I was paralized at the sight. The corpse looked exactly like Emily except her blonde hair was a mess and her eyes were dull like this. Whoever brought her down here was careful enough to hide her but not enough to be respectful of the dead. I could tell that it definitely wasn’t a fall to her death. I knelt next to her body in shock. I reached out my hand and felt her wrist. I don’t know what Iwas hoping for, she’s been a ghost for years. I guess part of me hoped that it would still be warm and maybe there would be a pulse. It was the opposite, her skin was freezing and I couldn’t feel a pulse.

What was odd however was that after all this time, she still looked somewhat alive. Her skin was deprived of warmth but her body had yet to decay. If I closed her eyes, it would almost look as if she was sleeping but had just never seen the sun. She was crowded by strang flowers. They had white petals with red stripes and a black center. I recognize it for when I was last down here flipping through books.

I rushed over to the desk where the book still layed and started flipping through it looking for the page, it was one of the pages that wasn’t all in a different language. I found it and read the description in beautifully messy cursive handwriting.

Mors Lilium, or the death lily, is a rare flower that can preserve organisms after being cut off of a life source. Most commonly used in necromancy when you need to keep a body preserved during a particularly long ritual.

Underneath was a detailed drawing of the flower. Was it pure chance that someone put her there or was it purposeful. And why? If it was purposeful, what reason would they have? I flip to the back where they mention death and actual necromancy rituals. If I could only figure these out, I could do something, I could help Adrien, Alya, and Emily. I just hope Scarlet moth doesn't get to them first.

“Marinette, you're late.” My Grandfather appeared.

“Actually, I’m early, I’m skipping school.” He noticed the book and I glanced at Emily, he followed my eyes.

“Ah, I see you’ve found her.” he just casually stated.

“Did you do this to her?”

“No, I would never do such a thing. Sadly, quite a few years ago I witnessed my daughter dragging her down here.”

“My mom did this?” I raised a hand to my mouth stunned.

He merely pursed his lips at the painful memory then forgot my question. “Never mind that, now for your first lesson.”

“Wait, what do you mean ‘never mind’? That’s my friend’s dead body!”

“For the first lesson, we’ll be practising on dead rats.” he continued giveing me a stern look, I shut my mouth on the subject feeling uneasy.

“So, what are we doing exactly?” I started to follow along with his lesson.

“Well, we’re reanimating dead mice, not bringing them back, we’d have to find their souls for that and that’s a bit advanced right now. Trust me, bringing a human back to life is easier than a mouse.” he brought me over to a corner of the room where I had to fetch a dead rat. I’m not sure how much longer I can refrain from vomiting today. I grabbed the ceremonial knife as requested by my grandfather and sat in the middle of the floor.

I slit the tip of my finger, the blade was sharp enough that it felt like a paper cut. Per his instruction, I drew an elaborate design, rune, on the floor with my bloodied finger. Once the last ends connected, the blood let out a slight glow.

“Good, now set the rat directly in the center.” I picked up the rat and was careful to make sure my cut finger didn’t touch it. I set it delicately in the center and the glow went two ways. Half shot to the rat while the other seeped into my body filling me with the toxic yet delicious feeling of power. No, I must stabilize my mind, I can’t let it get to my head. I focused the power and directed it to my heart. It was harder than just letting it consume my mind.

When I looked back at the rat, it was still lifeless. I expected it to, I don’t know, stand or something, like in a movie. At my thought, the rat complied. In panic, I fiercely scooted away, startled by the rat.

“Good work Marinette! Have it walk in and out of the circle and then release you clasp on it. I did as told and felt tired once I let go and the rat dropped.

“Impressive control, now to make the ritual disappear.” I sat up straighter. “Just retrace your path but backwards.” I did so and it disappeared behind my finger. I finished and sat back to admire my clean up work.

“Hey Grandpa? Could I take the book home with me tonight to study?” He looked worried at my words.

“Um sure, are you alright? When the power went to you, please tell me you made sure it didn’t go to your head, right? I would have said something but when I did the first time, they could only focus on the head and forgot to avoid it.”

