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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ulfgeir" data-source="post: 7809283" data-attributes="member: 7015719">Book 4: The Fraternity HauntingThe following seven months were quite hectic, both in school and at the theatre. How I missed Yukimi, as she had gone into hiding. We cherished each one of the precious few moments that we could be together. I did hear some troubling rumour of various catastrophes around the world. I prayed to the Goddess, that Yukimi was not involved in those, but I had a feeling it was the kind of question that I really didn't want an honest answer to. In some cases it is best not knowing.I didn't get to see the others that much during the semester as everyone was busy doing their own things. Karl had joined some motorcycle group I think, not sure if it was a gang or not. Would be bad if he were to get himself arrested I think. He and Peggy were still an item. Star had gotten herself a boyfriend, some kind of sportsjock. I think his name was Nick. They seemed to make a nice couple, although I can't help wonder what their dating must have been like as she had to ask me of what happens on dates. Star seems to be one horny and really messed up girl, given some of the questions she asked me. Sure, I am thankful that she asked me but I just wonder how I came to be the go to girl for romantic advice. I had hardly seen anything of Tim, and Antonio was as usual messing around with lots of girls. From some of his talks though I gathered that he had been spending lots of time in Nevernever with the Summer Court. Mirou had spent most of his time studying and organising things around campus and the dorm especially. So it was no wonder that he rose in the ranks of the fraternity he was a member of. That only left Imogen. She was definitively a changed girl since her recovery from the accident that had sent her to hospital earlier. She now seemed to drop out of her politics and focusing on learning everything she could about the occult instead. I must say I had mixed feelings about that. Imogen can be a pain in the ass sometimes. Yes, she is very passionate about things, but I get the feeling that deep inside, she is a very lonely girl and would do everything to belong to a group. So I shouldn't really have been surprised that she started hanging out with the Wiccan sorority more, but I think they all regarded her as a bit flaky and only tolerated her because she was my friend. She had started living in the sorority house instead of the dorm, wonder why. I was quite certain though that if she started making waves the others would kick her out with her head first.Otherwise things were fine in my circle of friends from the paranet. I did hear some rumours that a young girl, that was probably Lisa had been recruited to the wardens. She hadn't said anything about it herself, but if it was true, then they had the resources to train her so she wouldn't become a danger to others with her magic. Of course, if it was true then I guess I should be a bit careful not to draw the attention of the wardens if need be. And she was still pining away from unrequited love towards that other girl, that she had met earlier. Damn, it makes me sad. Maybe I should try to intervene? Least I could do though, is to offer her encouragement and be there for her if things go wrong. I want her to be happy.As far as we knew, the forest was still infested by vicious dogs attacking passers-by, but strangely enough the old sacrifice tree at the library on campus seemed to be fading way. Weird disappearances still happened there though, and I made certain to stay well away from it. That place gave me the chills, after what I saw when I touched the tree. Antonio had heard some rumours that there was some kind of preparation for war amongst the Summer and Winter Courts as some other unseen force tried to take over their place. Could it be the old Faerie Queens that had partially been summoned during the winter ritual? I would need to learn more about that.Things weren't so good though in the Wiccan sorority, as there now was four different groups vying for power there after Yukimi left. I tried my best at keeping peace between them but it was quite difficult, and my position was tenous to say the least. Some of them wanted to learn magic of any type and didn't care about consequences, some wanted to only learn magi to defend themselves, others wanted nothing to do with magic at all but rather just wanted to have fun and some wanted more spirituality. I have no idea how I came to be elected as treasurer in the sorority though. Angelica belonged to the group that wanted to learn magic at all costs and it was clear that she hated my guts. Why? I had never done anything against her. As far as I knew, it was she who had been the villain by having an affair with Yukimis former boyfriend.FBI on their hand, still kept looking for imaginary Mexican terrorists. Sadly though the gangwar between the two Mexican gangs and the Russian mob had ended in a cold war where they divided up the city between themselves, and they defended their territory with heavy weapons. The Irish Maffia had been all but  eliminated in the process. But it felt like any spark could trigger an all out-war again. Of course now there rumours abound about some kind of mastermind known only by the codename of Nacho Libre who was behind the gangs.It was still early in Februari when we