(Josie Sayz: This is the fourteenth story, from my ‘AMSND’ series that my friend and I wrote when we were 15 years old. This story follows in the series of the ‘AMSND’ stories, which inspired me to create the Arcturus High series. This story is loosely based on Shakespeare’s ‘Othello’, I believe.)
Although each story is a stand alone piece, you can find the rest of the AMSND
series here:
1) A Magic School’s New Dream: https://josiesayz.blogspot.com/2025/01/ansnd-1-magic-schools-new-dream.html
2) The War of Crooked Burrow School: https://josiesayz.blogspot.com/2025/01/amsnd-2-war-of-crooked-burrow-school.html
3) Six Se’enarians Go To Sea: https://josiesayz.blogspot.com/2025/01/amsnd-3-six-senerians-go-to-sea.html
4) The Arrival of a New Headmistress: https://josiesayz.blogspot.com/2025/01/amsnd-4-arrival-of-new-headmistress.html
5) The Day Before the Last (Day of Term):
https://josiesayz.blogspot.com/2025/01/amsnd-5-day-before-last-day-of-term.html
6) The Story of Crooked Burrow School: https://josiesayz.blogspot.com/2025/02/amsnd-6-story-of-crooked-burrow-school.html
7) The End of the Octopus: https://josiesayz.blogspot.com/2025/09/amsnd-7-end-of-octopus.html
8) The King of Magic: https://josiesayz.blogspot.com/2025/09/amsnd-8-king-of-magic.html
9) The Return of Dr Straizer, Featuring Agent 009: https://josiesayz.blogspot.com/2025/10/amsnd-9-return-of-dr-straizer-featuring.html
10) Fifteen-Eighty: https://josiesayz.blogspot.com/2025/10/amsnd-10-fifteen-eighty.html
11) Accidentally in Love: https://josiesayz.blogspot.com/2025/11/amsnd-11-accidentally-in-love.html
12) Ariel and the Seven Dudes: https://josiesayz.blogspot.com/2025/11/amsnd-12-ariel-and-seven-dudes.html
13) The End of the Arians Part 1: https://josiesayz.blogspot.com/2025/11/amsnd-13-end-of-arians-part-1.html.)
The End of the Arians Part 2
By Shada
The lingering rays of the sun shone through the small skylight in the Room of the Octopus. The day had been unusually warm for winter, which most people had attributed to global warming. Underneath the skylight, two boys stood facing each other. Both looked angry.
“When are you going to let me out?” Fred complained.
“You don’t seem to understand,” Charlie began. He and Fred were alone in the Room of the Octopus. All the other Arians had gone home by now, but they had all agreed that Fred should stay, and so Charlie, as Best Ellarian had to stay too, to watch him. “You can’t expect to be allowed out ever again,” Charlie continued. “You have just murdered all the other Ellarians and some innocent people as well. As you have shown you don’t care about what you’ve done we have no other choice but to lock you up.”
“No Charlie, it’s you who doesn’t understand,” Fred assured him. “And anyway, I didn’t kill those people up in Music. How could I? I was here all the time.”
“Do you think I don’t know what an exploding potion is?” Charlie hissed. “I’m not that stupid, Fred, and don’t you ever forget that.”
“I won’t.” Fred glared at him. “Come on, Charlie; let’s talk about this, cousin to cousin.”
“Will you stop trying to make me let you out?” Charlie moaned irritably.
“I’m not trying to make you let me out,” Fred began impatiently. “I’m trying to tell you why I’ve done what I’ve done.”
“I don’t care why you’ve done it, it’s done now and it was very bad. Okay, I am curious about Bert. How could you kill him? He was your best friend!”
Fred turned away. “He killed Joe,” was all he would say.
“But it’s not because of that, I know,” Charlie said. Fred didn’t reply. “I give up talking to you,” Charlie said in disgust.
“Who said you had to?” Fred retorted. “Why don’t you just go home?”
“And leave you here on your own? I don’t think so.”
A while later Fred broke the silence to ask “What’s happening about school tomorrow?”
“I’m not sure yet. You’ll be staying here of course. I wish there was something else we could do about you, but the only options seem to be going to the police or killing you, neither of which would do any good. The police wouldn’t believe it was you, and there’s no proof except what we say, so that means they’ll probably let you off, and we couldn’t kill you because then we’d be as bad as you.”
“So I’ll be staying here tomorrow,” Fred said thoughtfully. “And you?”
“I don’t know yet,” Charlie replied shortly. “I’ll probably take it in turns with the other remaining Arians to watch you. But that’ll mean skipping lessons… oh, I don’t know! I’ll have to figure something out I suppose.”
“You should probably pick other Arians who like skipping lessons, who already do it quite a bit,” Fred suggested. “Then they won’t be so noticeable, because they’ll be acting normally.”
“You have a point there,” Charlie admitted.
They both eventually fell asleep and were awoken in the morning by some Arians coming into the room.
“Hey, get up lazybones,” Shada said, ruffling Charlie’s hair as she walked past to find a spell in one of the books that were kept in the Room of the Octopus.
“I’m awake,” he yawned.
“Of course you are,” giggled Sam.
“So are you staying here all day?” Shada asked Charlie as she flicked through an old dusty book.
“Probably not,” he replied, sitting up. “I’ll have to see what lessons you lot have today and whether you can skip them, because I have English and Maths; the lessons I will have to go to, despite them being the worst lessons ever.”
“How dare you criticise Maths?” Shada demanded in mock horror.
“Quite easily as I have Mr. Wigwam as my teacher,” Charlie reminded her.
“And how’s our prisoner?” Shada turned delightedly to Fred.
