Read The Lost Witch for Free Online

three or four days."
    "Wait a second! A minute ago you said failure at The Hub was inconceivable, and now
you're saying all kinds of kids fail. So which is it?"
    Melodious bent his chin upwards, scratched the tip of his nose with his beard, and
cocked his head to peer sideways at Carole. "Obviously in this situation it's both. A perfectly
sound explanation. Understand?"
    "Understand?" Carole jumped to her feet, feeling an incredible urge to tie his eyebrows
into a granny knot. "Understand? First you tell me that my parents are alive but I can't see them
because they just happen to be living in another dimension with a bunch of weirdos like you, but
apparently that's not as important as a school full of barfing kids who never fail but fail anyway.
Are you bonkers? Of course I don't understand. You're not making any sense!"
    Philamount's eyebrows shot up his forehead to hide beneath the white bush of his hair.
"Calm yourself Miss Sylphwood. I know this all seems rather confusing, but allow me the
opportunity to explain further. And please, sit down!" The last was very much as a
command.
    Carole found herself sitting without even realizing she'd moved.
    "Now then, just because students fail the transdimensional jump test, doesn't mean they
themselves are failures. It only means that they're not jumpers. A fish is a creature that swims, a
bird is a creature that flies, but is a fish a failure because it cannot fly? Not at all. It is still a
perfectly good fish. And likewise at Hub Central, these students are not failures, they're simply
not jumpers."
    "Well why didn't you say that in the first place? Now I understand perfectly. They're
pukers, not jumpers."
    He snorted menacingly, but before he could respond further, she said, "Wait a second.
Does this have anything to do with those ghosts I saw last night?"
    "Indeed it does, Miss Sylphwood. A brilliant deduction. Last night you managed a
transdimensional jump...of sorts. Technically speaking it wasn't totally successful. You sort of
wedged yourself between the two dimensions, but it was a valiant effort nonetheless, considering
you've had no formal training whatsoever."
    "I did? It was?"
    "Yes, you did. Probably accidental on your part, more likely you stumbled over, but you
still managed a successful landing between the two."
    "Between which two?"
    "Why, this Monobrain Universe and the Ghostly Spirit Realm of course. It was only a
lucky coincidence that I happened to be visiting with some ghostly colleagues, when the two
dimensions collided. A dreadful experience, was it not? Definitely not the way transdimensional
travel should feel. I myself was quite disoriented for a time. However once I realized what had
happened, I took a few readings and discovered that a dimensional connector was close
by--extremely close. And since the monobrain connector is the only one still missing from the Hub,
well it was obvious which dimension had crashed into us. So, I jumped over for a quick peek, but
was unable to locate the connector. Instead, I found you."
    "Wait a sec," Carole said, chewing on her bottom lip, "I think I get it. You mean the
spook world and my world somehow overlapped, and that's why I could see the gravestones but
not actually touch them. They were only partially here."
    "Those 'spooks' prefer their dimension to be known as The Nightshade and Ghostly
Spirit Realm, if you please, but yes, your assessment is basically correct. It was also fortunate
that you didn't jump completely into the Ghostly Spirit Realm last night, for multitasking is not a
thing to be taken lightly these days. Certainly not since The Great Conundrum."
    "What do you mean?"
    "Did you not hear the werewolf?"
    "That thing really was a werewolf!?"
    "Howling, hungry and hunting for you. Had you been silly enough to jump totally into
the Nightshade Universe, I'm quite certain the creature would have found you, and that my dear,
would have unquestionably been your first and final transdimensional jump!"
    He