Louise shrugs it off. “I’m sure it’s nothing, guys. Things come up all the time, and besides, they said she’d be back tomorrow.”
“Hmmm… Maybe you’re right. I’m probably just being overly paranoid,” I say, trying to ignore the nagging doubt in my mind.
After dinner, everyone heads to the lounge for board game night. I’m exhausted, so I decide to turn in early despite Louise’s protests. When I get back to my room, I relish the silence and lay on my bed, thinking about all the crazy things happening in my life.
I grab my phone and place my earphones around my head. I click on my favorite playlist and close my eyes, hoping the music will drown out the jumble of thoughts in my head. Soon, I’m dozing off, the music in my ears like a lullaby to a baby.
It’s blurry at first, and then it zooms into focus. I’m standing in a city park with scattered benches and carefully landscaped trees. Pigeons surround my feet, eating breadcrumbs off the concrete ground. It takes a moment for me to realize I’m dreaming, as I study the unfamiliar surroundings. I don’t recognize any of the faces around me, until I spot a young couple seated on a nearby bench. My mom is whispering into my father ear, glancing suspiciously at the building across the street. I walk over and sit next to her. She looks young, confident and composed, wearing white leggings, a long white sweater, and white knee high boots. My father gazes at her adoringly, his jaw tenses as he listens.
“Maven, are you sure you want to go in there by yourself?” he asks, grabbing hold of her hand protectively
“Erik, I have to. Eleven people have died already. These people are my friends and colleagues. If I don’t do this, I might be next…” she says, looking at my father with desperation.
He tightens his grip and frowns. “What makes you think the Wand Calibrator has anything to do with it? He’s practically an institution in this place.”
“I’m not certain, Erik… I have my doubts of course, but if you think about it, this is the one place that all the witches and wizards of the Light have in common. Once a month like clockwork, we bring our wands here for calibration. Those who died, had just brought their wands in for servicing… We can’t ignore that fact.”
My father sighs. “Okay, so what’s the plan?”
She lets go of his hand and bends over to pick-up a gold metallic case. “I already have an appointment for an emergency calibration. While I’m there, I’ll take a look around, see if I spot anything suspicious. If I need you, I’ll let you know.” She kisses him on the lips, and grabs the case by the handle, walking away without looking back.
I follow her as she crosses the street. In front of the building, in large, ancient looking letters, it says, The Federation of Light. Inside, the granite floors look glossy, complimenting the modern glass and metal interiors. She walks confidently towards the security checkpoint, where they do a full body scan. Once she’s cleared, she steps into a see-through glass elevator and rides up to the eighth floor. The doors open and she emerges onto a shiny concrete hallway with a row of frosted glass doors. She passes several, till she reaches one with an etched sign that reads: The Calibrator: By Appointment Only.
The door slides open and she enters. Instead of the high-tech place I was expecting, the room looks like an ancient laboratory filled with wooden tables, shelves, metal tools, machines, and a myriad of glass bottles and beakers filled with gasses and liquids of various colors. Behind one of the tables sits a very old Asian man. He’s tall with a shiny bald-head and a thin, scraggly mustache. Under his small wire rimmed glasses, his eyes are cloudy with cataracts. As he looks up and smiles at her, I notice that half of his teeth are missing.
“Good afternoon, Miss Smith, thank you for being on time as usual,” he says with a thick accent.
She nods politely. “Thanks for seeing me on such short notice. I only noticed yesterday that my wand seems shaky.” She places her case on the table and opens it, revealing a velvet-lined interior, with a space that fits the wand snugly. She lifts it out, and I gasp when I see that it’s almost identical to the one I found at the lake, except for one minor difference. Her wand is encrusted with sparkling purple colored stones instead of the diamond-like ones of the other wand. As she holds it up to the calibrator, the stones shine even brighter.
He takes it from her and examines it closely. “Hmmm… It does seem slightly off, but I won’t be sure till I run some tests.” She nods agreeably.
