The goblin never showed up that day again. So far.

After school, I walked home and searched the house for Dad, but he was nowhere. Besides Bill, our home was dead as a vampire. I grabbed my potions, put on my masks and practitioner garments, and left my house for the vast, cloudless sky outside.

Cold air breezed against my black robe. Each time I crossed a street, I looked left and right three times to reassure myself there was no goblin. Beautiful fences and walls reflected lantern lights and revealed a town devoid of life. No cars drove around me. No pedestrians strode the streets, no criminals stalked the alleys, and no monsters watched me. The townsfolk agreed on an unspoken curfew once Devons' death proved the police couldn't protect them.

I walked alone through the early autumn night. This season, Autumn King Gwyn ap Nudd reached peak strength. He led the Unseelie creatures, including the Erlking and the Nuckelavee, but denied any problems with his kingdom and refused to speak to the Council.

Once I made it to Summer Hill's outskirts, I went away from the streets and left the lanterns behind. In this world of darkness, I needed two potions. The potions under my robe got stored in borosilicate glass flasks from my chemistry kit so that they wouldn't break in case a monster tossed me around. Food coloring helped me not to mix them up. I had, like, three different healing potions. One used milk as a base and healed broken bones, another contained ointments to pour over wounds, and yet another was full of garlic, salt, and other antipathic elements in case a monster made me sick.

But I wasn't using those. I needed a night vision potion made of cat-hair samples and carrot pieces that bestowed me a cat's sight.

"I hope you know the idea that carrots give you night vision is a war myth spread by the Brits in WWII, right?" Siris asked, sitting near a bush.

"You always need to spoil the fun, don't you?" I asked.

White aether covered my eyes as I drank the potion. Colors blurred as if I saw a mirage of reality as the cones in my eyes became less and the rods more. While the cat-vision made me short-sighted, I saw in the dark without a flashlight. A flashlight drew attention to myself, and I wanted as little as possible.

"Is the water pistol necessary?" Siris asked.

"First, it's not just any pistol; it's a Steam Machine TL-750 water gun Dad bought me for my tenth birthday," I said. "Second, I also got water balloons!"

Yeah, I'm not kidding. The same plastic bag that contained my Molotov cocktails also carried two bottles of tap water, water balloons, and my Steam Machine TL-750 water gun.

Hey, don't look at me like that.

Not my fault that running water was the only consistent weakness the Nuckelavee had across myths. Remember what the water boiler did to the barghest? The Nuckelavee was an undead creature, and water was a purifying force that dissolved unholy forces. Go figure.

"Just so we're clear, we won't fight it?" Siris asked.

"Nope," I said, "just scouting for information."

"And the school basement isn't enough?"

"Tried it. You know how monsters work. They're leopards that want me isolated. They didn't show themselves to the Hunters, but to Dad and Devons. And they'll show themselves to me if I come without backup!"

"And if they do-"

"We fight and run! Simple cat and mouse game with three suspects. Klaus Kringle is hard to check if it's not his favorite day. Titania doesn't have any hideout. The Erlking, however, has this warehouse. If we learn anything about him, we win."

"Not much can go wrong with that plan, boss. But now that you explained it to me, I'm betting twenty mice that something will go kablooey."

In the town's outskirts, I walked past a few trees and several city blocks worth of grasslands around a small lane before I arrived at my goal: A grey block surrounded by fences and yellow police tape.

Long before the Veil started cracking, people noticed Summer Hill's weirdness. During the Late Cold War, the CIA researched Paranormal Psychotic Encounters. With all the classified information around, the PPE library became a myth. I swear, Montauk would be jealous of the conspiracy theories this place got. After they abandoned the facility to the Whateley University and turned its library into a tourist attraction, those theories got proven wrong. The government had no secret programs and no psychic super soldiers. Only testimonies of the strange and unknown.

I always wanted to visit this library, and now I did – less-than-legally.

With my newly-trained aether-shaping skills, I removed the yellow police tape around the fences. I pulled my cloak closer and my hood over my cat mask. Hopefully, that other transfiguration I drank today saved me from juvenile court. Created from samples of my classmates' hairs, it altered my jawline, limb length, and height. If anyone took a photo, facial recognition and gait recognition showed no result. I needed it – I trespassed a crime scene. My Dad went missing somewhere here.

But he worked for the law. If I stepped past this fence, I didn't just break the law - I also spat on his hard work.

My aether cloud dissipated, releasing the yellow tape.

I couldn't do it. Guilt ensnared my throat. I clutched my mother's necklace, closed my eyes, and tried my usual tricks, but the aether cloud refused to return and the tape didn't budge.

"Just so that you know, it isn't guilt holding you back," Siris said on my shoulder, his voice uncharacteristically threatening. "There's a normie watching you and, by the power of the Veil, I command you to stop using magic now."

