meeting Ebony in the classroom?

  “Without any nightmares, I mean,” Ariadne said. “Ghastly things. I had one. I dreamt that Father had bought me a new pony, but it was bad-tempered and kept throwing me off. And then it turned into a bat and flew away.” She stuck her tongue out in disgust.

  I breathed a quiet sigh of relief. “Actually I did have one.” I glanced at Muriel, who wasn’t looking at anything. “But it was a bit horrible. I won’t talk about it over food.” Hopefully that would prevent any further questioning.

  When we’d finished our breakfast, the Sunday teachers began ushering everyone out in the direction of the chapel for the day’s service.

  “Come on,” Ariadne said gently to Muriel. “Time for chapel.”

  A strange expression crossed Muriel’s face. “I can’t,” she said. “I have to …” Her eyes darted back and forth across the hall, as if she were surrounded by people. Suddenly, and with surprising speed, she jumped up and ran out of the hall.

  “Well, that was odd,” Scarlet said. “She looks like she could do with a priest, to be quite honest.”

  Ariadne picked nervously at the sleeve of her uniform. “She’ll be all right, won’t she?”

  I took my friend’s hand. “I’m sure she will. We’ll find her afterwards.” Those were the words I spoke aloud, but inside my head, the word CURSED was echoing. But Ariadne didn’t need to be any more worried than she already was, so I kept quiet.

  At the end of the service, we shuffled out of our seats. I couldn’t help the smile twitching on my face as myknee brushed the kneeling mats, remembering how Scarlet had hidden a clue inside one of them not so long ago.

  The inside of Rookwood’s chapel was fairly
plain, but there were a few elements that stood out amid all the bare stone and wood. The kneeling mats were one such thing, having been sewn by students over the years, many of them bearing brightly coloured scenes. Another was the gold of the candlesticks and the altar, and the stained-glass windows that spilt amber light over the rows of pews.

  And in the far corner, behind a carved wooden screen with a door that was always locked, there was a tomb. We’d peeked in once, one Sunday, and saw it was protecting a stone effigy of some great Lord of the Manor. He was lying at rest in a cavity in the wall, his arms crossed neatly and his head lying on a stone pillow, which didn’t seem the most comfortable thing to lie on for eternity.

  But what stood out to me that morning in the chapel was none of those things. It was the fact that Ebony wasn’t there.

  As we stood in a huddle among the gaggle of girls waiting to leave the church, and with Ariadne chatting to Dot Campbell, I nudged Scarlet. “Have you seen Ebony today?”

  “No,” Scarlet said, frowning.

  It probably wouldn’t usually be noticeable in a school full of girls if just one were missing. But Ebony was such a big presence that her absence left a hole in the world. I realised that was why something had felt strange at breakfast. There had been no Ebony, no group of girls crowded round her and hanging on her every word.

  “Do you think it’s because of the cat?” Scarlet whispered as we moved forward slowly, everyone trying to filter out through the chapel door all at once, causing a jam.

  “Maybe.” If Matron had followed the cat to Ebony’s room and realised that what we’d told her was the truth, then Ebony would be in big trouble. And I didn’t think I wanted to be present when that happened.

  Once we’d got inside the school and the crowd was somewhat dispersed, I finally spotted Ebony standing outside Mrs Knight’s office with a group of her friends. As we got nearer, Ebony’s eyes flashed over to us. I felt my palms begin to sweat. Was she in trouble? Did she know that we’d told on her?

  She was explaining something to the other girls. “… said I can keep him in my room for now, but that he has to go back in the holidays.”