The first thing I did was try the doorknob. To my complete and utter lack of surprise, it wouldn't budge anymore from this side than it had from the other one. I pounded on the door loudly with my fist.

  "It's not opening!" I yelled, not sure if they could hear me. I pressed my ear to the door and heard what sounded like jumbled yelling and panic. I pounded on the door again.

  "We're getting help! Stay put!" That sounded like Fethris.

  "Stay put?! I'm locked in! Where am I going to go?" I stepped back. "This is not happening. This is not happening." I kicked the door once more out of a desire to vent than any delusion it would actually help at this point.

  "You should start running," a voice spoke behind me.

  Oh hells no.

  I turned around to find myself face to face with a ghost. A girl in a red unform, her face was obscured and whole body transparent. She flickered with a pale blue light that emanated off of her.

  "Who are you?!" I demanded, startled. Though perhaps 'what' was the better question.

  She stared at me. "You...you can see me..." She gasped in shock. "Later." She looked down, away from me. Was she talking to herself? She glanced up at me. I still couldn't see her features clearly, and she added a layer of urgency to her voice. "Run. You need to run."

  "Run? Run where? I'm locked in!"

  "The door will open. Eventually. But you have more immediate problems."

  I was about to ask what when I heard the hissing.

  "Good luck. You're going to need it." And then she was gone.

  Out of the darkness, barely visible to me was the outline of massive grey spiders. Dozens of them. All slowly encroaching on my space. Some of them had their front legs reared up as they hissed loudly.

  NOPE.

  I looked around for a place to go. I saw an opening and ran. There was a thud behind me and the hissing just got louder.

  I tripped over something, I glanced back to see something covered in cobwebs and dust. I stood up and continued running as the spiders continued chasing.

  "Nopenopenopenope...." I chanted to myself. I internally cursed my lack of spellcasting ability. Anything, literally anything would be helpful right about now. Faint sunlight was feeding in from dust covered windows. Everything was a pale grey from the light and dust. Ghostly. Ethereal. A little spooky.

  It would be more pleasant without the horde of angry ravenous spiders!

  I passed a staircase in my mad dash to get away. At the top were, surprise, even more spiders. More leaped towards me, their massive size causing them to land behind me with a terrifying thud.

  Then I found myself staring at a window a massive wall of glass with what might have once been a built in bench with cushions, now degraded with age.

  "Not helpful," I muttered to myself.

  I heard laughter behind me. It was a strange sound, as if with dozens of voices played out of sync. I took off in a new direction, heading to the other side of the staircase. The hissing just got louder and louder.

  I kept running, picking random directions and getting lumps of dust and web stuck to my clothes.

  But I found myself staring back at the door. I ran to it and started banging on it harder and harder. My hands and arms hurt. "Let me out! Let me out you stupid Tower!"

  The stone didn't budge.

  There was silence from the other side.

  I wanted to cry.

  Something tugged on my leg with enough force to pull me to the ground.

  A sharp pain pierced my ankle and I looked to see a massive and fanged nightmare with its teeth in my skin. I kicked at it with my other leg. It didn't let go.

  I screamed.

  I placed my hand on the ground in an attempt to yank my leg free.

  The room burst into bright pink flames. Columns of searing heat shot up from the ground. The spider on my leg was turned to ash. The flames hit cobwebs and spread. The hissing grew to a deafening roar and then quieted.

  The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

  The ghost, the one from earlier, wearing red and glowing blue was kneeling near me. "Fae fire..." she whispered.

  As the flames died down all that remained was scattered pale ash.

  My body spasmed.

  My vision tunneled.

  I slumped against the door.

  (*********)

  When I awoke next I was staring up at a clear glass ceiling. It was dark out, and the stars nearly infinite.

  "Where..." My throat was dry and scratchy. As I blinked into awareness the aches all over my body made themselves known.

  "Goodness!" A portly woman with a mix of white, grey, and black hair exclaimed nearby. "I wasn't expecting you to be awake for a few more hours! Gave us all a scare."

