The Junior Chef walked inside the kitchen where some staff was already preparing the dinner as ordered by Niiya. His white shirt was crimson on the collar and the hat that he wore was tilted. A junior ran to him and said, “Chef Clark, what happened with you? You are bleeding!” The Chef stopped and stared at the short boy in front of him. When the boy looked into his eyes, he was horrified. “Chef wh- what has gone wrong with your eyes?” The black engulfed the entire whiteness. It was so spooky that the boy stumbled back a little. 

Clark looked disoriented. He spoke something unrecognizable and raised his hand to the boy’s neck. He grabbed his neck as if it was that of a chicken’s. The nails dug into his flesh. 

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“Arggh,” the boy choked as he struggled for life and grappled Clark’s hands. Two others rushed to him to free him but before they could reach him, Clark had picked him up from the ground and thrown him at them. The boy crashed right on them and they all fell on their backs. Some utensils tumbled on the floor making a loud clanking sound. 

“What the hell are you doing Clark?” The Chef of the restaurant shouted at him from across the kitchen. “Have you gone mad? The owner of the restaurant is here. If you don’t want to get fired, get your ass right back here and get going!” 

But Clark seemed to be in a tizzy. He picked a cleaver knife and threw it at the Chef. The Chef screamed and ducked missing the knife with a hair’s breadth. Clark opened the door that led to the main dining area and walked inside. 

It took a second for Adrianna to realize that it was the spirit. Immediately, she threw a ball of fire at him. The spirit held the ball in its hands and shoved it aside. 

“Who is it?” Dmitri shouted from his place. 

“Whatever happens, Dmitri, save Ileus,” Adrianna replied. “It’s the same spirit that you had seen in your vision.” 

Dmitri’s eyes widened. His face became pale, as did others who were silent in horror. He looked down at Ileus and immediately shielded him with his arms. 

“Ookashi and Niiya, duck under that table,” Liam shouted. Those were the only two humans that needed protection. Ookashi trembled and dropped the blue box on the floor. 

“Nate, come here along with our baby,” she somehow rasped. 

Clark stared at Ookashi. It spoke something indecipherable.

Inyanga conjured an orb of thick white mist and propelled it towards him. The orb crashed onto him, and cracked open to emit more white mist. Soon a thick layer surrounded him. “Everyone dash out to the nearest exit,” Inyanga ordered. 

Flustered, they all got up instantly and ran for the door. Niiya, Ookashi, and Nate with their baby were the ones who could make it out to the door. When Haldir watched them coming, he removed the electric field. The four of them rushed out. Liam and Dmitri were about to run out, when the spirit came out of the fog. The lights of the room went out. Everyone became silent. “No one moves an inch,” Adrianna said in a whisper. She marveled the fact that Ileus was absolutely quiet. 

In the pitch-black darkness, a sound came, as if a matchstick was being ignited. A small orange flame appeared illuminating the spirit. It had left the body of Clark who was lying slumped on the floor. It looked exactly like Dmitri had mentioned. The air became chilled like bathing in a tub of ice. Every warm feeling that they had was sucked out of them. It’s maroon eyes rotated sending shivers down the spines of the spectators. Gliding forward, it opened its crooked mouth to speak through whatever form of mouth that was with lips split into halves. Its voice was like shards of ice, “Maesterrr,” it purred like a cat. 

Everyone was still but utterly confused. Who was the spirit calling its master?

The spirit spoke as if wailing like a child. “Maester, I have come for you. I have waited for centuries to be with you. Take this slave in Maester and release my soul from Gaira.” 

The word ‘Gaira’ brought goose bumps to Adrianna. Thinking about last year’s incident, Adrianna thought that it had come for Dmitri. “I will not let you take my husband!” she said through a clenched jaw and cast a spell at him full of electric beams of light. 

Inyanga and Fleur followed the suit. They hurled beams towards the sickly thing that was gliding unharmed towards them. The maximum that would happen was that the soul would stumble a little and then again move forward. It kept hissing, “Maester…” It sounded so desperate. Others could feel its anguish.

“It is not stopping,” Inyanga said with worry. “What do we do?” 

All of them walked back while hurling spells upon spells at it. It just didn’t stop. 

“We need better protection,” said Fleur. Something that can stop this creature from the Land of Gaira.” 

“The only way to put them back to where they belong is to push them to Gaira, but for that we need Isidorus,” Adrianna informed. For the first time she was so unhappy at Isidorus being sick. She hated to think that he had just come back from Gaira and she would have to ask him the favor of going back. She wondered if his body could even take it anymore. 

“Then let us go,” Fleur barked. “I will take him inside that land.” 

“No!” Liam shouted from behind. 

“Adrianna, make a decision now. I am a witch and I can easily take him inside. You are my Queen and Dmitri is my King. This is not a favor that I will be doing to you. This is my duty,” Fleur insisted. 

“Maesterrr,” the spirit kind of slurped on those words. It moved further ahead towards the only thing that it had waited. Once the Master would accept it, it would become his pet and would get its entire body from the Land of Gaira. It would be able to rule under him. The world would belong to the dark forces. This was the right time to infest him, to infect him. He was a clean slate and had not as yet fitted into the category of good or evil. He was just a child. But whether he would become good or bad? An angel or a demon? All it wanted was for him to feel the power of darkness, however painful it was. So it glided with its eyeballs rotating fast. It was excited to have finally found him after waiting for eternity.

“Okay, let’s all send a blast of fire at him now,” Adrianna shouted as fear gripped her heart by now. 

The three witches together conjured the spell and created orbs of orange fire. Suddenly Haldir appeared from behind and he joined them. Together they bombarded it with a large amount of fire. It shrieked in pain but didn’t deter. They were about to cast another spell when the spirit glided all over them and reached Dmitri. 

All of them had to stop, else it would harm Dmitri and Ileus. Adrianna ran and shielded them from it. 

The spirit looked at Ileus and gave the semblance of a smile. It extended its chopped hand towards Ileus and said like a slave, “Maesterrrr.” 

What happened next was unimaginable.