Chapter Text
Hallows’ City was alive and awake in the dead of night, a nocturnal city full of nocturnal citizens. Cars blared their horns on the roads below. Monsters hissed and roared and cackled with one another in the streets. Bats squealed and flapped their wings through the air. Werewolves howled at the full moon, shining high above their heads like a silver coin in the night sky. Even the darker, more dreadful districts were bustling with activity: wraiths whistled their eerie, out-of-pitch tunes as they stalked the streets in search of new victims to haunt. Zombies grunted and growled as they crawled out from their graveyards to join the living. Demons cackled deviously as they played tricks on those foolish enough to entertain their bullshit.
It was a symphony of city chaos.
But in the living room of Sadie’s spacious apartment, the rowdy ambience outside was simply reduced to white noise in the background, going in one ear and out the other while she and her friends focused their attention on more important matters.
Like the intense, high stakes, life-or-death game of Unus currently going on at the coffee table.
Ember grinned as she plucked a card from her hand. “Here,” she said, placing a green Skip onto the center pile, “have a little break from playing, Mo.”
Mona scoffed and flipped her off, only earning a devilish (pun intended) giggle in response.
“Break’s over!” Billie announced, throwing a green Reverse onto the pile.
“Thanks, Billie.” Mona smiled wickedly, keeping her indigo eyes fixed on Ember as she slammed a green +2 right on top of the Reverse card.
Ember’s gaze shot back down to her cards, scanning them left and right until her expression broke into a snarl. “Fuck!”
Sadie chuckled as Ember, muttering even more curses under her breath, reluctantly drew two new cards from the face-down stack. “You walked right into that one,” she teased.
The demon’s eyes snapped toward her. “Shut up, you’re not helping!”
“Good.” Sadie placed a green eight onto the center pile, leaving her down to just one card in her hand. She took a sip from her can of Dr. Reaper, not before declaring, “Unus.”
The tension in the room, previously light and barely even there, suddenly thickened like fog in a dark forest. All at once, the other three monsters narrowed their eyes at her, a shared spark of determination flickering to life in their expressions. Even Roulette, her pet cat, perked her head up curiously from where she’d been lounging on the coffee table this whole time.
“Not for long,” Ember warned. She turned toward Mona and Billie, leveling them with an urgent stare. “Lock in, you guys.”
They both nodded without a word. Billie tossed a green five onto the pile, shooting a competitive glance at Sadie from the corner of her eyes. Mona didn’t even bother looking down at her cards. She just kept her gaze pinned on Sadie as she played a green six.
Suddenly, Ember let out a gasp, drawing everyone’s attention to her. Her lips curled into a wicked smile as she placed a red six onto the pile, turning to Sadie with a smug gleam in her eyes. “Your turn, Sades.”
She looked down at the last card in her hand. She fought the overwhelming urge to smile at what was about to come.
“What’s wrong?” Roulette asked, gazing up at her. “Do you not have red?”
Sadie shook her head. “No.”
“Aw, that sucks,” Ember snickered. “Red is such a good color.”
“Yeah, it is…” Sadie used every ounce of willpower to maintain her poker face. She looked up and met Ember’s shit-eating grin, staring her dead in the eye. “But I still prefer green.”
Then, before any of them could process what she just said, she tossed her final card onto the pile: a Wild card.
The living room exploded in cries of outrage and indignation.
Sadie threw her head back and let out a victorious cackle. Even Roulette decided to join in on her triumphant moment, getting up from the coffee table and jumping into her lap to congratulate her. She gently stroked the feline’s fur while she reached for her can of Dr. Reaper on the table. She brought the opening to her lips and took a giant, celebratory sip of the fizzy soda, relishing the rush of icy bubbles and the mix of flavors going down her throat. She exhaled a satisfied sigh. “Good game, you guys.”
“For you, maybe,” Ember scoffed, tossing her cards onto the table.
“It would’ve been better if I had won,” Billie declared, puffing her chest.
Mona raised an eyebrow. “No it wouldn’t.”
“You’re just bitter that you lost!”
“We all lost, Billie.”
“Yeah, including you.”
“That’s literally what I just said!”
“Heh, that’s what she—”
“Shut the fuck up, Ember.”
More laughter spilled from Sadie’s lips, this time with lighthearted amusement, as she collected all the Unus cards and reshuffled them into one neat stack. A soft, familiar warmth nestled in her chest. This was one of the many moments she always cherished with her friends—goofing around, playing games, cracking dumb jokes, insulting each other over said jokes. Every school year, every summer break, was always spent laughing and bantering and bickering with each other, always chaotic and slightly unhinged.
