Divided by Magic

by Rebecca Danese

  "I never finished telling you what happened to my parents," she says.

  "You don’t have to if you don’t want to."

  "No, I need to say this. Really." I nod at her to go on, her hands still in mine. "When I was born it was apparent that I was different. I would use my powers anywhere and everywhere, and it became obvious that I was a Purist. That’s what they call Augurs with abilities like mine. In some ways Aggie is too. She doesn’t need big energy transference to get her visions, but she can’t do it with anything else. Mum and Dad decided to keep me as far away as possible from the madness, and instead of fighting the good fight for Augurs they tried to keep their family safe. Their priorities changed, but not before they could get themselves noticed by all the wrong people. They’d exposed more corrupt politicians and bonkers scientists wanting to tear us apart than I can count. I know you did your own research on us, but you probably never heard that there were whole time periods where Augurs were used as slaves, and other time periods where we were experimented on to get to the bottom of our differences." I shake my head because no, I’d never heard that, although now that she says it I’m not actually surprised.

  "Well, we moved out of town, into the countryside, and for years that worked perfectly in keeping us off the grid. Then Mum got wind of an Augur being experimented on by some nutcases calling themselves doctors. It looked like their work wasn’t over after all. I was completely and idiotically oblivious to what was going on around me, and I went out with my camera one day. It was so stupid," she shakes her head, furious at herself. "If I’d stayed indoors, done my homework like they told me to, I might have prevented it all." A tear slides down her cheek and I brush it away with my thumb. I want to tell her it’s okay, she doesn’t have to tell me everything. But a selfish part of me wants to know. Like watching a horror movie that you hate but need to know the ending of.

  "I was out in our field one day and decided I wanted to photograph a particular flower. Himalayan Blue Poppies. My Dad had told me about them and said how rare they were, but that he’d grown a patch once near the front gate. They’d died after the summer and he’d never seen them again, but to me that didn’t feel like an issue. I was out there, camera in hand and so concentrated on finding a bit of life in those seeds under the soil, I didn’t even realise there was someone watching me. By the time I’d grown the flowers a few inches high I was being knocked out and carted away.

  "I woke up in a concrete cell, only eleven years old and completely terrified. There was no power, no lights, heat or even water. But, of course, that’s no problem for me. I did exactly what I shouldn’t have: I used my own energy to create a crack in a wall and escape. But I didn’t realise that at the same time, Mum and Dad were on their way to get me out. The crack made half of the facility cave in and in the confusion of chaos they were killed by a Normal who probably thought it was them creating all the havoc. They were shot moments before I found them," she chokes back a sob and I get up to put my arms round her.

  "I’m so, so sorry," is all I can think of to say. It feels feeble and weak in the face of so much grief and pain. I realise it doesn’t matter if it was eight years ago or eight minutes ago, losing someone is one of the hardest trials we have to face.

  "The thing is that even though so many people were arrested in connection to the experiments, my parents’ deaths were swept under the rug, like it never happened. That makes it hard to get closure on it. But from that day onwards I promised myself I wouldn’t use those abilities. Nothing good can come of them." She sounds resolute now, angry even. I don’t want to push her to say any more, so I simply nod.

  "Thank you for telling me. I know it can’t be easy talking about it," I say. I’d had no idea her parents had been killed until she’d mentioned it earlier. I just thought they’d died in an accident or something. But now her sister’s insistence to use Ella’s powers makes as much sense as Ella’s own reluctance to. They both lost parents that day and they both want to do what’s right. I feel like a tiny and insignificant pawn in a giant game of chess.

  She dries her eyes and finishes her coffee. It seems that she’s able to recover pretty quickly, and I’m impressed at her ability to wipe her tears away and carry on, but I guess it’s almost a routine habit of hers now.

  I clean up the dishes and realise looking at the kitchen clock that time is pressing on.

  "We’ll need to get over to work pretty soon. You want to change while I do these?" I say, nodding to the washing up.

