Witchling (Chronicles of Witchood) (20 page)

“Alright,” I said and moved onto the check on Ethan. I sighed when I found his pulse, which was slightly stronger than Aiden.

I sniffed and Luke remained standing over us.

“We’ll figure this out,” I said.

I stood up again with the grimoire in my hand. I traced the pentagram on its pages and the contents of the book revealed itself. Luke rummaged about the barn and found a torch. He turned it on and pointed its light at the grimoire’s pages.

“What does it say?” he asked.

“Nothing,” I told him and it was the truth. Even was a blurred mess of ink that attempted to form proper letters but didn’t seem to have the strength. It felt weak in my hands and I decided to give the magical object a rest. It must have something to do with the events that occurred, my ability to be in two places at once and why I’m not dead.

The blood moon was still high in the sky but there wasn’t a monster in sight.

Something staggered and sent a pile of wood crashing to the ground. Luke shone his torch over towards the intruder and I instantly recognised the Copycat that kidnapped me from the house. I could sense him and remembered the vibe he gave off.

“Hello,” he
managed to say with a hopeless smile.

Luke moved protectively in front of me.

“Don’t come any closer,” he warned.

“I will not harm you,” said the
Copycat. He looked drunk and his face contorted with pain. “Please, I just want to gaze upon your sister’s face before I go.”

The
Copycat winch as he clutched his abdomen. I stepped out from behind my brother and gave him my grimoire to hold. Luke turned his face and gave me a questioning look. I nodded to my brother and silently asked him to trust me.

“You did this?” I said to the copycat.

The creature in the shadow looked pain and I could almost feel what he felt.

“Yes and I am the last of my type. The spell will break when I die.”

“Spell?”

The copycat nodded.

“But how? You’re just Aiden’s copy.”

“Indeed I
am,” he nodded and stared at me as if I am some sort of untouchable prized object. “A copy of a Dextris,” he mumbled and then bent over and clutched his stomach once again. “And an almost perfect copy.” I remained rooted on the spot. The copy looked up, somewhat hurt that I didn’t show any signs of concern for him. His eyes darted to the real Aiden and Ethan on the ground. “Of course, a copy is never the same as the real thing. The time for the sacrifice is over and the Master is dead. Take care, Amelia.”

I jumped and Luke’s hand flew to his mouth as the copy melted into a glob of white paste.
There was no warning about it and we stared the puddle the copy made. The creature had died and a part of me realised that it had also saved us.

Luke and I
screamed as the brothers gasped awake and sat up straight like monsters awoken from their graves. Aiden struggled for breath while Ethan coughed and spluttered as if he just escaped a drowning. The smell of snow filled the barn.

“Amelia?” said Aiden. He looked at me with confusion and Eth
an turned his face towards Luke, then glanced over towards the white puddle that used to be Aiden’s copy.

“
What the hell did we miss?”

Chapter 20

Ethan sat on the musty couch while Aiden perched on a stool. They looked hung over, their eyes red from lack of sleep and their skin pale. The brothers no longer looked like fallen angels or agents of one. Instead, they looked like regular humans.

“But you got to admit, we’ve got good bone structure,” said Ethan after I told them my opinion.

Luke shrugged. Even in bad health, the elder Dextris still managed to crack a joke.

“What?” he said defensively. “Aiden’s being all mopey, I need something to eat and this place stinks. You know brother, your copy did a fine job with this place.”

“About that copy,” I cut in, “what exactly did he do?”

I knew that he definitely did something, although I didn’t know what. The brothers already figured it out, though they just haven’t told me yet. I could tell by the way they exchanged glances with each other.
I watched them carefully in the barn when I reported the events that occurred, then Luke had his turn and the brothers had remained silent for some time.

“He killed you, or rather, a copy of you,” Ethan started to explain. “Actually, it was one of Aiden’s copycats
’ copy that killed you. Get where I’m going?”

“You’re saying the copycat made a copy of himself?”

“Something like that,” said Ethan and playfully shot me with an imaginary gun then winked, impressed by the copycat’s genius idea. “The Master must have made him too much like Aiden, that’s why he was able to go rogue. From the way you described it, he didn’t make just one copy but dozens. He needed a proper psychic link, so he kidnapped Luke. We came after him, because, well, we sort of needed him to track you.”

