Scrollwalker

[Abby-normal]

I started writing this story more than three years ago, and it's still not finished. i thought i'd post it on CS to see how people on here evaluate my writing skills. if you read it all, give it a 1-5. if you only read a few chapters, tell me which, and give it a 1-5. i decided to divide this story up into chapters when I put it on here, so that it could be read easier. here is the first chapter:

Ch. 1
The letter

Summer was over, leaves were falling, and Vida still hadn’t finished reading her summer break reading assignment. She had to read To Kill a Mocking Bird all the way by Tuesday, tomorrow!!! She tried to read but her sister, Maia, was running around their room, looking everywhere for her text books.

Maia’s thick, auburn hair flew every which-way as she flew from place to place, looking for her art folder. Vida’s fine, black hair hung limply at shoulder length as she stared out the window with her storm-gray eyes.
“It looks like we’ll have to take my car.” Vida said looking moodily out at the fog and rain; she hated to have her car get wet. “Guess so, but, my bus still has thirteen minutes to get here.” Maia yelled from underneath her bed. Vida smiled at her younger sister.
“Girl, I know you well enough to say that you wouldn’t make it, and besides mom and dad would kill me if you get Hypothermia, which you will, in this weather!”

Vida grabbed her back pack, shoved her phone along with a pack of gum, (the chewing helped her concentrate, and she knew that her science class had a major test today.) with her pocket journal and a couple of pencils into her pocket. She walked to the stair case and shouted up stairs for Maia to get down to the car. Then Vida walked to the back door thinking, Where is she? It’s almost seven forty!

Vida opened the back door, braced herself, and ran through the cold rain. It felt like bullets were pounding against her head, even with her coat! The icy rain poured down her neck as she ran to the garage door. The latch was slippery from the rain but after fumbling with it for a few seconds, she got the latch to work. By then, she was soaking wet.
After waiting for ten minutes her sister, Maia came in from the porch. She told Vida that she still couldn’t find her art folder. “Bummer sis, but we gotta get moving; I’m already gonna to be half an hour late so grab the rest of your stuff and get out here!” Maia stuck her tongue out and slowly walked towards the car. It was a gray four person pickup truck.

Vida had gotten a four seater ‘cus she had these friends who liked to go out and take her partying on the weekends, like Jade who had dyed her hair turquoise at the beginning of school while ignoring the disapproving glances her parents gave her, and Ben who had curly blond hair and always wore a long black leather coat, and who Maia secretly found very attractive, and lastly there was Riley, the brain of the group, he liked to mess around on computers a lot and had saved them all at the end of year test from the horrible prospect of failure. Together they had scraped through the first three years of high school, and now, they were coming back as seniors.

Maia got in the front seat and buckled in, shoving her back pack into the seat behind her. Vida did the same with her purse and schoolbag. Vida started the engine and buckled herself in.
“The wind is really blowing hard!” Vida said. I hope I’ll be able to drive through this storm, let alone get Maia to school! Vida thought to herself as they backed out. They had driven for about five minutes and it was raining harder than ever. At long last Vida pulled in to the school parking lot.
“I’ll go with you, so you won’t get cold on the way in.” Vida said, but the real reason was she wanted to tell those office people off if they gave Maia one of those stupid pink slips they gave you when you’re late.
“Good morning Maia,” said Mrs. Blaine the office lady. Mrs. Blaine was a plump woman, with barely any neck and beady blue eyes that always made Vida think of a toad. A fat, beady toad who loved to call you out if you were late.
“And who is this?” She asked, flashing a big toothy grin at Vida. Inwardly, Vida groaned and wished she could take that flagpole outside and ram this woman a few times in the face with it. But, having to deal with these people for a very long time, she just gave a false smile and said through gritted teeth, “I'm Vida, Maia's sister.”
“How nice,” said Mrs. Blaine “Here child,” And she gave Maia the late slip. “Now off to class with you!” she said in what she probably thought was a warm manner but to Vida it was like a ‘ha! You're late and there’s nothing you can do about it’ attitude.

“Wait Maia,” Vida said, giving the toad behind the desk an evil grin. “Give the slip back to Mrs. Blaine.” Mrs. Blaine turned to look at Vida. You could tell from her expression that she didn't like people talking over her.
“Young lady, school started half an hour ago so your sister is half an hour late and don’t add on to her lateness.” Maia looked at Vida and Mrs. Blaine trying to decide.
“I just want to go to class,” Maia said, sneaking a wink at Vida when the toad frowned at her. “So, here Mrs. Blaine.” And she handed her the slip, and walked back to class. Mrs. Blaine just sat there, like a toad on a log, staring down at the slip like it was an apple with horns.

“Bye Maia!” Vida said, giving the dumbfounded office lady a wink and walking out the double doors with a spring in her step. Walking back to the car Vida felt good about how Maia stood up to Miss Office. Her sister had never been one to take orders lightly, but she'd also never rolled over and did exactly what she'd been told. It was good that she was learning some independence. As Vida backed out of the parking lot she glanced at her watch and saw that it was nine-twenty-two! She was going to be so much later than her sister.

Putting her foot on the peddle Vida speed out of the parking lot going about fifty mph. Jeeze! Thought Vida I’m gonna get my first ticket! So she slowed down to thirty-five.
But still I’ve got to get to school. She reasoned with herself. Finally, she decided to compromise and stick it at forty. After driving about six miles Vida pulled into her school’s parking lot.

Her school was a large one and it had four different buildings: the science building where the students learned about biology, performed autopsies, and dissected frogs and cows eyes. (This, for the record, Vida thought was weird and extremely eeeew!) The main building had the study hall, rec room, library, and cafeteria and nurses office. The library must have been fifty feet tall with bookshelves all around and one of those ladders that had rails on the shelves and spun around so that you could reach the really high books at the top of the ladder. Kids dared other kids, who were scared to go up to climb to the top and grab a book, and believe it or not, the librarian was cool with it, she even made sure the book the kid got was a book from the top. But she also helped the kids who didn’t want to do it by giving them one of the books she put up there and told them to hide it under their shirt. All they had to do was climb to the middle pretend to get the book and climb down.

Vida liked her most out of all the people at the school besides Jade, Ben, and her other friend’s. The nurse’s office was kinda boring it had one of those posters about the food pyramid behind the bench; also the nurse treated them like they were still in elementary school. And the cafeteria was kinda lame; it also had the food pyramid thing which no one paid attention to, they just loaded up on snacks and that kept them going for the day.

The rec room was what the kids nick-named it, it was really called the gym but when it was gym class all they really did was play table tennis, crochet, and soccer. The other season sports were football in the fall, basketball in the spring and ice or regular hockey in the winter. The third building was the regular classrooms, the faculty room for the teachers to take a breather from putting up with them, and the office. And the fourth was donated for groups like science team, book clubs, Scout meetings, and other stuff. Sometimes the home schoolers in the district even met there. All in all, Vida loved this school. Vida got out of her car, locked the doors and walked through the halls to the class rooms, thoroughly doubting that many people had risked the storm to get here she didn’t bother to get a late slip.

Sure enough, when she looked through the window at the top of the door only the teacher, a rag-tag group of teenagers, and her friends Jade and Ben were inside. Vida got down from the rail she had used to peek in and opened the door. The teacher looked up when the door creaked shut and said in her normally light, airy voice.
“Good morning Vida, horrible storm isn’t it?”
“Yeah it is,” Vida said edging toward her seat.
“We were just talking about the reading report To Kill a Mocking Bird, have you read it?”
“Uhh, no but I watched the movie.”
“And how did you find it?” Vida shrugged. She really hadn’t seen all that much of it, just a few minutes while her mother flipped between channels on the T.V.
“Well, it was kinda cool, but I think Gregory Peck as Atticus finch was the best.” Vida said finally, brushing off the bad effects of the weather.
“A girl with good taste; well now, let’s think of something to do today,” she paused. “I know, how ‘bout we play window?” The class cheered, window was a game thought up by a class in Burbank California.

