by Martha Woods
“Ok Amy,” She said, nodding as confidently as she could manage, “I trust you.”
“Wow,” Faye said, raising her eyebrows in brief surprise before schooling her expression once more, “That’s… definitely not super common.”
“I can never tell if you’re being sarcastic.”
“I’m not, this is something that only comes around every few years, and usually it’s a witch that it starts affecting, you know, someone who’s been using magic for years. Not… someone who is honestly completely normal.”
Cara was sitting in the corner of the magic shop, wringing her hands together and trying not to show how much she was panicking on the inside. For the most part, she was failing.
“So wait, I don’t understand, are you saying that Cara could be a witch?”
“I’m not saying that, but I’m also not not saying that. It would be extremely uncommon for someone to not even start manifesting signs of magic until the age she is now, even you had signs that in hindsight were obvious signs of magic use, but she’s completely clean of any of those.” She tapped her fingers along the countertop, chewing on the inside of her cheek. “At the same time though, this sort of thing affecting those that aren’t witches is basically unheard of, they’re rare enough already. That whole thing that you do where you talk to ghosts? That’s not exactly a common thing even among powerful witches, so if Cara starts predicting the future? Jesus, you might as well say that we actually evolved from squid, that’s the kind of discovery we’re talking about.”
“But I don’t understand?” Cara said, finally speaking up from her seat in the corner, “Why now? Everything’s been normal for so long, I haven’t experienced anything weird, and then a few nights ago out of literally nowhere I start having visions of my best friend dying? What’s the reason for that?”
“I wish I had answers for you Cara, but I can barely think about this at all, this was a blindside that I completely wasn’t expecting,” Sighing, she looked up and out the window, “Alexis should be here soon, she’ll probably be able to give us some answers on this.”
“The number of witches that she’s taken care of, you’d imagine that at least one over the years has shown signs like this.”
“You’d think, but I think you’re underestimating how rare this is, the last one happened before I was even born, and they didn’t last long before they went completely insane apparently.” She froze, raising her hands at a suddenly mortified Cara. “Not that I’m saying that it’s going to make you lose your mind, for all we know they had a bunch of other issues as well. You’re not going to go crazy.”
“But… what if I do?”
“Well, you probably won’t know if it happens at least, that’s kind of a plus right?”
Before we could shove our foots any further down our throats, the bell to the front door thankfully dinged, our heads turning to see an equal part irritated and interested Alexis standing in the entranceway. “I know that we’re friends Amy,” She said, stepping forward, “But I would also like to have a day where I’m not constantly being dragged out of the office to go and deal with everyone’s problems.”
“Sorry, but not really,” I said, stepping to the side to give her a view at Cara, “It’s not about me today, Cara could really use your help.”
“Oh, well if it’s Cara then I’ve got no complaints there, you’re the one that I’ve usually got a problem with.” Brushing past me with a wink, Alexis knelt down in front of Cara and took her hand. “What’s the problem Cara? Is Tariq acting up, am I going to have to kill him?”
The question, though clearly meant to cheer her up, only made her grow paler. Evidently he hadn’t escaped the rampage in her vision either. “N-no, Tariq’s fine. More than fine, he’s wonderful! I’ve… got something else happening to me.”
“Well, what is it?” Alexis prodded, running her thumb along Cara’s knuckles. “I can’t help you if I don’t know what the problem is.”
“I saw all of you die,” She blurted out, clearly wanting to get the words out of her, “All of you, in a few days, when the shifters invade the city.”
Alexis froze, though if it was from shock or just needing to think I wasn’t sure. Either way, when she spoke next her tone was even, measured, as though she was picking each word out individually to make sure that Cara could understand every word that she was saying perfectly. “Cara, do you mean that you had an unfortunate dream where we all died, and you need some support to get through it? Or are you saying that you know, down to the day and time, when the shifters are going to invade? And when they invade, they will kill us all?”
“The second one,” She replied, ducking her head as though she was ashamed to admit it, “It was so vivid, and I’ve seen it so many times by now. At first I thought it was just a bad dream, it’s war time and all, I thought that was just natural. But then it happened the next night, and the next night, and every night it got a little clearer until I could remember it clearly even after I opened my eyes.”
“Yes that’s… definitely reason to be concerned,” Alexis said, rubbing her hand over her mouth, “I hate to ask you this, I’m sure you’ve heard it enough, but are you sure that this wasn’t a dream? I’ve had recurring nightmares before, are you sure this isn’t one of those?”
“I’m sure, as sure as you are that this is real right now, it wasn’t a dream. It’s going to happen if we don’t stop it.”
Alexis nodded, getting up from her knee and leaning herself against the counter. “Well, count me as surprised, I didn’t actually think I would see something like this in my lifetime.”
“Visions,” Faye said, drumming her fingers back and forth, “Definitely not something that you see every day alright. I guess my only question is… well, what do we do about this?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean that if her visions are correct, putting aside that we don’t actually know why she can suddenly do this, then we should probably let everyone who is going to be at that fight that they’re in danger right? I think that’s a fairly natural thing to do in case of possible death by warfare, if you’ve got a warning.”
