Freya Snow Pup Trilogy

by L. C. Mawson

  As soon as Freya relaxed, the water around her fell back to the floor. A combination of exhaustion and nausea swept over her, and she struggled to stay standing.

  “You’re okay,” Amber assured her as Freya leaned heavily over one of the sinks, trying to stop the room from spinning. “You just overexerted yourself.”

  “I... What?” Freya asked, thinking over what had happened. What the hell had been up with the water? Why had it sprung up around her? “What’s going on?”

  Amber sighed. “I thought this might happen, but I hadn’t realised it would be so soon. I should have predicted the stress of your first day in a new school would speed things along.”

  “Speed what along?” Freya demanded, tiring of Amber’s vague answers. “You haven’t told me what happened yet.”

  “What do you think happened?”

  Freya shook her head. She didn’t know because it was all so impossible. The water had exploded from the taps when she had been angry. And then it had sprung up around her, almost defensively, when she was startled.

  And now she was talking to a woman she could see through.

  Explanation number one: She was crazy.

  While not appealing, it seemed the most likely. Even if the adults around her had brushed off her behaviours as ‘quirks’, she knew she was probably autistic like Alice. And she also knew getting such extreme anxiety around people wasn’t normal. Chances were she was at least a couple of flavours of crazy already. Adding psychosis to the mix didn’t seem that farfetched.

  Explanation number two: It was some kind of trick.

  While usually paranoid that everything was someone trying to hurt her, Freya thought that this whole situation was a little too much effort.

  Explanation number three: The water was somehow responding to Freya’s needs. She was controlling it.

  That was the most absurd explanation. Mostly because it was impossible.

  But then, the water had reacted exactly in line with how Freya was feeling. And she was now talking to a woman she could see through.

  “Did I control the water?” Freya asked, anxiety pricking at her as she realised how absurd it sounded.

  “You tell me,” Amber said with a shrug. “I wasn’t doing it.”

  Freya reached a hand out towards the water on the ground, willing it to move.

  Nothing happened.

  Amber gave her a kind smile. “How do you feel?”

  Freya frowned at the question. “Exhausted. Like I had to participate in the longest race on sports day with no warning.”

  Amber nodded. “You need time to recharge. You’re flexing these muscles for the first time. You can’t expect to run right away.”

  “So... You’re saying that I did control the water?”

  Amber nodded.

  “But that’s crazy.”

  “You’re talking to a ghost,” Amber reminded her.

  Freya frowned. “Wait, so you’re actually a ghost. Like, a ghost ghost? Space Ghost Coast to Coast?”

  “What?”

  Freya shook her head. “Sorry, that was just... a thing that I do when I’m tired. I said ghost too many times and my mouth just... Anyway, not the point. You’re a ghost. As in dead person.”

  Amber nodded.

  “As in dead person who is still roaming around on earth through supernatural means?”

  Amber nodded.

  “As in magic?”

  “How do you think you controlled the water?” Amber asked.

  “I hadn’t thought that far ahead,” Freya admitted. “I’m still busy debating whether or not I’m going crazy.”

  Amber disappeared, which Freya took as a sign that she had, indeed, been a product of her imagination. One that couldn’t take too much scrutiny.

  But then Ms Pearson got up from the ground, brushing herself off. The water had mostly pooled around Freya, so it had barely touched her, apart from the section of her shoulder where the stream had hit her.

  “I can assure you,” Ms Pearson said, “you definitely aren’t crazy.”

  Freya blinked, realising what Amber had meant about being scared out of her. Amber was possessing Ms Pearson.

  “I mean, I am probably crazy,” Freya replied, too dazed to really acknowledge anything else. “I’m just not currently experiencing a psychotic episode.”

  Ms Pearson smiled before reaching into the large pocket of her cardigan, bringing out a bottle of Lucozade.

  “Here,” she said, passing it to Freya. “You need to get your energy back up.”

  Chapter Four

  Ms Pearson left Freya alone, and Freya quickly downed the Lucozade before examining herself in the mirror.

  The water seemed to have drained itself, leaving her hair and clothing only a little damp. She figured that wasn’t the end of the world, and she’d probably dry off completely before her next lesson started.

  As if brought on by her thinking of her next class, the bell rang. Freya threw the empty pop bottle into the bin before heading out of the loos.

  But as she hurried out, she ran right into someone else, sending her staggering back.

  She glared at him as she struggled to keep her footing. He was a little shorter than her, with paper-white skin and jet black hair that fell to his shoulders. Though it was his eyes that caught her attention. They were brown, but under the fluorescent lights, they looked almost crimson.

  As he straightened up, she could see that he had a stout figure, though he stood awkwardly, looking down at the floor with nothing more than a glance at her.

  “You... You are the new girl,” he managed, finally managing to look up at her. She noted he had a slight accent, but she couldn’t place it. “Freya, right?”

  Freya nodded, folding her arms tight across her chest. “Why?”

  “I just... I saw the other girls corner you. I was going to come over and see if you were okay, but you ran off. Are you? Okay, I mean. Are you okay?”

  “Why?”

