The Guy from the Insane Asylum

Chapter 39

"Procrastinate now, don't put it off." —Ellen DeGeneres.

Chapter 39

"You shouldn't be practicing magic, Bethany!" Mrs. Harlow had been caught up by her mother on her daughter's status and so she wasn't very happy to find Bethany using witch magic in the middle of their living room. Michelle turned to Zach. "And you! Why are you helping her?"

Zachary was actually a bit shocked that he was getting scolded too. "I—,"  but he couldn't say any more because he was cut off by Mrs. Harlow.

"I know that you knew. So why did you think it was okay to let her grow a garden in the middle of the living room with magic? I thought you two knew better."

"Momma, I'm sorry." Bethany apologized. "But—,"

"No! No 'buts.' I just don't understand why your making me treat you guys like little kid siblings who are always getting into trouble."

Zach wrinkled his nose, and Bethany said, "gross, don't say that."

Mrs. Harlow realized what she implied and made a face of disgust. "Sorry," she said very quickly. "But still! You're not allowed to use magic, Bethany!"

"She's using magic?" Grandma Maggie stepped inside the house too. They arrived from grocery shopping at the plaza at a very unfortunate time. Maggie glanced around at all the flowers and noticed half of them weren't even able to flourish. It also appeared as if the other half had been blowtorched. Cleary, that was not a good sign. Grandma Maggie glared at Zach. "Was this your idea, kid?"

Beth looked down to her shoes and pouted. Since Maggie had actually began to like him—or at least not entirely despise him—Zach thought it was unlucky that they were caught. "I'm—I'm sorry." He said, simply not being able to say anymore and not wanting Bethany to get in more trouble than she already was. Beth turned to look at Zach with a look of surprise. He shook his head slightly and mentally pleaded for her not to say anything.

"Zach, how could you do this?" Michelle was unbelieving. "And Bethany, why would do this? You know how psychics respond to witch magic." She was worried, she had been told too many horrifying stories about psychics who were turned dark. And she didn't want her daughter going through anything like that.

"I'm sorry. I needed to know what I could do. But, as you can see, it's not a lot. Apparently, my brain likes to destroy things. So, none of these flowers are actual . . . flowers. Even the one's half alive—they aren't even—," Beth groaned, more disheartened than she had ever been. Noticing her struggle and disappointment, Grandma Maggie and Michelle both went over to hug Bethany. "Maybe there's no use in trying in trying to fight the dark away—if it's how I am."

Maggie owned a sullen look, "is this really how you were trying to fight it? By enforcing magic when you should be staying away from it?"

Bethany attempted to defend herself. "I just thought that if I got to understand it then maybe I would be in control, and it wouldn't be able to declare me dark."

"Honey," Maggie looked star struck. "That might actually work."

"Grandma, it's stronger than me. A lot stronger."

"Look," Maggie mentally prepared to frighten both her daughters. "You obviously have witch magic. Which almost instantly announces you dark as a psychic. But nobody has ever tried to fight back, because their dark side had always been stronger than their light. But Bethany, that's not the case with you. Or else you wouldn't be trying so hard to prevent that from happening. So, if there's anything, absolutely anything that we can do to at least try and win this battle, then we have to do it."