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"Zoey, get up!" The sound of her mother's shouting woke her up, but she didn't move at all.
"5 more minutes!"
The truth was, she wasn't that sleepy. Could easily just spring out of bed. She just didn't want to go to school. Everyday was the same and she just wanted to break out of the boring routine it all was.
Everything was so dull there and it felt like a waste of time. She knew that knowledge was power and that things she learns there are supposed to be useful, but wasn't there any easier way?


"Zoey! I'm not repeating myself!"
Staring at the ceiling, she thought if a person could die of boredom. She wanted something good to happen today. Something that was worth to get up for. A surprise, perhaps. She knew nothing would happen, though.
She eventually, begrudgingly got up and went to the bathroom.


Zoey washed her face while thinking about what today would offer her. Probably nothing. Probably just a stack of homework and misery. After all, that's what each day gifted her.
She didn't herself understand how she survived this every single day.


She went to her room and got dressed. She assumed it must have been late enough, because soon after her mother once again yelled: "Zoey! Are you still sleeping?!"
"No, I'm not!" She sighed and ran downstairs as quick as she could. She tried to stomp through the stairs so that her parents would hear her coming.


"What took you so long, Zoe?" Ava said. Zoey hadn't understood how much time it had taken her to get ready. Maybe her pondering had taken up a chunk of time...
"You're late for school. You'll have to eat on the way."
"No, thanks. I'll eat at school, I have to go."


"You need a proper breakfast. How much time until they feed you there? Just take a biscuit even and go." Ava insisted.
"I swear I'm okay, I'm not that hungry after all."
"Not even a single biscuit?" Her dad, Tom, pleaded.
"Dad, I insist."
"Okay then, have a nice day."
She doubted that would be the case but she hesitantly went to the front door.


She smiled when she saw her friends waiting outside. They seemed to be having a conversation.
They were really her best friends. Always supportive and eager to help, they also had a great sense of humour. Sure, they did sometimes argue, but it wasn't that bad.


"Hi Ruby! Hi Dan!" She greeted them.
"Hey Zoe! Your parents had told us to wait here."
"Sorry, I didn't realize for how long you were here. Let's go."
Their school was near Zoey's house, so it was easy to just walk for a while.


They had just arrived when something felt out of place.
"Have any of you have an idea of why there isn't anyone here?" Ruby asked.
"Are you sure we're late?" Zoey's parents surely weren't wrong with the time, so she doubted it, but still she asked.
"Of course. I checked my phone before I left." Dan answered.
The schoolgrounds were normally bustling with students. No one knew why they now looked so... Empty.


They went at the school's front door and looked through the window from afar.
No one, nothing.
"Is it Saturday and we don't know?" Dan said.
Apparently Zoey couldn't understand whether or not. Part of her wanted to shrug it off and go home, but she was still curious. Perhaps the school had notified that it would be closed that day for whatever reason.
She doubted it.


"So... What do we do now? Is this just a free day for us?" Zoey asked, a hint of nervousness in her voice.
"Of course not, they never do that. Wouldn't give us a day of happiness for nothing." Ruby laughed.
"I'd say we go in, there must be a teacher there."


They reluctantly walked inside the building. They were immediately met with the sight of a girl with black, short hair and a sassy look on her face.
"Oh, the little dorks are here. Great. You came instead of Stacy."
"Ugh, we thought the school was closed on this day and just decided to check if it really was. Why are you even here?" Zoey demanded.
"Ahem, I'm guessing you're blind because Sam's also here. All the lame people, of course."
"She just had to be here. Like, it would be great if school was just closed on this day, and the principal came in and asked us why we weren't notified and we go home and..."
"Shut it, Danny. I knew that school was closed on this day. I just... Came to..."


"Carly, we have understood that you didn't know the school was closed today. You don't know everything."
Carly, along with Stacy and Mia was accustomed to making fun of everybody except themselves. Zoey was used to it by now, but she was still annoyed by their snobby behaviour. At least her friends weren't there.
"Okay then. At least I'm not a loser like all of you."
"Hey, you're the one that can't even run in P.E . Seriously, is it necessary to wear high heels everyday?" Zoey snapped.
"Just ignore her, Zoe. She just wants to make life difficult for us." Ruby stood infront of them, blocking the impending fight she sensed would come.