were supposed to have a meeting in the sorority. Imogen had volunteered to do some baking for the meeting, and Star offered to help her. So they showed up at the meeting with a huge amount of buns. Antonio was also present, and I knew that Karl was in another room fixing something. Right from the start of the meeting I knew things were going to be difficult as the emotions between the various members was frosty to say the least. Star went and held Karl company so as to not disturb the meeting. If I should be polite, then I can safely say that baking was not amongst Imogen's and Star's talents. If I were honest, then well the buns were inedible and would probably work better as projectiles than food.During the meeting we suddenly heard a terrible shrieking sound coming from some place outside. I felt cold, and I got the feeling that something of pure evil had manifested in our world. Something powerful and very, very dangerous. I looked out through the windows to see if anything was coming towards us. Antonio and Imogen went outside. As far as I gathered, Karl had turned into wolf-form and went out through the windows with Star following him. Most of the girls, wisely opted to stay inside. After making sure that the wards on the house was up, I followed Antonio and Imogen. We meet up with Mirou, who had been in the house next door, and he looked a bit shook up. He babbled something about a ghost who had attacked him in the fraternity.We then heard a scream of horror, which was suddenly cut off. It seemed to come from the fraternity. All the lights in the fraternity suddenly went out. We rushed towards the house, and when we came closer we saw that the windows in the kitchen were covered in blood. Mirou and Karl rushed in. The rest of us followed after.  What we could see was that the persons that had sat around the table had been cut into pieces as if someone had taken them through a giant blender, the table itself had been splintered. It all had happened in an instant. Karl, Antonio, and Mirou went in to search for intruders. I probably shouldn't have, but I decided to use my Sight to check if the attacker was veiling itself. What I saw, would give me nightmares for some time. It was a spirit of smoke in the shape of a vague humanoid form with billowing robes. The spirit turned around and looked at me, uttering my name in a deep hiss before vanishing into nothing. I felt really nauseous, and stumbled outside before I collapsed.I had vague recollections of Star taking me home, but my memory was hazy. I woke up in my bed, feeling as if someone had kicked me in the stomach. Not sure how Charlie had gotten there but he lay beside me. A puppy is a really good emotional healer. After a while I could get up and make myself a cup of tea to calm down. I was quite glad that Melissa wasn't home, but I wondered about the dropped towel and cellphone on the floor. It wasn't like her to just leave things like that. I hoped nothing had happened to her. I am not sure how Star got me into the room though, as I still had my keys on me.Needless to say I slept badly during the nigh, and I had some horrid nightmares. The news were of course filled with stuff about the murders at the fraternity. In the morning, Melissa came back. She was quite upset and babbling something about a demon of fire attacking her. She quickly packed up her stuff and left campus to go back home to Arkansas. Think this might have been the final straw for her. Sadly I wasn't in such a good shape myself. I wondered though, if this was something that I needed to ask Star about later,  because I knew I would be upset if I learned that she had had something to do with Melissa losing her mind. I would have to call Melissa later on. I talked to Antonio in the morning and asked him if he could talk to the girls wanting to learn black magic and get them to change their mind. They sure as hell wouldn't listen to anything I would have to say, not with Angelica there.Later on as I was recovering, Imogen came by and started talking about proposed strategies to deal with the situation in the sorority. Apparently there was going to be a meeting, as things had rapidly escalated. As we were talking, I accidently soulgazed Imogen. I  had been right in my guess that she was a very lonely girl. She was also very angry, something that showed in the visions I saw with an open stormy sea. Basically it was her against the world. I am not so sure if that was a very good combination. I should probably count my blessings that she was a normal human, I shudder at what she would have done if she had had any powers.When we came to the sorority, the other members there had just started discussing things for the meeting. It had gone so far that either they would have to find a way to keep together or they would have to split the sorority. Imogen gave the suggestion that we had talked about earlier. Everyone seemed to think it was a fine idea, but the result from the actual voting was very strange. It was almost the opposite of what Imogen had suggested. In fact some members became quite upset and demanded a recount. Same result. Lynn Masters, the leader of the black magic group ended up as the president, then Louise McGraft from the group that wanted magic as defence became vice president, and Kate Winstead representing those that wanted pure wiccan traditions became secretary, and Cathy van der Wall from Yukimis old group became the new treasurer. And the latter