Fred had gone back to sleep when he had seen it was only Shada and Samantha who had entered the room. Just then, Lyra, Lola and Lara came in. Fred woke up again, saw who it was and sat up. “Lyra,” he called. “Can I have a word?”
“Hmm, suspicious,” Shada noted to Sam.
“Why is it suspicious?” Sam whispered back to her.
“Because Fred shouldn’t really be allowed to talk to anyone, he might be trying to make them let him escape,” Shada explained. “And Lyra being Lyra would probably help him anyway. Let’s go and listen to what they’re saying.” Sam and Shada meandered across to where Fred was talking urgently to Lyra in a corner.
“So you promise you’ll try to find it,” Fred was saying.
“Yes of co–” Lyra suddenly noticed Shada and Samantha had become closer to them. She silently pointed to them and Fred turned around.
“Hi Lyra,” Shada said brightly. “What have you got first? It’s our Option lesson, isn’t it?”
“Go away Shada, we’re talking,” Lyra said angrily.
“What about?” Shada asked suspiciously.
“None of your business,” she replied.
“Okay, we’ll go and talk to Lola and Lara if you’re going to be like that,” Shada said and stormed off.
“We’ve only got ten minutes until P.T.,” Sam informed her nervously. “How are we going to find out what they’re up to now?”
“I don’t think we can,” Shada told her disappointedly. “But it’s obviously something bad – see how they wanted to get rid of us. And Fred was saying something about finding something, so maybe that’s what would help him get out of here. I’d better warn Charlie.” So they went over to Charlie who was talking to Lola and Lara.
“Charlie,” Shada began.
“Hmm?” he asked, looking down at her and smiling.
“Fred and Lyra are plotting,” she told him quietly, so Lola and Lara couldn’t hear her.
“They said something about finding something,” Sam said. “So it seems that Fred is trying to get out of here.”
“Maybe Fred’s just bored and wants something to do?” Charlie suggested. “He can’t get out of here, not with someone watching all the time.”
“Okay, but don’t let that someone be Lyra,” Shada said firmly. “Because she’ll help anyone who’ll pay her.”
“Who will?” asked Lara curiously.
“Oh, no one,” Shada forced a smile. “Come on Sam, it’s nearly time for P.T., and you know what Mr. Flourfield’s like if we’re late. Bye Charlie, see you at assembly, that’s if you’re not here of course. Have a good English lesson!”
“I’ll try to,” Charlie smiled back.
Lyra, Lola and Lara left after Sam and Shada, leaving Fred and Charlie alone again. “What’s this I hear about you plotting to escape?” Charlie asked Fred as soon as the door shut behind them.
“Oh, I don’t want to escape,” Fred assured him. “I just need to find something.”
“Can’t I help you with that?”
“No.”
“Well then, what do you want? What is it that you want to find?”
“That’s something between me and Lyra. Look, I’m not going to tell you anything else, so don’t even bother asking.”
Charlie glared at him, and then settled back in the only comfy chair to read a book he’d just picked up entitled “Magickes of Olde”. He had told Lola and Lara to try to get out of their first lesson so they could watch Fred, so he would be able to go to English as soon as they turned up. However, after P.T. was over and lesson was about to begin only Lola turned up. She looked very worried.
“What’s wrong?” Charlie asked immediately.
“Lara can’t come! Her class have a mock exam, so she can’t get out of it,” she explained.
“Will you be okay here on your own?” Charlie asked concernedly.
“She won’t be on her own,” Fred snapped irritably.
“Ignoring murderers, she will,” Charlie replied harshly.
“I’ll be okay,” Lola said. Charlie picked up his English book and hurried towards the door.
“Remember, Lola, if he –” Charlie pointed at Fred. “– gives you any trouble at all, be sure to tell me at breakfast, okay?”
“Okey dokey,” came Lola’s reply as she sat down on the chair Charlie had just vacated.
When the door had shut behind Charlie, Lola asked Fred nervously “Um…Fred? Why did you do it? Why did you kill all those people?”
“What?” Fred looked up from the book he was reading, banging his head against the cupboard behind him. A little purple hand stitched ball was dislodged and fell onto his head. Unbeknown to him, the purple stitched ball still had some love potion on it, which landed on him. As he was looking at Lola, he instantly fell in love with her. “I mean, what did you say?” he asked politely, bending down to pick up the purple stitched ball.
“Why did you kill all those people?” she repeated.
“Oh, I see Charlie’s been spreading rumours about me. Well whatever you heard, it was only two people I killed. And I’m really sorry about it.”
“So those people up in Music, how did they die? I heard it was a bomb.”
“I have no idea how that happened,” Fred told her, tiredly. “I know everyone probably blames me, but think about it. I was in here when it happened, as were most of the other Arians, so how could I have done it?”
“You could have put a bomb up there, and set it so it would go off at just the right time,” Lola told him seriously.
“But no one knew that there would be an emergency Ellarian meeting in the morning.”
“Oh,” said Lola. “So which two people was it that you killed?”
“Why are you asking me all these questions?” Fred groaned. “I really don’t want to talk about it!”
“But you’d feel better afterwards,” Lola said quietly.
“Okay, it was Bert and Elly. Now will you leave me alone?”
“No, I want to know why.”
“Why what?”
“Why you killed them. You had to have a reason, or you wouldn’t feel sorry now.”
“Lola, you’re really bright, you know that? All right, I’ll tell you, if you promise never to tell anyone else. Not even Lyra.”
“I promise,” Lola said without hesitation.
