There were few students up and about on the bright Saturday morning as Alexis stumbled from her room, head pounding and mouth dry. She wore a pair of borrowed sunglasses and a faded grey hoodie with the hood pulled up to cover her uncombed hair.

She winced as her phone buzzed again, and tapped almost angrily on the screen to dismiss the call. The same number had tried four times already that morning and it was barely six. She turned the phone off and slipped it into the back pocket of her jeans before pulling her dorm room door silently closed, leaving a gently snoring Beryl inside.

The previous night’s memories were a hazy blur, with just random images popping into her mind’s eye as she cringed and her cheeks heated. After Corbin had vanished, she had followed Beryl and Duron to the edge of the clearing where they had sat together, laughing and talking while polishing off several bottles of a fruity red wine.

After that, they had started on the vodka and things became truly difficult to remember.

Alexis pressed her fingers against her temples and gently rubbed the skin there, trying in vain to ease the headache. She made her way down to the bathrooms and drank from the cold water tap, before taking off the shades and splashing water over her face.

“Fuck,” she whispered to the empty room.

It had been a long time since she’d been hungover. Being drunk or high while living on the streets was not the safest option for a young woman. She preferred to keep her wits about her, but there had been something in the air at the party that had stripped all her inhibitions away.

Her cheeks heated at the memory of the girl she had kissed. That had been a first for her too, and while pleasant enough, was not something she wanted to make a habit of. All she needed was another reason to be singled out by the other students.

“You okay?”

Alexis turned her head, wincing at even that small movement. Tish stood in the doorway, her cat familiar perched on her shoulder. Its golden eyes were fixed on her and she managed a shy smile for the strange girl.

“Hungover.”

Tish considered that for a moment and then grinned. “First seniors party can be a bit rough.”

“Aye, tell me about it.”

Alexis splashed another handful of cold water onto her face and wondered if the churning in her stomach would pass without the need to vomit.

“Next one will be easier,” Tish said, crossing the room to a washbasin a short distance from Alexis. “Or so I hear.”

“You didn’t go?”

Tish reached up to scratch her familiar behind the ears and snorted. “No, Casper doesn’t like it, so I could go, but I’d not be able to see anything.”

“Fair enough.” Alexis sucked in a deep breath, holding it for a moment before releasing it. The churning didn’t subside.

The two girls went about their business in silence, Tish brushing her teeth while Alexis kept her head bowed over the sink. After the blind witch had finished, her familiar turned its eyes back on Alexis.

“I guess you won’t be headed down for breakfast.”

It was Alexis’s turn to laugh as she shook her head, screwing her eyes shut at the pain the movement brought to her already throbbing skull. “No, I think I’ll just stay here for a little bit.”

She looked over towards the door as it swung open and a dour-faced woman in the uniform of the Academy staff walked in. The woman had greying brown hair tied up in a bun and carried a mop and bucket with her. She didn’t look at either of the girls or speak, just quietly set about filling the bucket with hot water from the sink.

Alexis watched her for a minute, wondering at the stoic expression and utter lack of interest in the two students. She glanced at Tish. “Do they know…”

“About magic?”

“Yeah.”

“It doesn’t matter.” Tish pulled a hairbrush from a pocket on her baby-blue, fluffy bathrobe and began to run it through her hair. “Why?”

“Well, just trying to know how it works. If magic’s a big secret, why are there so many staff members who aren’t witches?”

Like the gardeners that she had seen working on the grounds or the kitchen staff in the dining hall. There was any number of roles and tasks that were beneath the notice of the witches that needed to be done, and it seemed that a silent workforce was there to do them.

Tilly laughed, a high pitched sound that cut right through Alexis’s skull. “You have your Sight Ring, yeah?”

“This?” Alexis held up her hand with the slim brass ring she had enchanted herself, and Tilly nodded.

“Touch it.”

Giving the strange young witch a confused look, Alexis did as prompted and pressed her thumb against the brass ring. Nothing immediately sprang to her attention and she focused her gaze on the cleaner.

“Holy crap!” She stumbled back, eyes wide and horror on her face as Tish’s laughter increased. The cleaning woman continued on with her work, indifferent. “What the hell was that?”

Tish didn’t immediately reply and with more than a little trepidation, Alexis pressed her thumb against the brass ring again. Prepared this time, she didn’t react as she stared at the cleaning woman.

With the magic of the ring, everything about the woman had changed. There was a greyish tinge to her skin and her hair was patchy and thin. Crimson string had been threaded through the skin around her mouth, sealing it shut, while her eye sockets were empty and hollow.

The skin at the ends of her fingers had pulled back, leaving broken and blackened nails that looked more like claws, while her skin stretched taught over the sharp bones of the woman’s face. If she hadn’t been moving around, Alexis would have sworn she was dead.

“What the hell is this?” she muttered, peering at the cleaning lady.

