***

No one dared to say anything. No one knew what to say. Even Hope who knew that this happened didn't know what to say. No one knew how to react after seeing a glowing energy and light envelope Vienna's ankle that miraculously healed after the energy and light disappeared. Hope and Landon stared at her with wide eyes. Slowly, Dr. Saltzman moved to stand in front of Vienna.

Bending down, he took a closer look at the ankle. The shirt was completely covered with blood, the only semblance that there used to be an injury. When he stared at Vienna's ankle, it looked perfectly fine. Like no injury had ever been there at all. Dr. Saltzman met Vienna's eyes, "How did..." He was unable to finish the question, not having much strength to get the words out.

"I honestly don't know," Vienna quickly responded. "I swear. It happened before with my broken leg-"

Cutting her off, Dr. Saltzman thought about what she had just said, "You mean that this happened before and you didn't tell me?"

Oh, great. She just dug herself into a deeper hole. Vienna shook her head, "There was never any time," And that was the truth. There was the gargoyle, the twins' mom, the Necromancer, and now this Night Hag. Vienna would be surprised if she ever had the time to tell him. Thankfully, she didn't have to tell him now. But now he knew at the worst possible time. "Besides, even if I told you sooner, it wouldn't make a difference."

"Um..," Landon trailed off. He gestured to Vienna's uninjured ankle, "Are all witches able to do that?" He turned to Hope, "Are you able to do that?"

The look the girl gave him was honestly funny. She raised an eyebrow at him for a moment before shaking her head, "No. This is just a Vienna thing apparently," Hope turned her attention back to Vienna, "I remember you telling me about your leg, but I didn't think it happened like that."

"I tried to look into it, but I couldn't find anything about it," Vienna leaned back against the chair she was in. She stared up at the ceiling with a look of clear frustration on her face, "I basically read all of the books in the library and nothing," The blonde hesitated for a moment, "I also snuck into your office and looked at your books." She turned her head to look at Dr. Saltzman.

Obviously, the man was very surprised to hear this, "And how were you-" He cut himself off when Vienna held up her silver wand. She used it to unlock the door to the office and she snuck in whenever he wasn't around. The headmaster gave her a deadpanned look before grabbing it out of her hand, "I'm confiscating that."

"What?" Vienna straightened up. "But it's mine!"

"What is it?" Landon gave the device a once-over.

Without even looking at him, Vienna replied, "It's complicated..," She remained silent for a moment as she thought about something. Her eyes widened when she realized what she had been forgetting. "Hold on, I just remembered something," Dr. Saltzman motioned for her to speak. "The Night Hag said something in my dream. More specifically, she called me something. She called me a half-breed."

It seemed as if Hope was able to piece together what she was meaning to say. The girl stated, "So you're saying that you might only be half witch."

"Yeah," Vienna nodded. "I mean, we don't know anything about my father. I have no memories of my past and Aunt Caroline also said that she didn't know anything about him seeing as I'm the product of a one-night stand and all that. Maybe he was supernatural too."

"But what would he be?" Dr. Saltzman inquired. It was like he was only presenting her with the question to show how outlandish her idea was. What was so hard to understand about it? It seemed like a perfectly good idea. No other witches could do that as far as she knew. This was something only she could do which meant that something was different about her specifically.

"He's right," Hope chimed in. "Werewolves and vampires don't heal like that. The injuries don't heal themselves in a glowing light or energy. Witches definitely don't heal like that."

It was silent for a moment. Vienna just shook her head, showing that she had no clue. She had no clue about anything when it came to her father. She knew nothing about it. Dr. Saltzman sighed before he finally nodded, "Okay. We'll look into this later after we've fixed this Night Hag problem."

But they were not going to change the topic anytime soon. Hope looked like she remembered something. Vienna raised an eyebrow at her when she turned to her. Hope had this look on her face, one that was very probing, like she was trying to decipher all of Vienna's secrets, "By the way, Vienna," Vienna cautiously hummed. "I've been meaning to ask you something. When you talked about your dream earlier and you mentioned the part about the woman telling you to do something... You said that you didn't remember what she said. But you do, don't you?" Vienna remained silent upon hearing the question. Her eyes widened and she cursed herself for not trying to hide it better. Hope took her actions as a sign to keep going, "Your heart skipped a beat when you said you didn't know which means that-"

"I was lying," Vienna cut her off. She inhaled deeply. "Yeah. I know. I did lie about not knowing."

