All boys looked puzzled by the powerful sounds coming from the secret room.

— Is this normal to happen here? — Asked Judah.

Peter was sweating cold.

— No… — He said looking worried. — It is normal for the priests to force us to our limits, but that has never shaken the whole building!

— What is happening then?

— I don’t know…

— You two — said priest Isaac looking unfriendly. — Silence!

At that moment, Peter felt himself stuck to the chair; a great force was imprisoning him. Judah on the other hand felt something, but not as powerful as the shorter boy did.

— What was that? — Asked Judah, going back to whispering.

Peter tried to talk, but his voice sounded way softer than before, barely opening his mouth.

— It’s the priest spell.

— No way…

— Why is it not controlling you?

— Why are you asking me?

A tear rolled Peter’s face.

— This hurts…

— It’s not hurting me…

— Lucky you!

Peter’s hand was also stuck to the table, but he was clenching it harder as more tears rolled his face unwittingly. Judah unconsciously touched his hand.

— Are you okay, man?

Peter's eyes widened as Judah’s touch freed his hand from the spell.

— How did you do that? — Peter asked, still whispering and going crazy, shouting inside his head, while moving his fingers.

— Did I do what?

— You freed my hand!

— Are you kidding me?

— Free me! Hold my hand!

— Stop with the gay s___!

— Don’t be stupid! Just hold my hand!

Judah glared but tried to touch Peter, touching as little skin as possible. Peter felt as he was as light as a feather, but kept the whispering soft tone.

— Thanks…

— It looked painful…

— It was! Only Jay can help us break those spells…

— Do they do this every day?

— No. Only when we misbehave… — Peter looked at the priest and he wasn’t paying attention to them. — Listen, I can see you are as special as Jay is, but you need to know something. I believe many wouldn’t speak that out loud, but we all love Jay for helping us to know more about ourselves. Most of us, and that includes me, wouldn’t believe you could be of help if you ever hurt Jay in any way. We will kill you if Jay really dies because of you.

— Listen, I have nothing to do with that boy! He was the one who kissed me!

Peter stared at Judah.

— He… He kissed, you? — Peter looked away. — This is even worse than I thought…

— How the hell this can be worse?

— Jay has given up on himself, and is willing to be betrayed and sacrificed if it means we can move to the other side… He really loves you…

— Again with this homo s___?!

— This is not about sex! This is about the sorrowful passion of the Lord’s son!

— Oh, like ‘love your neighbor’ or something…?

— More like… he would die if that would mean you would be happy…

— Hahah… Why would he do something so stupid?

— That’s what I’m trying to understand! What did he see on you that he would let everyone else here down! Why are you so special that he would accept it?

— He must be blind then… I’m the worst! Wait and see what I will do with this place if I can’t go home soon!

Peter enjoyed that:

— I would like to see that… — More explosion sounds. — You will need to defeat one of the priests and you don’t even know how to use magic!

— I’m a fast learner…

— If you say so, maybe you really are Big Jay’s favorite.

One last big explosion opened abruptly the door where Jay and priest Israel were.

— Jay! — Shouted Peter, getting up without thinking twice.

— Where do you think you are going? — Priest Isaac frowned.

Peter stopped for a moment to say something, but he knew it was useless and went on. Judah was also curious but didn’t want to run for it. The others were still struggling with the priest's spell over them and Judah decided to try it again. He touched the table and wanted to free everyone from it. As soon as they felt free, all the other eleven boys ran after Peter with Judah slowly following them.

— Jay! Jay! — They all couldn’t stop saying.

Jay was launched out of the room, had his knees on the floor, spilling blood, face swollen, one hand on the wall in front of the door, and the other visibly broken.

— Jay! — Shouted Peter.

— I almost did it! — Jay smiled, so happy as if it was nothing serious.

— What happened? Why there were explosions this time? — Continued Peter.

— I pushed the priest further! I almost won! Man! I can’t believe it!

— He almost killed you! — Peter shouted.

— I wouldn’t care any less! I almost did it! — Jay insisted.

— Phil! — Peter called. — Do it quickly!

— I’m going! — Phil got closer.

