Shitshitshit. I cursed under my breath as I quickly put my phone way and slowed my breathing to calm myself down.

  “What was that light? Behind that tree?” Someone said.

  Crap. They heard me! Oh fuckkkkkkkk. iamsoooodeadddd-

  As panic started creeping back in, slideshows of what could possibly happen in the next few moments pyed in my head.

  Then there was a footstep.

  Followed by a sequence of more, snapping tree branches and brushing against leaves as it inched closer to my position.

  At that moment I really wished I had one of those cloaking devices that could make me invisible with a press of a button. Too bad I didnt.

  Also, there really isn’t anything I can do in this situation. Staying here meant being found and then who knows what they’d do with me. I knew I had to act fast.

  It came down to fight or flight.

  Flight it is.

  I bolted from my hiding position into the direction I came from, disappearing behind the bushes. I heard a very vocal “GET THEM!” from an unknown, commanding voice.

  And the chase was on.

  I ran and I ran and I ran. In between trees and grass and bushes, going faster by the second until I couldn’t run any faster and reached terminal velocity.

  If only I could talk into a radio and get extracted by some people in a bcked-out suv. Just like in the spy movies.

  But I was alone. I had to improvise.

  I didn’t know where to go. All the cssrooms are locked and dark and there’s nowhere to hide outside.

  I looped around to the side of the school behind the cssrooms and entered a small parking lot next to an apartment complex. I felt a sense of accomplishment when I thought about the evidence I collected as I ran away my pursuers. I could submit this to the FBI! Evidence of a bunch of magical girls discussing things never heard of before, showing off magic, and defying the weather would definitely make the agency gawk at my espionage abilities and hire me as an agent.

  I ughed out loud as I came upon the same pathway with cssrooms and trees with the decorative nterns, that I ran into only minutes before.

  I paused my running, scanning the trees, completely frozen, unsure as to which direction to follow.

  “THERE THEY ARE!” The commanding voice returned and shouted as I heard running at a good distance behind me.

  In the heat of the moment panic dulled my sense of direction and I was completely lost. The only thing I saw as I looked around was a dull orange light coming from a few windows and I started running towards that direction.

  I almost tripped as I staggered up the cssroom’s steps, exhausted from fatigue, and opened the door, thinking about how I’ve been here and witnessed the impossible only minutes before.

  I swiftly entered the room, shut the door and barricaded it with the teacher’s desk.

  In a few moments they will barge in and that’ll be it.

  Why did I even run back in here?

  I had no time to regret my decision as my attention was drawn into a gray book with a brown spine emitting a red glow.

  It had simir drawings and had the same pentagram as the book I saw in Zoey’s room. I rushed towards it.

  Is this one of the magic book that the highly-trained-elite-group of magical girls use? It looks so much more intimidating.

  Well I guess intimidation is a way to impose authority so that kinda makes sense I suppose.

  I walked toward the intimidating, rectangur anomaly. I barely got a few steps in when it suddenly emitted a rge spark of red magic energy towards all directions, causing me to jump backward and got my heart racing once again. The book shook violently as if something trapped inside was trying to break free.

  In the midst of the action I heard shouting from outside. I took a split-second decision and ran towards the book as fast as possible so I couldn’t chicken out.

  Well… logically speaking, if I can use the magic book against them I could escape right?

  …

  Right?

  The moment my hand came in contact with the worn leather cover, I felt time slow down. A surge of energy came upon me as swirls of red magic surrounded me like a tornado. I felt like I was being lifted as gravity was taken away from me then reapplied twofold and it was over as quick as it started. I didn’t even have time to catch my breath as my vision faded into a bright light.

  9:41 PM. Joanna’s POV

  So Amber’s team was being spied on by possibly enemy intel. And me and Zoey got caught up in this mess.

  We chased the dark figure across the school grounds. It almost felt like a game of tag but it involved higher stakes.

  “THERE THEY ARE!” Amber shouted from some distance ahead as we paced to catch up. We reached the ntern crossroads and looked ahead to see Amber running towards the lit-up cssroom serving as their base of operations.

  “Alright u two, listen up.” Amber said as we caught up to her at the entrance. “Backup won’t be here for another 20 minutes so we have to take care of this ourselves. I’ll go in and clear the room, you two stay out here.” With that, Amber drew her midnight bck sword and kicked the door open.

  She then shouted authoritatively, “This is the Altaris Protectorate Agency, if you wish to remain unharmed then make yourself known and submit your casting abilities. Don’t py any tricks.”

  Amber ventured further into the base while Zoey and I stood outside. We could hear steps but no exchange of words nor spells. A minute ter, Amber came out and sat on the steps of the porch.

  “Whoever that we were chasing isn’t in there. Nor is the demon spellbook we collected.”

  “So their intended purpose was to steal the demon book? They must be one of the demon’s subordinates then.” Zoey observed.