  "Sure. I’ll just take my stuff upstairs," she says and grabs her bag. I realise that I have no idea what state I left my room in this morning.

  "Oh God, hang on a second," I say and run up the stairs before her. I throw open the door of my room and make my bed quickly. I kick a few shoes into the corner and close the drawers I left open. The pile of laundry isn’t yet spilling over the top of the basket and it doesn’t smell too bad in there. Hopefully it’ll pass.

  She slides in behind me and manages to smile.

  "Cute room," she says, eyeing my football poster on the wall that’s been there since I was ten.

  "Crap. Sorry, I didn’t really prepare for company," I say apologetically.

  "It’ll do just fine," she says and kisses me on the cheek, ushering me out the door so she can change.

  I head back downstairs to clean up and when I return not only is she perfectly dressed in her black skirt and white shirt, but my room looks remarkably cleaner.

  "Blimey, how long was I?" I ask, impressed.

  "Ah, nothing a bit of Augur magic can’t fix," she winks and sits down on the edge of my bed. "You going to change?" she asks.

  "Er, yeah. Don’t you want to turn round or something?"

  "What? To preserve your dignity?" She laughs. Why do I feel sheepish? Because there’s a ridiculously hot girl sitting on my bed who happens to now be my girlfriend that I now have to get semi undressed in front of, that’s why. I shrug in an attempt to seem unbothered. Like, ‘yeah, sure, I change in front of girls all the time.’ I sigh and strip down to my underwear, pulling on a white t shirt and my black trousers. I try not to make eye contact with her so as not to make the whole thing even more awkward. Just that small routine of getting undressed in front of her is enough to put an aching knot of nerves in my stomach. Of course, I invited her to stay. What was I thinking? That she was going to sleep on the sofa? I need to focus on the more important matters at hand and try to push anything else out of the way right now.

  "You okay?" she asks, giving me one of her expert smirks.

  "Er, yeah. Fine. Shall we?" I ask, holding the door open for her whilst scanning the room for my shoes that I kicked somewhere few minutes ago.

  When we finally leave the house there’s a keen December chill in the air and I’m grateful for my coat and scarf. She looks like a model from a winter wear catalogue in her coat, pulling the hood up to cover her ears.

  I lock the house behind me, and as we walk past the end of the road I see the curtains twitch again in cigarette-man’s upper window. I mention it to Ella and she shrugs. "Honestly, if he’s got something to say he can say it to my face. Anyway, we’ll have Jer over after work and he’ll be able to tell us if he’s a threat or not, hopefully." As if to appease my instant jealousy at the mention of another guy’s name she takes my hand in her gloved one and I feel reassured.

  "You need to stop that," she says as if reading my mind again.

  "Stop what?" I ask defensively.

  "Stop worrying about Jer, or that I’m going to suddenly run off with someone or whatever. I’m just as committed to you as you are to me. In fact, I’d have more to lose if you suddenly decided to dump me, just so you know," she says, matter of factly.

  "What do you mean?"

  "I mean that you know everything about me. Like, everything. But also everything about my family and very soon you’re going to be finding a lot more out about my friends. I trust you one hundred percent. Surely you can do the same for me?"

/>   "My God, Ella, I trust you with my life. I would never do anything to wreck what we have. You have to know that. But you’re so much better than me in so many ways I wonder why you’re even my girlfriend. I can say that, right? I mean, either you’re my girlfriend or you’re a very close friend that I happen to be madly in love with—" then I stop myself short. I said it. Out loud.

  She stops walking and turns to face me. "You mean it?" she says. Does she not know how much she means to me really? I’m sure she does but wants to hear me say it again. And it’s true. I’m in love with her in a way I didn’t think was possible. All that soppy ridiculous stuff I’ve seen in movies or read about pales in comparison to what I feel for her.

  "I mean it. I love you, Ella Cooper. You’re the best thing that has ever happened to me." Saying it makes me feel somehow lighter, and in response she throws her arms around me and kisses me hard.