Fred took a deep breath. “You know Ariel split up with Bert, well Bert got really depressed. He lost his magic powers. He couldn’t sleep and wouldn’t eat. At the time, he was still my best friend, even though he’d recently killed my only brother. I tried to talk to him, to make him see what he was doing to himself. He wouldn’t listen to me, so I tried other ways. I took him to see Ariel, to show him she was fine without him. It soon became clear to me that he would never be happy again unless he was with Ariel. But she hated him. She had had enough experience with him being better at magic than her, and to be fair I think she was a bit jealous of him. So I came up with a plan that I thought Bert would like. It would get him back with Ariel, and also get back at Charlie, who as you know, hates me, and I hate him. But this plan went completely and horribly wrong when we realised Pete was so obsessive and I had to stop it quickly, which meant a few casualties. One of which was Bert, another was Ariel, and the others were Elly and Pete. Oh, Lola, you can’t understand how terrible the last weeks have been for me!”
“I think I’m beginning to,” Lola murmured.
“And then when I heard about the Music deaths yesterday it was all too much. And I couldn’t tell anyone. I can’t cope with all this, Lola!”
“Yes you can,” she told him. “You just need some help.”
“You promised not to tell anyone,” Fred said suspiciously.
“I don’t mean from anyone else. I mean I’ll try to help you get over this. Really, it’s the least I can do. From what you’ve said, if it’s all true –” she looked over at Fred who was staring at her in shock “– and don’t worry, because I believe you, then you really meant to help Bert, so I’ll help you, if I can.”
“What? Really?”
“Of course.” Lola suddenly looked mischievous. “What do you think I’m best friends with Lyra for? I guess I’m probably the only one who can stop her doing the crazy things she plans. You know she wanted to start up the old Musics and Arts war, just because some Art named Dannie had annoyed her?”
“Oh, you mean ‘Annie? Yes, I’d heard about that,” Fred began to look happier. “Lyra certainly comes up with crazy plans all right.”
“Talking of Lyra and plans, what is it you’re plotting with her now? I heard you talking this morning.”
“Not you as well. Charlie was trying to make me tell him that too. I’m sorry Lola, but I can’t tell you. But I can promise that it won’t affect you. It’s just between me, Lyra and – and something else.”
“Something? Don’t you mean someone?” Lola asked anxiously.
“No, I mean something – hey, do you know what I’m talking about?”
“I think so. And that is bad. I’m telling Charlie.” Lola walked over to stand in front of a small cupboard the other side of the room. “I’m also not letting you have it.”
“Lola, there isn’t a question of you not letting me have it, as it’s already gone,” Fred told her. She spun around quickly and opened the cupboard. It was empty. The snow globe with the octopus inside it was missing.
Charlie was having an awful lesson, which was to be expected, as it was English. Being in Year Eleven he had loads of coursework to finish, which was really boring and hard. He often got Shada to help him. She also hated English, but could sometimes find the right phrases and quotations that he needed. Soon it was breakfast time, and he was glad to get out of the stuffy classroom and make his way to the Room of the Octopus. On his way he heard a loud complaining voice coming from Crooked Burrow School’s Reception area. It was saying: “Now will you listen to me? I have the authority of the governors! Lots of parents want to know what has happened to their children!”
Then Charlie heard Mr. Foote’s voice (his old Science teacher) saying, “If you’ll just calm down I think you’ll find there is nothing to worry about. I shall try to answer all your questions but you must understand that I don’t know everything about what’s happened, only bits.”
“Hey, Mr. Foote,” said Charlie as both Mr. Foote and the person he was speaking to came into view.
“Oh, hi Charlie. Charlie, this is Miss Hanlon, who is investigating the deaths up in Music yesterday. Miss Hanlon, this is one of the Arians, Charlie. He’s in Year Eleven.”
“Right, Charlie, so that makes you an Ellarian, do I have that correct?”
“Yes miss,” said Charlie. “Pleased to meet you.” He stretched out his hand, but she didn’t shake it.
“Where is the Frandadis fruits storage place?” she asked Mr. Foote abruptly.
“I – uh, what do you mean, the storage place?” Mr. Foote asked. Charlie could tell Mr. Foote was playing for time. Charlie knew that Mr. Foote knew exactly where the Frandadis fruits were stored, but he obviously didn’t want to tell Miss Hanlon. There was something suspicious going on.
“Where do you store the Frandadis fruits?” Miss Hanlon continued. “I understand that you are in charge of magic at this school. Therefore you must know where the magic fruits are stored, so you can supervise the use of them. Surely the students here don’t just take them.”
“Yes we do, when we need them we –” Charlie began but was interrupted.
“Charlie!” Mr. Foote warned sharply.
“No, carry on Charlie, what was it you were saying?” Miss Hanlon asked sweetly.
“Oh, nothing miss,” Charlie mumbled. He didn’t want to get Mr. Foote into more trouble.
“Now you don’t need to be scared of getting in trouble. You look a sensible enough young man, why don’t you tell me where the fruits are stored?”
“No, um, sorry, I have to get back to lesson now,” Charlie lied and hurried off towards the girls’ quad to go the long way round to the Room of the Octopus.
When he got there he saw Lola sitting in the comfy chair, talking to Fred who was sitting on the arm of the chair, staring intensely at her.
“Hey Lola,” called Charlie.
“Oh, hi Charlie,” she replied. Fred got up in a sulk (because Charlie had interrupted his and Lola’s talk) and kicked the door, making it bang shut in Charlie’s face.
“That wasn’t nice,” Lola remarked. Charlie opened the door again and glared at Fred who grinned back.
“He deserved it for making me stay in here,” Fred replied.
“Oh, Charlie, I have something to tell you! Fred and Lyra are planning to use the –” At this point her voice disappeared. She clutched at her throat and tried to cough. Then she looked back at Charlie and tried to mouth the word ‘octopus’ but Fred (who had just made her lose her voice) quickly clamped his hand over her mouth.
