A Mystical Journey

by Jennifer Esposito

  Chloe smiled at Annie. “Don’t worry. We’re safe here.” she told her. That did make Annie feel better. Chloe seemed very nice and she knew a lot about this mystical stuff. Maybe she would know what the adults were talking about with John.

  “Chloe, do you know what they’re talking about down there?” she asked pointing to the floor below. Chloe let out a slight giggle. Again, she looked around the room. They were still alone and no one had ever opened the door. Chloe motioned for Annie to follow her again.

  The two girls went back out on to the landing and entered the door of the room that was directly above the room where Annie had just eaten dinner. Chloe went over to one corner and crouched down on the floor. She put her face against the floor. She smiled even wider and pointed at the floor.

  It was then that Annie realized what Chloe was doing. There was a cord of some kind that ran down to the room below through a little hole. If you put your eye up to it you could see part of the room and hear what was going on.

  It sure was lucky that the Coterie met in this old library. Annie had been very lucky at finding places to hide and listen in on the adults. At least so far. Yep, it sure was lucky she met Chloe. She just knew she and Chloe were going to be good friends.

  Chloe moved aside so Annie could peep through the little hole. There was only one problem. If she was looking through the hole then Chloe wouldn’t be able to see. Annie whispered to Chloe that they could take turns. Chloe shook her head no. Annie started to get upset. She wanted to hear everything herself. Then Chloe took something from her pocket. Annie opened her mouth to scream. Chloe clapped her hand over Annie’s mouth just in time to keep Annie’s screams from being heard in the room below.

  Annie couldn’t believe it. How could Chloe be holding that thing? It sent shivers up Annie’s spine. Chloe slowly lifted her hand from Annie’s mouth. Annie didn’t make a sound but, she remained stone still frozen by fear. She watched as Chloe put the yucky little thing on the floor. A cockroach! Annie winced as the nasty bug crawled through the peep hole in the floor.

  “It’s okay.” Chloe reassured Annie. “He’s my pet. You can look through the hole. Hubert will tell me everything that happens.” Chloe pointed at the hole.

  Annie weighed it out in her mind. She did not want to put her face so close to the hole that the cockroach had just passed through but, she also really wanted to know what was going on in the room down below. Finally, her curiosity got the better of her and she put her face back down against the floor.

  Chapter 11

  Down in the room John sat anxiously waiting to find out what would be happening next. Not having Annie with him made him both scared and excited. His sister had been with him almost all the time for months. It felt a little strange not having her there. Of course, without Annie there it was more likely that the adults would tell him something cool. Something Annie couldn’t know because she couldn’t use echoes or something she was too little to know. John’s heart began to beat just a little bit faster as all these thoughts swam around in his head.

  Mhotep began to speak. “There are some things we need to go over. First and foremost, I want to stress how important it is that we keep up pretenses. This building is shielded so that any use of mysticism within its walls cannot be detected by those on the outside. It is important that we all remember that, including you.” Mhotep looked down the table at John. Mhotep continued, “John, you and Annie will go to school like normal children. Every day after school you will both come here. You will be taught about the mystical arts.” Mhotep smiled broadly at John.

  John returned Mhotep’s broad grin. He was so excited. He wanted to jump up and down and scream with joy but, he knew this was not the right time or place for that. As Mhotep did seem to be waiting for John to say something he said “Yes, sir.” in such a humble and respectful tone that he surprised even himself.

  Mhotep got up and walked down the table clapping a hand on Ruth’s shoulder. “Ruth will be your primary instructor. As each mystic has unique knowledge of the arts and talents in the use of echoes she will not be your only instructor. I must tell you John, this will not be easy. It is, I think, unfair but, you will be expected to work much harder than most other children your age. I hope you understand that we would never ask such a thing of you if it was not necessary. The safety of our way of life may rest in your hands.” Mhotep moved around the table taking a seat next to John.

