‘Isn’t that to summon spirits? I don’t think that would help.’
‘Well, we can Google it. I promise, we’ll get it to work. Please, let’s just try.’ Abbie gave Charley her famous puppy-dog eyes, knowing full well it never failed to get her what she wanted.
‘Argggh, fine. But if nothing happens this time, you stop badgering me, okay?’
‘Absolutely, yes! Deal.’ She excitedly held out her hand to shake on it and Charley reluctantly accepted, secretly cursing her persistent friend. She knew how the evening would go, but if it meant finally getting a bit of peace from Abbie, she would indulge her.
‘Hello, darling,’ Linda said cheerfully as Charley came bounding through the door, tripping over a pair of boots. ‘Oh dear, are you all right?’
‘I’m fine,’ she replied, shoving her dad’s large walking shoes to the side with her foot. ‘How’s your day been?’
‘Oh, you know. Work was busy, one of the temps is off with flu, so it’s been hectic. How was school?’
‘Dull.’
Linda smiled. ‘Surprise, surprise.’
‘I’m going to stay with Abbie tonight.’
‘All right, honey. Will Carol be in?’
‘Yes, her mum will be there.’ Charley rolled her eyes.
‘I was only asking. Try to behave, okay?’
‘Always do,’ Charley beamed, kissing her mother on the cheek and dashing upstairs to pack a bag.
She walked into her room, surprised to find her sister perched on the end of her bed, raiding one of her jewellery boxes.
‘Jess? What are you doing?’
‘Looking for clasps. I lost all mine.’ Her eyes were red and they looked sore, as if she might have been crying.
‘Jess, what’s wrong? You okay?’
‘Fine. I just need a Kirby grip,’ she snapped, her voice hoarse.
‘All right, but there’s none in there. Here.’ Charley fished a new strip from her top drawer and handed them to Jess, who quickly snatched them from her hand. She picked herself up and scurried out the room without another word.
‘You’re welcome!’
Charley arrived at Abbie’s house just after six, laden with bags.
‘Christ, how long you staying for, a fortnight?’ Abbie joked as she helped her friend inside.
‘Very funny. I brought crisps and chocolate. Oh, and marshmallows. We can toast them on your fire.’
‘Oooh, yeah! We could do that when we’re having the séance.’
‘We are not having a séance.’
‘Uch, you’re boring, Charles.’
‘I’m here, aren’t I? I’m letting you have your fun.’
‘I guess. Come on, I’ve made something for us,’ Abbie said as she pushed Charley into the kitchen. ‘Cocktails!’
‘Really, Abbs?’
‘Oh, lighten up. There’s hardly any booze in them. It’s mostly fruit juice.’ Charley guessed this probably wasn’t true, but decided to have it anyway. One wouldn’t hurt.
Abbie picked up one of the glasses and Charley did the same, toasting her friend before taking a large gulp.
‘Shit!’ Abbie yelled, causing Charley to nearly choke on her drink.
‘Bloody hell!’ Charley took in Abbie’s wet clothes and studied the glass which was scattered across the floor. ‘What happened?’
‘My glass smashed!’ Abbie grinned.
Charley frowned and said, ‘Why are you smiling?’
‘Because, you just used magic.’
‘What, you’re saying that was me?’ Charley shook her head.
‘Of course, it’s not like you’ve never done that trick before.’
‘Abbie . . .’
‘These glasses are solid, there’s no way I could’ve done that.’ She took Charley’s glass and began squeezing it, proving that there was no way to smash it using just her hands. ‘See? It’s way too thick.’
‘Well if it was me, it wasn’t intentional.’
‘Yeah, I know. But it’s a good start. Now we have something to work with.’ Charley sighed. Maybe the evening wasn’t going to go exactly as she’d thought.
By nine o’clock, Abbie had managed to devour another four cocktails and was beginning to slur her words. Charley had indulged her by having another one, but had stuck to tea after that. They’d spent an hour experimenting, seeing if they could get Charley’s magic to work again, but it was no use – the earlier incident seemed to have been a fluke. It didn’t look as though any other magic was going to take place that night.
