Friday. Thank goodness it’s Friday. So much has happened over the course of the past week it’s unbelievable. Ryan went missing, his mom was possessed, we chased the culprit from his house and Izabella blasted me and Dominico to the ground. You think you did a lot this week! What did you do? A math test? Yeah. Me too but it didn’t compare to all this crazy other stuff!
And the madness doesn’t end. That would be too easy, says the Universe. The same Universe who somehow controls the red lights so that whenever you’re running late you hit every single one. Of course if you’re early you’re there zip zip, no problem. I’m beginning to hate the Universe. Anyway, that was off topic. Madness. That’s what I was thinking about. Like when Ryan sat down next to be on the bus this morning. I think I had a heart attack! (Don’t act like you didn’t just think of the Demi Lovato song, I know you did and I’m not even a warlock!)
That was actually the song playing through my ear buds when my pink-haired friend plopped down next to me.
“Ooh! You bought a new song! Finally!” Ryan had said. To which I not-so-calmly replied,
“RYAN! WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?!?! ARE YOU OK? YOU MISSED SCHOOL! YOU’RE MOM DIDN’T KNOW WHERE YOU WERE AND IZABELLA AND I…” I noticed how many people were staring. Times like this I wish I was a warlock. Ryan rolls his eyes.
“Chill out. I was gone for two days. I know you missed my awesomeness and all but seriously Faye. I have never heard you say that much before 8:00 A.M. like ever. Are you feeling alright?”
“Am I? Where the heck were you!?” I ask, my mouth is hanging open and I’m tempted to slap him, just to make sure he’s actually here. You know, that I’m not hallucinating because I was chasing freaky people in back-glass out of his yard last night.
“I thought you knew? I went on a vacation with my cousins. It was a total surprise or I would have told you. It was awesome though, we went to the beach and, well, at very least weren’t here.” He says, indicating to the dark, cold bus seat. What? No, that was the lie I told Jaz. That wasn’t what actually happened.
“Uh…Cool,” I tell him, stunned. We ride to the beat of Rock and Roll by Avril Lavigne until we pull up in front of the school. Ryan is acting completely normal. He makes fun of Jaz’s sparkly clothes and she welcomes him back with a friendly (though rather hard) punch in the arm. After that Jaz and I walk down to Social Studies where Dominico is sitting in his seat, cramming for our test today. He looks up when we walk in and sends me an iron-melting glare. I ignore it and sit down at my desk.
“Ryan’s here today,” I tell him, pulling a pencil out of my pencil pouch. That catches his attention for a moment,
“You’re kidding.” I shake my head.
“He says he went on a surprise vacation with his cousins,” I explain. Dominico looks as confused as I am.
“Happy he’s back?” he asks me. I furrow my eyebrows,
“Of course!” I exclaim.
“Then you shouldn’t have anything else to worry about,” he says gruffly. What is his problem?
“Is Izabella alright?” I ask through gritted teeth. I don’t want to talk to him anymore but I want to find out how she is.
“She doesn’t remember using magic so don’t say anything to her about it. It’s best to let her learn to use it when she’s ready. If you bring it up you’ll just confuse her.” His voice is steely and threatening. She’s my friend, you don’t have to threaten me to not hurt her!
“Fine, I won’t. What’s gotten under your skin today?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m fine,” he says.
“And about as sharp as a sphere,” I mutter under my breath. He sends an ice glare at me. I think he heard that. The bell rings and the day begins. Oh joy.
You know those days where you’re sitting there counting down the minutes until school lets out? Well there is five hours, 37 minutes and 19 seconds left…18 seconds…17 seconds… Who’s the genius who came up with a seven hour a day schedule? I need to have a very long conversation with him, discussing his sanity.
The periods inch by without mercy. I’ve finally giving up on ever getting out of here and am mainly focused on making it to lunch. Ryan notices my rotten mood and gets our third period English teacher trying to lick his nose. Tears come to my eyes from laughing so hard. Ryan smiles in triumph at the class’ roar of laughter. My day begins to pick up after that, thanks to Ryan. It’s so good to have him back. In fourth Jaz tells me of how she’s thinking about asking Dominico to homecoming. I’m still mad at Dominico so I have to pretend to be all-for-it. She catches my lying,
“If you don’t want me to ask him, you know you can tell me, right?” she asks like a good friend.
“No, it’s just that we’re not on the best terms right now if you know what I mean. I’ll be honestly happy for you if you ask him and he says yes but, no offence he’s so aggravating!” Jaz just smiles at my anger.
