SpellBound UNFINISHED AND ONHOLD

Chapter 5

Chapter 5

*Jason Goode*

The school is nearly deserted. Only detention and wandering students remained in the building as I stood at the stairway landing in the farthest corner of the school. Nobody ever came here, even during the day, and for now it serves as a meeting place for us.

The window over-looked the track-and-field where we had agreed to meet Anne, but Sara thought that it would be best if we all talk without her first. I knew that she was indifferent towards her, but I couldn't care less at the moment. I had separated myself away from them as they sat on the stairs and instead, I watched Anne as she waited at the bleachers.

"I mean, how well do we really know her?" Sara was saying. She was trying to convince us, me mostly, that we shouldn't be so trusting to Anne, but she was too late.

"I hate to admit, but she appeared out of nowhere in the middle of the school year and, somehow, she figures out the biggest secret we've been keeping for years." John said thoughtfully, siding with Sara as always.

"And in only a day." Jessica added. "I mean seriously it's her second day in school."

"Well when you put it like that-" Timothy tried to say, but I got tired of listening to them go on and on about why we shouldn't put faith on the one person that could tell me who I am.

"I trust her." I interrupted him. I didn't know why, but I did. I just couldn't think of the right way to explain it to them.

It's my secret, something that I can tell them about, but they'll never know it completely. Even I don't know it completely and Anne holds the answers. She has the confidence that could terrify you, but give assurance at the same time. The way she could look at someone like she knows every secret in their mind makes you feel unguarded, but hands you the ability to talk to her about anything.

"We can do all the damned and pointless research we want, but my answers are not gonna come out of a book or a website. It's not like she's gonna tell anyone, it'll be just as bad for her if she does."

And with that I pushed past their doubtful glares and started walking to Anne who now wandered at the edge of the field where the fence separated the school from the small woods behind it.

We walked up behind her, but she didn't seem to notice us. She was so short that I had no problem seeing over her shoulder as she gazed at a dead flower whose vines had snaked up the fencing when they bloomed in the summer, but now the-probably once beautiful-plant had no life.

She seemed entranced, her eyes not leaving the flower that she held so delicately on the palm of her small hand. There was a curve to her lips, a ghost of a smile, and even if the others couldn't feel it, I could. The magick in the air was palpable and it radiated off of her, her hand, and the flower. Jessica was getting ready to speak, but I held up a hand to silence her and motioned to the flower.

As we watched, the flower seemed to rejuvenate and now it bloomed. I realized that it was a Touch-Me-Not, a flower that only lived in summer. It's orange-yellow petals were spotted with red blotches and the stem around it started to lose the withered brown color replaced by a healthy green. She watched it happily as the magick spread from the flower and the whole plant soon revitalized. It became a misplaced object among the dying plants as winter came.

"Pretty, don't you think?" She said before turning to us, apparently knowing that we were there the entire time. There was a certain spark in her eyes, not enough to drown out the sadness, but enough to show the thrill of magick in her blood.

"That was amazing!" Jessica gushed. "How did you do that?"

'She asks as if she hasn't been here for three years. Magick. The answer is magick, with no sarcasm.' I sneered in my head. It annoyed me that they were just listing out reasons not to trust her and Jessica starts gushing like they've been best friends for years the moment that Anne can actually hear what she's saying.