“Let go of her!” Charlie demanded but Fred had turned around and was whispering in Lola’s ear.
“Never!” Lola shouted, suddenly regaining her voice. “Charlie, look in the cupboard!” She pointed to the cupboard in which the snow globe used to be but wasn’t any more. Charlie dashed over to the cupboard and threw the doors open.
“What have you done with it?” he asked Fred, horrified.
“I don’t know where it is either, so it’s no good you trying to get it out of me,” Fred warned.
“I knew something bad like this would happen!” Charlie moaned. Then he looked at the clock. “Oh no, I should have been in lesson five minutes ago! Lola, will you be okay with him for the rest of the lesson? I promise I’ll be back after assembly.”
“Yeah,” said Lola. “I’ll be fine.” Charlie made his way back to English and spent the remainder of the lesson gloomily predicting what would happen if Fred managed to find the octopus before he did.
Meanwhile in Geography, Zilla was talking to Jay and Drew about Orora, who Zilla had recently found out liked the same boy as her. Orora had also stolen Zilla’s friends, Samantha and Shada. Now Samantha and Shada wouldn’t speak to her, and so Zilla was planning revenge on Orora. There was a dance coming up on New Year’s Eve and Zilla wanted to get the boy she liked to ask her to it and then Orora would be sorry she had ever crossed Zilla’s path.
After assembly, Lyra ran over to the Room of the Octopus and was there before Charlie. “Oh, hi Lola,” she said as she noticed her.
“Hi! Can I go now, Ly’?” Lola asked her. “Charlie said he’d be here soon, but if you’re here I guess he wouldn’t mind if I went now. I need to find Toby because I haven’t seen him yet today.”
“Sure, see you later,” Lyra replied as Lola walked out of the door. As soon as she’d gone, Lyra turned to Fred and said “I’ve searched, like, everywhere and I still can’t find the octopus globe thingy. I think someone must have taken it on purpose and hidden it, because it’s not in the library, or up in Music or in the Drama Studio…” Fred interrupted her.
“I’ve come up with a different way to get Charlie back,” he told her.
“Oh,” she said disappointedly. After all the hard work she’d done to search for the globe she had expected Fred to be grateful, even if she hadn’t found it. “What is it?” she asked eventually.
“Well, you know in this room there are certain… objects,” Fred said slowly. “Well what if we were to use one of them, along with some Frandadis fruits, to, maybe, make Shada fall in love with someone else and then Charlie will be all upset.”
“That is not a typical Fred plan!” Lyra said crossly. “A typical Fred revenge plan involves lots of physical not emotional pain! I think its rubbish. Who cares if Shada breaks up with Charlie? I don’t think that would upset Charlie that much.”
“You obviously don’t know Charlie very well then,” Fred replied. “It’ll work, you’ll see. Just trust me.”
“So are we giving up on the octopus idea then?” Lyra asked grumpily.
“Yeah, I think so. It looks like someone’s taken it, so we’re never going to be able to find it now.”
Then Charlie came in and Lyra almost ran out of the room before he could get angry with her for talking to Fred again.
It was now second lesson and Year Ten were on first lunch. As Shada and Samantha were walking to the girls’ quad they heard a loud voice saying, “I am afraid that due to your lack of cooperation I am going to have to shut down the magic department at this school. You will have to warn all the students who are currently involved in magic here to tidy up all the rooms they use and return all the Frandadis fruits to where they are normally stored, and then you will give them all to me. Also all magic books must be taken from the library and anywhere else they are kept, and all magic rooms must be destroyed. I am sorry to have to do this, but this is the only alternative now as you have failed to show yourself competent.”
Shada and Samantha could hear the person she was talking to complaining and realised it was Mr. Foote, who they knew was in charge of the Frandadis fruits, but didn’t really help them with magic. He normally left them to it.
“Sam, do you realise what this means?” Shada asked her. “This means the Room of the Octopus is going to be destroyed!”
“Oh no! What about Fred?”
“Let’s go ask Charlie. He should be able to sneak out of lesson, he sits near the door.”
They went to Charlie’s Maths class and peered through the window. They could see Mr. Wigwam standing next to the board at the front of the room. Charlie was sitting at the back, doodling on the back page of his Maths book. Shada crouched down so that she couldn’t be seen by anyone looking through the window, and motioned to Samantha to stay where she was. Then Shada crawled to the door, and quietly opened it a fraction. “Psst! Charlie!” she called to him. He looked up in surprise.
“What?” he mouthed back. Shada beckoned urgently, and he pretended to drop his pen on the floor. He then bent down as if he was going to pick it up but instead crawled towards the door and out into the corridor. Shada pulled the door to and they crawled until they couldn’t be seen out of the classroom’s window, and then straightened up, walking towards the Hall.
“What?” Charlie asked again. They’d done this plenty of times before, and found out that Mr. Wigwam didn’t usually notice, as long as Charlie was back in his seat within about five minutes.
“We heard that the Room of the Octopus is going to be destroyed!” Sam told him worriedly.
“Yeah, this woman was telling Mr. Foote she was going to stop magic here and take all the Frandadis fruits away, and that she’ll destroy any magic rooms we have!” Shada said.
“Which means the Room of the Octopus!” added Sam.
“So?” asked Charlie.
“So, Fred is in there,” Shada reminded him.
“Who cares?” grinned Charlie. “He’s only my cousin.”
“Charlie!” Sam exclaimed in shock.
“Also, in case you’ve forgotten, if they destroy the Room of the Octopus then they’ll probably find Fred somehow or other and then someone will have a lot of explaining to do,” Shada noted.
“You’re right, as always,” Charlie said gloomily. “So what are you going to do about it?”
“Us? You mean you!” said Shada.
