“What?!” Annora screeched, throwing her hands to her head. Rachel looked like she was about to vomit. Mr Fletcher quickly ran to Rachel’s side.

“Hey, Annora,” he said calmly, “I just need to you keep really still for minute, all right?”

“What is it? What is it?” Annora panicked.

“Annora, love, please just keep still,” as much as she tried, Rachel could not make her voice sound calm.

At the base of Annora’s skull was an open wound. The flesh surrounding it was black and bruised and burnt. Fresh tissue had begun to grow back in shiny red leaves and flakes that tried to snake their way across Annora’s exposed milky skull.

“Sue, you’re a healer, right? Can you try and fix this?”

“Oh my,” Sue uttered quietly when she saw Annora’s head. “I don’t know if I can,” she whispered.

Annora wept harder, taking large gulps of air between her heavy sobs.

Maggie and Tonia crouched on either side of Annora, holding her hands. Jessa simply watched on with a hand over her mouth, until Flynn joined her and put his arm around her shoulder.

“It’s not working, I'm not strong enough by myself,” Sue said, inspecting the wound again. She moved her hands a little closer to Annora’s head and closed her eyes again, using all the power she could to begin the healing process.

“Maybe I can help,” Matt Allerton joined Sue. He clasped one of his hands around hers, and they each held their free hands over Annora’s head.

A low gurgle came out of Annora’s mouth. Her body stopped shuddering with tears and became very still. Her head drooped forward.

Suddenly, her mouth opened painfully wide and let out a disturbing roar. Everyone jumped back as Annora rose from the ground, her head forced back. She hovered, stuck in mid-air, vibrating as a translucent grey mist vaporised from her body.

“I think it’s working! Keep going!” Jessa yelled over Annora’s bellowing.

Sue and Matt bounded back into action, joining hands again and transmitting all the healing energy they could muster into Annora’s quivering form. Her deep howl started to form words, slurred and exaggerated like a recording playing in slow motion. Jessa knew the phrase well.

“We mark the path for his mighty resurrection.”

“We can’t hold it much longer—we need more energy!” Sue begged of the other parapsychs. Hugo Fletcher, Rachel, Henrik and Detective Cane rushed out of their astonished, frozen states and to the sides of the healers. They all lay their hands on Matt and Sue and leaned in, pulsing their own psych energy into their Agency counterparts. Howard stayed across the room with his back pressed against the wall, frigid in terror.

Annora’s friends watched on helplessly as the grey smog continued to escape her body and the words slowed even further, dribbling like slugs from her mouth. Jessa glanced over at Dr Mortlock, who had deliberately not aided the others but instead stood near the four other teenagers, arms outstretched, poised to protect them if required.

With one final spit, the last psychotic words drained from Annora Huff’s vocal chords and she slumped onto the ground below as the last wisps of the dark haze seeped from her body and into the room, slowly dissipating into nothingness.

The adult parapsychs broke their connection and caught their breath. Rachel keeled forward, resting her hands on her knees, finding her strength again. Sue's legs buckled and she was caught by Hugo Fletcher, who helped her to a seat on the ground.

#

“Annora, can you hear me?” Tonia cradled Annora’s skinny body in the back of Mr Fletcher’s car. She hugged Annora’s torso closer to her own, stroking her bushy red hair soothingly. “Why aren’t we there yet?” Tonia urged Mr Fletcher, who tapped his fingers, rhythmic and impatient, on the steering wheel of the car as they waited at a red light.

“We’re going to Morelands Hospital. It’s a little further away.”

“Can’t we just take her to the closest one?”

“Morelands has more experience with… this kind of thing,” he said.

“You mean parapsych-related things?”

“Well, not specifically. It’s a psychiatric hospital, but given the recent circumstances, they have had more experience with parapsych patients.”

“You mean Emmeline Victor?” asked Flynn.

“Exactly,” the teacher nodded.

They pulled up to the hospital’s emergency entrance. Hugo Fletcher disregarded the parking lines entirely, stopping the car diagonally across them, as close to the entrance as possible.

He pulled Annora’s still unconscious body from Tonia in the backseat and rushed inside.

Within seconds, a team of nurses in white scrubs were pushing a wheeled bed over to them.

Jessa was quickly overwhelmed by the brightness of hospital lights and the clinical smell in the air that wasn’t quite overpowered by synthetic lavender air fresheners. She sat down next to Maggie on the hard waiting room seats. The clunky roll of the bed and the hastened chatter of adults faded as they pushed Annora away down a corridor.

Tonia tried to follow them, but Flynn held her back.

She sighed loudly and stared into his eyes. He stared back, taking in everything about her; her shoulders drooping, her face distraught, the dark wisps escaping her ponytail. Her bottom lip trembled as she held back tears.

Flynn threw both of his arms around her and pulled her into him, and there, just standing in the centre of the hospital waiting room, he held her until her eyes dried up.

Mr Fletcher finally came back out to the waiting room. “They have a lot of tests and scans to do.”

“She’s going to be okay, though, isn’t she?” Tonia asked.

“I really don’t know, Tonia. Her state right now is… unprecedented, I suppose.”

“What about Annora’s parents, Mr Fletcher?” Flynn asked.

“The doctors are calling them right now.”

“Can we stay until she’s awake?” Tonia asked.

“Even if she wakes up soon, she’s been through a lot, so we won’t be able to see her for a while.”

Tonia nodded sadly.

“Would you guys mind if Audrey comes to pick you up? I’d like to be here when Annora’s parents arrive.”

“What are you going to tell them?”

Mr Fletcher took a deep breath. “The truth. They deserve that much.”

On the ride home, Audrey didn’t try to distract the kids from their racing thoughts. Instead, she let the rumble of the road speak for itself. Jessa, in the passenger seat, rested her head back on the headrest and stared, unfocused, at the road ahead. Maggie, behind her in the back seat, closed her eyes.

Flynn looked down at Tonia’s hands in her lap. He took his nervous hand and placed it gently atop hers, and she took it graciously, clasping her fingers around his. For the rest of the journey they remained. Overwrought, overtired, and intertwined.