They were doing a high school around America thing; each class had to write a letter to a different school, Vida’s class had picked Burbank high. Vida’s class told them what it was like in Oregon and they wrote back and told them what it was like in Cali. Inside the letter they enclosed a booklet on a game called window; the booklet had two dice, and a sample board. Also in the letter was a book called ‘games your class will sit still for’ from the teacher. It had about 117 different games and twelve or eleven versions of games, the class and Mrs. Penton as well loved this book.

What you had to do was stand up, divide into two teams and draw a grid with the letters of the word ‘window’ separated by lines then roll the dice; each person chose when to sit down and get up when the dice rolled a one, the people who were still standing up lost all there points for that letter. You also had to pick two kids out of the class, one who would keep score and one who watched and marked who ever sat down and when. When they got to the last letter and the dice rolled one you tallied your points, whoever got the most points was given a piece of jolly rancher, and just to be cool, everyone else got one too. Vida’s class got up on their desks and divvied up into teams.

The game was fun, for a while, then, the teacher sighed and said, “Well, I guess we should get back to work.” She said as she made slowly to her desk. “Or,” she said looking as if the little light bulb had shown up above her head. “Or, we can do A Secret Draw! How about it class?” said Mrs. Penton the old gleam in her eyes. Vida’s class muttered excitedly, they hadn’t done secret drawings since the Easter holidays.
It was so fun, they each had to draw a picture about a topic the teacher picked and fold it and put it in a cloth bag then the teacher would jumble them up and the kids would reach their hand into the bag, pull out the picture and try to find who it belonged to.

The teacher told them that the topic was Insignias, so the students sat down at their desks and started drawing; Vida thought she would draw skull and crossbones, (one of the things she was notoriously known for throughout school!) She drew them on her clothes, on her locker door, and she filled up her notebooks at home, and covered her side of the bedroom wall. Once she drew one on the side of her face in silver marker which turned out to be permanent, luckily one of the girls who had been in the bathroom with her while she had done this had this red stuff in a bottle called ‘hard core nail polish remover’ which got it off in a few seconds, but before she used the nail polish remover she snapped a picture on her phone for Maia to see when she got home.

As she drew a funny feeling came over her, she tried to shake the weird feeling away like an annoying bug but she couldn’t. A while later they were about to reach in and pick the drawings from the bag when everyone heard a knock at the door, the teacher turned around, but before she could say “come in,” the knob turned, a thin girl about thirteen walked into the room. Her hair was pale and stringy but her face was olive colored with a tan. Her mouth was just a line, it looked like she didn’t like smiling or laughing and when she did it was in a mocking sort of way.

She was wearing a grey shirt, plain black shoes, and she had a hair ribbon set above her ear that made her look as if she were an antique doll and the strangest thing of all was that was looked just like the drawing of the ghost Vida had just put in the bag. The teacher went up to her and said, “Hello, are you looking for someone?” The girl just looked at the teacher saying nothing. After what seemed like ages the girl walked over to Vida’s desk, took a faded blue envelope out of her pocket, placed it on her desk and walked out of the room. Ben went up to her.
“What is it?” He asked cautiously.
“I don’t know.” She admitted, looking just as confused as they were at the envelope.
“Hey kids, let’s let Vida open it on her own.” The teacher suggested. Vida looked gratefully at the teacher. “Can I go to the bathroom, Mrs. Penton?”
“Of course Vida” said the teacher. And, the letter clutched tightly in her hand Vida sped off not to the bathroom but to the library where she could find peace and quiet among the labyrinth of shelves. On the one-in-a-million chance someone did come all the way back here she would hide behind the shelves. But this time she had to be totally alone.

As she walked along the hundreds of millions of books, she thought about what the letter could be about? And who would it be from? It could be about Maia’s behavior at school, it could be about the drawing contest she entered last month, it could be from her mom and dad who were on their their fifteenth wedding anniversary. Heck it could be a bill for all she knew. But, said that little voice in her head, I don’t think they send you bills in school.
“Yeah, guess not.” Vida sat down in front of the shelf marked history/mystery and slid her finger under the envelope flap and pulled. The top ripped off the envelope and inside was a crisp, official-looking letter. She pulled the letter out of its envelope, unfolded the piece of paper and started to read. As it happened, the letter did concern their parents, and her and her sister, but not in the way she’d imagined.

[Abby-normal]

well, now that i have you interested, at least, i hope you are. if you just started reading it, that's pretty dumb. if you already read the first one and you liked it, you ain't seen nothing yet!

Ch. 2
Pain, hurt, and suffering, all those lovely things

“That was wonderful.” Said Janis, leaning against the lobby wall, breathing hard. Her and her husband, Thomas, had just come back from a three mile morning hike. The desert life was flourishing and the quiet little town was bustling with activity. The couple had picked this spot for their fifteenth honeymoon, and boy did they not regret it!
The hotel was a secluded little three story building at the end of the street, with peeling green paint and beautiful stain-glass windows. Janis had fallen in love with it the second she had seen it, about a month ago, in a brochures catalog. She had begged Thomas to go there with her, instead of Vegas, (which was their original plan,) and spend three weeks there.

Thomas willingly agreed, saying it was a fantastic place to explore and recuperate. The day they left, about two weeks ago, Janis remembered saying to her girls “I love you two, be good! Vida, you’re sure you can handle this?” she was unsure why she thought of that now as her and Thomas walked up the narrow staircase to their room.
“Baby, I’m gonna take a shower, do you need the bathroom?”
“Nope. I need to finish my book.” said Thomas. He had been reading this fascinating book on desert flora and animal life yesterday and he was keen to finish it.
“Alright.” Said Janis, stepping into the quaint little bathroom and closing the door.

The water felt heavenly as it cascaded over the crown of her head, down her shoulders and landed with a resounding plink on the shower floor. As the heated water ran down her back, Janis felt a sudden familiar whoosh of drowsiness overcome her. She fought to stay awake and bent down to turn off the water, but she couldn’t see. Her head hit the wall and she slid to the floor of the shower, unconscious.

“Jan?” Thomas knocked on the door. He had heard something fall from behind the door and was worried. “Baby, are you ok?” Silence. Then, a groan. He knew what that meant. “Open.” He whispered. The door swung open and he hurried to the form of his beloved wife, sprawled out on the floor. She had collapsed while trying to get the door open.

He quickly gathered her up and walked over to the bed and set her down. He realized that there was something wrong with this vision. Usually, she could control them. Even very powerful ones, she could take them, but this one. . . This one didn’t even seem like a vision! He rummaged through his wife’s handbag, looking for the right herb packet.

He finally pulled out a small plastic bag full of spices and things. He ripped it open, poured the contents into a cup of water and tipped it to his wife’s mouth. “C’mon, Jan, drink.” He said, gently willing her to drink. Suddenly, Janis’s eyes flew open, but they weren’t hers.
Thomas backed away from his wife. Janis sat up and looked at him. Her eyes had turned a sickly green color and started emanating green smoke. “Souls have been wronged. Vengeance is at hand. Pray for your family, Thomas Callow.” The thing inside Janis smiled. “Indeed, pray for yourself. The end in near, for you, but your young will remain.” The thing smiled again, this time showing two rows of pointed teeth. “Pray for them. They will live. For now.” The green smoke suddenly sucked itself back in through Jan’s eyes and Thomas rushed over to her and cradled her in her arms. “Jan? Jan, listen to me, what was it? Speak to me!”

Jan’s throat felt like an air filter. Filled with dust! Her eyes stung, but she still remembered what had happened. A dark essence. It had caught hold of her, squeezed her, choking her breath. But she had seen a face, she just wasn’t sure whether she believed it.

“Tom, I saw it. He– he told me to pray for the girls.”
“He?” Asked Thomas. She nodded weakly. “He who?”
“You won’t believe me.” She said, pushing herself up and walking to the window.
“Try me.” said Thomas, walking over to her and gazing out through the window over her shoulder.
“It was– AAGH!” She yelled, falling to the floor and clutching her stomach. “UUUGGH!” she groaned. Her veins felt like they were filled with fire. Her hands burned, her head throbbed! She could hear Thomas yelling, trying to do something, but she was too hot to touch.

Thomas was frantically trying to hold his flailing wife, but every time he touched her skin, his hands burned. She was combusting rapidly. Turning to flame. Thomas looked fearfully at his wife and summoned the most powerful Water Elemental Magics there were. His body dissolved in to a mass of writhing liquid, enveloping Janis, covering her, cooling her body.

