Chapter 52

“Ah…” Georgina couldn’t help but gasp, panic flickering in her eyes.

⚫ Winnie remained composed as she deftly flicked three Charms from her hand, neatly ensnaring the candle in their magic, halting the fluttering glow mid–air.

Before she could catch her breath, the Charms cocooning the candle began to disintegrate into ash.

A frown creased her forehead. With a swift gesture, she sent three more Charms soaring to encase the candle once again, while her fingers seemed to pluck the luminescence from the air, swiftly guiding it along an invisible thread into Catherine’s brow.

The moment the luminescence went into Catherine’s forehead, the crimson thread that had connected it to the candle snapped out of existence. The candle, now wrapped in six Charms, began to quiver violently Georgina was beside herself with fear, too preoccupied to even glance at Catherine.

Without missing a beat, Winnie raised her hand, releasing a burst of spectral light into the candle, and commanded in a clear and stern voice, “Settle down!”

The candle paused as if slapped out of the air, but it soon resumed its desperate shaking. inching closer to Catherine.

Winnie, unfazed, whipped out a bundle of yarn and with a flick of her wrist, tangled the candle into a ball of wool.

After slapping one last Charm on it, the candle finally calmed down, and she shoved it into her backpack.

Georgina was dumbstruck by the sight. “Master, what is ?” she asked.

She feared it might be Catherine’s soul “What’s inside…” Winnie began to explain but was interrupted by a hoarse whisper from the bedside *…Mom?”

At the sound of that voice, Georgina stiffened her body and turned abruptly to face Catherine. As their eyes met, the numbness Georgina gave way to a turbulent wave of emotion.

Tears welled up in her eyes instantly.

“Catherine?…” Georgina choked up her voice and rushed to the bedside, sobbing uncontrollably. “Catherine, you see me, you can speak… Catherine, my baby…

Overwhelmed, Georgina embraced Catherine, unable to back her tears.

Catherine felt as if she’d awakened from a long dream, her expression a mix of confusion and bewilderment.

Catherine couldn’t understand why it seemed like she’d merely slept for a while, and yet her mother appeared to have aged a decade….

Winnie watched their reunion without interruption, quietly leaving the room and gently closing the door behind them.

Inside Georgina’s cries and Catherine’s raspy consolations continued intermittently. After some time. Georgina finally emerged from the room, tears still streaking her face. Despite looking worn and trail her eyes sparkled with renewed life.

She approached Winnie with a flood of gratitude, and together they re–entered the room.

Catherine, having recently cried herself, gazed at Winnie with a complex look in her eyes. She recognized her. She was… Kathryn’s sister, Winnie.

“Did Kathryn send you?” Catherine’s voice was still hoarse from disuse. Her eyes darted between gratitude and a hint of suspicion and fear.

Winnie, who had been busy studying arcane magics with her mentor during high school, was oblivious to the school’s gossip and unaware of Catherine’s existence.

At the sight of Catherine’s wary look, Winnie simply stated. “I’m now part of the Bryant family. I have nothing to do with her anymore.”

Georgina, confused, explained to Catherine what had happened.

Catherine, still in a daze, couldn’t understand how Kathryn’s sister knew such things.

But that didn’t stop her from expressing her gratitude.

“I… I don’t understand what happened to me…”

Catherine had no knowledge of the past year’s events, feeling like she had been trapped in a nightmare, where she witnessed countless despairing students jump off a rooftop.

That despair seemed to envelop her, leaving her unable to struggle.

“Your spirit was bound, leaving you senseless for over a year. I thought the one who trapped your spirit was the skull from the abandoned school building, but during the soul calling. I realized it was this.” Explaining, Winnie pulled the wool–wrapped candle from her backpack. Georgina, reminded of the candle’s violent shaking, instinctively shielded Catherine, “Master, what in the world is inside this thing?”

Winnie narrowed her gaze as she looked at Catherine and said, “Inside, there’s the spirit of your unborn child. A ghost baby.”

Both Georgina and Catherine were shocked, staring at the woolly ball with disbelief.

“What?”

“My guess is that when you miscarried in the abandoned school building, the infant’s soul was trapped on that rooftop. That place had already accumulated a heavy aura of despair due to numerous student suicides. The unborn child’s soul, filled with its resentment, absorbed that aura, becoming a powerful Ghost Baby.”

What Winnie didn’t mention was that the abandoned school building had been cursed with a malevolent spell and the silk threads were remnants of that curse, stemming from the skull. that was entwined with the threads of lamentation.

Over the years, the school been plagued by a series of student suicides, which believed were influenced by malevolent spirits that haunted the old corridors. The despair and bitterness in the hearts of the students seemed to be magnified by the malevolent energy permeating the place.

And when these troubled souls passed away, their unresolved anger became nourishment for the skull an entity that on such dark sentiments.

Curiously enough, instead of devouring the Ghost Baby, a spirit that should have been consumed as sustenance, the Skull encased it within Catherine, a girl tormented by cyberbullying, found her resentment building rapidly. Her baby’s spirit, longing for her mother’s presence and filled with its sense of vengeance, latched onto Catherine’s spiritual essence and dragged it away, partly to keep the mother close and partly to turn her into a vengeful spirit like itself.

But Catherine was still among the living so the infant spirit could only home in on the source of Catherine’s deepest resentments to exact revenge.

That source was Kathryn.

This explained why Winnie had previously seen nothing but a murky and resentment–filled shadow lurking behind Kathryn, rather a malevolent presence.

Winnie had tried to disperse the shadow before, to find it would reform after some time. It wasn’t until the Primary Charm she had left with Springer was destroyed that she sensed a similar energy to Kathryn’s and traced it back to the dark essence.

Had it not been for that, Winnie might have had to wait until the malevolent energy on Kathryn’s back solidified into something tangible before she could shatter it, but by then…

Catherine would have been completely lost to the world of the living It was a stroke of luck that Winnie had managed to rescue Catherine’s spirit in time.

As Winnie spoke, gaze returned to candle in her hands, wrapped in a skein of , a chill flickering through her almond eyes.

Feeling the shift in Winnie’s , Catherine’s heart skipped beat. She couldn’t help but ask in a hoarse , her fear evident … what will become of this ghost baby?”