“All the staff are the same,” Tish said with a shrug of her shoulders that didn’t seem to dislodge the cat perched there. “Best not to use your ring in the dining hall.”

That was about all Alexis could take and she bowed her head over the nearest sink and noisily emptied her stomach. She heaved and spat before running the cold water tap and wiping at her mouth with the back of her hand.

“I’ve eaten in there! You’re saying all the staff are like this?”

“Sure.” Tish, to Alexis’s concern, was entirely unbothered by the idea. “They wear gloves and, judging by what I’ve seen in some places, are probably a lot cleaner than most people.”

“Are they dead?”

“Yes.”

It blew Alexis’s mind that Tish’s reply was so nonchalant, and she just stared at the other girl in surprise. For her, walking corpses doing the menial tasks was so commonplace that it barely warranted a second thought.

Yet another reminder of the strangeness of the new world that Alexis was part of and one that was beginning to scare the crap out of her more than it already had.

“Who was she?” Alexis asked, and Tish’s familiar turned its head to look at the cleaning lady. Another shrug came from the girl.

“No idea.”

“How did she come to be here?” Alexis asked, anger clouding her tone. It seemed wrong, somehow. “Does she have family missing her or do they think they buried her?”

Tish’s brow furrowed as though the questions were something she had never considered before and, again, she lifted her shoulders in a shrug.

“Most of them have been here for decades,” she said. “As far as I know the Academy has a deal with the Ghouls, and-“

“Ghouls?” Alexis asked, weakly, not quite wanting to know.

“Yeah, they are one of the Supernatural races,” Tish said, frown deepening. “They used to hang around graveyards but sometime last century they organised and began to set up their own funeral homes. Made it easier.”

Alexis licked suddenly dry lips, knowing for a fact that she didn’t want to confirm what she suspected but hearing herself ask anyway. “Why do they need to be around graveyards?”

“Ghouls eat dead flesh.” Tish paused and turned her own face to Alexis, mirroring that of her familiar. “You didn’t know this?”

“No! What do you mean they eat dead flesh?”

“If they don’t eat the dead, they die. Used to be that they’d dig up the freshly buried but since starting their funeral homes they have the bodies delivered straight to them. No one really notices if the body in the casket is all there.”

“That’s horrific!”

“It’s practical,” Tish scolded gently. “They get to eat without having to kill people or raise a fuss, and when the Academy needs a body or two, they can provide it.”

Alexis just stared, dumbfounded, at the young witch. She had no words to describe how wrong what she had just been told was. The more she learned about the supernatural world, the more she was starting to dislike it.

The cat perched on Tish’s shoulder yawned, mouth opening wide to reveal a set of sharp fangs. Tish reached up to scratch at the soft pink skin of the cat’s head, before finishing up with her morning routine.

Around the cat’s neck was a collar of supple leather with a silver disc hanging from it. That disc had the spell inscribed upon it that allowed the blind girl to see through the cat’s eyes. How she managed to get the cat to sit on her shoulder without a fuss was something else, but at that moment, Alexis was too overwhelmed by everything to even consider asking.

“This entire fucking place is nuts!” Alexis said, shaking her head.

“I agree.”

Alexis yelped and shot upright before spinning towards the voice that had come from almost directly behind her. There, leaning against the cool white tiles, stood a familiar figure. Barefoot, and wearing black trousers and a black shirt that hung open to reveal his torso, Corbin grinned as he folded strong arms across his chest.

“Mate.” Alexis shook her head, heart thumping in her chest. “Why the hell are you hanging around in here again?”

Corbin made an elaborate show of looking around before flashing white teeth at her as he laughed. “My choices are limited these days.”

“The hell is that supposed to mean?” The shock wearing off, Alexis was faced with a mix of anger and embarrassment and she felt her cheeks heating. “This is the girl’s shower! I don’t want to know what you’re expecting to do in here but you need to stop it.”

He didn’t immediately reply and she turned away, only to find Tish staring at her, both she and her familiar’s heads tilted to one side as they watched her curiously.

“What?”

“Who are you talking to?” Tish asked.

Corbin’s low laughter had a mocking undertone to it and Alexis spun back around to stare at him. He was there, she was sure. The shadow against the tile surely meant that he was there, or at least that’s what she thought.

But, as she twisted her head to look back at Tish, it was clear that to her, he wasn’t there.

“You can’t see him?”

“Who?”

“Big guy, wearing black and leaning against the wall?”

Tish stood on tiptoes and craned her neck to see but dropped back down after a moment, shaking her head in the negative. “No.”

Alexis pressed fingers to the bridge of her nose and pinched. The headache she had was worsening with every passing moment and it was far too early in the morning to have to deal with the level of crazy she was faced with.

“Are you okay?” Tish asked. “I can get Ms Buttle if you want.”

“No.” She managed a weak smile and waved away the girl’s question. “Probably just indulged a bit too much last night. I’ll get some sleep and it’ll be fine.”

