I start to trudge up the stairs to school, annoyed that I’m grounded, I can’t go to my lesson after school. Nino ran up to me.

“Hey, dudette!” he called. A lot of other students shot him weird looks for trying to get my attention. I paused, waiting for him to catch up.

“First of all, I want to apologize for yesterday, I was feeling hurt thinking you were trying to poke fun at, you know, the whole situation. When Adrien told your side of everything and I was constantly being pestered by random ghosts, I started to get the sense that maybe you were being honest.” we found a secluded corner of the stairs to sit and talk. “However, I’m still mad about being possessed without my permission.” he raised an eyebrow at Adrien.

“But I do want to help and I am happy not to be too far in the dark so I guess I can’t be that mad.”

“If I told you though, would you still be okay with it?” I asked.

“I’m just going to continue lying to myself and say yes, but to be honest to you, no.”

I nodded. “That’s understandable.” we sat for a minute.

“So, who was that other ghost from yesterday and why isn’t she here?”

“Oh, that’s Alya, she can’t leave the school.”

“Why isn’t it the same for Adrien?”

“I, don’t know.” I hoped my book could maybe hold the answer. I don’t want to show Adrien and Alya it, I can’t tell them about the basement and Alya can’t leave so If I show Adrien, the corpse of his mother in the corner might leave him with a major mental scar. I could bring Nino down and he could help me, maybe. We’ll go to the library after school- wait, I’m grounded. I’ll figure something out.

“Hey, I’ll introduce you to her after school, I think you’ll like her.” I tried to bring up the mood.

“Cool.” he smiled as the bell rang for first period. “Well, I don’t want to be late for class, I’ll see you in math.” he waved, disappearing into school. Adrien stood awkwardly by me.

“Do you want to head in?”

“Kinda, I really want to pretend I’m in class.”

“Go on in, I’m just going to be here.” he nodded and followed Nino in. I moved my hands back to support myself as I relaxed in that spot. After a moment, I figured that it would be a good idea to apologise to Alya.

I went inside, looking around for Alya only to find her introducing herself to Nino, keeping him from class. I started down to joining the conversation but that was when they parted and Alya went to the locker rooms. I followed her in and found her by my locker.

“Hey Marinette!” she had a goofy grin decorating her face.

“Hi!” I came over. “What happened?”

“Nino said he liked my ombre hair.” she blushed.

“That’s great!” I congratulated her. I debated on telling her about the book. “Hey Alya?”

“Hm?” she looked at me curiously as I pulled out my necromancy book.

“Whoa! What’s that?” She stared at the book in awe.

“It’s a book on necromancy.” I cracked it open, there were hundreds of words decorating the page, I could read them. Further back in the book it’s harder but the first few pages are in my language.

“What does it say?” Alya inquired. I shot her an odd look.

“What do you mean? It's one of the few pages that aren't in latin.”

“No, Marinette, it’s all in latin, can you read it?”

“Y-yeah?”

“This is starting to feel weird, where did you find this?”

“It’s an old book of my grandpa’s.” I avoided telling her about the basement.

“Do you remember when I hid in the janitor's closet because I sensed Scarlet Moth?”

“Yeah, is she here?” I looked around in a panic.

“Well, it took me a moment because it’s really faint, but this book is edmiting the same energy.” she nawed her lip in worry. I put it in my bag and moved it away.

“Better?” I asked, concerned, panic radiating off her.

“No, now it’s coming from both you and the book.” My hand immediately flew to my chest where the dark veins were.

“Marinette, did you do something?”

“I, just a little, I tried some spells in it to see if they worked.” I rushed.

“Did they?”

I opened my mouth to answer but shut it again, not wanting to speak.

“I won’t tell you what to do, I’m going to trust you to do the right thing. As your friend, I want to advise you that that book doesn't seem safe, please be careful.”

“Of course I will be.”

“Does Adrien know?”

“I want to find the right time to show him. I trust him but I wanted you to know about it first. I have a feeling that maybe this book could help you, Emily, Adrien, everyone.”

“Would it hurt?”

“I don’t think so but I’ve never been brought back from the dead.”

