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Four hours twenty minutes and thirty-two seconds of unpacking later, Mindy (and Emily's) room finally seemed to have some semblance of organization. Then again, for anyone who was not Mindy, engaging in the arduous task of unpacking three boxes might have taken then 15, or 20 minutes tops.

Putting both her hands on her waist, she took on step back, just a little out into the dorm hallway, staring at the handiwork. Everything was perfectly, if not painstakingly aligned parallel, stacked straight, perfect; well, except for a little box in corner marked "to be burned out as painfully as possible", including a squished box that did not quite make it that pleasantly through the move (the driver would be hearing from her dad tomorrow, oh yes).

With a satisfied sigh, she nodded approvingly to Emily, before purposefully walking over to sit on her chair, enjoying just how perfect her desk was. The books were aligned perfectly to the desk which was aligned perfectly to the wall. Her pencils were all sharpened at the exact same height in her pencil case which was also stacked with the books. Her journal-

- was not there.

Mindy was not the sort of person to panic immediately. Instead, she slowly, turned around to Emily, and gave them her 'I am not about to panic immediately, but I'm reaching it' look. "Emily," she began very slowly, trying to keep herself calm. There was no way she could have misplaced it in all the unpacking: she knew where EVERYTHING in those three boxes should have been, "Did someone take my Death Journal?"

Khalla had never stolen anything, not once, not a single day in her life. She had always been the picture of perfect manners, raised by her Gran to be a child that valued such things above her own greed. When other children were nicking packs of gum from gas stations because their parents wouldn't buy it for them, Khalla was busy helping her Gran at the nursing home. Thus, when Khalla had originally picked up the little black book (what had appeared to her to be a simple journal at the time), she'd only thought to flip to the first page and find the owner's name so she could return it. She had never expected to find that waiting for her.

The little black book was now the reason for the stricken look plastered across a usually pleasant face as Khalla's feet beat a panicked rhythm against the floor of the dormitory hallway. She was holding the book down by her side, grasped lightly in her fingers and at an odd angle away from her body, as if she were afraid bringing it too closely to her might taint her further. She wasn't even sure how much damage it had done already! In fact, if it weren't for the fact that she was afraid the book had thought she'd tried to steal it simply by picking it up, she wouldn't even be touching it or attempting this ludicrous mission.

As it were, her eyes were scanning past the rooms as she rushed down the corridor, all manners and propriety forgotten in her haste as she bumped shoulders and ignored greetings. If there was one thing that could put Khalla Anselm into a frenzy, it was the threat of bad luck.

"This one, this one," she breathed as she skidded to a stop outside the dorm room someone had pointed her towards. The new girls in the dorm, one of whom owned this.. thing. With a deep breath she brought up a balled hand and rapped her knuckles against their door, trying her best not to look completely panicked, but there was no hope that she could appear calm at the moment.

Already heading for the door, Emily gave the room once last threat assessment before turning the handle. Opening it up just a crack, she stared at their visitor. It was a young blonde girl, presumably a student.

"Hello, miss," Emily began, about to tell the other girl that she would need to schedule an appointment first. "Miss Mindy is..." she trailed off, fully taking in the other girl, and what the girl was holding away from herself in a rather bizarre fashion. "Miss Mindy has been waiting for you," the maid continued smoothly, stepping away from the door and opening it with a small bow.

A small, slightly smug, smile lifted the corners of Emily's mouth. It appeared that the enemy has shown herself. No doubt they had discovered what a truly fearsome opponent Miss Mindy could be and reconsidered their actions.

But just in case, Emily made a quick check behind their visitor to verify that she was indeed lacking in ninjas.

In Mindy's opinion, the girl before her was, well, rather drab: she probably would have not even passed them a second look had it been any other circumstance. But one glance at the book in her hands and Mindy knew she had met a formidable opponent. Noone else had ever stolen her precious artifact without her notice before!

They were holding her Death Journal in a rather interesting fashion as well, as if they knew what was inside. Mindy pretended to casually accept the book, leafing over the pages idly, making sure everything, every excruciating detail, note, and list was still there and not stolen. Potential arch-rivals were always plotting to steal her classified information after all.

"Hmm..." she began, finally closing the journal with one hand, satisfied that nothing was out of place. Deep-red eyes fixated itself on the visitor in the room. "So how much of my Death Journal did you see?" She nodded and signaled for Emily to close off the door and seal the exits, well, as best as one could with one wave of their hand. If this opponent had read too much, well, she would have to take certain precautions to make sure her secret information remained secret wouldn't she?