Tish shrugged but didn’t argue, just gathered her belongings and gave a half-hearted wave as she left to head back to her room. Alexis waited until the door closed behind her before she glanced up into the bottomless depths of Corbin’s deep, dark, eyes.

“Are you real?”

“I believe so.”

Alexis hesitated, biting her lower lip. “Ghost?”

“No.”

“Then what are you and why the fuck are you hanging around here?”

His smile was enigmatic and served only to infuriate Alexis who glared at him in response. She was sick to the back teeth of the Academy and every new, weird and terrifying thing she learned. As much as she had found herself enjoying the lessons, the reality of what had been revealed to her was hard to ignore.

“You know what,” she snapped. “Forget it. I’m so bloody done with this nonsense. All I want to do is learn enough to be allowed to leave then I can be done with you all.”

She was halfway to the door before he spoke, his voice stopping her in her tracks. She drew in a deep breath and looked back, scowling. “What did you say?”

“I do not choose this.”

“Choose what, the lurking in the girl’s showers?”

“Yes. There are few places that I can… ah… manifest. This seems to be one of them for the moment.”

“What do you mean?” Alexis turned fully to face him, intrigued despite herself.

“I’m not dead, but I’m not really alive.” His expression darkened as he unfolded his arms and reached out towards the tap on the nearest sink. His fingers passed right through the metal as if it wasn’t there. “I exist, but I’m no longer part of the world.”

He sighed, deeply, and leaned back against the wall. Alexis eyed him as he did, wondering why he didn’t pass through that, or the floor too. As reading her mind, Corbin laughed, the darkness vanishing from his face.

“There are rules to wherever it is that I am,” he said. “The longer something exists in one place in your world, the more substantial it is for me in mine.”

Alexis’s brow furrowed. Her head hurt and she was tired, not just physically, but emotionally too. There was a weariness that had seeped into her very bones and it pulled at her with every new and horrible thing she learned.

“Where are you when you aren’t…” she gestured with her hand, waving it before her. “You know, not manifested or whatever.”

“I am here,” he admitted. “In a world that much resembles this, though only those most permanent things exist.”

She took a moment to digest that, frown deepening for a moment until her eyes widened with horror. “So, no people?”

“None.”

“But buildings and roads and stuff?” He nodded and her stomach lurched as she felt an ache in her chest. She felt a kinship with him, an understanding of what torment it must be.

Her childhood had long been something she tried not to think about, but one thing she couldn’t forget was the sense of loneliness that had filled those years. A feeling that had not passed as she tried to survive alone on the streets.

To exist in a world absent of life, with no one to speak to or interact with, was a loneliness that made her own feel insignificant. Her heart ached for the handsome young man who stood so casually speaking of such a thing.

“How often can you manifest?”

“Before the night I first met you, it had been perhaps two years by my best reckoning.”

“That must be terrible.” She wrapped her arms around herself, a shiver running across her skin.

He ran a hand through his hair and smiled as he shifted his weight from one foot to another. His smile was dismissive but his eyes flashed with an insurmountable pain that only caused her heart to ache all the more.

“There are moments,” he admitted softly. “Times when that emptiness fades away and I can once again see the world as it is. Those moments make up for the long emptiness in between.”

“How can I see you?” she asked. “Can others?”

“Some have been able to over the years, but there are as few and far between as these moments.” He gestured at the room around him as though it meant something, though, for Alexis, it didn’t. “It has been a considerable amount of time since I last spoke to one like yourself.”

His answer raised even more questions, much like every other answer she had received since arriving at the Academy.

“How long have you been… wherever you are?”

“A long time.” He looked away then, as though embarrassed. “As for your next question, why I am here?”

“Yes.”

He chuckled. “A foolish ambition and a spell that was more than I could control. It failed and cast me deep into the darkness. When I finally awoke, I was here, trapped.”

“Why not cast a spell?”

“Magic does not work here.” He scratched at his cheek, smile faltering. “Nothing really works here. I don’t sleep, nor do I require sustenance. I exist for the sake of existing with no real purpose.”

“Has no one tried to help you?”

“Those few who could see me went so long between doing so that any aid they could have given was lost in the years between.”

Alexis wrinkled her nose and narrowed her eyes as she stared at him then, head cocked to the side as she watched him.

“This is the third time I’ve seen you,” she said, and his smile widened.

“Yes, it is.”

“That’s significant?”

“Perhaps.”

Alexis was young, but she wasn’t stupid and she knew it was no coincidence that he had appeared to her and finally shared something of his situation. It was clear that he wanted something from her and her natural inclination was to help anyone who needed it, especially if they were caught up in something far bigger than themselves.

Still, she didn’t trust easily and there was good reason for that. Despite an attraction to him, that was so obvious that even she could see it, she was sceptical. Which, she realised with a start, was enough to urge her to take care but not enough to consider not helping.

“What do you need me to do?” she asked, as Corbin’s smile widened.