Strange Magic(Book one of the Magizens series by Wisdom Omoghene)

Chapter Three- We've All Got Issues

Avery.

It couldn't possibly be. I wasn't crazy. Or at least that's what they think, and say I am, we all have one thing or another going on in our heads, but mine took the cake.
After I had spent the better part of an hour, trying to convince Emma, there was someone sitting with me the other day, she seemed reluctant to reason. Can't say I blame her. She had done a great job of looking after me for a while now, it only seemed unfair and selfish to keep piling up my dementia on her. She had her own issues too.
However, she had shown a faint hint of interest when I said the girl's name. Judith. She told me to call her Judy, Just me. She had said the other day.
Emma's look faltered for a second, before settling back to her more controlled older look, as if silently saying: All's good, don't bother yourself over nothing. But I did. I always did. It was one of my Illnesses. Emma had on a tinkering look that day, and the next morning as we prepared for class. Her eyes were heavy even, like she had pulled an all nighter. Knowing her she probably did. Thayer,and his gang strolled passed us very slowly, like someone hit the slow mo button in a movie. Becky looked at Emma shortly, conversing mentally. Emma nods once, turning at me she waves goodbye, whispering 'I'll see you later' then walking off with the rest of them, Thayer wrapped an arm around her shoulders, we both glared fixedly at each other for a second before tearing off our gazes. My mind raced back to our moment together at the Rising Hook. How he had broke my fall, saving me from the embarrassment of hitting the ground.
Sighing, I make my way towards History.

