The Invisible Enemy Read Online Free PDF

back in the spring and see the garden in full bloom! We grow many herbs and flowers used by medieval healers for making medicines and potions.”
    Potions? I was almost rocking with nerves. It was time to panic. Alyssa still hadn’t come back to the group. I wondered how long before somebody noticed.
    “Thank you, Gerry,” said Mr. Donaldson. “You’ve been most informative. Let’s collect ourcoats from the checkroom,” he said to us, “and get back to the bus for lunch.”
    I held my breath.
    “Mr. Donaldson?” said Megan. “Alyssa must be still in the bathroom.”
    “Well, go get her.”
    Megan was back quickly.
    “She’s not there,” she said, shrugging. “She might have gone up the other stairs.”
    Mr. Donaldson sighed. “She’ll be waiting in the lobby. Come on, people.”
    “Michele,” I said, as calmly as I could, “you go ahead. I’m just going to check again for Alyssa. She, uh, wasn’t feeling well.” Michele joined the crowd pushing up the stairs, and I went down the hall to the ladies’ room.
    There were four cubicles in the bathroom. I leaned down to check underneath the first one and the second. No feet. Where had she gone? I pushed the door of the third stall, and it swung gently open.
    Goose bumps raced down my arms. My neck burst into cold flames. My ears prickled. Spread out across the back of the toilet were the contentsof my makeup bag: my lip gloss, my comb, my eye glitter. I reached out and picked up the open film canister that had held the Vanishing Powder. Every last speck was gone.
    “Billie?”
    I jumped nearly to the ceiling.
    Alyssa’s voice was right behind me. I spun around.
    “Billie?”
    You know how it says in mystery books “her blood ran cold”? Well, mine froze solid. The thing I’d been most afraid of when my backpack went missing had happened. Alyssa had used my Vanishing Powder. And now she was invisible.

8 • Black Magic
    A lyssa?”
    After all the times in my life I’d wished that Alyssa would vanish from the face of the planet, she chooses to do it in the bathroom at the Cloisters!
    “I’m right here.” Her voice was missing that bossy note. “Only, I—I—you know …”
    “Yes, I do know, you stupid thief! How dare you! Ohmigod—you—you are—” I was so mad I was shaking. I scooped up the film canister and snapped on the rubber lid, trying to hold my shoulders still. I picked up the makeup kit from the floor and dumped everything into it. Then I slammed the kit into my pack.
    Alyssa said nothing. I thought for a second she might have fainted, because Alyssa never says nothing. Then she made a weird, shuddery sound. It wasn’t exactly a sob, but it came close. Like she was trying to stop herself from crying in front of me. I slowly turned around.
    “I always knew you were hiding something,” she croaked. “I don’t know how you did it, but this could really get you in trouble, Billie Stoner. My parents could arrest you for this. My parents could put you behind bars in five seconds—”
    “Wait a minute! Your parents are going to arrest me because you stole
my
backpack?”
    “My parents are going to arrest you becauseyou’re some kind of a creepy witch practicing black magic on innocent people.”
    That made me laugh out loud. As if I were smart enough to invent something this good! It was my friend Jody who was the witch—I mean, genius.
    Then I felt a quiver of nerves. How
would
I explain this situation to Alyssa’s parents? But I was determined not to show Alyssa I had even a moment’s worry.
    “And speaking of witches,” I said, “take a look in the mirror. Oops, duh, it’s blank! It’s so typical that you are blaming someone else for your own stupid crime.”
    “And making someone disappear isn’t a crime?”
    “I didn’t
make
you do anything, Alyssa. You
stole
from my backpack and then you
stole
from my makeup case and then you started to use my stuff! I am not even a speck responsible for your criminal act!