This was something that did not sit well with Dr. Saltzman, "Why would you lie? It could be important information!" He yelled at her. "Important information about your past or even about Malivore or the Night Hag!"

That was it. She had enough of him being like that. He had no right to yell at her like that when he didn't know anything about what she experienced. Vienna voiced these opinions to him, "Because you would hide it too if you heard what she told me!" Landon anxiously looked back and forth between the two, clearly not liking the turn the conversation took. Vienna leaned back in her chair once more and sighed. She rubbed her temples as a headache started to come up, "Sorry, it's just... What she told me scared me. I didn't know if I should say anything because of what she told me. But, since you guys know I was lying now, I might as well just come out with it. She told me that, um... Her exact words were: 'I'm not letting you out until you agree to do your mission. The mission you were raised to do. You need to kill him,'" Dr. Saltzman went to open his mouth to say something but Vienna raised her hand to stop him, "Before you say anything, I have no idea who she wants me to kill. I am telling the truth this time. I asked her and she just left. But I have no intention of killing anyone, especially someone I don't know. Now, let's get back to this Night Hag business, yeah?"

There was a look on Dr. Saltzman's face that told her that he wanted to argue with her. Upon seeing the expression on her own face, he decided not to, "Okay," He pointed at her, "But we will be discussing this," He gestured to her ankle. "At some point," Finally, the conversation went right back to the situation at hand, "Dorian might be busy with the evacuation, but we'll figure this out. When the Night Hag finds a way to get the urn, we'll be there to stop it."

Knocking herself out of her trance, Hope went back to focusing on Landon's wound. She started to wrap the injured hand which she failed to do earlier while being distracted by Vienna. Landon decided to make a comment to brighten the mood, "Well, at least it was a pretty memorable first day."

"Yeah, and the Night Hag is likely just getting started," Dr. Saltzman stated. Hope and Landon grinned at each other. "You know, Landon, I really wish you'd just evacuate with the others."

"I worked so hard to get here," Landon said. "If I run at the first sign of trouble, what's the point?"

Immediately sensing where the conversation was going to go, Vienna decided that she didn't want to stick around anymore. The only reason she came was because of her ankle and that was fine now. She had no other reason to be here at this point. Vienna stood up, "Well, I have... Stuff to do so just find me if you need me."

"That's fine. Just don't go to sleep." Dr. Saltzman told her. Vienna gave him a thumbs-up while walking out of the office. She was dead tired so staying awake was going to be a little hard. She was determined though. She did not want to experience that dream again.

***

Staying awake had to be the hardest thing that Vienna had ever done. Something that she noticed was that both times that golden light/energy healed her, she always wanted to sleep. She assumed that the healing probably took away from her stamina which meant that she was most likely always going to be tired every time she healed. Thankfully, she managed to stay awake. Though, she did have a few close calls here and there.

There was one specific close call that had been interrupted by Hope. Hope had wanted her to join her and the others to explain the situation to the ones that didn't know. So now, Vienna sat with Hope, MG, Kaleb, Rafael, and Landon in one of the main rooms of the school. Hope explained everything as best as she could with Landon adding in what he knew every once in a while. It seemed like the monster they were dealing with was actually a dream demon that only disguised itself as a Night Hag so they wouldn't know how to properly kill it. Vienna had to admit, that was smart.

To say that everyone was shocked would be expected, "A black-winged what?" Kaleb asked, clearly confused by the whole thing.

"Shapeshifting dream demon." Hope and Landon both informed him.

Vienna gestured to the two, "They literally just said that."

"I know it sounds bad," Hope started. "But now that we know what the creature is, we can fight it." Yeah. But knowing was the easy part. Fighting it was going to be the hardest part of the whole operation. Vienna just wanted to sleep, fighting a dream demon was definitely not on her list of things to do. Actually, she didn't have a to-do list. But if she did then fighting a dream demon would not be on it!

"How the hell are we supposed to kill a dream demon?" Rafael asked.

"I suppose that killing it in the dream wouldn't do anything, right?" Vienna inquired.

