Nocturnal Academy 3: Immaterial Girl

Nocturnal Academy #3

Immaterial Girl

By

Ethan Somerville

SMASHWORDS EDITION

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PUBLISHED BY:

Storm Publishing on Smashwords

Nocturnal Academy 3

Copyright 2010/2019 by Ethan Somerville

www.stormpublishing.net

Smashwords Edition License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author's work.

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Chapter 1

Appleton’s grand new shopping centre had just opened for business to record-breaking crowds. Alice Dibble had never seen so many people in one place before, all swarming into the brightly lit arcade to the visit the new stores. There were clothes shops, jewellery shops, book shops, shoe shops, department stores, food shops, toy shops, chemists, doctors’ surgeries and even a dentist’s, although Alice had no wish to go there. The Appleton Mall even had a play centre and a huge food-court with outlets for all the major fast-food chains.

Alice and her female friends from the Nocturnal Academy were most interested in a shop called the Rainbow Tiger – a new store especially for teenagers. It had fashionable jewellery, handbags, stationery, accessories for the bedroom, books and even a line of clothes. A massive crowd had collected out front as squealing girls clamoured to get in.

You won’t get in there today, Alice, declared her father, George Dibble. He was a tall, very large man with curly brown hair and a belly that threatened to pop all the buttons on his shirt. Over the last year he had grown alarmingly, and couldn’t seem to walk more than a few minutes before needing to sit down and rest. He smelled strongly of cigarette smoke because he’d just inhaled a quick one in the carpark.

Alice stared at the crowd and pouted. She was a tall, thin girl with pale skin, midnight-blue eyes and long black hair, worn parted in the middle. Her female friends from the Academy; Carla, Milly and Nancy, had been talking about this place for months. No-one wanted to miss out on the opening day. I guess I’ll just have to line up then, she declared. Will you wait for me, Dad? She gave him her brightest smile. I’ll try not to be too long.

Oh, alright. He had been eyeing off a seat that had just been vacated by another bored parent. He waddled over to it, but before he could reach it, a stressed-out looking mum with a twin stroller practically dived into it.

Alice hurried over to the crowd, straining to see her friends through the press of bodies. She hoped the Rainbow Tiger wasn’t full of cheap, cutesy-poo pink stuff, like every other shop for girls seemed to be these days. Her mum loved that sort of stuff, and when Alice had been a little girl without any say in the matter, Marlene had decorated her room in pastels and frills. She had bought Alice teddy bears with ribbons, stuffed ponies and cute little kitties with bows on their heads. Alice only managed to get rid of them at the end of year 6 by firmly telling her mother that she was too old for them.

Alice wriggled her way into the crowd, using her vampire glamour to pretend she wasn’t there. It worked splendidly until she trod on another Academy student’s foot.

Watch it, Dribble! growled Andorra, a year 9 girl.

Alice reddened at the hated nickname, but didn’t bother correcting the older girl. She had resigned herself to the fact that she was going to be called Dribble for the rest of her life. Because of Professor Abbacus, half her teachers now called her that!

Sorry Dora, she muttered.

Andorra sniffed. Should think so. Now don’t push – you’ll get your turn.

The crowd slowly moved forward, with the Academy girls eventually jostling their way to the front. As Alice caught her first glimpse of the shop, her heart lifted in excitement. She could see a brightly lit red sign with a picture of a leaping tiger on it, and matching velvet curtains on either side of the doorway. Over the babble of girls she could hear strains of eerie music – like religious chanting with a heavy rock n roll beat in the back. It sent delightful shivers down her spine.

Alice! called an excited voice. Alice spotted her friend Carla, a tall, very well-developed girl with masses of thick red hair and bright green eyes. Beside her stood Milly, a willowy blonde with pale skin like Alice’s and strange yellow eyes like a cat’s. Over here! We’re almost in!

Alice squeezed through the group. Andorra gave a disgusted snort. Queue-jumper!

Soon, Alice, Carla and Milly had made their way into the shop, where the haunting music surrounded them. They felt like they had entered another world. The lights were lower, with UV bulbs enhancing everything that was white. Dry ice wafted around their ankles, and smoky incense filled the air. The girls could only stare in amazement at all the shelves crammed with little statuettes of dragons, witches and goblins, stands of chunky Gothic jewellery, and racks hung with velvet and lace dresses of red, black, purple and blue. There were diaries done up to look like spellbooks, and pens with bats all over them. Other shelves held books on self-help and different religions. Dream-catchers hung with feathers dangled from the ceiling. There were amulets and wind-chimes, lucky charms and magic wands. And everywhere, hanging from the walls, lined up on shelves, and suspended from the ceiling, were mirrors. Lots and lots of mirrors, with fancy borders decorated with dragons, gargoyles, witches and fairies.

