i could never predict exactly when it would happen. i would try to stop it from carrying out, or try to leave before it could be completed, but i could feel that some malevolence wanted me to be the recipient and wouldn't let me avoid it, and nothing i could do could prevent it, and my attempts amused it.

most of the time, the victims were my friends or students i knew well, because of course i was more likely to be nearby them without others around, though not always since the whole school was a well-acquainted network and everybody knew everybody.

this went on for many weeks. the first time it happened (a new friend, i think i remember parchment nearby), i didn't know what to think or what had happened to her. the second time, i tried to stop it. the third, fourth, fifth times, i tried to get away. by the sixth, i'd realized there was nothing i could do.

and the eighth time... it was intentional. in an impulsive moment i thought that if i was going to be stuck absorbing everyone then i might as well absorb someone who i liked: a girl who i was fond of (a bipedal rhino, at a party). while we were shielded from view, i picked up and prodded her with her own sceptre. the spell activated and performed its work faster than before, but not so fast i couldn't see her face. her expression wasn't of fear or of confusion but of *anger*, and anger directed at *me*.

i don't know why i didn't turn myself in. maybe i was selfish. maybe i was ashamed. maybe i wanted to see what would happen. maybe i was denying my responsibility. maybe i felt special, or powerful. maybe i *liked* it.