‘This sucks,’ Abbie muttered, shoving a marshmallow she’d been toasting into her mouth. ‘Bloody hell, that’s hot!’
‘Let it cool down first.’ Charley bit her tongue to stop herself laughing, but she couldn’t help it. She let out a giggle, causing Abbie to look at her, unimpressed.
‘Ith not funna,’ Abbie spat, unable to speak properly with a mouth full of hot goo.
‘It’s hilarious. I’m sorry, I’ll stop.’ Charley sat, face straight, for all of ten seconds before she let out another snort of laughter.
‘If you were any good at controlling your magic, you could’ve cooled that down for me.’ Abbie took a generous gulp of water, finally swallowing the scalding sweet.
‘Well, we’ve definitely established that I’m not good at controlling it.’
‘Come on, Charles. Let’s make this happen. Think of all the things we could do.’
‘We?’ Charley gave her an inquisitive look.
‘Oh, you know what I mean. You could be fabulous.’
‘I’m already fabulous,’ Charley grinned, flicking her hair back in as glamorous a manner as she could.
She finished the rest of her tea while Abbie sipped what she’d promised would be her final cocktail of the night. Just as Charley got to her feet to take her mug to the kitchen, the doorbell went, giving her such a fright she dropped it on to the soft, green carpet.
‘Good thing that was empty,’ Abbie smiled jokingly, looking round at the numerous stains that were scattered across the floor. Neither Abbie nor her mother were the most careful of people, always spilling drinks or knocking things over.
Charley made her way to the front door, unlatching the chain and pulling it open.
‘That’s weird,’ she called, hanging out to get a better view, ‘there’s no one here.’
‘It’ll be the kids next door – they’re always playing chappy, little buggers. Get lost, weasels!’ Abbie yelled without budging from her spot.
‘Weasels?’
‘Their surname’s Weisel,’ she smiled, ‘but I prefer weasel.’
‘Oh, so it is. Lovely,’ Charley giggled as she shut the front door. Before she could stop it, it swung back, smacking her in the face and causing her to let out a yelp.
‘What’s wrong?’ Abbie gasped, stumbling to her feet.
‘Did I do that?’
‘Did you do what? Jesus Christ, Charles, your nose is bleeding.’ Charley put her hand to her nose, smiling as the blood began to retreat backwards, inside her nostrils.
‘Is it working?’ Charley asked, impatient for an answer.
‘Bloody hell! Are you doing that?’ her friend asked, staring open-mouthed as the last drop of blood disappeared.
‘That was me, Abbie, I did that! And I actually meant for it to happen.’
The girls stood in silence, Abbie gaping awkwardly at Charley’s now spotless face. Her nose was already beginning to bruise, proving that the incident had really happened and it wasn’t all in their minds.
‘I can’t believe it,’ Charley mumbled, ‘I could feel it, the control, I knew exactly what I was doing.’
‘This is insane,’ Abbie choked, excitement beginning to build up inside her. ‘Do it again.’
‘I don’t know if I can.’
> ‘What do you mean? You finally managed to do it. This is a major breakthrough.’
‘I know it is, but I’m still not sure.’ She focused on the first thing that came into view: a picture of an Italian town, hanging alone on Abbie’s wall. She tried to concentrate, to make something – anything – happen. But it didn’t move. ‘See.’
‘What do you mean, see? Look!’ Abbie pointed at the picture, staring in amazement as the colour began to drain from it.
‘Wow, I didn’t . . . I mean I can’t have. I didn’t feel a thing.’
‘Maybe you still need to work on it.’
‘Ugh, let’s face it,’ Charley sighed, ‘I’m screwed.’
Abbie nodded, folding her arms and said, ‘Yeah you are, my mum loves that painting.’
‘Charley, what a nice surprise. Do come in, pet.’ Charley followed the hunched old lady into her small sitting room, taking a seat once she was inside. The television was on in the corner, volume blaring as usual. ‘How are you?’