“I’ll just have you sign our consent form, and I’ll get started right away,” he adds. He calls for someone in an unintelligible language, and a few seconds later, a young Asian girl appears, holding a glass clipboard and pen. She looks rather meek, staring down at the floor when she hands over the clipboard for a signature. Mom studies her closely, her eyes squinting as if she notices something odd. She lifts her eyebrow and looks at the calibrator.
“That’s Peony, I just hired her a few weeks ago. She just graduated from the Beijing Academy,” he says nonchalantly. He waves his hand and grunts at the girl. She bows her head and turns to leave.
Mom looks at her suspiciously. “Wait a minute!”
The girl stops and hesitates before turning around. She shifts her eyes from the ground, and glares at Mom.
It happens so quickly that it takes a moment for me to realize that Mom has grabbed her wand out of the calibrator’s hand, and points it at the girl, uttering a series of words I don’t recognize. A bright white beam shoots out, landing in the middle of the girl’s forehead. For a minute, nothing happens. Then I hear a sizzle and a crack, and the girl’s body begins to vibrate violently. Next, smoke appears, encasing her body till she’s no longer visible. It takes a few seconds for the smoke to clear, but once it does, I gasp, as Rufus White stands with a hideous smirk on his face. He’s dressed in an old-fashioned black suit, cravat and bejeweled cufflinks, his complexion smooth and brown. The calibrator is shocked, standing frozen in place. Mom points her wand at Rufus, but this time, he’s too quick for her. By the time her beam shoots out, he’s already leaped across the room and made a run for it. As she chases him, I hear the elevator doors close, and by the time she gets to the hallway, he’s already gone. She kicks the wall with her boot, cursing before closing her eyes in concentration.
Another elevator door opens, and she hops into it, pressing the ground floor button with force. She flicks her wrist upwards, pointing the wand to the top of the elevator, and suddenly it’s descending so fast, that it feels like we’re freefalling. When it’s dangerously close to hitting the ground, she points the wand downwards, and the elevator slows down and stops. The doors open, and she catches sight of Rufus running towards the exit with a trail of bodies lying on the ground behind him. She runs after him, and just as she reaches the exit, there’s a deafening roar.
The roar is somehow like a shriek; it manages to be low and high-pitched at the same time, the two sounds vibrating in the air with such intensity that my eardrums feel like they’re going to burst. When we get outside, I gasp.
An enormous dragon with silvery scales has Rufus cornered. His piercing red eyes stare right at him, and every few seconds, he breathes out a molten hot flame so close to Rufus’s face that he must feel the burn on the tip of his nose.
As Mom reaches them, she’s breathless and locks eyes with the dragon. She points the wand at Rufus and shouts out a series of chants. Her body stands firm as she spews out the spells in one long string, her voice gradually increasing in volume. The wand emits a violet colored liquid that darts out and showers Rufus’s body, but only for half a second. Almost as soon as the liquid covers his frame, it expands away from him, still surrounding him. It forms into a thick bubble with sparks coming off of it, as if somehow it was electrified. By now, he’s floating in the middle of the sparking sphere. His attempts to escape the bubble are useless; every touch sends jolting shocks through his body. Time after time, he become more aggressive, hoping that if he uses enough force he will be able to withstand the bursts, but eventually his body is so
worn, with black, charred, splotches where his skin touched the electric bubble that he’s subdued from even lifting his head. All the while Mom continues to send spell after spell his way, increasing the voltage of the cage, thickening the walls of the bubble. His limp body now floats in the center of the entrapment, spinning, entirely subjected to the will of the electric prison. Mom points her wand at Rufus one more time, removing the wand from his clutches, grabbing it as it flies through the bubble, towards her in the air.
A crowd has appeared, gawking at Rufus. They point and ogle, as if he’s a rare specimen in a museum. Mom suddenly looks pale, and she falls to the ground, losing consciousness. The dragon transforms into my father; he runs to her, sweeping her up dramatically in his arms, as he screams, “Maven!” I hear his voice screaming over and over. But as he continues to scream, his voice seems to change, and instead of Mom’s name, I hear, “Hazel! Hazel! Hazel!”
31
Louise shakes me. “Hazel! Hazel! It’s time to wake-up!” I open my eyes, and flinch at the sight of her staring down at me. “Hazel, what’s wrong with you! I thought you were dead.”