"As far as we know, no," Hope replied. "Leave that part to me. But since I can't fall asleep without compromising the location of the urn, I need someone else to pull it out of the dream plane and into our waking reality."

That was something that Vienna would be dreading for sure. She almost couldn't get her next words out, "In other words, us." Hope nodded in response to her question. That meant that they would all have to suffer horrendous nightmares in order to stop the dream demon... Is it too late to switch schools?

"So, Freddy Krueger," MG stated. "Like I said."

"Wait," Looking away from MG, Rafael turned to Hope, "How the hell are we supposed to do that?" That was something that Vienna would like to know as well. If they couldn't kill it in the dream but only saw it in the dream then how are you supposed to kill it? It made no sense. Unless you found someone to bring it out of the dream.

It looked like MG was thinking the same thing, "If it's anything like the movies, we just grab and pull."

"That makes sense," Vienna furrowed her brow. "To some extent." She had never watched the Freddy Krueger movies. Everything she knew about them had been things that she heard from other people. The most she knew was that the monster was in dreams.

There was one person who was not buying this whole thing, "Yeah, okay," Kaleb stared at MG for a moment longer before looking back at Hope,  Is it too late to get on the, uh," He gestured to outside, "Evacuation bus?"

"No," Hope stated. "I mean, I'm not gonna ask all of you to stay for this, it has to be your choice."

"Ah, so it's picking your poison," Vienna said. "Exams or dream demon." She had no idea which was worse. Sure, she always aced the exams but that took a lot of hard work. With how much has been going on lately, she hadn't been able to study. She was going to fail the exams if she went to take them instead of fighting the dream demon.

The words that both girls said made the group all share a look. They waited to see who would be the first one to step up. For a while, no one said or did anything. It was completely silent and still. That is until Landon shook his head and stood beside Hope, "I'm not leaving unless Hope does."

"We already know the answer to that, so..." Hope trailed off.

"I'm not leaving Landon behind." Rafael stood up.

The next person to speak was MG, "I'm a founding member of the Super Squad," The boy stood up as well. "So I can't bail." Vienna had no idea what the Super Squad was. It sounded like something that he just came up with out of nowhere. Well, she didn't really care much to ask about it.

The decision seemed pretty clear to Vienna. The blonde stood up, "Why not? I honestly have nothing better to do at the moment."

This left one person left. Everyone turned their gazes to Kaleb. Kaleb's stare moved from each and every one of them, "Y'all gonna get yourselves killed," MG only shrugged at his words. Kaleb stared at them for a moment longer before he finally sighed, "If MG stays, I stay," This made MG nod with a grin. "No child left behind."

"In that case, it's naptime." Hope stated.

The group grabbed everything that they needed in order to sleep tonight. Once Vienna had everything, she went to the gym where they planned on setting everything up. There had been some beds already set up but everyone already decided to sleep close together on the floor. No one wanted to risk falling off if they flailed around while having a nightmare. Vienna set up her pallet on the floor as everyone talked among themselves. By the time eleven PM came around, everyone had passed out, Vienna included.

The first thing that Vienna noticed when she opened her eyes was that she was still in the gym. She glanced around in confusion, none of the others were here with her. She also noticed that she was standing up instead of laying down like she had been. She must've been in a nightmare already. If it was a nightmare though, why was she in the gym?

Taking a step forward, Vienna noticed something odd. It felt like her feet were coated in something warm, wet, and sticky. It was a strange sensation that she couldn't say that she had ever felt before. The girl looked down and was met with a trail of bloody footprints that led to where she currently stood. Raising one of her feet up, she saw that blood coated the bottom of it. She shook her head with an unsettled look on her face.

The footprint trail caught her attention once more. She wondered where it led to. Following it, she was horrified by what was at the end of it. What she saw made her regret ever being curious about what she would find.

Above the pool of blood was one person that Vienna was shocked to see. It was the Doctor. He was stuck to the wall with a stick driven through his chest. Her eyes widened at the sight and there was nothing that stopped the tears that filled her eyes. It was obvious that he was dead. He didn't move an inch and his chest wasn't even moving to show that he was breathing.

There was only one conclusion that Vienna could come up with. The only footprint trail led to her. There was no one else in the gym so that meant... Vienna gasped and brought a hand to cover her mouth, "Oh, my God. I..," She looked up at the Doctor once more, "I killed him."