‘I’m okay thanks, Gran. Actually, there’s a reason I came. It’s about the . . . my, eh, my powers.’
Dorcas looked sceptical. ‘Yes?’
‘The other night, I did something, something I’ve never done before.’
‘Well go on then, dear. What was it?’
‘I used my magic, but not by accident. I made something happen.’ Dorcas continued to watch her, not seeming particularly startled by what she’d just heard.
‘And what did you do?’
‘Well, it’s a bit odd.’
‘You’re talking about magic, Charley. Of course it seems odd.’
‘I was at Abbie’s. We were messing about, usual stuff. Anyway, I got hit in the face with a door.’
‘Is that where the swollen nose came from?’ Dorcas pointed an arthritic finger towards Charley’s face.
‘Yeah, it was a lot worse than this. But when it actually happened, my nose started bleeding. I somehow managed to stop it – the blood started flowing back inside my nose.’
‘And you were in control of this?’
‘Yes, I knew exactly what I was doing, it was unreal. Then I drained a picture of its colour, but that wasn’t on purpose.’
‘Well, it will take time. But it’s a good step forward.’
‘You don’t seem all that surprised.’
‘Truthfully, Charley, I’m not. I had a feeling this would happen a lot sooner than you expected. You’re a clever girl.’
‘I thought you said it was just telekinesis?’
‘Well, I did, but–’
‘Gran, you talk about it as though it’s all completely normal. I’m . . . strange.’
‘You’re not strange, dear, you’re special,’ Dorcas said sternly.
‘That’s just a nice way of saying strange. I’m weird, Gran, I’m a freak. I’m not normal!’
With her final outburst, they heard a loud explosion, followed by sparks and crackling. Charley dived at her gran, immediately wanting to protect her as smoke poured from the old television set.
‘Oh my God, Gran, I’m so sorry.’
Dorcas spoke through heavy coughs. ‘It’s all right, I needed a new one anyway.’
Once again, weeks went by without any strange occurrences. Charley hadn’t managed to use her powers again. In fact, nothing magical had happened recently, not even accidentally. She’d felt exhausted since the night at Abbie’s and hadn’t been up to doing much since; somehow the whole experience seemed to have left her feeling drained, physically and emotionally.
Aiden had gone back to his usual sullen self. They’d shared an awkward hello at one point, but that was as far as it had gone. Charley wasn’t sure if she was glad or disappointed.
Abbie’s mum had gone mad when she discovered her missing painting of the beaches of Ischia. The girls had had to get rid of it – they couldn’t exactly explain how it had somehow gone from beautifully bright to completely colourless in the time that she’d been away.
They’d removed the picture and replaced it with something similar that they’d printed from Abbie’s computer, but her mum didn’t buy it. She told Abbie she would have to earn the money to pay for a new one, with Charley insisting that she would of course give every penny back.
On the Monday morning, Charley strolled unenthusiastically into her temporary history class.
‘Settle down, settle down. Take your seats, please, rather . . . take whatever seat you can find.’ Mrs Macarthur scurried about at the front of the class, preparing books and various worksheets for her lesson. Since the accident, they hadn’t had a classroom as the ceiling was being repaired, so they were always shoved into whatever spare room was available. On this occasion, it was a pokey little room with no windows and too few chairs for her substantial amount of students. ‘I know this isn’t ideal, but it will have to do for now. Aiden, what are you doing?’
‘Trying to find a seat,’ he muttered as he walked into the class, late as usual.
‘Well, just take whatever one you can find. You can squeeze in beside Charley.’ His expression suddenly changed, eyes darting to where Charley was seated. He let out a sigh but made his way over, dropping his bag with a thump on the floor.
Mrs Macarthur began handing out worksheets, muttering to herself at the same time.
Aiden was deliberately avoiding Charley’s gaze by staring in the opposite direction. She couldn’t have felt more awkward if she’d tried. If this ceiling collapsed as well, it would be no bad thing, at least then she would have a reason to escape.