“But he’s so… dreamy,” she says, looking into space. I roll my eyes and make a gagging sound but when she glares at me I turn it into a cough,
“I mean, whatever floats your boat I guess. Sorry Jaz, I’m just mad at him right now. If you want to ask him though I will be 100% supportive. Just don’t ask me to go along with the dreamy thing ‘cause that’s something I cannot do.” Jaz rolls her eyes and goes into a bubbly ramble of all things Dominico. I listen and smile to see my friend so happy…even if it’s over Dominico.
Lunch rolls around and I know two things, one Jaz is going to ask Dominico to go to homecoming with her (girls choice dance this year) and two, there is only two hours left in the school day (thank goodness!). Actually when we sit down at the table Izabella is the first one to bring up the homecoming.
“Oh my gosh Faye! I just finished both of our costumes for the homecoming! FYI there is no way that you are getting out of going to this,” she adds the last part when I open my mouth to protest.
“There’s a homecoming?” Dominico asks, confused. We all give him the you’re-brainless look. He just shrugs as in saying ‘how was I supposed to know?’
“Yeah,” I answer him, “and your kind sister and my such good friend over here are designing the costume that they’re assuming I’m going to wear.” I say, my voice dripping sarcasm.
“Ah hem? Assuming? You are wearing the costume whether you want to or I have to drag you there but then again dragging you there would totally ruin your make up. So suck it up.”
“Makeup? I never agreed to this.”
“Stop complaining. You’re going to look great! Who are you asking to it?” Jaz asks. I feel my cheeks burn red. Everyone is staring at me, waiting for my response.
“Stop staring at me! I’m not going to ask anyone. Unless I go with Rowan. He’s at least coming with me for moral support. Yeah, I’ll just ask Rowan.”
“Rowan? Who’s Rowan?” Dominico asks. He looks like a protective big brother, ready to deck whoever I was crushing on. Save it for Izabella, dude. I could beat up any jerk ten times as well as he could.
“At least he’s super cute,” Izabella says without answering Dominico’s question. She obviously doesn’t want to push her luck on getting me to the dance. Jaz and Ryan nod, both of them also wanting to force me to the dance. Dominico gives Ryan a confused look when he agrees with Izabella.
“Does he go to this school?” Dominico asks. Jaz chokes on her milk, laughing. Ryan also smirks.
“Rowan is my dog,” I explain to Dominico. Is it just me or did he just relax about 234%?
“Oh. I never caught onto that part,” he admits.
“Obviously,” Izabella comments. Dominico blushes a little and Izabella calls him out on it, only making him blush more.
“So how about you guys? Who are you going to ask?” I ask the rest of them. No one answers but they all look at the person not so nonchalantly. For Jaz her gaze is fixed on Dominico, for Ryan his gaze is on Melissa Mailton. I catch Izabella looking at a cute freshman boy whose name I have no clue. I choose to freak out on Izabella first.
“Spill. Now. Name? What’s he like? Any classes with you? Friends? Know you exist? Details!” I demand, going into a full girly inquiry over her crush.
“Later! Not in front of my big brother!” she hisses at me. Dominico raises an eyebrow at us and we both laugh at his expression. Izabella gets up to throw away her trash and I follow her. Halfway back from the trashcan she pales drastically.
“Hey, you OK?” I ask her. She nods but looks like she’s about to hurl. We sit down and I hope that Izabella’s nausea will subside. Jaz is stuttering something to Dominico and I assume that she’s asking him to homecoming but I’m really not paying that much attention to their conversation. I’m more concerned about Izabella’s health.
“So, what do you think?” Jaz asks Dominico. Izabella looks as if she is seriously going to pass out.
“You sure you’re OK?” I ask her in a low voice. She shakes her head,
“I don’t feel good all of the sudden . I don’t think I’ll make it to sixth period. I’ve got to go,” she leaps up from the table and runs from the auditoria, obviously heading for the bathroom or the nurse.
“Izabella?” Dominico asks as she tears out of the room. I watch her hurry down the hall,
“She started getting nauseas when she stood up. I think she went to the nurse or something,” I tell him.
“Is she alright?” he asks, concerned.
“I think so, I don’t know. It came on really fast,” I say. Dominico looks after Izabella with a worried look on his face.
“So?” Jaz prompts Dominico again.
“Umm…I really wasn’t planning on going, I don’t even know anything about it,” Dominico stumbles. Jaz wastes no time filling him in. She explains to the point of sounding like an infomercial.
“On October 30 at midnight. Be there early and you can get $1 off the price of admission!” Dominico doesn’t appear all that thrilled by the idea of a dance but Jaz doesn’t seem to notice. Ryan shoots me a look that says he does though.
