A masked figure stood in a dark alley, muttering what seemed like nonsense. Meg, a 12-year-old girl, was walking down the street and stopped when she heard the female’s voice. She was a curious girl, so she stepped quietly into the alley, the masked figure’s back to her. The person sensed her and turned. The woman stared at her with eyes that glowed with anger. Her hands, which were covered with warts, were clenched into fists. She said a few words, then turned and left the alley. All of a sudden, Meg felt a cold chill behind her. She turned, but nobody was there.

She went home and eventually forgot all about the woman and what happened in the alley. Years later, she was walking by the alley, and the memories flooded back into her mind.

She heard a gravelly female voice behind her, saying, “Back again?” Meg turned.

Two thousand years later, Anna was lying asleep in her bed. At 6:30, her alarm buzzed, and she got out of bed. Her morning was perfectly normal, but at 2:41, everything changed.

She was sitting in math class, bored out of her mind, looking into the hallway through the little window in the door. She saw a woman wearing all black with a black mask over her entire face, her hand covered in warts. She was muttering to herself. She stopped walking, looked inside the classroom, and fixed her eyes on Mary, Anna’s best friend. As soon as the woman continued walking, Mary fell fast asleep. The students sitting near her tried to wake her up, but she didn’t wake.

Standing before Meg was the masked woman who she had met all those years ago, in that same alley.

“Who are you? What do you want?” Meg asked.

“You don’t even recognize your own mother?” the woman asked. “As for what I want,” she continued, “I want to see you before you die.”

Anna’s math teacher, Mrs. Smith, decided to continue class even though Mary was still asleep, so Anna continued to look into the hallway, hoping she would see the masked woman again. At the end of the class, Mary still had not woken, her parents were called, and they came and picked her up.

Anna was walking through the halls to her social studies class, when she heard a voice behind her call her name.

“You can’t be my mother,” Meg said. “She died years ago when I was four.”

“Are you sure?”

“Of course.”

“Then how did she die?”

“In a boat that was at sea during a storm.”

The woman removed her mask, and Meg realized that it was her mother.

“Where have you been for all this time?” Meg asked. “What do you mean about me dying?”

Anna turned. Standing in front of her was Mary, fully awake. “How did you get back to school so fast?” Anna asked.

“What do you mean?” Mary asked. “I’ve been here all day.”

At that moment, Anna realized that Mary was wearing different clothes than she was earlier in the day, but it had only been around three minutes since Mary had left the school, and her house was 24 minutes from the school, so she wouldn’t have had time to change clothes at her house.

The first bell rang, and both Anna and Mary ran to their classes. On the way to her class, Anna saw the masked figure standing at John’s locker, pouring green, gooey liquid on the top of it. In class, Anna was about to tell John what happened, when the last bell rang and everybody had to sit down and be quiet.

Class started, and the teacher, Mr. Pace, started talking and teaching. After 13 very boring minutes, John screamed a shrill shriek, fell to the floor, and started twitching uncontrollably.

“I will kill you,” Meg’s mother said.

“Why?” Meg asked.

“Because all of the sadness I felt turned to anger, and I used my power to become the greatest villain of all time. You can use your powers to kill me, so I have to kill you first,” the woman answered.

“I don’t have powers,” Meg replied.

“Yes you do,” her mother insisted, “but it doesn’t matter. I’m going to kill you now.”

“Are you going to kill my descendants who also have powers?” Meg asked.

“No,” the woman answered, “they won’t be powerful enough. Only you are, but you will be dead.” Meg’s mother raised her hand. She started chanting umrijet ćeš over and over again.

Meg’s screams echoed through the streets.

“Take John to the nurse,” Mr. Pace said to Steve and Paul.

Steve and Paul exited the room with John. After everybody calmed down, Mr. Pace continued the class. The rest of the class was incredibly boring because the entire time, Mr. Pace was lecturing the class. Everybody was glad when the bell finally rang. The school day was finally over.

Anna was happily walking home (her home was only a 20 minute walk from school), when she saw, out of the corner of her eye, the masked woman. She was walking on the other side of the street. When Anna was finally only half a block from her house, the masked woman crossed the street and walked right in front of Anna.