They sat at the lockers and pondered what to do. Perhaps they would go to find a teacher somewhere, when Zoey noticed from the window that the whole city looked deserted. She had to go investigate soon.

The Mystery Of Red Herring
Chapter 2: Discussions
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"Let's run through this once again," Dan said. "You think everyone in the city is missing?"
"Yes! I swear! We searched everywhere!"
Ruby's parents had called her to come back home, so she couldn't join the search, but Dan and Zoey had investigated the whole city to find the reason of why everyone was nowhere to be found.
"This is nonsense. People are probably in their homes." Dan suggested.
"We went in shops too. No shopkeepers. And also, stores are open today, so there's no reason they wouldn't be. No vehicles either."
Zoey had a point. No one was in the streets. No chatting at parks, not even birds chirping. Silence, everywhere.
"It still doesn't make sense, Zoe. How would our parents still be here when everyone is gone?"
It was Zoey's turn to think. What Dan was saying was true.


"..But it still doesn't explain..."
"How about we call someone? If you call your neighbours?" Dan recommended.
"That's... Okay then."
She tried dialing Ms. Taylor, the woman who lived next to her house, but there was no answer.
"I knew it!" Zoe shouted.


They just sat on the floor, defeated and tired. Zoey noticed the sun had set and the moon was showing through now.
She checked her room's clock. Evening.
"Why don't we just tell our parents?" Zoey groaned.
"We already told them there was no one at school rather than a few students."
Plus, she didn't know whether her parents even knew what was going on. It was all just weird.


They sat on the bed and pondered, each person lost in their thoughts.
"Maybe it isn't that big of a mystery. Just a randomly bizarre day, and tomorrow it's over."
"Let's call Ruby."
"Still thinking about that idea, huh? Okay then."
She stood up and went to her desk. She tried calling Ruby. No answer.
Then Ruby's parents. No answer.


She sat on the bed once again. Was she just hallucinating? Was she just dreaming? She pinched herself, but she felt it.
"So?"
"She doesn't answer, nor her parents do."
"But they always do!" Dan insisted.


She looked out of the window. She expected a little bird to come and tell them "Hey, you're dreaming, wake up" or something like that.
"Are your parents even here?" Dan said curiously.
"Why do you ask?"
"I can't hear the TV. They were watching it when we came here." Dan answered.
"They're probably in the kitchen cooking food or something..." Zoey said, still looking out of the glass window.
"But I can't hear footsteps also." Dan insisted.
Suddenly she became afraid. They always informed her when they left to go out or something.


Her worries were interrupted when she saw something weird outside.
"What are you thinking?" Dan asked.
"..What's that?"
The "that" was a neighbouring house's window suddenly lighting up. That meant someone was finally there.
"Dan, look. Someone IS here, after all."
"I told you. This is so silly."
"Hey!" Zoey shouted from the window.
"Do you know why no one is outside?!"
The curtains opened and revealed a man with a confused expression on his face.
"Huh? What do you mean?"
"There aren't any shopkeepers nor people on the streets!"
"Are you off your rocker or just pranking me? Look outside, kid!"
Zoey did.
No one was there.

She begun to think it was all just one big hallucination where random people around her happened to share as weird as that sounded, when she felt faint. The feeling of confusion took over and she closed her eyes.

The Mystery Of Red Herring
Chapter 3: Irresponsibility

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"What were you two even talking about?" Ava asked.
"Just... Well, theorizing why school may have been closed today?" Zoe answered, a bit uneasy.
"You know you can't lie to me. I know your concerns."


"I'm not lying, mom. I'm simply answering your question. What do you think we were doing either way?" Zoe said.
".. I don't know. It's.." Ava stuttered.
"We're just worried for you" Leo saved the conversation.
"..Why would you be worried for me?"
"To be honest, you never told us where you had gone to with Dan right after you left from school."
"We were just investigating the city. I said it's really... Empty. No one's around. We asked the neighbor and he acted as if we were hallucinating."