  “Do you remember the story I told you and your sister?” Mhotep questioned John.

  “Yes!” John answered enthusiastically because he did in fact remember it very well. Who could forget something like that, he thought, remembering all the fantastic things that had occurred that night.

  “Of course, I knew I could count on you.” Mhotep beamed. “Well, then you might remember I told you about Silvia and her song of prophecy. The song she sang told the elders how to save our world. There was a second part to the song. The second part told of a child. A child that would make the defeat of Gistramino’s evil complete. One who would reunite our worlds. The song was not clear about who the child would be. It did offer some hints and clues. We have been watching for centuries trying to find all the signs that would point us to the one, or, the conduit as we have come to call him. We believe that you are that child John.”

  John sat very still. For a moment, he felt like he couldn’t breathe. He knew he was special but this was a lot. For people to have been waiting for him and now they would be depending on him. Wow, he thought this must be what it’s like for Super Hero’s. In the comic books they always say stuff about it being hard to have everyone counting on them. At this moment John could understand what they meant.

  He swallowed hard. A Super Hero? Yes, that was what he always wanted to be. Probably every boy his age dreamed of being one. Now was his chance to prove he had what it took. He wouldn’t be scared. He would hold his head up high and do whatever he could to help. John sat up in his chair as straight as possible, looked Mhotep square in the face and asked, “What can I do to help sir?” in the best Super Hero voice he could manage.

  Annie watched all this from above with her new friend. Wow! There was a prophecy about her brother. She knew John was supposed to be special but, she had no idea there was a prophecy. Annie had just heard about prophecies for the first time on the night they met the Coterie. She had learned that they were very old stories that told the future. It was pretty neat to know her big brother was so special. She was glad, however, that the prophecy was not about her. John was going to have a lot more lessons and he wasn’t going to be able to have fun. Plus, it sounded a little scary to think of all the adults expecting a kid to make everyone safe.

  She turned to her new friend. She opened her mouth to speak when she heard Mhotep speaking again from below. As quickly as she could Annie pressed her face back against the floor.

  “What you can do John is to be the very best student possible. Take in everything we teach you and study hard. When you have mastered your control of mysticism you will be ready to fulfill your destiny. I think you will be happy to know that part of fulfilling your destiny means bringing your parents home.” Mhotep finished taking his seat again.

  Despite still being very overwhelmed, hearing that he could do something to help his parents gave John strength. Forget being a super hero. He needed his mom and dad. “What do I have to do?” he asked bursting with excitement and before anyone could answer he asked “How long will it take?”

  This time Ruth answered him. “I know you miss your parents. That is why you must work very hard to learn everything that we teach you. You must master your control of mysticism before we can get them back. It could be very dangerous if we tried to get them back before you are ready.”

  John didn’t like that answer. In the room above Annie didn’t like Ruth’s answer either. She needed her mommy and daddy. It already seemed like forever since the day of the tornado. A large tear trickled down Annie’s face. She wiped it away. Annie made herse
lf a promise right then and there. She was going to do whatever she had to do get her parents back.

  It suddenly occurred to Annie that they would be coming to get her soon from the landing. She sat up quickly. She had better get back there fast. As Annie sat up Hubert crawled out from the little hole. He moved so quickly it was hard to see him. He ran right up onto Chloe’s shoulder. There was a change in the color of Chloe’s eyes. They almost seemed to turn red.

  Chloe looked at Annie. “I’ll help you get your parents back she said.” putting a hand on Annie’s arm sympathetically. Annie thanked Chloe while wiping back another large tear. “I have to get back down stairs outside the door.” Annie told Chloe.

  Chloe nodded and headed out of the room on tiptoe. Annie followed. When they reached the staircase they whispered a quick good-bye. Annie scampered down the stairs quickly and quietly. She saw the door knob turn as the door slowly swung open. She sat on the floor just in time to pretend she had been there coloring all along.