A man stood behind me, leaning against the fence. A stain-covered plaid suit hugged his emaciated body along with brown trousers riddled with holes. Poor guy. He suffered from a running nose and quite a few teeth lay on rather than behind his lips. If the Veil made it possible, I'd definitely share healing potions.

"Are you a faerie?" he asked. "Or a demon?"

"No," I said reflexively.

"I lost my home to goblins," he explained. "They made noise, but my landlord didn't believe me and kicked me out. Any money left?"

"No, sorry."

I felt bad for him, but I really had nothing. Monsters loved those on the fringes of society: drug addicts, criminals, the homeless - those who didn't show up in missing reports. Removing them was a minor change in the course of history, a Veil breach so minor that not even the Council classified them.

The homeless man took out a cough drop and threw it for me to catch.

I threw it back. "I can't accept this. You need it more."

He smiled, his grin missing half his teeth, and threw it back. "You still have a life ahead of you. You need it more!"

Did I?

The homeless man walked away.

I couldn't accept this. I felt so selfish. I wanted to help people, but I never asked them what they wanted. Did Dad want me to come here? Did other practitioners want me to? Did Darcy?

A gleaming beam of light pierced my sensitive, feline eye slits. My eyes watered as I looked into the flashlight held by a dark-skinned girl wearing a blue dress, an iron bracelet, and two masks; one medical, the other resembling an owl. Darcy.

The plastic bag full of illegal weapons tensed in my hand as Darcy came closer.

"W-what ahee you doing here?" I asked.

"I could ask you the same," Darcy said. "Hunters and Black Knights searched this entire facility and found no residues."

"How did you even know I'd come?"

"Coming here was very you. You aren't the type who can sit still after the news from yesterday."

"Hehe."

"Why didn't you tell me? Whatever you do, I'll have to clean up your mess."

My face was buried under three masks of shame. "I'm sorry."

"This is not an answer."

"I know it's not. I thought you'd report me if I told you about my plans."

Darcy had her arms folded. "Why should I not report you now?"

"Because I want to help! My Dad is in danger. My school is in danger. And no-one can help me. No-one wants to help me. Dad said that the FBI ignored this Erlking case. Even the Council claims they have better things to do."

"It's impossible to be everywhere at once," Darcy said. "But that doesn't mean our thousands of qualified Hunters and Black Knights aren't trying their best. Why is it so hard for you to trust others? You never talk to your fellow apprentices, you don't join covens, and you never try to get to know anyone. The Academy isn't just about teaching you magic. It's supposed to integrate you into our Society!"

I felt cold again. My brain said "Keep calm" and my body answered "Nope!". Maybe that was why I kept even the nicer apprentices at an arm's length. Even with Darcy, whom I knew somewhat by now, long arguments exhausted me.

"Besides, you aren't just breaking our law," Darcy said. "You are breaking American law. You asked me why the Veil won't let us change human history. It's because of this. You have powers that most people don't have. You could use them to break any laws you find inconvenient and take what you want."

I tucked my heavy plastic bag to my belt. Then, I reached under my mask and tore out a tiny strand of my brown curls. My heart pumped as I showed Darcy the hair.

"Use this for your poppet and forge a sympathetic bond," I said. "If something happens to me, you can heal me from a distance. And if anything bad happens to you, you can punish me."

Had Darcy not clutched her flashlight, it would have fallen out of your hand. "Why?"

"Because I will never have the kind of range you have," I said. "But I'm sorta decent at potions and transfiguration. I can take damage and heal myself while you're optimal long-distance support. Domains and the regions around them are full of traps. If I go first and walk into one, you can fix me much easier than I could fix you."

"No," she said. "I mean, why do you give me this power over you?"

"You said it yourself. I am your apprentice. You need to clean up my mess if anything goes wrong."

Darcy tensed. It was a foolish decision and maybe I'd regret it later. But, in this particular moment, it was best to trust. I was in danger. I couldn't survive alone.

After seconds of deliberation that felt like forever, Darcy let Lyfa appear and made the owl take my hair. Much like how I carried my plastic bag, Darcy had a small bag full of dolls. A girl with brown hair received my curls.

As our sympathetic bond formed, I noticed a predator watching me from the woods. I was pierced by the greedy glare of a small, hunchbacked creature hidden behind giant hogweeds at the foot of maple trees.

Before I could react, before I could run and shout, it assaulted me with a wave of dark energy that broke my bracelet's ward. Darcy, the facility, and the Westchester woods vanished behind a curtain of darkness.

Only Siris remained next to me in the swirling, purple vortex of energy that became my new home. "That was the thing you saw at school today, wasn't it?" he said.

"Yes," I said. "If the Wiki is reliable, it might be a mare. The thing that coined the English word 'nightmare'."

Now, guess why I had nightmares at school today. Guess.