“So…” Ryan interjects, earning a glare from Jaz. I’m torn between subtly telling Jaz that he doesn’t seem interested or helping her into getting Dominico to go with her, even if it is against his will. I’m not sure which would be the right course for ‘good friend’ behavior. If they both go and have an awful time then it wouldn’t be worth going but if I help her and they go and have a great time it would. It just depends.
“What are you going as, Ryan?” I ask him, giving Jaz a chance to turn back to Dominico with at least a little bit more privacy as Ryan is busy answering my question.
“I don’t know. What do you think? I could either go as a cannibal or Steve from Minecraft,” he asks.
“Ooh that’s a hard one. Like the cannibals from Pirates of the Caribbean? That could make a cool costume,” I say supportively. Ryan does decide to be a cannibal from Pirates of the Caribbean and we go into an extensive conversation about his costume details. I’m tempted to eavesdrop on Jaz and Dominico’s conversation but I butt out to be polite. The lunch bell rings with no sign of Izabella returning. Ryan is also worried about her. If she’s not by her locker after sixth period I’m going to go looking for her.
“So would you-“ Jaz cuts off mid-sentence. I feel the little pressure of magic radiating from Jaz is sitting. DOMINICO I-DON’T-KNOW-YOUR-MIDDLE-NAME REDWIND! You do NOT use magic on my friends. EVER.
“We should go to class,” Dominico says and hurries Ryan and me out the door. Jaz looks lost and confused but she shrugs, waves us good bye and heads for her own class before I can say anything to her. Ryan takes the scenic route to math class, passing by Melissa’s locker but Dominico and I head straight there.
“What the heck are you thinking?!” I yell at Dominico after Ryan is a good distance away. Dominico looks surprised at my reaction.
“What are you talking about?” he asks.
“Are you TRYING to fry Jaz’s mind? Stop using magic on her! She was asking you out! You didn’t need to mess up her brain because you’re nervous!” I scold him.
“How come whenever you use magic it’s perfectly fine but whenever I use magic you freak out like I just murdered somebody?” Dominico asks, growing angry.
“I don’t use magic to erase people’s minds!”
“No, you just lock people in dumpsters,” he growls. Oh, he’s still pretty mad about that.
“I let you out eventually,” I defend. Dominico rolls his eyes. “And you were asking for a fight! Jaz was asking you out!”
Dominico’s cheeks are red and I can’t tell whether he’s blushing or mad at me. “I thought it would be better than turning her down,” he mumbles.
“Would it be so bad to go to the dance? I know I hate dances but I’m still going! Thanks to your sister anyways,” I say.
“I didn’t say I wouldn’t go to the dance. You’re not going with anyone so you can’t say anything against me not wanting to go with anyone.”
“I am going with someone.”
“Fine then I’ll go with my dog too,” Dominico counters.
“You have a dog?”
“Yeah, Gracie. I’m sure she’d love to go to the dance,” Dominico says. I roll my eyes.
“So I’m not the best role model,” I admit, “What’s new? You seriously don’t want to go the dance with anyone? Warlocks have never been known to be anti-social.”
“I thought you didn’t believe those stereotypes. Anyway I’m not anti-social. At least not half as much as you are.”
“So what is it then?”
“Maybe I like someone else,” Dominico spills but then quickly looks away as he revealed too much already.
“Is that the girl you were thinking of before when you tried to magic-me into forgetting about it? Come on! Please tell me! I’m an awesome secret keeper! I won’t tell anyone!”
“Reminder: Dominico is mad at Faye and vice versa. Forget about that, Lightcaster?”
“Lightcaster? Don’t call me by my last name, Redwind.”
“Don’t be a hypocrite, Faye,” he says.
“You’re avoiding the topic now. Who’s the girl? Please Dominico? I’ll never ever tell Ryan that your scared of the dark! Please?”
Dominico whirls around to look at me, “How did you know about that?!”
“Why do you think I locked you in a dumpster, dummy?” I ask. His mouth drops open in shock.
“That’s awful! You knew I’d freak out in there!” he exclaims.
“You obviously don’t know what happens when you make a witch mad. Those Salem burnings? That’s what happens when witches get mad. Black plague? Mad witches. You’re lucky I just left you in a dumpster.” I tell him. He rolls his eyes.
“I still haven’t gotten you back for that just so you know. I am actually planning something,” Dominico says. I remember Izabella telling me about how Dominico was the King of Pranks.
“Crap,” I murmur. Dominico smirks, hearing my response.
“My sister told you about me, huh?” he says, sounding satisfied.
“Let’s just say I’m not looking forward to whatever evil genius plan you have in mind,” I grumble. Dominico puts a hand on his heart,
“You think I’m an evil genius?” he asks. I nonchalantly shove him into a nearby wall.
“Maybe not ‘genius’.” I say. He catches up to me and glares. I laugh.