“No, Marinette, I’m not worried about that, I’m worried that it would hurt you, you said that you tried a spell. Did it hurt you?”

I brought my hand to clench my heart, I didn’t hurt but keeping the power from my head was excruciatingly hard and my body could still feel the fatigue.

“No.” I finally say. “But it is exhausting.”

“I don’t want you to waste your energy.”

“I want to, I want to make sure my friends are happy.” I thought to myself a bit. Scarlet Moth seems to have it out for Adrien so the longer he’s in this state, the more he’s at risk. And who's to say she’ll stop at him, everyone’s at risk, I don’t even know what she wants. I felt awful at my next idea, but I started considering running away. Not for long of course, but just long enough that I can save my friends.

I pulled my bag in front of me and took out a pen and paper. I wrote a quick note and turned to Alya.

“Okay, I have an idea, I’m going to disappear for a short while, I’m going to have Nino and Adrien relaying information from me.”

“Please tell me that it’s just going to be for like, a class period or something.”

“No, I want to stop Scarlet Moth first. I have half of a plan but I need help.”

“Shouldn’t you finish the plan first?”

“Well, I figure it out along the way as I gain information.”

“Would you care to tell me your half plan?”

“I’m going to ditch school. I know it's a bad idea but I need the extra time. I’m going to put Adrien back in his body but I’m going to need practise and I need to figure it out first.”

“Wait, I have an idea of a body you can practice on, come with me.”

“Okay?” I followed her but we were stopped by Chloe.

“What’s Scarlet Moth? And what do you mean ‘put Adrien back in his body’? I told you to leave him alone!”

“It’s none of your business Chloe.” I tried to side step her but she stopped me.

“No, when my- when Adrien is involved, I’ll make it my business, what did you do to him?”

I glanced at Alya and she just shrugged. “Well, he’s in a coma you know, but his spirit is disconnected from his body for some reason.” I explained.

“You really expect me to believe that?”

“No, but this is better than telling you a bad lie.”

“Do you want me to possess her and see if she can see ghosts?” Alya asked.

“Well, that didn’t work well with Nino-”

“What did you do to Nino?!” Chloe panicked.

“We- no, here, maybe I can find a better way.” I pulled out my book and found the page I was looking for. I could read most of it and started reciting the chant in the book under my breath.

“Wh-what are you doing?” Chloe freaked out at my mumbling.

I moved closer to her, succumbing to the magic, the power being sucked to my heart. I raised my hand slowly and touched her forehead, her eyes started glowing faintly. I stopped chanting and backed away, holding my heart while Chloe backed away holding her head and rubbing her eyes a bit, smudging her makeup. She looked up blinking and saw Alya, she jumped, startled.

“Who are you? Where did you come from?!”

“I was here the whole time.” Alya turned to me worried. “Are you okay?”

I waved her away. “Yeah, I’m fine. Chloe, this is Alya, she’s a ghost.”

“But she’s not floating?”

“So? I’m a ghost not a balloon.” Alya replied annoyed. I forgot that Alya didn’t like Chloe very much.

“Well that’s an understandable first misunderstanding.” I tried to deactivate the situation before Alya blew up at Chole or something.

“What can I do?” Chloe turned to me, giveing Alya a dirty side look.

“Hm?”

“I want to save Adri- Adrien.”

“Oh, well, I didn’t think you’d be helping us so I didn’t work you into my plan.”

“Well, I heard that you’ll be skipping school, I could keep your attendance for you.” I feel like she’s being oddly nice.

“How would you do that?”

“You can do anything when your father is the mayor.” she grinned maliciously. I felt a chill run through my body, the kind of ‘I just heard nails on a chalkboard’ kind of chills.

“Well, thanks then, if you could also get me into Adrien’s hospital room so when I do figure out the spell, I can actually perform it.”

She hesitated, clearly conflicted. “Fine, I’m not happy about you getting anywhere near him but if it helps, I’ll do it, but first, what’s Scarlet moth?”

Me and Alya shared a weird look. “Well, she kinda was the one who put Adrien in the hospital, it’s hard to explain.”