  Grandma stepped from behind the door and asked Annie to join them back inside the room. Annie followed taking a last look at the upper landing before the door closed behind her. It was empty.

  Annie took her seat next to her brother. Mhotep greeted her warmly. It seemed a little odd to her for Mhotep to greet her like that. She had only been out of the room for a short while.

  Ruth stood and began to talk to both children. She explained that each day after school they would both walk to the library. A mystic would meet them at the front desk. The mystic would tell them if only John should go upstairs or if both of them should go up. At this John frowned a little and Annie smiled broadly. Ruth paused looking at both their faces. This gave John the opportunity to interject his question.

  “Why would Annie need to come up stairs?” He asked in an annoyed tone.

  Annie was not too happy with her brother for asking this. She wanted to be part of all of his lessons. She kicked him hard under the table.

  “Ouch!” John screamed turning toward Annie. John started yelling at his little sister about how much his leg hurt. He didn’t understand why she would kick him. He was the one who could do mysticism, not her. Annie crossed her arms. This time she kicked her chair leg. Why was John being so mean to her?

  Then an odd thing happened. All the lights in the room suddenly went out. The darkness only lasted a minute or two. When the lights came back on the adults had confused looks on their faces. That is all except Mhotep who looked positively delighted. Ruth was the first to speak. “Well, that was an effective way of stopping the children from fighting. Who do I have to thank for that?” She said turning to her fellow mystics. In response, there was a lot of mumblings of ‘not I’ and ‘It wasn’t me’.

  Finally, Mhotep broke in. “I believe we have young John to thank for that. I sensed the energy came from that area of the room he said pointing at John.” He gave John a little wink and then turned to Ruth. “Ruth, if you wouldn’t mind.”

  “Yes?” She said, then putting her hand to her head to indicate she realized what Mhotep was talking about, she continued. “John, it is very important outside these wall that you keep your temper in check. We cannot afford to have accidental uses of mysticism.” She gave John a very stern look. “You will be more careful!?” she half asked, half demanded.

  John nodded in agreement, but he didn’t exactly agree. He didn’t think he had done anything. Shouldn’t he know if he had used mysticism? Shouldn’t he at least feel something? Then again, maybe not. He hadn’t known about mysticism or that he could use mystical echoes for most of his life.

  Ruth looked at Annie. “And you, young lady.” she scolded. “You must not antagonize your brother.” Annie just scowled in response. If John was mean to her she firmly intended to be mean back. She loved her brother. Sometimes she didn’t think he was very nice though.

  Ruth continued on ignoring Annie’s facial expression. She told them that most days John would have his lesson alone and that the mystic at the front desk would find things for Annie to do while John met with his instructors upstairs. However, there would be some days when Annie would join John. On these days, they would be having lessons on one of two subjects. Either the history of mysticism or non-mystical protections from mysticism.

  She explained that both would be important for Annie. Since both children had mystical heritage from the Chambers side of the family, the history of mysticism was important to both of them even if Annie could not use mystical echoes. Learning about non-mystical protections would be very important to Annie because as John’s sister it was possible she could be targeted by followers of the dark ways. Since he was new to using mysticism John too might need to use these protections.

  Annie and John exchanged worried glances as Ruth finished this last bit. Their earlier disagreement had been forgotten just as quickly as it had started. They knew that they were in this thing together. Annie reached out for her brother’s hand. John took it and squeezed it tight.

  Their grandmother stepped in with some reassurance for the frightened siblings. “The stuff Ruth is talking about is for just in case. You both will be fine.” She put her arms behind them bringing them together in a great hug. “There are a lot of mystics here and they will all be watching out for you.”

  Matthew stood. “Annie, John, I ‘ave someone I vould like to introduce you both to.” He said as he strode over to the door. All eyes watched as he left the room and returned with a small blond haired little girl. Annie recognized her right away. It was Chloe. Chloe smiled and gave Annie a little wink.

