by Lilly Wilder
After what seemed an eternity of walking and wondering whether she’d be able to find her way back once this was all done, she started hearing voices. Soft and indistinct, they weren’t recognizable yet. Slowly, those voiced blurred into chanting, not far away from her. She stopped, in an effort to figure out where it was coming from. She pushed aside branches and bushes, all of which seemed to want a piece of her, clawing at her. Finally, she saw a little clearing open up before her but she herself remained behind, in the depths, hidden by a large bush.
Squatting behind it, she could see a fire in the very center of the clearing but it was no ordinary fire. It was red, then, blue, then orange, then green, changing colors every few seconds, as it tried to reach the skies themselves. A group of long haired women danced around it in long white dresses that reached down all the way to their bare feet. Their heads bobbed up then down, then up and down again, as their hair flowed wildly, following the rhythm of their chanting. Mina had no idea what they were singing. It was a language she didn’t speak. She couldn’t understand a word of it. She doubted she had even heard it before. The women held hands, as their bare feet danced on the ground, creating a closed circle around the fire. They seemed to be in a trance, with their eyes closed, but they knew exactly where to move and how to stay away from the blazing flames.
She was too far away to see anything clearly but, for a second, Mina thought she recognized Reeba, as one of the dancing women. The girl was of similar build and her red hair down to her shoulders was easy to pick up on. Mina was sure that she hadn’t seen any other red haired girls at the school but she had to get closer to be sure.
She dared not risk it. She had no idea who these women were or what they were capable of. What if that wasn’t really Reeba, but some completely different girl with nasty intentions towards intruders? Were they vampires or witches, or maybe both? Mina had never fought a witch. There was never a reason to do so. Witches had gone into hiding ages ago and very rarely decided to live in places where there were more humans than witches. Instead, they opted to stay in little villages in the mountains, or in some uninhabited islands, where they were free to practice their magic. Humans weren’t really all that eager to be neighbors with someone who could curse them over a possible disagreement. Mina could totally understand that. So, she decided against getting closer. Instead, she remained where she was, hiding and closely following what was happening.
The fire seemed to dance along to the movement of the women that surrounded it. Suddenly, one of them fell to the ground, as if she was struck by lightning. She appeared to be having a seizure of some sort, her body twitching and bending in most unusual ways but, strangely enough, there was no sound coming from the girl. Mina’s first instinct was to rush over and help but she had to keep herself calm and composed. The others rushed over, but instead of helping her, they were spilling flowery water over the girl’s face. She was still convulsing but much less fervently now. A few seconds later, she was lying motionless on the ground, her hair spread all around her face, with flower blossoms in it. The fire had died down a little. It wasn’t licking the skies any longer. Now, it was small and contained, blazing red in the darkness, pleasantly.
The woman on the ground stirred a little. She lifted her head up first, resting her open palms against the ground. She sat up, holding her head. Mina noticed that the earth was scorched to the ground where she’d placed her palms, as if someone burned all the grass and greenery from that spot with open fire.
The others surrounded her. They were talking to her, but Mina was too far away to hear anything. When they all dispersed, she finally recognized her friend. It was Reeba. They all picked up their clothes and got dressed in silence. Mina made sure not to make a single sound. Suddenly, she heard something behind her, a twig snapping. She quickly turned around but there was nothing. All she could see was darkness. Even the moon seemed to hide away. When Mina turned around again, she realized the women were gone. The fire was the size of a golf ball now. It was dying out on its own. Mina had never seen anything like it.
Before she could get up and see it for herself, she felt someone’s hand grab her elbow.
“What are you doing here!?” someone hissed at her, as quietly as they could.
Mina almost died of fright. She pulled away from the hand that reached out to her from the darkness and managed to fall into the bushes. The hand helped her get up and, only then, did Mina see that it belonged to Reeba.
“You almost gave me a heart attack!” Mina hissed back.
“You’re not supposed to be here!”
“And you are!?”
Mina realized how difficult it was to whisper while trying to shout at someone.
“We need to get back before anyone notices we’re gone,” Reeba pulled her again and Mina found herself running after her.
She had no idea which way they were going. She doubted she’d be able to find it in this darkness anyway, so all she could do was trust Reeba. About half an hour later, they were sitting safely inside Reeba’s dorm room. As Reeba was washing her hands in the bathroom, Mina realized that Reeba had a roommate. The other bed was nicely made. There were photos in the frames of a girl who obviously wasn’t Reeba. Several pairs of shoes lay by the door.