“Ye-yeah, I moved it to my heart, why?”

“Nothing, that’s better at least.” I gave him an odd look before slipping the book into my bag and climbed up the stairs. It was harder sneaking out when the place was full but at least I wouldn’t have to worry about being locked in here.

I found Emily to read with like usual. This time however, I had the mental image of her lifeless body in the back of my mind making me feel a tad uncomfortable.

We read the Mercedes Thompson book and I was thrilled when I read that the main character in the book, Mercy, could also see ghosts.

Closing time came fast and I had to leave. I went home and found Adrien standing just outside the bakery.

“There you are! Are you okay? Where did you go?” He ran up to me, concern glistening in his eyes.

“I’m fine, I just went to the library.”

“Okay, I’m glad.” We started inside. “Oh, by the way, I managed to convince Nino, it was hard, but I did it.”

“Yay.” I smiled, happy for him.

“Marinette!” My mom called. I went to her. She looked stern as she set down the phone and my dad closed up around us.

“Why did I just get a call from your school saying that you were absent from your last three classes?”

“Well, I wasn’t feeling well so I left early.”

“Then you should have told the school first! That's it, you’re grounded tomorrow, you will go to school and come straight back home, that’s it.”

“Yes mama.”

“Good, now, go up to your room, you can have an apple for supper.” I nodded and receded upstairs, grabbing an apple on my way to my room. I collapsed on my chair, munching on the apple.

I need more food, this apple isn’t enough to help regain my energy and I wanted to try another spell. I guess I’ll just push my limits. I opened the book and started searching for a reason on why Adrien couldn’t get into certain places.

I found it and it was in a different language but the last spell did something to me. I can make out some of the words. Something about his physical body never being there so while he was trapped between life and death-” the translation stopped there, the reading was still a bit faulty because it was still hard to understand so I hoped I read it correctly.

I did my best to follow the spell and the glow from the rune gave me confidence as it partly sucked to me, I didn’t have to fight it from my mind, it went straight to my heart. I waited a moment before erasing it. I opened the trapdoor. I had taken enough time that my parents had eaten and gone to bed.

“Adrien.” I hissed. I caught his attention.

“Hm?” I waved him towards me and sat back as he stopped just before the barrier should be.

“I wanted to try something, try coming up.” he hesitated and shut his eyes before doing as I suggested. He made it in my room without trouble.

“It worked!” I squealed in delight. I kicked the book under my desk to hide it, he didn’t seem to notice.

“But, how?”

“O-oh, I’m not really sure, I, um, I said a spell that popped into my head? I wasn’t sure it would work, it seems silly now.”

“It's a cool spell then! Do you remember it?”

“N-no, sorry, it left as quickly as it came.”

“That’s alright, are you okay? You look like you’re about to pass out.”

“I’m fine, I actually don’t think I’ll be able to sleep! I don’t know why but I’m feeling hyper.” the second part was a flat out lie, at least it was better than this morning’s. The first part was true, I don’t want to sleep and have to see visions of Emily’s corpse.

Adrien could sense that I was lying but chose not to question me about it. Instead he just stayed up with me, talking until sunrise when he left me to change into clean clothes.

I started to change but I stopped when I saw black veins right over my heart in the mirror, dulling into normal at the edges. I couldn't say anything about this, I felt like this was tied to the spells from earlier and that would be hard to explain.

I just finished changing, pushing the thoughts aside as I shoved the magic book in my bag. I need to keep a clear mind and just go to school, I need to ignore it. I finished and ran downstairs and Adrien followed me to school. I can make it through the day. I couldn’t wait for my next lesson.

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Yay, it’s a faster two part update! I’m feeling really proud of myself. I stayed up all night trying to improve my writing and I think I did a fairly good job until I saw it in the morning and had to fix a lot of things because I was so sleep deprived at the time that I made absolutely no sense. I’ve been trying to work to the ending but have only finally started actually working to the climax. I have the ending in mind and I hope you like it. I’m currently working on chapter 9 and it should be done soon. Thank you for reading and I hope you have an amazing day!