Bagsy Beetlehorn and the Vampire Affairs (The Bagsy Chronicles 4)

Perfectly Fine

'What?'

'My arm is fine. That's odd... it was in agony before, but now it's completely healed.' She flexed her hand, then each finger, just to check.

'Injured? How? Are you sure?'

'Yeah – something went wrong when I tried to cast the spell and it felt like a big spikey ball was pulled through the insides of my flesh. It was awful. But now...' She put the paper on the table and held her right arm in front of her, wriggling her fingers some more. 'Not a scratch.'

'What's that?' Mezrielda picking the paper up. 'An ink blot?'

'It wasn't at first. There were these wisps of smoke and they made the writing all smudged. I didn't get a chance to read it.'

'Wisps?'

Bagsy recounted everything she'd seen.

Mezrielda put the paper down, pressing her fingers heavily onto it as she closed her eyes. 'He's with them, then,' she said. 'The breathing blight. If what you saw were contracts then my best guess is he's working in the acting troupe.'

Bagsy wasn't convinced. 'I don't know,' she said. 'I'm starting to think the breathing blight isn't in the acting troupe.'

Mezrielda's eyes snapped onto Bagsy. 'Excuse me?'

'Just because he has a contract with them doesn't mean he's working with then. And we don't know for sure that the living pestilence is the same person as the breathing blight.'

'I'm certain.'

'I just don't think the acting troupe would have someone unsafe like that with them. They're too sensible. Too nice.'

Mezrielda's jaw clenched. 'Bagsy, is everything alright?'

'Of course. Everything's perfectly fine.'

Regarding her sceptically, Mezrielda pushed the paper back to her. 'What do we do with this?' She tapped where the smudge was.

Bagsy inspected it closely. An idea sparked in her mind. 'I might be able to restore it. But it's going to take a while.'

'Do you think you could do it before the next episode?'

'I don't know.'

'Either way, you should tell them you're quitting.'

'What? Why?'

'We've gotten the confirmation we need. The breathing blight is with the acting troupe. Somehow, he must have snuck out and murdered during one of the episodes airing.'

'But now we need to know which one of them is the breathing blight,' Bagsy said. 'Besides, there's more information in that room I didn't get to see. If I quit now, I'll never find out what it's hiding.'

'I really can't convince you to quit, can I?'

'Nope.' Bagsy smiled at her friend cheekily. 'You can't.'

Mezrielda sighed. Then, as if noticing a cold breeze, glanced around herself uncertainly. 'I better leave.'

'What? Why?' she asked, before noticing that, by no exaggeration, every single student in the library was either glaring at Mezrielda or whispering to their friends while pointing at her. 'What's that all about?'

'The episode, of course,' Mezrielda said in a low voice, shooting some glares back at the onlookers. 'I was waiting for you at the entrance, but you hadn't waited there for me. I had to dodge spells and insults as I tried to find you.'

Suddenly remembering that she had agreed to meet Mezrielda by the entrance, guilt washed over her. 'I'm so sorry!'

'It's alright, but I think I'm going to hide in the Eagle Club room.' She stood. 'Even in here I worry that someone will try something.'