“Sorry, I was just dreaming…” I mumble groggily, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes. Louise narrows her eyes suspiciously. “Huh. Well that must have been some dream…” I ignore her, concentrating on dragging my ragdoll body out of bed so I can get dressed. “We better hurry if we want to catch breakfast,” says Louise, as she primps in front of the mirror, eyeing my slug-like movements from the corner of her eye.
I’m not in the mood to argue, so I brush my teeth hastily, and pull my hair up in a messy ponytail, not really caring if I look like the walking dead. “Alright. Let’s go.”
When we get to the dining hall, it’s almost empty except for a few stragglers. I can tell Louise is pissed that she won’t have time for a leisurely breakfast. She does a dramatic sigh as she fast walks to the pastry buffet. I know better than to sass Louise when she’s hungry, so I just shuffle behind her inconspicuously, grabbing a couple of muffins while secretly wishing I had a few extra minutes for coffee. We have no choice but to speed walk to class, leaving a trail of crumbs as we gobble our muffins.
By the time we reach The Nest, Alicia is about to start. We quickly find our seats while catching our breaths, and wiping crumbs off our uniforms.
“Get a late start this morning, ladies?” Alicia asks teasingly. My cheeks feel hot, and I try to slink down in my seat.
“To warm-up, I’d like you guys to do some “fear of falling” jumps. It’ll be good for you to get your adrenaline pumping first thing in the morning. Afterwards, I want you to do an hour in the simulator, before we move onto a new challenge.” My stomach does a few flip-flops, and the barely chewed blueberry muffins feel like they’re forcing their way back up my throat.
Alicia scans the class, grinning. “So, who wants to go first?”
Samir raises his hand eagerly. “I’ll go.”
He takes long, deliberate steps to the jumping point, glancing back, and smiling crookedly before taking the leap. By the time I get to the edge, Samir is already hitting the safety net, and I watch him disappear, his body leaving traces of blue static electricity behind. While I wait with Akiko and Louise, watching for the portal impatiently, something doesn’t feel right. I don’t know if it’s my hurried breakfast, or my intuition, but my gut is uneasy. I almost feel like I can hear the actual seconds, then minutes tick by as time passes, and still, the portal hasn’t materialized. Alicia fidgets, peeking over the edge once in a while, and glancing down at her watch when she thinks we aren’t looking. After about ten more minutes, when Samir still hasn’t made an appearance, Alicia strides to the jumping point, this time, I can see she means business. “I’ll be right back,” she announces before swan-diving over the edge.
When she’s gone, chaos erupts. Chatter comes from all directions, hysterical words, whispers, even a cry or two. Akiko seems to be on the verge of a breakdown. Tears stream down her face, while she chants hysterically, “Samir! Samir! Samir!”
It feels like an eternity, only made worse by Akiko’s crying, but Alicia finally emerges from the portal alone. Her face is pale, and I can tell from the dazed, vacant look in her eyes that it’s bad. “I want all of you to go back to your dorms immediately. Your counselors will be up here shortly to escort you. We’ll be on lock-down till further notice.”
Without warning, Akiko faints. I catch her, keeping her lifeless head on the crook of my neck till the counselors arrive. As we march downhill, we huddle together, as if the collective cluster of bodies will keep us from harm’s way. Nobody knows how to react, so we just follow our counselors in stunned silence. Akiko is whisked to the infirmary even before we can ask any questions. The only thing we can do is return to our dorms.
Once we’re safely back in our room, Louise and I sulk on our beds feeling helpless.
Louise stares at me from across the room with tears in her eyes. “Do you think they’ll find him?”
I don’t respond right away, trying to find the words. “I don’t know, Louise… But, they must know what they’re doing right? I’m sure they’ll do everything they can to find him. I know they will. They’ll find him. Don’t worry…”
Louise slumps back on her pillow. “I heard there’s going to be an emergency Council meeting tonight.”
“Really? If only we could be there to find out what’s really going on,” I reply wistfully.
Louise sighs. “I know… How do they expect us to just sit here and do nothing?”