Sadie wouldn’t want it any other way.
The familiar jingle of keys outside cut through the near silence of the living room, followed by the soft click of a lock as the front door swung open to reveal Sadie’s mother.
“Hey, Sadie,” Ms. Arachned greeted, entering the apartment and shutting the door behind her. She carried her sleek black work purse in one hand, setting it down on the kitchen counter beside the entrance, and two dark envelopes in the other. “How’s your night been? You girls having fun?”
They all nodded their heads eagerly. “Yep!”
“What’s that?” Sadie asked, pointing at the envelopes.
The smile on her mother’s face faltered for a split second. Her gaze briefly lowered to her hand before returning to Sadie. “These came in the mail for you.”
A chilling sense of unease crept along her spine.
“Really?” She gently placed Roulette on the coffee table and stood up before heading into the kitchen where her mother was. As she approached, she could see the envelopes in much more detail: one of them was a deep, velvety shade of red with the wax seal of a jet black rose—the crest of her school, Onyx Rose Institute. A little unexpected, but nothing too out of the ordinary.
But when she caught sight of the second envelope, charcoal gray with the wax seal of a raven in a mirror, her stomach churned. Every single light in the room began to flicker.
“You’ve got to be joking.”
She met her mother’s gaze, soft and sympathetic. “I’m sorry, hon,” she sighed, bringing Sadie in for a consoling side hug. “I know how much you hate that school.”
Hate was a bit of an understatement.
“What’s wrong?”
Sadie looked over to see four pairs of eyes all staring at her from the living room, various looks ranging from concern to anxiety etched all over their faces. The atmosphere was now devoid of any playfulness or carefree attitude from earlier. The tension was subtle but tangible nonetheless, like a gloomy gray cloud looming above their heads, threatening to drown them in a flood of terrible, horrible news.
She didn’t respond. She couldn’t bring herself to respond, at least not yet. Instead, she simply took the envelopes from her mother’s hand and looked up at her. “Can you… give us a moment?”
Ms. Arachned nodded in understanding, leaning down to kiss the stitches on her daughter’s forehead. “Make sure nothing gets cursed or set on fire. I’ll be in my room if you need me.”
As her mother turned and vanished into the long hallway leading to the bedrooms, Sadie returned to the living room and resumed her spot at the coffee table. She tossed the envelopes onto the center of the table, muscles tense and jaw clenched.
She didn’t even need to explain a thing.
As soon as everyone’s gaze landed on the gray envelope’s seal, the silent tension burst into a chorus of anger and agony.
Flames sparked in Ember’s yellow irises. “No fucking way…”
The air around Mona crackled dangerously with magic. “Don’t tell me…”
A deep, undead groan tore from Billie’s throat “Say it’s fake. Please, someone, say it’s fake!”
Roulette’s sleek black fur bristled on end. “It’s not fake, is it?”
There was only one way to answer that question.
Sadie snatched the gray envelope and viciously ripped it open. A small grin tugged at her lips as the raven-and-mirror crest tore in half, but the feeling didn’t last much longer. Inside the envelope were two folded pieces of paper, both of them colored like pages of an old book. She carelessly yanked them out, letting the shredded envelope plop onto the smooth surface below. She unfolded the first piece of paper to reveal a list of supplies she would need for this school year, all the various notebooks and textbooks she’d require for each class. Her scowl only deepened when she saw that same raven-and-mirror crest printed in the top corner of the page.
Mona let out a groan, her hands rising to cover her face in despair. “Don’t tell me they chose you for this stupid program…”
“We don’t know that! Maybe someone’s just playing a really shitty prank on us!” Billie tried to suggest, her tone drenched in pure desperation.
Sadie didn’t answer. She just released the supplies list, also letting it plop unceremoniously onto the coffee table, before unfolding the second piece of paper. The one she was dreading to read. The one that would forever seal her fate for the whole school year and ruin the rest of her summer.
It was a letter.
From the fucking headmaster of Night Raven College.
As if her mood couldn’t grow any worse, she began to read the obnoxiously cursive words written on the paper:
Dear Miss Arachned,
It is with the utmost honor that I congratulate you on earning the once-in-a-lifetime chance to attend Night Raven College for the upcoming school year! It seems as though the Great Seven themselves have decided to smile upon you and bless you with insurmountable fortune, as it is not every day that someone is given the opportunity to attend such a prestigious and respectable academy such as this one. Consider yourself truly lucky!