**********

This time, we used a normal classroom; if you'd call a room with broken window panels, crunched up soda cans, paper, and condoms littering the washed up, faded used-to be Persian carpet. Which I seriously doubted was. Plus, the whole room smelt of beer, and pot.
I found a sit, again next to that guy from my class the other day, and the cafe. Today, he wore a black shirt with that said : The beatles over it in block letters. He didn't seem to notice I was sitting beside him, his earphones still on, I manage to take a peek at his phone screen. He is listening to skater Boy by Avril Lavigne, and he bobbed his head slowly to the beat. Under his note was an old newspaper,one from ten years ago.The headlines made me tremble: serial occult killers mysteriously appear in Virginia, claiming life of ten year old boy said to have...
I stopped myself from finishing. Trying not to remind myself of the past, I shut my eyes tightly trying to focus. For a while, everything spined in my head, like I was stuck in some coaster ride, with no way of stopping. Then silence.
I open my eyes. I was standing in the woods, that same woods. But they weren't there, the monsters with glowing eyes, instead I saw Thayer circled with his friends around a girl over something that looked like a make shift alter covered with autumn leaves, with a carving knife in his grasp. On the floor where they laid where inscriptions in languages I thought only existed in a Lord of the rings franchise. They all looked...dead, I really hoped I was wrong. Ambling forward, trying to make out the girl's face when a hand grabbed me. I turned sharply, catching sight of that man again, a sinister smile painted his middle aged face. Stretching a hand to the knife Thayer was holding it flew to his grasp on command, he raised it above his head, I see the sun reflecting off it's blade and instead of the man's reflection over the blade. I see a senile, disheveled old man, having grey hair with wringled skin, and half of his hair lost to age, and his eyes were a very dark shade of red. Like oxblood.
"We meet again my little one!" I hear him hiss. My heart raced, heat shot through my feet, flowing up to the rest of my upper body. Rage. A rage I'd never knew I had envelopes me.
"Let me go!" I attempt to push hard against him but before my hand can make contact with his body, he is blasted back off his feet, ten feet into the air. And hitting the ground with a loud thud. Then i ran like hell. I can hear someone's voice from the skies. I stopped turning around I see a tall young man maybe a few years older than I was grip my shoulders. He had long red hair, like fire, dark gray eyes as stormy clouds, pale face like an albino.
"Snap out of it!" He says, and then the leaves we are standing on begins to float, and whirl around us with stunning speed, and agitation, I felt dizzy. When it stopped, I was in class again, with the young man who apparently was our History teacher holding my hand, and glaring into my eyes.
Around me the chairs where threwn askew here and there, and somehow all the windows were now missing their glasses, and in honesty it looked better that way. I alone was seated, the rest of the class all stood at the board, staring with gaping mouths at me.
A line of sweat dropped from my face.
"Are you alright?" Says the teacher leaving my hand.
I nod,feeling like exploding. What the hell just happened here?! I wondered. Reaching for my pills I tugged it away into my skirt pocket, and made my way out the door towards the girls rest room. It was a good thing I am the only girl here for now.
I go straight to the faucet to wash off my face.
I take the pills in my hands and glare at them with doubt. Remembering what Judy said to me about the pills killing me. If she had meant by preventing me from seeing all these absurd visions, I think I can pass. I was ready to down the pills when I heard a conversation from one of the booths.
I thought I was alone.
"No. You can't be serious." The girl said sardonically. I rolled my eyes it was Becky. I listened in more. "She's not Black leather jacket worthy. Do you know how we've survived so long in our coven?". Says Becky. What the hell was that supposed to mean? The second girl gave a sigh, and I almost screamed when I heard the voice.
"Give her a chance...". That was Emma. She was that close to them? And why the fuck was she and Becky talking shit behind my back? I thought, feeling kind off back stabbed.
"You don't even know what she can do yet, other than have nightmares." Becky snapped.
"That is equally my fault." Emma says, and I inch my head closer but not too close so my shadow doesn't appear under their door.
"How?" Asked Becky. Yes Emma. How? I thought.
She sighs. "I keep indulging her with the drugs." She says.
There was a palpable silence, then Becky says: "Emma, that's a low blow, especially for you."
"You think I don't know that? I love Ave." She blurts out, and I blush quietly.
"She's like a younger sister I'd always had." She adds, and I felt the urge to break the door and hug her tightly. "I just don't want her to end up like...you know who."
"I understand." Becky agrees. Wait. I don't. Who?
"That other coven is on the move again, its been ten years since they made their last kill, and now another..." Emma mutters sadly. "I don't want anything happening to her."
"Have you told her?" Becky retorts.
I reclined where I stood. "Which part? The one of her being a human with mystical abilities or the fact she saw Judith my..." My leg pushed a door slightly, and it opened.
"Wait,someone's here." Becky says, I clasp a hand over my mouth and ran out as quietly as I could.
Once out, I made my way towards the the school's woods, which was also a cemetery for burying students who took their own lives and stuff. It was great. I needed the silence. I sat upon a headstone, I'm sure the person wouldn't mind. I must have lost myself while crying because a kid strolled towards me with empty eye sockets, and faded denim jacket, his skin was as white as chalk. For a while I wasn't scared to death seeing something from a horror movie step into reality. My reality.
I sniffed.
"What is it kid?" I ask
He only points at the headstone I sit on. I'm guessing he wanted to sit too. I make space for him to sit, but he only stands, hands still pointed at it. I look at the name etched On the stone, covered in moss, I get up and wipe the rough slab: Maxwell Peters.
"Maxwell..." I whisper. Turning at him, his face white as winter snow.
"Are you Maxwell?" I ask stupidly.
The boy gives a nod. I was surprised at my own courage. Emma thinks I'm weak, that I need protection. I'll show her how strong I am. How strong I can be. Looking straight into the dead kid's eyes- Empty sockets I ask: "If you don't mind me asking, can you tell me how you died?"
He opened his mouth to speak but a voice called me, I blink. The dead boy is gone.
Strolling towards me is our young History teacher from earlier.
I was so dazed from that time, I hadn't had the time to apprecciate his looks.
He wasn't looking bulky or muscular like Thayer, but there was something about the cool and sturdy way he sauntered towards me that caught my eye. I wondered just how old he was nineteen,twenty? I Figured out on my own solemnly,
"What are you doing up here Missy?" He begins with a calm but stern voice, trying to be friendly, but showing authority at the same time. "can I speak to you Missy?" He says with a southern accent. I am awed.
Okay, a cute teacher alone with a minor like me, in a school cemetery. I don't think so. We all have issues. I wasn't going to add to mine.
"No thanks,". Was my reply, turning around to leave, but there was a whoosh in the air, carrying dust and debris, and I bumped into him. He had rock hard chest, and surprisingly strong arms.
"How did you-" I stutter. He only smirks, but not In a creepy way. His stormy gray eyes were intense, they told a story. His story, I could feel it when I touched him.
"I could show you how I did it if you agree to talk." His voice is calm, but laced with so much authority. I looked at the pills in hand.
"You don't have to be afraid of who you really are. Come with me, I'll help you." He offers a hand, behind him I see Judy waving energetically at me, giving me a thumbs up to trust him.
I smile. Emptying the contents of my prescription on the ground. I looked up at the taller man.
"What do you wanna know first?" He asked.
"A little bit of everything." I retort.