After school Veronica rushed to the library once there were no students or teachers there, and wanted to talk to Jake about what she heard and saw today. Vince catches her near the library around the corner waiting for Andy to come out of class. When there were barely any students or teachers walking by he notices her walking in looking around to make sure no one was watching her.
Vince starts to hear footsteps and see's Andy running on the other side of the hall.
"Where were you?!" Vince whispers angrily.
Andy bends over catching his breath. "Sorry.. My teacher.."
Vince bends over with him trying to figure out what he is saying. "What are you talking about?"
Andy stands straight up catching one long exhale. "My teacher had to give me more homework since I was late."
"Well because of that Veronica is in the library and I had no idea if I should go in or not."
"Sorry! How long has she been in there?" Andy whispers asking with him and Vince go behind the corner and look outside of the library.
"Not very long, only a few minutes." Vince whispers back.
"What are you guys doing?" Adrian whispers behind them.
The boys jump. "Jesus Adrian!" Andy sighs, putting his hands on his chest.
"Why did you do that?" Vince asks, setting his hands on his needs.
"Sorry, you guys looked so focused that I wanted to see what you were doing." Adrian says smiling with pride.
The boys adjust themselves. "Well we were just watching to see if Veronica leaves the library, but..." Andy starts.
"You just had to scare us." Vince says angrily.
"Wow you guys are starting to be really bad stalkers." Adrian gladly comments.
"We're not!" Vince says.
"Yeah the only reason we are right now is because you made us jump!" Andy explains.
"Then where is Veronica going?" Adrian asks pointing at the library.
All three of the boys watched as Veronica was walking in a rush in the quad with only the plastic bag full of stuff in her hand.
"And she has the bag!" Andy whispers excitedly.
"And it looks like she is in a rush." Vince mentions.
"But where is she going?" Adrian asks, looking at her, following her to the gym.
"A spell in the gym? Really?" Andy mumbles.
Adrian whacks him behind his head. "Enough with the spells!"
"Enough both of you!" Vince shouts annoyed.
"If we want to know what she is really doing we should follow her."
"Oh look who's being the stalker now?" Andy says annoyed.
"Oh come on, both of you!" Adrian says walking in front of them.
"Since when are you interested in all of this?" Andy asks, crossing his arms. Vince does the same "Yeah? When?"
Adrian sighs. "Andy was somehow right about the bag."
"Hey!" Andy gasps insulted.
"So I'm in on whatever this is." Adrian says waving his palms in front of the guys.
"Ok then let's go." Andy and the other run to the gym and stop to look through the glass windows peaking into the lit up gym.
"How did Veronica turn on the lights for the gym?" Adrian asks.
"And how did she even get in?" Vince asks surprised.
"Quiet you two. And pay attention." Andy whispered, annoyed.
They watch as Veronica puts a rusty brown bowl down gently and looks through the bag then pouring out the continents inside. The bag reveals fingernails, graveyard dirt, frog legs, and worms.
The boy's mouth opened wide, shocked. "Oh my god!" Vince gasps.
"It is a spell." Adrian says.
"I was right!" Andy accidently shouts.
His noise made Veronica look up and the boys duck down in the bushes. When she sees no one there she continues preparing.
The boys get back up exhaling in relief of not getting caught. Veronica kneels down putting the continents one by one in the bowl then standing up getting a piece of paper out of her pocket.
"She should be doing a spell right now." Andy whispers.
Veronica looks into her other pocket looking worried. She checks everywhere around her. "What is she doing?" Vince asked.
"Maybe she forgot or missed something?" Andy guesses.
"Missing what another 'ingredient'?" Adrian joked.
"Oh no where is my phone! If I don't have it my family would freak out if I don't answer or message them in time!" Veronica thinks while looking around.
The boys bend lower into the bushes facing each other. "Andy, didn't you say that Veronica came out of the library without the bag this morning?"
He nods. "Yeah."
"And you didn't find where she could have put it?"