In case you do not already know, although I find that hard to believe, I am Dire Crowley, the humble headmaster of Night Raven College. As headmaster, the safety and wellbeing of my students are my number one priority. It is my sole duty to care for them and ensure they are all able to grow to their full potential, and that includes you as well this year. Therefore, as your new headmaster for the year, it is one of my topmost priorities to make sure your time at Night Raven College is one filled with success, knowledge, good fortune, and—most importantly—cherished memories with your peers that you wouldn’t trade for the world! Aren’t I such a thoughtful headmaster already?
In addition to this letter, I have taken the liberty of providing you with an extensive list of all the supplies you will require for your classes this year. I highly recommend that you purchase these supplies sooner rather than later. We wouldn’t want you to enter this upcoming school year unprepared, now would we? Ah, what a truly courteous headmaster I am! And in case you were wondering about your schedule, you shall receive it on Orientation night, right before the first day of classes, so there’s no need to worry about it just yet. Should you have any inquiries about your supplies or your new life at this school in general, please do not hesitate to send me a letter! I guarantee you will receive a very speedy response (within a month or two).
With that, I truly wish you nothing but the best this year at Night Raven College. Learn new things, make new friends, seize new opportunities, and experience the best of what the most prestigious school in all of Twisted Wonderland has to offer you! I promise you won’t be disappointed in the slightest.
With the kindest regards,
Headmaster Dire Crowley
(P.S. Don’t forget to tell your old schoolmates what a wonderful time you’re having at Night Raven College! I’m sure they’ll all be quite envious of your position.)
All the surrounding lights, from the lamps in the living room to the ceiling lights in the kitchen, started to flicker. The shadows in every nook and cranny began to darken and twitch angrily. A fearsome growl rumbled in the back of Sadie’s throat. Her eyes glared daggers at the letter in her hands like she was trying to rip it to shreds with her mind. She really wanted to rip it to shreds just like the envelope it came in.
“Sadie?”
Ember’s voice pulled her back to reality before her rage could spiral any further. She glanced up to see the three monsters and Roulette all staring at her with varying expressions of concern, anxiety, and anticipation. “You good? What does the letter say?”
She slammed the letter down onto the coffee table. When she spoke, her tone was flat with a shameless mix of resentment and frustration. “It says I’m going to Night Raven College.”
There was a second of silence. Maybe half a second.
And then all hell broke loose.
“WHAT?” Roulette hissed, claws unsheathing like tiny knives, tail lashing side to side like a whip.
“DAMN IT!” Ember screamed, a whole inferno roaring to life in her blazing gold eyes. The temperature in the room suddenly spiked as if someone had started a fire, but it cooled back down a second later.
“NO!” Mona cried angrily. Her eyes flashed a vibrant, dangerous shade of indigo. There was a sharp crackle in the air, as if she was conjuring enough magic energy to cast a curse on someone.
“BOOGIE MAN, WHY?” Billie shouted, shaking her fists in the air. Down in the streets below, the ground shook ever so slightly, like all the corpses in the world were rolling in their graves. “WHY WOULD YOU LET THIS HAPPEN TO THE HOUSEWARDEN OF YOUR OWN DORM?”
Despite herself, Sadie let out a small huff of laughter. “Hey, don’t blame this on the Boogie Man,” she playfully chided. “Blame it on the ‘Great Seven’ for ‘blessing me with immense fortune,’ or whatever the fuck that headmaster said.”
Ember cringed. “Ew, is that actually what he wrote?”
Sadie nodded. “Literally in the first paragraph.”
“Ugh, he sounds even worse than the students,” Mona groaned.
Sadie then reached for the deep red envelope from her school. She picked it up and—with a lot more care this time—slowly peeled it open, making sure to preserve the black rose seal as best as she could. Unlike the one from Night Raven College, this envelope only contained one folded piece of paper inside, crisp and white. She slowly pulled it out and set the envelope down, unfolding the page to reveal a letter written in—thankfully—much more legible handwriting:
Dear Sadie,
I’m sorry you had to find out like this, but as you may have already guessed, you were chosen as the “lucky student” to attend Night Raven College for a whole year. I know you’re probably upset, although that’s putting it lightly, considering how a lot of you girls are when it comes to Night Raven College. Having to attend a school filled with aggressive, egotistical, temperamental teenage boys for nine months straight? That’s a fate not even I would wish on my worst enemy—because he’s already the headmaster of that godforsaken school, so what would be the point?
But all jokes aside, I know you’re probably still angry with me for even agreeing to this program in the first place, but I assure you it’s for good reason. You know as well as I do that Onyx Rose Institute deserves more recognition throughout the world. After all, the Superior Seven did not die all those years ago just for their efforts to go unnoticed in favor of the “Great” Seven’s accomplishments. This could finally be our chance to shed some much-needed light on our very own school for once—and maybe even steal some of that light from Night Raven College themselves.
