“Spinning and spinning and spinning!” The gross voice said. I was on a carousel, strapped in so tight that I could barely breathe and on top of that, I felt like losing my lunch. “Stop this! What do you want?” I managed to shout at the invisible man.

The carousel stopped without warning and my bounds disappeared, causing me to slide onto the gravel floor. A dark cloud formed in front of me. “Me? What do I want?” The smoke parted and a man in a leather trench coat stood before me. He had an olive complexion and glowing green eyes that contrasted with his black hair.

He squatted to my level. “Oh, I don’t want anything from you, sweetheart. Not yet at least.” He got up. “I’m merely here to keep an eye on you. But whos to say I can’t have a little fun while I wait?” I crawled to my knees and spat out some blood. “Waiting? For what?”

“Now if I told you that, it wouldn’t be as fun, now would it?” He gave a sickening laugh and I was shrouded in black mist.

“GOOD MORNING!” Kat yelled, shaking me violently. I groaned. I could barely remember the dream I just had, but I figured it was for the best. “Wait, I fell asleep at Miss Malitia’s, how did I get here?” Kat shrugged. “Don’t know, but I do know that it’s time for breakfast and I’m hungry! So lets go!” I sighed and got dressed. Brushing my hair I noticed something shiny in it. Taking it out I immediately dropped it because of the searing heat it emanated. “You okay?” Kat asked, knocking on the restroom door. “Yeah, just dropped something!” I said awkwardly. I sighed and looked down. On the floor was a small hair pin. It was gold in color and at the end had a small crystal, white flower.

I tapped it to see if it was still hot, but it was ice cold. Picking it up I examined it a little closer. Engraved on one side was the word ‘Shine’ and on the other side it said, ‘Brave’. I called Kat in to take a look at this too.

“So, what do ya think it is?” I asked. Kat hummed and said, “I think its a hair pin.”

“Yes, I can see that, but what does it mean? I’m telling ya Kat, somethings wrong here.”

“Oh! Put it on,maybe you’ll turn into another teacher!” I sighed, could be worse. Plus if it would get Kat to focus... “Fine.” I placed it in my hair. “Anything change?” Kat place her hand on her chin. “No, you still look the same. Maybe it really is just a hair--” There was a crash and Kat and I left the bathroom to investigate. Marion and Natalia were facing away from us, they seemed to be frozen.

“Um, guys?” They whipped around at the sound of my voice. Natalia gasped. “Oh look at you! You look so pretty.” A different female voice came out of her mouth.

“I don’t see much of a difference.” A male voice came out of Marion’s mouth.

“Of course you don’t, your eye for beauty has always been dull.” Natalia said, hands on her hips.

“Kat, what’s going on?” I whispered to her as I watched our other roommates argue in voices that weren’t there own. “I don’t know.”

Natalia looked at us. “Oh, how rude! We were summoned by your clip. I mean, really you didn’t find it weird that you had a foreign clip with you?”

“Truly, she’s daft.” Marion said, crossing her arms. “Well, now that we know how you got here.... who are you and why did you posses our friends, hm?” I asked.

“Well, originally we were just going to posses your brain, which would cause you to go into a dream-like state with us, and a coma-like state with everyone else. But I voted against that, fearing that you might bonk your head on the sink or something.” Natalia put her hands behind her back and started to sway on the balls of her feet. “And for our names, I’m Akiko, and the grumpy one over there is Andrik. And we are are the soul protectors of, well, you.”

“Not really, I only protect brave souls and she protects, what she calls, shiny souls.”

“You accidentally spill glitter on a guy ONCE during selection day and everyone deems you the golden souls keeper.” She sighed.

I clapped my hands together. “Well, this has been very... informative, but could you please get out of our friends now? Ya know, find something or someone else to posses?”

“Nope.” Akiko said enthusiastically. “We can’t leave till you do something for us.” I slapped my forehead with my palm. “Oooo! An adventure!” Kat said, jumping up and down. I sighed. “Guys really? Now? It’s almost the end of the year and--”

“And your nightmares are getting worse and you now know the man who haunts your nightly terrors?” Akiko asked, getting close to my face.

“How do you--?” I started. Akiko quickly interrupted. “Malli told us.” Miss Militia? How would they know Miss Militia? “Malli’s actually the one who gave you that hair pin. She told us to take you to the basement and--”

“Wait, basement? Why the basement?” I groaned. Basements have always creeped me out. They’re all dusty and filled with spiders. “Oh, don’t be such a party pooper.” Kat said, puffing out her lip. I shook my head. I was not going to any basement with some crazy beings that possessed my friends.

“Then I guess we have not choice.” Akiko faced Andrik and nodded to him. He sighed and came closer to me. “Sorry, not sorry.” He said, before taking out the ward in his pocket and hitting Kat and I with it. I hit the floor and everything went blurry then, nothing.