I pull my legs up to my knees and play with my fingers nervously. I twist my silver ring, and suddenly it just comes to me. In an instant I’ve already decided. I’m going to make myself invisible and sneak into the meeting.
Someone knocks on the door, and Sabrina walks in looking somber. “How are you girls holding up?”
“I don’t know. Feeling helpless and scared I guess,“ says Louise, as she rubs her red, puffy eyes.
“How is Akiko?” I ask, hoping for some good news.
“She’s not doing so great. Doc Alice had to sedate her with a sleeping potion,” she explains, looking concerned.
Louise looks at her wide-eyed. “She’s in a coma?”
Sabrina shakes her head. “No, not really. More like a sleep induced state. Doc Alice wanted her to rest. She’ll wake her up soon. Don’t worry.”
I feel my frustration mounting. “So, does that mean they still have no idea what happened?”
Sabrina averts her gaze, obviously uncomfortable with my question. “I can’t really comment right now… I wish I could. All I can say is that your guardians have been informed, and for now, they have entrusted us with your safety. Tonight, after Maya meets with the Council, decisions will be made.”
Hearing her vague explanation makes me want to sneak into the meeting even more.
“We’ll have some pizzas and drinks at the lounge downstairs in about an hour. I’ll be in my room if you need me,” says Sabrina, waving awkwardly as she leaves.
I spend the rest of the day emulating what the other kids in my dorm are doing: moping around in a haze, listening to music, taking naps, and eating lots of cold pizza, but really, my mind is moving a mile a minute, thinking about how I can get into the meeting unnoticed.
When evening finally arrives, it gives everyone an excuse to turn in early and try to forget about what happened, suppress the fear of not knowing how Samir disappeared or where he might be. As soon as Louise brushes her teeth and pulls her facemask out of her nightstand drawer, I know that she’ll soon be asleep along with the rest of the house. I pretend to get ready for bed, and take extra care to wear black leggings and a sweatshirt, instead of my usual pajamas. I tuck my sneakers under my bed for easy access, and get into bed. “Night, Louise.”
“Night, Hazel,” Louise replies with a yawn. I wait about twenty minutes, and when I hear deep, even breaths, I know she’s finally knocked out. I quietly get out of bed and put my sneakers on. I tap the gem three
times, and hold my arm up to my nightlight. When it disappears, I tiptoe to the full-length mirror just to make sure my reflection doesn’t stare back at me. Then, I leave and go down the stairs, careful to make as little noise as possible. Outside everything seems brighter than usual; the full moon illuminates the camp with a soft glow. It almost gives a false sense of calmness, like nothing is amiss in this world.
I head towards the main house feeling empowered by my invisibility. The sensation is quite addictive, and now I understand why Mom didn’t want me to abuse it. I look for an alternative way to get in, since I can’t enter through the imposing front doors without drawing attention to myself. At the side, I spot a French window left half open and pull myself up until I can get my body through to the other side. I land with a quiet thud and look around to make sure nobody heard me. The lobby and the rest of the house are well lit, so I have no trouble navigating the seemingly empty house, wandering aimlessly while listening for any voices or movements. A door creaks open, and one of the kitchen staff walks out holding a tray of glasses and a pitcher of lemon water. I follow the woman down several hallways until she stops in front of an ornate and tall wooden double door. She knocks and it opens. I quickly shimmy my body through before it shuts. Suddenly, I feel like all eyes are on me, but I quickly realize that they’re only looking at the woman as she arranges the glasses on the formidable conference table. I quietly tiptoe my way to a corner, and hide behind a heavy blue velvet curtain, panicked that someone will sense my presence. I keep my breathing steady and silent, but my nerves are forcing me to take in deep gulps of air. I close my eyes for a minute, composing myself, and pretend that I’m just standing in my bedroom killing time with my sketchbook. I calm, open my eyes again, and focus on the task at hand.
The room is handsomely decorated with an oversized oval table, comfortable leather chairs, Persian rugs, and a semicircular floor to ceiling bay window overlooking the lake. The moon sits on the horizon, bathing the room with a magical light.
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