"You WHAT?!" Ava shouted.
She nearly fell and Leo had to hold her.
"Uh, what's so bad? You allow me to go out on my own.." Zoe said, a puzzling look on her face.
"..We didn't want to tell you. Half the city has gone missing.." Leo sighed and whispered.
"Huh?" Dan said.
"How come we don't know any of this?!" Zoe shouted.
"I.. We didn't know.. Until while you were with Dan.."
"Then how did the neighbor say that?"
"Maybe he was drunk." Leo suggested.


"Whatever has happened, I don't want ANY of you to go outside now! Not until I say it's safe!" Ava roared.
"But.. You didn't even tell us? Not even notified us when we thought school was closed!" Zoe shouted.
"We didn't even know until we turned on the TV! The main issue is we don't know where all these people have gone! They may have even been killed! YOU could have been killed!" Ava yelled.
"I'll go upstairs with Dan and research it, then." Zoe slowly said.
"Forget about it. Dan is going home. You are staying here." Ava growled.
"And what do you think we should do? Stay here and just hope someone solves the mystery?" Zoe blurted.
"Someone will. Certainly not some teenagers."

She sighed and said goodbye to Dan, although she couldn't help but worry. Ruby had gone home too and apparently she had went missing shortly after they had tried to call her. But what she didn't understand is how her household was the only one that hadn't disappeared into the unknown yet. She had to find out soon.

The Mystery Of Red Herring
Chapter 4: Uncertainty

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It was late at night, her parents sleeping when she was watching TV to get her mind off things. She couldn't sleep at all, and when she barely drifted off to "sleep", she had nightmares of everyone leaving her going to wherever everyone missing had gone to. She felt uneasy looking outside the windows. Each glance another fearful sensation. Her confident attitude towards finding what happened had diminished, and the boredom of not being able to go outside, see her friends, or even just see a Sim being other than her parents had taken a toll on her.


She wasn't gaining anything though from this. Not finding a missing person. Her mother's words echoing in her mind. Of course, solving this mystery should be the police's job. But who else could if the police had vanished too?
She had called Dan and Ruby ten thousand times, yet no answer at all. Disappeared, just like that. She had a feeling she was next. Zoe and her family was the only people who hadn't gone missing.


Zoe sighed. What if she could do something?
An idea struck her. If she went investigating once again, maybe a clue would pop up somewhere, sometime. Perhaps she hadn't seen something or missed a hint during searching with Dan. Either way, she had nothing to lose and everything to gain.


Once again, she walked to the front door. It took her 5, maybe less seconds to reach it, but to her it felt like ages. Chances are she wouldn't find anything.
Then she silently opened the door and walked outside. The air didn't feel that chilly, but she got goosebumps either way to the sight of an empty, desolate neighbourhood. It was like someone had stopped time and everything looked so delicate. The buildings were still as beautiful as the memories she remembered with them, but it didn't look right without people.
She cleared her mind and thought of where to first go. Maybe the small store would be a good start.


Eventually, she reached the tiny shop. The atmosphere was eerie and she still looked around even if she knew no one was anywhere.


She pulled the metal door and cautiously went inside.
She gagged.
The store was always seemingly bare and small, but this time it just looked fully deserted. She took a deep breath and started investigating.


She glanced at the cashier's counter, and was surprised to see customer's goods carelessly placed. She was curious to know when these were put there as they had never been paid for let alone given to the customer. So... That would mean the employee cashier and the customers had disappeared right there on the spot?


She looked at the other side of the store and saw... Opened packaging, vegetables and other food thrown in together. Someone should have probably opened them just like that, infront of the staff? That didn't make sense.


She started being a bit creeped out with all these weird things. She went to the door and tried to open it.
It wouldn't budge.


Suddenly, the small fire sprinkler started spewing out water. Zoey jumped, shielding herself from the spraying waters and tried to push the door out.
Tried pulling...


