Witchling (Chronicles of Witchood) (4 page)

A man, tall, dark blonde hair, handsome face and with the playful blue eyes of the devil, jumped down from above and landed on his feet. He was the man in my dreams, the exact one I kept seeing. My heart pounded against my chest. It was him, it was really him, the one that haunted my dreams like a bad premonition.

“Shut it, Ethan,” the mysterious boy hissed. He turned to me, grabbed my shoulders, gripped them firmly in his hands and stared into my eyes. “You are to go home. You will not remember any of this.”

“That won’t work, brother. I’ve been spiking her drinks.”

The mysterious boy turned and glared at Ethan. I pulled myself
free from his grip and as my eyes widened with surprise by the news.

“You’ve been what? Who are you?”

“Are you talking to him, or to me? Broody boy over here is my brother, and well, I’m the ridiculously handsome Ethan. Now, if you would excuse us, I need to tear him away from his babysitting. Oh, come now, don’t look at me like that, brother, either knock her out or let her walk back to the lake. Her dad is on his way, she’ll be safe, nothing to worry about.” Ethan smirked at me as his eyes danced under the pale dying daylight.

“What’s going on?” I said. “You’re the one that took Lydia to the hospital, didn’t you?”

Ethan smirked. “How did you find that out?”

“One of the nurses told me.”

“Typical.”

“You know what happened to her parents, don’t you?”

“Don’t, Ethan, you’ve already involved her enough.”

“Me? Involve her? What about you?”

A howl sounded in the dark. It was low, definite and long sort of howl that rang dangerously through the forest like a warning siren. Ethan changed his demeanor as he walked briskly towards me. The mysterious boy stepped in front of his path, his body a shield against whatever his brother planned to do.

“Knock her out or I will do it, brother.”

“No.”

I didn’t have time to comprehend what happened next. Darkness came over me as something hard pressed against the space between by neck and
collarbone. I felt my body fell to the ground, a limp ragdoll caught by a pair of strong arms, the mysterious boy’s arms. He cradled me and carried me out of the forest. That was all that I was allowed to remember before I slipped into unconsciousness.

Chapter 4

I woke up in a hospital bed, in the same room Lydia had been in before Rick came and took her to their place. The sheriff had granted permission for her discharge and arranged for Lydia to stay with Karen until her parents was found. My temples throbbed as blood rushed to my brain and I strained my memory. There wasn’t much of it left after Ethan attacked and knocked me out.

Jess came into my room with a clipboard in her hand.

“Oh good, you’re awake. You had your parents worried.”

“My parents?” I blinked as I remembered. Ethan had said my parents were coming for me at the lake.

“Yes. They found you in the parking lot, next to your bike. Looks like you just fainted. We did some blood tests and it turns out you were anaemic, which means that you will be taking iron supplements for the next month or two. Apart from that, you’re good to go.”

Jess scribbled something onto her board and signed the bottom of the paper.

“Anaemic? Does that include hallucinations too?” I asked.

Jess turned her head and narrowed her eyes slightly. “Have you seen something?”

I paused and did not answer immediately. I decided to go with my instincts. “No. Everything’s normal.”

Jess was not wholly convinced. “Are you sure?”

“Yes. Absolutely.”

“Very well, I’ll fetch your parents.”

My mom was on the verge of tears when she came into the room, my dad behind her. She hugged me so tightly that I felt her heartbeat against mine.

“I’m alright now. I just…fainted, that’s all.” It was a lie I
didn’t have to tell, but it helped her calm down.

I sat in the back seat of the car with the window half down to take in the last of the summer’s night air. The seasons were fast to change and I must have fallen
asleep as I dreamt that I was in the forest once again, except this time, the blonde man, Ethan, waited for me. He wanted to talk, to tell me what I needed to know, but I was prevented from speaking to him.

My dad nudged me awake when we finally got home and the dream slipped away as quickly as it appeared.

I found my bed exactly as I had left it this morning. I threw myself onto the soft mattress and pulled the covers over my tired body but did not will myself to sleep. I wanted to think about the events that occurred before I went into dreamland again, where perhaps, I will get to talk to Ethan. My heart palpitated at the thought of him and his brother – the mysterious boy who refused to tell me his name. I didn’t understand why he wouldn’t tell me, while his older brother on the other hand, readily told me his.