  He blinked, frowning a little. “Because you looked like you might not be. Do I need more of a reason to be concerned for a fellow student?”

  “In my experience, yes,” she said. “Now, if you’ll excuse me... Um...”

  “Damon.”

  “Well, if you’ll excuse me, Damon, I have a class to get to.”

  She walked towards her ICT classroom, only for Damon to keep walking beside her.

  “Why are you following me?” she asked.

  “I have ICT down here now. In room 105.”

  Freya suppressed a groan, realising they had the lesson together.

  “You know, I am new too,” Damon told her as they continued towards the classroom, dashing any hope Freya had that he would leave her alone.

  She didn’t have the energy to analyse why he was being nice to her, and that left her vulnerable.

  “I thought we could, you know, be new together,” he continued.

  Freya frowned. That didn’t seem like the worst logic in the world, and she had no reason to suspect him of lying. But she still didn’t want to be caught out because she was missing something vital. If she let him get close to her, and he then turned out to have less than pure motives...

  “Look, Damon, if you’re new too, I can guarantee you don’t want to be associated with me. It’ll only make it harder for you to make other friends.”

  Damon shrugged. “I’d rather start with one friend than none.”

  They arrived at the classroom before Freya had to answer, and she chose a computer in the corner, right up against the wall. She hoped no one would sit at the one next to her.

  Damon, however, came right over, plonking himself down next to her.

  She chose to ignore him as the teacher entered, starting the lesson. Thankfully, Damon didn’t seem to want to talk, listening to the teacher with rapt attention.

  Freya, on the other hand, had spent years listening to Alice infodump about programming. The basics the teacher was going over were second-nature to her at this point
.

  Instead of listening, she logged onto Facebook, circumventing the school’s safety blocks.

  Hey, she messaged Alice.

  Hey, Alice swiftly replied. How is your first day of school going?

  Freya found her fingers hesitating over the keys.

  How was her first day going?

  She’d been called out by her biology teacher, already selected as a target by some of the girls in her class, had possibly caused the bathroom taps to explode, had met a ghost, and now Damon was following her around like a lost puppy.

  She had no idea how to sum all of that up without sounding crazy. Even omitting the magic stuff wouldn’t paint a pretty picture.

  Before she had time to consider what she would type, however, Damon nudged her in the side.

  “What?” she hissed, just in time to see the teacher coming over.

  She minimised Facebook before giving Damon an apologetic look.

  “Thanks,” she said.

  He shrugged with a small smile. “No problem.”

  Before Freya had a chance to return to thinking about what she would say to Alice, Ms Pearson came into the room.

  “Can I borrow Freya for a little while?” she asked.

  He looked around the room, clearly trying to figure out who Freya was. “As long as she finishes the work before her next lesson,” he eventually said.

  Freya quickly typed Gtg to Alice before logging off.

  “See you,” she said to Damon as she picked up her backpack, heading out to follow Ms Pearson.

  MS PEARSON LED HER to an empty classroom, shutting the door behind them.

  “Whose classroom is this?” Freya asked, wondering if someone would come in and find them. She still wasn’t sure why a social worker was at the school. Clearly she was supposed to be there. After all, Freya’s ICT teacher hadn’t been surprised by her presence, but Freya had thought they wouldn’t see each other again once she got to the city.

  She certainly hadn’t mentioned being at her school.

  “Mine,” Ms Pearson told her. “I’m a teacher here. Actually, I’m one of your teachers. I have you for religious studies.”

  Freya frowned. “But you’re a social worker.”

  Ms Pearson gave an awkward shrug. “That was a deception on my part. It was clear you needed to be relocated, and I figured the city would be the best place for you. Magic can build up in certain areas, especially ones with significant magical history, and this city is one of those places. I figured, once you were here, you would swiftly break through. I just didn’t realise how soon it would happen.”

  Freya’s frown deepened. “And I’m guessing you’re not a teacher, either?”

  “Freya, I’ve been a teacher for decades. But... No, not how you mean. I got this job through forgeries. I mean, I’m dead. It’s not as if I can actually be qualified for anything.”

  “Yeah, I still haven’t wrapped my head around the ghost thing yet,” Freya muttered. “What did you mean by break through? What does that mean?”

  “That’s what we call it when someone comes into their magic. They break through. It can be... unpleasant.”

  “And you wanted to speed that along?”

  “Freya, I only just managed to possess someone, and I’m not sure how long I can keep a hold on her. I mean, she’s brain-dead. She had to be for me to have control, but that was indicative of greater health problems.

  “But before today, you couldn’t see me in my ghost form.”

  Freya frowned. “You mean you’ve been hanging around me for a while?”

  “Ever since you were born. Your mother tied me to you so you wouldn’t be alone. Neither of us realised you wouldn’t be able to see me until you broke through.”

  Freya folded her arms across her chest at the mention of her mother. “So... My mother had magic too? That’s where I get it from?”

  Ms Pearson nodded. “She did.”

  “But... why? Why did she have magic? Why do I?”

  “Because you’re not Human.”

  Freya stared at her for a moment as she wrapped her head around what she was being told. “I mean, last time I looked, I was pretty damn Human.”

