The Lost Witch

Chapter fourteen

When the final bell rang, Paige was the first one out of her seat. She rushed out the door and towards the staircase, eager to reach her locker before the hallway became swarmed with too many students.

She wasn't fast enough and had to manoeuvre around a few students in her haste to reach her destination. Once there, she pulled the metal door open and shoved her entire backpack inside, only pausing briefly to fetch her gym clothes and sneakers from the bottom of the locker.

She slammed the locker shut and found the nearest bathroom to dress into shorts and a singlet that adhered to her like a second skin. She knew she had abandoned all of her homework into her locker, but that was tomorrow's problem.

Unravelling her iPod, Paige paused by the main entrance to load a new playlist. Once music started playing, she took off at a steady jog away from school. Home wasn't that far away, and with this pace, she knew she would be home in no time. It certainly wouldn't be enough for a proper run. She really needed the exercise at the moment, something to burn off all this pent-up energy she had been feeling lately.

Instead of turning down a street that would take her right by her house, Paige turned away from it, opting instead to travel away from the centre of town. It felt good, really good to be using her muscles again. Lately, it was like being caged, trapped, she couldn't do anything.

Nothing made sense anymore.

Nothing was easy.

God, how she hated this town.

Aaron's dream had given her a taste of Solace Academy again; nothing was worse than that school. It was more like a juvie, a military camp more than anything. Rules and regulations, punishments and judgements. She took extra time in the showers after P.E., desperately trying to cleanse his dream away, but it remained firmly lodged in place, like a nightmare rather than a dream.

After another twenty minutes of mindless running, Paige's thighs begin to protest with each step. Her body didn't even have much time to recover from the encounter in Aaron's dream. She couldn't shake the memory of her body flying through the air and colliding with a rough brick wall. She knew that if she didn't wake up at that moment, Aaron would have done something much worse.

Paige shuddered at the thought and decreased her speed slightly. Not enough to stop the whirl of colours passing by from nearby houses and trees, but enough that her thighs no longer felt as if they were being torn apart.

As she ran, Paige stared at the sky. It was too early for there to be any colour other than blue above, but the colour was somewhat comforting. She was sick of the rain, she was sick of the storm that always seemed to be raging inside herself.

All Aaron's fault, Paige thought angrily as her soles of her sneakers slapped firmly against the footpath. She hesitated at the side of the curb for a second before dashing across to the other side of the road, barely giving herself enough time to check no cars were going to mow her down.

What she wouldn't give to be normal again, if not human, she'd even settle for being a normal witch. It wasn't exactly normal, but it was better than the life she was stuck with. Sensing magic, having her own magic always on the edge of breaking loose, accusing her classmate of being some kind of vicious creature – she was just so sick and tired of it all.

Paige was so preoccupied with her own thoughts and emotions that she didn't realise that these emotions were traced with her own magic. As her frustration grew, so too did her magic until there was no barrier, no fence holding her magic back.

The wind picked up speed until she was trapped in a cyclone. The trees nearby rustled, its branches twisted and pulled towards Paige in an unnatural way. Paige came up short when the branches from a nearby tree came flying loose and almost knocked her over.