The brothers seemed to share
nothing, except for their godlike physique and clean up, high cheekbones. They didn’t even have the same color eyes or hair color, and yet, they were still brothers. I wouldn’t have thought they were related if I saw them together on the streets, not that I’ll ever see them on the streets.

My phone vibrated. It sat on my bedside table. I rolled over, picked it up and found that it was just Karen checking up on me. Lydia was with her and they both knew that I was at the hospital. Just as I sent the reply text, I sat up and realised something.

I didn’t have my phone at the hospital and mom and dad didn’t come home while I was there. I was certain that I had it while I was in the forest and Luke wouldn’t dare set foot in my room, besides he didn’t have a reason to even open my door. I could hear my brother next door, on his games, shooting zombies like there’s nothing else to do.

It must have been one of them – either Ethan or his silent brother. My eyes glanced towards the window and found it slightly ajar. I got out of bed and went to it. My room was on the second storey and the phone returner
either would have jumped very high or can fly. I placed the latch down on the window and locked it. One of them was in my room and I wondered how many times they were here while I slept. The thought sent a shiver down my spine. I didn’t want anyone watching me while I was asleep. But I then remembered how my room kept having the lingering smell of lavender. The realisation made me dizzy.

I sat back down on my bed and tried not to feel strange about the events that occurred, but it could not be helped.

I stared at the locked window and wondered what I should do about the situation. Surely, it was one of them, if not both, that came during the night to plant lavender candles and return just before I woke up to take it away. Why anyone would have such dedication or motivation remained unanswered for the time being.

An idea then occurred to me and I decided to stay awake until one the brothers made an appearance.
It was a stupid idea but it was better than nothing. I went over to the window and unlocked it, turned off the lights and waited. But the plan was not a very good one as I instantly fell asleep as soon as I laid my head on my pillow. I didn’t realise how much I craved for sleep. As I drifted off, I thought about Jess’ diagnosis of me. She said I was anaemic, but I didn’t show any signs of it, or did I? Was having recurrent nightmares and seeing things that are borderline supernatural counted as symptoms?

I drifted off to sleep before I could bring myself to answer the question. Deep down, I already knew the answer, except, I just didn’t want to believe it.

~

Mom forced me to stay home until she felt satisfied that I was ready to return to school, which after three days of not going to classes meant a pile of homework and assignments. Luckily, I had Karen to thank for bringing me the homework and Mr
Grimms, despite my initial bad impression, who was lenient enough to give me an extension for the history essay.

I went back to school on Wednesday. Lydia was still at Karen’s place because her wounds were still healing and she didn’t want to deal with the eyes that
will definitely stare at her. Word of the attack had already circled around the school, along with rumors of bears and various other theories. Lydia didn’t remember where she was when the attack happened, which didn’t help in the matter.

“So are you going to tell me?” Karen
asked during lunch. We sat outside on the benches. Some of the boys were on the field practising their throws, but none of them could match up to Ethan or his brothers when it came to looks.

Karen
held a pout on her lips as she demanded I tell her with her sharp blue eyes. I sighed and thought that it was unfair to keep it from her any longer.

“You know that dream I’ve been having?”

“Yeah, the one with the blonde man and the ring of salt?”

“Yeah, the one and only, the man is real. I saw him in the forest. He said his name was Ethan and his brother, well, he wouldn’t tell me his name.”

“So you’re telling me that you’ve been going into the forest alone to talk to strangers from your dream?”

“No, it’s not like that.”

Karen gave me a look that made my thoughts stumble over itself. It was exactly as she said.

“Alright,” I said, “maybe just once or twice, alright, it was twice. Karen, I’m telling you the truth. His
brother, I walked into him on the first day of school, in the hallway after history when we were going to our different second period classes. I think they have something to do with Lydia’s attack, if not, then they must know something about it.”

“Are you sure those iron pills are working?” Karen asked with uncertainty in her voice.

“Would I lie to you? Look, we’ve known each other since grade school. You have to trust me that what I tell you is real.”

“That you’re having dream premonitions? What’s next? You’re going to me skinned alive in the forest on the full moon? This is insane, Amy.”

“What did you say?” I asked.

“I said that what you’re saying is insane.”

“No. Before that, you said something else.”

