Experimental Magic ✔

Turning Tables

A second after he hit the floor, the point guard pulled himself up, skittishly backed up and then bolted. His body was broken and bruised, but in that moment he was too filled with adrenaline to feel any pain. Millie's eyes widened as she watched him run off, then whipped her head to Misty as if to say "he's getting away." Both their hearts thumped in their chests as the panic rapidly increased. They couldn't let him escape.

Revealing yourself to a mortal like that puts the entire coven's safety at risk. A story like that would be picked up by every reporter in the county. It would be an all out media blitz. Soon the story would spread and there would be no escaping it. Sure, the majority would shrug it off as nothing more than a hoax, but someone, somewhere would believe it. They'd search out other believers, their numbers slowly growing until they became a serious threat. In short, Millie and Misty were in big trouble.

Millie ran after him with Misty close behind. He was quick, but they had magic on their side. As soon as he was within sight, Misty hit him with a sleeping spell that knocked him out cold. Misty and Millie caught up to him with their hearts racing.

"Omg, omg, omg," Millie said as she paced back and forth. In between the anxiety and running, she was having a hard time catching her breath. "What are we gonna do? They're gonna kill us. They're totally gonna kill us."

"It's okay," Misty said as calmly as she could. It was anything but okay, but she had to be strong for her sister. "We're okay."

"We have to report it," Millie said. "We have to. We don't have a choice."

Incidents like this were rare, but they did happen. To protect themselves in times like these, certain procedures and protocols were put in place. If you were to accidentally, or purposely, expose yourself to a mortal at such a level that it would compromise the coven, you were to immediately report it to The Assembly. Then The Assembly would take care of the situation as swiftly and discreetly as possible. Once it was taken care of and the risk eliminated, the incident would be investigated and punishment was given as they saw fit.

But just because that's how it was supposed to happen, didn't mean that's how it had to happen.

"No!" Misty said sharply. "They can't know about this. No one can. If this comes to their attention, they won't stop at just this. They'll investigate us. They'll find out Meadow used magic against us and that we lost her to Markos. We can't risk it."

"What else are we supposed to do?" Millie said desperately.

Millie kicked herself for being so stupid. The well-being of her entire family was in jeopardy and it was all her fault. Not to mention the fact that she had potentially ripped apart the delicate fabric between the mortal and magical world and completely changed the course of their existence. All she wanted was for someone to swoop in and fix her mistake. She didn't care who it was as long as they made everything okay again.

"I know what I have to do to fix this," Misty said gravely. "But you need to leave. I can't have you being a witness to what I'm about to do."

"Misty," Millie said, her voice shaky and weak. She didn't like the way Misty was speaking. Her tone was solemn and sinister and her eyes were cold. "You're scaring me."

"It's going to be fine," Misty reassured her. "I'm not going to hurt him. I just need you to leave."

Millie hesitated, but ultimately she had no choice but to put her trust in her sister. She backed away slowly at first then turned on her heel and ran off. When Misty was sure that she was out of sight, she turned back to the point guard.

The way in which The Assembly handled these situations was kept in secret. No one outside the inner circle knew what they did or how. Only they had the knowledge necessary to deal with something like this. Such a serious situation required spells that were deemed too powerful for the general public. So, for the sake of the people, they were omitted from the spell books.

Without knowledge of the spells that would help her, Misty would have to make her own.

The first thing that came to mind was a memory erasing spell. But the boy was badly injured. He may not have any recollection of the incident, but the proof would be all over his body. Questions would arise. Investigations would be done. Little by little the truth would come out. Simply erasing his memory wasn't enough. She had to make it so it never happened. She had to turn back time.

There was a reason why time reversal was forbidden by The Assembly. To say messing with the timeline was risky was an understatement. One small misstep and the entirety of space and time would be thrown into chaos. The course of history could be rewritten or create paradoxes in time that could not be undone.

Misty knew the risks, but she was backed in a corner with no other way out. So, she took a deep breath, closed her eyes and let her heart rule.She didn't think about rules or structure or precision. Instead she dug deep within herself and channeled her raw emotions into a mass of energy that radiated from her body. Images of the night flashed before her in reverse like an old VHS tape on rewind. She became dizzy and disoriented as the world spun around her. She pushed on for as long as she could before her mind couldn't handle the strain any longer. Her eyes were forced open, and to her surprise, she was back in the front row of the basketball game with Millie by her side.

Misty turned her head to look at the scoreboard to see the game was just about to start. Misty welcomed the feeling of deja vu as she looked around to see everything was just as it was before.

"Nope it's over," Millie said, unbeknownst to her, for the second time that night. "He thinks I'm an idiot. Let's get out of here."

Misty snapped back to the present moment. This was it. This was her chance to rewrite the course of the night. 

"Honestly I don't know why you're even into him," Misty said, thinking on her feet.

One thing was clear, encouraging Millie to go after this boy had been a huge mistake. Misty needed to switch up her approach if she wanted things to change. She needed to convince Millie to stay far away from this boy. I mean, if she was willing to throw someone against a wall after one conversation, God only knows what she would do if they actually ended up dating.

"You're way too good for him," Misty continued. "He's not even that cute."

"I don't know," Millie said with confidence. "He looks pretty cute to me."

"Yeah, maybe for a mortal," Misty scoffed in the snottiest voice possible.

Millie was pretty far gone at that point, so Misty knew she had to really lay it on thick if she wanted to steer Millie away.

"Seriously," Misty insisted. "You can do so much better."

Millie thought about what Misty said. Even though she was so sure of herself a minute ago, Misty had a way of making her second guess herself. Misty was older and wiser after all. Most of the time, she did know best. The more she thought about it, he was kind of tall. Maybe too tall. And his legs were kind of skinny. And his smile wasn't that nice.

"Maybe you're right..." Millie said.

"Of course I am," Misty said with a knowing smile.

"Totally," Misty said, nodding her head, now completely convinced.

She didn't know what she ever saw in that guy.

"You're right. I so deserve better than him," Millie shot up from her seat and grabbed her bag. "I don't know what I was thinking."

"Exactly," Misty said. "He's not worth your time. Let's just go home and forget this ever happened."

"Absolutely," Millie said as she flung her hair over her shoulder and walked off without a second thought.

Misty breathed a sigh of relief as they exited the gym. It worked. 

***

So we find out that Misty is willing to break the rules if it means protecting her family. Maybe her and Markos aren't so different after all...