The assembly hall was pitch black, and eerily silent-except for the sound of Freda and Johnny's breathing. We all stood there for a few seconds, before Freda suddenly yelled, "What in the world?!" I heard her attempting to open the door but it would not budge. Mrs Petra must have locked it, but why would she? Why would somebody announce an assembly only for our teacher to suddenly lock the three of us in the hall? Despite the fact that I knew that the rest of the school was in the corridor, I had a bad feeling that nobody was going to rescue us. We had to find our oeh way out-and then what?

We were running towards the windows to try to escape that way, when suddenly I heard a nasty, cackling laugh from behind me. I turned around. Although the hall was dark, I knew who it was. Somehow, Mrs Petra had gotten inside the hall, despite having shut us in from the outside.
"Well, it's been a while, hasn't it, daughter of Daedalus? About two thousand years, by my count," she screeched.
"D-Daughter of what!?" Johnny gasped. "Two thousand years?!"
"Finally...yes, finally, I can have my revenge!" Suddenly, Mrs Petra's face became twisted, her eyes bulging and her mouth opening wider than it should've been able. She collapsed, and a ghostly form rose from her body. It was roughly the size of a man, but it was blurry and transparent. A ghost. Who was he? What had he been doing in Mrs Petra's body? And how did he know who I was?

When the ghost spoke, his voice was deep and it echoed around the hall. "Hah. Yes, you're definitely the one. You have his eyes, and now that I'm finally out of that idiotic vessel, I can sense your connection with him." We turned to run, but we were trapped. We could try breaking the window; I knew there were chairs in the hall from the assembly that had been held the previous Monday. But it was too dark to find them; the only light in the room was coming from the ghost. As if sensing my intention, he said, "Running would be futile." Johnny ran towards the window and began kicking it.

The ghost flew at me. I jumped back, screaming, but the ghost flew straight through me. It felt odd, like a strong wind was blowing inside me, but I wasn't hurt. I clutched the key around my neck, the one I'd had with me when I'd woken up in the twenty-first century. It wasn't as if there was anything it could do in this situation, but it made me feel braver, just holding it. The key felt warm in my hand for some reason. I turned around to where the ghost was floating; despite his features being blurry, he looked somewhat annoyed.
"Aargh, don't tell me I STILL need that demigod weakling's body if I want to get anything done!" He yelled in his deep, raspy voice. He flew towards Mrs Petra, who was still unconscious.

Suddenly, there was a loud crash, and light came in from the direction of the window; the metal blinds were lying bent on the floor, as well as a bit of glass. Now we could escape! ...If we weren't on the second floor of the school, that is. That didn't seem to faze Johnny though. He kicked off his shoes and jumped out of the hole he'd made in the window-glass, two-storey drop and all.
"Johnny!" Freda called after we heard the thump of him landing on the grass outside.
I thought I heard him call, "I'm okay" back, though I didn't know how he could be after jumping out a second-floor window.

Meanwhile, the ghost had repossessed Mrs Petra, and was stumbling around the hall-he must be getting used to having a body again despite only having left the body a few minutes ago. Some inner instinct told me to take advantage of this fact, so I ran forward with all the energy I had and leapt onto Mrs Petra. We fell onto the floor and struggled. The ghost (in Mrs Petra's body) tried to get on top of me, but I would not let him. Freda was watching helplessly. She couldn't go and see of Johnny was alright, and she couldn't really help me since I was struggling with the ghost on the floor. As I continued to struggle with the ghost, I heard her start bashing the hall door with her fists and yelling "HELP! SOMEONE GET US OUT OF HERE!"

Suddenly, the ghost grabbed the golden key (probably trying to strangle me with the necklace), but as soon as he did, he let go and screeched in pain. He tried again with the same result. Mrs Petra's hand Had started bleeding where it had touched the key. I didn't want to hurt Mrs Petra, but since it seemed to be the only way to escape the ghost, I grabbed the key and pressed it against Mrs Petra's skin. The ghost screamed, and the ghost stopped struggling for a bit. I rolled off Mrs Petra's body, and quickly got to my feet. I kept my hand on my key, which still felt warm. I took the necklace off so that I could attack the ghost with the key again if I needed to.

Freda was still banging on the door, although she had stopped yelling. I ran over to the broken window; the only way to escape the room was to jump out. Johnny was still standing on the grass. He had his arms raised in the air, as if waiting to catch something. I called to Johnny, "Hey, go get some help!"
He called back, "No, just jump, Alexia!" I realised why he had his arms up-he had been waiting to catch us at any moment. "I'll catch you, just trust me!"
I looked behind me. The ghost was standing up. Mrs Petra's skin was still bleeding where my key had touched it. I swung the key necklace in the ghost's direction, and he flinched. I knew that eventually, the key might not work against him however. Without another thought, I climbed onto the windowsill, cutting my arms and legs on the broken glass still in the frame, and then half climbed, half fell out the window.