“He
ambushed us,” said Aiden. “Next thing we knew, we were waking up again with you and Luke standing over us.”

Aiden stopped and rubbed his forehead. He winched as if he was having a terrible headache.

“You alright little brother?” said Ethan with concern. 

“Yeah,” he replied
but he wasn’t much of a liar. We all could see that he had taken the worse hit in the copycat’s scheme. His skin was pale and his lips almost white.

“Hey Luke, try turning the taps and see if anything would come out. He just needs a drink, that’s all,” suggested Ethan.

Luke nodded and obediently made his way towards the kitchen.

“I’m not drinking anything that comes out of this place,” Aiden protested.

“There’s a bottle left in the room I was locked in,” I said.

Luke stopped
mid-step and changed his direction. He came back with the half eaten burger and a bottle of water for Aiden. I lifted my eyebrows at the sight of the paper bag.

“What? Ethan said he was hungry.”

“That’ll do. Thanks kiddo. I’ll treat you all to a proper breakfast after sunrise. Can’t risk taking you and your sister out of this strangely secure place, not until the sun is high in the sky. You know, just to be sure.”

I nodded and
tolerated Ethan’s quips. He was just trying to cheer the place up but no one was in the mood to banter with him. Luke was too doe eyed, I was too confused and Aiden just didn’t have the mental and physical strength.

Several questions lingered in my mind and I knew that I had all night to get answers.

“So it’s over?” I asked.

“For this year, yes. The blood moon will come again but by then, you’ll be better prepared,” answered Ethan.

“Next year? But the Master is dead. Who’s going to resurrect whatever he was trying to bring back.”

“Like many fallen angels, he has many agents too.”

“Wait, you’re tell me he’s Satan? And the Master was a Dextris?”

Ethan snorted. “Don’t get ahead of yourself, Amelia, you might be special but you’re not that special.”

I rolled my eyes then looked towards Aiden.

“The Master is not an agent of Satan and no, the Master was not a Dextris.”

“Then what was he?”

“We don’t know,” answered Ethan. “And we don’t know who, exactly, he was trying to release, but we’ve got a few names on the list. Don’t have such a glum face, love, you’re safe for another three hundred
sixty five days, give or take a few months when they start hunting you down.”

“That’s reassuring,” I said. “But I won’t
be the victim again. What I don’t understand is how did I die and come back here? Aiden’s copy definitely stabbed me.”

“You remembered?” said Ethan. “Well, love, hate to break
it to you, but his copy actually stabbed your copy.” Ethan turned his face to Aiden. “Looks like your Copycat really thought this through, brother, why didn’t we come up with the plan?”

Aiden ignored him. I continued with the conversation.

“Do you remember any of it?”

Ethan shook his head then changed his mind. “No, wait, that’s a lie. Let’s just say it’s a bit weird for us. The
Copycat mixed our psychic links together and everything is just coming back into our heads now. It’s complicated and do me a favour, don’t try to understand it. Argh. I feel gross. I’ve got bits of your head inside mine, brother.” Ethan then looked at me. “You’re lucky, love, you only had to die once, we melted into a puddle at least half a dozen times.”

With Ethan so readily explaining everything, I tolerated him.
“How are these psychic links formed?”

“Well, first, you’d need something that the subject cherishes. In your case, it was your parents.
They were the Connectors.”

“But the Master wasn’t trying to make copies of me.”

“No,” said Aiden, “but by extension, you are important to us.”

“Basically, he used your parents to connect to you to connect to us, and once a
psychic link is found, there was no need for other connectors. Talk about six degree of separation. The Copycat that kidnapped you did something else. Rather than using the links, he went straight to the source – you, me and pretty boy over on the stool. That’s why we were also unconscious because our mind was in several bodies rather than having parts of us channelled through.”

“So my parents were imprisoned because of me? What about all the other people? I saw them in the cages. What about them?
There was at least twenty of them.”

“They were fodde
r for the Hunters,” said Ethan.

“Wait, what?” said Luke. I had almost forgotten that he was still in the room.
He had been so quiet and attentive that when he finally spoke up again, I jumped. “You’re saying that those people we rescued were going to be eaten by those things?”

“Something like that,” answered Ethan casually.

