Outside the time, p.15
Outside the time, page 15
Before when I realized my true feelings, or rather simply stopped denying them, it was hard to be around him and not blurt it out accidentally. I kept second guessing everything I did before I did it to make sure I did not do anything that would let him on that I liked him. So in a way getting sick and spilling my guts helped me. I could act normal around him again and not like a twelve year old with her first crush.
"Ok seriously has something happened between you two?" Xavier finally burst into my room one day after Mike had just left. I was still lying on my bed working on some homework when he came in.
"No…" I choked out after I gaped at him for a few minutes. I could feel the heat rushing to my face.
"You are so lying! Spill it!" He rushed over to my bed and hopped on it, nearly flinging me off in the process, before ripping my math book out of my hand. I rolled my eyes at him.
"Oh is this the moment we have girl talk? Sweetie I don't think your boobs are quite big enough for that yet!" I was trying hard to joke and mask any feelings I was having for Mike.
"Out with it you hussy! If you don't think I don't see it then you are blind as a bat!"
"I really have no idea what you expect me to say."
"The truth! Ever since the winter formal you guys have been, I don't know, awkward. Like you did something and are secretly dating." Xavier watched me carefully. I knew my mouth was hanging open in shock.
"We didn't have sex and we're not secretly dating…. It's… complicated." I mumbled and placed my head on the back of my hands pouting.
"But you're into him?"
I winced. The words had never come out of my mouth, in a dream ok, in my mind, sure. But I had never once actually said the words to anyone. I pursed my lips as I debated about telling Xavier.
"Yeah, I am." I whispered. "Head over heels, knee deep in a pile of crushing crap."
"I knew it! Have you told him?"
"Oh yes, I have confessed my undying affection for him. We're eloping to Vegas this weekend." I rolled my eyes at him again.
"Well you should. I don't think you have to worry about him rejecting you."
"Er… maybe not." I bit my lip.
"Oh my God! Spill it now Abs!" Xavier shot up and crossed his legs on my bed. He really enjoyed stupid girlie gossip and it was rather disturbing.
"Can we stop talking about this? I really have a lot of homework to do."
"That is so like you. Hide behind your homework." Xavier huffed and bounced out of my room. With a sigh I pulled myself off my bed and closed my door. Slowly I moved over to my window and climbed out onto the small patch of roof. Quietly I sat watching the leaves rustle in the wind.
There was no fog but the black lab was curled up in my grass anyway. I could see the light of our porch light bounce off its eyes as it lifted its head to look up at me. The voices of my parents talking about taking a family trip over the summer echoed up out of the living room as they watched a kid's movie with Junie.
I leaned back on my roof and stared up at the clear starry sky. Before I knew it I was drifting off to sleep. This time I was able to keep their weird dreams at bay and dreamt only of Mike. Oh yeah, I had it bad.
Chapter 12 - Shut up, I'm dirty
Finally the weekend came. I do not know how Mike's parents explained how I would be absent all weekend. However they pulled it off and my parents never questioned me once when I left the house with a bag full of clothes.
They were going to take me to a cabin they had by a lake in the Redwood National Forest. They said it would be safer there and would be protected from Khail's reach. Even Sam had flown up to be part of the festivities. Part of me was not sure how disappointed I would be when I finally found out that it was not, in fact, a witness protection thing.
The cabin was single story and small, it sat right on the edge of the lake with a dock that fed out into the water. Near as I could tell it was the only one there as well. It had only three bedrooms so I ended up sharing with Mike, while Sam and Angie took a room, again I found myself wondering how his parents were ok with us sleeping together.
Yes we never did anything but did they really know that? I added it to my list of things to ask about once we got started on the big sharing event. The cabin was made of logs that I knew were not actually redwoods but they were designed to appear as such. A brick fireplace sat in the middle of two sets of expansive windows that over looked the lake.
There was actually a small dusting of snow on the ground so Henry had made sure to get the fire roaring the second we stepped inside. I recognized the paintings on the wall as some of Mike's work and stopped short in front of one that featured a unicorn with a rainbow horn.
It almost resembled the unicorn I always drew, but the coloring of the fur was more brown rather then a mixture of brown and white. It was in the midst of an extremely frightening forest of bare trees. Their branches looked as if they were grabbing at the poor unicorn. Without meaning too I shuttered slightly.
"Well dear, shall we get started?" Molly called from the living room where the entire family had gathered.
I took a deep breath and moved to take a seat next to Mike. He was sitting quietly with his hands fidgeting with themselves. With a small laugh I had to wonder why he was so nervous, he already knew all the answers, it was me that was about to be filled in on what was happening.
"You ask the questions and we'll give you the answers. As promised, no lies, no holding back, and unless you wish to forget afterwards we wont take it away. And none of us will judge you if you want us to take it away." Molly smiled at me.
"You must know though that even if you choose to forget it won't change anything, and we will still protect you from Khail." Sam spoke up.
I nodded my acknowledgment and started scanning my head for the questions I sought answers to.
"We also need your word that you cannot tell anyone about this if you choose not to forget." Henry added. Again I nodded. "OK then, let's begin."
