Live & Learn (ONC 2020)

Kidnapped by, some random guy?

Luna nodded to herself, and stood up to walk around the room they were in. She walked to the door to stare and pull a little a the bars, she knocked the wall, pulled at the bricks, walked back to the door and stared at the lock. Leo watched all this with growing interest. Finally, after fifteen minutes of examining the room and pulling stuff, Luna sat back down again and closed her eyes while resting her head on her hands.

 "Well, I can officially say that the wall is not hollow and we are probably underground, the bars are not weak so pulling them out won't work, the lock of the door is too difficult for me to pick, and the door has double hinges so we can't pull it out even if we had the strength to do so."

Leo looked worried. Not because she had said they were stuck here, he had figured out that much without having to examine the entire room, but because while she was resting her head in her hands he got a good look at her head wound. His' had already stopped bleeding, but blood still seeped out from hers. He absently responded to her statement with an 'oh', while he looked for a piece of his shirt to make a bandage from. When he found it, he tore off a small strip and moved closer to Luna.

She didn't look up, so he cleared his throat. Now she looked up.

He held up the black strip of cloth and pointed at her head. "Your head is still bleeding, so is it alright if I patch it up?"

When she nodded he positioned himself behind her and started to carefully brush her hair away from the wound. She winced the first time his hands came in contact with her damaged skin, but other than that she was quiet.

"Leo?"

"hmm."

"You never answered my question."

Leo stopped pulling hairs out of the wound for a second and frowned.

"What question?" he asked.

Luna turned around, "I asked you how you knew about the paranormal world, but you were unconscious before you could answer my question. Just before we were attacked you were going to tell me if you are a supernatural?"

Leo gestured her to look straight forward again, when she did he answered.

"Yes, I am. I am a warlock, or at least I'm supposed to be."

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Luna turned around. Her eyes slid over Leo and stopped at his eyes. They were magenta with a few gold spots dancing in them. Before, she had assumed they were contacts. Now that she thought about it his eyes weren't the only thing that gave away he was a warlock. The first time she came into his shop he had appeared out of nowhere.

Luna's heart skipped a beat. That was it! He was a warlock, he could do magic. All the tiredness was gone and she quickly stood up. She looked down at Leo who was looking slightly annoyed by the fact that she didn't let him finish treating her wound. Luna rose her left eyebrow.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Teleport us out of here."

His annoyance was quickly replaced by a humorless little smile, like she had made a bad joke. Luna didn't get why, there was nothing funny about their situation.

After a moment of silence he finally opened his mouth to answer.

"The reason I said I am supposed to be a warlock," he said dryly, "is because I can't do that."

Luna frowned. Was there some kind of power field around their cell that made it impossible for him to do magic? Did something like that even exist?

"I don't get it," she said.

Leo gestured for her to sit down, and when she did he began treating her wound again. After he brushed away the last few strands of hair, he explained.

"It's stupid, but I can't do magic. At least not properly and without things exploding or doing the exact opposite of what they're supposed to do. It has always been like that."

Luna turned around. Now he was just talking bullshit!

"But I saw you appear out of nowhere in your shop! When you did that 'magic trick'."

"No, I didn't. And sit still, I am trying to stop the wound from bleeding."

"Yes, you did. The only things around were the stuff that lay on display and the statuette I was holding. Then, suddenly you were there."

"I was the statuette."

Luna was ninety percent sure the clattering sound that followed was her jaw hitting the ground. What did he just say?

"You were a statue?"

Leo looked deeply unhappy. "Yes, I was. The entire day too! All I had eaten was one slice of bread! I was truly starving and really tired. I had to let a bunch of objects float to make a note with a reverse spell on it, which I then attached to my feet. I was going to text James so he could come and free me, but then you came along and read what was on the paper out loud. So I sort of put some magic in the words and voila, I was back to my usual handsome and breathing self. I can't do much with magic, but thank god I can at least make objects float."

Luna looked in front of her, allowing Leo to finally put the piece of cloth around her head, and giving herself the chance to think about what she just learned. What kind of warlock messed up magic so bad that he transformed himself into a statue? What had he been trying to do that was so dangerous?

Luna pictured him in her head. He seemed happy and not bothered at all by not being able to do magic. He didn't seem bothered by anything really. He almost got eaten by a book, and afterwards he just smiled and put the book back. That was on the outside. Was he not bothered on the inside too?

Luna decided that she had to find out. They were locked up in a cell, by god knows who—and perhaps Leo knew as well, he did seem rather happy when she suggested that he didn't know it either—There wasn't much else to do. Maybe he'd like to talk about it, or perhaps she could help him.

When Leo was finished with her wound Luna turned around to face him. She opened her mouth, and closed it again. Because at the same time the door to their cell was thrust open and clattered against the stone wall. They both looked at the man that walked through. Although man maybe wasn't the right description. The guy was still very young.

He was wearing a long leather jacket with the collar up and pants in the same black color as his jacket. One of his gloved hands was stuffed in his pocket, while the other held a plate with water and some bread. He had short black hair with a streak of red, and in his right ear he wore a silver earring. To complete the picture he wore a flayed hat that covered the upper part of his face. He looked totally bad ass, and really cliche.

When he was sure he had their attention he looked up, revealing a youthful face. His lips curved up into what was probably supposed to be a smug smile.

"Tu as des ennuis, Leonardo Delmotte. Voici votre nourriture, tout pour aujourd'hui."

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I hope the French is correct ;)

I am not sure why, but for some reason the font style decided it wanted a make over, so half of this chapter is in a different font style. I hope to get that fixed.

Another thing I have to say is that unfortunately I didn't make it through to the next round of the ONC, which is regrettable, but not really that big of a surprise. It is actually a good thing, because now I can just take my time writing and I don't have to follow any rules whatshowever.

I will of course keep writing on both the stories I submitted, but now that I don't have to make the deadline anymore I'll probably update both Live&Learn and Off the streets once or twice a week.

As always, I hope you liked this chapter. If you did, consider giving it a vote. If you didn't... well just don't vote. If you didn't like it and you know why, give feedback! I appreciate it.

That was all, so I'll see, meet, write...until next time.