A spell. Thomas was doing a Water Elemental Magics spell. She sighed beneath the layer of water. That would be her Thomas. Thinking she was helpless. In fact, she was far from it. The pain may have been unbearable, but she summoned the ancient power of her family’s line, centuries of sorcery, magical ancestry old as the oceans; The water covering Janis just melted away onto the floor and resumed the form of her husband.
“Thank you Thomas.” She said. He didn’t answer, he just wrapped his arms around her and hugged her tightly. “Thomas,” she said, breaking away from him and holding him at arm’s length. “You and me, we’ve gone through more than most families,” He nodded. “Attacked by kindergarten teachers, changed into cockroaches, chased down by a maniac Pope–”
“For example,” She growled, glowering at him. He smiled and shrugged.
“Yeah, so?”
“You honestly thought a little spontaneous combustion would hurt?” He shrugged again. She laughed at the look of indifference on his face and kissed him.
“One thing does worry me though.” Said Thomas as Janis went over to the closet to put something on.
“What’s that?” Asked Janis, her attention on her clothes.
“Who was the person you saw?” Janis turned sharply around to face him.
“Thomas, I want you to swear to me, no matter what, that you won’t ask me about that. Ever!” Thomas stared at his wife. What could be so bad that she could not speak of it to him? He was about to ask why but Janis just plowed on. “You must not read my mind, you can’t tell anyone about this, not Jonathan, not Maverick, Not Arthur. None of your friends. Not the children, either.” Thomas stared, openmouthed at her. His wife never kept secrets, never. Not since the day they were married.
Janis laid her hands gently on his shoulder and said “I know we promised never to use them on each other, but this time is the only time. Thomas, I need you to never tell a soul, not one single soul. I promise never to do this again. “I love you.” The effect was instantaneous. An expression of calmness slowly drifted over his face. The fear and worry, all melted away into blissful eternity.

“What were we talking about, honey?” he asked her, putting his hand on her waist.
“Where we were going to go tomorrow,” she said. “I was thinking of, maybe… going home early, I miss the girls.” He smiled fondly at her. “I do too. Well, if you want to go, I’ll send notice tonight and we’ll leave first thing in the morning.” “Oh, I love you!” she said and after giving him a swift kiss, walked over to her bedside table and pulled out a mystery novel. Thomas glanced over at his wife, who was slipping underneath the covers and opening her book, and shook his head a little. ‘I wonder if something’s wrong.’ He thought as he settled down with his book and was immediately immersed in desert plants, animals, and habitats. Yet, there was still something nagging at the back of his head, a feeling he couldn’t shake; A feeling of foreboding.

The night came swiftly for Thomas Callow. Within two hours, he was asleep, dreaming of his radiant daughters and of a small voice, whispering in his ear: “It won’t last.” Janis, on the other hand, continued reading the same page in her novel over and over again, waiting for Thomas to fall asleep.

Long after the moon rose, when the stars speckled the sky, and when Thomas was snoring sufficiently, Janis conjured a sleeper barrier around the bed, (Not on Thomas, mind you, but around him, to keep him from waking.) The moonlight seeped through cracks in the closed curtains and the cold carpet stung the uncovered bottoms of her feet as she slipped down the stairs and out through the door.

The cold wasn’t that bad, but the howls she heard in the distance sent shivers of fear tingling down her spine. She clutched her bathrobe tightly as she hurried through the night, past all the beautiful shops, which were dark and eerie at night, to a small, tacky gift shop at the end of the street.

The winds blew like hurricanes against her as she ran for the door, praying that it was open. The doorknob turned, and Janis found herself falling face down on the floor, landing with a thud, at the bejeweled and enringed feet of Mma Yosefia.
“Welcome, child, to Mma Yosefia’s– oh, it’s you, Jan. What’s up?” She asked, leading Janis into the back room and settling down in an old wicker rocking chair.
“Mma, I need help.” She said quickly, sitting down in the only vacant chair and rubbing her eyes.

Mma Yosefia was a distant relation to Janis, an old great aunt twice removed on her mother’s side, or something, but she still welcomed the two into her shop, saying that distant family was better than no family at all.
“Anything, kid. Everything I got is at your disposal.” She said, dropping the fake Romanian accent and picking up a cigar from a box on the table. Janis took a deep breath and said,
“I need a way to contact someone.” Mma Yosefia looked at her for a moment, then said,
“Did the power go out? The winds aren’t that bad! There’s a pay phone in the back, I got a couple quarters here somewhere,” And she started digging through the baggy folds of her purple gypsy dress. “No, Mma, it’s not like that.” “Well what’s it like? You need to talk to someone overseas?”
“Sort of.” She said, allowing a small smile to creep across her face.
“There’s something you’re not telling me,” said Mma, puffing on her cigar and letting the smoke exhale cleanly through her nose. “What’s up?” Janis looked down nervously at her feet. “C’mon, kid, you gotta give me something to work with!” “Well,” said Janis, scuffling her toes. “the person I need to talk to is kinda, well... Dead.” Mma raised her eyebrows at that, then threw back her head and laughed.
“Gimme a break! I talk to the dead all the time! That’s really the best you can do?” Janis looked genuinely confused at Mma. “Easy–peasy, lemon–squeezy.” She said, standing up and walking back to the front of the shop. “C’mere.” She said, beckoning with her finger. Janis obliged and followed her.

Mma led her around shelves upon shelves of knickknacks, guides around the tow, and cheap candy. As Janis followed, she could occasionally hear her say things like “No, no that’s not it.” or “Holy crumbs, I forgot about these!” Finally, she turned the corner and let out an exclamation of triumph. “Here they are!” She said an held up a bag of tiny glass beads. Janis gasped. “Octave Orbs? I thought they were all used up!”
“Nope. An old Desert Monk gave me these as thanks for curing him of a rare disease.”
“How rare was the disease?” Janis asked, out of curiosity.
“Rarer than a Chimera’s heart.” Mma answered curtly. “As a matter of interest, why’re you so keen on talk’n to this dead pigeon?”
“Pigeon?” Janis asked skeptically.
“’s a term I use.” Said Mma, tossing the bag to Janis and scurrying back to the backroom.
“What kind of Giftshop are you running here?” Janis asked skeptically, hurrying to keep up with the old woman.
“The wide-variety kind.” She replied, breaking through the curtain of beads, making straight for the shelves with jars and started thumbing through them. “Let’s see, Gumroot? Nope. Ash bark? Nope. Ah, here we go,” she said, pulling down two jars of Janis did not know what. “This one’s a mix of Holley and Periwinkle, the other’s Mugwort.” She handed her the jars and said “Holley’s used for renewal and resurrection, Mugwort for inner sight, and they used to call Periwinkle the flower of the dead. I just thought they would be helpful.”
“Your right, and I knew that, these will help catalyze the process.” Mma nodded. “But you have to do it here, the barrier you put on the hotel won’t be able to control it.”
“Are you sure?” she asked. She knew the power of this Spell might do some damage, actually, quite a lot of irreversible, demonic-scale damage.
“Don’t sweat it, girl.” said Mma, pulling out another cigar from underneath the folds of her dress. “I got so much insurance coverage on here that if you do burn this place down, I’ll be rolling in dough within a month!” Janis chuckled.
“I hope my girls get to meet you one day.” She said, smiling at Mma. “They would love you.” Mma took a long puff on her cigar and smiled. “Maybe they will.”

Ch. 3
Times change

Vida sat there, staring dumbstruck at the letter:
Dear Miss Callow,

I’m very sorry to say that your parents have died in a fire, and as you shall not turn 18 until next year, you and your sister I am I am sorry to say that your parents are dead. Their building caught fire and they perished. In the course of these events, you and Maia shall be in the care of your uncle Jonathan Callow, your father’s brother. You will pack all your things and board the black train in Peltington Station in Washington at four o’clock on Saturday. I have enclosed two tickets for you and your sister, take care not to lose them.
When you get there, wait on the bench for the girl who gave you this letter. Go with her, she will take you to your Uncle’s house where you will await further contact from me. Also, regarding the will and your house neither your mother nor your father made one, presumably because they thought they were too young to die, so, in situations like this, the house and all its belongings go directly to you and your sister. Just follow these instructions and you shall be safe.
Most sincere wishes,
Mr. James Hilton
Hilton and Stoe financials Inc.
p.s, if you have any questions call this number. 245-7660. It’s my personal number.