Now, I know those boys are going to severely test your patience every day. Based on your first year at Onyx Rose, I know you have a tendency to… frighten people whenever they try to mess with you or even any of your dorm members. However, since you’ll be at an entirely different school this year, I’m afraid you’ll have to be on your—somewhat—best behavior at Night Raven College. You will essentially be representing Onyx Rose Institute, so try not to curse anyone with nightmares over there… unless, of course, they try to provoke you first. Then in that case, you have every right to defend yourself however you see fit. And if that way is to curse them with nightmares, well then… who am I to stop you? ;)
One more thing: since you will be absent for the entirety of your second year here, and therefore unable to be present as Housewarden of Nocterror, your current Vice Housewarden will be made acting Housewarden in your absence. This arrangement is only temporary, as it is only for the year that you are gone. We can’t leave a whole dorm without anyone in charge, now can we? And considering you appointed one of your closest friends as your Vice Housewarden last year, I’m sure you’ll be able to rest a little easier knowing that Nocterror is in good hands. (And yes, she may appoint an acting Vice Housewarden in her place if she so chooses.)
Again, I’m truly sorry you have to go through with this, but I promise it’ll all be worth it in the end. I’ll see you back at Onyx Rose next year.
Yours truly,
Melora Strife
Headmistress of Onyx Rose Institute
“What did Headmistress Strife say?” Ember asked, scooting around the coffee table to take a peek at the letter.
“Well for one,” Sadie began, “you’re basically gonna be promoted to acting Housewarden while I’m gone.”
“Seriously?” The demon’s eyes grew wide. She leaned back, her gaze downcast at the floor. “Holy shit... I don’t know if I can lead an entire dorm of students on my own! That’s way too much responsibility.”
“Hey, you got this,” Sadie encouraged, placing a hand on her shoulder. “Besides, Headmistress Strife said you could appoint an acting Vice Housewarden to help out.”
“Dibs not it!” Billie immediately shouted, putting her finger on her nose.
“Girl, this will literally be your first year at Onyx Rose,” Mona pointed out. “You don’t have to worry about being put into any positions of authority anytime soon.”
“But that’s what happened to Sadie last year.”
“Because I’m just built different,” Sadie joked. She was met with a playful shove from Billie.
Ember turned towards Mona, dramatically batting her eyelashes. “Hey, Mo-Mo. Have I ever told you you’re, like, the greatest, smartest, hottest witch that I’ve ever known—"
Mona cut her off with a sigh. “Yes, I’ll be your acting Vice. Just don’t call me that stupid ass nickname again.”
“Deal!” Ember exclaimed, shuffling around the coffee table again until she was on Mona’s side. Then she threw her arms around the witch’s neck in gratitude. Mona rolled her eyes, but a small grin crept across her lips as she returned Ember’s hug.
Roulette slowly inched closer to Sadie, her tail tucked between her hind legs. “What else did the headmistress say?” she asked. Her tone sounded casual on the surface, but Sadie knew her well enough to detect the little hint of anxiety underneath. “Did she mention anything about me? Can I at least go with you?”
“Of course, Rou-Rou,” she instantly responded, tenderly scratching the underside of her chin. “I don’t give a shit if anyone says you’re not allowed over there. You’re coming with me whether they like it or not.”
Roulette purred gratefully and leaned into her touch. “Thank you.”
Mona sighed and shook her head. “Seriously, there were so many other ways Headmistress Strife could’ve tried to bring more attention to our school.”
“She doesn’t even like Night Raven College!” Billie pointed out indignantly.
“And yet she’s still going through with this stupid Rose & Raven Program,” Ember scoffed bitterly.
Sadie groaned, taking another sip of Dr. Reaper for comfort. Then she looked at her friends, taking in all the pain and grief in their eyes, and that’s when realization truly punched her in the gut: once summer break ended, she would never get to see them again for nine whole months. Sure, she’d probably be able to return home and reunite with them for winter and spring break, but that wasn’t nearly enough time for her. She wanted to spend the whole school year with them! That’s how it had always been since elementary school! Even last year, she’d gotten to start her first year at Onyx Rose Institute with Ember and Mona. Now Billie was going to start her first year, and Sadie wouldn’t even be there to be a part of it!
She turned her gaze to the shredded gray envelope on the table. Her eyes narrowed at the raven-and-mirror seal, still torn in half but still taunting her all the same.
This year just couldn’t get any worse.