“No, you mean we,” Sam told them. “We all have to work together or we’ll all end up in trouble.”
“Sam’s right,” Shada decided. “Come on; let’s go to the Room of the Octopus.”
“Hello Shada, I have Maths right now. I need to get back before Wigwam suspects,” Charlie said.
“Come on, all we need to do is get Fred out and –” Shada began, pulling on Charlie’s arm.
“And what?” asked Sam.
“Yeah, Shada, and what?” said Charlie. “What could I do, take him back to Maths with me? No.”
“Why not?” she argued. “It’s not like he’s going to run around, murdering people.”
“He might,” Charlie mumbled.
“Well then, if you won’t let us rescue him now, how about after school?” she suggested.
“Fine then, after school,” he agreed and turned to go back to lesson.
“Oh, and Charlie,” Shada said. He turned back to face her. “Have a nice Maths lesson!” He groaned and turned around again.
After school a number of Arians had been gathered together in the girls’ quad. As the teachers came to tell the boys off for being in the girls’ quad and also to make people be quiet because of the people in detention, the Arians walked out of the quad and along the P.E. corridor towards the Room of the Octopus. When they reached the Scary Stairy Place they were confronted by a short lady with wild curly hair who ordered them to go back the way they came. “This way is now blocked until further notice,” she told them.
“Oh but miss,” Toby complained. “We still need to get our stuff out of the room up there.”
“Didn’t he tell you?” the woman tutted. “You’re meant to have already done that. Go up then, quickly.” As the Arians filed past her she glared at them as if it was their fault.
“Um, who did you mean by ‘he’?” asked Toby as he walked past her.
“Mr. Foote of course. Isn’t he the one who teaches you magic?” she snapped.
“Well, n-not exactly…” Toby stuttered. Then he ran off before she could ask him any more questions.
They all reached the Room of the Octopus and went inside. Lara had been making up for not being able to skip lesson in the morning to watch Fred by skipping her afternoon lesson instead. The only occupants of the room had been her and Fred. They told her what was going on, and gathered together all the contents of the cupboards.
“Are you leaving me here again?” Fred asked jokily.
“Of course not!” Charlie said angrily. “We’re not murderers like you.”
“At last I shall be free,” Fred said in delight.
“No you won’t,” said Charlie hurriedly. “You’ll be with one of us all the time.”
Fred glared at him. “It’s not fair,” he stated.
“You know what’s also not fair?” Toby sighed sadly. “The fact that we have to leave this room. Especially this chair.” He patted the comfy chair sadly.
“Take it with you if you want,” Lola grinned. “Think of that woman’s expression as you drag it past her.”
“Yeah, Toby, you should do that!” Lyra enthused.
“Come on, guys, where would we put it?” Charlie reminded them.
“We could take it to Art and I could use it in my still life,” Lola said.
“Or we could put it in Mr. Welly’s office as a joke,” Toby suggested.
“No, we’d never get it back again. He’d keep it,” Shada reminded him.
“Come on, everyone, we need to go now,” Charlie called.
They all trudged out of the Room of the Octopus sadly. Sam was crying quietly, because she knew she’d probably never see it again. Shada put her arm around her. “Don’t cry, Sam,” she said kindly. “We’ll get a new, secret magic room.”
“The Room of the Octopus was secret. No one except us used it,” Sam sniffed. “Hey Shada, I’ve just remembered, isn’t there a secret passageway from the Room of the Octopus to D.T or somewhere?”
“Um, yes there is, I think so,” Shada tried to remember. “I heard when people got snowed in last year they used that passageway to get to the cooking room, where they made apple crumble or something.”
“It was apple pie,” Fred told them. “And it wasn’t a passageway, it was a Magic Doorway.” He had been listening to their conversation.
“Shut up Fred, we’re not talking to you,” Shada said crossly. Sam had had an idea.
“Why don’t we go back through the Room of the Octopus, through the passageway and then out of school the back way?” she asked Shada.
“You go that way if you want to, I know it’s easier for you to get home from that way,” Shada said.
“But I don’t know how to use the Magic Doorway thingy,” Sam said.
“Just walk under the archway in the far right hand corner,” Fred told her.
“Thanks Fred, bye Shada,” Sam said and walked off towards the Room of the Octopus again.
“Bye Sam,” Shada called. They all walked past the woman who was frowning hard.
“Weren’t there only two boys when you went up to the room?” she asked them.
“Oh, no I don’t think so,” Toby said putting on a high squeaky voice. “You must have thought I was a girl.”
“I don’t think that’s it,” the woman said suspiciously.
“By the way, I don’t have the pleasure of knowing your name,” Toby attempted to act posh.
“It’s Miss Hanlon and you’d better move before I get your teacher to give you all detention,” she said evilly.
“Okay we’re going, we’re going,” Charlie said hurriedly. They all filed past her and went to go home.
“No, wait a minute, I forgot, I need to ask you some questions about Mr. Foote,” Miss Hanlon called after them.
“I thought you said you were going to give us detention,” Charlie shouted back, and they all continued walking.
“Oy, come back here!” Miss Hanlon yelled, walking towards them.
“Quick, Charlie, she’s running now,” Shada told him.
“Come on people, let’s go into Science and lose her,” Charlie ordered. They all ran into Science and were about to run down the corridor when Charlie tripped and they all fell over him. They all tried to get up again but got tangled. In the confusion, Lyra threw the purple stitched ball at Shada and Fred pushed Toby into Shada’s line of view. Shada felt something bang her head just as she saw Toby, and immediately fell in love with him. And just at that moment a door had appeared in the wall where there was normally no door.
