Little Hex and the Muddy Mischief

One

            I spotted the blue and red lights turning a corner far beneath us. The police were almost at the gate now. Alex stood in shock, unmoving. We had snuck into the abandoned postal office countless times to stand on the roof shouting our grievances to the skyline in the middle of the night. It wasn't fear of heights; it was the fact that she had accidentally dropped her massive camera off the side of the roof, and now we watched as it plummeted down the side of the building, almost crushing a couple who had been walking hand in hand.

"Alex," I said, grabbing her arm, "we need to go – now!"

She looked up at me, and then looked back down at the crumpled mess of camera and terrified people below.

"We won't make it in time," she said somberly.

"Doesn't matter. We have to try," I insisted and pulled her off the ledge and back down into the center of the roof.

Once she came back to reality, we shuffled down the 10 flights of stairs in almost complete darkness and stopped to catch our breath in the basement. This part of the escape would be a little bit trickier. The basement was flooded, and we had previously maneuvered several large wooden planks cleverly to cross the water to where we were now standing.

I moved my foot around in the dark, feeling for the first plank, but flooded my shoe instead.

"Got it!" I could barely hear Alex say. She couldn't have been more than 5 feet away, so I grabbed around in the darkness until I found her arm, and she led me across the maze of planks and toward the light in the far corner of the building.

We approached the gate that would lead to our salvation, but as soon as I got close enough to thrust Alex up and over, a bright light swung into my face, immobilizing me.

"Well, well, well. Look what we have here," a voice said. I still couldn't see with the light in my eyes.

"Real original," Alex spouted, from somewhere to the left of me. "You can turn the flashlight off now."

After a few moments, the light switched off, but it took a little bit longer for my eyes to adjust to the darkness. Once I regained my sight, I realized that the police had opened the gate and Alex was in handcuffs.

"Let's go," one of the uniforms said, beckoning me to exit the basement. I reluctantly obliged, and we both climbed into the back of one of the police cars – an all too familiar occurrence. What can I say? Good girls are really just bad girls that haven't been caught.

The police must have had our parents on speed dial by now, because they were already waiting at the police station by the time we arrived. No words were exchanged during the ride home, but I could tell that I had sealed my fate once again.

I had never thought about it before, but I really could just leave, and no one could stop me. I might not be 13 yet, but I was almost the age when witches start training on their own. Of course, I couldn't tell Alex that. Everyone knows you can't tell non-magic folk - or as I like to call them bores - about magic. It can have dire consequences.

"Where would you even go? Running away, really?" she looked at me wide-eyed through the phone screen. Modern technology has made certain forms of magic outdated, like talking through mirrors. If you have a phone to talk to non-mages anyway, why carry a mirror around?

"Austin," I answered tactlessly. I had been grounded for an entire month just as summer was starting, and my house arrest was set to begin today. In the past year I had been grounded more often than not, and I couldn't keep doing this. I mean, that's the definition of insanity, right?