Child of Shadows

Revival

      She sits on her floor while she hears the blood rushing in her ears in the bitter silence of the cold autumn night. The window that she left open had let in a gust of wind that brushed her hair into her face, distracting her from her reading. She slightly glanced up at the window with her bright green eyes, and as soon as she looked, her cat, Binx, leaped and sat on the window sill. He began to gently clean off the top of his right paw as he turned his head to the side, his ears twitched as he wasn't fond of the wind hitting them. She focused her attention back to her book and she noticed a black Sharpie marker was sitting on the bed next to her bare knee. She carefully wrote her name in an old notebook sketching out, October Sharpe. She flipped through the pages as she had minor flashbacks to when she wrote in the old torn notebook. She set it back down and picked up her book again. She couldn't help but to think about the way people love each other in fiction books. "Must be why it's only fiction." She thought to herself. She snapped the book shut and laid it upon her nightstand. Binx jumped off of her window and made himself comfortable right next to her on the bed. Grabbing the TV remote, she flicked through the channels trying to find something good to watch on TV. And since Halloween was within the month, she was in search of something to put her in the spirit.

      She came across "Hocus Pocus", which was her favorite Halloween movie and she could watch it no matter what time of the year it was. She had named her cat after the black cat in the movie. Thackery Binx was his name, but she stuck with Binx for simplicity.
         October heard a slight knock on her bedroom door. "Hello?" She said. A voice came from the other side of the dark wood door. "Hey. It's Layne. Can I come in?"  Said a deep voice. "Yeah, sure." Said October. He opened the door with caution and walked in. "I was hoping you could help me with something if you don't mind." October replied with a simple, "sure, go ahead." He began. "I've been seeing and hearing things a lot, lately. I'm sure you might think I'm crazy or... I don't know. But, maybe you have something with an explanation in one of those cool little books of yours?" He pointed to her bookshelf. She pondered his request for a moment and asked, "Have you been seeing these things as full figures? Like shadows?" His response was a simple nod, yes. She responded to him in a happy tone. "Of course. I would love to help. I actually deal with these things at least 3 times a week. I see things all the time. They like talking to me." He seemed either scared or intrigued. His eyes grew to the size of saucers. "Woah... really...?" October spoke confidently with her confirmation. She would teach him what she knew about the world and its magical wonders because he always wanted to know more. She predicted that because he has opened himself to the universe's secrets as she had. He had been receiving his gifts like she had when she was 16, which was a few months ago. The awakening as she liked to call it, was when people started researching things that people called "witchcraft". Then that way, once they begin looking into it, their senses start opening up and their gifts begin to surface. In October's case, she can speak to spirits, they can speak to her, and sometimes, they show themselves to her.

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The only light source in her darkened bedroom was 4 candles. One of which smelled like an autumn wreath. The others were unscented, yet she feels strongly about how each candle color balances the energy in her room. She had white, red, and black, lit in the other corners. And not a single candle overpowered the rest. They all balanced themselves out. As the flickers of the light shone on the walls, she drifted over to her very organized bookshelf. She signaled for Layne to come sit on the floor where they usually discuss their weird theories and whatnot. As she watched him cross the room to her dark gray rug, she looked down at Binx's food bowl which she noticed was almost empty. So she decided to go grab some more food for him. 

        She opened her bedroom door as it ever so slightly creaked. She snuck downstairs, but it was ineffective. There were 2 other people who resided in the house sitting around the island in the middle of the kitchen. And of course, they noticed that she had come down. "Good afternoon, October." Said a red-headed boy. "Hey, Theo." She responded as she slightly put her hand up in a casual, yet polite greeting. The other one hadn't acknowledged that she was there, as always. That is Sebastian. He keeps to himself mostly. He only really talks to Theo. He is a very sweet, and mysterious boy with choppy black hair almost reaching the top of his bony shoulders. He was reading one of his many books and writing down some ideas in a notebook. He gets inspired by the books he reads for his own novels. But he never lets anyone read his work. Nobody except for Theo. And October never blamed him for this, because she feels the same about her hobbies with her craft unless it was Layne. Same with him and Theo. Since Theo is the only one to read his books, all he says about them, is that "they're rather intriguing." 

As she opened the cabinet where the cat food was, she noticed a frail mouse struggling to breathe as it lay next to a box of rat poison. Gasping, she gingerly picked up the suffering rodent and rushed it upstairs. She had a small carrier that she kept for occasions such as these. She laid it on top of some raggedy fleece inside of the carrier and surrounded the mouse with natural herbs to keep it alert and awake. Layne looked over after she burst in the room. He walked over to see what she was doing. She crossed the room to grab a decrepit book from her shelf surrounded by fox, rabbit, wolf, and cat bones that had been carefully placed on each shelf. she flipped to a page that read, Revival. The book had been placed directly in front of the animal carrier. "What's going on?" He asked her with concern in his tone. "I found this mouse in the cat food cabinet. He's barely alive so I'm gonna try to save him." "How?" He asked. He furrowed his brows. "Watch." She concentrated hard and quietly read the page aloud all the while lighting a tall white pillar candle with a single match. As she neared the end of the page, the meek animal quivered and suddenly sprung up on all fours and began running frantically around while tripping over folds of fleece. October let out a smile made purely of pleasure to her talent and looked up at him who was also impressed. She placed the carrier outside and gently tipped it so the mouse could escape. It scurried off into the woods quickly as if it were late for something. Binx was used to injured mice, rats, and other animals that October had nursed back to health, so he never bothered with attempting to kill them as he did as a kitten, which lead to October teaching herself revival. He sat calmly next to her feet watching the mouse scurry away and disappear into the fallen leaves.

        "Let's go, Binx," she said looking down at him. He looked up at her with his large eyes that always reminded her of the full harvest moon. He followed close behind her like he always does. She gathered her things and came back inside to find Layne sitting back on her comfy rug with his phone in his right hand while his left was running his fingers through the loose fabric of the gray rug. He looked up as he noticed she had come back and pulled up the notes section in his phone. This is how he kept track of everything he learns from her. By now, there were about 15 different sections with around 30 bullet points per section. He absolutely loved learning things from her. And she loved informing him on it all. It was how they always bonded. And this time as they got into the new information, he labeled his new section, "Spirits". And so they began.