Last week we peered into the mists of the Starry Realm, the place where the spirit of the dagger, Belinda, resides. Hailey and Belinda discussed the implications of the spell used to defeat Belladonna, the Malleus Malleficarum. Yet a far more pressing concern weighed down upon them all the while, for Bella lies but a few doors down recovering in a hospital bed and the spell that transformed her into the mistress of mixtures, Belladonna, courses through her veins even now.

The urge to obtain vengeance lies in her still, wriggling itself through her unconscious mind and filling her thoughts with the sweet screams of the bullies. In her dreams, Belladonna murders her enemies in ever more psychotic fashion, indulging in the succulent screams they give off as they succumb to her poisons. Poor Bella fights to remain in control, pushing back against the beast burning in her body. Her stamina may not be enough, however, and the moment she falters is the moment Belladonna is reborn. Still, for the time, this fight is Bella’s to lose.

A light tapping on the door rouses Bella from her fitful slumber, struggling to bring herself to a sitting position she looks up in time to see Hailey Penze enter. “Hey Bella, how are you feeling?” she asks.

Smiling and pushing her glasses up, Bella answers, “The hospital gave me new glasses” with a mock glare at Hailey she continues, “You broke my other pair.”

Relaxing slightly Hailey replies, “Well you did attack first” as she sits on the end of the hospital bed. Grinning at the mousey haired girl she says, “Hey you remember how I said you should meet Belinda?”

Curiously, Bella answers, “Yes? Why?”

Hailey lets the silence mount as she glances around the room and quietly pushes the door shut. Then she walks over to the bed once again, this time holding a dagger in her hands. At first, Bella reacts with alarm, sputtering and trying to move back, away from the wicked looking metal. Then she relaxes as she gets a clearer look and recognizes the weapon from photos and the earlier fight.

With a sigh, she places a hand over her heart and says to Hailey, “Jeez, you know I’m already in the hospital right? No need to give me a heart attack.”

Cheerfully, her companion answers with, “Just giving you an excuse to stay longer!” Then her expression sobers, “On that subject, how goes the ‘turning into an evil monster who hungers for the blood of the somewhat innocent’ problem?”

Sighing, Bella says, “I’m having dreams of becoming her again. I think I’m okay for now and a while longer but I can tell the spell is still inside me, waiting to take control.”

With an expression of disappointment, Hailey frowns. “I was hoping you were wrong, Bel and I… well she needs to meet with you directly to come up with a solution. It’s time for you to meet Bel.”

“How do I do that? Am I going to touch the dagger and mind meld or something?” Bella replies excitedly, for the moment putting aside her concerns regarding her strange dreams. The young girl’s excitement at the prospect of magic, even after all the terrible consequences of her earlier spell, brings a smile to Hailey’s face.

“Nope! You just get to sit back, relax, and let me work.”

Nervously, Bella replies, “Well here’s to hoping you’re a better witch than you are friend” seeing the look of contrition on her counterpart’s face she quickly amends with, “only lately, I mean.”

Fixing her expression, Hailey focuses on her task on declines to offer a reply. Still, her expression reveals how much the unintentional barb stung. After a minute of hand motions and murmuring a glow suffuses the room, when it recedes, the two girls slumber peacefully.

In the Starry Realm, things are not quite so peaceful. “Oh my God! What happened to my clothing, you never mentioned this!” shouts Bella at her friend. Face flaming she tries to cover herself as Hailey pipes up, saying, “Sorry! I forgo-”

“Look away, look away!” Bella shouts, waving her hand in front of Hailey’s face, trying to obscure her view. With the both of them now embarrassed, Hailey quickly pivots and rolls out of the bed, grabbing a pair of the purple robes from the beam of light and tossing one behind her to Bella.

“You reek of magic girl,” says Belinda, calmly making her way over from the library.

Confused, Bella glances at Hailey for support before she smooths her wrap and offers a hand to the spirit. When Belinda does not take it, she inhales slowly and says, “Hello, nice to meet you ma’am. I’m Bella Atropa.” She ends her words on a lilt, giving Belinda space to introduce herself.

Leaving Bella’s hand, and the implied question, hanging in the air Belinda slowly walks around the girl, surveilling her from all angles. As she does, her expression becomes more and more grave until, by the time she completes her circuit and stands face to face with Bella once more, her face is an ominous cloud of worry and concern. “Belinda Athow,” she slowly utters.

“C-can you help me?” Bella asks, clearly unnerved by the woman’s demeanor.

Hailey chimes in with a firm and reassuring, “Yes. Bel and I can definitely help you, right Bel?”

Belinda, however, demurs with a terse, “We will try.”

Then walking back to the library, she begins to conjure the books lain aside earlier by herself and Hailey. Bella’s eyes widen slightly at the casual display of magic, as she does her nervousness finally wears off and she takes a longer look at the Starry Realm in all its misty glory. Stupefied at the strange geography she almost loses herself in observation until Belinda snaps her back to reality with the sudden thud of a book hitting a table.