I think was just because they couldn't kick out that fraction all together. I wasn't sorry for not being treasurer though, it was a tedious task that I didn't relishThere was something fishy going on though. I suspected that someone had used some mind-altering magic, for these results as no one seemed to be acting in a way that indicated that they were ashamed or coerced into voting that way. I used the sight to see if there was some kind of magic affecting the ballots, but that was clean as a whistle. Not that anyone else in the sorority had the necessary power as far as I knew. I did see though that everyone in the room was indeed affected by some kind of magic. It appeared as if a thin black sheen enveloped them all. I could only surmise that I too was affected. What I could tell though was that it was very subtle, and the only reason I noticed it was that everyone was affected. I could also tell that it had taken quite some time for this to be put in effect, and that it was far stronger than I would be able to break without much more preparations. Not wanting to stir things up again, I just smiled and lit some incense as a cleansing action and to mark a fresh start. No way I would say anything unless I had more proof, and could do something about it.After the meeting,I tried to get in contact with Lisa. If the rumours I had heard about her being a warden, then she needed a heads up to this potentially disastrous situation. Both the ghost that had killed the students as well as the fact that the wiccan sorority now was lead by the fraction that wanted to do all kinds of magic, even black magic, and that everyone in the sorority was under the effect of some spell. I would of course try to learn as much as I could. Took a few hours before she called back. She was at some place called Camp Kaboom, and wouldn't be back for a few days. We decided to meet when she came back. I didn't feel comfortable talking over the phone about the current situation. I made damned sure though that my room was properly warded. If the Goddess was with me it would be enough to keep me safe.The next day, Star came by and knocked on the door. I couldn't believe my eyes as she had with her a baby troll. For crying out loud, a troll. What the hell was she thinking, and where had she gotten that? Star said that she had found it down in the subway as she had been following Mirou, and now she wanted to know what trolls ate. I gave her the best answer I could, and told her to make damn sure that it was returned from wherever it had gotten. I had had enough of trolls for a lifetime. I wanted no part in it. Mirou was still not home, so I had to take care of Charlie some more, while I tried doing some research about ghosts and what that magic at the sorority had been, before I had to go to class. I was fairly certain that the ghost had been summoned, but by whom and why? Maybe more importantly was, how to stop it if it came back, and who was behind the spell that affected the sorority and what did it do? I had a feeling that it was the three surviving witches from the winter ritual, or maybe it was one of the faery queens. They definitively had the power for it, but then why target the sorority and not us who had stopped the ritual? Or was it what they were doing? So many questions, and so few answers. I would find the answer, it was only a question of patience and finding the right angle.After hours of tedious cross-referencing and translating from old Latin into English, I managed to get lucky. I sure was glad that the library at campus had such good resources. It seemed that what I had seen was a combined ghost. Or rather a construct made of a multitude of different ghosts. Apparently these things could occur naturally, but it was very very rare. In most cases, one ghost would eat another and gain power through that as well as all the memories that made up the devoured one. On the other hand, someone who was knowledgeable about necromancy could forcefully do it. It would take time and lots of power though. The books I found obviously didn't go about any specifics on how to do it as that kind of stuff was considered black magic and would merit a surprise visit from wardens. That was a fate I didn't want to meet. However, ghosts would also normally be intangible. Someone or something had to affect them either here or in Nevernever for them to manifest.I tried finding out whether or not I too was affected by the strange spell I had seen at the sorority, but I could not get any conclusive results. This in itself was strange, but also a bit expected. It was always more difficult to see things about yourself. Not sure why though. Magical theory wasn't my thing.Something gave me the chills when my phone suddenly rang during the evening. It turned out to be Mirou, who wanted me to help him banish the ghosts. I tried to tell him that exorcisms was something that was dangerous, and that we needed a priest for that. As usual he wouldn't listen. He wanted us all to meet him at his fraternity, and to bring whatever equipment that was necessary to deal with ghosts.Once we met up at the fraternity, he told us that he had been doing some research, and had found that a lot of gruesome murders and suicides had occurred in the fraternity house since it was built. Not sure what had happened to him but he looked like a mess. Maybe not that surprising though, given that he had been attacked by a ghost, and jumped out of a window from the third floor. He mumbled something about everything being Star's fault, but wouldn't elaborate on what he meant by that. Imogen came up with the idea of finding out if any other places on campus had a similar history, and she and Tim quickly found some results. Turned out that similar stuff had happened in the old wiccan sorority house, and a third building, which belonged to another fraternity. What was strange though was that it appeared that someone had gone through a lot of trouble to suppress any talks about it for a long time.I told the others what I had found about the ghosts, and that it would have required some kind of ritual, which would take hours to perform.  