Maybe kicking the door would break it?
Seems like a long shot.


Yeah, seemed like a long shot.
Now what?


The sprinkler wasn't stopping at all. Door wasn't opening. No fire was around in order for the sprinkler to freak out.


...
After half an hour or so, the rain of pointless sprinkler-malfunction stopped and Zoe could finally take a second to breath. Her hair had gone all wet as well as her clothes, but that was the least
thing that she was worried about. How would she leave?


Trying not to think about the fact that she was in huge trouble with her parents, she tried to think logically.
Not even a small spark of fire to trigger the sprinkler. But she set that issue aside.
How could the door have locked itself? Who could have locked it?


...
She woke up on the floor of the store. Apparently she had gotten too tired and drifted off to sleep. She hadn't come to a logical conclusion either way.


She needed to call for help, but to who?
She couldn't just be stuck there.


"But Leonard, what if we just don't find her?!"
"Ava, I am ninety-percent sure where she is. We'll go and find her when we make and finish our breakfast, okay?"
"How can you be so sure?"
"Just trust me for once, okay?! I understand you're afraid, but seriously, you can count on me."
"Alright..."

Maybe this was it after all, Zoe thought. Maybe everyone got locked into wherever they were. But this still doesn't explain the empty supermarket. All this information is confusing me...

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Zoe blinked and when she opened her eyes, she fell on the hard stone floor of... Somewhere?
"Ow! Where..."
The rest of her phrase was cut off when she saw two familiar faces.
Dan and Ruby.


"Welcome to the club," Dan said. "We've been stuck in here for, let just say a long time. Ruby's been here for more time than me."


Zoey got up. "For me, I went home and after a while, I went to sleep. I was woken up by weird noises and then saw that I was... Teleported here?" Ruby explained worried.
"The moment I stepped in my house blinding light surrounded me and I fell here." Dan said.
"For me, I just blinked and fell on this strange place."


Zoe started looking around everywhere, for something strange or unusual. Other than the bookshelf which seemed normal despite the bizarre placement, there was nothing to be found.
Then she thought of something.
What if there was some kind of switch, or button, or any other mechanism that was buried deep somewhere?
"Can everyone get up and start searching the walls?"


Dan stood up and felt the wallpaper for any bump or dent, and Ruby did the same. Zoe started stomping on the ground step by step to see if there was any convenient opening.
They all got a headache after two hours of searching for any little detail or any small inconsistency that they just gave up.
"Is there something behind the bookcase?" Zoe asked, having a gut feeling she couldn't shake off.


She pulled every book starting from the top.


Zoe sighed. She grabbed a random book from the bookshelf and started rushing through the pages to see if there was anything weird. But it was simply a boring novel.


Ruby started searching once again where Zoe had stopped when she noticed one book just wouldn't move.
She tried jabbing it out but it seemed to be fixed on its place.
"I think I found something!"


She sucked in a breath when she realized the bookcase started to move slowly, turning open.
Ruby cautiously went in the seemingly empty room.


When everyone got out of the narrow room, Zoe finally said a word after being so dumbfounded.
"What in the world is THIS?!"


"Oh, for crying out loud... Group of teenaged intruders trespass in my own home. What else is new?!"
Zoe wasn't referring to the woman but the bookcase, yet she still stared at her flabbergasted.
"Who... Are you?"


"Actually, I should be the one asking. Who are YOU?"
"Uh, my name is Zoe, and this is Dan and Ruby."
"Thank you very much. Now, WHO are you?"


But something else caught Zoe's attention.
"What are these?"


She walked to the weird table where mysterious, magical looking objects were gathered.
"Yes, that's a teapot containing my tea and some other things you shouldn't care about."


Suddenly the woman snapped her fingers and a table with a dessert tray appeared, fading into sight.


"What..." Ruby exclaimed.


She went to say something else, but Zoe ran to yell.
"Wait a second, you're a witch, aren't you?"