Meanwhile Sam had managed to get back to the Room of the Octopus and was about to walk over to the archway in the far right hand corner as Fred had told her, when she noticed a piece of paper lying on the floor. Thinking it was maybe Shada’s, as Shada was always writing things on small pieces of paper, she picked it up. Then she realised it wasn’t Shada’s – in fact, judging by the spiky handwriting, it was Fred’s. She read some of it and gasped in horror.
The other Arians were staring at the new door. It was open, and through the gap between the door and the doorframe they could see an office-type place with lots of cardboard boxes on the floor.
“What should we do, Charlie?” asked Lara.
“Let’s take a look inside,” he suggested. “Miss Hanlon may be sneaking around trying to find us though, so let’s be quick.”
“Who?” asked Toby.
“That woman, remember?” Charlie said.
“Oh, yeah,” Toby remembered. Shada giggled at him. Charlie raised his eyebrows. Shada didn’t normally giggle at people. She blushed. To attempt to distract her, Charlie quickly stepped inside the office-type place, pulling her in too. They got a big shock when they saw who was in there. It was Mr. Foote, sitting in a black leather spinny-chair. He was staring at them as they walked in. The rest of the Arians peered in curiously.
“I had just begun to think it was only a matter of time,” Mr. Foote explained, which didn’t really explain anything. “Come on in then, everyone. Make yourselves at home.” There was a huge roll of bubble wrap lying along the length of the room. The Arians sat on it in a row, except Fred who had to stand because there wasn’t enough room on the roll. Mr. Foote got up and shut the door. “I expect you want to know what this room is and why you’ve never seen it before.”
“Well that might be helpful, sir,” Charlie said.
“I will tell you, once you have told me if you know where that awful woman is,” Mr. Foote bargained with them.
“Er…I think she’s gone,” Charlie told him. “She didn’t follow us along the Science corridor, did she?” he asked the other Arians. They all shook their heads.
“Phew!” said Mr. Foote. “As long as she didn’t see you come in here, it’ll be okay. I’ve turned the school protection system on so it will work against her.” He then explained to them that the school protection system would protect them against anyone evil; which was basically anyone trying to stop them from doing good.
“Why don’t you like her?” Charlie asked him, bringing them back to Ms. Hanlon.
“Well you see she keeps asking me awkward questions,” Mr. Foote replied.
“Like what?” Lyra asked curiously.
“Like ‘Why don’t you supervise the Arians when they do magic?’, and ‘Why have so many Arians been killed?’ Just out of interest, do you know why there are only nine of you now, when just a year or so ago there were about twenty?” They all shook their heads again.
“Yes, because Fred here managed to kill the majority of them,” Charlie grumbled.
“Good, good, I’m glad you don’t know the other reason,” Mr. Foote said surprisingly. They all looked at him in puzzlement. But he didn’t explain any further. Instead he changed the subject. “So, any questions about this room?”
“Well I’m sure I’ve seen the door before, but I knew it didn’t exist, but it does,” Shada told him rather confusingly.
“It does tend to appear when I’d prefer it if it didn’t,” Mr. Foote admitted. “Especially when there are a lot of people around, it seems. But it’s meant to stay hidden unless I need it to appear.”
“So what is this room?” Toby asked.
“It’s the storage room for the Frandadis fruits,” Mr. Foote explained. “And because they need to be kept away from sources of pollution (i.e. humans) for as long as possible, I keep them in their boxes in here until you lot need them. This is also my office, and where I keep records of all the magic that happens in school.”
“But how do you know about all of the magic that happens in school?” Toby asked, puzzled. “We do magic all the time and you’re hardly ever around.”
“Oh, I have my ways,” Mr. Foote said mysteriously. These included tiny spying cameras that were fixed to top of the security sensors in each classroom, but nobody knew about them except obviously Mr. Foote. “So what’s happening about Fred?”
“I love the way everyone’s talking about me and no one’s talking to me,” Fred said loudly.
“I talk to you,” Lyra said, hurt.
“Yes well no one except Lyra,” Fred amended.
“And me,” piped up Lola.
“Okay, Lola too. But no one else talks to me, and it’s not fair,” sulked Fred.
“It’s your own stupid fault,” Charlie reminded him and received an angry look.
“From what I’ve gathered, you all blame Fred for killing the Arians that have died over the past two days, is that correct?” Mr. Foote asked them.
“Yes, because it’s true,” said Charlie.
“I wouldn’t be too sure of that, Charlie. Hasn’t it occurred to any of you that the exploding potion, yes it was an exploding potion, could have been put there by any Arian, even one of you, or one of the others before they died?”
“No, and anyway it’s easier to blame Fred, because we know he killed Bert and Elly,” Charlie tried justify himself.
“Well done for being truthful but Fred didn’t put the exploding potion up in Music,” Mr. Foote told them.
“Do you know who it was?” Lyra asked.
“Yes, I do happen to know that piece of information.”
“Well then you could have stopped them!” Lola cried. “Why didn’t you?”
“I didn’t know until after it had happened,” Mr. Foote said, looking slightly guilty.
“So if you knew it wasn’t me then why didn’t you tell the others earlier? It would have saved me a lot of trouble,” Fred moaned.
“I had my suspicions, but I couldn’t tell everyone! What if I was wrong?”
“So can I go home now?” asked Fred directly to Mr. Foote.
“I don’t think that’s a very good idea,” Mr. Foote said firmly.
“Why not? You know it wasn’t me…”
“There’s the matter of you killing Bert and Elly, Mr. Foote reminded him. “You still can’t be trusted.”
“So where’s he going to stay now?” Charlie asked.
“Here, of course. I’ll stay the night to look after him.”
“Oh, thank you sir!” Charlie said in relief. “Come on, Shada, we can go home.”