“But what if warning everybody is what makes the vision happen in the first place? Like a Twelve Monkeys type situation, what if all of these visions are set in stone?”
“The last few people that have had visions like this haven’t exactly been wrong about what was going to happen, but they managed to change it before they could die. I imagine it’s the same here, so long as we’re careful and prepared for an attack now that we know when it will be I think that we may have an actual chance of making it through this. We should try at least, right?”
“I suppose so,” I said, slumping against the stool I was sitting on, “I’m sorry that you’re going through this Cara, I know that you’ve been through a lot with the paranormal, and now it looks like it’s far from done with you.”
“You don’t have to apologize,” Cara said, smiling softly, “If this is something that can save your lives then I’m grateful for it, I just don’t like having to see all my friends die right in front of me while I’m powerless to actually do anything about it.”
I laughed, leaning my cheek on my hand as I looked at her, “I guess that makes sense, so… sorry you have to keep seeing me die. I promise that I’ll do better next time.”
“I would appreciate that, I still want to see you actually cut loose now that you’re not such a goody good anymore.”
“Of course she’s still a goody good,” Alexis scoffed, “She couldn’t help but get us involved with the shifters, she can’t turn aside anyone that needs a helping hand. And now the shifters view us as their benevolent heroes, I guess because we’re the first ones that haven’t turned them away and we’ve actually given them some measure of protection. So thank you for that Amy, I was getting through my life pretty happy without being called a hero, now I’ve actually got people that look up to me. It’s an awful feeling.”
“Yeah, doin
g good things sucks,” I chuckled, dipping my finger in the flower vase in front of me, before flicking drops of water at her, “Maybe after all of this a bunch of them will name their children after you, you’re one of their benevolent protectors after all, it’s a pretty common way to honor someone.”
“I swear to God Amy,” She said, “One more word and I might be tempted to kill you and deliver your body myself, if I’ve really gotta do something irredeemable to make sure that no one names their sweaty little children after me.”
“You’re a real charmer, you know that?” Getting out of my seat and walking over to Cara, I sat down on the arm of her chair and took her hand, trying to comfort her in whatever small way that I could. “What are we going to do? Not just with us but… with you? I don’t think anyone has a good idea.”
“It’s certainly unusual,” Faye said, “Like I said before, it was easy to tell that you were a witch even when you’d only shown a tiny bit of power, it was clearly something that pulsed through you just as fully as your blood. But Cara? I fully believe you when you say that you’ve had a vision, but right now I can’t feel anything at all, no energy, no aura, nothing.”
She froze, mouth falling partly open and her brow creasing in the middle, her hand held halfway in the air like she’d been midway through physically touching her thoughts. “I… can’t feel anything. It’s like you’re not even sitting there.”
Alexis scoffed, as though the very notion was ridiculous to her before she too froze, a joke halfway on her lips before dying in her throat. “Oh, that’s… certainly strange.”
“W-what do you mean?” Cara said, wrapping her arms around herself and looking between all of us, “What do you mean you feel nothing?”
“Everyone has a certain energy that they give off, not just witches, normal people as well, you could call it the magic equivalent of static. You can try and get rid of it as much as you want, but there’s always going to be that residual left behind that always gives you away. But with you…” Faye stepped closer, hand clenched at her side as though she was ready to defend herself from an attack. “You’re like a black hole, there’s no hint of anything, no static, no aura, I can’t even feel your heartbeat.”
“That’s insane,” I said, gripping Cara’s hand even tighter, feeling her heartbeat thrumming under my fingers, “I can feel her right now, sure as I can feel the two of you!”
Now Alexis stepped forward, fingers pinched around her chin. “Now I can’t sense you either, I could before, but now it’s the same story, no pulse, no aura, no static. Just the sight of the two of you sitting in front of me, that’s it.”
“Do you think she maybe has some kind of field blocking everything?” Faye asked, “Like some other wavelength that we can’t feel that acts like a wall?”
“It’s certainly possible.” Alexis reached out for Cara, rolling her eyes when she shied away. “Come on, we’re friends, I’m not going to hurt you just because we don’t know what’s going on here.”
Cara nodded slowly, easing herself back down into her chair and watching her come closer. “Faye, can you feel me?” Alexis said, wiggling her fingers in the air, “I’m not touching her yet, but am I being blocked?”
“No, I can feel you just fine, no question.” Nodding at Faye’s response, Alexis reached down, taking hold of Cara’s other hand. “There! You just disappeared, as soon as you touched her!”
Alexis hummed, eyes traveling from Cara’s hand to her eyes. “This is definitely interesting, I wasn’t expecting to see this anytime soon.”
“Is this… as rare as the visions?”
“I would say this is rarer,” Alexis said, squeezing her hand before letting go and stepping back, “I’m experienced with all kinds of magic, even just the ones that I’ve read about, but this… I’ve never really even read anything about anti-magic, even from the books that I’ve dug up. That might be why we haven’t felt anything about you until now, we just couldn’t find it through the haze.”