Her parents were dead and they had to move, how can life get so horrible so quickly?! “Stay calm!” She chided herself. “Calm, that’s it; I just need to be calm.” She breathed in, then out . “OK,” said Vida. She got up and headed for the exit, but this time the books did not call come in, Vida, come in, but stay away, Vida, stay away!

She walked through the halls which seemed so empty and meaningless; as she walked Vida remembered all the good times that were locked away in this place to be forgotten. Vida reached her class room she turned the knob slowly, like she didn’t want them to see her. When she opened the door all the people who had been talking or writing or drawing abruptly stopped. “So, Vi, what was in the letter?” Asked Jade
“Jade, its Vida’s business if she wants to tell us or not.” the teacher said firmly. Vida looked at Jade, then at the rest of the class, and replied “I’d rather not, but I need to tell you I won’t be back,” stunned silence for a bit, then,
“But, where are you going?” asked Ben, “I’m moving, to a place called,” she checked the letter “Pelton, Washington with my uncle Jonathan.”
“Your uncle?” said Jade, bewildered.
“Yeah.”
“I didn’t even know you had an uncle.” Said Jade.
“Neither did I, but my parents are dead.” admitted Vida, “and I have to call Maia’s school and tell them she or I won’t be coming back for at least two years.” Then, the entire class erupted, there were people shouting and asking a dozen questions, Jade and Ben ran over to her and started bombarding her with pleas of “no!!!” and “please don’t go!” and “two YEARS?” Then the teacher got the class’s attention and winked at Vida, Vida smiled and quietly slipped out the door.

Since she wasn’t a student at school any more she knew she could use her cell phone to call Maia’s school and tell them the news. Vida looked at her watch; it was noon, so they arranged for her to be picked up at twelve thirty. The conversation went good until she mentioned that Maia wasn’t coming back, the lady on the phone said that wasn’t possible, that according to the law any child under 18 had to be enrolled in some kind of school. Vida said that their new guardian must have something in mind. The school lady said they’d better;
“Can I speak to Maia?” Vida asked the desk lady, the women said that she was in the middle of her history exam and that she can’t leave in the middle of a test so Vida just hung up the phone and drove to Maia’s school. When Vida got there Maia was sitting on the sidewalk waiting for her with her backpack and folders beside her. As Vida got out of the car, Maia gave a shout and came running over to her.
“What’s going on Vida? After my history test I heard my name over the speaker to grab my stuff and wait outside for you to pick me up.” Vida looked nervously at Maia. You’ll have to tell her sometime soon, said the voice.
“Come on Maia,” said Vida motioning Maia to the car “there’s a lot we have to talk about.

[Betta132]

MORE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Inkspill]

It needs some structure editing but the story itself is very good (albeit sad ;( her parents die oh!).

[Abby-normal]

Thank you both for the commentary. i appreciate you taking time to read my story. here's the next two chapters, enjoy! (oh and just so you know, the parents are destined to play a special role in the ending, IF I EVER GET IT WRITTEN!

Chapter 4
The drive to the station

“Come on snail!” cried Vida as she and Maia were loading their stuff into Vida’s car and trying not to slip in the quick-sand-like mud. “Bring out the food bag!” Maia came stumbling out of the house clutching a giant duffel bag.
“My back’s gonna giving out! Take it quick!” Maia tottered a few steps towards her sister, swayed, and just as she was about to fall in the mud Vida dropped the ropes she was trying to tie and ran over to her sister and hauled the duffel and Maia to her feet.

“Whew!” said Maia wiping her forehead. “Thanks Vida, a couple more minutes there and I was gonna faint.”
“That’s why I’m here Maia, to help you and keep you safe! Now wadda ya say we haul this monstrosity to the back?”
“Sounds cool!” said Maia.
“OK, take that side and lift,” Vida instructed Maia.

This went on and after the last duffel bag was hauled to the truck, Vida and Maia leaned against the rail of the porch and drank some of Vida’s homemade ginger water (which, after working a lot, if you drink it, won’t make you sick like water will) and looking up at the sky, they were just chilling on the porch when Maia saw that the clouds were getting lighter. She mentioned this to Vida and Vida said,
“Maia, I believe you’re right, the rain’s starting to slow down!” and when they made a last round check to make sure all the things in the back didn’t fall out or get wet, it completely stopped!
“Well, I’ll be damn!” said Vida “just as we finish, the rain lets up!” then she turned to get in the car and caught Maia looking at the house with a mixture of longing and sadness in her eyes, when Vida didn’t get in the truck Maia looked up, they caught each other’s eyes and Maia quickly looked away but Vida smiled, “Buck up Maia, we’ll be back before ya know it!” suddenly Maia smiled and jumped into the truck with renewed determination and said,
“Come on Vida let’s go!” so Vida climbed into the driver seat and revved up the engine.

The doors slammed and Vida told Maia to buckle up, then they backed out of the drive way and on to the road to the freeway. The drive was mostly uneventful, Vida drove; Maia read her books, drew and asked about who Vida thought their mysterious uncle was. None of which were very fun. So in the end Maia confined herself to look out the window, count the colors of cars passing by, and just stare into space. None of which were very enjoyable. Finally Vida dumped her bag on Maia’s lap and asked her to hand her the letter which held her directions to the station.

As Maia dug through the hand bag, she found the tickets for the train concealed in an inside pocket of the bag. Abandoning her search, tried to read what the each ticket said: “Ticket for the 4’o clock train, Peltington Station.” Nothing out of the ordinary there. But,
“A third one?” Maia asked herself, holding the third ticket. It looked exactly like the other two.
“What’d you say?” Vida asked.
“Nothing.” She muttered. While Vida re read the directions for the seventh time, Maia suddenly stopped drawing and said and tugged on Vida’s arm, Vida looked up from her map
“What?!”
“Look, that’s the way to the train station!” Vida cursed quietly under her breath and swiveled the steering wheel to get to the right lane, the turn was so hard that Maia slid a little in her seat and slammed her arm into the door.
“Sorry Maia.” Said Vida smiling and shrugging her shoulders. “Is your arm ok?”
“Yeah,” said Maia, “yeah, it’s fine, and look we’re at the train station!” Vida saw that Maia was right and let out a sigh of relief “I hate driving!” She thought to herself as she pulled into the line for the ticket booth.

There were a couple of cars in front of them, but they steadily went forward, until an old Volkswagen Jetta pulled up. The couple in the Jetta started arguing with the lady in the booth.
“I told you, we have a reservation!”

“The reservation you made was made for three days ago. I’m sorry, but we already gave that reservation away.” Finally, Maia got so fed up with their bickering that she rolled down her window, stuck her head out and yelled,
“Oi! Can ya move it along?!” The couple stopped arguing and turned to look at who had yelled at them, but Maia pulled her head in immediately and rolled up the window.
“Maia, Maia, Maia.” Vida said and shook her head.
“What? It got them moving.” She said, pointing to the old car which promptly rolled out of the station. “I hate it when you’re right.” Vida muttered as she pulled up to the booth.
“Hello.” Said the lady inside.
“Hi.” Said Maia.
The lady leaned out of the booth and said quietly, “I want to thank you for driving that couple away. Some people just can’t take no for an answer!” Vida smiled. “May I see your tickets?”
“Oh, yeah.” Vida rummaged around for the tickets in her purse.
“Here,” Maia said, handing them to her.
“Thanks.” She said and handed them to the lady. She punched them through a tiny machine and handed them back to Vida.
“Thank you.”
“Enjoy your trip.” She said. Vida nodded as she pulled out and circled the parking lot, looking for a place to park.

After they found a place to park, unloaded their stuff, hauled it to the train and found seats in an empty compartment, they were ready to just sit for a while and watch the trees go by. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the plan.