  “Yes, you are correct, unfortunately it seems that we’ve been tricked.” Amber sighed. “They must be pretty good at their job to go beneath our noses like this, and considering they’ve been assigned to gather this book then it must hold some sort of value or importance to the demon.”

  “What type of spellbook is it?” I asked.

  “Amateur's guide to basic demonic spellcasting. VII edition.”

  “They must have ran out of training material then.” Zoey joked.

  Amber paced up and down the steps. “It still doesn’t make sense. None of this makes sense. Why do they need such a valueless book?”

  “Joanna we still need to find Oliver. It’s getting te.” Zoey said with a hint of urgency.

  “You go find your friend. Here’s my number, if you two are avaible to help let me know as soon as you can.” Amber said as she brought out her phone.

  “Got it.” Zoey said. She noted down Amber's number and we said our goodbyes as we left the agency’s base of operations.

  ??? AM Oliver’s POV

  I blinked my eyes, awaking from a deep slumber, as a gleaming light found its way into my vision. I felt a hugging warmth all around as the familiar view of my bedroom came into view. I snuggled in the comfort in my bed as the events of the previous night crept into memory.

  I froze.

  Wait what? Why am I home? The st thing I remembered was a boom and a blinding light and then… nothing after that?

  I jumped out of bed and scanned the room, seeing nothing out of the ordinary. I remembered the book being gray with some sort of red glow to it, and it was nowhere to be seen.

  “Good morning.” Someone or something lurking beyond my vision tapped my shoulder.

  “HOLY SHI-“ I screamed as I almost jumped out of my skin and had a heart attack. “Oh my god Zoey if this is your way at getting back at me for-“

  I turned around and paused.

  This person isn’t Zoey. Or Joanna.

  “Sorry to scare you like that, excuse my manners. I’m Eine, divine goddess of psma-type magic, well at least I was but nowadays I’m just known as a demonic vessel.” She sighed. “You can call Ellie for short. Thanks for freeing me out of that book.”

  I took a step back, mouth wide open, at the transformed girl wearing a white dress with pastel purple frills, with matching thigh highs, complemented by a pair of vender wings and a rge, white staff with gold ptings and pastel purple decorations that towered over me. She had long, waist-length white silver hair complemented with a pair of silver eyes that seemed to stare through my soul. I looked up to her and shivered with fear. What if she hurts me since they trapped her in a book for a reason? This was the first time I’ve seen someone in some sort of transformed form and I couldn’t believe my eyes. My instincts turned from flight to fight as there was nowhere to run to. I took a undry basket from across my bed and held it in front of me defensively and defiantly, and shut my eyes preparing for the worst.

  “How cute.”

  My complexion transformed into a mixture of confusion and fttery as I somehow enjoyed that comment.

  “Don’t worry, I’m not going to harm you. You did save me after all.”

  With that confirmation I put the basket down. I still felt reserved and went over to sit on my bed, proceeding to hug a pillow.

  Ellie giggled and sat down besides me, patting my head, and I blushed. No one’s ever treated me like this before and it felt kinda nice I had to admit.

  “It’s been a long while since I’ve seen a friendly face.” Ellie said. “You’re probably confused as to what occurred st night when I was still trapped in the book. The moment you touched the book I was able to transfer my curse of being trapped in the book into me being trapped in your soul instead, but don’t be armed, this isn’t permanent as long as I get the curse removed.”

  “And how would you do that?” I questioned.

  “I-to be honest I don’t know. I was thinking of breaking the curse’s bond via a spell to disable it, but when I tried it when I was still trapped book it didn’t work due to the strong binding the magical girls created. Most of my magic power has been depleted since the demon took advantage of some magic types like the one I have by destroying my entire vilge popution some eons ago and made me a demonic vessel in order to fuel her own hunger for power.” Ellie expined. “I’m going to continue my research to find a way to get rid of this curse.”

  “Okay.” I took a moment to digest all the info I’ve been provided. So this was the demon the magical girls were talking about? Then why would they be after someone like Ellie? She’s been nothing but nice to me so far. I only had one question. “Soooo… the magical elite force thing is apparently fighting against the evil mean demon that’s continuously gaining more and more power by the day. So what do we do?”

  “Nothing, unfortunately.” She said. “I know you’re eager to help fight but the reality of the situation is that we are not equipped to fight. I’m not very powerful in my current state and you have no magic.”

  I scowled. Do we really have to just sit here and wait it out? What if they fail? What happens to us?

  “Don’t pout, little one. I can handle my own footing just fine, now that I’m free from that cage. By the way, what’s your name?”

  “Um. Oliver.” I said ftly. “And that wasn’t a pout-“

  I was interrupted by a knock on my door.

  “Oliver?” A muffled voice came from the other side. “Is that you speaking?”

  “Quick you need to hide, she can’t see you here.” I started to panic again-

  Before I could finish the sentence, the door opened.