So many questions to ask. I knew I had all weekend to ask them but I did not know where to begin. I decided the most obvious ones would have to do at first.
"Where do my parents think I am right now?" Never was good at getting to the most important of the obvious questions.
"Slumber party at Claire's house." Molly answered.
"But Claire's at her grandparents this weekend."
"Doesn't matter, it doesn't have to be the truth for us to get somebody to believe it." Henry added.
"So you can control people's minds?" I looked to Molly who simply nodded. "How come all your bloods run so hot?"
"I already answered that one." Mike grinned sheepishly. "Remember in your backyard?"
"What?" I looked at him with my mouth hanging open.
"Just because you thought I was joking doesn't mean I was." He shrugged nonchalantly. "Magic is the reason. Our blood runs hot because it is filled with magic."
"You expect me to believe you have magic?" I rolled my eyes at him.
He grinned at me wickedly, without saying a word and leaned over to grab his empty water glass from the coffee table. The gold of his eyes quickly expanded to fill the whole iris as he wiggled his fingers over the glass and water began raining out of his palm. My mouth hung open when suddenly a gust of wind wrapped around me blowing my hair wildly.
Turning my head I looked over to Sam whose eyes had turned almost grey with just a hint of blue. His iris was spinning rapidly also as he held one hand pointed towards me, moving his middle and pointer fingers in circles over his thumb. Angie giggled wildly as she watched her brother's display. Helplessly I looked to Henry and Molly expecting them to demonstrate next and they probably would have if I had needed another display.
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. I was trying not to panic until I heard everything, but seeing magic in my face… I mean actual magic not the kind that was all just an illusion, was flooring me. All of it was just too unbelievable, too absurd, too completely and one hundred percent asininely impossible.
"Ok," I finally began when I had regained control over my emotions. Both of my eyes were still closed as I could not bear to look at any of them. "You have magic. Go on."
"Just remember one person's imagination is another person's reality, it all comes from somewhere." Mike added. I opened one eye at him. "Yeah, I was there in your dream, well part of the time. I didn't mean to be, honestly. It just kind of happens. I've actually never had that happen before."
"Happens? As in plural? As in more then one occasion?" Mike shrugged and I immediately felt a surge of heat rush to my face. "So you… I mean…. My dream… you…heard what..."
"Knew how you felt before you knew? Yeah something like that." Mike turned away from me with the biggest, smuggest, grin I had ever seen touch his face. It was so smug I wanted to smack it right off him.
"Um, yeah we are so talking about this later." I grumbled. I could hear Sam snicker.
"Ahem," Henry cleared his throat to change the subject. "We are born this way and in most cases it begins to manifest around the age of ten. Weak at first, almost un noticeable, one might wake up and find something singed just slightly or their room rearranged."
"I was floating in the air! It was cool!" Angie, who had been quiet the entire time just watching us, spoke up.
"There have been rare occasions where the magic manifests later in life but for the most part you get it at a young age." Henry continued.
"So you're like Magicians?" I asked.
"We prefer Witches or Warlocks but yes, that would be a correct term." He answered. "By the time we are twelve that is when we go into the great trance to meet our spirit guide. They are the animal inside us that gives us strength and helps guide us from the transition of child to adult. It is through that spirit guide that we will stay pure on the path of light or will turn towards the path of dark. As with everything there are good Warlocks and there are bad ones. Our animal is an extension of ourselves but they too have a mind of their own and can be corrupted. My animal is that of the rottweiler, Molly is a simple tPaula cat, Mike is…."
"A Black lab." I choked out as it all started to make some sense. All the animals outside my window had been the Ewah family and they had been standing guard. I looked to Sam. "Just a wild guess but yours is a panther."
He flashed his tattoo my way with a wordless wink. I did not have to ask Angie what hers was as she was only ten and had not yet progressed that far. With a sigh I ran my hands over my face. Mike quickly placed a hand on my shoulder.
"I'm fine. It's just a lot to take in." I muttered.
"Do you want us to stop dear?" Molly asked. I shook my head. There was no way I would stop knowing I was finally getting answers.
"I guess this begs my next question, where do you come from?"
"We're from here, Earth, but from another timeline. Well timeline probably isn't the correct term. It's the same time, the same Earth, its just running parallel to this one and humans have, I guess, evolved differently then they are now. Instead of taking the scientific method that you take here, we stuck by the magical method. A choice that was made that sent you in one direction, was not made there and it sent us in a different one. There are no cars, electricity, telephones, TVs; anything created by science here doesn't exist there. We are more like the Middle Ages though we are not ruled by Kings and Queens." Henry spoke slowly and would occasionally pause between his sentences to see if I had any questions.
I would always nod for him to go on. Trying hard not to freak out and run screaming from the room.
"Now that isn't to say we are without government, we have one in tact as with all things you need a leader to turn to. We are ruled by what we call the Cahgie. They are typically either the strongest or the smartest amongst their land and can usually only be unseated by death. A challenger wishing to become the Cahgie can declare his or her intentions at any time and a battle will commence. Typically it is magic to magic, but each can use any weapon they have at their disposal be it magic, brawn, brains, anything. But it is completely one on one. Outside interference is strictly forbidden. Now there are also those without magical ability and they too can fight the Cahgie, but they are typically slaughtered within seconds."