About a half an hour after the train pulled out of the station, Maia thought she’d take a walk.
“Just to the end of the car and back.” She told Vida.
“Fine.” Maia jumped up and walked to the door.
“I’ll be back in a few.” She said as she turned around. Vida nodded and waved.
“See ya,” Maia closed the door behind her and proceeded to the far end of the car. As she passed, she noticed hardly any noises coming from behind the curtains of the other compartments. When she got to the end of the isle, she turned around and went back to her compartment. Correction, she was going to go back to her compartment, but a slight shadow caught her eye as she turned. She slowed her pace. There was someone following her. suddenly, she ducked into an empty compartment and grabbed whatever came in after her. She held air.
“Ok.” She said, opening the doors and going back out into the isle. “Whoever or whatever you are, quit being a coward and show yourself!” she heard a small sigh from next to her. she jumped and raised her fists.
“Chill out, kid. I’m not gonna hurt you.” Said the voice.
“Prove it! Show yourself!” there was a small popping noise, and a tall girl appeared in front of her. Maia’s throat closed up, she was speechless.

The girl wore regular jeans, a t-shirt the bore the legend “back in black” and a brown baseball cap that said gap in large letters. She had long light brown hair with what looked like streaks of white dyed in. She had a peaked little face, a thin nose, a sort of crooked mouth like she couldn’t do anything but smile all day long, and the most interesting thing of all, she had deep, deep purple eyes. After a moment of silence the girl said,
“Well?” Maia finally found her tongue and answered,
“Well, what?” the girl looked at her surprisingly and said,
“Well, aren’t you gonna ask me how I did that?”
“I don’t need to.” She said, holding up the third ticket.
“Ah.” Said the girl.
“Clever.” Said Maia. “What are you, a hitchhiker with a bad conscience?”
“Why do you say that?”
“Because of the third ticket. And plus, how did you get here? Did you hide underneath the bags in the back?”
“No need.” She said. “I’m invisible, I just kicked back on top of them.”
“Ah.” Said Maia. They stared at each other for a few more minutes, then Maia said,
“So, what are you doing, following me?” The girl shrugged.
“Nothing personal, but yeah.”
“Why?” “I’m a friend of your uncle’s. He asked me and Piper to take care of you.”
“Piper?”

Vida sat in their compartment, reading a book and checking her watch every five minutes. After twenty pages, she realized that she was too agitated to read, so she took to tapping her knee, checking her watch and glancing out of the window. As she watched the trees go by at breakneck speed, she began to get drowsy. Her elbow was slipping. She was falling fast asleep. She instantly woke up when her head hit the arm rest and she looked quickly at her watch. She sighed.
“Only twelve minutes.” She heard a small noise, looked up and gasped. There was a boy in her compartment.

He looked about nineteen, he was thin, and his eyes sparkled when he looked up and saw her watching.
“So, you’re finally awake.” His voice had a foreign accent to it, British, she thought.
“Look, I’m sorry to be rude, but who the hell are you? And why are you in my compartment?” he shook his head and grinned.
“I expected that.” He said, looking up at her with his blue eyes.
“Well?” she asked, scooting closer on the bench to get a better look at him. His face had a slightly pale look, and his bangs curled against his forehead in an curiously motionless way.
“My name is Piper. I-”
“Vida!” Maia said excitedly as she ran into the compartment, taking absolutely no notice of Piper. “Vida, there’s this weird girl in the hall, she says that her and a guy called Pi-” then she noticed him.
“Oh, Vida, I see you’ve met a friend,” she turned to him and asked. “Who are you?” he smiled as he stood up and stuck out his hand.
“I’m Piper, pleased to meet you, Maia.” Maia was dumbstruck. She stared at him for about half a minute, then quickly whipped her hand away from his. She looked at him for a few more seconds, then she stuck her head out if the compartment door and said “Lauren, this isn’t funny!”
“Your right. It’s deadly serious!” Lauren said as she walked into the compartment.
“There you are! What’s going on?” Maia asked her.
“I tried to tell you, me and Piper are here to make sure that you two get to your uncle’s, safely.”
“Do you, like, work for him or something?” she asked, confused.
“No. We just owed him a favor.”
“What, exactly were you two supposed to be protecting us from?” Vida asked, staring intently at Lauren.
“Whatever could have happened.” Said Piper quietly.
“Oh.” She said. More silence. Then,
“Well? Aren’t you gonna offer us a seat?” Lauren asked. Maia nodded and they all sat down. Vida and Maia on the left hand side, Lauren and Piper on the right. Piper lounged in his seat, putting his feet up on Vida’s armrest, but Lauren sat still, gazing at the two girls. Finally, Maia said,
“It’s getting dark.”
“Yes.” said Lauren, glancing out the window. “The train goes fast, though. We should be there by morning.”
“Excellent.” Said Piper, hunkering down in his seat and glaring grumpily out the window.
“Not a fan of train-travel, huh?” Vida asked, poking his feet.
“Not as such.” He said, pulling his feet away and sitting up. Vida yawned, twisted her back and stretched. Conversation was a bit low, so she said,
“Maia, I’m thirsty and I’m gonna go get some water, do you want some?” Maia nodded and went back to her Sudoku book. Vida got up and headed for the door.
“Hold it,” said Piper, standing up and following Vida. “I gotta go too.”
“Why?” Vida asked, holding the door open for him, shutting the door and followed him down the corridor.
“Because your my charge and I have to keep you safe. That’s what I promised your uncle and that’s what I’m gonna do, follow you and keep you alive.”
“It’s a train for Pete’s sake! So, what? You’re like, an involuntary bodyguard?”
“In a sense.” He said dryly. She didn’t reply. They passed a few compartments with their curtains drawn and Vida asked,
“Are we alone on this train?”
“In a sense,” he repeated.
“Is that all you can say?” she asked sardonically.
“In a sense.” He said, not looking around at her.
“Ha ha.” She said. After a few more steps, she stopped.
“listen, I don’t really need a drink of water, I just wanted to talk to you,” he turned around and said,
“Oh? What about?” She swallowed. Where to begin?
“Well, about my uncle, how long have you known him?”
“Thirty-five years.” Vida was confused. “But, you hardly look older than seventeen.” He grinned and said,
“Yeah, I know.” She frowned again and said,
“Uh, OK.” Piper raised an eyebrow and offered her his hand.
“This might explain some things.” He said. Vida looked confused. “Just touch it,” he said, moving closer. She stretched out her own arm and prepared to grasp his warm, rough hand in hers. Except she didn’t. her hand went right through his. She stepped back and gasped.

“I know,” he said soothingly, “it’s confusing, surprising and a bit scary the first time it happens, but it’s real."
“You- you’re a-”
“Ghost.” He said matter-of-factly.
“But, but, ghosts aren’t-”
“Real? Of course we are. So is Lauren, actually.”
“Wow.” She said, looking at him in wonder. “So that means,”
“That I’m about eighteen times as old as you? Yes.”
“So you’re-”
“Roughly three hundred and six.” She gaped.
“Better be careful, Vida, your mouth could stay frozen like that.” She smiled. “Actually, being dead is so much more fun than being alive; you don’t need to eat, don’t need to sleep, get to live forever, and the best thing about it is, you don’t have anyone to boss you around!” Then he looked at Vida sadly. “Even so, there are some things I miss,”
“Like what?” She asked him curiously. He gazed at her face, the excitement gone from his own.
“Like, and I know this in going to sound weird, swimming. When I was alive, swimming was one of the things I loved to do.” Vida nodded. She was an decent swimmer, herself.
“Actually, that doesn’t sound too weird at all.” He smiled.
“Thanks.”
“I know if I were dead, I sure would miss swimming.” Then she said as an afterthought, “maybe not so much as reading.”
“You would still be able to read, just not turn the pages.” He said and grinned at her. they stood in silence for a few minutes, then she said,
“Well, I think we should be going back.”
“I think so too.” he turned and went back down the corridor. She followed.

When they reached the compartment, Maia looked up from her book and said,
“Where’s the water?”
“There wasn’t any.” Vida said automatically as she sat down. Maia nodded and went back to her book. Both girls looked exactly like they had when Vida and Piper had left. Vida decided to take a short snooze, (which ended up being longer than she thought.)
“Wake me when we get there,”
“Will do,” said Maia.
“Happy trails.” Piper muttered. Vida kept her eyes open long enough to shoot a quick glare at him, then she drifted off into a dreamless sleep.