“I don’t want –” she began but then stopped when she realised she couldn’t get rid of Charlie that easily.
“What?” Charlie asked in concern. “Are you okay? You’re really pale.”
“I’m just… tired I guess. Come on, let’s go home. Bye people,” she said as she walked out of the room with Charlie. Lyra gave Fred a sly wink, which only Mr. Foote noticed.
Later that evening, everyone in the whole of Crooked Burrow School had gone home except for Fred and Mr. Foote. Mr. Foote had got Fred onto the subject of genies and wishes, as he knew that Fred had once been made to be a genie, but then Bert had made him forget all of that. Mr. Foote wanted to try to find a way to reverse the spell Bert had done on Fred, but wasn’t having much luck. All Fred kept doing was reciting the story of Aladdin off by heart. “And so they lived happily ever after,” Fred finished for the fourteenth time.
“Very good, Fred,” Mr. Foote groaned. He had had enough of messing with peoples’ minds with magic. He was now tired and wanted to sleep. He got Fred to make up a camp bed out of boxes and a sleeping bag made of bubble wrap for himself. He was going to sleep in his spinny chair, and wasn’t looking forward to it.
In the morning, Mr. Foote had a stiff neck and wasn’t in a good mood. He was dreading Miss Hanlon finding out that Fred had been and still was missing, and was wondering what would happen if she found out that he had been purposefully helping to hide him. He realised that he would most likely lose his job. But he couldn’t see another alternative to hiding Fred. He had recently put the finishing touches to a big plan he had spent years over which involved leaving Crooked Burrow School completely. He would shortly be putting this plan into action, so it wouldn’t matter if he lost his job or not. But he needed to make sure all the Arians were out of the way before he went. Preferably dead.
Shada had not had a good night’s sleep either. She had been thinking about boys – more specifically, Toby. She couldn’t understand why she now liked Toby instead of Charlie, when she hadn’t liked Toby since Year Seven, and was trying to think of ways to break up with Charlie without hurting his feelings. And of course there was the problem of Lola going out with Toby. Shada had always been a little bit jealous of Lola who was nicer than her and also cleverer in some subjects.
Sam had found out Fred’s two plans to use the octopus or make Shada fall in love with someone else. Sam had texted Shada the night before saying that she needed to speak to her urgently, but Shada hadn’t got the text because her phone was dead. So Sam hadn’t known what to do. She decided to wait until she met Shada at school the next morning, so she was worriedly waiting for Shada outside school by the gates when she saw her walking with Lola in the distance. She waved to Shada but she didn’t wave back. Suddenly there was a loud bang and Lola was lying on the floor. Sam ran up to them. “What’s wrong with her?” she asked.
“Well that wasn’t meant to happen, I’m sure,” Shada said in shock. Sam bent down to find Lola’s pulse.
“Shada,” she said fearfully. “I think she’s dead.”
“NO!” Shada shouted. “She can’t be dead, she can’t!”
“But she is,” Sam said, starting to cry. “What did you do, Shada?”
“I tried out a magic spell. I’m sure it said it would make the person do what you wanted them to.”
“Why, what did you want her to do?” asked Sam curiously.
“I wanted her to break up with Toby,” Shada mumbled.
“Oh, so it’s Toby that he made you fall in love with,” Sam said.
“What? Who are you talking about?” Shada demanded.
“It was Fred. He made you fall in love with Toby, so you would break up with Charlie and make Charlie upset.”
“Well it worked, and now Lola is gone. Why do Fred’s plans always end up with people dying?” Shada sighed.
By first lesson the news had spread all over the school that Lola was dead, and that Shada was rumoured to have killed her. Shada went to hide in Mr. Foote’s office (Mr. Foote was teaching first lesson), because of the shame and the guilt she felt. But that was a very bad idea because Fred was in there, and had heard the rumour too.
“So, Shada, how does it feel like to be a murderer?” Fred asked angrily.
“It’s so… terrible! It really hurts. I hope it hurts you a lot,” she retorted. “I know your evil plan to make me break up with Charlie and make him upset.”
“You think too highly of yourself, Shada. That was only half the plan. The other half, the main half was to break up Toby and Lola,” Fred told her.
“Toby and Lola? But… why?”
“Because… Lola’s so amazing. She’s, like, good at everything. And she’s so pretty.”
“You mean she was amazing, good at everything and pretty,” Shada reminded him.
“Yes, and all thanks to you she’s dead now. You kill her, I kill you, seems fair?” And Fred repeated the spell that Shada used to kill Lola. She fell to the floor lifeless.
Sam had run off to find Charlie as soon as Shada had gone to Mr. Foote’s office. She found him in his lesson and he came out when he saw her scared face. He had also heard the rumour, but hadn’t managed to speak to Shada before she ran off. Sam told him about Fred’s plan to make Shada break up with him and make him upset.
“Well he’s made me upset all right!” Charlie said angrily. “I need to find him. Is he still in Mr. Foote’s office?”
“Yes I think so,” Sam nodded.
“Come on, we need to go there.”
They reached the office just as the door swung closed. (The door was now being kept visible by Mr. Foote all the time, so the Arians could use the room as their new base.) They opened the door and Charlie stopped still. “Not Shada too,” he breathed.
“Where’s Fred?” asked Sam.
“Who cares? Shada’s dead!” Charlie sobbed.
“But that means it was probably Fred who killed her,” Sam realised.
“If it was, I’ll kill him,” Charlie muttered.
“Everyone’s killing everyone else!” Sam said worriedly. “We’re all going to end up dead!”
“Maybe that’ll be a good thing,” Charlie sighed.