  "What happened?" I asked as I tried to sit up.

  She was having none of that, and gently pushed me back down. "You were attacked by a breed of highly venomous spiders. You were lucky we got to you quickly," she looked down at me with a soft expression in her green eyes. “Though not quickly enough, it would seem."

  I closed my eyes amd my head hurt. "How bad is it?"

  "Nothing you won't recover from, thank Hecate. But you will be in here for at least a few more days. The last thing you want to be doing is putting weight on that ankle of yours. Unfortunately, you will likely have a permeant scar from all of this."

  "I can live with a scar." I waved it off. "At least it will have a cool story behind it."

  "Locked in Dragon Tower with a bunch of dangerous spiders. Quite the harrowing tale for a first day."

  "And ghosts. There were ghosts too," I told her, remembering the event now that the haze was clearing. "How long was I out?"

  "A day and a half dear," she sighed. "You just get some more rest. Do you need anything? Water? Food?"

  The thought of eating anything made me want to hurl. "Water, please."

  "Of course."

  A few seconds later I heard the faint clicking of a glass nearby.

  I took several breaths and sat up carefully, mostly leaning against the wall to sit up and I sipped the water slowly.

  My hands trembled.

  "I cast a spell," I breathed between sips of water. "I actually cast something."

  I looked down at my left hand. It looked the same as always, despite the tremors. My heart was pounding in my ears.

  "Are you sure you're all right?" the woman asked.

  "I am. I'm just a little out of it, I think. Do you know what the plan is, for my Tower placement? I know the door opened but I don't think it's in any condition to be used right now."

  "Professor Vivian Hearth is on her way. She'll know what the plan is. Half the staff is in a frenzy, the possibility of Dragon Tower reopening has everyone buzzing."

  I groaned. That sounded like a mountain of attention. "I wonder what Mom's going to think about all this. I'm sure she's worried out of her mind by now."

  "I have a ComMirror somewhere..." The woman muttered, "Would you like to try talking to her? It might help."

  "Am I allowed?" I couldn't remember the rules about using ComMirrors on campus.

  "Of course! As long as you stay in that bed, that is."

  I nodded. She disappeared again then reappeared with a small hand mirror in a silver frame.

  I took it with a grateful smile. "Lucinda Stewart," I told the mirror. The glass glowed with a pale green light and after a few seconds the face of my mother appeared. "Hi Mom."

  "Serafina! I wasn't expecting you to call me so soon! How are you? How's the school? What Tower chose you?"

  They hadn't told her yet? Oh boy. I glanced up at the Healer, then looked down and took a deep breath. "I've been...busy."

  "Busy?" She huffed, "How could you have been..." Her tone shifted and she frowned deeply. "Serafina, my wonderful daughter whom I love very much, why are you in the Healer Wing?"

  "Before I tell you, please sit down and have Dad nearby."

  "I don't like that tone. I know that tone. You learned it from me. What happened?"

  "Are you sitting down?"

  "Yes, Serafina I'm sitting down. Now please tell me what happened and start from the beginning."

  "I did the thing and got chosen by a Tower. Woot. Except it was Dragon Tower. Boo."

  "You got chosen by Dragon..." Mom said in quiet disbelief. "Hmm. Okay, continue."

  "So me and the four other kids who got chosen by Dragon get pulled aside by a Professor Hearth. Do you know her?"

  Mom blinked a few times and let out a breath. "I do."

  "She first took us to Headmaster Pan's office. We didn't see him but guess she didn't want us stuck in the Hall while they try to figure out what they want to do with us."

  "Right. No unsupervised first-years."

  "And she ended up handing us over to a Professor Dellik, and he showed us Dragon Tower because I guess he didn't have anything better to do."

  She nodded. "I remember him."

  "So the others try the door and I decide as a joke to try it as well. I went, 'Open Sesame' and everything. I got a couple laughs and we were ready to continue our tour...but then the door opened..."

  Mom's eyes nearly popped out of her skull and she covered her mouth with one hand. "You...you opened Dragon Tower?!"