Ch. 6
Uncle John

“Wakey, wakey Vida, we’re almost there!” Piper’s brusque voice boomed in her ear.
“Ow!” Vida sat up, rubbing her ear, “did you have to start shouting?” she stared. “Where are Maia and Lauren?”
“Exploring the compartments, I decided to come back here and not partake in the expedition, so here I am!” Vida’s smile returned, “Oh?” she blinked.
“Yeah, I don’t like wandering around bothering the rest of them.” She stood up, and the blanket someone had lain on her, slipped onto the floor. They looked at each other for a minute, then,
“You’d better get dressed.” She looked up.
“I am dressed!” She said in an indignant voice; he was smirking at her again! God she hated that smile! Then he whispered to her: “Look down!” and walked out of the compartment slamming the door behind him. Vida looked down at herself, and was horrified at what she saw! She was wearing her blue Penguin Footie Pajamas! ‘Oh god!’ Thought Vida ‘how did this get on me?’ ‘Maia put it on you after you conked out.’ Vida swung around so fast she nearly hit Piper, who was sitting right behind her! Apparently, he had been watching her from behind the door.
“Ah! Oh god, Piper, you scared me half to death!” She chuckled at her purely accidental pun and then sighed. “What do you want?” Piper stared at her for a minute, the said,
“It’s a free train isn’t it? I can be in my own compartment if I want!” Vida’s stare deepened.
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, wait outside. I need to change.” He grinned.
“Alright.” He was about to close the door, but stopped. With his back to her he asked “Were you serious? When you thought, well you know. Were you serious?”
“Dead.” Replied Vida. 'Whoops!' She thought, Another accidental pun! This is getting to be a bad habit. He smiled. He turned to go but someone pushed the door open.
“We’re here!” It was Lauren. She was dressed in her grubby jeans from the day before, and a shabby, new t shirt with the legend ‘ghostly’
“It’s time, we-” she suddenly looked suspicious. And with good reason. It must have looked very suspicious with Piper nearly out the door, and Vida standing there in her footie pajamas. “What are you guys’ doing?”
“I, uh, we-” Piper was at a loss for words. Vida saved him by saying quickly,
“We were packing up our stuff.” Lauren smirked.
“Yeah, right. Anyway come on Vida, get dressed. Do you want to meet your uncle or what?” Vida made a small gulping sound. Piper and Lauren both laughed. Vida looked blankly at the pair of them.
“What?” Piper stopped laughing long enough to say,
“He’s a good guy; really, he’s a lot like your mother.” Vida just nodded and picked up her duffle and walked towards the door, and Piper followed behind her.

The girls and Piper stepped onto the station.
“Wow!” Said Maia, and that pretty much summed it up. This station was nothing like the grimy, soot filled station they had departed from. This one had red painted floors, and bricks that shone like diamonds! Piper sighed.
“I’ll get the car.” Vida started.
“The car?” He looked back at her.
“Yeah your truck.”
“But I left it back at the station!” he smiled.
“Yeah.” She looked at him, very confused.
“Then, how did it end up here?” he smiled maliciously. Then, as the fog lifted, her truck appeared behind him.
“How did-?” She was at a loss for words. He grinned again and said, in a mysterious and slightly creepy voice: “magic!” Vida rolled her eyes.
“Magic or not,” Lauren interrupted, “it’s time to go!” then she turned to Maia and grinned. “Ready to meet your uncle?” This time, both Vida and Maia gulped. Lauren and Piper laughed again.
“Honestly, he’s really cool! You guys have nothing to be afraid of!” Said Lauren spiritedly.
“Yet.” said Piper under his breath. None of them heard him as they packed their hand-bags back into the car.

As they piled in, Maia asked, “Who’s gonna drive?”
“Vida!” Both Piper and Lauren said together. Vida looked at them.
“Uh, you don’t like driving?” Lauren shook her head.
“No, no it’s not that, I just, well, I don’t know how to drive.” Vida stared in disbelief.
“But, you’re like, two-hundred; surely you know how to drive?”
“No, driving is just too hard,” Lauren shrugged and pulled out an enormous book.
“And you Piper?” Vida asked.
“Oh, I get carsick. It’s best if I’m in the back!” Vida silently agreed.
“Can a ghost get carsick?” Maia asked in puzzlement. Piper shot her a look then smiled at the look of incredulity on their faces, (all except Lauren’s, of course,) and laughed again.
“Nah, just pulle’n your leg, I can’t hold the steering wheel.”
“Ok, so I’ll drive.” Said Vida, quickly so as to avoid awkward discussions. “Just how far is it?”
“About seven miles from here. Here’s a map.” Piper pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket. “So, you just follow that route and it’ll take us straight to your uncle’s.”
“Ok, here we go!”

As they pulled out of the parking lot, Maia had a million questions going through her head: who was this uncle? Did he support junk food? Was he a neat freak? Was he a slob? Did he have pets? So many things to ponder, so little time. The car ride there was pretty uneventful. Piper played a few songs on his pipes; Lauren was reading a book called ‘war and peace’ and muttering to herself things like: “never trust a short guy.” or “oh give me a break, Berg! Get an original thought!” then she slammed the book down and said “piece of crap!” Piper looked back.
“Something wrong, Lauren?” she looked up.
“Yeah, something’s wrong! This book is absolutely a sham! Everything in it is false!” Piper looked at her seriously and said,
“Maybe you should go to the person who wrote it and tell him he got it wrong.” Lauren’s frown of incomprehension changed to a grin and in the front of the car, Vida started giggling like mad. Then Maia started giggling, it was a giggle-fest!

And Piper sat in the back just watching the weird events. Suddenly Piper called out “Callow manor dead ahead!” Lauren pushed him out to the way and said,
“It looks quite a bit different than last time!” Vida turned to look at Lauren.
“Last time? You mean you’ve been here before?” Lauren looked at her.
“Of course! We’ve been her twice before.”
“Twi- Twice?” Lauren wasn’t paying much attention, but she answered just the same.
“Yep! Once, twenty years ago. And then again last winter!”
Vida Just said, “Oh.”

The house that loomed above them was a timeworn, and ram-shackled, with a tumble down roof and overhanging ivy growing hither and dither all over the mal-treated garden and the bedraggled front porch. The porch was enormous. It had brown plants, dying in their pots, the screen that covered the front door was handing off one of its hinges. And the dust covering the steps was two inches deep!

“PHH!” Piper blew at the dust. He sneezed. “A- ACHOO! Jeese!” he said, looking around at the garden and the porch.
“Branched out a bit, hasn’t he?” he said, and then turned to Lauren. “Remember last time? The house looked like a tornado had hit it!”
“Mm.” Lauren agreed. “Personally, I think he has over done it.” She said. “But then again, he has always been over theatric.”
Vida asked didn’t ask, nor did she need to, what she meant. For, in a few minutes, she saw for herself.
“Are you sure this is the right house?” She asked Lauren quietly.
“Why? Are you afraid of the haunted house?” said Piper in a condescending voice.
“It’s just a house.” Said Lauren behind her.
“And you!” she pointed to Piper, “Quit bothering, her, Piper!” Piper held up his hands defensively.
“Ok, ok, I was just playing.” Lauren snorted disbelievingly.

And as they walked up the disheveled steps, Maia could have sworn she saw two bulbous, gleaming green eyes, peeking out at her, then hiding again underneath the bottom-most step. Twice she saw this, and on the second time, when she dared to mention this to Piper, he just smiled and said, “Don’t worry; it’s just one of your uncle’s pets.” Maia looked at him quizzically.
“Pets?”
“Yeah.” Then he started humming a strangely familiar tune. As they reached the front door, Lauren tried to open it; but- “it’s locked!” said Lauren swearing. Then she started tapping the shingles on outside wall.
“Piper, help! Which one is it?” Piper rolled his eyes.
“Fourth one over, sixth one up.”
“Thanks!” said Lauren and counted the shingles. But before either Vida of Maia could ask what the heck was going on, Lauren tapped the correct piece and the door flew open.
“Whoa!” said Maia and Vida together and jumped back.
“Well, well, I see you brought them,” said a low, almost inaudible voice from inside the cavernous house. Piper stepped forward and said,
“Hello John. How have you been?”
“As well as can be expected after being stuck in the house all day, every day, for the seven months since you saw me last!”
“hmm.” Said Piper, “You still have the same attitude.”
“And you’re still a pest; can we please go in?!” barked Lauren, pushing past Piper and peering into the hallway. “Where are you anyway?” she called into the gloom.

