"Well, that was unexpected."
Mercury gave a start. She hadn't noticed Mr. Salvatore approaching her at all, but now he was standing in front of her, seemingly out of thin air, his eyes wide as he smiled with appreciation. "Not technically what we're teaching here, but we can't complain after seeing such a show, can we?"
"M-Mr. Salvatore," Mercury stuttered out, taking a step backwards. "What...I mean, do you know what happened just now?"
"That, Mercury, was a bona fide illusion."
She blinked. A few others blinked too. "Illusion?"
"Yes. A perfect sensory illusion that fooled even yourself." Mr. Salvatore gestured to the water drop in her hand. "Looks like we have a natural illusionist in our class! A rare talent, even if most people say it has no practical use. But it's pretty to look at, isn't it?"
Mercury nodded slowly. An illusion, huh. That made sense, more sense than a sudden expansion spell, at the very least. So the giant water bubble and the bird hadn't been real...but...
"How do you know it was an illusion?" she asked with wide eyes.
"Simple. For one, the alternative would've been an expansion spell, highly unlikely for a beginner. Two, actual telekinesis always requires some act of communication with whatever you're shaping, and you never spoke a word to that water drop of yours. And third–" he pointed to the window– "illusions don't show in reflective surfaces. An illusion alters the senses of the perceiver, but mirrors always reflect what's actually there. So all I had to do was check the glass."
Mercury gazed numbly at her distant reflection in the window. She was still overwhelmed. An illusion...she had created an illusion, fooled the senses of everyone in the class...How had she done that? She had never even tried...Had it been an accident? How could she just naturally create something that looked and felt so real on her first try?
Unless...it hadn't been her first?
That day at school flickered back into her mind, the day her teacher and her whole class had looked at her as if she had appeared out of thin air. If she could create illusions, then maybe...?
But most of all, why did she feel so tired?
No, tired wasn't the right word. Emotionally drained fit it better. She felt as if she had spent the entire day feeling nothing but her strongest emotions, crying, laughing, getting angry or excited until she had no energy left to feel anything anymore. Of course, she had been anxious all day...but that was different. She hadn't been anxious just now, and yet the exhaustion had kicked in now of all possible times.
"Mercy?" Raoul's voice called, snapping her out of her thoughts. "You okay there? You look kinda sleepy."
"Huh? Oh..." Had it been that obvious? Mercury gave a nervous laugh, her eyes flitting back and forth between Raoul's face and her hand. "No, it's fine! Don't worry, I'm just...a bit tired, I guess?"
Raoul gave her a grin and a nudge. "Don't pass out on me again. We still got two more classes, I don't wanna die of boredom alone."
"Hey!" Mercury laughed again, genuinely this time. "I'm not that tired!"
"You sure? You really sure?"
"Come on!"
They both left the classroom laughing, but even so Mercury couldn't deny that she didn't have a lot of energy left to talk. Two more classes sounded like a pain...she wished she could take a nap somewhere. Or maybe she just wanted to withdraw and be alone for some time, maybe read a book or curl up with her headphones until her battery was recharged again.
But of course the day wouldn't wait for her, and with a tired sigh she trudged after Raoul, following him through the hallways. Their next class wasn't in the main building but in the gym; Mercury half wondered if she should have brought her gym clothes from the dorm, but Raoul brushed it off. "This isn't gym class," he said easily. "This is...what's that thing called? Paranormal studies. They explained it yesterday, we got theory and practice, and today's a practice class or something."
Mercury nodded and followed him in silence, wondering what kind of practice that was supposed to be. They weren't going to deal with anything weird or dangerous, were they? Paranormal...Did this class involve fighting monsters? What kind of monsters even existed, anyway?
She couldn't get too carried away with her thoughts before they reached the gym, half wondering if they should at least take off their shoes when they saw that something seemed to have done the job for them; they had transformed into gym sneakers the second they had walked into the door. Waiting inside were about three dozen people, most of them unfamiliar faces except for the unmistakable silhouette of Georgiana on the opposite end of the hall.
"Double yikes," Raoul said with a grimace, pointing unsubtly in her direction. "Does the Dragon Lady have to follow us everywhere?"
