Ember sat on the floor of her dorm, eyes closed, in the middle of a circle of candles, holding up her raven necklace and a crystal of obsidian, also attached to a string.
GOODY was painted onto a big sign before her, and lots of items around it, inside the candles.
In case you're wondering, I don't hold seances very often. I can barely tolerate the living. Why would I want to commune with the dead?
She moved her mouth, whispering a sort of chant.
But my mother told me Goody is the only one that can train me to control my psychic ability. And the sooner I master that, the closer I am to cracking this case once and for all.
She chanted louder... she needed Goody to answer her... to tell her how to use her visions to her advantage...
Suddenly, the door opened and the draft blew the majority of the candles out, making Ember open her eyes. She turned to the door, somehow hoping for Goody to walk in-
But no. It was just Enid, dressed in all pink with her rainbow eyeshadow, walking into the room.
Ember gave an annoyed sigh.
"Sorry!" Enid held her hands out in front of her, shutting the door. "I didn't mean to interrupt your- uh... do I even wanna know?" She turned the lights on and Ember got up, stepping out of the candle circle.
"I was reaching into the black maw of death to contact a relative," she went and stood beside Enid, each on their respective side of the room, looking down at Ember's seance set up.
"Feels very on-brand for you," Enid shrugged, then she added. "You have a relative named Goody?"
"Yes. She was one of the original outcasts," Ember sighed. "I've been attempting to summon her but apparently she's ignored even my best of attempts."
"Oh, have you thought about using one of my scented candles?" Enid turned to her. "The aroma of steak tartare is to die for!"
"I intend to die for my case, if at all," Ember said. "But least of all for a candle."
Both suddenly turned as a note was slid under their room door.
"Hmm... maybe Goody answered you after all," Enid shrugged.
"I doubt she would communicate in something as trivial as magazine cut outs," Ember said, as she picked up the note and saw it made of lots of different cut out letters, stuck on to a bit of white card:
I𝒇 𝑦𝐨𝕦 ᗯ𝙖𝗇𝔱 ᗩ𝐧𝒔𝑤𝚎𝗋𝙨
ᗰᵉ𝗲𝚝 𝐢𝑛sⁱ𝘥𝙚
ᴄᖇ𝐚𝑐Տ𝙩𝗈𝚗𝒆'𝕤 𝒄𝐫𝑦𝕡ᴛ.
𝗺𝘪𝐝𝕟𝚒ᘜʜ𝒕.
Ember didn't hesitate to get ready.
It was twenty minutes to midnight.
❣︎❣︎❣︎
"Eeeh!"
Going on a walk with Enid through the woods was like listening to a broken record. She screeched every few seconds, her claws even sometimes coming out.
"You insisted on coming along," Ember finally said, metres from the door of the crypt. "I was fine on my own."
She climbed up the steps to the crypt, flashing her torch on the Jᴏsᴇᴘʜ Cʀᴀᴄᴋsᴛᴏɴᴇ carved into the archway.
She then looked to the door as Enid joined her on the top step. It was open. "Seems like our wannabe Deep Throat is already here," she said grimly.
As a kind of dead smell floated over, Enid scrunched up her nose. "Ew! What died?"
Meanwhile, Ember breathed it in happily. "Smells like childhood," she looked at Enid. "Come on."
But her roommate backed out as she ventured on. "On second thoughts, why don't I just stay out here? You know, as a... lookout."
Ember ignored her, the door slamming behind her.
The crypt was big, with a long corridor down to the big stone tomb, mounted on two circular steps.
She jumped as she heard something move behind her, but nothing was there when she turned round. That or it was skulking in the dark.
Wind blew leaves up to her ankles as she walked up to the tomb, her torch only slightly illuminating it. Once she was up into the circular chamber it was in, she stopped, looking around.
There was a clattering behind her.
"Enid?" She rotated on the spot, but the girl in pink wasn't behind her.
Then someone coughed from behind the tomb.
"Come out and I might let you go free. Try anything and you'll lose at least a finger, at worst a limb."
"SURPRISE!"
Ember's eyes widened as Wednesday, Xavier, Ajax, Bianca, Yoko, Kent and Davina came out from behind the tomb. All were smiling and shouting (except Wednesday) as they sung that dreaded song-
"Happy birthday to you,
Happy birthday to you,
Happy birthday dear Ember...
Happy birthday to youuuuuuu!"
Ember rolled her eyes. Since it was midnight, the clock had just turned on her sixteenth birthday. Not that she made a big deal of celebrating them.