The woman snickered.
"I'm surprise you noticed just now," She said sarcastically. "Seriously, who else would literally be able to hide furniture and create illusions of this type?"
"But... There's nothing here except for the table and..."


"Of course not! Don't expect me to trust you after you barged in uninvited ALSO using my secret bookcase entrance!"


Zoe started to float and ominous green glows started appearing, then escalated to glittering sparkles exploding.


The lights blinded all of them for a second and then Zoe was found on the floor, fallen.
"Ouch! What'd you do that for?!"


"I know you think we're intruders, but seriously, we're not! We don't even know how we got here!"


"Sorry," The woman whispered. "I'm still learning to control my anger."


"Uh, what does that mean? How can you accidentally, well, fling someone with weird lights surrounding them and make them fall?" Ruby asked.


She snapped her fingers and all furniture appeared."Anyways, no time to talk about me. You said-"


"We don't even have your name!" Zoe said.
"My name's Tia. Happy now? Let's continue."


"How exactly did you get here? The entrance from the bookshelf is to be only used by me."


"We don't know! Dan went somewhere and light blinded him and somehow got him here, Ruby fell asleep and woke up here, and I just blinked and teleported here!"


"And coincidentally, all residents of our city have magically disappeared." Ruby added, examining a beautiful fairy statue.


"Wait, wait, wait.. What did you say?"
"All of our city's people have gone missing."


"Hold on, everyone?"


"All of the city? No one left?"


"Uh, everyone except a few. Why do you care so much? As bizarre and scary as it is, it shouldn't technically be your business! We're the ones that are worried."


"Do you know any details?
"No. One day we went to school and only 2 students were there and us. No teachers, no staff. Seriously, what's going on?" Zoe answered.


"This isn't going according to plan." Tia said.

-----

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"What isn't going according to plan?!" Zoe blurted out.
She realized what Tia said implied that she had something to do with the disappearance of the people.
She had to have answers to this...


Tia sighed.
"Well. I must explain now, I suppose..."
Time passed with silence, and Zoe was ready to speak but Tia blinked hardly and cleared her throat.


"It all started when I wanted to do a small... Experiment." She eventually said.
"Which resulted in families disappearing. Right." Zoe remarked.
"Just listen! Please try to understand, this is important!" Tia shouted.
Zoe rolled her eyes and listened.
"So... I wanted to do an experiment . I had no intention to dissipate anyone! It was an accident."
Again. More silence followed...


"Uhm, and the experiment was..." Dan started.
Tia cleared her throat and stared into the void for a second.
"I was trying to cook chicken. And. Well. I left the oven on for a bit too long."


"...A fire started. And I thought that this was a chance to practice my spells. So... I tried to cast a spell which dispels fire, however... It backfired."
No one laughed.
"Alright then. Anyways, I said the wrong spell. Instead of the fire extinguishing spell, I said the human vanishing spell."


"Sure... How did that exactly work on only our city?" Ruby asked.
"Yeah, here's the thing... It worked on all cities. And, not only cities. I thought it affected only people that live near me, however when you said "everyone", I doubted my thoughts..."
Dan's jaw dropped.
Ruby stared at Tia.
Zoe's eyes widened.


Dan shook his head.
"Sorry, what?! You just banished everyone from this world except a few people?!" He screamed.
"Calm down! Nothing's going to happen if we're quick..." Tia muttered nervously.
"If we're quick? And what is going to happen if we waste time?!" Zoe yelled.


"Nothing, nothing, nothing! Just calm down everyone! Tsk, see, this is the issue! You're not controlling your emotions! Stop panicking!"
Tia's rant seemed to silence them and she continued.


She slumped and her expression turned tense.
"Dan, you said "except a few people". Well, not exactly except. The only reason you're here is because you were affected last before all." Tia said with a hint of guilt in her voice.
Ruby, Zoe and Dan stared at Tia, trying to understand.
"I managed to quickly cast a teleporting spell without any particular target in order to save some of you so I have the time to fix this. That's why you got teleported here." She explained.


