“KATRINA!”

As his scream filled the classroom, Dante’s aura flared up as if shadowy fingers were clawing at it from deep inside, struggling to break through his barriers and reach out into the real world. Phantasia soothed the outburst as best she could, but even as Dante’s scrunched up face unfolded she knew she couldn’t hold back his despair for long. For a second their eyes met – the first time since they’d spoken in the old park. Behind all his denial and enforced introversion, Phantasia knew he understood what was going on – and expected her to deal with it.

The creature, some thirty-odd metres away, was watching her with its blank face, waiting for her to acknowledge its presence. This wasn’t about the students or the Academy. This thing was here for her alone.

“I’ll handle this.”

She didn’t give them time to react. Throwing herself towards the window, she phased through, material clothes falling to the desktop. She could sense the sudden commotion in the classroom as she hopped across the courts from mesh fence to mesh fence, covering the distance between her and the pool in a matter of seconds. No time to worry about consequences.

Mr Haan was herding the students below as the remaining stragglers pelted barefoot across pavement to escape the stone giant. At least they were all safe. Mr Haan noticed Phantasia hovering above and gave her a confident nod, as if passing the torch of responsibility onto her.

Phantasia didn’t want to admit that, now she’d made her appearance, she had no idea what to do next.

***

Dante trembled. He’d been clinging to the slim hope that everything Phantasia had told him over the weekend – and everything he’d experienced – had been the result of a bad dream and psychotic hallucinations. If the behemoth that rose up behind the swimming pool ripped into his belief with steel claws, Phantasia passing through the window as if it wasn’t there disintegrated it like leaves caught in a nuclear blast.

“Don’t just stand around gawping,” said Ms James, “I’ve gotta get you kids outta here! Get to the shelter, NOW!”

Once every other month the students would be put through a drill where they had to make their way – in an orderly fashion – to a shelter located underneath the auditorium at the heart of the Academy. Right now, ‘an orderly fashion’ was the last thing on anyone’s mind.

“Dude, when they said the shelter was for emergencies or attack from hostile forces, I was kind thinking like Godhand or something,” said Joel as the class bundled through the corridors of Topaz House, picking up a class of first year students in the process, “Not some pointy robot thing with…points! Man, this is fierce!”

“I hope the others are okay,” said Kaori, “That thing was…and Phantasia, she…”

“Mr Haan is pretty solid,” said Doyle, whose eyes were not wandering across the panicked young girls surrounding them but fixated on the path ahead, “But what’s with that passing-through-the-window? And the robot? John? Dude? You’ve gotta know what’s going on!”

John was trembling, his laptop clutched tight to his chest. “I…it might have been a hologram,” he said, “The window, I mean. T-the other thing? Maybe some kind of nanomachine gestalt? I don’t know! None of this makes sense!”

Dante understood, though. He’d seen one of those creatures before and he knew why Phantasia could pass through solid matter. Given the circumstances he didn’t expect the usual looks he’d get for mentioning such a thing. “Phantasia’s not human,” he said, taking a deep breath to prepare himself for the truth, “She’s a faerie.”

Chapter 40
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