Enid clearly did though, as she came from behind Ember with a cake that was covered in blood red icing with a sparkler on top. A fondant figure in a black cloak with an axe stood beside it, holding a pink balloon.
"I suppose you told everyone about this?" Ember asked Wednesday, as the singing.
"No. You know I think birthdays are a trivial waste of time that celebrate nothing but one's desire to die quicker," Wednesday rolled her eyes. "If you must know, it was-"
"Thing," Ember realised, as she saw the hand resting on a nearby ledge, a small party hat on his severed wrist. She leaned down to talk to him. "I should've known you were behind this. What part of no party under the penalty of death do you not understand?"
Thing shrugged.
"Well, I thought my cake design was pretty inspired," Xavier shrugged. "I knew a girl like you wouldn't want a rainbow cake like Enid was suggesting."
"Well, I got the pink balloon through you," Enid sighed, pointing to the touch she had added. "Why don't you make a wish?"
But Ember, meanwhile, had spotted something else; a carving, on the wall in the crypt. "Wait, it's Latin," she said, going over and kneeling down, translating it in her head. "Fire will rain... when I rise."
" 'Kay, that's not really a wish..." Enid was behind her, still holding the cake.
Ember, meanwhile, wasn't listening to her. "The first part of that phrase was burnt onto Nevermore's lawn."
"It can't be a coincidence," Wednesday was all up for this.
"Wait... we're never eating that cake, are we?" Ember was dully aware of Ajax saying behind her. However, she wasn't paying attention, she was reaching out to touch the phrase, hopefully inducing a vision-
She got what she wanted-
"Ember, what's happening-" she was aware of falling, and Xavier holding her head to stop it slamming against the concrete-
"Crackstone is coming."
She was lying on grass... hearing the same echo...
"Crackstone is coming."
But looking to the side, she saw Goody... she was inside a pair of big gates which had a broken and illegible sign on it... behind them stood a big house...
"Goody," Ember said, getting up.
"You are the Raven in my bloodline," Goody said. "Ember..."
She was suddenly not inside the gates... she was right beside Ember...
"I was told you could teach me how to control my ability," Ember said immediately to the blonde girl.
"There is no controlling a raging river. You must learn to navigate it without drowning," Goody spoke in a riddle, but Ember could understand it. "Time is not on our side."
She turned to the gates. "To stop Crackstone, this place you must seek."
She could read the sign now... PRIVATE PROPERTY, it read...
"Do you always speak in riddles?" Ember understood the first one, but this was getting hard.
"Do you always seek simple answers?" Goody answered questions with questions. "The path of a Raven is a solitary one. You end up alone with no one you can trust, always seeing the darkness within people."
Ember turned and raised her eyebrows. "Is that supposed to scare me?"
Goody had only one answer.
"It should."
❣︎❣︎❣︎
Ember would usually be spending the few precious minutes before class on the typewriter, but this time, she was drawing a picture of the gates that Goody had shown her. She had told her to seek that place to stop Crackstone.
Not that she got what this meant. It was the monster she needed to identify and take down. Goody had already taken care of Crackstone.
But either way, those gates and the house behind them were her next stop, as soon as she found out where it actually was.
"Careful. That's my cold shoulder," she said to Thing, as he climbed up on her shoulder.
"Don't blame Thing, the party was my idea," Enid spoke from behind her. "I believe everyone deserves to be celebrated on their birthday."
"Vilified is better," Ember said, still working hard at her drawing. It wasn't that good, mind.
"What happened? It looked like you were having a seizure?" Enid frowned.
"I wasn't that lucky," Ember sighed.
"Then Xavier rushed forward and caught you- it looked like he knew what was happening?" Enid asked.
"If would've preferred my head come into contact with the cold stone, rather than Xavier," Ember said. "But you can't choose in that situation."
Enid sighed, rolling her eyes. "Can I at least get some kudos for pulling one over on you?"
Ember lifted her pencil. "The subterfuge was impressive."
She turned at the sound of Thing tapping. He was single-fingeredly pulling a box out from under Ember's bed. Ember knew what it was, and went over immediately, looking at the letter on top first.
" 'May your sixteenth be as sour and misery-filled as your desire. Your ever-doting aunt and uncle'," she read from it.
"They asked Thing to hide it before they left on Parents Weekend," Enid said, as Ember saw what the present was. A taxidermy kit.
Just what she has wanted.