Toby had found out that Lola was dead. He couldn’t concentrate in lessons, and was on the verge of tears all the time. Some of his friends found it funny, like Treg for example. But that was because Treg was very immature and when he had first heard what had happened, he had been putting a German tape that he had previously stolen and taped over (with him singing a rude song) back into the tape recorder in his German classroom. Later, Toby was walking down the Maths corridor to go home when he saw Fred sitting on the bench in the other quad (not the girl’s quad). He began to walk faster as he didn’t want to catch Fred’s eye (he had heard a rumour that Fred had killed Shada), but it was too late – Fred had seen him. “Hey, Toby,” he called. Toby carried on, trying to ignore him, but Fred got up from the bench and caught him up. “I heard about Lola, and I just want to say I’m sorry.”
“Leave me alone,” Toby mumbled.
“Hey, are you crying?” Fred asked in disgust.
“I said leave me alone!” Toby shouted and ran off, but Fred caught up with him easily as his legs were longer than Toby’s.
“I have an idea,” Fred told him softly.
“I don’t care if you have a million ideas; go away!” Toby retorted. Then suddenly he turned into a large brown bird – a pheasant.
“Oh bother, I meant to change him into a feather,” thought Fred. “Never mind.” He plucked a long tail feather from the pheasant, which squawked and ran out of the school and into the road, to be run over by a mother who was late picking her child up. Fred laughed as he hadn’t planned for that to happen, but it fitted in – if rather gruesomely. He twirled the feather in his hands, and then went back into the quad. He placed the feather on the wall, and cast a spell to make it write the name ‘Lola’ for forever and eternity.
The warm weather continued all through December. Over the holidays Sam was spending most of her time round at her neighbour Aidan’s house. They could empathise with each other because they had both lost good friends. Aidan was also an Arian, but had been very upset at the death his girlfriend Lucy who had been one of the victims of the exploding potion. He had decided to give up magic so he could never harm anyone like that.
Soon it was Christmas Day. The sun shone down from a pure blue sky. It was unlike any Christmas Day that anyone could ever remember before. Sam’s Christmas Day started out good – she got some nice presents from her family, and some sympathy presents from people at school, because they felt sorry for her losing all her friends. Orora was her only real friend at school, except for Charlie who she didn’t get to see much of as the Arians were banned from magic so there was no after school magic club. Lyra was being friends with Lara, Jay, Drew and Zilla and Fred just kept to himself. He mainly stayed in Mr. Foote’s office which Miss Hanlon had found and was in the process of trying to find out how to open the door (it wouldn’t open for her). Talking to Fred made Sam feel shivery, so she tried to avoid it as much as possible. But she couldn’t avoid it when he turned up on her doorstep halfway through the afternoon on Christmas Day. She let him inside, scared.
“Why are you here?” she asked nervously. “And how did you manage to get out of your house?” Fred was being watched by Charlie over the holidays, which meant Charlie was staying at Fred’s house.
“Oh, Charlie let me out for a while, as its Christmas Day. And I need to talk to you,” he explained. “How did you know about my plan to break up Shada and Charlie?”
“Oh that, that was ages ago, why do you want to know?” Sam asked.
“Because I need to know if you can read minds or not,” Fred replied seriously. As Sam could never tell when Fred was joking and when he wasn’t, she told him the truth – that she had found the piece of paper with his plans on.
“Where is it now?” he asked sharply.
“Up in my room I think,” she replied. “Do you want me to get it for you?”
“No, its okay,” he said, pointing behind her. The piece of paper was floating down the stairs towards Fred. He snatched it out of the air and stuffed it in his pocket. Sam began to cough because she was so scared. Then Fred said the words she knew she would be hearing before long – the words of the spell that killed people.
“Everyone will think it’s just an asthma attack,” he smiled grimly as he shut the door behind him, in front of Sam’s dead body.
The holidays finished, but the weather continued to stay warm and pleasant. Lyra, Lara, Zilla, Fred and Charlie were all talking in the girls’ quad. They were sitting on a bench underneath a tree. Zilla went off to find Jay and Drew and celebrate her victory in making Orora upset (Zilla had managed to get the boy she liked to ask her to the New Year’s Eve dance). However Orora was more upset at the loss of Samantha and Shada than at Zilla going out with the boy she liked. Once Zilla had gone, Fred muttered the killing spell words twice in quick succession and Lara and Lyra fell down dead. He was saying them the third time when Charlie stabbed him in the chest with a knife he had taken from his coat’s inside pocket. At that moment they both stared at each other, and fell backwards onto the ground. Both were dead.
Mr. Foote noted that all the Arians were dead (except for Aidan) and went to the back of his office. He threw some plastic covering off a huge metal structure and opened the door to it. He began loading all his important work into it, and finally got in. There was hardly enough space for him to sit on the chair in there. He shut the door and pressed some buttons, flicked some switches and vanished. The huge structure vanished too, and everything inside it, leaving the room almost empty. Just then, Miss Hanlon came rushing inside the room, and shouted out in anger at his disappearance. He had taken the entire stock of Frandadis fruits, and also the octopus, which he was using as the fuel for his time-travelling machine.
Mr. Foote was originally from the future, and had been sent on a mission to supervise some children doing magic. Miss Hanlon had initially been his teacher, and had come back in time to make sure he was doing things right, which he wasn’t. He had become very lazy and was enjoying life without much responsibility too much. He was now the King of Magic, thanks to Bert, and that made him very powerful and therefore very dangerous if he didn’t use his powers in the right way. As soon as the Arians were dead, he was free to go back, which is what he had done. Miss Hanlon angrily disappeared into the future to find him. This resulted in a magic war in the future in which many people died, Mr. Foote being one of them.
Larissa was dead, Lucy was dead, and Samantha was dead. The depression got too much for him, and without any second thoughts… Aidan killed himself.
The End
