The Dark Witch: The Nox Haven Series

Chapter 3: Nox Haven

Caddie's POV:

The sound of joyous laughter and warm rays of sunlight wrapped around my body, creating a cocoon of happiness. I stood in the middle of a lively meadow. Flowers danced and birds sang, a bubbling creek could be heard in the distance. The meadow was too perfect, something out of a movie scene. But it looked vaguely familiar.

"Caddie!"

Spinning around, my mouth hung agape when I saw a little boy run towards me. He had to be about eight years old, it looked like he only began to lose his baby fat- but he had the most beautiful blue eyes. He was bound to be a heartbreaker with those sparkling baby blues. All thoughts about his mesmerizing eyes drifted away when I noticed that he was taller than me. How was that possible? I knew I was small but he was just a child!

"Caddie come on," he grabbed my chubby little arm. Wait. I didn't have a chubby little arm anymore! "We don't have much time to play before you have to go."

"Go where?" I asked. My voice tinkled like wind chimes.

The boy furrowed his brows. "I-I don't know. You always disappear on me." He turned the full power of his eyes on me. "Why do you always leave me?"

"I don't know either. I don't even remember who y-" A wall of fog lifted from my mind. I did remember! He was Aleksander, my imaginary and only friend.

"Alek!" I threw my arms around the boy. He seemed startled at first but quickly returned my hug.

I felt safe in his arms, like I belonged there. But like always our moment together was cut short.

I jolted awake when a sharp pain flared in my arm. I clutched my wrist and bit my bottom lip as tears formed in my eyes. Heat radiated from the left side of my wrist. After a few minutes of agonizing pain, the feeling dwindled into a light sting. I lifted my other hand from my wrist and stared with wide eyes at a small black tattoo. I ran my index finger along the freshly puckered skin. How did that get there? Where pure pale skin once was, a small black griffon with six stars above it stood in its place.

I was fed up with weird things happening to me. Ever since that first day of summer my life was becoming increasingly strange. My life had never been normal. But I had thought feeling the emotions of others was as weird as life got. Then Char lost her voice, a cryptic German woman disappeared out of thin air, I had seen my imaginary best friend for the first time in years and a tattoo magically appeared on my wrist. If anything weird happened on my first day of school, I swore I was going to pass out.

"Caddie get out of bed! We have to get going," My dad yelled.

Reluctantly leaving the safety of my covers, I forced myself to start the first day of my new life.

Looking around my bedroom, I tried to memorize the faded blue walls and rickety furniture. Two suitcases sat on my twin-sized bed. My carry-on was my cat, Ebony. The summer had been so uneventful I found myself looking forward to leaving my home. My dad had tried to mend our relationship- and for a short period of time I did try to forgive him. But he would always talk about how Nox Haven could help me, and how it was time for me to start controlling my illness. He probably talked about other things too but I tuned him out once I heard the word illness.

Instead of listening to my dad and his inconsiderate comments, I decided to do my own research on Nox Haven. It seemed to be a reform school for insane rich kids. But none of the students seemed to be bipolar or schizophrenic. I could never fit in with them! The only thing they suffered from was teenitis. It was a very common disease most teenagers suffered from. Symptoms included: drinking, doing drugs, partying, deliberately disobeying and eventually death.