“Skinned alive. Premonitions. I don’t know. You’re not the type to believe in the occult stuff anyway, but
it’s still fun to read about. You should know this, you’re the one that used to tell me stories about witches and stuff like that.”

“Witches,” I repeated under my breath. It seemed
impossible and yet, the things I have seen and experienced, the possibility of it all did not seem so farfetched as I initially thought it might be. Even my gut feeling didn’t go against the thought and the only retaliation I felt was in my brain trying to fit it in with the knowledge of the world I have.

Karen bit into her
apple and frowned at my entranced expression.

“Come on, Amy, you can’t possibly believe that
it’s true. Look, maybe it’s just the side effects of the anaemia. You know what you need? You know what we all need? A girl’s day out. We haven’t had one of those in a while and maybe it will help Lydia get out of the house again. The attack’s really left her terrified.”

I didn’t reply.

“This Saturday,” Karen continued. “We’re going shopping, no matter what, to try on dresses for the Winter Dance.”

“But that’s ages away.”

Karen lifted her chin defiantly. “It doesn’t matter. You need to get your mind away from your weird dreams and Lydia needs to get out of the house. You’re not allowed to say no to this, Amelia Ryans.”

I sighed and agreed. There was no point fighting with Karen when she starts using my full name to speak to me.

~

I headed straight for
my laptop when I returned home. I wanted search up stuff about premonitions and dreams. I didn’t know much about it, except through what I’ve read in novels and seen in movies. However, when I went to connect to the internet, the Wi-Fi refused to work.

“Luke!” I called through the wall. My brother’s sanity depended o
n his ability to stay connected to the internet and I figure that he might be able to help me.

“I know!” he called back through the walls.
“I’m fixing it now.”

I stood up and went to his room. I didn’t know what went through his head when he decorated his room with dark posters and kept his curtains closed during daylight hours. It was as if he would rather live in a cave than go anywhere else.
Perhaps it was one of those phases. Plastered on his right wall hung a large canvas, its background painted black with acrylic and a white pentagram plastered on top. I remembered reading about the symbol when I was younger. It was used for protection, when drawn in a certain way with certain points pointed in the right direction. An upside down pentagram is supposed to be a symbol for evil, the reverse of all that’s good and orderly.

“What?” Luke asked as he lifted his face from beneath his computer desk. He was on his knees, amongst a tangle of wires as he tried to figure out what went wrong. “The
router’s busted, over heated most likely, because it’s old. The plastic is all melted and twisted, which is weird because they’re not supposed to do that.”

“So what does that mean?”

“It means the router is busted,” Luke repeated as if I didn’t understand the first time. “It means we don’t have internet.”

“Don’
t we have an older, not broken one somewhere?”

“Yeah, we do. It’s probably in the basement.”

I went with Luke to search for it. Dirty old boxes sat neatly stacked against the wall. Luke puffed out air from his lungs and bit his tongue. I shared the same thoughts with him. It might be easier to just wait until either mom or dads gets home, then go out and buy a new one. The old router could be in any of the boxes and there was at least twenty.

“Well?” I said and allowed Luke to make the decision.
He would be the one to set up everything again and it only seemed fair. My brother chewed his tongue.

“What if we went and bought a new one ourselves?” he said.

“And who’s going pay for it?”

“Claim the money back when mom gets home. If you have enough money to buy new clothes, I’m sure you have enough to get us a new
router.”

“Alright,”
I said after some thought. There was no guarantee when mom would come home. She did say she was going to one of friend’s book club meeting and it would be a while before she would be back. As for dad, Wednesday meant drinks night at the pub. While Luke was out, I could always start on dinner and not waste any time. “Can you take the bike and go by yourself? I’ll give you the money for it.”

“Sure.”

We both knew it was faster that way and I didn’t feel like going all the way down to the mall with my brother.

Luke was quick to leave. From what I guessed, someone on the
other side of the country probably relied on him to send war ships or whatever it is he was playing.

I sighed and opened the fridge. Mom stocked up on chicken and the vegetables compartment filled to the brim. But I felt like something simple and easy, like pasta. The decision did not take long to make and within moments, a pot placed on the stove, along with a good amount of salt in the water. I moved to take out the ingredients from the fridge but
stopped with I thought I heard something upstairs.