And like all rituals, the closer you were to the target and the better link you had, the better result you got. So this meant that someone had to have spent a long time in a place where they could be undisturbed. We decided to investigate the cellar of the fraternity house where the murders had taken place. Down there we found first the typical stuff that you would expect to find in that kind of building; kegs of beer, lots of documents, and so on. However, we found something that shouldn't be there. Someone had managed to put in two large metal circles in the floor. The outer one was made of silver and the inner one was copper. This meant that whoever used the ritual had been inside circle to protect himself or herself, and spread death outside the circle. According to Mirou, no one had been down there for a long time.So, we now knew that whoever had summoned the ghosts had done it from this place. The question was why? The people that had died had all been the ones that was closest in line to be elected to serve on the fraternity's board. The interesting part now was that they had elected a new member. One Maximilian Wernstrom III. He came from one of the richest families in all of New England, and Money had been the sole deciding factor. Many of his elder relatives had held such positions. What was noteworthy was that he was a freshman, normally that kind of positions went to the seniors.Before we could dwell more on that, we heard screams of terror coming from the house next doors. Mirou and Antonio rush up to investigate. I gathered that Tim called the Police. I followed after the others to the other house. Mirou, Antonio and Imogen ran into the house to investigate. I decided to stay outside watching to see if anyone was moving around, as I had no wish to encounter that ghost again. Star and Tim came a bit later, and it didn't take long before the Police arrived. I decided I should probably be somewhere else. I did see that Imogen came out of the house, with blood on her clothes. Star veiled her before the police came. Where were Mirou and Antonio? The police quickly take control of the scene. Given what I heard later of what had happened, I did the right thing to stay outside. I had enough nightmares as it were.A few hours later, we all meet up at Avalon to go over what we knew. Tim had tried earlier to get help from a catholic priest, to deal with the ghosts but that hadn't given anything. I don't think they took him seriously. Imogen had had to spend a lot of time talking to the police, and she had apparently filmed the gruesome details inside the house on her phone. Antonio and Mirou didn't elaborate where they had been, but the news had been filled with reports about the new murders as well as a terrorist attack on the FBI building, which had just taken place. Dear Goddess, what was going on? I had a feeling that this would cause more problems further on.Given the situation, I decided to tell the others about the strange election result we had had at the wiccan sorority, and that I had used my sight to look for signs of magic being used to influence the result. Everone at the sorority had been affected. I discounted the possibility that it was any of the girls that had shown a magical aptitude there that would have done it. They wouldn't have cast it on themselves. Besides neither Lynn Masters, Hope Shaw, nor Louise McGraff had enough talent to pull it off as far as I could tell. Sure they could have performed a ritual together but it was most unlikely. After some deliberating I decided to check the others, and I found that they too were affected in various degrees. Antonio was much more affected though. I still didn't know what the spell affecting us were, but it probably had something to do with the ghosts.We decided to check out the old house for the wiccan sorority as that had been one of the houses that had a gruesome history. When we first came there I couldn't see anything special at all, but when I opened the sight I saw something strange. It looked like floating blobs of energy, similar to when you poured ink into water, but this was floating upwards. It felt similar to what I knew had affected the others.I asked the others to get me some ingredients that I would need to perform a divination ritual to see what had happened at the place. What I saw was similar to when you watched a film on video while it was rewinded, with a few glimpses here and there. Finally I saw how thirteen girls were doing a wiccan ritual, where the late Olivia Winsdale were the high priestess.  