“I’m in the parlor. And yes, come in!” Piper and Lauren strode through the threshold as confidently as if they lived there. But Vida and Maia stayed on the porch. Piper turned around and said, “Well, come on in!” Vida looked apprehensively at him in the darkness of the hall. Piper looked exasperatedly at her and walked over to her. “Come on!” he said, leading her by the arm soothingly. “It’s ok!”
“But why doesn’t he come out and meet us, himself?” Vida asked, suspiciously. Piper didn’t respond as all of them trooped through the door and down the decrepit hall. Lauren at the front, Vida was being coxed farther along in a soft voice by Piper, and Maia bringing up the rear.

The hall they all walked down was adorned with large, silvery green portraits and as Piper had just convinced her that she and Maia were in no immediate danger, that her uncle had made this house incredibly creepy so as to keep away unwanted visitors, she saw that the velvet-covered walls had been imprinted with a gigantic tree covered in golden threads, cris-crossing, looping each other, and connecting. They bloomed out and spiraled, they made X’s and T’s, and underneath each linked line was a name, a caption, and a picture. Then Vida realized that it must be a family tree. Near the bottom, two names and pictures caught her eye:
Salice Silk and her husband Liam Callow were near the bottom, they must’ve been her and Maia’s grand-parents. Both of them had regal expressions. Mrs. Silk, her grandma, had a curved nose, but she also had a pretty face. Mr. Callow had a balding head, piercing blue eyes, and clutched a cane. Then, underneath them were Thomas (her dad,) and her uncle Jonathan Callow. A silver line that twisted into the shape of an M, connected Thomas and Janis Banister. She also noticed that her uncle had gotten married too. To a woman named April Canis. She looked farther down to see if her uncle had had any kids. According to this, no. she looked away, disappointed. If she had someone to come and tell her this was real, she’d have believed them. A glimmer caught her eye; it was the glare of a photograph. Her and her sister’s names were stitched below their parents and the glinting picture had been her own. It was an old fifth grade picture. From one of those boring field trips her class took. Maia’s was her third grade yearbook picture. In both of them, they were smiling.
“Wow.” Said Vida. And she heard Piper say behind her, “Yeah, that’s when I first saw you and Maia.” They stayed looking at the tree for another minute, then Lauren who had already turned the corner, with Maia at her heels, came back around the corner said,
“What are you-?” then she stopped. “Ahh, yes. Yes, amazing, isn’t it?” And joined them starting at the tree.

It took Maia quite a while to realize that she was alone. She only registered that no one was rolling their eyes as she rattled on when she turned into an old kitchen and tried to pull up a chair. She called for Vida or Lauren to come and help her. When no one answered she turned around and grumbled.
“Great. Vida!” She called. “Piper!”
“Shush!” said a deep voice behind her. Maia spun around.
“Who are you? And who are you to tell me to shush?” she said in a very suspicious voice.
“I am your uncle. And I have very sensitive ears, so I was asking you to be quiet as a courtesy.” Dead silence. Then,
“You’re Uncle Jonathan?” he smiled.
“Yes, I am.”
“But then,” her warm smile disappeared and was replaced by suspicion and she said,
“Where are they?” She asked in a deathly calm voice.
“They are admiring my family tree, out there.” the man who was supposed to be her uncle replied. “Ahh.” Said the man, looking at her fondly. The man had dark, silver-framed glasses, and very long, dark hair, almost like moleskin. He wore a faded, brown trench coat, and very disheveled shoes.
“Ahh,” he said again. “You look so like your mother.” Maia blushed furiously. “Ah, you are proud to be the image of your mother?” “Oh yes!” said Maia before she could stop herself. Then the man laughed a great, vigorous, rolling laugh. Tears were streaming down his face and Maia had to walk towards him and whack him on the back.

After he coughed enough to stop his laughing fit and choked back his tears, he said with a slight hiccup,
“Thank you- (hic) my dear.” He said. And as he said this, he heard a bustling and a few shouts coming from the hall.
“Maia!”
“Hey Maia, where are y-” the shouts stopped.
“Ahh,” said Piper in an uncanny impression of her uncle.
“Very funny.” Their uncle said dryly.
“Piper,” Vida asked hesitantly, “Who is this?” Piper looked at her in a humorously, but before he could answer, Maia said,
“It’s our uncle.” Vida looked at her incredulously and said, just as Maia had done,
“You’re our uncle?” he smiled just as he had when Maia had asked him.
“Yes.” And after a minute of staring at her, he asked her,
“Did you like my tapestry?” Vida only grunted. They stood in silence for a few minutes, then, “Will you come and sit down?” Maia immediately nodded.
“Oh, yes! Please.” Vida grumbled, but sat down. Piper and Lauren pulled two chairs from the living room next door and sat too. Uncle Jonathan went to the cupboard and brought knives, plates, bread, and cheese and began to toast the bread and melt the cheese. Maia opened her mouth to ask a question but Uncle Jonathan said,

“No, don’t ask any questions until you have something to eat,”
“Well, I, but,” Maia stammered. And Uncle Jonathan just put his finger to his lips and Maia swallowed her tongue.
Vida, meanwhile was staring around the dingy little kitchen, taking in every little detail, from the very dusty pots and pans hanging above the stove, to the large cupboards undoubtedly full of cups and bowls, and another full of herbs for seasoning. As he bustled around the kitchen, Vida noticed that Uncle Jonathan was limping. Maia seemed to have noticed as well, for at that very moment she asked,
“Uncle Jonathan,”
“Oh please,” said Uncle Jonathan. “Please call me Uncle John.”
“Um, ok Uncle John,” said Maia in a very uncomfortable voice. “Um, Uncle John, why are you limping?”
“Accident with a table.” He replied, not looking at them.
“Oh,” said Maia. She had her suspicions about him, but this one was definitely worth investigating.

[Abby-normal]

Ch. 7
The dreams and him

After they had all drunk and eaten their tea and bread, Uncle John stood up and said, “Well, I hope you know how happy I am to see you, I have been looking everywhere for you two. Luckily I have friends here,” he made a courteous little nod to Lauren and Piper, who inclined their heads. “Who have made it possible for me to see you.” He sat down and rubbed his head.

It was then that Vida spoke up. “Uncle, what’s happening, why are we here? And why haven’t you visited sooner?” He just looked at her.
“My dear, you have no idea of the things that are being put in place right at this very moment!”
“No you’re right, I don’t, but I want to help! Whatever’s happening, I want to help!” But her uncle just shook his head.
“It’s not that simp-” but before he could finish, there came a knock on the door, and a young man strode in. he had a tall figure, sandy hair, and the fairest, leaf-green eyes that she had ever saw. He looked about eleven, and stopped short when he saw the girls, Piper, Lauren, and Uncle John sitting around the table.

His perfect eyes traveled around the room, lingering a bit on Maia and completely passing Piper. Then finally, he spoke. “Are these the girls?” he spoke in an indifferent voice. You would have thought he was merely bored.
“Yes Steven, these are the Callow girls. I told you they were coming.”
“Mm.” said Steven. His eyes followed Maia like a vulture’s.
“Hey,” said Maia and sat down at the table. Those eyes were making her nervous now. “Do you mind?” she asked him, tartly. He didn’t answer for a minute, and then said to Uncle John,
“How long?” From behind her, she heard a loud cough. It was Vida, but she got the impression that it wasn’t merely a dry throat. “As long as need be.” Replied Uncle John. The boy looked at Maia again, then turned on his heel and began to walk out, then stopped and said,
“I’m going on a walk.” And turned into the hallway and vanished from sight. Maia was the first one to speak.
“Who was he?” Her uncle looked at her.
“He’s your cousin. Steven, my son.” The room was silent as a tomb.
“Our, our cousin?” Said Maia with a look of enormous confusion on her face. But her uncle simply nodded. Maia exhaled deeply. “Whew.”

