The room fell silent.
“This isn’t that kind of adventure,” said Jae quietly. “In a few weeks I’ll be home, and you’ll all go back to your lives.”
“Yeah. I guess that’s true too,” said Colin.
“In the meantime, we need to come up with a story,” suggested Sebastien. “A reason that you are at the camp without your parents being around.”
“Colin and I tried to come up with one over the last few days, but we got nothing,” Meghan told them.
“Every time we thought we had a story that would work there were always holes. Like someone is bound to recognize you as being from the caravan,” Colin warned.
“I think I have the perfect solution then,” said Jae. “It’s something I’ve been working on while I was stuck inside. There is a spell that can alter my appearance. Not a lot, but maybe just enough to make anyone question that they recognize me.”
“You can do that?” Meghan, Colin, and Sebastien asked all in unison.
“Yes. At least I can now,” he clarified. “Another benefit of being on my own I guess. You see, it takes a lot of magical energy to keep up any sort of spell, especially a transformation type spell. But during the last few days of being alone, my energy is surging. I have never felt so strong. Like I could pull off any spell I wanted to.” His eyes filled with excitement. “It’s why I know I could fight the Scratchers if I had to.”
“Well let’s see it then,” demanded Meghan. “If this transformation spell works, none of us will be stuck inside.”
Colin and Sebastien nodded their agreement.
Jae clapped his hands and grinned mischievously. He turned away from his audience and waved his hand in front of his face, saying something they could not understand. When he turned back around his hair was no longer dark, long and stringy, but shorter, auburn and spiky. His eyes changed from brown to green, and a few freckles ran over his pale-skinned face.
“Wow! Magic can never get old in my book,” said Colin. The others agreed, astonished at the change.
“My dad would be so angry if he saw me doing this,” Jae admitted. “I’ve been practicing all kinds of looks and things he’d never approve of. Well, mostly he’d just not approve of me using magic like this.”
“Well, he’s not here.” Meghan reminded. Poor Jae, she thought. Doesn’t seem like he gets to have much fun.
The twins and Sebastien laughed, oohed and aahed, as Jae spent the next thirty minutes trying out different styles and colors, until finally settling on the original, auburn spiky hair. He left off the freckles but kept the green eyes.
“It is definitely different enough that no one will be able to place you, Jae,” insisted Meghan. She wished she could change her appearance so easily.
“I think I have come up with a good story as to why your parents are not around,” Sebastien told the group. “We can say your parents work in town during the day, and if you are with us at night, they have been working hard all day and have already crashed for the night.”
The three waited for Jae to make the call.
“I think it’s just brilliant enough to work.”
Sebastien shook his head as the foursome departed the wagon. “This is a lot to believe,” he admitted.
“You had better hope you don’t have an encounter with those Scratchers,” said Colin. “They will make an instant believer out of anyone.”
“That is certainly the truth!” agreed Jae. “Let’s not think about it now though. I’m having way too much fun.”
“You’re right,” bellowed Meghan, spinning around in circles. “We are all free.” She took off running toward the lake. The others laughed and followed.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Later that night as the twins crawled into bed, Uncle Arnon walked into their room.
“Your big thirteen is practically here,” he sighed. “I hate to be so blatant, but are there any particular gifts that you have in mind? I am plum out of ideas.”
The twins laughed; this happened each year. A few days before their birthday, he’d give up and just ask.
“At least you know you are a terrible shopper,” jested Meghan.
“The worst!” he agreed.
“Besides, you already bought me my gift,” reminded Meghan, tapping her nose.
“This is a special year,” Arnon reminded. “You only turn thirteen once.” They noted a sadness in his tone.
The twins connected their minds.
“I think we should answer the same as we always do,” said Colin.
“Yeah. I know he doesn’t have a lot of extra money to spend, thirteenth birthday or not,” Meghan said, somewhat dreamily. Colin caught on to her thoughts on wearing clothes that were actually black, not faded black.