Chloe’s expression darkened. “Well then, I see she has a death wish.” I was very glad that I finally explained everything to her, this is kinda terrifying.

“Yeah, well, she’s dead herself, she’s a poltergeist.”

“Aww.” she seemed disappointed. “Well, as long as we get Adrien back. This kinda makes me feel like we’re superheros.” she commented.

“I’m going to have to side with Chloe on this one, it definitely feels like we’re superheroes! We should have hero names!” She and Alya started discussing this as I made my way through the lockers to Nino’s. I slipped the paper inside and turned back to Alya.

“So, what did you want to show me?” I asked, the mood turned sour yet again and she started drifting to the door, me and Chloe quick to follow.

“Why are you being so nice?” I asked Chloe as we followed Alya.

She didn’t meet my eyes. “Adrien is fond of you and is really nice to everyone. Before he left to meet you, I tried to stop him. We had an argument, he mentioned that he liked you and I might have said you were insane. He got mad and said that he was so disappointed in himself that we were ever friends because of how I spoke of you. I just want our friendship back.” she fiddled with the hem of her sleeve. “I like him, but not enough to risk our friendship and I was out of line.”

“Wait, so do you want to be friends or? I’m just wondering because you're sending mixed signals.”

“I just wanted to blame you. It’s going to be some time before you can forgive me and it’s going to be awhile before I can accept Adrien liking you so no. I don’t think I’m ready to be friends yet, however, I do want to at least get to know you first. I’ve said bad things to you and I still am not a fan of you, you changed him. I’m primarily trying to connect with you because of Adrien. That’s it.”

I just shrugged. “Okay then.”

She met my eyes “That being said, if you break his heart, I’ll shut down your family's bakery. Just in case you think I like you or something.” My eyes widened and I looked straight ahead.

Alya stopped by a grate. “Here. when I died, I was alive enough to remember being thrown in here. I was surrounded by really pretty flowers as I died. They looked like lilies but with red and wite striped petals and a black center I believe.”

Chloe looked squeamish. “How long have you been dead again?”

Alya thought back. “Like a year or something, I can’t remember.”

“And how come I couldn’t smell any rot coming from the vents then.” She asked cringing. I was busy flipping through my book.

“Hey Alya?” I called. “Is this it?” I showed her the sketch.

“Yeah, how’d you know?” I peered down into the grate. It was too dark to see anything but maybe that was a good thing.

“Okay, so here's the new and improved plan. I figure out the spell and I’ll practice by putting your ghost back in your body. Then Chloe will help me get to Adrien and he’ll come with me, it might be difficult because of the barrier at his room. I think Scarlet Moth is behind that.”

“When I’m alive again, what do you need me to do?” Alya stopped me.

“Nino will help you adjust to being alive again and you will patrol around town. You both will be on the lookout for Scarlet Moth.” She blushed a bit hearing about spending the day with Nino.

“Chloe, you will keep anyone from interfering with the spell when I perform it on Adrien.”

“How would I do that from inside the room?” she asked.

“You’ll be outside the door, I’m not sure what would happen if someone was in the room with me when I perform the spell and I don’t intend to find out the hard way.”

“I don’t like the idea of you two alone but alright.”

“Great, once Adrien’s alive, he’ll be in a safer zone. It won't be totally safe but it’ll be safe enough.” They nodded along with the plan. “I’m going to leave school now and start studying to get as much information as I can. Chloe will cover for me and I gave Nino a note telling him to meet me at the library. I’m going to give him as much information as I can and then he can decide if he wants to help, if not, then it’s not favorable, but Alya will patrol alone. Once I get more information, maybe we can use it to defeat Scarlet Moth.”

“Everyone on board?” I asked. They just gave me a thumbs up.

“Hey, when are we reviving me again? You might have said it before but I can’t remember.”

“Right, well, I’ll sneak into the school tonight. We can all meet up at the front doors at, let's say 9:30ish and break in.”

They looked weary but didn’t argue.

“That works I guess, then all that's left to say then is, stay safe with the book.” Alya looked between us. I nodded and took a breath before I turned back and left school again. I will succeed.