“So… I’m confused, does this mean that I am a witch or I’m not?” Cara looked up at me, and I felt bad shrugging my shoulders but I would have felt worse giving her any sort of answer. “Great, I’m a complete unknown, this isn’t making me feel any better about what it is that’s happening to me.”
“It’s unknown, and certainly strange, but it’s not necessarily a bad thing,” Faye said, “You’re scared, and that’s definitely a valid reaction to something so unexpected, but I think that in time you may come to be excited about all of this. Just think of it this way, you’re the first of your kind that any of us will have ever seen, doesn’t that sound at least a little alluring?”
Cara brushed her finger across her eye, wiping away a tear that must have slipped out from her brief moment of panic. “I suppose when you put it that way it does make me sound pretty cool, like I’m some… ancient, rare creature or something, that you’ve never even read about before discovering.”
“You always liked to be the one to stand out in college,” I said, patting the back of her hand before standing, “Now look at you, somehow managing to top me in terms of ‘Most unexpected witch to come out of this shithole city’, I’d be jealous if you weren’t also my best friend.”
“Sorry to steal your thunder,” Cara drawled, rolling her eyes and looking so much like the Cara that I knew and loved, always smiling and joking no matter what got her down, “Maybe you’ll get lucky and discover that you have… tentacles or something, I don’t know.”
“Really? That’s the best you can do?” I placed my hand on her forehead, mock pouting when she looked at me. “I had no idea you were really that out of it.”
“I’m stressed out you dick!” She laughed, batting my hand away, “Sorry that I’m not on my A-Game, I need time to think for that to happen.”
“Now that I think about it,” Alexis said, half to herself and half to us, “If we have no idea of what your abilities are, or even the extent of your magical affinity, then you could very well have been using your powers for years without even realizing it. Can you think of any times that you might have done that?”
“Looking back,” She said, “I… have been pretty good at getting people to do what I want, like when we were in college and me and Amy used to get caught doing something it was always really easy to get them to let us off, even if they’d come at us ready to throw us out completely. Could it… be magic?”
“It could be, or you could just be really persuasive, I suppose it depends on how it affected Amy.”
“I don’t really remember ever having that happen to me, me not wanting to do something and then her getting me to do a one eighty I mean. But… if I was on the fence already then it was pretty easy for her to tip me over onto her side, easy enough that I always thought that it was just my choice already.”
“So it affected you, but to a lesser degree,” Faye said, scratching at her neck, “Maybe her abilities don’t take as much effect on someone who has magic in their blood, or maybe it was the bond that you shared that made her subconsciously avoid using it to its full potential on you. You two are completely inseparable, I’m not going to rule that out.”
“At least I didn’t manipulate you into being my friend,” Cara said, smiling at me as best she could, “That would have been a real bummer to find out.”
“I think that even if it was true at the beginning, which I don’t believe it was, I think I probably would stick by you anyway. There’s no way that you could unconsciously manipulate me for years into being your friend, not to the extent that we’re friends.” I looked at our two companions, both of them focused in their own minds on what the answer to this riddle could be. “If you don’t mind, would I be able to take Cara somewhere now? I think she could use some fresh air, and some time to think. I know I do.”
“Yes, that’s fine,” Alexis said, ducking behind the counter, “Faye and I have a lot of research to do, maybe there’s something in one of these books that I missed all those years ago, I wa
s half asleep when I was reading some of them after all.”
“You two go and do whatever it is that you need to do,” Faye said, “We’ll call you if we find anything out, for now just don’t worry about it, but tell us if you start feeling weird. Now that you know you may have access to magic your body might instinctively react to it, just something to keep an eye on.”
We nodded our goodbyes, leaving the two of them to slave over countless tomes and journals older than our combined age, searching for an answer to a riddle that hadn’t even existed before today. I don’t envy them their task.
Cara and I were mostly silent as we walked through the streets, a thin blanket of snow starting to cover the sidewalk as we moved further and further into winter, the air chilling and our breath misting in front of us. We didn’t know where we were walking, only that we wanted to walk as much as we could before we acknowledged what was happening, that our view of the world and our view of each other had been shaken so fully and so suddenly, what had been just an average morning changing us so completely with seemingly no effort.
“Are you scared?” I asked, finally, once we’d stopped and stared out over the traffic below us. Overpasses always seem like good places to talk for some reason, or maybe I’ve just seen too many movies.
“What do you think?” She said, placing her hands along the railing and gritting her teeth at the bite of cold metal, “I was never afraid of you, or Alexis, or Tariq, or any of the witches. It’s just power, power is a tool just like anything, there’s no reason to fear it by itself. But now that I have it… it just feels so much more real, I can’t see myself ever being able to control something like that.”
“I know you Cara, there’s nothing that you can’t do…”
“Are you sure? Because I saw the pictures of that hotel Amy, I know what this sort of power can do. I’m not going to judge you for what you did that night, all of those hunters deserved whatever it was that you did to them, but that power… the power that it must have taken to rip a building almost to shreds and to still be able to walk out like it was nothing… I know what I’m capable of Amy, I know that I’m good at so many things, but the idea of me having that much power at my fingertips, the ability to do whatever I want? That scares me.”