“Girl, if you would not mind paying attention, we are trying to save your life,” says an irritated Belinda.

Apologizing profusely, Bella rushes over and asks how she can help. Belinda sets her to work describing the book she used and the spell itself, after an hour of discussion Belinda announces, “Alright! I believe I know enough. I will need some time to consult my texts and then we may begin, girl I-” however Belinda suddenly stops speaking, for both her guests vanished unceremoniously from the room!

Back in the hospital, Bella finds herself waking groggily to a concerned looking nurse and pair of doctors. In the corner of the room, Hailey finds herself similarly woken. The pair exchanges wary glances before turning to the guests and waiting for them to speak. The first person to break the silence is the nurse, he clears his throat and says, “Alright doctors, as you can see she just wandered off to be closer to her friend. No conspiracy here, no reason to sound the alarm, so I’ll be heading back to the nurses station, buzz if you need me.”

The two doctors nod in unison. One is a middle-aged woman Bella recognizes, she handled her immediate treatment when she arrived at the hospital. The other is a balding, harried looking man with a robust physique for his years as he clearly has streaks of grey in his beard and enough wear and tear to his skin to mark him as a man in the twilight of his middle years.

Clearing his throat, the man speaks with a faint French accent, “These two are the students that were allegedly caught in the crossfire of this ‘magical’ battle at St. Cecilia’s?”

“Yes Dr. Oubt,” replies the female doctor with a frown, “although as I have said before, Eldritch Maiden and her foe, whoever it was, both clearly exhibited magical powers according to the police report. I hardly think you need-”

“I,” says the doctor, placing emphasis on the syllable as he cuts off his counterpart, “will be the judge of that. You may, however, call me Dwight. I prefer my first name amongst colleagues. As I said previously, what the inexperienced call magic I simply call ignorance. It is the duty of learned men and women to resist the allure of simply writing something off with so frivolous an explanation as ‘magic’ and instead rely on the power of our senses.”

Her frown turning into a scowl she ducks away to conceal, the female doctor rolls her eyes and gestures to Bella as she says, “Well either way the mayor and the parents granted your request to examine her so knock yourself out.” A hint of warning creeps into her voice as she continues speaking, “However, keep in mind that she is my patient and I will be very upset if you exhaust her with your interrogation.”

Waving aside her objections as she leaves the room, the doctor sits down on the end of the bed and gently asks Bella if she minds Hailey staying in the room. Bella shakes her head in assent and so Dr. Oubt begins asking the pair questions about the day and the injuries they sustained. Although his questions go quickly, Hailey becomes more and more agitated the longer it goes. Finally, as he concludes his inquiry and finishes talking over the finer points of her chart with Bella, the doctor stands and turns to leave.

Waiting outside the door for him is the female doctor who brusquely tells Bella, “Alright, I think that’s enough excitement for now. You go back to sleep and get some rest while I answer any and all follow up questions Dr. Oubt has.” She finishes her statement with a pointed look at the other doctor and a firm motion to shut the door. As the handle clicks, Hailey lets out an explosive breath, “God I thought he would never leave, I couldn’t contact Belinda that entire time, I wonder what happened?”

Bella turns to her friend confused, “I assumed your spell just automatically kicked us out if anyone tried to wake us up, you know so people wouldn’t assume you ended up in a coma or something.”

Hailey once again takes on a guilty expression as she shakes her head, answering with, “That’s a good idea, but no we should have just slept through that entire thing. Bel must be super annoyed right now. We’d better hop back in quick.” As she races through the spell, Hailey has the presence of mind to remind her friend about the lack of clothing on arrival and this time the pair appears on the bed and promptly roll off to grab robes without commenting on one another’s state of dress.

Belinda wanders back into the room with a slightly miffed expression as she says, “Well, that was interesting. Something blocked our communication.” With concern in her voice, she asks Hailey, “Have you eaten anything lately? You’ve had a trying day and you must be exhausted.”

Rolling her eyes, Hailey says to Bella, “She’s like an extra mom living in my head all the time. You have no idea how judgmental she can get, especially towards Theo.”

Unperturbed, Belinda replies, “I am simply concerned that you spend far too much time mooning over a mere boy.”

Bella cuts in with a pity voice as she pats Hailey on the back, “And I thought I was cursed, I’m so sorry Hailey, I can only imagine your suffering.”

Waving away her mock pity, Hailey says to Belinda, “So, about this ritual, when is it going to happen and what do we need to do?”

Her expression darkening, Belinda replies, “About that, girl,” she says turning to face Bella with a faintly sad expression on her face, “I am afraid I cannot remove this curse. Instead, we must employ a different tactic.”

With such a disheartening revelation, how will Bella fare? Will Belinda’s plan succeed, and indeed what is her plan? If Bella cannot escape the fate that dooms her to transform into Belladonna, have all Eldritch’s efforts been for naught? Will it fall to her to find a permanent solution to preclude another murderous rampage by her alter ego Belladonna? Find out next week in… “Irreversible!”