Mr Donald was about walking past Dominic's office but decided to stop by when he realized he was talking to Rita about the book of black magic. "What did you find out from the book?", he asked Dominic.
"Good morning Sir", Rita greeted him. He waved briefly in return.
"Yes Sir! I discovered a lot of new things", Dominic replied enthusiastically.
Mr Donald sat down on an extra chair, curious to know what Dominic had found out. Rita shifted to a new position to leave some room for him to keep his chair and have a seat.
"So what and what did you find out?", he asked Dominic, gesturing for him to reply quickly.
"I saw a ritual I strongly feel Mr Joseph performed to end Father Christmas's existence so he wouldn't bother himself on how he'd have done so himself with the tight security in Father Christmas's home", he began.
"What ritual is that?", Mr Donald asked him.
"Dream-death Transition", Rita answered. She felt she should get involved in the conversation. Dominic showed him the page of the book where it was boldly printed.
"What's the ritual about?", asked Mr Donald.
"It involves one making a wish for someone else to die in front of a small idol of a goat", Rita began.
"A bowl is raised high up and some incantations are made. Here they are!", Dominic showed him the book, pointing to a group of words written in Italics, "The incantations are in Latin", he said.
"The picture of who you want to be dead is then showed to the idol and you then specify to the idol the day you want the person dead but, the person only dies that day if he or she eventually falls asleep", Rita continued. They kept on taking turns in explaining the ritual to Mr Donald.
"You then cover the bowl with your palm for a while. Once you take it off, fire would be seen burning in the bowl but the bowl won't be consumed", Dominic stated.
Rita hurriedly cut in;"You then drop the picture into the burning bowl and when it is completely consumed, you then bow down to the idol."
"Then, the ritual is completed", Dominic concluded. Mr Donald nodded his head to show he understood what they said.
"I have a list of people I'd like to pass away", he joked about it, only to see Dominic and Rita staring at him with flat expressions. "I was only joking!", he gestured, defending himself strongly.
"Well...there's a side effect of this ritual", Dominic warned.
"The spirit of the one killed always comes back to haunt and kill the one who performed the Dream-death Transition", Rita said to Mr Donald.
"I change my mind about the ritual", he said dramatically, "Then how come Mr Joseph is still alive if he performed this ritual for Father Christmas?", he questioned, behaving sober this time.
Dominic showed him a picture of the necklace Mr Joseph was always putting on. He recognized it soon enough to be a necklace Mr Joseph had always been putting on every single time.
"This is exactly what Mr Joseph is always hanging on his neck", he pointed.
"Exactly!", Dominic closed the book, "With that necklace, you may only see the spirit but it will never hurt you", he revealed.
"Where can I get this necklace please? Is it in the book?", Mr Donald asked curiously.
"When you join Illuminati or so, you'd be given one", Dominic replied ironically.
"Dominic hasn't yet read everything about the ritual", Rita said to Mr Donald.
Dominic, who was glancing through the rest of the information, saw something that made him horrified. His reaction to what he saw alerted Mr Donald and Rita.
"What did you see?", Rita asked him. She and Donald felt really worried.
"My sister!", he gasped out, "The book said the spirit kills everyone close to ritualist if it can't the ritualist. Since Mr Joseph has no family, that is why his students are dying", tears began to drop from his eyes. He felt really horrified. Rita and Donald looked at each other, not knowing what to do.
* * *
In the woods, the students had triasped a very long distance and began to grow weary. The junior students gradually sat on the ground to rest. The senior students had no choice but to stay with them. Everyone was starving; chased out of the house by a ghost, not a single person took a thing with him or her.
Tricia felt really concerned about the junior students condition. "How are we going to find food for the young ones?", she asked her mates.
"I saw a mango tree over there", a girl pointed at a tree not too far away. She quickly headed for the tree. The rest of her mates followed her behind.
She got to a tree and picked up a stone at the foot of the tree. She searched for a ripe looking mango and threw the stone at it. Her throw was bad though, not any way close to the fruit. To everyone's surprise though, that very mango fruit dropped to the ground.
"How come it fell when the stone didn't hit it", the girl wondered. She however, made a move to pick it up.
Tricia who felt something was not going right, called on her. "I feel you shouldn't pick up that mango. How it fell doesn't look natural", she suggested.
She giggled over it and picked up the mango. "What should be wrong with this mango?", she showed it to Tricia with a smile, "I need to taste it", she said, biting off some part of it. She saw an army of ants in the mango and yelled in fright, spitting out what was in her mouth and throwing the mango to the ground.
She turned to her friends;."How can there be ants in a mango?" They all noticed the ants rolling out of the mango in numbers marching towards her rapidly. They yelped at her to get out of where she was but before she could even turn to find out what was going on, the ants in their large number had already climbed her feet.
She yelled at the top of her voice and began running away, but she was too late. The ants rapidly marched up to her head, covering her entire body. They went into her body through her nostrils, ears, and mouth, when she shouted. She was jumping up and down.
Everyone was stuck between wanting to help her and how to help her without being sacrificed. Her mates could only yell her name, very frightened to watch her slowly being consumed to nothing by ants. The ants then vanished with her.
Everyone stood still in fear and shock. They looked at each other, not wanting to believe what they had seen was true.
"It means none of us would be able to eat anything", Tricia said to herself, swallowing dryly as she sensed more danger awaiting them.