  "I love you too," she whispers, her forehead pressed against mine, smiling.

  I feel like I’m floating all the way down the street, her hand in mine. There’s something good happening in my life and it comes in the shape of a beautiful girl that loves me. I’m insanely lucky, I know.

  We decide to walk all the way to the restaurant, rather than get a bus. It’s cold but we’ve got a little time to spare and I’m glad just to be in her company. We talk the entire way about anything and everything. I tell her about my old school and how I couldn’t stand to stay there a day longer when I left; she tells me how her parents had her homeschooled so that she wouldn’t have to hide her abilities from everyone.

  She tells me how Agnes has been trying to control her life since they were orphaned, which in a way I can understand. How the search for the mysterious Augur girl that destroyed an expensive facility kept them moving for a few years before Agnes found them a stable group of flatmates and a job in the busiest city in the country: London.

  I tell her about my parents. How my Dad and I don’t get on, but that Mum will really like her. I plan to introduce them when they get back from their holiday, although I tell her I probably won’t mention she’s an Augur just yet, and we laugh and joke at how my Dad would react to that.

  As we turn into the high street I notice a commotion somewhere near the bottom. Something about it makes me feel uneasy. The lights from emergency service trucks bounce off every building and I hear sirens in the distance, although it’s difficult to tell if they are coming or going. Smoke billows up into the bleak afternoon sky, tainting everything with an even greyer film.

  "What do you think it is?" I ask as we pick up the pace to get nearer to the forming crowd. The road is cordoned off in one section and home time drivers are honking to get through. We squeeze through a line of cars which are almost bumper to bumper.

  "Looks like a fire somewhere," Ella says, pointing out the fire engines that are blocking the traffic and causing chaos. It’s true, there are fire fighters everywhere and a long hose that is gushing out water to put out any remaining flames.

  As we get nearer my heart stops. I finally realise as I stare into the charred remains of the green awning and ruptured front window why I felt so uneasy. The building that caught fire is Gregorio’s restaurant.

  CHAPTER 7

  We muscle our way through the crowds to find an ambulance, three paramedics and a score of firefighters around the building. A huddled shape in a safety blanket is curled up in the open back of the ambulance.

  "Mr. Gregorio!" Ella runs over, and I follow on her heels. Mr. Gregorio, whom I’ve never seen look anything other than slightly stern, is almost unrecognisable. His pale face and wide, dark eyes stare out from the shiny plastic cover that he’s been wrapped in. Ella throws her arms around him, and he does something I didn’t expect: he breaks down and cries.

  "What happened?" she asks softly. He whispers something in her ear and I see her nod, a shocked expression on her face. I feel like a spare part, knowing that Mr. Gregorio barely tolerates me as it is. The last thing he probably wants is me standing there while he has a nervous breakdown. They speak, heads together in hushed tones and I decide to walk towards the wreck that was my workplace for a closer look. Where’s Federico? Or Gio and Marco? They should all have been here finishing their shifts, but I can’t see a single recognisable face in the crowd.

  Seeing that Ella and Mr. Gregorio are still in deep conversation, I walk around the side of the building down the side alley to the back kitchen entrance.

  There are no emergency services staff here and no Federico in the kitchen. I expected that the kitchen would be the starting point for the blaze, but the place looks fairly intact. An electrical fire on the restaurant floor, perhaps? I probably shouldn’t go in, but curiosity gets the better of me and I step through the open doorway. On the left everything is as it always is, with knives and utensils magnetically fixed to the wall. The central workstation still has meals in various stages of progress laid out on plates. The right wall is lined with cookers, and although there are pots and pans on many of the hobs, everything seems to have been switched off. It’s an eery scene with everything looking as though someone has just stepped away for a second and will be back any second to finish off their work. Knowing the mess that’s out the front of the building I’m sure that the restaurant will be out of commission for a while.

  I walk further into the long room and notice that the door to the walk-in fridge in the corner is ajar. It seems odd so although I know I’ll probably get told off any minute now by someone for snooping around, I can’t help but go in for a closer look. I gently pull the door open further with a finger, and my heart stops.

