Chapter 24
The Computer Genius and the Phantom
"I think this should be the place," said Lily. She glanced down at her phone and then back up at the door with her gaze focused on the room number. "Yep, this is it."
She and Viv were there to meet a new client of Lady Sapphire's.
It all started this weekend morning. Lily and the others were in the training room next to the Sapphire Society's secret chamber practicing some magic spells when Oliver suddenly got an alert on his phone from the mysterious hacker, asking for Lady Sapphire to meet a certain girl at her dorm room. All the message would say was that it was an emergency. But since it was asking for Lady Sapphire's help, then it could only mean that the Schemer was at it again with more magical mischief and this girl was his latest victim.
Viv looked right and left, and said, "Okay. The coast's clear. Go ahead."
Lily rolled back her sleeve to expose her blue bracelet. She opened her mouth to speak to it, but then hesitated and whined to Viv, "Do I really have to do this?"
"Hey, you're the one who kept complaining how people keep finding out your secret identity," Viv pointed out.
"Yeah, but at this point, the Schemer probably already knows who I am," said Lily.
"Did you forget what Mr. Lin said about how Lady Sapphire would get in trouble for breaking the rules if she got caught? Not to mention, I thought you hate getting attention. I don't think I have to tell you that the more people who know you're Lady Sapphire, the more attention you're going to get."
"Ugh! Fine!" Lily groaned. "I'll do it."
The thing they were talking about, by the way, was Lily putting on a costume to disguise herself. Viv was the first to suggest it and everyone else was on board with the idea. Everyone, that was, except for Lily.
She prepared to give the bracelet the command. But then Viv suddenly cut in and added, "Oh! You should do a pose and shout out a catchphrase like those magical girls do in the cartoons before they transform into their superhero alter egos."
Lily threw her roommate a scornful glare.
"Sorry! Sorry! Just thought it'd be fun."
"Well, it's not fun for me!" Lily snapped. After giving Viv one more dirty look, she turned her gaze to the bracelet and then gave the command. "Get me a costume to hide my identity."
The bracelet answered with a flash of blue light. And then the next thing Lily knew, she was wearing a wide-brimmed pointed hat on her head, a long, flowing cape around her shoulders, and a sparkly domino mask over her eyes. There was a whole blue theme going around to match her superhero name, "Lady Sapphire".
"Well?" she asked. "How do I look?"
Viv flashed a thumbs up and said, "Great! I'm honestly jealous you get to dress up."
"Really? Let me see."
Lily had the bracelet conjure a large stand mirror and took a moment to admire her own reflection. She grabbed the sides of her cape and swished it right and left, before twirling in front of her own image. And then, when she was done, she had this to say:
"This is so embarrassing! I just want to go home already!"
"Come on, Lily! It's not that bad," said Viv. "Anyway, we're here already, so we may as well just get it over with. Besides, it sounds like from the hacker's message that this girl could really use some help."
After being reminded why they had come to this part of the girl's dormitory, Lily sighed and then asked the bracelet to make the mirror disappear before turning to face the door again. She knocked on it twice and then stepped back while keeping a wary eye on her surroundings in case anyone else showed up.
The door was quickly opened by a girl with light ebony skin and frizzy, black hair tied into a single braid behind her head. Over her school uniform, she wore a tattered white lab coat.
Before Lily had the chance to speak, the girl grabbed both her and Viv by their wrists and pulled them inside, instantly slamming the door shut after and bolted it.
After stumbling to the middle of the room, Lily took a look around. The first thing that caught her attention was a long work desk at the side of the room with lots of different kinds of small machine parts strewn all over. The wall above the table had lots of framed certificates and news articles with pictures of the girl holding up trophies or ribbons while wearing a big smile on her face. One of the news articles was about a homemade drone. There was also another table beneath the curtain-drawn window bearing a trio of laptop computers that all currently were on lock screens. One more laptop laid on top of the mattress of a single four-poster bed that took up the other side of the room.
"It's about time you got here," the room's owner said.
Raising an eyebrow, Lily said, "You were expecting us?"
Shrugging her shoulders, the girl replied meekly, "Yeah, well, I figured you'd show up soon to help me out. That's what superheroes do, right?"
I'm not even a superhero though, Lily thought. She kept it to herself and said, "I guess this means you already know who I am and what I'm here for."
She threw her cape back and announced, "I am Lady Sapphire. This right here is Viv, my . . ."
"Don't say it," Viv said. "Don't say sidekick."
" . . . helper."
Viv grumbled, "That's not any better."
"Ahem! Anyway," Lily said, "what's your name?"
"Tanja McDaniels," said the girl. "That's Tanja with a J, by the way. I'm thirteen years old and, as you can probably guess from all the mess in my room, I'm in the robotics club. I'm pretty good at building machines, but my main job is computer programming."
That explains all those laptops, Lily thought.
"Anyway, Miss McDaniels -"
"Tanja's fine," Tanja cut in. "Just call me that."
"Okay, Tanja," said Lily. "Well, we all know that you're in some sort of trouble, but do you mind giving us the details about what's bothering you and how it happened?"
"Sure, no problem," said Tanja. "It's a bit of a long story, so take a seat anywhere."
Both Lily and Viv took a chair while Tanja sat on her bed. Once everyone was comfortable, Tanja began her story.
"It all started last night at the Castle. I was there on some business and was passing through the first floor corridor of the north wing when I heard an eerie moan. I looked around, but there was no on nearby. But then I realized that the moan came from one of the nearby storage rooms. And it was a pretty famous storage room.
"You see, that storage room used to be the matron's quarters, until the 1910s when the matron of that time met an unfortunate accident that ended like this."