“What’s so funny?” he growls.
“It’s amazing how fast you can go from almost-friendly to mortal enemy. It’s actually hilarious,” I tell him. He rubs his head with the palm of his hand.
“Don’t fall,” he says. I turn to ask him what he means when some random kid in front of me sticks his leg out to the middle of the hallway and I sprawl to the ground. No one seems to notice. Dominico grins.
“That was juvenile,” I growl at him.
“It’s actually hilarious,” Dominico shoots at me. Burn. I roll my eyes.
“We’re going to be late for math. Just please tell me the girl’s name real fast? I seriously won’t say anything to her or anyone else about her,” I promise.
“No.”
“Please?”
“How about you tell me who you like and I’ll tell you her name.”
“I don’t like anyone like that,” I tell him.
“You’re a high school girl and you don’t have a crush?”
“As you mentioned, I’m anti-social. Although I think your backpack has a crush on you. It won’t listen to me.”
“My backpack has a crush on me? You’re so weird.”
“Please? Name? Initials even!”
“No, you’d figure it out.”
“Describe her then! Eye color? Hair color? Height?”
“You’d figure it out.”
“Two things, one, you’re seriously over estimating my investigative skills. Two, if I could figure it out so easy then that means I know her! That seriously narrows down the list!”
“Who knew that your lack of friends would be my undoing?” Dominico groans.
“Yeah? Besides my friends who else do you know?”
“Don’t you think I had friends in California?”
“Guess so. Any witches?” He gives me a sideways look that says ‘Not in my wildest nightmares.’ I smile a little at the look.
“Then again I’ve never had a ‘friend’ who tricked me into pushing someone off a roof, locked in a dumpster and then accused of abducting her best friend and proven visually correct.”
“Visually correct? I don’t even think that’s a thing. However, thing or not, you just admitted that it wasn’t my fault that I mistook you for that other guy! I was ‘visually correct!’”
“Was that the only part you heard? Not the ‘locked in a dumpster part?’”
“Will you get over it?! That was weeks ago! I’m sorry! Is that what you wanted?”
“Yep. That’s it. Come on, math waits for no witch!” Dominico smiles widely at me and walks into the classroom. That’s it? Ugh! He’s so weird! I find myself smiling too and walk after him into the classroom. Crap! This was supposed to be either me scolding him over Jaz’s current state of mind control or grilling him over that girl he likes. Oh gosh. Maybe it’s my fault that I’m always mad at him… Nah!
I walk into math class and lose myself in an array of variables and constants and everything in between. To me, math is the only subject that makes actual sense. English is may be this but it may be slightly off. Social Studies? Pfft with my memory! Dates and names, in one ear and out the other. Ryan slides into his seat just as the bell rings.
“How was your passing period?” I ask Ryan after class. He just sighs,
“I don’t have the guts to ask her out. I can talk to her easy breezy but when I go to ask her out…OUT OF SERVICE PLEASE USE OTHER ELEVATOR!” I give his shoulders a squeeze,
“Come on, you’re not a broken elevator. You can ask her out. She likes you too, you know,” I encourage him.
“Aww how sweet. Have you been practicing that little pep talk?” Ryan asks. I smile and pretend to have no idea what he’s talking about. Yes, as a matter of fact I did rehearse that little bit during the variable equations portion of today’s lesson. Dominico appears at my side.
“Ready to go?” he asks me.
“Umm…sure…excited for computer science?” I ask. Dominico smiles at me one of the smiles that drops at least three girls behind us. I send him a really?-look. He shrugs like he doesn’t know what I’m talking about. “You better never expect me to do that,” I tell him.
“Never crossed my mind,” Dominico says with an even wider smile. What’s up with Mr. Happy today? He was furious with me this morning, annoyed with me at lunch and now he’s smiling at me as if we were the best friends forever. Personality disorder. That has to be it. A multi-personality disorder.
“Let’s go then,” I say suspiciously. Dominico leads me down the hallway to class, smiling the whole way. “I don’t apologize often so I’m not sure, do my apologies really cheer people up that much?”
“Maybe you do have people powers after all,” Dominico says. Yeah, as if. I walk ahead of Dominico into computer science. I’m working on a project of my own for the time being. Since Dominico and I are alone in our study hall I’ve decided to share the love. For a particular part of the day (ahem-seventh period) a helpful little folder appears under the student drive titled ‘How to finish your projects in five minutes or less!’ However whenever someone trying to earn brownie points calls the teacher over the folder temporarily may disappear for a time until Mr.Asus’ back is turned. Much to their dismay. Dominico is confused about my amusement until I explain my plot to which we both sit at our desks, silently laughing to ourselves. That’s when I hear a faint noise. No one else even turns around but it’s plenty loud enough for me. A high, feminine scream.
