Emma opened her eyes and found herself lying in a strange bed, staring up at an unfamiliar ceiling.
"You're awake?"
A soft, young girl's voice came from beside her. Emma turned her head and looked at the speaker.
It was a girl with blonde hair and an innocent-looking face.
"Who are you? Where am I?"
Emma was surprisingly calm. She knew she'd been snatched and brought to a strange place. Freaking out wouldn't do any good right now. Figuring out what was going on was the most important thing.
"This is Boston. We're all at Robichaux's Academy for Exceptional Young Ladies. It's a full-time boarding school specifically for, well, you know?"
Emma totally got it. It was for newly awakened little witches!
"Were you also brought here against your will?"
Emma noticed the blonde girl's somewhat gloomy expression and guessed that her experience might be similar.
"Yeah, I was just brought to this school a few days ago myself. My name is Zoe Benson. What's yours?"
"Emma, Emma Black."
The blonde girl, Zoe, nodded and then stood up.
"Now that you're awake, I'll go tell the headmistress."
Zoe left the room, leaving Emma alone on the bed to think.
After a little while, the dorm room door slowly creaked open.
Emma thought it was the headmistress Zoe had mentioned coming to see her, but instead, three weirdos in black robes and bird-like masks walked in.
This strange getup instinctively made Emma feel scared, so she started to use her powers.
But as soon as Emma tried to use her powers, one of the three figures let out a shriek.
"Watch out, she's gonna attack us!"
No sooner had the words left their mouth than the person started convulsing and fell to the floor. At the same time, another one of them used their powers and threw Emma off the bed.
But this person also got a taste of Emma's power and, just like the first one, started twitching and collapsed on the ground.
Only the third person was completely fine because Emma's powers were interrupted when she was thrown.
"You guys okay?"
The third person in the black robes took off their mask and helped up their friends. It was a somewhat chubby black girl.
"Madison, Nan, you alright?"
"Queenie, we're fine, just a little dizzy."
Emma's mental abilities were definitely strong, but she was still just a newly awakened little witch, and her targets were two witches much older than her. So, the witches called Madison and Nan quickly got back on their feet.
The one called Madison was a beautiful girl with blonde hair, and the one called Nan was a short, plump white girl.
The three of them were actually students at Robichaux's Academy for Exceptional Young Ladies and could be considered Emma's upperclassmen. Their little stunt was just their special welcoming ritual.
But these kinds of pranks can easily go wrong, just like this time.
Madison was the ringleader of the trio and had a bit of a hot temper. After getting hit by Emma's mental attack, she immediately wanted revenge.
"That little bitch—how is she just a kid?"
Emma had been under the covers, and Madison and the others were wearing masks, so they hadn't gotten a good look at her.
It wasn't until Madison stood up that she realized the person she'd thrown was just an eight-year-old girl.
At this point, Emma was lying on the floor, clutching her butt and stubbornly glaring at Madison and the others.
It looked like that fall had made Emma's injury a little worse.
Even though Madison was the type to hold a grudge, she felt weird about actually going after a little kid.
"Madison, what do we do?"
Queenie and Nan on the side didn't know what the right move was either. They instinctively looked at Emma.
For a moment, the atmosphere in the dorm room was super awkward.
Just then, Cordelia walked in with Zoe.
"What are you doing in here? And why are you still dressed like that?"
Madison looked at Cordelia without a hint of fear.
"Ms. Fox, we heard there was a new student, so we just wanted to say hi. But it looks like the new girl might have gotten the wrong idea."
Madison smoothly downplayed the whole thing. Cordelia didn't say much; she was kind of a pushover anyway.
"Emma is a little special. She's only eight years old this year, so don't you dare bully her."
Madison raised an eyebrow, giving a fake sweet smile.
"Oh, please! I absolutely adore cute little girls like her!"
Queenie and Nan next to her quickly chimed in, agreeing with Madison.
Cordelia looked at Madison. She knew what the blonde girl was like, but because of her own personality, she didn't want to get too involved.
"Alright, you can leave now! Zoe, help Emma onto the bed. Her butt is hurt."