Andy thinks. "No! Because you didn't do a good job distracting her!" Vince answers for him.
"Ok then why don't we go into the library right now since it's empty and look for where she could have put it."
Vince and Andy share a look at each other. "Damn you are getting good at this." Andy says surprised.
"Yeah and you just joined back a few minutes ago." Vince smiles patting him on the back.
"Thanks!" Adrian says confidently.
"Ok you two go to the library and I'll go in to see what Veronica is trying to do." Adrian points towards the inside of the gym.
"Wait, why should we go and you stay here?" Vince asks, complaining.
"Because Adrian didn't even believe me until now and you were just doing this because you didn't want to be called a weak link!"
"Well I didn't!" Vince mentions. The doors to the gym open disrupts their conversation as they see Veronica rushing out to the library.
"No time to argue now. GO!" Andy whispers shoving the two boys out of the bushes.
"Ok ok jeez." Adrian says as he and Vince walk out.
"Just text me when she comes back." Andy says waving his phone.
"Will do." Vince says as they run on the other side hallway. They get to the other side of the hallway and get a look at Veronica entering the library.
"I'll text Andy." Adrian says.
Andy stares inside the gym thinking. "What could she be doing?" His phone dings and opens to Adrian text saying its clear to go in.
He then gets out of the bush and quickly heads inside the gym. He rushes to the bowl and empty plastic bag scanning the area seeing what and why she could be doing this.
He took out his phone and was only able to take one picture of the whole thing before getting a text from Adrian saying, "Veronica is out!"
"Ok ok go to the library now!" Andy texts looking around to find a place to hide.
The two boys head into the library seeing it empty except with her backpack and her books on one of the tables.
"It looks like she was studying for a bit." Adrian says looking at one of her notebooks.
"Yeah, but for what?" Vince asks, looking around the area. Adrian stops looking at the books and follows Vince along searching the area too.
Andy uses his phone light to help look around the gym trying to find where to hide. The only place was the stage curtain. He runs behind it and kneel down heavily breathing from the fear of being exposed.
After a second Veronica enters with a relieved. "Thank god." And heads back to what she was doing. She takes out a match from her pocket and lights it, staring at it making sure it's big enough for the bowl. She puts it in and quickly takes out the piece of paper and holds out her arm on her side.
She starts saying an incantation: Running Man Running Man te invito a lo que planeé. When she repeats it, the fire goes out. Andy catches a sight from the big windows on the walls of the gym. The wind had started to pick up and the leaves on the trees move furiously. The lights of the gym start to flicker and with one in the back corner bursting in sparks scarring both Andy and Veronica.
Once she says the incantation for the third and last time all of the lights go out leaving her and Andy in the dark wondering what happened. Veronica takes a deep sigh and shouts, "Running Man show yourself te invito a lo que planeé!"
Her shouting frightened Andy wondering who this "Running Man?" was. The fire that went out lit up again, but with the color blue instead of it's usual color red.
"Is it working?" Veronica hopes while stepping back hoping it worked.
"What the hell is going on?" Andy thought seeing what was happening with the fire.
The lights that blew out flickered until they stopped at a darker and faded shade of light shining out of them. Veronica looks around to see if anything is different and stops facing a young blue boy standing a few feet in front of her and away from the bowl.
Veronica is stunned while Andy is freaking out that a boy just appeared out of nowhere. "How the hell did he get there? Where did he come from?" He asks to himself as Veronica has a conversation with him.
He takes out his phone first to take a picture (making sure the flash and sound is off) and records a video for the others.
"Hey, you're the Running Man?" Veronica asks gentilly.
The boy nods, "Yeah, that's what they call me?"
"Uh Yeah, I didn't share your name out to anyone and since you were very popular as a good runner at school they stuck with that."
The boy comes closer with an angry look. "The only reason that people call me that is because I was afraid of what the bullies would do to me if they found out what my real name was and probably used it against me."
