North End: The Black Forest

by Amanda Turner

  I didn’t have an abundance of clothes, and I wished that Lillian and I were the same size. She had so many clothes that she had to keep some of them in my drawers. Plus, she was naturally stylish. I wasn’t completely clueless, but I hadn’t been shopping in years. Not since the last time my mom took me. So, my wardrobe was small to say the least.

  “There is plenty here that we can work with,” Lillian said, standing up to look through the clothes. She only had to rifle through three piles before she had an outfit for me. “Here. This will look cute!” She tossed the dress to me, and I slipped it on. I turned to look in the mirror beside Lillian’s bed and found she was right. It didn’t look half bad. It was so simple I would have never considered wearing it. It was a plain white, loose-fitting dress that fell just above my ankles. “One more thing,” she said, tossing her blue jean jacket towards me. I slid it on. It was about two sizes too big for Lillian, so it actually fit me. With my black ankle boots, the look was complete.

  “Well?” I asked, giving a twirl.

  “You look perfetto!” Lillian cheered in a terrible Italian accent. She had been practicing the language recently.

  I rolled my eyes and laughed. “You may need to work on that before you spend First Semester Break with your family in Italy.”

  I only had fifteen minutes before Miles would arrive, so I started picking up the disaster area. With Lillian’s help everything was back to its usual place in under 10 minutes, which was good because there was a knock on the door at 8:25. I was already anxiety-ridden, so the knock startled me, and I jumped.

  “He’s early,” Lillian whispered. “Someone's excited,” she added, eyeing the door. “Good luck.” She smiled, grabbed a book, and sat down casually on her bed. I made my way to the door and took a deep breath before opening it.

  “Hey, Josie,” Miles breathed when the door was open. He seemed a little nervous, too, which made me feel more comfortable, oddly enough. Overly confident people always make me extra tense.

  “Hi,” I said in return. I looked down and noticed he had flowers in his hand. Five tulips perfectly in bloom.

  “These are for you.” I grabbed the flowers, hesitantly, thinking of how bare the garden was this time of year. There were basically no flowers in sight.

  “Thank you! But…how…?”

  “A simple charm does the trick. I’ve been doing some studying outside of my classes on how to alter the elements of nature. They should stay in bloom for a while, too.”

  “Thank you,” I mumbled again, walking over to my dresser to set them down. Lillian grabbed them before I could.

  “I’ll find a vase for them,” she offered. “That was very thoughtful, Miles,” she said, glancing in the hallway.

  I walked back over to the doorway. “You ready?” I asked and he nodded in response. I stepped into the hall, closing the door behind me, and walked slightly behind him, letting him take the lead since I had no idea what the plan for tonight was. There were only so many things you could do on this tiny island. “So, do I get to know where we’re going, yet?”

  “I think you’ll find out rather quickly.” We walked through the winding halls of the castle, talking about easy topics, like school and our friends. Despite my nerves, I felt comfortable talking to him. Miles was so warm and kind. He was the type of person I felt like I could be myself around without worrying about being judged. I sensed that about him the first time we actually spoke. He joked around with me the very first day of Professor Rose’s class. So open. It reminded me of how my parents treated everyone. Maybe that’s why I liked him from the start.

  We walked out the front door of the school and began crossing the bridge that led outside school grounds. It was my favorite type of night. The moon was just barely there in the sky and the stars were bright. The castle stayed mostly dark at night, so it was easy to see the stars if you wanted to. There were no other buildings or any roads at all on the island.

  We continued across the stone bridge slowly as it took us over the moat surrounding the school. There were streetlamps lining the bridge, but they were dimmed quite a bit. It was very foggy, which wasn’t out of the ordinary. The island stayed covered in fog a majority of the time. To the right was the ocean. If we were just a little closer, I would be able to hear the waves crashing. To the left was the forest, called the Black Forest. The fog covered the ground and the trees shot high in the air. A chill went down my spine as I remembered my nightmare from last night.