“How can you be so calm?” Luke asked, his eyes narrowed at Ethan.

I watched my brother as I felt a bubble of turmoil swirl inside him. He was still only a kid
after all.

“It’s not like they’re dead. Besides
, we found them, along with your parents.”

The room fell silent as Ethan stuffed the last of the burger into his mouth.

“So what’s going to happen now?” I asked.

“You mean your parents?’ asked Ethan. “I’ll wipe their memories and give them new ones.”

“You can’t do that,” Luke protested.

“Why not?
” said Ethan. “Would you rather they live the rest of their life in fear? To know that when things go bump in the night, it might actually be something capable of taking their lives? Do you want that for them, Luke?”

Luke didn’t speak. He turned his face down towards the ground.

“What are you going to do to us?” I asked.

“We won’t touch your memories,” said Aiden. “But…” He looked over towards Luke. My brother lifted his head and frowned.

“No. I don’t want to forget.”

“You’re not required to remember all this,” said Ethan. “Unlike your sister.”

I understood what Ethan meant. I was a witchling and destined to work with magic, in one way or another. Luke, however, he was still just a kid. With what he knew and saw, he would never be able to feel normal.

“No,” said Luke. “I want to remember.”

“Then it’s set,” said Ethan. He threw up his hands and then laid back on the couch. A small puff of dust took to the air and hovered like a cloud over him. Ethan appeared unbothered by it. “You’ll remain my Charge with your memories intact. Now, if you don’t mind, I need to rest my eyes and have my four hours of beauty sleep.”

~

I felt strange to see my friends again. Karen and Lydia waited for me near the parking lot, in front of the oak tree. They grinned and nodded their heads with approval when I got out of Aiden’s mustang. Within the hour, I became the talk of the school.

Ethan changed the
entire town’s memories and every destruction or injury caused by the Hunters and Double Walkers were turned into mere accidents. Karen was left with impressions that she visited me at the hospital when she was at Aiden and Ethan’s house.

Luke and I didn’t know the extent of the war leading up to my pretend death until we returned. The school cafeteria looked like it had been struck by a bomb. Our house was splintered and looked as if someone had crashed their car into the walls. There were other signs – the public library trashed and parts of it torched, the town square fountain destroyed, the mall had broken windows and damaged goods.
But no one knew the truth except me and Luke.

I
pulled a smile and greeted Karen and Lydia, whose wounds are almost healed. Her adoptive father was not amongst those that were in the cages and he was never found. I suspected that the Hunters ate him and Luke had the same theory. I hugged Karen and Lydia.

I caught sight of Ethan across the parking lot. He leaned against Rick’
s truck and nodded at me. It took a day and a half for Ethan and Aiden to regain their health and radiance. They looked exactly as I had first met them while I, on the other hand, remained scarred and bruised, a reminder of how human I still am when compared to them. Aiden followed my gaze and sighed at the sight of his brother. I blinked and the elder Dextris was gone and it was clear that my life would never be the same again.

Although several questions remained about the premonitions and the sacrifice, I decided to just be as normal as possible.

“So…” started Lydia. She hooked her arms around mine after Aiden left me. Karen waited. They expected an answer. I wanted to tell them all that happened but decided against it. They didn’t need to know the truth and the brothers trusted me to keep their secret, along with my newfound powers of empathy and prophecy.

“There is nothing to tell,” I said to them.

“We’ll see when he asks you to the dance,” said Karen.

“I just got back, I’m not going to a dance.”

“Yes you are,” said Lydia, “come on Amy, I’ve got scars too, along with five other girls and a few of the guys that got attacked by that bear. You’re not the only one.”

“I know,” I said quietly.

“We are going shopping, this weekend, no excuses and you are definitely getting yourself a dress,” said Karen.

While everything was back to normal, with Karen pestering me to go dances and shopping and Lydia agreeing to almost everything she said, I knew that after what happened, I would neve
r feel the same ever again.

“Fine,” I said after some time. Karen’s grin reached for ear to ear. I could feel her innocence, her obliviousness to everything that went on.
Her life would be filled with boys, school, dances, shopping, assignments and everything else in between. I envied her but stopped myself. There was no point in being jealous of my friends. I was still alive. I survived. And I will not let myself be as hopeless as the days leading up to the blood moon ever again.