Zoe's gaze shifted to the floor as she thought about this.
Then she realized something.
"What about my parents?" She asked. "What happened to them, why were they still there?"
Tia's nervous frown faded as it got replaced with a strange smile.
"They were the last as I said. They very well might have disappeared since some hours ago. Anyways- I need to fix this. You-"


"And the newsperson and everything? How were people hosting TV shows and such?" Zoe almost whispered, suspicious of what Tia had explained.
Tia closed her eyes and sighed. "Did the TV close suddenly?" She said with a slightly annoyed tone.
"Well, yeah. Zoe, don't you remember? There wasn't any noise after a bit." Dan recalled, staring at a cauldron that Zoe could swear was not there before..
That did make sense, now that Zoe thought of it.


"Anyways! We have to stop chattering, we're losing time! We need to start reversing the spell." Tia suddenly exclaimed.
"How do you... Reverse a disappearing spell?" Ruby asked.
"In magic, disappearing is different for each human. They each vanish in different speeds. Some diminish instantly, others slowly. You all got lucky with me managing to teleport you here, since teleporting slows this down. My initial plan was to just pretend this isn't what I'm trying to do and just secretly reverse the vanishing spell on you all then teleport you back home, but you demanded answers, of course. For all spells, there's a reversing one for it. We have to get to work." Tia explained.


She shuffled a bit far from them and conjured a wand, pointing it to Zoe, then started waving it while whispering a strange phrase.


Sparkles begun to shine from the wand, and Dan, Ruby and Zoe all gasped.


Although Zoe felt afraid, she remembered that this would stop her from vanishing and stood still.
More lights and sparkles begun to flare...


Until Tia raised her wand and an almost blinding light suddenly emitted from it.


She pointed it to Zoe again as the sparkles scattered around, glittering.


A blue aura surrounded Zoe and the sparkles returned, this time shimmering around her.


Ruby and Dan looked at her worried.
"Umm... Did this... Reverse the spell now?" Zoe managed to say quietly, slightly shielding herself in fear of Tia casting more spells.
"Of course it did!" Tia said, a little too confidently, because the next second she tried to say something, her speech faltered as her expression turned to a more concerned than proud one.
"...What happened?" Zoe anxiously asked.
"No- that was the wrong spell!" Tia stuttered frustrated. I... I can't remember the one we need! Just a moment..."
Tia ran to a grimoire.


Dan, Ruby and Zoe ran after her. Tia started frantically flipping through the pages, a panicked fake smile plastered on her face.
At least 10 minutes had passed with Tia still searching.
Definitely not just "a moment".
"How long is this going to take? You told us we didn't have time!" Dan eventually snapped.
Tia didn't answer. She continued on with looking at all the pages, skim-reading through them.


"...Maybe it doesn't exist! Maybe it was the right spell..." Zoe tried to reassure Tia.
"No!" Tia screamed, stomping her foot on the floor.
Zoe tried to understand why Tia was so horrified by the fact that the spell was wrong. It only took a few seconds to cast it, it wasn't like they had lost so much time. They were, however, losing more with her constant furious reading.
Zoe then realized a terrifying possibility.
"I hope you didn't cast a dangerous spell on me!" Zoe shouted over the page-flipping and Tia's worried muttering.
"It was a good spell, don't worry! Now just be patient!"


"How in the world are you taking so long?!" Ruby yelled, exasperated.
"Don't worry..." Tia sighed.
"You're making it difficult not to worry!" Ruby answered.


Zoe was already starting to worry even more, thinking that they will eventually run out of time when Tia pointed to some text.
"Finally!" Tia roared as she let out a sigh of relief.


Dan walked closer to the grimoire to satisfy his curiosity. He leaned to read the text Tia was pointing at.
"Okay! I just need to make some preparations... Then once I reversed your spells, I can reverse the others' too." Tia started explaining.
As Ruby and Zoe were discussing how they thought the spell would be, Dan noticed something.


The text didn't say "reverse disappearing".
Instead it said "revive".


-----------------------------------------------------------------

--------------------------------------------------------

He stared at Tia as the realization sunk in.
Tia noticed him and she looked at him with a strange expression.