  “Are you cold?” Miles asked, already slipping off his jacket.

  “Oh no,” I shook my head and pulled at my jean jacket. “This is cozy. It's just a little spooky out here.” I didn’t need to go into detail about my freaky dreams on the first date.

  “Here,” he held out his arm and I wrapped my own around it while my heart doubled its pace. “I’ll keep you safe,” he smiled down at me.

  When we reached the end of the bridge, I thought of how much this looked like a scene from a horror film. For a normal human it would be a scary thing, but horror films were my favorite. It was probably a witch thing. Nights like this usually brought me comfort. When they didn’t remind me of terrifying nightmares...

  We reached the end of the bridge and I stopped, letting go of his arm. “Are we getting close? We’re about to go off school grounds, you know?”

  He turned back to look at me. “That rule doesn’t really apply to me. I have connections.” He winked and continued walking. I followed and didn’t ask what he meant by that. I wasn’t the type to break rules and neither were my friends. In fact, I had never been off school grounds without a professor. But, to my surprise, I didn’t even feel nervous. I felt excited.

  We turned to the left, heading towards the woods. “Are we going to the Black Forest?” I asked and my voice quivered a little, but not from fear. The temperature was dropping as we got closer to the forest. I could see my breath.

  “Are you cold or are you scared?” Miles asked, looking down at me with his green eyes.

  “Just cold,” I assured him. He took his arm and wrapped it around me, pulling me closer to him. I warmed instantly, but it was mostly from the heat rushing to my cheeks. My heart fluttered, and I snaked my arm around his waist to let him know I approved of his move. We were walking on a dirt path now, and I looked over my shoulder to watch the school fading into the distance. In front of me, the only thing I could see besides the trees was the guard shack twenty feet ahead. It was a small room with white siding. There was a single lamp on inside the room and a dim light on the roof so you could see it from far away.

  “Are we going to sneak past the guard?” I whispered shocked, but slightly thrilled.

  “We won’t have to.” We were approaching the building and Miles didn’t break his stride once. He strutted up to the front door confidently and knocked. An older man stood up from a chair on the side of the room to open the door. His hair was grey, and he moved across the small room slowly. I wondered how many years he had been on this Earth. Miles greeted the man as I stayed a few feet behind them.

  “Good evening, Mr. Dan.” Miles held out his hand and shook Mr. Dan’s hand firmly. He was talking a little louder than usual, so I figured Mr. Dan was hard of hearing.

  “Hello Miles.” The man looked happy to see him. “I haven’t seen you in a couple weeks. Where’ve you been?”

  “I’ve been busy with school. I haven’t been able to make it out much.” What was Miles doing in the Black Forest?

  “Well, how is your uncle doing?” asked Mr. Dan.

  “He’s doing much better,” Miles responded, keeping his answer short as if he didn’t wish to elaborate.

  “I see you have a guest tonight,” Mr. Dan said, gesturing towards where I stood in the shadows.

  “Yes,” Miles replied, walking towards me. He looped his arm around me again and led me towards the light shining from the top of the building so Mr. Dan could see who he was meeting. “This is Josie. I thought I would show her some of the tricks I’v
e been practicing out here.”

  “Well, you two have fun,” he said cheerfully, waving goodbye and wobbling back into the guard shack. I heard the radio click on, playing swing music quietly, before we walked away from the shack towards the Black Forest.

  I had never been out here at night. The chilly air and fog reminded me of All Hallows Eve, our most celebrated holiday, which was coming up in a couple of weeks. “Being out here at night makes me feel festive,” I whispered as we took our first step into the tree line. I took one last look at the school. It glowed softly and beautifully at night from the torches surrounding it. “Next week they’ll be putting up the decorations.”

  “Why are you whispering?” Miles giggled as he whispered like I had.

