Phantasia

That lunchtime, Phantasia sat in a meeting of the school newspaper team, all of whom she recognised from her classes. Phoenie stood at the front of the room before a whiteboard covered in various photographs of the so-called leansídhe, which showed up as an amorphous black shadow in every picture, but there was also another dominant aura in some of them: a shining, winged figure whose identity she was afraid to have confirmed.

“Okay, everyone, I’ve invited Ms. Celeste along to help us with the investigation,” said Phoenie, tapping a long wooden pointer on her hand, “As you are all aware, thanks to help from Mr Smith, Ms Booton and Ms James, John and Katrina were able to develop a working auragraphic camera! With this technological wonder, we have been able to take photographs of otherwise undetectable phenomena.”

She tapped on a photo of the leansídhe with her pointer. “This is the core of our current investigation. It is an entity Amanda has labelled a ‘leansídhe’, and is almost certainly a key player in the recent spate of attempted suicides. Katrina’s auragraphs show this ‘leansídhe’ draining energy from people who we know suffer depression or related self-esteem issues. Please examine this auragraph of Kaori Shimomura, taken moments before her attempted suicide one week previous,” Phoenie tapped her pointer on a photo showing Kaori’s aura being affected by the nearby vampiric entity.

A discontented grunt came from the back of the room. “That’s just some trick of the light,” said Theseus Armstrong. Another one of the older students in the year, Theseus was characterised by slicked back hair, smart clothes and the sturdy aura of a self-assured fighter. “I mean, this whole ‘demon’ thing’s a bit wacko, ain’t it?”

“If you’d be so kind as to hear me out, Theseus, you’ll realise this is no mere illusion,” said Phoenie, before drawing attention to one of the pictures with the glowing figure. “Now here is where things get interesting. You see, Katrina was tailing the ‘leansídhe’ on Saturday and was lucky enough to catch a bonus scoop: an auragraph of someone actually giving chase to the ‘leansídhe’. However, normally a person’s aura is faint and indistinct; a foggy aura surrounding the body,” she motioned towards images taken of the team, displaying split-second shots of the auras that fluctuated around them constantly.

“It’s just some electromagnetic crap…”

Phoenie ignored Theseus and directed attention to the glowing figure in the images. “In this case, what we can see is an exceptionally bright aura, and even more intriguing is that it shows signs of wings…”

“So don’t tell me,” said Theseus, “You’ve found yourself an angel too?”

“Theseus, enough with your flippant remarks, this is a serious matter!” Phoenie looked directly at Phantasia, her eyes piercing, “Ms Celeste, could you perhaps explain why your aura is so…inhuman?”

“I-I’m a psychic!” she blabbered, giving in to a sudden burst of inspiration, “My aura is a representation of the power of my spirit! I stood against that evil monster in an attempt to exorcise it from this world!”

Chapter 10
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