He didn't know what to do.
If he said something, he was sure she would surely try to cover it up.
He had to think of a plan-- quickly.
He was staring at her for so long that eventually she asked, "What?".
"Nothing," he replied nervously.
His tense tone made Tia suspicious.


"Dan, is everything okay?" Zoe chimed in.
Dan had gotten uneasy. He had to tell them fast.
Zoe on the other hand, was also wondering what spell Tia had made the mistake of casting on her.
When she had asked Tia what it was, she had briefly said that it was a "good spell".
Maybe she was hiding something and lied quickly...
Or it was just simply an answer in the middle of her panic.


"There's no time to lose! We've already wasted so much!" Tia shouted. It was like she suddenly woke up.
Dan was planning on whispering it to Ruby and Zoe, but that would of course just seem too obvious.
He was out of ideas.


Tia went to her grimoire again, and read through the spell again.
Dan took the chance and went to Zoe who was near him.
"I read on the..."
Before Dan could finish the phrase, Tia turned back and walked to them.


"Okay, everyone just stand still, I'm going to cast the correct spell on you all. Now-"
"Wait!" Dan yelled. He had no other choice.
Tia stared at him with a strict expression.
"She's lying! The spell said "revive"!" He blurted out.
Tia's eyes widened and she stood there with a furious frown.
"...What?" Zoe asked, fearfully.


Ruby and Zoe ran to the spellbook. Relieved that it was at the same page as before, they read the words.
Surely enough, there was no mention of a "reverse disappearance" spell or something along the lines of that.
Instead, "revive human" was written.
They all stood very still.
Ruby turned to look at Tia, and the look in her eyes could not be deciphered.


"I don't know what you think happened, but it's wrong." She stammered.
"What we think happened is that you killed everyone using your weird little magic powers and blamed it on a stupid "accident"!" Zoe blurted out.


"And it all makes sense now," Ruby begun before Tia could try to make up an excuse. "We knew your story was full of holes."
"You need to listen." Tia tried. But Zoe, Ruby and Dan already knew that this was her trying to cover up.
"Don't try to play this trick again. You knew exactly what you were doing. Perhaps the whole "We don't have time!" thing was a ploy! " Ruby said.


"There's even proof in the grimoire!" Ruby shouted, pointing at it too.
"I am the only one that can fix this! Stop thinking you have any hope left without me!" Tia screamed so loudly, Zoe gasped.
In hindsight, Dan was starting to remember other suspicious things. And started thinking that the spell she had casted on Zoe was definitely not good.


"The spell wasn't evil!" Tia suddenly shouted, walking to Dan.
She could read minds.
He was so shocked, he couldn't find any words.
"Do you need proof?" she asked, her tone cold.
And when she summoned her wand and pointed it at him, he knew this would be over.


Zoe ran infront of him. "Don't you dare!" she exclaimed.
Tia however ignored her. Even smiled a bit.


Dan covered his eyes. There was dead silence in the room, nobody knowing what to do.
Suddenly, Tia widened her eyes and everyone in the room readied to run away, however a strange invisible forcefield that shocked them everytime they accidentally touched it seemed to limit their space.
Of course. Now, there was truly nothing they could do.
Tia seemed incredibly focused. The only thing Zoe could do was try to shield Dan.
Ruby was trying to think of an escape plan, but there was no way. The forcefield had trapped them.


Tia raised her wand as the blinding light shone on it.
Zoe closed her eyes and braced herself.


The same green lighting from before shone briefly, floating Zoe up and trapping her.
She knew that this wasn't the only thing that was going to follow.


Suddenly, the green lights broke into shards of lighting.
It didn't cause any pain, however it was like it had paralyzed her.
Ruby and Dan stared at her horrified; they were shocked too, emotionally.


Zoe fell to the floor, incredibly tired. It was like she had ran all day. In just a few seconds she was exhausted.
Then, she drifted off to sleep...