  A figure is reaching into a plastic container on the top shelf but stops suddenly at the sound of my shout.

  "Who the hell are you?" I ask accusingly, but before I get an answer the stranger has pushed straight past me and out the kitchen door. I would chase after him, but another sight stops me dead.

  Laying on the floor in a pool of blood is Federico. There’s a spatula in his hand and spilled containers of food everywhere. Is he still alive? Not knowing what else to do, I run out through the double doors into the charred mess of the restaurant floor and run straight into a figure in full fire fighting gear.

  "Whoa! Hold on there, son, what do you think you’re doing in here?" he says in surprise, his voice muffled by his lowered helmet.

  "My friend is hurt!" I say and point in panic at the kitchen. He calls to one of his colleagues who is putting out a small fire in the corner with an extinguisher and tells her to grab a paramedic. Following me through to the walk-in fridge, I take him to Federico and he tells me to clear the way in case they need to move him.

  "Is he still alive?" I ask, my voice sounding unfamiliarly shrill to my own ears. He removes a glove and with no regard to the puddle of blood on the floor he reaches down to check his pulse.

  "Yes, but barely," he nods, and as I sigh with relief a paramedic pushes her way past me, followed by another, and soon the fridge is overcrowded. My head is swimming with questions and I feel nauseous from the sight of so much blood and the smell of burnt wood and fabric. I step back into the alleyway to get out of their way and to clear my mind for a moment.

  Was the fire in the restaurant an accident, or something more sinister? If Federico was brandishing a utensil around the fridge in an attempt to fight that guy off, then there was possibly more to it than someone just trying to steal food. I feel lucky I didn’t end up in a confrontation with the hooded figure now as I look down at the crowd gathering around Federico. He’s built like a tank, and if that skinny guy could do something like this, then he was a braver man than I am. Assuming that it was indeed a guy and not a tall skinny girl. I realise I didn’t get a good look at the assailant at all, it all happened so fast. I look down at the unmoving shape of Federico, only his legs visible from this angle, and I feel terrible. We’ve never gotten on, but I wouldn’t want anything bad to happen to him, and I start to get that feeling that I should have been there to help prevent
it. I step outside realising that I’ll be no good to anyone if I’m only getting in their way.

  What could I have done? I ask myself repeatedly. Me? Nothing. Ella though. If Ella was here instead of with me she might’ve been able to stop it. I wasn’t even supposed to be at work yet, but it doesn’t stop me from running through it all in my head. This is what Ella must feel when she thinks about her parents. That odd survivor’s guilt that we put ourselves through, which helps nobody but somehow tries to justify our lack of responsibility. What does my Mum say? Hindsight is a beautiful thing. In this case it doesn’t feel so beautiful.

  "There you are," Ella says, walking down the alleyway towards me.

  "F-federico," I say, and tell her what I found. Her pale face grows even paler in the ever darkening winter afternoon.

  "Oh God," she says quietly, looking preoccupied.

  "I know, it’s awful. There was so much blood everywhere and everything," I say, feeling sick again just thinking about it.

  "It’s not just that, Curtis," she says. "Federico had something that the Magic Circle wanted. The person you saw must have done this to try and get their hands on it." I’m surprised at the mention of the Magic Circle, but the figure I inadvertently bumped into was definitely looking for something.

  "The weird Augur terrorist guys that wind up the media?"

  She nods at me, and I wait for further explanation. "They’re not just a bunch of idiots that create trouble in the media. As far as we know they work for someone important. Federico had some information on their ringleader and a whole lot more. It was all on a flash drive that he kept hidden in the restaurant and he’d been trying to find the right person to help leak it…" she trails off as the realisation dawns on me that Federico is an Augur. She nods again as she sees me arrive at the conclusion.

  "And Mr. Gregorio. Basically, everyone at the restaurant except you," she says, and I suddenly realise the implications of that.