Witchling (Chronicles of Witchood) (11 page)

While straddled between the waking world and dream realm, I didn’t notice the shadows that darted back and forth just outside my window. It wanted in but something prevented it.
The lit candle’s flame grew and the scent of lavender filled the room.

The shadow stayed for almost an hour, just before Aiden returned to take up his guard duty outside. The creature remained undetec
ted and escaped into the night and by then, I was in a deep sleep.

Chapter 11

Ethan cleaned up the school so magically well that I was surprised to see that the hole he created in the cafeteria was now gone. No one remembered the truth of what really happened. Instead, Ethan implanted a story about how someone had set off the fire alarm and the sprinklers system. Naturally, the teachers never caught the culprit.

Lydia was at school with Karen. They both looked cheerful and hooked their arms around mine when I arrived. I noted that Aiden’s mustang was not in the parking lot and wondered if something had happened to him. I contemplated giving Ethan a call, but could almost see the older brother’s sly smile that sent
a wave of irritation through me.

It was clear that both Lydia and Karen wanted to know, but I could not tell them exactly what really happened, not without explaining what a Dextris is
, not to mention that they would never believe me. I thought that Lydia was unusually cheery, especially with her mom still in hospital. My best friends pressed to know the details but suddenly stopped their interrogation when Aiden finally arrived.

He walked down the hallway towards me like a wingless angel.
As the other girls caught their breath, a thought crossed my mind and I wondered if the possession of impossible beauty was also part of the deal the brothers had with Kael.

“Hey,” said Aiden, his voice gentle, his eyes soft and green. The light hit his jawline in such a way that I was surprised no one had swooned at the sight of him yet.

“Hey,” I replied.

The hallway seemed to hold its breath and the only thing that broke Aiden’s
unintentional power on everyone was the sound of the bell. Karen and Lydia grinned like Cheshire cats as they walked with us to class. I didn’t want to know what sort of fantasies those two have been discussing about me, especially with Lydia now staying permanently at Karen’s house.

Aiden stayed close to my side through the day and rumours and speculation grew like weeds all over the school. Flora caught me just as I was coming out the bathroom and gave me a grin that made me feel strange.

“Well done, you,” she said.

“It’s not what you think,” I told her, “I swear. He’s just a friend.”

Flora nodded. “If you say so. Don’t worry, no rush. Stay friends for as long as it is necessary.”

I opened my mouth to protest but Flora was already down the corridor. She found Rick and
places her arms around him. I felt a tinge of jealousy, knowing that I could never be normal like them, especially with what I know now.

“Looks like you two make quite the pair,” said a
mischievous familiar voice. I spun around and found Ethan leaning against the wall. He flashed his smile at me.

“What are you doing here?” I asked. “Wait. There isn’t, you know, they’re not still hanging around here, are they?”

“Oh, don’t worry about that. We made sure this place is safe before daybreak and that there hasn’t been an infestation. I’m just here to ask you about your dream.”

“Now? This is my lunch break. Why can’t you wait until after?
”

“Well, I didn’t really
wantto waste time,” said Ethan. He lowered his face and the light caught his eyes. I noticed something odd about its color, how it looked unusually green. It was strange as I had remembered his eyes being blue.

“What’s my phone number?”
I asked without thought. The question just blurted out of my lips.

“What?” Ethan looked confused at my question. He attempted to save it with his smile, which accidentally turned into a sharp row of teeth. I screamed
and the floor beneath my feet suddenly gave way. I fell into an abyss only to fall through the sky and land on the forest floor. It was then that I realised that all that happened, the school, Lydia and Karen’s pestering and even the biology class, was a dream.

I was in the forest agai
n, on the path towards my death.

“Well, that’s different,” I said to myself as I stared at the canopy. I could smell the lavender candle and guessed that it was still probably burning on my dresser.
I sat up and found nothing different about the scenery around me. It was the usual spruce trees, the gentle wind and dying sun.

The only thing missing was Ethan’s presence. He usually stood halfway down the path, but in this particular dream, he was not there at all. The sharp
teethed Ethan was stuck in the high school part of my dream, which I felt grateful for. There was an uncanny feeling inside me as I stood up and looked over my shoulders. More of the forest stretched out and I wondered why I have never thought about walking in that direction before. My death waited ahead of me, but what was behind? The curiosity burned at my skin and it became suddenly almost unbearable.

I turned around and started walking in the opposite direction to what I was meant to do. With every step I took, I felt like I was going up against the fates, like I was trying to do something that had already been carved into a giant slab of stone that mapped out the destiny of the universe. Was this part of being a witch?
What did being a witch mean? I certainly didn’t feel like one. I didn’t have powers, didn’t have a wand, couldn’t levitate or does anything that witches did, or what I think witches did. All I had was the power to dream the same dream over and over again, which was not much help in my current understanding of things.

As I trudged on against the invisible flow that propelled my dream forward, I noticed a little blank page flutter out of the sky, like it had just materialize from a different dimension. I stopped and caught it as it hover down, like a fallen feather in search of a pair of hands.
I half expected something to be written on the page but there was nothing. Instincts made me recognise that the page was from the empty book I had stolen. The realisation compelled me to figure out its mystery before my executioner came and dragged me into his salt circle.

I held the paper in my hand and lifted it up to the sunlight. The ray passed through it like a rice silk screen and revealed a shape. I narrowed my eyes and tried to make out what it was, only to realise that it was empty circle. I continued to stare at it as lines started to appear, at first t
hin, spidery and barely there, then it proceeded to grow, like living veins that crawled between translucent skin. It formed the shape of a five pointed star. I wasn’t sure what it all meant, except that it must be important, perhaps a key to unlocking the book’s secrets in the waking world.

