THE MUSEUM OF PAST and Forgotten Things was well-named of course. It was one of those quiet institutions that always seemed to sit there on a busy street corner with people milling around outside. Yet no one was ever spotted climbing the five wide stone steps to enter through the dark glass doors.
Thus it was a surprise to spectators when a large vehicle halted next to the entrance and a group of chattering girls in uniform poured out to race to the uppermost step. The twins from Nordeyer were first as usual, tripping Dolly Bloomen to ensure victory.
'Let us in! Let us in!' they shrieked, banging on the doors. 'We hunger for memory loss.'
'Hush children,' the mistress said, hurrying forward to organise her charges who bunched up on the walkway as the sensation dissipated. Everyone could see it was just a school trip and that none of the participants were there willingly the poor things so the passersby resumed doing just that, passing by.
'Everyone here? Good. Let us enter. No need to pay anything Vetta. Education is free.'
The Poldorama girl replaced her purse in her clutchbag and sighed happily at the thought. Then frowned, remembering they were to be entertained to an exhibition of visual trickery.
'You have a trampoline face,' Meresinth observed as the doors opened and everyone shuffled inside where darkness replaced bright sunlight until their eyes got accustomed to the lower light level.
'A trampoline face?' Vetta said and smiled at this odd comparison.
'Moods going up and down like on a trampoline.'
'Everything is so complex here. Papa always said simplicity is a truer path for there is less distraction to lead one astray.' Then she screamed. A few other girls decided to do the same.
'Pay attention girls,' the mistress said in calming tones as a gruesome spidery thing descended from the ceiling only to flatten out into a harmless chandelier shadow. She looked up at the swaying object. 'Not sure that is part of the exhibition, but you can see what treats await us in the exhibition hall,' she added gleefully.
'Excellent,' the Evernight girl said, fluffing her enormous quantity of hair out in pleased anticipation at such scary exhibits.
'Careful you don't become a part of it,' her dorm mate Pinky Ponsonby warned tartly, smoothing out her own pink hair more carefully after such an unsettling fright. 'If the exhibitor catches a glimpse of you he won't want you to leave.'
'Sounds great. Jumping out at visitors to the museum and giving them a scare seems a brilliant activity.' Everyone already knew this was one of Danique Ferale's favourite hobbies.
The laughter that followed this died down as the main exhibition hall doors opened and the girls entered an intriguingly arranged space which looked larger on the inside than the entire building did on the outside.
'We have been transported to another dimension,' Sharshua said and then walked into a wall that looked a little like a corridor to somewhere interesting. 'Ouch,' she added.
'That sort of deception is child's play,' the huffy redhead Bubbles Bannatyne said indignantly as she sidled around what looked like a bottomless pit until Vetta wandered across it, pausing right in the middle. She looked as if she was floating on air.
'Look. The Poldorama girl can fly,' someone said.
Vetta looked down and saw the distorted perspective at her feet.
'This is painted floor tiles,' she said casually. 'It has been very nicely done.'
'Incoming!' Bubbles shouted and at least three other girls ducked with her as a great scythe hurtled down from above.
'Projection,' Anthera declared, not moving as the thing passed right through her. Her glasses flashed in the change of light. 'I can see the source,' she added smugly.
Vetta also had not moved.
'To kill or maim visitors to the museum would be against the principles of any educational system,' she said, blinking as the scythe reached the top of its swing before making another dip. However it disappeared before reaching the girls as if shamed into impotence.
'Still,' Danique said, staring at the bespectacled girl from Meditia, 'I half expect you to, you know, go two different ways at once, eventually.'
'Attention girls,' the mistress said, mopping her brow a moment, 'these little tricks are merely meant to sharpen the mind, broaden perceptions and teach us all to keep a careful eye out. The real exhibition I can assure you is much more subtle and challenging. Mouse!'
There was a general shuffle to one side as a small dark thing scurried across the floor.
'Aw, it's so cute,' Petal Mara said, bending down as it ran past her.
'It's not real,' Bubbles huffed sternly. 'Just another trick.'
'Ow, it bit me,' came the reply of Petal as the mouse, nonplussed by being handled, gave her finger a nip and then departed between a couple of incongruous exhibits no one could quite figure out the significance of in the clever lighting of the room.
'It's not real,' Pinky Ponsonby said with a laugh. 'Fake plaster?' and she handed the girl from Greenvale an antiseptic pad to seal the wound.