Up the back of the shop hung a long black velvet curtain covered with weird runes, hiding a doorway. Attached to the wall beside it was a sign that read For Private Readings, and a list;

"Palms $5

Cards $15

Tea Leaves $15

Crystal Ball $20

Astrological Readings by Order

Potions by order

Spells by order

Ask the assistant on duty for an appointment with Karuna"

"Potions and spells?" Alice gasped. She knew from bitter experience that spells were real. Magic – or as the Nocturnal Academy teachers preferred - Magick with a k to distinguish it from the smoke-and-mirrors sort – actually worked! At the end of the previous year, Alice had almost ended up being sacrificed during a complicated Magickal ritual.

Oh, I’m sure it’s all just pretend. Milly flipped a delicate hand.

But Alice’s experiences had made her paranoid. Not only had she almost ended up hosting a greater Immaterial demon, but then, during her first two terms at the Nocturnal Academy, she had almost been killed three times by an evil little genius named Andre Sauvage. Even though term three had passed with nothing more dangerous than a sports carnival, she still couldn’t keep from looking over her shoulder. She considered finally making it to thirteen on September the 22nd a miracle!

Beside her, Carla held up a slinky black dress with dangly sleeves and a lace-up bodice. She scowled. "Why can’t they ever make anything in my size?" Since finally mastering her transforming ability at the end of term three she had grown considerably, now standing a hundred and seventy-eight centimetres tall. Quite an achievement for a thirteen year-old girl. She could now change to a tiger and back again within a minute, without becoming stuck half-way like she used to. However, whenever she got upset parts of her would shift, and right now Alice could see her ears growing noticeably longer and furrier. And were those whiskers?

Hey, look at this! Milly beckoned Alice over, and she had to squeeze past several giggling girls to reach her. Milly drew out one of the books on religion. It had a shiny cover, so shiny that Alice could see her reflection in it. It was labelled simply; The God of Mirrors.

"What are you doing, looking at boring old books when there are so many other, far more interesting things here?" scoffed Andorra, who had finally managed to worm her way into the shop. She had already selected five different bracelets.

"Well, I thought this book looked interesting, Milly retorted. I’ve never heard of a God of Mirrors. She opened the book, and both Alice and Andorra peered over her shoulder. The inside cover had a picture of an old-fashioned mirror on it, with gargoyles and imps capering around the outside. It looked like some of the little mirrors on display. Inside was written; Through the Looking Glass lies a world far stranger than any ever visited by Alice".

Andorra snickered.

"Alice, from Alice in Wonderland," Alice retorted. "I was named after her, you know.

I might get this, Milly declared. You can share it with me, if you like.

You can keep your dumb old book. I’m going to look at those dresses. Andorra moved off, pushing aside several smaller girls clustered around the spellbooks and diaries. She must have been using her glamour to hide herself, because they didn’t notice her passing. Each blamed the other for pushing.

I didn’t mean her any way, Milly told Alice.

"Okay, thanks Milly. Now I’d better see if there’s anything I want to buy! She examined the rest of the books, but apart from the mysterious God of Mirrors" volume, she didn’t find anything else that interested her. She moved on to the next racks and eventually selected a diary with a fire-breathing dragon on the front. She also found a dress on the rack she particularly liked, blood red, with a split up one side and frills around the sleeves and hem, but it cost way more than she had, so she settled on a silky scarf covered with tie-dyed patterns.

Somehow Alice managed to squeeze her way to the front of the store, where the counter stood. It was draped with brightly coloured cloths and covered with more jewellery stands for last-minute impulse buyers. Alice was just as susceptible as any other young girl, and selected a pair of bat earrings which she just had enough for.

She handed her purchases to the shop assistant. She was a very tall, very thin lady with hollow cheeks and lots of dark makeup around her eyes. She had hair longer and somehow blacker than Alice’s. She was wearing a dress that looked like she’d walked through a mass of black spider-webs. She couldn’t have looked anymore Gothic if she’d tried. She gave Alice a smile, showing off teeth that were just a little too pointy. Was she a vampire? Or was she just trying really hard to look like one? All the vampires Alice knew didn’t have naturally pointy teeth.

Alice paid her money, and backed away from the counter so the next person could step forward. She raised her glamour, and suddenly everything around her took on a softer, bluish hue. Everything, that is, save for the other vampires and Academy folk. She focussed on the shop assistant again.

She looked just as blue as all the other normal humans.