Tanja drew her finger across her neck. Lily knew what that meant and felt a shiver go down her spine. She was not liking where this story was going.
"Ever since, they say that her spirit haunts the room, angry and resentful of her untimely demise, seeking to make others suffer the same fate as her and join her on the Other Side.
"I didn't believe the stories and thought that maybe there was someone inside that needed help. So, I opened the door a little bit and peeked inside. But there was no one there, just boxes holding whatever was being stored there. Slowly, I opened the door wider and then took a step inside, calling out, 'Hello? Is anyone there?'
"There was no answer back.
"So I walked further into the storage room, took a brief look around and then chalked up everything I heard as my own imagination. But just as I was about to leave, I noticed something glowing out of the corner of my eye and turned. At the right side of the room, there was a lady wearing a white apron over a black dress. I couldn't see her face because she had long, wavy hair draped over it.
"Startled, I jumped back and nearly tripped over a box. But I quickly recovered and asked the lady if she was alright.
"Slowly, her hands reached up and drew her hair back to the sides. And what I saw, looking back at me was a pair of pitch-black empty sockets. Her face was all just bone and teeth!
"That really freaked me out and I opened my mouth to scream. But no sound came out. It was as if that skeleton lady erased my voice when she wagged her bony finger at me. But that was not all. I couldn't scream and I couldn't move. I was helpless as the lady just glided toward me, like literally flew, until her skull face was right in front of me. And she whispered in a deep, raspy voice, 'Tomorrow, you will be mine.'
"And then, with a cackle, she disappeared, just faded away like mist or smoke blown away."
When Tanja was done with her story, the room fell silent for a moment before being broken by Lily.
"So let me get this straight," she said. "You went into a famously haunted storage room and ran into the rumored ghost there who promised to come get you tomorrow, which is today."
"Yeah, pretty much," Tanja said, nodding her head.
Lily turned to Viv and whispered, "I don't like this one bit."
"Oh, it can't be that bad," Viv whispered back. "It's probably just another one of the Schemer's toys made to look like a scary ghost. It's not like it can actually go through walls and vacuum out people's souls."
"Uh, guys?" Tanja cut in.
Lily and Viv glanced at Tanja who pointed at the wall behind them. Her hand was shaking and her face was twisted in a look of pure, open-mouthed terror. Lily felt a gust of icy wind and noticed that the room had suddenly gotten very dark. Like nighttime dark.
I got a bad feeling about this, she thought. But reluctantly, she turned around and found herself face to face with a lady's skull.
The skeleton lady towered over the girls from high near the ceiling as she slowly emerged out of the wall. Her jaw dropped and out came a loud raspy scream that got the girls jump, hug each other and scream too.
"It's the ghost of the matron!" Tanja shrieked. "She's here!"
Pointing a bony finger at her, the ghost of the matron screeched, "As promised, Child! I have come for you!"
Tanja shrank back from the finger in fright, tripped and fell onto her bed. She raised her hands to protect herself as the skeleton lady swooped down to grab her.
Seeing Tanja in trouble, Lily jumped in without thinking and raised her hands up. Blue light flashed from the bracelet and created a wall in front of the heroic girl. The skeleton lady bumped headfirst against the wall of light and bounced away.
Lily seized her chance, grabbed Tanja by the hand and then with her free one threw a bolt of magic that blew the door off its hinges.
"Come on!" she shouted to the other girls. "We need to go now!"
Towing Tanja along, Lilly ran out of the room with Viv following closely behind. They rushed down the hallway and headed straight for the elevators.
"Come on, come on, come on!" Lily frantically jabbed her thumb on the down button over and over, and over again. But each time she looked up at the display over the elevator doors, she could see the floor numbers remained unchanged and she swore. "Why won't you move?"
And then Viv spoke up. "Hey, Lily?"
"What?" Lily snapped. She was overcome with frustration and impatience.
"Don't you think this place is a bit weird?"
"Now that you mention it," Tanja said looking right and left, "it's too quiet here. You'd think an explosion that blew a door to bits would've at least started a panic. Where are all the people?"
"That's not all," said Viv. "Were the walls and ceiling always blue?"
"Blue?" With a sense of dread, Lily looked around and color quickly drained from her face. It wasn't just the walls that were blue. Viv and Tanja were also blue from the light cast over them. "Oh no. We're in the Blue World!"
"That is correct!" shouted a shrill, gravelly voice.
The ghostly skeleton lady appeared hovering close to the ceiling at the entryway to the elevator hall. Her white gossamer hair wildly swayed about as if she were under water.
"In this realm, there is no one," she hoarsely hissed. "And no one can enter except by the Schemer's own choosing."
Lily gave the ghost a look and then grabbed Viv's hand while turning to run. But suddenly, a big ghostly tiger appeared rising from the floor and roared up close to Lily's face.
"Eek!" Startled, Lily shrieked and jumped back, involuntarily letting go of the other girls' hands.
That was when the skeleton lady swooped in and scooped Tanja in her arms. She flew over the tiger and stopped at the end of the hall before turning to taunt Lily.
"Nice try, child!" the skeleton lady cackled. "But the girl is mine now. If you want her back, find me! And take my challenge."
Tanja reached out her hand and cried, "Lily! Help!"
Lily moved to go grab it, but flinched when the tiger roared again.
As the skeleton lady cackled, a strong gust of wind blew into the hallway and stung Lily's eyes. She looked away for just a brief moment. But when she turned around again, she found herself back in Tanja's dorm room along with Viv. Everything was back to normal, no blue light everywhere. And the door that should have been blown to smithereens was intact. However, the tiger, the ghost lady and more importantly, Tanja were all gone.
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