“Did you hear that?” I whisper urgently at Dominico. He sees my concern and shakes his head.
“No, what? Are you alright, Faye?” he asks. Instead of answering I hurry over to Mr. Asus’ desk.
“Mr. Asus, can I get a bathroom pass please?” He looks at me skeptically. Then I do the thing I hate to do. I play the ‘girl thing’ card to which he readily hands me a pass. I don’t hear the scream again so I make my way to the girl’s bathroom. I walk through the heavy wooden door and stop short.
“Izabella?” I call worriedly. Izabella is sprawled out on the bathroom floor. Her eyes are glowing silver and her mouth is open like she’s trying to scream. She looks absolutely terrified. I run to her side. “Izabella, what happened?” I ask but I kind of already know that she can’t reply. I do my best to sit her up against the wall and I splash water in her face but she doesn’t respond still. “I’ll be right back,” I tell her. I dash through the hallways back to the classroom. Dominico’s head jerks up when I walk in.
“Izabella,” is all I have to say. Dominico’s eyes go wide and no one else in the class is able to notice us. Dominico heads over to Mr. Asus’ desk and says something to him in a low voice and I know we won’t be missed. He takes my arm as soon as we exit the class.
“What’s going on?” he asks.
“I don’t know…I just heard a scream and then I found her-“
“Where is she?” Dominico demands. I lead him to the bathrooms and despite his gruff determination, I have to coax him into the girl’s door. When he sees Izabella he rushes to her side. I feel magic radiating off him in intense waves,
“Izabella Andriana Redwind, wake up!” Dominico exclaims. I backup a couple of steps due to the strength of his spell. He doesn’t look at me. Izabella’s eyes slowly open.
“Dominico? Faye? What are you- What’s going on?”
“We need to get you home now,” Dominico tells her. I know for a fact that their house is too far away to walk, especially in whatever condition Izabella has.
“Umm…I could give you a ride,” I offer. Dominico looks relieved and thankful but Izabella looks suspicious.
“But your car’s in your garage. How do you have a ride?” she asks.
“Don’t ask,” I say. Honestly? Rowan is going to have to drive it over. Sooo not telling her that until after it happens. I send an air-message to Rowan asking him to come immediately. Dominico and I help Izabella out to the parking lot and not five minutes later Ol’ Rusty pulls up with a very ecstatic looking border collie driving shot gun. Did I mention that Rowan loves to drive?
“You’re kidding me, right?” Dominico asks when Rowan drives up.
“Don’t worry, it’s just the truck driving itself. It just needs someone in the driver’s seat to work. It’s his favorite trick.” I have to smile looking at Rowan so happy. Dominico catches the small smile and his eyes soften for a moment. Then I snap back to reality,
“Let’s get Izabella in the back now,” I say. Ol’ Rusty pulls up right in front of us and stops. We help Izabella into the back and I force Rowan to get in the back with her.
“I’ll drive,” Dominico says.
“Uh, no. My truck, I drive. Besides, if something goes wrong I can keep it going,” I tell him.
“What do you mean ‘goes wrong?’” Dominico asks.
“Well, it’s kind of a fixer-upper that I’ve been working on,”
“Meaning…”
“I built it.”
“Faye…” Dominico says warningly.
“Relax! Rowan drove it here so it must be fine. If not, it can get to your house and at least halfway back without a tune up. I’ll get there as fast as I can,” I promise. Dominico gives me the I’m-trusting-you look and climbs in the passenger seat. Please work, please work, please work!
I press down on the gas and we speed out of the parking lot. Izabella starts to black out every two or three minutes but Rowan licks her awake before she can go under again. The annoying part? Rowan has taken to Dominico like lifelong friends. He reaches his head forward between the seats for Dominico to pet him. He doesn’t seem to mind though and pets him the whole way.
“So he’s your familiar?” Dominico asks to fill the awkward silence.
“Yeah, this is Rowan. Rowan this is Dominico.” I say. Rowan gets irritated when I don’t properly introduce him to people. He seems to recognize the name probably from the day I went all stupid-warlock on his first day and gives him a wary look.
“I see you’ve heard about me,” Dominico says with a questioningly look in my direction.
“Umm…I may have mentioned a thing or two when you first came here,” I admit.
“Like…”
“Hey, when you found out I was a witch you terrorized an entire class. When I found out you were a warlock I just went home and ranted to Rowan,” I say. He smiles a little,
“So you were bothered by the fact I am a warlock.” Rowan makes a choking noise that sounds quite close to laughter as if he was saying ‘You have no idea.’ I send a glare at the dog and he just keeps his stupid looking grin plastered on his face.