"The people without magic are the Nomag, right?" I mumbled.
"Yeah not exactly the most creative name in the world. Nomag, No Magic, originality at it's finest." Mike joked. I rolled my eyes at him.
"You named our baby Rip, you have no room to talk." He opened his mouth to speak but ended up just shrugging and closing it again.
"There is a great divide in our, I guess for lack of a better term lets call it dimension, where magic users are split amongst the use of the Nomag. Many see them as useless humans, scum on the bottom of our shoes to be scrapped away and wiped from the Earth. Then there are those that support their right to live and thus a never ending war has raged on. Currently those that hate the Nomag are ruling and many Nomag are being slaughtered even as we speak now." Henry ignored our joking and continued on with his story.
"Is that where Khail comes in to play? He is a Cahgie that hates Nomag's?" I asked.
"Not exactly. He is not actually a Cahgie himself. Though he has the power to become one and I'm not entirely sure what keeps him from actually acting on it. Maybe he enjoys the freedom to roam around and slaughter too much."
"How did this war get started? Is it one of those going on so long nobody remembers why wars?"
"No, it started about thirty years ago." Molly answered. "Before then we lived in peace with the Nomag though we were still segregated. Even in peace the warlocks saw them as inferior species but they did nothing about it. They had their townships and we had ours. For the most part the two never met."
"But then a family of five was traveling the countryside of Azrail and they came across some Nomag bandits. The father was a supporter of Nomag rights and never used his magic against them so he tried the art of diplomacy. But they were not interested in diplomacy. They wanted the two women, the mother and the seven year old daughter along with all their possessions. The youngest son was only nine and not yet with powers, so his mother made him take the hand of his sister and run, run as far and as fast as he could."
My heart skipped knowing where the story was going.
"The father and eldest boy, he was about Mike's age at the time, fought valiantly. The bandits killed the father, captured the boy and repeatedly raped the mother before killing her, all while the boy watched. Seeing his mother's rape and murder struck something in the boy. It awoke a great evil lurking within him and he called upon some of the darkest magic ever seen. Magic so dark it did the impossible; it changed his spirit guide from the calm, serene deer, to a vicious blood thirsty wolf. Nobody had ever changed their guide themselves"
Henry paused for a brief moment to again asses how I was handling the information.
"It broke the chains that bound him and ravished all the bandits to the point only various limbs remained. Then, as a wolf, he took to searching for his brother & sister. When properly tuned to each other we can feel when our loved ones are in danger and we can appear in each others heads if our bodies are physically too far apart. But the boy could not find his brother or his sister anywhere in his head, so he assumed they had been killed as well and naturally he blamed the Nomag."
"But they hadn't been had they?" I asked. Henry shook his head.
"No, they were hiding in a nearby village. A nice Nomag woman had taken them in and provided them with shelter. They were there for a couple of months before their brother came upon them. The brother was lost from rage that he at first didn't recognize his siblings so he thought they were Nomag. He attacked them as he attacked the village. Before he knew it he had killed his own sister and was about to take his brother. His fangs were inches away from digging into his brother's neck before a powerful jolt of power shot him away. The power came from the boy, not yet ten and his magic woke because it needed to. And it saved his life but it also had the added effect of turning his brother against him. Thinking he did it on purpose and was a supporter of the Nomag and…" Henry's voice trailed off and he turned his gaze out the window.
I watched him as he tried to gain control over his emotions. There was not much that I actually knew about Henry, but I knew he was tough as nails. However when the chips were down he would be there for you. His wife adored him and his children respected him.
"Your Khail's brother, aren't you?" I asked. Henry nodded without an answer. "And that's why you came here, hiding from him."
Henry nodded again. The reason Mike moved around so much was because they were running. Running from Khail, running from evil, and just flat out running. So while I was not right about the witness protection thing the principle behind it was the same.
"I think that's enough for the night." Henry said, his voice cracking as he spoke. As much as I wanted to continue I knew it was better that we did not. I needed time to process everything and he needed time to gain control of himself. "We will pick it up tomorrow sometime."
We all watched in silence as he stood up and carefully scooped up Angie, who had fallen asleep awhile ago and carried her into the room before heading into his own. Molly smiled and kissed us all on the cheek before following him.
I did not say anything despite both Sam and Mike staring at me. Waiting for me to scream, run out the door, do something other then sit there with my hands tucked in my lap staring at the glass coffee table. I eyed the bowl of cheap plastic fruit that sat on a navy doily at the center of the table. I was not sure if I was trying to make it move with my mind or just trying to find something to occupy my sight.
"How ya doing over there Paula?" Sam finally spoke up breaking my concentration.
"Processing." I said without tearing my eyes off the fruit. Sam laughed and reached over to the table to grab the remote to the plasma TV that hung on western wall.
"Sam!" Mike hollered as Sam clicked the TV on.
