Haven: A Stranger Magic (BOOK 1)

Haven: A Stranger Magic - Chapter 6 - Episode 11

Chapter 6 – Episode 11

It began to sprinkle as they finally arrived at Sam’s house. Travis was still rambling as Sam headed for the rosebushes, like always. Every day the paper guy would throw the newspaper into the rosebush, so it was a real chore to try to get it out. Sam was pretty sure the paper guy did it on purpose to get back at Sam’s mother for turning him down when he offered to take her out on a date.

The bushes were full of small thorns that looked like tiny shark fins protruding from the branches. Some of the areas were covered with spider webs, which was unusual since the roses were supposed to be insect-free. It was the reason his mother had planted them to begin with.

Sam grabbed a broken branch from the ground below and tore a hole in the spider web, big enough to reach through and grab the paper. As he brought the stick back through the hole he noticed a large black and green spider attached to the end of it.

It was the same type of spider Travis had been playing with this morning. Upon closer inspection, Sam could see six red eyes arranged into three pairs that formed a semicircle on the front of its pea-size head. Its segmented body was branded with three green stripes and a small circle near its head.

Sam quickly threw the stick out onto the road, then scanned himself and the rosebush to make sure there were no other spiders hiding anywhere.

He stared into the prickly bush. It would take his complete concentration if he was going to stick his arm into the rosebush and pull the newspaper out with any skin left on his arm. One false move meant pain, and lots of it. Sam knelt down in front of the bushes and slowly placed his hand through the destroyed web, and into the tangled array of stems and thorns toward the rolled up paper.

“So what do you think?” Travis said with a hint of enthusiasm.

“Think about what?” Sam was half-listening as he weaved his hand up and down through the maze of stems.

“About going to the caves tonight. It’s Friday night, we’re out of school and we have nothing else to do.”

“Um, I don’t know Trav, OUCH!” Sam nicked himself on the top part of his hand. “That’s one,” he mumbled to himself. If he could get out of the bushes with less than three cuts he would break his own record.

“What, like you got some big plans or something?”

“No, it’s just been a long … OUCH … week, that’s all, and I’m kind of tired … GOT YOU!” Sam had the paper in his hand. He had done it, now he was ready to make his exit.

“What are you like eighty? You sound like my grandpa!”

“Whatever Trav, it’s just been one thing after another, and now I’m digging in a rosebush wearing a t-shirt that says ‘I See Ninjas.’ I mean, do I need to really push my luck?”

Sarah was rounding the corner of Giddyup Lane when she noticed her brother and Travis by the rosebushes. The day had gone by so fast that she barely had enough time to dwell on what had happened this morning with Marcus Snider. But she was dwelling on it now.

Had she caused all of that to happen this morning? Did her anger cause the pipes to break and the water to burst from the ground? Sarah sighed; there was no point in denying it any longer. If she did, she would only be lying to herself. When she got mad, bad things happened, and when they did it usually involved—

Sarah stopped in her tracks. She felt her skin crawl with sudden awareness. It usually involved water. Her mind raced back to the glass on the kitchen counter—it was filled with water. The pipes in the walls of the building were filled with water. The manhole cover had flown into the air because of the water underneath the ground.

Every single time within the last month that there had been a strange event, two things had always been present—her anger and water. Was it just a coincidence or were the two related?

Sarah started to walk again in a daze, her mind quickly sifting through the details of the events. This was so incomprehensible that she could barely wrap her mind around it.

Before she realized it, she was standing just a few feet away from Travis and her brother. Sarah straightened her back. She could not show that anything unusual had happened. It was a good thing that she had run into the gymnasium locker room this morning where she dried her clothes and put herself back together.

She would need to keep this a secret until she figured it all out. She would need to act as if nothing bizarre had happened today. She wouldn’t say a word about almost destroying the corner bakery and sporting goods store, almost killing Marcus and herself with a manhole cover, or the fight with loser Barry. No, she would keep it all inside like she always did. No one could be trusted with this.

Sarah took a deep breath and pulled herself together. Act like you always do, she told herself. She watched as Travis and Sam continued their conversation, unaware of her presence. Sarah began to grin as a thought entered her mind. Act like you always do.

The boys were so caught up in their own conversation that they never saw Sarah sneak up behind them. She moved closer, creeping up to Travis until she was only inches away.

His mouth was still moving ninety to nothing. His bad aftershave was almost unbearable but she stayed focused. She stood there calmly and took another deep breath and as loud as she could screamed out,

“MORONS!”

Travis jumped forward, screaming at the top of his lungs like a frightened school girl, and knocked Sam, who had almost gotten the paper out, face-first into the rosebushes. He let out a scream of his own as the thorns slashed across his forearms and face.

“What in the world?” he cried, whipping his head around to see what was going on.

Sarah stood in front of them, red-faced with her hands over her mouth.

“Have you lost your freaking mind?” Sam screamed back at her!

Sarah tried to apologize between sudden bursts of laughter.

“Oh my god, that was so funny! Sam, I promise I had no idea Travis was going to scream like that and kick you into the roses!”

Sam was not amused in the least; he was mad. He was hurt, and today had been, without question, one of the worst days of his life.

He stood up slowly. His arms and face were bleeding from the scratches and tiny thorns that had lodged in his skin. He felt defeated. He stared down at the newspaper that he had dropped. It looked seemingly untouched in the middle of the twisted chaos they called a rosebush.

Sarah tried to conceal her laughter with her hands, but she still snickered under her breath as she tried to keep her composure. Travis stood with his hand on his chest as if he were about to pass out.

“I said I was sorry,” Sarah said still laughing.

“Shut up Sarah, and leave me alone!” Sam shouted and turned toward the house.

“Hey where are you going?” Travis panted, “Are we not going to the caves?”

Sam slowly climbed the stairs of the front porch with his head hung low. He turned and looked back at Travis.

“Not tonight Travis. Go home.”