"Yes, Ms. Fox."
Madison rolled her eyes and left the dorm room with her two sidekicks.
Zoe walked over to Emma, who was still on the floor, helped her up, and onto the bed.
"Okay, Zoe, you can head out too."
Zoe nodded and obediently left the dorm room, leaving only Cordelia and Emma inside.
"Emma, now that you're here at Robichaux's Academy for Exceptional Young Ladies, you just need to stay put. Once you graduate, you can naturally leave. Don't even think about running away. We've put a spell on you. If you get too far from the school, we'll know. And then you'll face serious consequences!"
Emma looked at Cordelia with a cold stare.
"What exactly counts as graduating?"
"You need to be at least 21 years old and have been enrolled for no less than three years."
Emma quickly did the math and realized she'd have to stay at this school for thirteen years.
Thinking about it, waking up your powers early might not be so great after all. If you woke up later, you'd only have to stay for three years to leave.
"That's all I have to say. Here's a bottle of magic potion for external injuries. Put it on your wound; it'll help the injury on your butt heal up fast."
Cordelia handed Emma a bottle of light green liquid in a clear glass vial and then left the dorm room.
Emma held the medicine bottle in her hand, still thinking about what Cordelia had said.
Seriously, is there really no way to escape this place?
Will Brother Roy come to save me?
Emma didn't want to stay at some academy for exceptional young ladies. She just wanted to go back to Falls Church and go back to her old life.
Gritting her teeth, Emma twisted open the cap of the green potion and smeared the liquid on her butt.
Even if she was planning an escape, Emma needed to heal the injury on her butt first. Otherwise, she wouldn't even be able to run, so how could she get out of here?
The green liquid gave Emma a really cool sensation when she put it on the hurt spot. The intense pain from the hard fall just moments ago practically vanished instantly.
This stuff was way better than the over-the-counter ointment Emma had been using for days.
Emma curiously picked up the green potion and looked at it closely.
"Could this really be a magic potion brewed by witches?"
In stories, you always see witches with a big cauldron in their house, brewing all sorts of weird concoctions with strange ingredients.
If the witch school had this kind of amazing magic potion, was there a chance it could help her dad recover from his vegetative state and become normal again?
After Emma's Leviathan bloodline was sealed by Roy and her mind went back to normal, the thing she regretted the most was causing her father to become a vegetable.
If it was possible, Emma would definitely heal her father, even if it meant paying a price.
Could she maybe lay low in the school for a while?
Emma started to hesitate.
She wasn't sure how much time had passed when someone knocked on the door. Then, Zoe came into the room carrying some food.
"Emma, you're not asleep, are you?"
Emma was lying on the bed and couldn't really tell if she had drifted off or not.
"Nope."
"I brought you dinner."
Zoe placed the tray on the bedside table. Dinner was mashed potatoes, fried chicken nuggets, and some vegetable salad.
"Do you need me to feed you?"
Zoe was pretty nice, which made Emma feel a little fond of her.
"No, I can eat myself."
After putting on the magic potion, Emma's injury felt much better, and she was able to sit up and eat.
Hearing this, Zoe looked like she wanted to say something but then stopped herself. Emma noticed her expression.
"Is there something you wanted to say?"
"Well, Madison is actually not a bad person. She just likes to play pranks sometimes. When I first got here, they messed with me a little too, but they took care of me later. I just hope you won't be mad at them."
Emma, now that her mind was clear, wasn't that easily angered. But she still appreciated Zoe's kindness; after all, the other girl was the first person to show her any goodwill.
In a strange environment, this kind of kindness was really valuable to Emma.
"Thank you, Sister Zoe!"
Being called "sister" made Zoe really happy. Who doesn't love it when a cute little kid sweetly calls them "sister"?
Emma had been out of it for a whole day, and her stomach was growling. She grabbed the tray from the bedside table and started eating.
With her mouth full, Emma didn't forget to ask Zoe about the witch school.
"Sister Zoe, can you tell me about what it's like at school?"
Zoe didn't refuse.
"Even though I've only been here for a few days, there aren't actually that many students. I can tell you a little bit about them."