  “I don’t know,” I laughed, still whispering. “I guess I feel like we’re breaking the rules being out here alone. At night.”

  “Well, technically, we are.”

  “So, you come here often, then? Out in the Black Forest? Alone?” I asked Miles, curious and slightly teasing since it did seem a little creepy he spent evenings here. “The guard seemed to know you very well.”

  “I come out at night sometimes to practice spells involving nature. I came to the school late, as you know, so I feel like I need to work even harder to catch up. Plus, nature spells are the most intriguing to me. It makes me feel a connection to the earth. I could show you one if you like.” He stopped, unraveling his arm from my waist.

  “What kind of spell exactly?” I questioned timidly.

  “Don’t worry. I think you’ll like it.” He turned away from me and began whispering a spell I couldn’t make out. It was dark in the forest. The skyscraper trees formed a canopy of sorts, blocking out most of the sky, but a few streams of light from the stars trickled down. It was silent with the exception of crickets, a few owls, and Miles’ whispers. Then, all of a sudden, it wasn’t. The chirps of crickets and calls of owls and ribbets of frogs grew louder. The area in front of us was suddenly illuminated by a thousand tiny glows. It looked like Christmas lights covering every inch of the air. I turned to look behind me and found that the lights went all the way around us in a circle. They were fireflies. And they took my breath away as they reminded me of the lights that used to cover my house on All Hallows Eve. Only this light was brighter. All Hallows Eve celebrated the dark side of witchcraft, so the decorations often represented that. But this magic wasn’t dark. It was light. My favorite type of magic.

  I exhaled a “wow” and smiled, feeling at peace. Miles whispering slowed and the light began to fade, until it disappeared altogether along with his whispers. He turned to face me again, smiling. “What’d you think?”

  “It was...beautiful. I didn’t know a spell like that existed,” I said, still mesmerized.

  “They don’t really teach magic like that in school. I’ve just learned it through my personal studies. The first time I tried it—Well, all the white light...it reminded me of you. A bright light in a dark place.” He looked at the ground as he said the last line like he was too shy to admit it. My heart fluttered. He thought of me?

  “I don’t know if you could give me a better compliment than that,” I glowed. Instantly, I felt sure of his feelings for me. I had been dreaming of him ever since the beginning of the year. And when we started talking in class, I would have never imagined he would develop feelings for me. He was better than me in every way—confident, kind, smart, and nothing short of gorgeous. I could see the way girls ogled him, hear how they spoke about him. But he thought of me.

  Bravery washed over me for a short moment, and I decided to take advantage of it. I took four steps, closing the distance between us. Facing Miles, I slipped my hands in his. Then rose to my tiptoes slowly so our lips were inches apart. I paused, waiting for him to close the distance between us this time. He leaned forward a bit but paused to look in my eyes. His looked softer than usual. I fluttered mine closed as he pressed his lips to mine. His hands released mine and moved to my face. He gently cupped my cheeks as our lips moved together. My head swam. This was even better than I imagined it would be. He pulled his lips away first but pressed his forehead to mine. His hands were still on my face, but he moved his thumb to trace my bottom lip. My heart was beating so hard I was sure he would hear it. This wasn’t my first kiss, but it was the first that ever meant anything to me. The first that made me feel something.

  Miles moved away and grabbed my hand. “Come on.” We continued into the forest. It should have only been half a mile long, but once you were inside the woods, whatever magic was here seemed to make it extend endlessly. We walked a little further into the forest. We didn’t say anything. I was too busy focusing on deeply breathing to lower my heart rate. As I wondered if he was doing the same, we reached a small opening in the trees. Miles grabbed a small blanket out of the bag he had been wearing on his back and laid it on the ground. “Have a seat,” he said, motioning towards the blanket. I obeyed and sat down. Miles grabbed three logs from a pile a few feet away from us and stacked them onto one another. He whispered “ignis” and small sparks started popping up from the logs until they were on fire.

