School Night

The Theological College of St Van Helsing

Cover art by AoS Covers

School Night

Penny Bailey closed the door to her tiny apartment, and leaned against it, head back. Finally, she was alone. She slid the bolt across. Who would have thought running this Special School, the cheesily-named Nocturn Seminary, would be so exhausting? The kids were certifiable nightmares but the teachers had to encourage their anger, to harness the children’s potential. Today was a prime example.

***

Once the state-mandated Mathematics and English were completed, the class collected in the Mental Gymnasium. Painted on the walls were images of witches burning at the stake.

“That’s you,” Penny said. “That’s you, if they catch you.”

The oldest student, Jamie, said, “They’ll never catch me.”

“It’s a lie,” Henrietta said. “No one is killed in this country anymore, no matter what their crime.”

“The Witch-Finders of the College only follow their own laws,” Penny said. “And their laws are ancient.”

Hunter vs Hunted was today’s game. Penny split them up. “Henrietta, since you are so clever, you can lead the ‘College’ team. Jamie, you will lead the ‘Witches’—five minutes head start before Henrietta ‘Van Helsing’ is after you.”

Jamie’s grin wore sharp, carnivorous teeth. Henrietta rolled her eyes and gathered her team of five into a huddle. Four teachers spread around the gym, to prevent the students from killing each other.

Penny sidled closer to the College team.

“She’s just put us in this team cos she thinks we’re worthless,” Henrietta said, stoking their anger.

“We’ll show her,” the youngest child said, sparks crackling from his fingertips.

***

Penny smiled with hooded eyes. Dave needed that potential.

As she rested against the door, she fiddled with the jet necklace she always wore. Dave had given it to her as a reward for the first job done for him.

***

“He failed me!” Dave stormed into the laboratory he kept in the basement of his London house.

Penny cowered back against the workbench. His anger exploded out from him like a solar flare. Her movement caught his attention.

“You.” He stared at her. “You will make a Curse Ring as a parting gift from me.”

“A Curse Ring?” She frowned in concentration. Then a smile lit up her face, she could finally prove her skills to him. “Yes, I know just the thing.”

“Get on with it.” He stalked away.

He’d been impressed with the results. “Why roses?”

He studied the copse of feral flowers. They whispered and squirmed as they imprisoned the failure behind their sharp barbs.

Penny shrugged. “I like roses. Plus, he’ll make good fertiliser for them when he dies.”

They walked away as the man’s screams were covered by the shushing of the rose bushes as they waved in the breeze.

***

With the jet beads focusing her strength she had completed the task to his satisfaction. She shook her head. No, that memory was wrong. She’d received the necklace as a reward, not before the task. When had her dreams of magic turned to death? That didn’t matter either. Her fingertips smoothed the heavy, polished spheres. They soothed her, like worry beads.

Dave Green had it all worked out. The paper he wrote bogged Penny down with all the esoterica as she read through his reasoning. Some people hadn’t received the education he had. Even then, the so-called College of St Van Helsing had thrown him out before he completed the course. The College didn’t take girls. Penny clenched her fists. They thought she’d give up her dream of magic. But she never had, never would.

***

“You’re sure this Spirit is there?” Penny asked. It was daring on her part. You never knew when Dave would erupt into anger.

Tonight, his mood was mellow. “It’s confined there all right. Quarrying nearby has disturbed the Binding. I walked the circles and it spoke.”

“So, it’s in Yorkshire,” Penny said. “That place is very near my brother’s house. They will be watching it.”

Dave shook his head. “If they were watching, they would have noticed the weakening of their prayers.”

“And we’re going to release it?”

“In return for favours,” Dave said. “It’s sure to want revenge on the people who put it there.”

***

And that was the point. The people who bound it in the triple circle were also the ones who scorned both Dave and Penny. With the aid of that Spirit, Dave could finally take his revenge on his former colleagues. And so could Penny.

Together, they had set up the Seminary. Anger enhanced power, so the teachers taught the children to embrace it. As far as Penny could work out, they’d need all the power available to free the spirit from its binding.

With the students finally in bed, and lights out, Penny grabbed a bottle of wine and a glass and sank onto her sofa. She eased off her shoes and elevated her aching feet. A sip from the wine. In the end, it would be worth all the effort to bring down the College that had accepted her (male) brother and (male) cousin but wouldn’t accept (female) her.

Not long now. She sank back into the tapestry cushions. Something dug into her hip. Angrily, she sat up, nearly spilling her wine. She fished among the sofa cushion. Her nails scraped on hard plastic. She pulled it out. Ah! The TV remote control.

Another wriggle to get comfortable. Aim. Fire. An arrow of light opened the secret ways. God, she was so tired she was getting all mystical about the remote control now. The television erupted into life.

Singing filled the room. Penny blinked at the bright light. It was one of those Californian programmes. A telephone number scrolled across the bottom of the screen. They sang better than the students at the Seminary did in the morning assembly. The expressions of constipated ecstasy on the faces of the TV singers were meant to inspire. Penny giggled and took another sip of her wine as she flicked to another channel, hunting for the news.

Now was the time to relax.