“Who are you?” Anna asked.

“I am known as The,” the woman answered in a gravelly voice.

“What do you want?” Anna asked.

The laughed maniacally and answered, “I want to rule the world.”

“Why are you telling me that?” Anna asked.

“So you will know that whenever something bad happens unexpectedly, you will know it was me,” The answered.

“It was you,” Anna replied. “You made Mary fall asleep and John start twitching.”

“About time you realized,” The said.

“But how does doing that help you take over the world?” Anna asked.

“It doesn’t,” The answered. “I did it to show you that no matter how many powers you have, you can’t do anything to stop me.”

“I don’t have powers,” Anna said.

“Yes, you do,” The said, “but it doesn’t matter. Only one person can stop me.”

“Who?” Anna asked.

“My daughter and one of your ancestors, Meg,” The answered, “but I killed her 2,000 years ago.”

After she said that, The turned around and walked out of the alley. Anna continued walking, and when she got home, she went to her room and thought about the weird and scary conversation she had just had with The.

She decided to read a book to clear her mind. She went to her bookshelf and looked at all of the titles. She saw a title that she didn’t recognize. It was called Beginners Sorcery. She pulled out the book. The cover was purple velvet and was covered in jewels. Anna opened the book. The pages were yellow, cracked, and hard to read. Some of the spells were in languages she didn’t know, but most were in English. She found a levitation spell that was in English and started reading. When she finished reading, she realized that she was hovering one and a half feet above her bed. She stared at the space between her and her bed in amazement. She read the counter spell and fell down slowly and softly. Anna was amazed and started flipping through the book. She remembered that The said that only Meg would have the power to defeat her. Then, she saw a spell that made her sit up straight. It was a spell that allowed the castor to go back in time. Anna knew this was the spell she had to try.

Anna said the incantation and found herself in a dark alley with two people in it. She hid behind a garbage can and listened to their conversation.

“ — will be dead,” Anna heard The say.

Then, she saw The raise her hands and start chanting umrijet ćeš in her gravelly voice.

Anna flipped through the sorcery book, trying to find a force field spell she had seen earlier when she was flipping through the spell book (polje sile). She found it, said the spell, and a force field appeared around her and Meg. Before Meg could ask any questions, Anna grabbed her hand and said the counter spell for the time travel spell. She and Meg appeared in her room.

“Who are you?” Meg asked. “What are we?”

Anna explained to Meg how she had used a time travel spell to rescue her. She also asked Meg for help in defeating The.

“I found out that I had powers right before I died,” Meg admitted. “I’ve never used them.”

“I can help you learn,” Anna offered. “Then you can kill The.”

Meg accepted Anna’s offer.

“You can come to school with me during the day,” Anna said.

The next morning, Meg went to school with Anna.

“Who is this?” Mary asked.

“Mary, this is Meg, my friend from sleepaway camp who is considering going to this school,” Anna said. “Meg, this is Mary, my friend from school.”

“Hi,” Meg said.

Meg spent the rest of the day with Anna. After school, Anna and Meg studied many spells. They continued this pattern for a few days after, until Meg knew lots of spells. Among these were moć munje (which summoned lightning), snaga vode (which summoned water), and pobijediti (which summoned wind).

Finally, they decided to challenge The to a duel. What they didn’t know was that The was expecting them. They found her in the same alley that she had been all those years ago, when she had killed Meg.

“Hello, Mother,” Meg said. “You’re looking young.”

“Hello,” The said. Then, the fighting began.

Meg chanted Ja ću pozvati vatru, to summon fire. As soon as the flames touched The, they died down. Meg tried again. The same thing happened.

Then, she tried saying uništit ću to summon a sword. As soon as the sword touched The, it shattered into a dozen pieces.

During all of this, The was laughing maniacally.

“What’s happening?” Anna asked. “You’re supposed to be able to beat her.”

“Why do you think that?” The asked. “Because I told you so,” she said mockingly. “I was lying,” she said. “Nobody is powerful enough to beat me.”

Then, she held out her hand and chanted the same words she had 2,000 years ago in that same alley when she had killed that same girl, but this time, The also killed Anna.