Definitely not one of us than, Alice realised. Just a try-hard. She wasn’t sure whether to be relieved or not, because someone who looked like that and wasn’t a vampire … obviously had serious problems!

Outside, George Dibble was growing increasingly impatient. Alice seemed to be taking a long time in that awful shop, and he was dying for another cigarette. To make matters worse, the mum with the stroller wasn’t budging, and he realised that she was probably waiting for someone in the shop as well. He glanced over his shoulder. The exit wasn’t far. Perhaps he had time for a five minute puff. He headed for the way out, stepping out into the cool afternoon. Moving away from the doors and into the carpark, he noticed two policemen harassing a homeless man. Despite the mild October weather, the man was wrapped in an oversized coat, hat and scarf, and looked like a pile of old rags. He was sitting on a tartan blanket with his back against the shopping centre wall. He had one of those wheeled old-person trolleys beside him. The two cops towered over him, looking intimidating with their guns, truncheons and fists on their hips.

Come on, move along, one of the men declared in a polite, but firm voice. You can’t set up camp here. This is a public thoroughfare for shoppers.

The derelict slurred something George couldn’t understand. Probably drunk out of his brain, George thought as he lit up a smoke. But the man began gathering up his things with slow, exaggerated care. George wondered where the fellow had come from. He had seen him wandering the streets a few times before, but never thought much about him. Like most grown-ups, he tried to pretend such unfortunates didn’t exist. Being a decent-sized town, Appleton had a small homeless population. They usually hung around the shopping centre and the factories surrounding it. A woman known only as Mad Harriet lived in a crate behind the nearby ice-cream factory, and often came out to yell at passing cars. And a very smelly old man with more hair sprouting from his ears than his head often lurked outside the RSL club, trying to bludge money for the pokies. No-one knew where he slept, although some suspected he dossed down in the nearby park.

Apparently the man with the cart wasn’t moving fast enough for the policemen, because one leaned down and grabbed him by an arm, intending to haul him to his feet. It should have been easy to shift the fellow – he didn’t look very big. But he easily pulled his arm free with a loud; ’Ands off ya pig! Said I’s movin’!

The cop muttered a curse, and the drunk picked himself up in his own good time.

George couldn’t help but snort. Unfortunately he started coughing, and both policemen turned around to glare at him. Neither looked happy.

Those things’ll kill you, you know! One gestured meaningfully towards George’s cigarette.

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Chapter 2

Term Four at the Nocturnal Academy started just like Terms One, Two and Three had, with a special lecture by Professor Abbacus. At the beginning of Term Three he had explained all about the gremlins that had almost destroyed the school during the mid-year holidays. Only the quick thinking of Alice and the werewolf Toby Thompson had saved the Academy from being completely overrun.

The Year 7s took their places in the big lecture hall, where bats, spiders and owls roosted in the shadowy rafters and occasionally flittered from one beam to another. Fortunately they were relatively well trained, and didn’t poop on the students’ heads too often. Illumination came from old-fashioned bulbs dangling from tangles of wires. Since all the gremlins had been flushed from the Academy’s electrical system, the lights now shone strongly, without any flickering. The heaters and fans worked properly, and the students no longer needed to worry about unexpected blackouts. Neither did they have to worry about oversized cockroaches leaping out at them from dark corners.

Alice, Milly, Carla and Nancy had already taken their seats in the middle of the room and immediately powered up their school-issue Notepad computers. They were soon joined by the big werewolf boy, Toby, who looked like he had grown even more during the break. He stood almost as tall as the werebear Sebastian Munrow, although Grizzer, as he liked to be called, was more than twice as wide.

Crikey, almost didn’t make it! exclaimed Toby. I couldn’t find a shirt that fit! Mum had to give me one of Dad’s that she still had hanging around! He patted his chest.

It’s the right colour, but Academy shirts don’t have alligator logos on them, Carla pointed out.

Maybe it’s a weregator!

"Imagine how nasty that would be!" Milly giggled.

Suddenly, someone up the back let out a thunderous burp that lasted a full five seconds. Loud cheering and clapping followed. Toby groaned and slapped his forehead. Looks like Grizzer’s back. I was hoping he’d left.

Why would he leave? asked Alice.

Maybe coz he has a brain the size of a pimple!

Unfortunately intelligence isn’t actually a requirement for the Nocturnal Academy, Alice declared. "Nor is having loads of money. Otherwise none of us would be here!"

Grizzer was by far the biggest boy in the form. He was even bigger than his best friend Ali Malouk, an Earth Elemental. Up the back he took up two seats all by himself. He was big and