“I will leave it up to you, Uncle Arnon,” Colin told him. “There really isn’t anything in particular I would like.” Meghan nodded her head in agreement. Arnon eyed them suspiciously.
Being paid for handyman jobs in trinkets, casseroles and cobblers made it hard to afford the daily essentials, never mind splurges like birthday parties.
“I think I am mostly happy that once we hit the big one-three, we get the extra hour of curfew,” expressed Colin.
Arnon patted his shoulder.
“Could I ask for more in two youngsters?” he muttered. “Goodnight, you two. Sleep tight.” He left the room, closing the door behind him.
Mere minutes later the twins were out cold. Having not been able to visit with Jae over the last few days had interrupted their sleep in the previous nights.
#
The days leading up to their birthday party were much the same; lounging by the lake, wandering around the campground or into town, and overfilling themselves on ice cream and whoopie pies. Uncle Arnon met Jae with great success. He was thrilled they had another friend to invite to the birthday party.
The day before the big birthday, Sebastien told the twins he had to go into town with his parents. Jae decided to tag along. The twins had a sneaking suspicion they were shopping for birthday gifts.
Uncle Arnon was out making a last minute camp call; someone’s RV shower had gone berserk. They also had a feeling this was a ploy, especially since they caught him arm in arm with Kanda, hightailing it out of the campground. They fully suspected that he had joined up with Jae, Sebastien, and his parents, in birthday shopping.
Colin, eager to learn more about his new book, leaned against a granite rock near the trailer and flipped through the pages of the Magicante.
As the hours passed, Meghan, bored, lazily turned the pages of a magazine, looking at new hairstyles and clothes. Speaking of clothes, this sweater is killing me. She took it off, feeling overheated.
“You feeling okay?” Colin asked, seeing her wipe sweat from her forehead.
“Fine. Just a little hot out here.”
Colin did not think it was hot at all. It was a bit cloudy with a cool breeze.
“Just this fever… keeps coming and going. Getting a bit annoying at this point really.”
“You’d better not be sick for our birthday party.”
“That’s not going to happen. I don’t get sick.”
“There’s a first time for everything.”
“Well it won’t be during our birthday party.”
Colin went back to reading.
Meghan’s thoughts strayed to how cool it would be if she could change her appearance, like Jae. She wondered what she would change if she had the choice. She had always thought about cutting her hair shorter, but had never dared. She grimaced at her chest, thinking, something there would be nice, too.
“Eeeeewww,” shouted Colin. “I did not need to hear that!”
Meghan’s temper grew fiery at once.
“Then why were you listening?” she slammed down her magazine. “You shouldn’t butt in if you don’t want to hear!” She knew she’d let her guard down, and would have done the same to him. Regardless, she stomped off angrily, storming down the camp road.
“Where are y
ou going?”
“No idea! Just away from you.” Meghan was actually thinking a dip in the lake might be nice. Her skin was getting hotter. The dull ache deep inside her bones almost felt like it was getting hotter too.
Colin dropped the Magicante onto the ground, leaning back with a huff.
Her temper gets worse by the day!
He forgot to block the thought and felt his sister’s mind go blank as she angrily put up her own block, but not before hearing her scream profanities, meant for him.
The sun popped out from behind a cloud, pouring comforting rays of heat across his face. His eyes closed and he started to doze, forgetting all about his sister. A short while later, cloud cover blocked the sun, stealing his sleeping potion. A strong breeze awakened him with a shiver. The breeze continued to pick up. Ominous clouds warned it might rain any minute.
Colin jumped, startled.
His book, the Magicante, flew up into the air and then fell hard and flat, landing with a thud on the ground. It opened itself and the pages began to flip back and forth. The leaves began to shimmer and glow, detaching themselves from the pages.
He got to his feet with a gasp when the leaves formed into a whirling tornado, which sped down the camp road. The cranky voice of the Magicante spoke with a forceful sternness.