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Zoe found herself floating in clouds, but she wasn't sure if they were clouds. She didn't know how clouds looked like anymore. She didn't remember.
She could fly, but she felt that her arms and legs were too weak to move.
She looked around and the fog combined with the light made it hard to see, so she squinted.


The light suddenly stopped shining and she opened her eyes. She floated up and, confused, tried to remember what had happened.
However it was like her mind was blurry. Everytime she tried to recall the past, only jumbled details remained.
She could only remember a sense of emergency and fear and... Sparkles?


She looked down and saw the hazy setting. The scene was blissfully serene, nevertheless it seemed off.
Something was wrong.
This place seemed... Unknown.
She thought that this was a sky. But it wasn't. Something was telling her that this wasn't a sky. Something was telling her that she needed to wake up, that she was lost.


Wind started to make her floating unstable abruptly and she begun tumbling through air. She could feel her instincts telling her that she had to break out of this.
But how? As she slowly realized that this was probably a dream, she tried telling herself to wake up, but she remained in it.
She started panicking as the wind grew stronger. She tried to close her eyes, blink a lot, nothing could free her.
She was trapped in a dream.
And then...


She woke up in a bed and immediately sat up.
"What..." She stammered.
"Zoe! You're awake!" Ruby said. "You had fainted when... Tia cast that spell."
"We moved you to my bed so you could rest. I had to stay with you to make sure you weren't harmed." Tia said, completely unshaken.
The memories crashed in Zoe's mind and she felt furious.


"How could you do this?!" She screamed at Tia.
Tia rolled her eyes annoyed and sighed. "I'll explain."
" "Explaining" doesn't erase what you did!" Zoe roared.
Tia didn't answer this, instead staring at Zoe with a tired expression.


Zoe looked away.
"There is a way to fix this." Tia said.
Zoe, Ruby and Dan waited for her to elaborate, but she didn't.
"How can you even revive people?!" Dan said anxiously.


"I can tell you, but you won't like it." Tia said, hesitating a bit.
"You'd rather all humanity doesn't exist?!" Ruby said.


There was a long pause.
"Listen," Zoe started. "I gave up trying to reason with you. Just tell us how to undo this mess."
"Fine," Tia said. "we'll need to talk with the Grim Reaper."


Zoe, Ruby and Dan burst out laughing sarcastically.
"What?" Dan yelled.
"I told you, you don't even believe it." Tia remarked.
Zoe sighed. Nothing seemed impossible to her now.
"How in the world would we even reach the literal Grim Reaper?" She said.


Tia scowled. "There is a way, but we'll need money." She said.
Zoe, Ruby and Dan looked at each other dumbfounded. This was becoming more and more surreal the minute.


"Okay, you're definitely messing with us right now." Zoe said. "What are you even talking about?! First, you tell us we can "talk with the Grim Reaper" and now you're telling us "we need money". Make it make sense!"
"If you won't listen to me just like earlier, then what's the point of telling you? Just trust me!" Tia shouted.


"Last time we trusted you, you lied to us." Ruby remarked.
Tia got up from the chair. "The only reason I lied was to keep you from freaking out." She said. "I had to lie that they were only "missing", because if I had told you the truth you would have been way more shocked and unwilling to understand me."
"You took advantage of the fact that we don't know anything about magic, and now you're trying to justify it as "you wouldn't listen"?" Ruby asked.


"Urgh, okay! I admit, it's my fault I did this huge mistake! Now you have to help me, this is why I teleported you all here! You have no other choice, unless you hate for everyone to be alive!" Tia snapped.
Zoe, Ruby and Dan all looked at each other.
This was just like before. They couldn't do anything else and they felt trapped in this decision.
Zoe stared at the floor when she said, "Alright. It's not like we can do anything else."


She looked at Tia. "But don't think we're doing this 'cause we trust you. As you said, unfortunately there's no other choice!" She screamed at her.
Tia nodded. "This will be a group effort. I expect every one of you to take this seriously, regardless of how strange it might seem."
Meanwhile, now that things had become relatively calm, the truth had sinked in their minds.
Everyone in the world was not alive, at least for now.

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