It was time to play the Intimidation Game. "Well just so you understand," and here, she casually flipped her hair, as if making idle conversation, "The last victim that got a hold of my book never broke free from his curse. Emily and I tried to warn the poor fellow but..." and here, she purposely trailed off, purposely leaving the threat open.

Granted, noone else had actually stolen said journal, but if she was going to use her fear tactics to subdue this other, she might as well should try to make it convincing.

This situation just got weirder and weirder. However, that wasn't really her main concern.

"I only saw the first couple of pages," as soon as this Mindy girl had taken it from her, she dropped her hand and wiped it against the skirt of her uniform as if it were stained. "Just the.." she trailed off and shook her head, an involuntary shiver trickling down her spine. The trickle of a shiver erupted and completely froze her body rock solid as Mindy began to speak about the curse, and her eyes even bulged comically. "I swear, I was just looking for your name to return it to you." What was wrong with people these days, didn't they believe in random acts of kindness? Given her encounter with Z, she was willing to believe that courtesy was dead in the eyes of others, though.

Slowly, ever so slowly, something was wearing away at her rock-solid fear, though. Even wound so tightly and fearing for the well-being of her karma, the sound of popping knuckles behind her and so closely to her ear was wearing away at her resolve. First she simply grit her jaw, then there was a visible narrowing of her eyes, until at last she turned and looked squarely at the mousy girl behind her. "Would you please stop that, it's quite rude." Her tone wasn't as timid as it had been with Mindy, and it was bordering on reprimanding.

She drew a deep breath, steeling herself to look back at the pale girl she'd originally been dressing instead. "Could you just please tell me what I'm supposed to do to get rid of this curse? I brought your book back to you." She was impatient now, irritated by the girl's behavior behind her, and still scared to death deep beneath this new cover of emotions.

Emily's eyebrows jumped up in surprise when the visitor suddenly shifted their attention to her. They seemed...strangely agitated. Possibly even off balanced. Very carefully, Emily stilled her hands and regarded the person before her with new eyes. She had known the other girl was a possible threat, but hadn't considered the fact that the blonde might be mentally unstable as well.

She should have placed herself between Miss Mindy and the girl, rather than merely blocking the exit. In underestimating the danger this thief presented, Emily had failed her mistress once again. She hadn't even frisked the girl. Suddenly alarmed, the maid ran her eyes over the girl in front of her, looking closely for any sign of hidden weapons. There were no suspicious lumps to be seen, but that was only from where she was standing.

Shifting her gaze, Emily stared hard at Miss Mindy, as if trying to tell her mistress: Your willingness to help this strange girl who stole The Journal, whose terrible fate was caused only by her own foolish actions,is quite admirable. As expected of Miss Mindy! The only person truly worthy of ruling the world! However, this girl's stability has come into question, so please be wary of the throwing knives that may be hidden under her skirt. The maid followed up this rather loquacious look with a slow nod for emphasis.

If worst came to worst, she would take the blonde girl down with the Flying Hellbow Hook (a new Don Diablos special move she was rather eager try) and then act as a human shield in case of ninja attack.

Emily's very serious, direct nod at her only confirmed the inevitable. Then again, Emily was never quite un-serious, but at this point, a mannequin standing in her roomate's place would probably have still had the same effect.

She pretended to give it another deliberating thought before strolling over to her very neat, organised drawer. From one of the eleven boxes packed neatly inside, she pulled out a couple of hex dolls, what looked like a very convincing imitation of a shrunken skull, and her half-filed photography album (all complete with perfect 25x25cm diameter cuts of people's heads only, before she finally found what she was looking for. Slowly and painstakingly precisely, Mindy put everything back into the drawer before facing their offender.

She had typed out this little extract a while back (in of course, a geometric sans-serif because of its symmetry), and printed out exactly thirty-two copies before she was happy with the result. On it was written "Contract" and below it some fine print so small, it was hard to tell that it was really fine ink in size 4 font and not a giant blot of black ink. Underneath that were a few lines, where one was clearly supposed to sign their name. She passed this to Emily.

"Emily, can you make sure our guest signs her sou- I mean-," here, she intercepted what she said with an innocent smile,"- sign the contract soundly here? It's just to unbind this curse while I get my curse-warding charms."

If she could remember where she put them. She could have sworn they were packed in the same compartment between the shrunken head and her extra-fine 0.5mm lining pen, but it had been nowhere in sight. That was strange, that was the very same mini-box she stored her diary in. The other's mention of 'moving boxes in' and 'finding it outside' finally grabbed her attention. For the first time since the encounter, Mindy looked a little flustered herself. "Where... did you say you had found my journal again?"