"Eeeewww!" Enid let out, as Ember opened the kit to see all the tools and chemicals, and three dead squirrels in ice on the other side. "That's actually disgusting!"
Ember turned and looked up at her. "I would've preferred live squirrels."
She shut the box for now, as class was almost starting. However, there was more surprises to come.
"Whilst we're still accepting presents..." Enid said, coming up behind her with a soft and squishy package wrapped in black with a red ribbon. Ember took it and unwrapped it.
Inside was something that looked sort of like a scarf, but sealed off. It was knitted from red wool, and had black tassels at the end.
"Do you like it?" Enid was wearing a happy expression.
"What... is it?" Ember wore an expression similar to flinching.
"It's a snood, silly!" Enid grinned. "I made it in your signature colours! And you wanna know what the best part is? I have one too!"
From under her arm, she pulled a pink snood with purple tassels and put it on. "We can wear them together, to class."
"Oh, Enid, this is far too unique to wear to something like class," Ember was half joking, holding her snood at arm's length. "I suggest we wait for a more special occasion."
Enid grinned and squealed.
"Like a funeral."
Her look became a bit less excited.
❣︎❣︎❣︎
Ember stood right before the R in FIRE WILL RAIN. The fire had been put out, but the grass was all black, still spelling out the words easily.
So now, Ember was trying to figure out who burnt them on, hopefully revealing more in the tangled mystery.
However, she was at no liberty to figure out anything as Xavier came and stood beside her. Ever since the Rave'N, where they had kind of hit it off, Ember had been going out of her way to avoid him. But she didn't know why.
"Last night, in the crypt, when I caught you, you had another vision, didn't you?" He asked her.
"I didn't realise we were back on speaking terms," Ember said, still looking down at the burnt lawn. "But I am perplexed to know why you've decided to make it your job to stop me hitting the ground every time I do get a vision."
Xavier smiled. "Don't wanna see you get hurt, that's all."
"Just so you know, I would fight against it if I could," Ember spoke harshly.
But Xavier just grinned. "I wouldn't expect any less. But- anyway, what d'you see? In your vision?"
"Who said I was ready to speak with you?" Ember asked, going back to the black lawn.
Xavier looked down. "You still think I'm the monster."
"Haven't ruled it out," Ember didn't look at him.
Xavier sighed. "So, going to the Rave'N... catching you after every vision I was there for... dancing with you on that floor... it meant nothing?"
"You should know I'm not going to be appealed by sentimentality and compliments," Ember rolled her eyes. "Insults would probably be better."
Xavier sighed. "Well, when you change your mind and want my help, you know where to find me."
He walked off to class, and left Ember, suddenly worrying that maybe she had made a friend into a foe.
But she wasn't going to show it.
Or admit that she had (maybe) made a mistake.
❣︎❣︎❣︎
"I've never been against birthdays," Ember said, sitting beside the bed and speaking to Eugene in the ICU. "Each one reminds me I'm a year closer to death's cold embrace. What's not to like about that? Besides, my mother always made sure my birthdays were memorable."
She remembered the one where she had been gifted a dead body to perform a cremation on.
"The perfect surprise."
The one where she had got a cake that had an actual archer on it, and an arrow that flew and impaled a fondant figure as well.
"The perfect cake."
When she had whacked a pinata filled wil scorpions, and the kids chanting "candy!" around her had screamed.
"The perfect party games."
The scorpions had crawled all over her, it felt amazing...
"But now, parties and presents and games, it..." Ember sighed, looking at the battered Eugene on the bed. "It all feels so trivial. Goody warned me I was destined to be alone... and that I would be sorry for it."
"Hm-hmm."
Ember turned to see Dr Kinbott at the door, carrying a bunch of peachy-yellow roses.
"Dr Kinbott," Ember stood up.
"I haven't seen you since our session with your family," Dr Kinbott smiled. "Which was... certainly one I won't forget. How are things with them?"
"My aunt and I spent some quality time together," Ember shrugged. "Got our hands dirty."
"Hm. Gardening?" Kinbott checked.
"Grave digging," Ember corrected.
"Hmm," the therapist made a frightened noise.
"And I managed to keep my uncle out of prison," Ember went on. Then she eyed the roses. "What brings you here?"
"Eugene's mums, I'm working with them. Trauma like this leaves emotional scars on the whole family," Kinbott answered, going over and placing the roses in a vase on the sideboard. "They had to head home for a few days, so I promised I'd check up on him."
"I'll leave you to it," Ember said quickly, collecting her bag and heading to the door-
"Who's Goody?"
