Celia Thorpe

Plans changing

Later that night, Celia and Enid were tip-toeing along the hall towards the statue of Edgar Allen Poe.

"Why did Bianca call a meeting so last minute?" Celia whispered, almost stumbling in her haste and effort to remain silent.

"Idk. I wasn't really listening."
Enid replied.

"Of course you weren't," Celia muttered smiling, ensuring Enid couldn't hear her.

They reached the statue. Smiling slightly, Enid snapped twice. Once again, the mechanism creaked, revealing the staircase down to the Nightshades library. Standing in a ceremonious circle stood the rest of the nightshades and, to her complete surprise, Martha and Wednesday.

"Martha?"

Martha smiled sheepishly at her.
"Hi."

"I didn't know you were a nightshade."

"I'm not. I've known Bianca for a very long time, and she asked me to help."

Confused as to what ability Martha could possess to make her needed by Bianca, Celia was about to respond when Enid said incredulously,

"Wednesday? I thought you didn't want to join the nightshades."

"Desperate times call for desperate measures. However, I am as intrigued as everyone else to know why you summoned us here, Bianca."

Bianca rolled her eyes.

"As the head of the nightshades, I am entitled to call a meeting. Your attendance wasn't mandatory, it was your decision to show up. Now you're here, I'd appreciate it if you neglected your consistently negative views on everything and listened.

"This has become serious. Kids have gone missing, and all the fingers are pointing to a Nevermore student, but I've examined everyone's files in the school and no one fits the description of any of the attacks. That leads me onto our first step. Identify the monsters."

Wednesday interrupted. Bianca looked royally pissed.
"Nathaniel Faulkner's diary. It contained lots of information about The Hyde last term."

"Uhh, what diary?" Kent asked.

Wednesday nodded to a picture titled 'Ignatious Itt.' Thing scuttled up the wall and speedily revealed a safe, which it then unlocked. Wednesday took out an old book from inside of it, before sitting down. Divina and Celia sat either side of her. Divina stopped Wednesday as she was flicking through the book.

"That. There. That's what attacked me."

Divina was pointing to a page titled 'Krugers.'

The image was of a perfectly normal looking human, with one razor sharp talon on its left hand. Wednesday read from the page.

"Krugers. Normal humans on the outside, but they have one long talon on their left hand, which they use for slashing at their prey. Their one purpose in life is to attack any living being it comes into contact with and eat out its heart. Its preferable meal is a young child, but normies in general taste better to it. Krugers serve no master in their cause but have been known to join forces if lots of normie children are promised to it."

"Ew. They eat hearts?!" Enid wrinkled her face in disgust.

"Normie children. That's not good. If it's found those kids, they'll be dead." Xavier noted.

"Does the book mention any weak points?"
Ajax asked.

Wednesday scanned the page.
"Their talon. If you cut it off, it renders them useless and they die almost immediately. It's also fairly easy to access, from the looks of things. Its other hand doesn't engage in battle so the talon is the only thing protecting it."

"Uhh, the book doesn't say that. How do you know?" Yoko asked.

"Experience." Wednesday stated. Everyone stared at her. "What? Celia, now we need to find your monster."

Celia watched as Wednesday flicked through the pages. "There."

"Merrow snakes." Wednesday read.

Bianca stirred.
"I've heard of those. Merrows are a type of mermaid."

"There's other types of mermaids?" Kent asked incredulously. Divina hit him.

"Yes, idiot. You're a siren. You should know that. The main mermaid groups are sirens, like us, selkies, who are peaceful and sweet and the merrows. Merrows are vicious, ugly and ill-tempered. They live near Ireland, and have communities where they breed dangerous animals for their own use. Merrow snakes are a type of accidental breed with sea serpents. Merrow snakes are a bit smaller, but wiser and therefore more dangerous. Yay!" Bianca said sarcastically.

Xavier turned to her.

"So, what's step two?"

Bianca smiled.
"We find the monsters. Yoko, I want you to go find the Kruger. Vampires are very hard to kill so you should be fine. Enid, Ajax, Xavier and Celia. You need to find the children in the woods. Kent, Divina. You'll search in the lake for the children. Martha, you come with me."

"Uhh, where? Go with you where?" Martha asked. She was definitely beginning to regret agreeing to help.

"To the lake. We're gonna find the Merrow snake and kill it."

Martha turned pale.
"Why me?"

"You have Merrow blood in you. You should be fine!"

Realisation dawned on Celia. That's why Martha was there. Bianca thought it could have something to do with Merrows and asked her.

Wednesday butted in.
"What do thing and I do?"

Bianca smiled devilishly.
"You sneak into the police station."

"Why?"

"So you can talk to Tyler. We're gonna need to know if this is connected."

"What?" Xavier asked. "That's crazy! He could kill her!!"

"Not if I stand away from the cage. You're right, Bianca. I don't see how it could be connected to last term, though. Whatever mastermind is behind these attacks, it seems to be focusing on Normies, not outcasts like Laurel did."

"Worth a shot. We're gonna need all the leads we can get."