"Wow ghosts are evil." Andy comments.
The boy says getting angry then shakes. "But the bullies aren't around anymore. You are free from them." Veronica reassures calmly and quietly.
The boy's head shakes. "NO! They are still out there running like they are the champions of the world!" The boys starts pacing back and forth with frustration.
"That's because you're an angry ghost living in the same era that you lived in." Veronica shouts.
"You're wrong!" The boy shouts back suddenly stopping his pace.
"Then is the gym different?" Veronica asks, putting up her hands presenting the gym he knew.
The boy looks around the gym seeing the raisers folded up the big closed windows above them, the banners that show all the teams who have won championships and special games from previous years. He caught a glimpse of the stage seeing how different it looks compared to his time.
"Wait, what year is this?" The boy asks calmly and softly looking confused.
"It's 2016. What year did you think it was?"
"1964." He says, with shock.
"You were attacking people that you thought were from your time period." Veronica sighs. "But all you were doing was hurting people who were from my time period."
"I'm sorry." He says looking her in the eyes.
She nods. "It's ok." She sighs relieved he isn't angry anymore.
"I know why you were doing this and get why, but it's not worth it."
"Why isn't it worth it?" The boy asks.
"Because you know how much the pain hurts, and yet you are having the same pain or almost the same pain inflicted to the people who don't even know you." Veronica shakes her head. "If you really know how the pain and hurt feels then you shouldn't be wanting that for others. Not even the bullies."
The explanation hits both the running man and Andy. The boy looks down thinking about everything he has done. "If you are sorry, then heal the people you have hurt and go to your place in heaven."
The boy looks up hearing that last part of the sentence. "How do you know that I was in heaven?"
Veronica scoffs. "An innocent boy like you and a really good runner deserves to be in heaven where no one would hurt him again and find peace."
The boy nods with a smile. "Alright. Deal."
She smiles with glee.
The boy raises his hand and snaps his fingers making the blue fire go out and the lights turning to their usual brightness.
Veronica chuckles with excitement. "That was awesome!" She says under her breath.
"That was freaky." Andy comments. He looks down on his phone looking at the photo and video. "Vince and Adrian are not going to believe this."
Once Veronica gathers her stuff up her phone suddenly starts to vibrate in her pocket. She takes it out seeing her dad texted and alarmed her that he is going to be by the school in a few minutes. When she puts the phone away she cleans up her mess on the floor and puts it back in the plastic bag to rush out of the gym.
Andy steps out of the curtain and looks to see if she could be coming back. He see's Veronica walking towards the library and texts Adrian's phone warning them that she is on her way back.
Adrian gets it before Veronica is ready to head out the door. The boys rush out of the library and ran to the hallway they were at earlier before Veronica rushed into the library to pack her stuff.
The boys meet up with each other near the entrance of the gym, but hidden behind a corner of a Special Ed classroom.
"Guys!" Andy whispers looking into the hallway where Vince and Adrian were running in.
Adrian waves as they run, "You would not believe what happened there!" Andy whispers.
"Well good for you! We couldn't find anything in the library." Vince mentions.
"Wait, did we miss the show?" Adrian asks.
Andy nods. "Yeah Maybe."
"Aww" Adrian groans.
"And there she is now." Vince mentions pointing out Veronica walking to the pick up lot and getting in her van.
They turn back at each other with Vince's phone buzzing. Vince takes a look and sees his mom text. "Dang it, My mom is here to pick me up."
"Really this early?" Andy asks.
"Remember my sister was talking about colleges today? Now my mom wants me to join them in their conversation so 'I'm ready to do it too'." He quotes as he is annoyed.
"Ok I'll call you." Andy tells him as he runs to get his things.
"Actually, I have to go too." Adrian mentions.
"What, why?" Andy complains.
"My dad texted me that my big brother is picking me up and you know how he can get me when I'm not on time."
Andy sighs. "Alright I'll set up a video chat tonight so us three can talk about what I saw."