“And the truth comes out,” Dominico says, sounding satisfied.
“Yeah? Your turn. Did you really not know I was a witch on the first day?” I ask. He shakes his head,
“I had no idea.”
“Really?”
“Seriously, why?”
“You were staring at me, like, all day. I thought maybe you knew somehow.” His face glows red with a blush. Izabella lets out a small, weak laugh in the back,
“Don’t let him deny that one. He couldn’t stop staring at you.” Dominico didn’t look too happy with the direction of this conversation. He shifted uncomfortably in his seat. I get a pang of guilt for pushing this topic on him and let it drop.
“Like any music? Izabella keeps making fun of my stations,” I say and press the volume button on the radio and 97.1 country station comes through the truck’s speakers. He gives me a thankful look and switches the station to hard rock. I actually know every song that comes on which is only three as I’m flying down the streets. With Dominico in the passenger’s side I have a police-repellant. I pull up in their driveway and help Dominico carry Izabella up to the front door.
“Thank you,” he says to me.
“No problem. Is she…I mean…” I don’t know how to put it.
“This is normal,” Dominico says in a low voice. Warlock thing, he mouths. I nod even though I don’t understand.
“’Kay, just could you keep me posted?” I ask quietly. He nods and helps her inside. I take the nod as a yes and also my cue to leave. I walk back to Ol’ Rusty where Rowan is again in the driver’s seat.
“Ugh, fine. You can drive under one condition,” I say. Rowan tilts his head to the side as if to ask What? “Can you be my homecoming date?” I ask him, feeling awkward and sad asking my dog. Rowan barks happily once and I take that as a yes. I cast one last worried look at the old house before I climb in the passenger seat and ask Rusty to drive us home.
“Hey Dominico. I’m sure you know who this is since I left you like 58 other messages. Just please call me back this time? Even if it’s just to shut up and stop filling up your mailbox. Please call,” I press end call. It’s been four days since I drove Izabella and Dominico home and I haven’t received a scrap of news. Neither of them have been at school or in contact with anyone at school. I’ve been calling Dominico nonstop, dying for information. He hasn’t returned any of my calls. Now I get his point…being in the dark sucks! I just want to know if Izabella’s OK! Is that too much to ask?
“UGH!!!” I exclaim in frustration. Rowan picks his head up from where it rested on the bed. “I hate him,” I tell Rowan. He sets his head back down, having heard this rant twice a day for the past three days. I lie down on my bed, ready to give up. He said he would call. He said he would tell me if she’s alright. What do I get? Zilch. Nada. Zero. Nothing. Suddenly I hear the song Magic by B.o.B comes from my phone. Dominico’s ringtone. I jump off the bed and pick up the phone.
“Dominico?” I ask when I pick it up.
“No this is AT&T, you’ve exceeded your minutes this year,” Dominico’s voice comes through the speaker. I have to smile.
“Oh I’m sorry, this stupid warlock won’t return any of my calls. Don’t worry though, I won’t call him again. Guess he just won’t find out that I moved to Alaska,” I say.
“YOU MOVED WHERE?!” he yells. I laugh.
“Nowhere, you’re so gullible. I don’t have AT&T by the way.” Witches have their own phone service. I know, awesome right? All our powers and we make a world-class phone service.
“Oh thank goodness. I thought you were serious,” he sighs, relaxing.
“Like it would matter to you either way. One phone call? A text? Both could take less than ten seconds. Are you that busy? Dominico, I just want to know how she is.” There’s silence for a second and I hear him shifting from foot to foot like he always does when he’s uncomfortable.
“I know,” he says.
“Is she alright?” Silence then,
“No. She’s only gotten worse. Warlocks normally go through a couple day process when they get their powers. It can be painful for some but…not like this.” My breath catches in my throat. I don’t know what to say. She’s hurt. She’s getting worse.
“Wh-Why? Is there something different in her or is it something else entirely?” I ask quietly.
“I don’t know. Even my mom, a healer, can’t figure it out. Something’s definitely wrong but we just don’t know what.” I don’t say anything. “Faye? Could you come over? She’s been asking for you…and Rowan.” I nod but then realize he can’t see me.
“Yeah, of course. Now or later?”
“Umm…now would be good. Just do me a favor?”
“Sure, what?”
“Don’t let Rowan drive. No offence but I seriously don’t trust his driving. You’re going to be caught by a cop one day you know.”
“Fine but, just for the record, I put back glass on the windows whenever he drives so it looks like I am.”
“I don’t have anything to say to you defending your dog’s driving. See you soon, Faye.”
“’Kay, I’ll be there in five minutes.” He hangs up and so do I.