“Find your sister, Colin, and do so with haste! She cannot face the coming storm alone.”
“What do you mean?” he yelled at the book, his heart pumping heavily. He glanced upward. It looked like just a normal summer storm coming in. “How am I supposed to find her, she’s blocking me. I don’t know where she went!”
The book said nothing else and slammed shut.
Colin grabbed it off the ground and ran after the tornado, hoping it would lead to Meghan.
“I hope it’s not the Scratchers!” he muttered to himself. He listened, but the skies were quiet.
His panic heightened when the tornado veered off into the woods. Surprisingly, it destroyed nothing in its path; plants and trees miraculously bent out of the tornado’s way, allowing Colin to pass through before standing erect once again.
He opened up his mind, searching for Meghan. At first, he could only sense that she was close by, and then like a flooding river, her thoughts gushed into his mind. It was a mixture of panic, fear and confusion. She was fighting something, but he could not make out what.
“If it’s Scratchers, we are screwed!” he shouted to no one. “I cannot fight those things.”
His short legs darted easily through the pathway cleared by the leaf tornado. He could sense she was somewhere just ahead. A clear picture entered his head of Meghan, doubled over in pain, kneeling underneath a twisted oak tree.
“Meghan! Hold on I’m coming!” he yelled, hoping she could hear him. The pain splitting through her intensified and Colin nearly fell over as the same feeling filled his own mind. He blocked her, hard as he could, for fear that he would not be able to continue standing if he did not. What the heck was happening to his sister?
Seconds later, he skidded to a stop and dropped the Magicante onto the ground. The twisted oak towered in front of him. Colin found Meghan on her knees beneath the oak.
The leaf tornado flew back at the book, the pages flipping back and forth, reclaiming the leaves as they affixed themselves back to their pages.
Meghan screamed.
Colin had no idea what to do.
“Get it off me!” she pleaded. “Get it off!” her arms flailed as if she were trying to bat away a horde of stinging insects. Colin leaned down and tried to pick her up, only to instantly let go when she shrieked in anguish.
“Tell me what’s wrong,” he begged her. However, the only reply was another horrifying scream, followed by incoherent thoughts in which Colin believed he heard the words ‘please let me die.’
Fire consumed Meghan’s surroundings. Orange and crimson flames burnt the trees, the ground, the sky, and an approaching figure. She gasped, horrified as the flames edged closer to her own body. She tried to move but was frozen, unable to get away from the approaching fire.
Meghan screamed as the first of the flames touched her skin. This time, unlike her nightmare, she felt the fire burn her. She tried to push her body away from the flames, but she could not move. She could not get away.
“Get it off me!” she yelled. “Get it off!”
The flames licked at her legs, spreading to her arms, and then to her head. The heat burned at her throat, cutting off her air making her gasp for breath. She wished desperately to pass out, or even to die.
“Why haven’t I died?” she wondered desperately. “It can’t take this long to burn to death.”
Meghan left the thought behind as a new wave of pain sliced through her. The burning figure had touched her. Each touch of the figure’s hands left the sensation of a sharp knife cutting into her already stinging skin.
She let herself fall to the ground, wishing for it to end, even if that meant death.
Colin, desperate for help, opened the Magicante, hoping it would take them home as before, but this time the voice had an unwelcome response.
“I am truly sorry boy, but you are on your own this time. You have another way.”
Colin did not understand. What did the book mean by another way?
“Colin,” mumbled Meghan.
“I’m right here. Hang on,” he told her, furiously thinking of how he would get her home. In his haste, his hand brushed against her forehead.
“Ouch!” he yelled, yanking it away. Meghan’s skin was hot as a skillet. “She shouldn’t even be alive,” he said aloud. He had never heard of a fever like this before.
Colin pleaded with Magicante. “I don’t understand what you mean by another way.”