“Where’s your roommate?” Mina asked, as Reeba got back from the bathroom, with a towel still in her hands.
“She’s at her boyfriend’s room,” Reeba explained, “but, you didn’t hear it from me.”
“Of course not.”
Reeba threw the towel on her roommate’s bed, then sat down on it. Mina herself was sitting on Reeba’s bed and the two girls were facing each other now, neither of them willing to start first, even though both were burning up with curiosity.
“So, are you gonna tell me what you were doing in the forest in the middle of the night?” Reeba started first.
“You were there first,” Mina snapped back, feeling attacked.
“I’ll tell you what you want to know, just ask.”
“Really?” Mina was surprised to hear that. She expected that she’d have to beat the answer out of her, as she usually had to do, as a slayer.
“Of course. We’re friends, right?”
The look on Reeba’s face was one of childish naiveté and faith. She trusted Mina. She didn’t believe that by telling her what she wanted to know, anything bad could happen. Mina almost envied her this state of mind. She never managed to obtain it herself.
“Sure,” that was all Mina managed to say. “I couldn’t sleep, so I looked out the window and saw the fire.”
“I told the girls it wasn’t a good place. We should have gone further into the woods,” Reeba shook her head.
“I doubt anyone but me saw you.”
“You can’t be sure of that,” Reeba told her. “You can’t be sure of anything around here.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, they say we’re safe and all here, but this place mostly looks out for real vampires.”
“Real vampires?”
“You know, like both of your parents are vampires. Mine aren’t.”
“What are your parents then?”
“My dad is a vampire. My mom is a witch.”
“That is so cool,” Mina let this one slip.
“Thanks,” Reeba appreciated it, “but, you’re alone in that sentiment. Somehow, I’m less than everyone else but I don’t care. I found a few witches here, too, and we try to keep up with our customs, like our moms taught us.”
“Was that what you were doing in the woods? Doing one of those Witches Sabbaths?”
“No, we’ll do that one in a month or so, on Halloween. This one was an emergency meeting.”
“Why? What happened?”
“One of my friends heard that the book was stolen.”
“The book?” Mina had a strange feeling that she knew exactly which book Reeba was referring to.
“Malleus Maleficarum?” Reeba a
sked, and Mina just nodded. “We never knew where it was but we did know that it was in safe hands. It was given to a witch, for safe keeping and she was supposed to hand it down to someone she trusted most in the world, to keep it safe. It’s too important to us, too powerful if the wrong person gets it.”
Mina started to feel dizzy. Was Reeba talking about her mother? Was her mother a witch? This was all too much. She felt like she was going to faint.
“Are you okay?” Reeba asked.
“Yeah, just tired,” Mina lied. “Please, continue.”
“Well, I don’t really know much. None of us does. We just caught word that whoever had it, doesn’t have it anymore. It was stolen and no one knows where it is now, or who has it, which is even worse.”
“But, there are several copies of the book, no?” Mina asked, sure of what she was saying.
“There were, but they got lost over time. Many were burned. We know of only one copy in existence. The one that has disappeared.”
Mina wanted to tell her that she knew exactly what was going on, and that she was doing her best to get the book back and keep it safe, but something held her back. She still wasn’t sure that she could trust Reeba. After all, Reeba was half vampire. That part hated what Mina was. It was a difference they could probably never get over, on a path to true friendship.
“That sounds horrible,” Mina said, deciding to stay on neutral ground. “So, you arranged that meeting to try to find something out?”
“Yes,” Reeba nodded, “but, unfortunately, we couldn’t find anything out. Our ancestors are asleep. They only wake up during the important dates for a witches’ Sabbath, like Halloween. We all agreed to have a meeting then and hopefully we’ll know more about what happened.”
“Do you think I might be able to attend the meeting?” Mina suddenly asked, a crazy idea starting to form inside her mind but she didn’t want to mention anything at the moment.
“You?” Reeba frowned. “That’s highly irregular.”
“I know,” Mina nodded,” I would just like to see the whole process. I’ve always been interested in witches and their history. Please? It would really mean a lot.”
“I don’t know,” Reeba was still frowning.
“Pretty please?”
“I can talk to the other girls, but I can’t promise anything,” that was all Reeba could say. “It doesn’t depend on me, really.”
“I understand. Just try, okay?”
“Sure,” Reeba eyed her weirdly, as if she didn’t fully believe her. “Well, I guess you could just spend the night here. It’s too late for you to go back to your room, someone might see you and tomorrow is Saturday anyway.”