— No — said priest Israel coming out of the room, his eyes covered in a deep black starry night sky. The room behind him was taken by the darkness.

— But… — the boys tried to say.

— Jay needs to learn his place in this school — the priest continued, now with his eyes back to normal, but his tone was cold as ice. — Misbehaving is not tolerable! What you have in your hands are weapons! They are not supposed to be used in vain, to satisfy your sinful desires! God forbid me from using all my power on such ignorant kids!

— Hope you had learned your lesson — followed priest Isaac coming closer. — This will be your punishment, no healing for a week!

— What? Just that? — Jay couldn’t believe his luck.

— And you want more? How foolish you are kid? — Insisted the priest.

— I said I’m willing to pay the price — Jay stood up. — I’m not good at healing…

— Your powers are not for healing.

— Really? Watch me!

Jay closed his eyes, turning his head feeling something moving inside himself.

— Lamed… Num… Qof… Zayin…

— Stop at once! — Threatened priest Isaac. — I forbid you!

— Drain! — Jay said, opening his left eye, taken by a silver color, and collecting a small portion of everyone’s energy, except priest Israel.

At that moment, all boys were astonished by Jay’s figure changing and healing all his wounds. Even his arm was back in place.

— I’m afraid this will need to be brought to the attention of the reverend bishop, priest Isaac — commented Israel.

— He’s just a kid! — Pleaded Isaac.

— This is not of our concern anymore — and he left.

— See what you have done! — Isaac shouted and left after the priest Israel.

— As much as the bishop is against us as you priests are, we still need to discuss what is actually happening here, priest! — Jay said, feeling way better now.

— What did you do? — Peter asked, still surprised.

— New magic! — Jay said, still pretty happy. — Sorry to worry all of you. Priest Israel was really hard on me today! But I was able to destabilize his attacks and he got furious and… Man! I almost did it!

— He’s all fine, guys! — Said Andy, disappointed. — Let’s get back to do our things then…

And the boys started to dismiss.

— Oh, I took some of your energy! Sorry for that too! — Jay shouted to them.

— What the hell did you have on your freaking mind?! — Peter was still worried. — You could have died! And you know you would be left to die without our help!

— I know! I know! — Jay calmed down and was embarrassed by it. — Geez… I just had a hard time feeling I’m able to deal with all this! I just felt I’m finally able to control it!

— I can’t believe you! — Insisted Peter.

— Heh, thank you for your worrying and all… and… wait… How did you guys get out of the table? I swear you couldn’t deal with priest Isaac binds!

— It was… Judah… — Peter said, uncomfortably.

Both looked at him.

— S’up! — Judah didn’t look like he was willing to help, but to take advantage of the situation.

Jay smiled.

— That’s my boy.

— Are you out of your mind?! — Peter shouted, trying to keep the low tone.

— Well, can’t say I’m on my mind lately… Hehe… — Jay turned to Judah. — So… you discovered why you are here… I think…

— You are going to teach me magic! — Judah said, in a sarcastic tone.

— Well, more or less. It’s hard to say I will when I can’t predict the future. We need to know each other better before it goes smoothly and naturally…

— I’m not saying you have any chance to fail. You will. You had put me inside this joke of a church and you gonna give me what I want. Capiche?

— Okay, that’s the part when I regret my doings… — Jay said, feeling it awkward.

— Now you regret things? — Asked Peter. — When will you realize that he’s dangerous?!

— I’m not saying I’m not willing to do it — Jay answered. — I’m just saying he really fell for that! Lord, what have I done?!

— Will you do it or not? — Judah was waiting impatiently.

— Okay, I really wanted to call your attention. I just didn’t know you already had in mind you wanted to use it as soon as possible!

— I’m a busy man, have things to do, places to go… — Judah joked.

— You do? — Asked Peter with eyes wide open.

— It was a joke, Pete — Jay said. — Okay, it’s hard to focus after I was almost was blown out, but I will try my best. Did you guys have your breakfast?

— No — Peter said.

— Did you give him the bread I told you to give him? — Jay asked.

— Yes. He knows about it.

— Okay, we can have those then. Follow me, Judah — Jay said leading the way. — We need to discuss this out.