Ember turned in the doorway, for it was Kinbott who had just asked the question.
"She's a very distant cousin," Ember answered. "Very distant."
"Sounds like she doesn't see you for who you truly are," Kinbott said, smiling. She had obviously heard all of what Ember had said about the girl.
"She sees more than you know," Ember retorted, considering this. "I want to assure you I remain as cold and heartless as the day we first met. I still go by do or die."
"I doubt a cold, heartless person would be sitting by her friend's bedside, feeling guilt for his condition," Kinbott said.
"I didn't ask for, nor do I want, a free session," Ember said coldly.
"Consider it my birthday gift," Kinbott smiled.
It wasn't Ember who was getting softer, the girl thought as she left.
Kinbott was getting stronger.
❣︎❣︎❣︎
Ember and Wednesday sat in a booth in the Weathervane, both looking at the book Ember was holding. It was about pilgrims.
When suddenly, a cup of coffee with Happy Birthday on top of it slid under her arm.
"I know you're usually a quad kinda girl, but I've been working on that all week," Tyler smiled, sliding into the seat opposite the two cousins.
"Birthday? Yes. Happy? Never," Ember looked up at him. "Is there anyone Thing didn't tell?" She looked at Wednesday.
Her cousin shrugged.
"Well, who d'you think delivered the cake?" Tyler shrugged. "I went with the blood red frosting, knowing your... preferred colour palette."
"Real blood? I'm interested," Ember went on.
Tyler laughed. "No, Ember, I... I could put real blood in a cake-"
"I would've preferred you to," Ember said.
"So, uh, is that, uh... Enid's gift?" He gestured to the snood.
Wednesday looked at it. "It's perfect if you're fleeing a war-torn country on foot," she surmised.
"Ember?"
Ember looked up and saw Xavier, standing right there. "Can I... speak to you?"
Ember rolled her eyes, standing up.
She followed Xavier out of the shop and then faced him in the alley beside it.
"Listen, uh... I want to apologise for, uh... trying to find out what happened in your vision," he said. "But I decided that since this day is all about you-"
"Everyday is all about me," Ember told him snidely. "This one just comes with cake and a bad song."
Xavier rolled his eyes. "Well, I can't deny the second part, but-"
"Xavier, I know you're trying to get something from me," Ember said, suddenly feeling in her pocket and finding the gates picture she drew. I have to ask Tyler about that...
"I just haven't figured out what you're after yet."
❣︎❣︎❣︎
Wednesday wasn't in the Weathervane five minutes later when Ember went in, and Tyler was back to work.
"Have you seen that before?" She asked, unfolding the gate drawing and placing it on the counter.
"Uh... what's that supposed to be?" Tyler asked. "Your drawing skills-"
"Are questionable, I know," Ember cringed. "But I need to know where these are. They're gates."
He gave her a blank look.
"Never mind," she took the picture back.
"Hey! Uh..." He stopped her on her way out the door.
"What, Tyler?" Ember questioned, turning back round.
"I was just wondering what your cousin was into, because, uh..." Tyler said. "I kinda asked her out... for tonight."
Ember didn't know what was happening to her. She genuinely didn't. All she knew was that next second, something was intoxicating her, and her eyes almost glazed over.
"Wednesday likes torture almost as much as me. Her favourite hobby is decapitating dolls on her guillotine; live animals if she can get them. And don't, under any circumstances, say anything to do with feelings. How did you even get her to agree to a date, anyway?"
Tyler smiled. "Well she hasn't really... agreed to anything yet. I just asked her."
Ember sighed, turning around as Sheriff Galpin came into the cafe.
Back to business.
"That threat burnt onto the lawn at school," she told him, as he walked towards his son at the counted. "It's also etched on the wall inside Crackstone's Crypt."
The sheriff just laughed. "Don't tell me you've been digging up more bodies."
"I'm saddened to say no," Ember retorted. "But there's a connection there, I know it."
"Alright, well I'll make sure I put out an APB on the dead pilgrim," the sheriff said sarcastically.
"This. Is not. A joke." Ember spoke firmly. "And I figured, since you not longer have an old vendetta to obsess over, you're free to solve some real crime."
The sheriff just watched on. "Your uncle and I buried the hatchet, maybe you should do the same!"
"I believe hatchets are never truly buried," Ember said. "But I'm willing to believe that, in the case of you and my uncle, this one is. So, I guess I have my answer on you and I's alliance."
Before she walked out, she confirmed it.
"It's non-existent."