Mina didn’t need a second thought to realize Reeba was right. Someone might see her trying to sneak back into her room and, then, she’d have a lot of explaining to do. It was best just to stay here and go back in the morning.
“I guess you’re right,” Mina nodded.
“You can sleep on my roommate’s bed. She won’t be returning ’til the morning anyway,” Reeba sneered. “She never does.”
“Are you sure she won’t mind?”
“Relax,” Reeba smiled. “Now, let’s go to sleep.”
Ten minutes later, both girls were tucked in their beds and the lights were off but Mina still wasn’t able to fall asleep. Now, sleep seemed even more out of reach than before. She couldn’t stop thinking about the possibility of her mother being a witch and not just any witch but the witch responsible for the safe keeping of the most important book. There was no other explanation.
Mina closed her eyes tight but that didn’t help. No amount of sheep helped either. So finally, she accepted the fact that tonight was not a good night for sleep. She could just lie down and rest, with her eyes closed and her mind racing. But, the moment she relaxed, her mind did, too. A blissful wave of serenity washed over her, and exhaustion took over, finally sending her body to slumber land.
Chapter 8
The weekend passed by uneventfully. Mina managed to rest and she actually focused on her school work. The last thing she wanted to happen was for them to expel her because she was a bad student or unable to catch up to the others. Zeadore Academy had very high standards and it already happened that students were expelled due to their inability to keep up. This meant that they weren’t worthy of the attention the Academy awarded to only the best.
On Monday morning, Mina finally felt like she was ready. It’d been a week since she’d been there and even though she didn’t manage to obtain any information regarding her brother or the book, she was hopeful that by attending the Witches’ Sabbath on Halloween, she might learn something new, something which might show her the way.
Her Monday classes were easy and she was extremely attentive during every single one of them, answering the questions her teachers asked with elaborate explanations, which left quite an impression on them. She was surprised to realize how much she’d missed this aspect of her life, just going to school, like every other kid, not thinking whether she needed to be somewhere else, saving helpless humans from vampire attacks. She enjoyed learning more about the things she liked, such as literature, geography and history, as well as the things she knew less about. Kellam had been doing a great job home schooling her but the experience simply couldn’t be substituted with anything other than the real thing. She was just like everyone else here. Not better, not worse. They were all the same and this feeling, even though it was a fleeting one, felt soothing.
By the end of the day, Mina didn’t really feel all that tired. She was thinking of maybe going to the botanical garden, hoping to stumble into Thorne again. She’d enjoyed talking to him, even more than she should have.
As she slammed her locker door soundly, a familiar face popped up.
“Hey you!” Reeba chirped with a sweet voice. “You up for a walk around the lake?”
“Actually, I’ve been thinking of going to the botanical garden.”
“Botanical garden? Why?” Reeba asked.
“I like it there,” Mina shrugged her shoulders. It was true. “And besides…”
But, she wasn’t allowed to continue, because a new face emerged from the crowd, squeezing itself between Mina and Reeba. Mina had no idea who he was, but he was already leaving a bad impression.
“You, scram,” the guy said, pointing his finger at Reeba.
Mina immediately frowned, getting ready to kick this guy to the curb but before she could say anything, Reeba bowed her head down and disappeared.
“Well, now that I’ve got you alone…”
The guy leaned onto the lockers, blocking her path. He was grinning at her, a row of perfect pearly whites, with a smile to die for. His hair was the latest fashion scream from any hairstyle magazine, with every single hair in place. His skin was glowing. Mina thought he was probably one of those guys who never goes to bed without hydrating his skin first. She hated his kind.
“I don’t think we’ve been properly introduced,” he was flirting with her shamelessly.
“Oh, really?” she couldn’t think of anything else to say, which wouldn’t make her sound too pissed off. He was already making a horribly bad first impression and it was only going downhill.
“I’m Raphael,” he cooed, “and I swear, you’re the prettiest girl in the whole school.”
Mina burst out laughing so loudly, that a few students turned around to see what was going on.
“Don’t tell me that actually works?” she frowned, disbelief written all over her face in permanent ink.
“You’d be surprised,” he grinned.
“No, I’d be an idiot,” she corrected him and he actually smiled genuinely this time.
He looked almost likeable without that arrogant grin on his face, when he was just smiling like a normal person. She wondered why he couldn’t be like this all the time.
“Lucy, right?” he asked.
“Mhm,” she replied.
�
�It’s always nice to see some fresh blood here, especially this beautiful.”
“Oh wow,” she nodded, “actual gradation. I’m guessing by the end of this unpleasant conversation, I’ll be gorgeous?”