“Come on, Rowan. We’re going to see Izabella,” I say. He jumps off the bed. My dad’s gone at a meeting for the W-member committee he’s on and my mom is seeing my grandma back from the airport today. She told me to get out of the house so I don’t bother leaving a note or anything.
Like I promised I was in their driveway five minutes later. The tall house looms over me and I realize something I overlooked before. I’m going inside for the first time. I don’t know what to expect. I have the door open for Rowan and he jumps out and prances to my side as I walk up the steps. I reach up to knock on the door but it swings open before I can make contact. Dominico stands on the other side. In a word, Dominico looked awful. His skin looked even more pale than usual but he had dark bags under his eyes and they looked a little red. He was hunched over slightly like he could barely stand. His hair lay messily in all directions and his clothes were wrinkled and disheveled looking.
“Hey,” he says.
“Hey,” I’d ask if he was OK but he obviously isn’t. He steps back and gestures for me to come in.
“Hey Rowan,” he says and kneels to pet him. Rowan nuzzles against him comfortingly and I’m immediately thankful I brought him with me but also a little jealous that I couldn’t comfort Dominico a fraction as well as Rowan.
The entry of the house is big to say the least. Pictures of landscapes and California are framed on the cream colored walls. There is a purple and black room off to the left and a staircase with a wooden banister to the right. A coat hanger stands off to the side of the door. I hear a bark and a border collie only slightly smaller than Rowan runs down the hallway to me.
“Oh, this is Gracie. She’s my familiar,” Dominico explains. I hold my hand out to her and she sniffs it before I start to pet her.
“Hi Gracie,” I say gently to her and she circles around me, brushing up against my legs. Herding tendencies. I’ve always thought the herding tendencies were extremely cute and by no means is Gracie an exception.
“Gracie,” Dominico groans.
“She’s fine,” I assure him and scratch behind her ears. She licks my hand. I smile at her.
“She likes you,” Dominico says. Rowan trots over to Gracie and they do the dog thing where they sniff each other’s butts and then circle each other until one of them decides to interact. Gracie barks once at Rowan and heads off and Rowan quickly hurries after her.
“Apparently Gracie made two new friends today,” Dominico says, watching them go. I nod and smile a little at the two sweet dogs.
“She’s adorable,” I say to him. He smiles.
“Yeah, she’s great. Don’t let her fool you though, she’s a world-class trouble maker.” I can’t really picture her as a trouble maker but I make a mental note of the warning. Dominico’s face grows sad again,
“Izabella’s in here,” he says. My smile fades and I nod. Dominico walks ahead of me down the hallway right in front of the door into what appears to be the kitchen with green walls and fake flower decorations. There was a pan on the stove with something burning in it.
“Oh good heavens!” A woman exclaims, flipping over whatever is in the pan. The woman is a couple inches shorter than me with long black hair like Izabella’s and pale white skin. Her eyes are silver and she has creases on her face from smiling. Now however she looked worried and frantic trying to put out the flame on the food. She’s wearing a black dress with a grey apron over it and she doesn’t seem to notice when Dominico and I enter.
“Umm…Mom? This is Faye. Faye, this is my mother,” Dominico says. He shifts from foot to foot. The woman turns away from the food and smiles at me.
“Faye! How nice it is to finally meet you! Izabella has told me so much about you! Oh goodness…one moment please dear. I’m afraid I’m not the best when it comes to this cooking sort of thing.” Dominico opens his mouth, probably to agree with her, but then thinks better of it. Mrs. Redwind reaches out to pick up the pan’s handle to carry it to the sink. She gasps as the handle burns her.
“Oh, let me help you with that,” I say quickly. I cool down the pan instantly and put the flame out as I walk over to her.
“Ah, thank you dear. See Dominico? I told you witches are much better with food than warlocks.” Dominico rolls his eyes.
“I didn’t disagree. I just said that they’re also better at cruel pranks,” he grumbles.
“Izabella told me about that one,” Mrs. Redwind says with a chuckle and turns to me, “Nice going by the way. Also I agree, he deserved it.” I smile at her and help her set up the pan with a new set of pancakes-the grey things that I just dumped in the sink had once been pancakes too. “Aww, thank you dear,” she says when the cakes turn out perfectly golden brown this time.
“Yeah, thank you,” Dominico says sincerely. His mother shoots him an agitated look and points her spatula at the doorframe.
“Why don’t you take her into see Izabella before you have to join her in there,” she warns. Dominico holds his hands up in surrender before quickly taking my hand and leading me through the doorframe.
“Oh, it was nice to meet you!” I call back to Mrs. Redwind.
“Pleasure is mine, my dear! Do me a favor and try to keep that boy in line, will you?”