“I am not without compassion, boy,” replied the book. “But you have little time to prepare. You must do this on your own!”
Colin stared at his moaning sister, blocking her thoughts so he could think.
“What’s my other way?” he asked himself. He had no idea what the Magicante wanted him to do.
Meghan wanted to sink into the fiery ground around her. Somehow though, through the pain and fear, a strange thought popped into her mind. Am I really on fire? Flames had spread across her body, but underneath them, her skin was still there. There was no smell of burning flesh. It was more like the fire burned from the inside.
“Boiling blood,” she whispered aloud in her delirium. She laughed hysterically.
Colin heard her and decided that one way or another, he had to get her home, fast! He took hold of Meghan, trying to lift her off the ground to see if she could stand. An agonizing scream tore at his eardrums and he let her sink back down to the ground, dropping her.
“She’s dying,” he thought, horrifically. “And I can’t stop it.”
Meghan heard a muffled voice echoing snidely through the flames, and recognized it as the voice from the Magicante.
“You can stop the pain faster if you would let Colin help you already!”
Realizing that the figure had to be Colin, she did not stop him when he attempted to come near her again. She was afraid though, that she might burn him if he touched her. She focused all her remaining energy on seeking out his thoughts.
“Meghan, can you hear me,” he kept repeating. “I don’t want to hurt you, but I have to get you home. Okay?” She could not speak an answer but managed to nod her head. She lost his thoughts and her own returned. The pain, if possible, intensified. She could not help but scream.
Colin held the now useless Magicante under one arm and grasped Meghan with the other. He closed his eyes tightly and wished desperately to understand what the book meant by another way. Meghan’s breath started coming in gasps.
“I just want to go home!” he bellowed hopelessly.
The moment he said it, the ground beneath his feet began to swirl underneath him. He gasped, grasping Meghan tighter. She screamed louder. Her mind opened up and he could no longer block her thoughts from penet
rating his mind. He was overwrought with pain and anguish and screamed along with her. For a brief moment, he could feel exactly what she could feel.
Like she was burning alive.
A moment later, they were inside their uncle’s trailer. His thoughts of, “How the heck did I do that?” vanished instantly, replaced by the need to help his sister. He gently laid her on the couch, grabbing a glass of cold water. She knocked it from his hand when he tried to get her to drink it.
Familiar voices echoed in the distance. He sprinted out of the trailer in one long step, at the same time wailing, “Uncle Arnon!” The distress in his voice caused his uncle to drop the packages he carried, and dash toward Colin.
“What is it?” Arnon pleaded, taking hold of his shoulders.
“Meghan. She’s having some kind of fit, and she’s burning up.”
Arnon ran to the trailer with Kay Jendaya’s petite frame at his heals.
“You all stay here,” she ordered as they disappeared inside.
Colin collapsed to the ground. He could not recall ever feeling this tired, or more relieved to have a grown up around.
“Help him up, boys,” instructed Milo. Sebastien and Jae took one arm each, and helped him stand.
“What happened?” asked Sebastien, his voice trembling.
“I have no idea.” He did not wish to explain what had truly occurred, at least, not with Sebastien’s father around.
“This might take a while,” said Milo. “Why don’t we all go back to our camper, and I will make us something to eat.” Milo forced a smile, but after the horrified look on Colin’s face, the last thing any of them wanted was food. Colin wanted to go back into the trailer, but he let the others lead him the other way.
“She probably just has a bad case of the flu,” suggested Jae. “My aunt did once, had a real high fever and hallucinated like crazy, but she was fine after. Well, she’s not really my aunt, but like one.”
“Meghan can’t possibly be sick on your thirteenth birthdays,” reminded Sebastien. “She has been waiting for this one forever. I bet you by tomorrow morning she’s good as new.”
Awaken (The Witches, The Spell Book, and The Magic Tree) (A Fated Fantasy Quest Adventure Book 1) Page 11