Mercury swallowed hard. Her sleepiness had faded. Her body had involuntarily tensed up at Georgiana's presence, her eyes zooming in on her to make sure she hadn't spotted them yet. This was bad. If she tried and humiliated them in front of everyone again...
"Alright, everyone," said a voice.
Several people jumped. Standing in front of them, seemingly out of nowhere, was a tall, muscular fifty-something woman. The color of her skin inadvertently reminded Mercury of her mother's, and her once black hair was short, curly and graying, her eyes steely bright as she crossed her arms and took in the entire class at once.
"Ready yet, brats? Nice to meet you," she said roughly. "Welcome to this paranormal studies class, I'll be teaching you this year. Name's Alexandria Cole, what your names are I don't know. Don't go telling me all at once."
Nobody said a word, and she went on. "In this class," she declared, "it's more vital than anywhere that you listen to everything I say. Might be dangerous, and I don't want anybody getting their head chopped off. Getting rid of all the blood's always such a pain."
A collective gulp went through the class. A chill ran down Mercury's spine. Images appeared in her head, gory, violent images of three-headed monsters and jagged teeth dripping blood onto the bodies of their beheaded victims–
"Alright, which one of you little pranksters did this?"
The whole class turned around to follow Ms. Cole's gaze. Some screamed, others turned away and covered their eyes. A short, strong-looking boy fainted.
Mercury stared at the scene and gave a gasp. That was...the very image she'd had in her mind just now?
Another illusion...She had conjured this up, hadn't she?
Go away! she told the image, giving it a frantic glare. Nobody was supposed to see you! Leave!
It wouldn't budge. The monsters simply wobbled and changed shape, growing even bigger, the teeth even sharper, the blood redder. The shocked screams and frantic whispers grew louder.
"Who did that?" Ms. Cole repeated, irritation sliding into her voice. "D'you think that's funny?"
Go away, dammit!
Nothing happened.
"So? Who did it? Own up now or else–"
Mercury looked at the illusion. She looked at her terrified classmates, then at Ms. Cole. If she ran out now she'd be known as the culprit, she knew. She'd look like a complete idiot. But if she didn't...
There was no choice.
Her feet moved on their own. Turning on her heel, she sped through the rows of her classmates, ignoring the startled shrieks, heading straight for the illusion that licked its lips with a giant forked tongue, swallowing the blood on its mouth with a loud, monstrous slurp. She jumped over an illusion of a decapitated body that dissolved into mist as she ran, leapt, and grabbed hold of the monster's enormous jaw.
"Quit – it!" she shouted, forcing open the huge mouth, cutting her hands on shark-like fangs. "You – are – not – real!"
The monster's mouth opened unnaturally wide. Its jaw dislocated and distorted, twisting and swimming and then starting to melt like heated wax, the shapes flowing into each other and blurring, shrinking and shriveling in on itself until nothing but air stayed behind.
Mercury stood where the illusion had been a second ago, gasping and panting. She could feel people's eyes on her back, staring in surprise, but she didn't turn around to meet them. Her hand still stung where the imaginary cut had healed up and disappeared.
"Alright," Ms. Cole's voice broke the silence at last, "thank you."
Mercury turned around and found herself face to face with three dozen pairs of eyes, still staring at her like she was the monster that had just disappeared into thin air.
Her face heated up. She took a step back, shrinking at the stares. "I-I'm..." She looked down, hoping her hair fell into her face enough to obscure her expression. "I'm sorry! I didn't control my powers and this happened...I was only imagining it, I promise! I should probably figure out how to control it, I–"
"Forget it. We'll talk about that later," Ms. Cole interrupted her with an impatient wave of her hand. "If it calms you down, I was kidding earlier. No one's gonna get their heads bitten off, except by me if you don't listen."
She's actually kind of cool, Mercury thought with a breath of relief.
The others' expressions didn't change. Mercury's eyes met with Georgiana's, and for a moment she almost felt like she could look into her mind. Georgiana's eyes were aglow with cold hatred, mistrust covering her expression like a layer of ice.
Go out of control again and I'll handle you myself.
Mercury swallowed, closed her eyes and hurried back to Raoul's side, the silent declaration of war still echoing on in her mind.
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