“I’ll do my best, ma’am,” I say giving him an uncertain look. He rolls his eyes and Mrs. Redwind laughs before he pulls me through the doorframe.
“Thanks a lot for that,” he says sarcastically.
“I like your mom. She’s nice,” I say. He sighs,
“Well she likes you two. Now you can both plot to destroy me.”
“I do not plot to destroy you! Just maybe leave you slightly traumatized is all,” I kid.
“Why do I hang out with you?”
“Easy, you have no choice.”
“Oh yeah. I’ll have to do something about that. Then again you obviously want to be around me as you left me 100 voicemails when I didn’t come to school.”
“I did not…it was only 59. Anyway I was calling about Izabella. You might have known that if you’d listened to any of them.”
“I listened to all of them. You’re not overly persuasive though. Seriously? You threatened to send Ninja Elephants to my house if I didn’t reply. How on Earth could an elephant be a ninja?”
“I was mad at you! You said you would call me! Anyways, why were you focused on that message and not the one where I threatened to make it rain mutated lizards on you until you called me back? I would have been much more concerned about that one.” Dominico smiles,
“You’re so weird.”
“Says the warlock to the witch.” We both share a look and then laugh. Then I look around the room. My laughter immediately stops. The room is a tall, open maroon colored room. There is shaggy white carpet with an unlit fireplace on the left side wall and three green couches arranged in an L shape. Now however there is a cot in the middle of the room and the floor is littered with medical books, both magical and nonmagical. One of the walls has double glass doors with green curtains pulled open. On the cot lies a sickly version of Izabella. Sweat beads down her face and her breathing sounds ragged and labored. There are dark bags under her eyes, even worse than Dominico’s. Her skin is pulled tight as if she hasn’t been eating and her eyes are more of a grey than a silver now.
“Izabella?” I ask quietly.
“Hey Faye, you came,” she weakly responds. I rush to the side of the cot with Dominico following behind me.
“Of course,” I say, kneeling down beside her. She manages a weak smile,
“Do I look that bad?”
“No,” I lie. “This is probably a stupid question but how are you feeling?”
“Like I got hit by a bus, ran a marathon, swam the Atlantic and then got half-devoured by a pack of lions. How are you?”
“Uh…worried...” I say honestly.
“Please don’t be. Dominico is worrying enough for all of us.” She replies. Dominico doesn’t seem to be in any fit state to disagree.
“Have either of you had any sleep in the past couple days.”
“Sleep? You still do that?” Dominico grumbles. I cast him a concerned look as does Izabella.
“Dominico, Faye’s here for a little while so why don’t you go take a nap or something.” Izabella suggests. Dominico looks away from her eyes,
“Izabella I-“ he cuts off. His eyes are focused on the glass doors. I follow his gaze and gasp. For a fraction of a second I see the boy. The same boy who impersonated Dominico. I barely catch a glimpse of his blond curly hair. His face is turned away from me so I can’t get a good look at him.
“What’s he doing here?” I growl.
“I’m going to find out,” Dominico says through clenched teeth. “You go around the other way.” I nod and do what I’m told. Mrs. Redwind gives us a confused, sideways glance when we tear through the kitchen to get to the front door but shrugs it off. W-members are used to weird stuff happening and happening frequently.
“HEY!” Dominico yells as he heads right around the house. I race left and circle the old looking house. For such a creepy exterior their house is quite nice. I hear footsteps racing toward me. I speed up my pace. I turn the corner and run smack into a rock-hard body. I stumble backward but so does whoever I ran into. I look up and see his face. He looks so familiar…
“Who are-“ The boy steps forward and painfully drives at my stomach. I double over, clutching my stomach in pain and gasping. I hear another set of footsteps,
“Faye! Grab him!” Dominico yells. I can’t. I can’t move. I can’t think. The boy glances back at Dominico once before running around me and into the woods. “Faye! Why didn’t you grab him?! You were right there! How could you miss him?!” Dominico yells angrily at me. I can only gasp for air. “Faye?” he asks. I look at him helplessly.
“So…so much blood,” I say. He looks confused but then he looks down at my stomach…and the knife hilt sticking out of it. Blood is gushing out beneath my arms and staining my skin and clothes red.
“Faye!” Dominico yells. Suddenly it doesn’t hurt. It doesn’t feel like…anything. It feels almost like I’m slipping. Slipping away from feeling. The lights around me start to dim. Almost as if I’m watching it happen to someone else, Dominico catches me as I fall. My vision flickers and then darkness. Again I see his point...being in the dark sucks!!!
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Hey, sorry for the long update. I should start updating once a week again. Please comment and vote!!! Thanks!
Magically yours!
Rosewood7