To distract herself from her unfriendly neighbour, she focused on a pot of pens at the front of the class, wondering if she could gain enough concentration – or command – to make it move, if even a little. To her surprise, the pot began to shake, rattling from side to side.
She thought back to the night at Abbie’s: the glass, the door swinging back, the blood, the painting. All of a sudden the pot fell over, sending pens flying across the table.
‘For goodness sake!’ the teacher shrieked, getting the fright of her life. Aiden’s head shot up – he looked puzzled for a second, then he looked at Charley accusingly.
‘What?’ she said, casually shrugging her shoulders.
‘Nothing,’ he replied, but she wasn’t convinced. He looked flustered, shocked even. He hadn’t been expecting that.
Why does he care? she thought to herself. She half-smiled and turned to look at the paper that had just been placed on her desk, just as Aiden’s disappeared from his. Again, he looked unsettled as he leaned down to pick it up. As he resurfaced, he let out a gasp as he looked down at his sheet, the words slowly fading away.
‘What the . . .?’ was all he could manage.
‘What is it?’ Charley asked, leaning over to see what he was so upset about.
‘You.’
‘Don’t walk away from me, Chambers.’ Aiden was chasing down the hallway after Charley, who was already quite a bit in front of him. Mrs Macarthur had demanded silence for the duration of the class, so he’d had no time to quiz his classmate about his suspicions regarding her recent behaviour.
‘What do you want?’ she demanded as he finally caught up with her.
‘We need to talk.’
‘So talk then. What is it?’
‘Not here. Come with me.’ He grabbed her wrist and pulled her away from the crowd, leaving Charley no choice but to follow.
‘Are you going to tell me what this is about?’ she asked Aiden once they were finally far enough away from the school grounds. She knew exactly what it was about, but she was having too much fun seeing him so flustered.
‘Don’t play dumb, Chambers. I know a magician when I see one.’
Charley just about choked. ‘You what? A magician? Stop kidding . . .’
‘This isn’t a joke. Are you denying you did tho
se things? The pens, my sheet . . . that was you, wasn’t it?’
She looked at him, serious now. ‘Yes, that was me. I have these . . .’ Charley faltered, ‘I don’t know. Some sort of weird powers. I know that sounds crazy–’
‘It doesn’t.’
‘But a magician, really? You have to admit that sounds a bit barmy.’
‘How long have you been able to do things like that?’
‘All my life, I guess. But I’ve never been in control until now, and I’m not always. I do crazy things I don’t want to and I don’t know how to stop them from happening.’
‘I’ll need to teach you then.’
‘Wait, you’re . . . what? Like me?’
‘Yes, Chambers, I’m like you. I’m a magician.’ Just hearing the word made her want to laugh. It was like something from a fairy tale.
‘How do I know you’re not lying to me?’ she asked, crossing her arms firmly over her chest.
What if he was tricking her? Trying to make her confess so that he could torment her from then on – everyone would find out.
But her concerns were soon put to rest as Aiden swiped his hand through the air, creating such a wind it knocked Charley off balance, sending her toppling to the ground.
‘Ow!’ she yelled as he offered her a hand up.
‘Sorry.’ He pulled her up with a little too much force, causing her to stumble straight into his arms. ‘Sorry – again.’
‘It’s fine.’ She pulled away quickly and began brushing away the gravel which was now stuck to her skirt. ‘So what else can you do?’
‘A lot.’ He looked down at the chain wrapped around her neck and within seconds it began levitating. ‘I could snap it in two if I wanted.’
‘I’d rather you didn’t.’
Aiden didn’t reply.
‘So . . . how long have you known about, you know, your ‘abilities’?’ She waved her hands about in a spooky manner but Aiden only shot her a look of disapproval.
‘It’s not something to joke about. Your ‘abilities’ make you incredibly powerful – and dangerous. You aren’t just a normal school kid anymore.’
Charley Chambers Page 3