  “Very impressive,” I said looking at him and raising my eyebrows.

  “Yeah, I’m kind of a big deal,” he teased. He sat down beside me on the blanket and we both faced the fire. “So, tell me more about your life before this school. I know Josie here at North End, but how about who you are outside of the castle? Where are you from?”

  “Well, I’m mostly from a small town in West Virginia, but I lived in a couple different places when I was really young. I mostly remember West Virginia though, so I guess that’s what I consider “home.” We moved to Scotland the year before I came to North End. What about you?”

  “I never really know how to answer that. I moved around a lot. Like a lot. So, nowhere has ever felt like home. I grew up all over the United States, though, and me and my dad eventually moved to Italy when I was a teenager. Until I came here.”

  “Wow. Very interesting. I’ve never been to Italy,” I commented.

  “It’s beautiful, but I was glad to move here, honestly.”

  “What took you so long? To come to this school, I mean. Usually people start when they’re thirteen,” I asked, silently praying that the question didn’t lead to a story about his father being locked away or killed for keeping him from this place.

  “Uhm…it’s a complicated story. But basically, my dad…turned his back on the witch world.” He glanced over at me cautiously, probably wondering if he should continue or if I was already judging him. His dad was a hitch. And most witches didn’t like to associate with those types of people.

  He must have seen on my face that I was unbothered by that fact and continued. “My mother and him split up a long time ago, and she pretty much left me behind. I haven’t talked to her since I was seven or so. After that, my dad didn’t want anything to do with witchcraft. Maybe it reminded him of my mom, I don’t know, but we moved around a lot after he stopped practicing magic. Probably to keep witches from finding us, but I didn’t know that at the time. Anyway, he tried to keep me away from this world, too. He wasn’t open about my powers, even when he must have known they were developing. I didn’t understand for a while. But when I did, I started researching and reaching out to family I hadn’t spoken to in years. Eventually, I found out about North End and enrolled myself as soon as I could. My uncle, my dad’s brother, helped me with it all.”

  “How did your dad feel about that? Is he still not practicing?”

  “He was…accepting. I think it made him sad, especially since I was moving away, but he has his own life. And yeah, he still doesn’t practice magic. His powers have faded a lot over the years, so I’m not sure he could even if he wanted to.”

  “Didn’t the school…punish him when they found out he didn’t send you here?” I asked bluntly, even though I was still afraid of the answer.

  “No, they didn’t,” Miles shook his head. “My uncle is ver
y high up on the council at the school so when all of this came out it was a mess. He knew his brother was keeping me a secret, but he never turned us in. So, when I reached out to my uncle, he had to tell them the truth: that he had a nephew who he knew had been hiding. They couldn’t punish my father without punishing my uncle, and they would never punish a witch as high in the ranks as my uncle. The council is very loyal to their own, perhaps to a fault.”

  “So, he got lucky?” I asked. Miles was being polite when he described the council as “loyal.” Rumors always led me to believe the council was corrupt. It all depended on who you knew. And if you knew the right people, you could get away with anything.

  “He got very lucky. So did I,” Miles exhaled, shaking his head. “I was a little angry with him for keeping me from this world, but I couldn’t imagine losing him. He doesn’t deserve to be killed for choosing to live a different way, even if he didn’t handle the situation perfectly. No one is perfect. Not even parents.” His last comment made me think of my father, and I wondered if it made him think of the mother that abandoned him years ago. We sat in silence for a moment while I processed what his childhood had been like. It was obviously very different from mine and coming to this school must have flipped everything upside down.

  “Well, are you happy with your decision?” I asked, finally breaking the silence.

  “Yes,” he said without hesitation. “Very. I would have resented him if I didn’t at least try the school. And now that I’m here, I’m really happy. I finally feel like I belong.”

  “Well, I, for one, am glad you ended up here.” I bumped him lightly with my shoulder in an attempt to lighten the mood.