Freewriting/Short Story collection

Magic

A/N most recent piece, around 1 400 words. Not edited much so there's definitely going to be some grammatical or spelling errors. God bless wattpad formatting. It definitely doesn't grind my gears or anything.

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This right here is my favourite place on Earth. It may not look like much, but when the sun hits the trees just right you can feel your stress melt away. Many don't understand the appeal of this location, probably because they don't have the same connection with this spot as me, but those who do rarely have the same amount of love for it. I love it for the trees and the way you can see the lighting change from warm to cool just by turning your head. I love it for its memories and peace; I've never had anything bad happen to me there, only good memories. It never seems to be too hot or cold, always at a tolerable level.

All of those things are swell, but the true magic of that location is in, well, the magic. If you have a connection to the ether you can feel how much power sits in that one stretch of woods. It's like standing at the bottom of the ocean and having all the negative energies and doubts cleaned off of you by the infinitely powerful current. I've heard tales of spots this powerful, usually near active volcanoes or atop powerful mountains; places far more dangerous than the one I choose to rest in.

Some theorise that places get their power through powerful mages coming together and tearing a hole to other planes. Others believe that these holes in reality, overflowing with energy, have been there since the Earth was born. Smaller groups, ones that unfortunately often become cults, believe that these areas were created by higher beings, things that could drive a man mad were he to only glimpse one.

I don't believe in any of those theories. Through years of travel and quite a bit of self reflection, I have made my own theory. Places brimming with magical energy only have power because of the people who believe it has power. These locations that everyone believes can change you for the better or have some sort of innate power do have power, through the unknowing magic of the masses.

Consider a church or any sort of holy ground. If you're like me and enter one of those buildings, you can feel its magic, one of safety and healing, though often with darker tones hiding in the corners. Throughout history the church was seen as a symbol of safety and healing for those who followed it, and a symbol of power to those who didn't. Christian or not, the Church has been an undeniably powerful entity through a great deal of human history. However, you don't have to go to the Vatican in Italy, the centre of the Roman Catholic Church, or somewhere like Jerusalem to feel the power of the church. You could enter any old church and feel the same energies, though at a lower level. So how does it work then? Have a powerful group of mages been to every church on the planet? That would be impossible, new churches are made fairly often and trust me, very few churches, especially modern ones, are visited by mages. Could these places of power have been there since the beginning? That could be true for the major holy sites of any religion, but the magic emanating from most churches is gone the instant you exit the building, naturally or, well, "Naturally," magical areas are often more shapeless, often circular. Also there's no way in hell EVERY church could've been built on holy ground, and I did a bit of a road trip visiting them when I was first testing out my theory; there's a LOT of them. Then the final major theory: is the magic the result of a higher being. I can't exactly disprove the idea that a higher being has visited EVERY church to make it magical but come on! There are THOUSANDS of churches in the U.S. alone! There's no way some god's gone to all of them! Especially the ones that preach ideologies that counter its message!

Now let's apply my theory. Everyone who believes in the Christian god believes He has power. Churches are where they gather to worship Him and pray for aid. Churches are also viewed as safe areas; sanctuaries against all evil. To Christians, churches are places of healing, guidance, and safety. To those who are part of cultures that were maimed or nearly genocided by people in the name of the Christian God, they are symbols of destruction, of desolation, and reminders that even if their culture is still alive, the church bears no remorse for what it's done. For those harmed in churches, they are not sanctuaries, but prisons.

Every church I entered had different levels of magic. Some were bursting with power, full of devoted followers of a religion who were unknowingly performing magic through their worship. When they prayed to their god and devoted themselves to something in the name of the lord the magic in the building aided them, which fueled their devotion more. Others were haunted by a dark energy, and a simple Google search could tell you all about what happened there. One of the darkest ones I can remember setting foot in had turned out to be a place where a priest had done unspeakable things to children. I never set foot in there ever again. The average church was just less powerful. People only half believed in the power of a god and thus never filled the place with the energy and devotion of others.

All of the magical energies in these buildings could be learned before even setting foot inside the door; a small bit of research on the town's history would reveal everything behind those doors. The only exception was a church that felt mostly light, but had a haunting darkness under it. A few months later I saw in the news that a man had been arrested and jailed for abusing his wife and children for almost 15 years. I dug deeper and found that the mother of two had been a major part of the church group but dropped it a few months before her husband's arrest. I surmise that it may have been her realisation that praying to God wasn't helping her that brought that energy to the church; the realisation that not even the Lord would help her escape. I recently looked into her social media and saw that she is now married to a lovely woman by the name of Anne, and her children seem to be doing better as well.

Now on to the location I found. This place seems to have no major historical meaning to any groups or even any recent events that would make it powerful. The only thing I can think of is that people walk through it and think it's pretty. So how does it have this much power? My leading theory is that it's power is my fault. I've been visiting that place since I was very young, and every time I've been there it's felt magical to me. As I've grown and learned about magic and how it works, that feeling has never faded. It's always been a remarkably peaceful place that draws out my worries and makes me feel in tune with the world. It may be that my love of the beauty of the area has filled it with magic that aligns with how it makes me feel. Seems like something that lines up with the patterns of the churches, no? How people feel about a place dictates its power. The breathtaking beauty of that bit of woods has expanded into a power that abolishes my anxieties and drowns out the hellish world we all live in. The question now becomes, can we determine exactly how many people it takes to make some place magical? Is it simply a matter of devotion and belief that determines how much power a place has for people? It seems to me that one person can create something unimaginably powerful just by believing it must be true. Will the connections to the ether fade after I die? How quickly, if at all? After humanity is dead and gone will our sites of power be the same?

Nevertheless, no one can change how I feel about that stretch of trail. It is truly a magical place.