Adrian gives a thumbs up. "Ok got it."
He rushes down the hall and picks up his stuff and waves Andy off. He takes a deep breath. "Oh my god my best friend is a witch!" He thinks, maybe because of the wind or fear. He looks around seeing barely anyone there.
"I should probably ask my mom to pick me up. He gets out his phone. His mom soon picks him up having all the three guys video chatting at their houses.
"Guys, Veronica really did a spell and summoned a ghost!" Andy says trying to whisper well enough on video chat.
"Now there's ghosts?" Adrian asks, annoyed.
Andy puts his hands up trying to quiet Adrian. "Wait until you guys see this." He pulls up the photo on the chat sharing his screen.
"What is that supposed to be?" Vince asks as he and Adrian look closely at their screens.
"It's a picture of when Veronica and the supposedly "Running Man." were talking.
"Is the 'Running Man' the blue guy?" Vince asks.
Andy takes a glance at his phone. "Yeah I think so. I thought it was mostly sky blue."
"Are you sure it's a ghost?" Adrian asks, still not believing.
"Yes, and there is more." He pulls up the video he uploaded on his computer.
"You took a video too?" Vince asks wondering.
"Of course I did. In case a certain someone didn't believe me after I showed the photo." Andy glances at Adrian.
"Hmphm" Adrian crosses his arm angrily.
Andy clicks on the video tab and plays it replaying all the events in the gym, from the part where Veronica starts the incantation to when the lights come back on after the conversation.
"Is that enough proof for you?"
Adrian scratches his head. "Okay maybe I should have waited until you got proof so I wouldn't jump to any conclusions."
Andy crosses his arms leaning back on his chair smirking. "Yeah you should have!" He shouts.
He waves his arms in defeat. "Ok ok I was wrong!"
"Thank you!"
"Vince what do you think?" Andy asks.
"Umm I'm still processing the fact that there was a ghost. I...I mean how the heck did she summon what she called "The Running Man."?"
Andy sits up. "That's what we have to figure out."
"You didn't get a good look at the ingredients she put in the bowl?" Adrian asks.
Andy shakes his head. "No you texted me that Veronica was coming before I got the chance to."
Vince sighs, "So what do we do now?"
The boys sit back on their chairs trying to think. "I think I got a plan." Andy mumbles.
"Of course you do." Adrian mumbles back.
"What is your plan then Adrian?" Vince asks.
"Uhh." Adrian sighs thinking for a few seconds.
"That's what we thought." Andy cuts in.
"Ok Andy, your plan?" He asks, giving up.
Andy sits up. "It's not that specific or difficult. All we do is just confront Veronica with the video and photo as evidence, so she wouldn't be able to deny it."
The other two nod. "Ok but where? We can't just yell out 'Hey there's Veronica the witch! And we have proof!' out loud to everyone." Adrian mentions making the others laugh.
"Besides you keep saying she is your best friend, and you wouldn't want to expose her in front of everyone right?" Vince asks, smirking.
Andy nods, putting a finger up to his chin thinking. "Right, ok we could ask her with the evidence tomorrow before school, brunch, lunch or after school whenever she is free and alone, so we could just ask her."
"That could work." Adrian agrees.
"Yeah, but all of us?" Vince asks, with concern.
Andy nods confidently. "Of course if only two or one of us is not there she could suspect one of us not knowing and possibly do something to them."
"Since she's a witch?" Vince asks unclearly.
"Yup." Andy responds.
"So were we clear? Confront Veronica whenever she is free and alone then show her the evidence so she can't deny any of it?" Adrian clears up the plan.
The two guys nod, "Ok guys I guess that's all for the call." Andy announces.
Adrian sighs with exhaustion. "When are we going to go on a normal call? You know, for homework or normal conversations?"
Andy nods. "We just have to figure out what's going on with Veronica first."
The others sigh and agree with exhaustion. "Bye guys." Andy waves. They wave back and say their goodbyes.