She hit one of the oldest channels. It used to be on terrestrial television. Harmless, comforting even. A bit of tree-hugging. Lots of Gaia and blessed be all over the place. Grainy now, it didn’t translate well into the digital age, but was good for nostalgia lovers. She wasn’t in the mood for mother love, not after a hard day with the kids. She flicked the remote for the next channel.

Not subscribed to this service. If you wish to join us, telephone…

Now what was happening? This channel shouldn’t be here. The Dark Cable company must have shuffled all the channels about again. This should have been that new channel she found, a good one. Now, she’d have to go looking for it again.

The door to her apartment swung open and Dave Green strode in.

“I locked that door.” Penny set her wine on the coffee table next to the remote. A splash of red, like blood, smeared over the polished wood.

She jumped to her feet as Dave closed the door.

“Tell me about the sacrifice,” Dave said.

“This could wait until tomorrow,” Penny said. “I need to rest after smiling at all your chosen monsters all day. We only just got the last of them to sleep.”

Dave checked his watch. “Put a spell on them. You know how.”

“And they know how to cancel it.”

“I’m glad to hear that they have progressed so far.” Dave closed the gap between them and rested a hand on the heavy necklace of jet beads. “Tell me about the sacrifice.”

Penny’s irritation drained away. “She’s the niece of one of their big guns. Did she think we wouldn’t do a check on her background? Anyway, she came to us saying she wanted to learn magic because the College wouldn’t let her in.”

“Is that true?”

“I don’t know if she even applied,” Penny said. “But I think she’s as much a spy as that trainee we had at the lecture last month.”

“She sounds perfect,” Dave said. “But let’s check to make sure she’s not telling the truth.”

A remnant of the anger surged up in Penny. “Why don’t you do it?”

His hand stroked the beads around her neck. “Because you are so much better at scrying than I am.”

“But…” She tried to formulate a reason why he should do his own work. Exhaustion overwhelmed her.

His hands came full around her neck, forming a necklace of their own. “You will do what you are told.”

Fog slid over her mind. “I will do what I am told.”

The hands released. “Now, perform the scrying, because you are good at it.”

“Oh yes.” Penny smiled at the praise. “Yes, I am.”

Dave rested his hands on her shoulders and directed her to sit on the sofa. “Just a quick scry, to make sure we’re not about to sacrifice a potential ally.”

“Potential ally,” Penny parroted. “No, we wouldn’t want to sacrifice someone who could help us.”

She blinked as she sat down. What was she doing? Scrying. Picking up the TV remote, she said, “I’ll run the channels on shuffle and see what shows up.”

“You’re sure that works?” Dave asked.

“It’s just the same as jamming your finger into the Bible with your eyes shut,” Penny said. “I’ve seen you do that often enough. A holdover from your religious training, is it?”

His smile was reflected on the TV screen. “I see.”

The screen was still on the message. Not subscribed to this service. If you wish to join us, telephone…

Penny closed her eyes and flicked to a channel at random.

Inverted pentacles filled the screen.

“What the fuck is this?” Dave said.

“This is the ‘inverted emergency number’ channel,” Penny said. “Emergency… oh, 999. I see what you mean.”

“You set up the Dark Cable, don’t you know about the channels?”

“I made a suggestion,” Dave said. “I don’t run it.”

Penny shrugged. “This channel never changes. The imagery’s a bit predictable, all inverted pentacles and crosses. They’ve done the studio out in black and a sort of dull scarlet.”

“And what do you read from that?”

“It’s the collection of channels taken together that tells the story,” Penny said. “But that looks like a favourable start if we’re standing against the College.”

“Okay, what’s next?”

Penny shut her eyes again, and concentrated while flicking the channel.

“Oh, my God! What is she doing?” Dave said.

Penny opened her eyes, quickly. She took in the scene. A naked woman poured a red sauce over her body.

“It’s a recap of the Day of the Dead celebrations in Mexico,” Penny said. “I think it’s chili sauce, to prove she’s possessed.”

Penny quickly flicked the channel. That was not something she wanted to watch.

The Witchhunter channel came on screen.

Dave wrinkled his nose. “What’s the perversion they intend to stamp out this week?”

“No idea. Can you do something to remove it from the basic package?”

“I like seeing what the other side is up to,” Dave said. “Have you got a reading yet?”

Penny shook her head. “It’s a bit mixed, so far.”

She focused on her question as she flicked to the next channel. Is she the right sacrifice?

A very serious channel appeared. Lots of incense, with the vicars dressed in good costumes, making for fine theatre. Sometimes, the programmes on this channel were more extreme than the Witchhunter channel.

Is she the right sacrifice?

Flick.

Crack. Sprinting. Cheers. The baseball channel, of course. No help at all. Dave would be furious if she couldn’t answer the question. She flicked at random and reached a foreign language channel. No subtitles, but it looked like a good soap opera.

Flick.

A channel came up that she had bookmarked. It was one of her favourites but…

Intermission. All your favourite shows can now be seen on the Witchhunter channel.

Penny’s hands slackened in shock. The remote slid to the floor. The information was very clear. Not the answer he wanted, but something else.

“The opposition, they’re looking for us,” she said. “Can you bring forward the ritual?”

THE END

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