I could recognize a few others as well; Kimberley Austin, Jane Ash, Kim Chiffino, Corey Gardner and Yukimi. The rest were girls that since then left the sorority and that I hadn't seen. I gathered that nothing magical was supposed to happen as it was a religious ceremony, but I could tell that there was some kind of power erupting. Some of the girls fainted. After that, I saw glimpses as the vision forwarded again. I could tell that Olivia somehow had gotten the ability to make people believe and do whatever she said, and that she had told the others that there were three girls who had conducted some dark ritual and needed to be punished, and evicted from the sorority. The girls in question were Cassie Ramone, Katy Goodman, and Fiona Campbell. Dear Goddess,  they had been innocent, and then gotten their lives destroyed. Making them easy pickings for Isabella. And we had helped kill them. Oh dear. How would I atone for that? If anyone had ever had reasons for coming back as ghosts, it would be those three. One question presented itself in my mind, if they hadn't been the ones that had performed the ritual that had destroyed Jessie Hendrick's mind and soul, then who had?I told the others what I had seen. They did seem quite interested in Yukimi, but I did point out to them that there were seven other girls that had been involved in the ritual, and it was just as likely that they were behind it. Not sure if they believed me though, but I said nothing of what I knew about Yukimi and her past life. Imogen once again came through with her contacts as she managed to scrounge up an old yearbook in the middle of the night. I could identify the other seven girls, and it didn't take Imogen long before she had managed to track down the current addresses of the girls.  We decided that we would need to follow up on that later.I am not sure how it came up, but someone mentioned Mirou's girlfriend. He denied having one. When I asked him about the party he had organized last 4rth of July, he just looked at me and told me to stop making fun of him. He must have hit his head bad when jumping out of that window. I mean who could forget such a babe?To get some more leads, we headed back to the fraternity house where it all started, and I did a psychometric reading of the magical circles there. Surprisingly the image I got was a man in profile, wearing some kind of trench-coat. By now it was high time to go to bed to get some sleep. I was utterly exhausted.The police stayed on the campus for the next few days. Not hat it made people feel better. Everyone that had been living in the fraternity house had moved out due to feeling ill. I don't blame them.  I send tout some enquires to the paranet to see if anyone knew how to deal with ghosts.A few days later, I got a call from Lisa, who wondered if I could pick her up at the airport together with her mentor. I asked Star if I could borrow her car, and went and picked them up. Lisa had really blossomed now, and carried herself with a lot more confidence and gave me a big hug. She had matured a lot, and I was very happy for her. Her mentor, a young Hispanic man who introduced himself as Carlos Ramirez. He was definitively good looking. If I hadn't been in a relationship I wouldn't have minded a date. On the way back,we also had to pick up an old priest at the cathedral.We met up with with the other at the campus, and the situation became a bit awkward when Imogen and Lisa lay eyes on each other. They obviously knew each other from before. I suddenly understood everything. Lisa was the girl that Imogen had met while on the date with George, and Lisa was obviously still very much in love with Imogen. So much for my skills as matchmaker. I tensed up briefly as I wondered what would happen. I didn't think Lisa would handle a rejection very well. That situation might be just as bad as if I would have dumped Yukimi. Star too apparently though Ramirez was very handsome, but she was her usual weird self and asked some strange questions about monsters under the bed.It turned out that warden Ramirez knew Mirou's father. Mirou was quite confused by this, but nothing further were said. As we described the situation about what we knew about the recent events, Ramirez said that they could deal with that. But they might need some help. Antonio and Star volunteered to help with veiling what happened in the houses, so that no one would get too curious. The rest of us would just have to make sure we stayed out of the way. In the fraternity house, some foul critter materialized, as the very air were torn apart when the priest started his ritual. Lisa and Ramirez managed to quickly dispatch the critter though. The house did take some damage but it would hold. According to the priest, whoever had summoned that ghost had used raw power, and lots of it. We then went on to the other fraternity house where the latest murders had happened, and there to was some kind of creature, but this was much smaller. Apparently, that had been an unintended side-effect. We went on to the old wiccan house, but there was nothing they could do there. The stuff I had seen were just an echo of the spell, and would fade over time. So would the mind-affecting spell we were under. We had apparently fallen for it by being inside the house before it burnt. The holes we had in our souls would heal over time. It still didn't feel good though.When we were finished, Lisa and Ramirez said goodbye, and said that they had to hurry on to Washington, so they couldn't stay around. As they left, Imogen handed Lisa a letter of some sort. No idea what would happen there.</blockquote>

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