Voices started to whisper to me. They sounded distant and
were almost inaudible. It replaced the sounds of the forest and urged me to return to my path towards death.

“Please, not yet,” I said but they wouldn’t let me stay.

Several pairs of invisible hands turned my body around and pushed me down the dirt track I am meant to walk. The paper disappeared from my hands as I staggered forward. The voices disappeared as quickly as they came. I remained rooted for a few moments more until I saw that nothing else could be done. I sighed.

“
Fine,” I said to no one in particular, “let’s get this over and done with.”

~

I jolted awake two hours before the alarm went off. The heat of the flames lingered on my skin. I ought to be used to it by now, but the appeal of being burnt alive never caught on with me. If I should die, I would rather that I did it in my sleep, when I’m old and have lived a proper full life.

I sat up on my bed
and turned on my bedside lamp. Beside my clock sat the empty book. I stared at it, confused as to how it had moved from my desk to where it now rested. My eyes instantly glanced towards the window but found it still closed, its bolt locked and untouched.

My skin pricked as something moved outside my room. I stared at my door as the floorboards creaked and
it made its way down the corridor. I held my breath. Did one of the Hunters break into my house? It seemed very likely. Aiden had come in through the front door last night. There was nothing stopping those shadowed creatures doing the same thing.

But it walked passed my room
and went into the bathroom. Only then did I realise that the monster was not a Hunter but Luke. The toilet flushed and I sighed with relief.

But the relief did not last for long. My skin pricked as out of the corner of my left eye, I felt something watch me through the window. My body froze but knew that I would have to eventually face my fear. I could not pretend not to see it, that slight movement in the dark, that thing that was a shade blacker than the night itself. Slowly, I turned my head and screamed.

Luke mirrored my scream in his room as the splintering crack of wood exploded downstairs. I bolted out, with the empty book in my hand. Luke joined me in the hallway. His eyes wide with terror and confusion.

“There’s something outside,” he said to me.

“My phone,” I said. My mind instantly thought of Ethan and wondered where Aiden was. But something else strange distracted my attention. “Mom, dad…”

I attempted to run down the stairs but a Hunter stood at the base, his shape had taken the form of Ethan. But it was not a perfect copy. He looked pale and grey, with empty sockets that seeped with blood for eyes. I turne
d around and smashed into Luke who followed me.

“What the…” he started.

“Get my phone,” I told him and pushed passed him. But we were surrounded. At the entrance to my room stood another Hunter, who had taken the shape of Aiden. They could have been anyone and I wondered why these monsters have decided to shape shift into the brothers.

“Hello, Amelia,” said the Hunter that looked like Aiden. His left arm was covered in pock marks, blood and broken feathers, as if he hadn’
t finished plucking them away. He dragged his leg along the floor as he made his way towards us. Luke and I retreated down the hallway. Ethan’s copy joined his brother and they walked towards us, side by side.

“What do you want?” I said.

“Don’t speak to it,” Luke hissed. He didn’t need explaining that the sights before him were not human.

Aiden’s copy grinned
with a mischievous and sly smile, his teeth white and perfectly straight while Ethan’s copy remained stoic. It should have been the other way around, I thought, Ethan should have been the one to grin like that, and it was as if the Hunters got their personalities mixed up.

“Oh, don’t fear us, sweetheart,” said Aiden’s copy. I caught Ethan’s brief glance past my shoulder and at Luke’s bedroom door, which stood wide open. Wind blew in from outside as the broken window sat
in the wall like a gaping jaggered hole. I sensed another Hunter outside, but something prevented it from entering.

“Your room,” I whispered to Luke. Aiden and Ethan’s copy heard me. They lunged forward and we broke into a run. “Now!” I screamed.

Luke and I tumbled into his room just as the Hunters extended their talons from their fingers and swiped at us, but an invisible force at the door kept them out.

Outside the window hovered another Hunter, a
shadowy creature that had not chosen its form yet. It floated back and forth, just outside, its socketless eyes stared at us as if it wanted to devour our souls.

“Something’s keep them out,” I said and cast my eyes around the room until I caught sight of the large pentagram on Luke’s wall. “
Of course!”

“What?” Luke followed my eyes and understood. “Are you serious?”

“Well, the Hunters aren’t coming in and I can’t think of anything better.”

“Hunters? You know what they are? They knew your name.”

“Yeah, I know. They’re after me. Blasted. I should have grabbed my phone.”

“Who are you going to call? The cops? They’re not even…human.
Amy, what’s going on?”

Before I could answer, a resounding snap cracked as a pair of hands twisted Ethan copy’s head. The creature crumpled to the ground, limp and lifeless. Before Aiden copy’s had time to respond, he followed his supernatural brother to the afterlife, if there was such a thing for creatures like him.
Aiden stood behind the bodies, his face worried and apologetic.

“It’s not safe here
anymore,” said Aiden. He remained outside Luke’s  room. The pentagram’s power seemed to extend to him as well. “Come.”

I didn’t hesitate to follow him but Luke grabbed my hand.

“Wait,” he said. “Who is he? Amy, do you know him?”

“Yes, he’s a friend. I’ll explain in a moment.” I turned to Aiden and saw that something was not right. “What is it?” I said. Then an unanswered thought occurred to me. I turned my face towards the broken window and found that the Hunter that stalked the hole in Luke’s wall was gone. “Where did it go?”

Aiden lowered his face. A sinking feeling dropped inside my heart as I thought of my parents.

“We have to go,” said Aiden. I could not understand how he could be so calm about the entire situation. I broke free from Luke’s grip and ran passed Aiden, down the stairs and to my
parent’s room. The door was broken, their beds empty and sheets twisted all over the floor. It looked as if the Hunters had dragged them out.