  Distantly I heard, "What's wrong? Why are you yelling?" from my father.

  "Victor! Get in here!"

  Dad came into view behind Mom. "Hi Serafina."

  I waved. "Hi Dad."

  "Your daughter opened a door that has been impenetrable by magic for over a century by saying 'Open Sesame'," Mom informed him in a tone that was both impressed and terrified.

  I shrugged.

  "At least she's having fun?" he offered.

  I laughed, "I wouldn't call what happened next 'fun', but okay."

  "What happened next?" Mom demanded.

  "Something-don't ask me I don't know-pulled me inside and the door locked again."

  Mom let out a strangled sound.

  Dad sighed.

  "It was full of death spiders! Massive venomous and very unhappy spiders!" I told them. "And ghosts!"

  Mom stared at me dumbfounded.

  Dad covered his face with his hand. "Define massive, please."

  "Like this big," I gestured with my hands to approximate the size. "One bit me! And pulled me to the ground!"

  Mom vanished from sight and Dad's face became clearer. He must have taken the mirror. "And the ghosts?"

  "I only saw one, but I heard others. The one I saw told me to run right before the spiders attacked."

  There was a high-pitched whine from outside of the mirror's view.

  "But you're all right now?" Dad pressed.

  "I'm okay. I fell asleep and they got me to the healer. She has me on bedrest for now. I should be okay by the time class actually starts."

  "Give me one reason not to pull you out of that school right now, Serafina!" my mother's voice cried, still out of sight.

  "Because I finally cast a spell!" I exclaimed, excited and grinning.

  Dad, without a word, turned the mirror so I could see Mom laying on her back on the couch her eyes wide and mouth parted in a shocked gasp.

  "You did?" She asked softly.

  "I did! I don't know how, but I made these pink flames appear and they burned the spiders to ash."

  Mom covered her eyes with her hands and let out a groan. "Fine. Fine. But only because you've wanted this since you were a little girl. But I will have words with the Head of Security."

  "Are you speaking with your parents? I just finished sending the Incident Report paperwork," Professor Vivian Hearth said as she approached.

  "Yes Ma'am. I didn't want them to worry more than they needed to."

  "Is that her? Good, I will have words with her." I saw Mom narrow her eyes. "Give me the mirror. Victor sit here with me. You're her father and have every right to be part of this conversation."

  I looked between the Professor and my parents and turned the mirror around.

  "Lucinda, for the record Dellik was not supposed to take them to Dragon Tower. He was supposed to show where their classes are going to be. You of all people know how difficult it can be for decisions to be made around here. I didn't want them sitting in the Headmaster's office while we argued back and forth. I thought a tour would be a better use of their time."

  "Doesn't change the fact that my daughter was in danger and got hurt, Vivian." There was a sharp edge to Mom's voice I hadn't heard her use before.

  "I'd rather not argue. Serafina Stewart is perfectly safe and will make a perfect recovery. Her injuries will not affect her ability to do anything."

  "Don't worry. I'm not pulling her out. She's wanted this too much. And I know you. If you thought her staying there was going to put her in danger you would send her home yourself."

  Vivian Hearth sighed. "Good. I'm glad we understand where we both stand on this issue. She is one of ours now and I will treat her with the full extent of our school's protections and services. This will not happen again. And since it was deemed not anyone's fault, once she's recovered it will be treated as if this incident never happened."

  "Good. If she got a strike over getting hurt I'd pull her out."

  For a moment, a split second, I saw a fond smile cross Professor Hearth's face. "I know."

  "Can I ask something?" I spoke softly.

  Professor Hearth met my gaze. "Go ahead, Miss Stewart."

  "What about my Tower placement? Dragon Tower didn't look habitable. I can't imagine it's anywhere near ready. What's the plan?"

  She nodded. "We inspected it ourselves once you were here safely and reached that same conclusion. Currently the consensus we've reached is to assign all of you Towers for the potential to relocate later. When you're better Pixie Tower Representative Mr. Set will help you settle in. Welcome to the Towers of Nine, Miss Stewart."