  “Of course you look Human. You have to be able to blend in somehow.”

  “Why are you saying you instead of we? Aren’t you Human too?”

  “I was born Human,” Ms Pearson explained. “I was given my powers later in life, but they didn’t change my genetic structure.”

  “So, if I’m not Human, what exactly am I?”

  Ms Pearson shrugged. “In all honesty, I’m not sure. Your mother was of so much mixed blood, it was impossible to say which was more prominent. And I have no idea who or what your father might have been.”

  Freya felt her stomach twist with disappointment. She knew her mother had died, that much was undeniable, but no one had ever managed to track down her father. “You really don’t know about him?”

  Ms Pearson shook her head. “That is a secret your mother took to the grave, I’m afraid.”

  Freya nodded, trying not to let her disappointment show.

  “Anyway, now you have started to break through, it’s vital I teach you how to control your magic. You overextended yourself today and accidentally doing so again may lead to you hurting yourself.”

  Freya frowned as she folded her arms. “That doesn’t exactly sound good.”

  Ms Pearson tucked her hair behind her ear. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean for it to sound so... dire. Simply think of it like working out. If you push yourself too far, you could pull something.”

  Freya nodded, but one niggling thought wouldn’t leave her mind. “You said my mother had this magic...”

  “Yes.”

  “Well, you see, there was never a proper explanation for her death. They just assumed that there was something lingering from her giving birth, but it wasn’t as if she was in any risk groups...”

  Ms Pearson sighed. She looked to the ground as she folded her arms, leaning back against her desk. “You’re too much like her, you know? She was a late bloomer when it came to magic, so she never thought of herself as smart. But she always had a knack for spotting the things others couldn’t. It was probably something to do with being Litcorde...”

  “Litcorde?”

  “It was originally a term for Witches. They were late bloomers who would often become highly specialised in a certain area of magic. A few decades ago, they realised it wasn’t just Witches. Then, once it was no longer being applied to just women, they realised Humans had it too, though they called it autism.”

  Freya’s breath caught. Sure, she’d been sure she was autistic, but there was always doubt. If her mother had been as well...

  She pushed the thought away, realising that Ms Pearson hadn’t answered her original question. “So, how did she die? Was it something to do with magic?”

  Ms Pearson took a deep breath before nodding. “Yes. Back in ‘77, magic was exposed to Humans.”

  Freya frowned. “Wait, I’m pretty sure I would have remembered that from history.”

  Ms Pearson gave a weak smile. “Not if history was changed.”

  “How would history be changed?”

  “Do you want me to answer that or to explain things chronologically?”

  Freya thought for a moment before answering, “Chronologically.”

  Ms Pearson nodded. “The revelation quickly led to a war between magical beings and Humans. It looked like there would be no end. At least, until ‘82, when a protection spell came out of nowhere. Suddenly magical beings couldn’t hurt Humans and vice versa. The War ended, and magical beings and Humans had to learn to work together. That was the world your mother grew up in. One where she didn’t have to hide her magic.

  “But the spell didn’t last. When your mother was thirteen, it was broken, and the War swiftly restarted. It was devastating. Humans had only increased their technological knowledge during the peace, including genetic technology. They managed to put up a real f
ight.

  “Your mother was captured by genetically enhanced soldiers, just a little while into her pregnancy. She managed to conceal it from them, but she didn’t have enough strength to escape. She had to get you out of there, so she used a particularly volatile spell. A spell to change the past. A spell of that magnitude requires a life to fuel it, so she gave up her own to ensure magic was never revealed, making all of those events into an alternate timeline, and creating this new, proper timeline.”

  Freya frowned, trying to wrap her head around what she was being told. The concept of time travel always made her head hurt when she thought about it too hard. Though, usually, she was doing so in the context of trying to figure out why a Romulan ship going in time back and killing Kirk’s dad before going into hiding would create a timeline where Uhura knew Klingon...

  “Wait, if she used time travel to create a new timeline, how do you remember that there was ever an old timeline?”

  “All magical beings do. The spell only works on Earth, and there are other realms that magic is tied to. Of course, with so many magical beings crossing over so often from different worlds, the spell didn’t bring back all who were lost. It decimated our numbers as far as I can tell. All the while, Humans get to forget and never have to face their losses. The War may be over, but it wouldn’t shock me if some magical beings still held grudges.”

  Freya nodded, leaning back against one of the desks in the classroom as she ran through any number of questions to do with time travel and magic. Any except the one sitting at the back of her mind, refusing to leave.

  Eventually, she sighed, giving in to her need to ask.

  “Did my mother know that casting this spell would kill her?”

  Amber nodded.

  Freya’s fists clenched so that her nails bit into her palms. If she had better muscle strength, and wasn’t dyspraxically weak, they probably would have bled.

  All these years, Freya had felt nothing but resentment towards her mother. A stupid teenager who had gotten herself knocked up and had died, probably because she hadn’t had a proper doctor through her pregnancy. Or maybe she’d been too ashamed to go to a hospital right away, and that had killed her.