  “This is my daughter Chloe.” Matthew explained.

  “Chloe has some abilities to control mystical echoes and so she will be attending all of the mysticism lessons with John. We thought you children would like to get to know each other before your instruction starts.” Ruth told them.

  Annie wanted to rush right over and talk to Chloe but, she knew she shouldn’t. She didn’t want the adults to know what she and Chloe had been up to. So instead she casually walked up to Chloe extended her hand and said hello. Chloe did the same.

  John smiled and shook Chloe’s hand as well. He was a little disappointed. He missed his friends at home. It would have been really cool if he had a boy to hang out with and share his lessons with. He looked Chloe over. She looked very frail and almost sickly pale. He wondered if she was ok.

  Annie was still trying to contain her excitement. School would be starting soon and it would be great to already know a girl there. “Will Chloe be in my class at school?” she asked Matthew.

  Chloe lowered her head and looked a little sad. Matthew took in a deep breath and then began to speak.

  “I’m sorry. Chloe will not be able to go to school with you.” He paused for a moment as if he really did not want to continue. “You see Chloe and I are vampires.”

  John and Annie each took a step backwards as if being pulled by an invisible string. Annie looked at Chloe. She had seemed very nice. Annie thought vampires were supposed to be mean and scary. Chloe didn’t look scary. She looked like she was about to cry.

  Despite being frightened by hearing the word vampire John was very interested to find out more. He felt safe in that room with all the mystics. So, he began to ask questions.

  “Do vampires drink blood?” he asked swallowing hard to loosen the lump in his throat.

  “Yes, vwe do but, not in the vay you think.” answered Matthew. “Let’s all ‘ave a seat and I vill tell you all about us.” He took Chloe by the shoulder and guided her to a chair at the table where she sat down. John and Annie did the same but, still kept a bit of distance from the vampires.

  Ruth cleared her throat. “Annie and John, I want you to pay close attention to what Matthew tells you. In a way, this will be your first history lesson about the mystic world.” Both children shook their heads to show they understood.

  Mathew began. “Vampires are very old mystical creatures. When the mystic world and this world vere joined vwe vere very po
werful. Vwe vere the night time protectors of nature and mysticism. Almost nothing that you ‘ave heard in stories is true. Vwe do drink blood but, vwe drink animal blood. Vhen vwe ‘ad our full powers, vwe vould entrance an animal so it felt no pain, drink a small quantity of blood and then release it very much alive. It was a rare accident that a creature vould die from a vampire feeding on it. In that vay, vwe are much kinder than humans vho kill in order to eat meat.”

  Matthew took a sip from his glass and then continued. “Vhen the vorlds vere separated some mistakes vere made. Very few vampires still ‘ad the ability to entrance animals. As a result, many frightened animals vere killed by ‘ungry young vampires. This saddened most of our kind and vwe developed vays of insuring the safety of the animals that provide us our nutrition. Vwe became cattle farmers. Cattle can be put safely into squeeze boxes, fed on, and released with no ‘arm. To be honest, many vampires find it barbaric and in’umane that ‘umans kill animals for food. Although some of our kind ‘ave made deals vith butchers to obtain fresh blood since the animals ‘ad already lost their lives.” Matthew looked at Annie and then at John. “I’m sure you ‘ave more questions.” he implored.

  John was very interested in all this. His fear and apprehension were now totally gone. He was having trouble deciding which of the many questions floating around in his head to ask next. After a moment, he chose one and put it to Matthew. “If vampires drink animal blood then where did all the scary stories come from?”

  Matthew shook his head. “I’m sorry to say there are a few bad eggs in every bunch. Just as the ‘uman vorld has criminals vho hurt others for their own enjoyment, so ‘ave vwe. Vampires vho ‘ave ‘armed or killed ‘umans are considered dangerous criminals and vwe do ‘ave a system for punishing them.”