Another voice sounded, "Yes, you did," Vienna didn't even have to turn around to know that it was the eye patch woman. Still, she did turn. This time, the eye patch woman wasn't hiding behind a hatch in a door. She was physically present in the room with her. She had short, dark, curly hair and wore a black leather pencil skirt with a black leather jacket to match. She placed a hand on Vienna's shoulder and smirked, "You've done exactly what you were meant to do. And you have made me so proud."

No, no way. She couldn't have. Tears started to fall down her face as she stumbled away from the woman, "But I didn't do this!" She pointed at the body of the Doctor, "I don't remember doing this!"

"But you did," The woman said simply. "I watched you."

It couldn't be. Vienna shook her head, "I know I didn't do this because there's no way that this is possibly real. This is just a dream." Her expression turned into an angry one. She was angry that this was happening to her. She didn't kill the Doctor and this was just a dream.

Almost as if to make things even worse, the dream demon showed up in the dream, "You think that you can go against what you were raised to do?" Vienna's head whipped around the stare at the demon. She stared at the demon with an expression to show that she would not back down if there would be any kind of fight. "You're not strong enough to fight that. You were raised to kill him! There's nothing you can do besides... To accept it."

"No!"

And just like that, Vienna woke up. She glanced around to see that she was in the gym with everyone else. They were all starting to wake up now as well. She took a little more time to examine her surroundings. There was no blood on the floor. The Doctor wasn't pinned to the wall by a stick. Everything looked exactly as it did before she fell asleep. Vienna hesitantly got up and she watched Landon jump up. Landon immediately started looking around, "Hope? Hope!"

"Are we alive, dude?" MG asked. "Did we win?"

"Hey, is everybody okay?" Rafael inquired.

"You see any dead dream demons laying around?" Kaleb also questioned.

That was a lot of questions to be answered. Vienna tried to answer them as best as she could, "I don't know, I don't know, and not that I can see."

Everyone started to get up from the ground. They glanced around the room like Vienna had done before. It was like they were also trying to make sure that they were no longer dreaming. The first one to break the silence that had fallen was Landon, "I grabbed the monster, like MG said, but I- I don't know if it worked," He glanced around the room once more, "And where is Hope?"

"She was in my dream," Rafael replied. "And then, I don't know, she was gone."

The reply made Landon breathe deeply. He still looked to see if he was able to spot the girl anywhere. All of a sudden, a sudden rumbling sound came from somewhere near them. The sound made all of them jump. The only person to ask about it was Kaleb, "What's that?"

"Do we really wanna know?" Vienna shot back.

The ceiling above them started to shake. The light from above swung from side to side and small specs of debris fell. Vienna put a hand over her eyes to make sure that no dust or debris got in them. She jumped once more when she heard the sound of more rumbling. She heard footsteps and turned. Landon was stepping toward Rafael, "Wait. Wh- What was Hope doing in your dream?"

It was silent for a moment as Rafael tried to think of what to say. He eventually managed to say, "The usual, just being a badass," It was at that moment a winged creature came flying through the doors of the gym, breaking them in the process. No longer after that, Hope came flying through the doors as well. Both the monster and Hope stood. "Pretty much like that."

The monster growled, spreading its wings. The group tried to fight the monster off but Hope stopped them before they could manage even a scratch on it, "Stay back, guys, I got this." She ran and leaped, pushing the monster down. This didn't stop the monster from grabbing her throat and choking her.

As if he had heard what was happening, Dr. Saltzman came running into the gym, "Hope!" He exclaimed. He had a crossbow and an arrow in his hands. He shouted to Hope again, "Eyes!" He tossed the arrow over to her.

Grabbing the arrow, Hope was able to get the monster to stop choking her. She then broke the arrow in half and stabbed each half into both of the monster's eyes. The monster growled before disappearing into a cloud of black smoke. Vienna could feel herself let out a sigh of relief as Hope breathed heavily. The two arrow halves lay on the ground where the monster once was.

"Landon was right," Kaleb commented. "Sexy as hell."

Vienna seemed to think something different, "No more nightmares for us then." And she was thankful for that. She could sleep peacefully without having to worry about nightmares that would plague her if she slept. Now that everything was done and over with, they walked out of the gym as the sun rose from outside of the school.