Judah didn’t say a thing and just followed both back to the table, hands in his pockets.

— Judah? — Asked Jay.

— Okay, let’s start with the basics here — Judah replied. — I don’t like people to call me Judah. I heard my name too many times for a single day! You should call me by another name.

— Well, we can’t call you Jay… — said Peter.

— I noticed — Judah replied. — Why do they call you Big Jay, by the way?

— It’s quite obvious! I’m shorty! — Jay laughed. — Do you still like that energy drink?

— Yeah, I d… — Jay took a fresh bottle out. — How do you do this? Can I do it too?

— Kinda… I can’t say it’s the exact same thing, because each one of us has different powers and we need to use our synergy with those powers to bring out the magic.

— And…?

— Let me try to explain my powers then… You see — Jay revealed his irisless eye. — Mine is darkness. Darkness is negative, it pulls things closer, accumulates, absorbs. In other words, I can ‘steal’ things.

— Hah! You are a thief then!

— More or less — Jay knew it meant a lot for Judah. — I can’t simply steal whatever I want, whenever I want. Like, this object has no will, so I can easily get it away through its own darkness, in other words, its shadow. I can steal anything that has a shadow, but it has a cost. The bigger the object, the more energy I need to spend to ‘steal’ something. I can ‘steal’ people, but they have will and if I ever wanted to ‘steal’ them, I would need to break their will first, unless they want me to ‘steal’ them away.

— Strange, but I will try to get used to all that nonsense — Judah opened the bottle and drank some of it. — The other shorty. Does he have power too?

— Who is he talking about? — Asked Peter.

— You — Jay answered.

— What? I have a name! — Peter complained.

— Don’t mind him, Pete. He doesn’t have a good memory — Jay explained.

— Do you have magic or not?! — Judah shouted impatiently.

— No need to get mad — Jay simply said. — Show him your clay dolls, Pete!

— I… — Peter looked at Judah and was scared. — I can’t do it here…

— Is it something embarrassing showing your little dolls — Judah mocked.

— He still can’t control it — Jay answered and turned to Peter. — You still can’t control them well enough inside the big house, can you?

— I… I’m not sure… It’s safer to do it outside — Peter said, embarrassed for not being able to do it so.

— What’s so important about those clay dolls? — Judah asked confused.

— Have you ever seen a doll walking? — Jay inquired.

— They make anything walk these days on TV!

— Okay, but have you ever seen something made out of solid ground starts to walk and even talk?

— Wait, he can make anything from clay be alive?

— Well, that’s too much to put over it. More like, he can control an object’s soul.

— Do objects have souls?

— Not the same souls we have. Our souls are immortals until they are terminated, but an object’s soul is created at the moment the object is created and it lasts until the object is broken. Those souls are very limited but can take instructions. Old wise people even tried to turn them into real people, the homunculus, but only the Lord knows how to properly make souls and thus the homunculus can’t last forever as we do.

— Complicated… I can’t understand anything!

— I know! Don’t try to fry your handsome head with this — Jay smirked. — Let it be natural to your mind, as you did when you broke the priest’s bind.

— That! You said I used my magic. How did I do that? I didn’t feel anything different!

— That’s the thing! That’s how natural magic happens! It doesn’t change you, it comes and it happens! It’s hard to explain this… Well, remember one thing. Do you know what religious people tend to say when you need to find answers?

— I… maybe…

— Have faith — Jay said. — That’s really important, so try to keep that in mind.

— Yes, I was going to say faith! I totally knew it! Hehe… — Judah lied.

— He’s not so good at this. Is he? — Asked Peter.

— Have some faith, Pete — said Jay. — So, the Lord created everything and everything is one in the Lord. And do you know how the Lord created everything?

— Okay, I have no idea! Call me dumb or whatever!

— Haha, no need. The secret here is exactly that. God created everything through his own will. All you need is to have faith that you can do it, and it may come naturally.

— I don’t think I can’t do it…

— If you don’t believe in it, it never happens. But… maybe Peter here can give you a better demonstration!

— Me?

— You!

— Oh Lord…

Judah smiled. He was enjoying it as he had never enjoyed anything before.