Right now, there were a total of thirteen witches at Robichaux's Academy for Exceptional Young Ladies. Besides Emma, who was the youngest at eight, the next youngest student was twelve.
The oldest student was Madison. She looked young, but she was actually twenty years old and almost ready to graduate.
Plus, Madison had been a child star. She'd started filming movies really early on and spent several years messing around in Hollywood before her powers woke up and she got sent to this school.
That's why Madison's personality was a little rough around the edges.
"It's because Madison's parents totally exploited her after she became famous, which made her personality kind of bad. But she's actually a really good person deep down."
Emma kind of understood. She was only eight years old and hadn't really been exposed to the darker side of life yet, so she didn't really know about the sad experiences of child stars.
American child stars are known for having it rough. Unless their parents are already in the business, they usually face crazy exploitation from them.
A lot of child stars go down the wrong path because of that.
And even though the Lolita Express scandal started in 1998, America's history of child exploitation didn't start then. Child stars who make it to Hollywood might not always escape it.
And child stars' parents often like to push their kids into bad situations for their own benefit.
"Besides Madison, the other little witches are pretty okay. Their situations are actually pretty similar to yours and mine. They all came to this school unwillingly. The ones you really need to watch out for are Maria and Carrie."
Emma looked at Zoe curiously. The other girl's expression was really serious, clearly showing that this girl named Maria was trouble.
"What's the deal with those two?"
"I heard that after Maria's powers woke up, she killed a bunch of people before the Witch Council found her!"
Even though a witch's awakening can often hurt other people—like how Zoe herself accidentally killed her first boyfriend when her powers came—it's still pretty rare for a young witch like Maria to intentionally kill people.
But Emma had killed people before, so she wasn't too scared after hearing what Zoe said.
"And she's your roommate! You really need to be careful!"
This made Emma's expression a little more serious. There were three beds in the dorm room, and one of them must belong to this Maria.
"And what's Carrie's story?"
"I heard Madison say that Carrie's situation is even worse than Maria's. She's a demon witch, and there's even a demon attached to her! When they found her, she had killed all the students at a school party!"
This really shocked Emma.
Unless it's a witch school like Robichaux's, most schools have at least a hundred students. This witch named Carrie was seriously terrifying!
But then Emma thought about it. She also had demon blood in her. If Roy hadn't sealed that part of her bloodline, maybe Emma would have ended up like Carrie in the future.
"That's so awful!"
"You should probably brace yourself. Carrie is your other roommate."
Emma: ???
Is my dorm room just a revolving door of people?
"They, uh, they probably won't be that violent at school, right?"
Just as Zoe was about to answer, the dorm room door was pushed open.
Standing there was a girl with long black hair and a really beautiful face. Even though Emma had seen beauties like Jennifer, she had to admit that this girl had a charm that was just as captivating.
It was just a shame that such a pretty face wore a cold expression, and her eyes looked at everyone as if they owed her money.
As soon as Zoe saw who it was, she quickly said hello.
"Maria, you're here?"
Maria nodded slightly and then looked at Zoe with sharp eyes, as if asking why she was in her dorm room.
Zoe quickly explained.
"The new little witch isn't feeling too well, so I came to bring her dinner!"
You could tell that Zoe was really scared of this Maria.
After hearing Zoe's explanation, Maria stopped paying attention to her and sat down on her own bed, starting to silently read a book.
Seeing this, Zoe let out a small sigh of relief. She always felt an invisible pressure around Maria, like the rumored aura of a killer, which made her feel instinctively afraid. She really didn't want to be in the same room as Maria.
By this time, Emma had pretty much finished her dinner. Zoe quickly picked up the tray.
"Emma, you're all done eating, right? I'll take your dishes to the kitchen for you!"
Emma opened her mouth, wanting to say that she wanted to eat a little more, but seeing the pleading look in Zoe's eyes, she decided to just nod.
And so, Zoe quickly made her escape from Emma's dorm room.
Watching Zoe's retreating figure, Emma had a feeling that her time at the witch school might not be so easy.
Zoe (Taissa Farmiga)