“Well,” said Uncle John, surveying the girls with a look of fatherly admiration. “I have been waiting to see you both, face to face, for seven years. The pictures had to be sufficient for all that time, it was torture.” He turned to Maia and, bursting in to tears of happiness, engulfed her in a full body hug. And in between his uncontrollable sobbing, she caught seven words: “You look so much like your mother.” And Maia, herself found herself crying like a leaky spillway. Vida stood up too, and gave Maia and their uncle the biggest hug she had ever given.

The hug went on for several minutes; Vida hugging fiercely, Maia and her uncle sobbing hard and clinging to each other, while Lauren and Piper were sitting on their chairs, looking awkwardly at each other from across the table. When the hugging ceased, Uncle John gave them all a fond, look, then glanced at the clock.
“Oh my god!” he yelped. Piper and Lauren, who had just about nodded off, both jumped up and said,
“What?!” Then they looked up at the clock, and yelped too. It was 9:55!
“Ok, girls, bed!” said Uncle John firmly, but kindly.

Uncle John directed Maia and Vida to a room three doors down from the kitchen. It was very dingy, like a rat hole that had been enlarged for someone the size of a human. But the beds were nice, they had a layer of dust, but that was it. Maia commented that if Vida woke up and found that there was a ghost in her bed, it’s just her. Uncle John came by just before they pulled the covers up to go to sleep. He hugged them both and gave Maia a big kiss on the cheek. His long hair brushed the side of her face and she felt the strong urge to giggle.
“Good night girls!” then he turned to the window and pulled a pouch form his coat pocket. He put the pouch on the windowsill and muttered some illegible words.
“What’s- (yawn) what’s that?” yawned Maia. Uncle John winked at her from under his glasses.
“Just a safety precaution.” He started to walk out of the room, but Maia held his arm.
“What is it, dear?” he said, bending down so that his face was right beside hers.
“Why can’t you leave the house in daylight?” he smiled.
“I’ll show you.” And when Maia made to get up he said quickly, “No, no, it’s best if you stay here.”
“Ok.” Maia said, wondering what her uncle would show her. Uncle John said,
“Better cover yourself, dear.” Maia did as she was told. Uncle John raised his eyes to the ceiling, where the light bulb still shone. There was a sound like gunshot, and Maia covered her ears as a cascade of glass showered onto the floor, shattering into a hundred pieces. Maia stared in awe at her Uncle. He smiled and looked at the glass, then, he winked.
“But that’s not all,” he looked at the shattered glass on the floor. It shimmered; then, the glass rose up, and fitted itself back together!
“Some talent.” Maia whispered.
“Some talent.” Her uncle agreed. “Night, Maia!” Maia said,
“Goodnight.” But he was already gone.

“Mmm.” Maia rolled over in her sleep. Her dreams were horrible. Her uncle was standing next to Piper and Lauren. Her uncle’s face had a goatee and a shiny cut, going from the side of his face down to his chin. Piper and Lauren looked the same, but there was a chilled look in Piper’s eyes. None of the carefree, happy look he usually had, just emptiness, and pain. Her dream showed her kneeling on the ground, shouting and sobbing her eyes out on that boy, Steven’s shoulder. She was screaming between sobs,
“Why?” she choked, “Why did you have to- she was my big sister! I loved her more than ANYTHING!!” And her dream-self collapsed in a heap with Steven holding her hand and the cold faces of the ghosts and her uncle staring down at her. She crawled over to the left and fell face down in a heap of rubble.

She buried her face in it and sobbed uncontrollably. A closer look at the heap and the real Maia saw that it was Vida’s horrible, mutilated body.
“It had to be done.” Said a cold voice. It was Piper.
“She didn’t have to die like this!”
“She chose her fate, now you must choose yours.” The dream-Maia spat at Piper’s feet.

The dream shifted. Maia was streaking along the edge of a beach. The waters were clear, blue, and perfect. There was someone running along next to her. It was Steven. Why was she dreaming about him so much? But he looked so different, so normal. His eyes were blue now, and his body wasn’t as tall, he looked like a normal teen. The sandy hair was gone. He had the kind of hair that Ben, one of Vida’s old friends, had: curly, but very long. It was the loveliest color of copper and when the light glinted behind him, it looked like green. Finally they stopped running and flopped down on the sandy beach.

The dream-Maia looked at least a year older, and a lot more pretty. Her shirt was a creamy color, and she wore jean shorts and flip flops. Her hair whipped around her face, and turned a brilliant auburn in the setting sun. Steven tackled her from behind and they both went rolling head-over-heels down the beach, right to the waters’ edge. Finally they stopped and sat down. Maia’s head was in Steven’s lap and he asked,
“Do you miss her?” Maia’s head tilted up towards him.
“More than you know.” she said. “I still can’t believe it was three years ago.” Then Steven turned to her and held her shoulders. “Dad did all that he could.” She pulled herself away.
“Well, he didn’t do enough!” The dream-Maia shook him off and said, “He could have saved her. But he didn’t.” Then Maia woke up.

“Oh my god!” Maia muttered to herself. “That was, like, the worst nightmare I have ever had!” her head was pounding, her body was shaking, and her mouth had that nasty, dry feeling you get when you walk up a huge hill without drinking any water. So she got up, put on a pair of shoes, and her favorite jacket and walked through the cold halls, to the front porch. The moon was full and a line from her favorite movie popped into her head: ‘werewolf?’ ‘There, wolf!’ she giggled to herself as she walked down the dusty steps and into the back-garden.

The garden had a million overgrown shrubs, some beautiful patches of night-flowering jasmines, and so many trees filled with climbing roses, she was hard-put to not to suffocate from the aroma of thick-smelling plants. There was an archway in the back leading through a tunnel of plants and overhanging vines that lead to a small clearing in the middle of the woods, right behind the house. There, Maia met an interesting sight. There was a giant, wrought-iron cage in the middle of the clearing. And inside; “Steven!” exclaimed Maia, with a look of purest incredulity on her face. The shadow inside the cage was indeed, Steven. All traces of his calm, bored look were now gone and his strange, green eyes were now yellow, practically gold, like an enormous animal! A wolf or a hawk. Steven turned around and growled, low.
“What,” he said in a voice that sounded like he was determined to keep it calm, “are you doing here?” his eyes glowed like candle flames. And Maia, to show that she wasn’t even scared, (which, was a complete lie.) took a few steps forward and sat herself down right in front of the cage.
“My head was pounding, I needed some air, and I didn’t want to wake anybody. Is that reason enough?” Steven smiled, revealing horribly sharp, pointed teeth. Maia took a step back.
“Oh,” Steven looked shocked. “I’m sorry.” And he meant it. “It’s just, I liked your answer.” Maia blushed as she remembered the dreams. He raised his head.
“What’s with you?” she blinked.
“Oh, I,” she didn’t finish. He chortled. They sat together in the dark for some time, and then Steven looked up through the bars in the top of his cage. The moon was going down. Steven’s eyes were turning green again. And also, thought it was very slight, his head was shrinking, and his body was becoming more human-like.
“Wha- what?” whimpered Maia. He put his hands up in reassurance.
“Don’t worry! It’s fine. The moon is going down, so I’m turning back to human.” He stared at her for a moment, then, “would you mind getting the key?” Maia looked bewildered.
“What key?” he rolled his eyes again, but this time he was playing.
“Over there, the key to my cage.” Maia looked hesitant. He smiled again. “It’s ok, I won’t hurt you.” Now it was her turn to grin. “It’s not me I’m worried about.”
“Ahh.” Steven said in another uncanny impersonation of his father. She giggled.
“Ok.” She said, and walked over to a small box on a tree stump. She opened it. Inside was a small, grey figurine of a howling wolf. I had been made of tin, and then painted black. She stared at it for a moment, and then asked Steven,
“Am I supposed to press it into the bars?” he nodded. “Okay” she took the figurine and began pressing it to the bars all over. Finally, she found a small panel in the front that fitted perfectly.

The cage split apart and Steven jumped out and gave Maia a huge hug.
“Oh, hey!” she gasped. He suddenly realized what he was doing and released her.
“Sorry,” he said bashfully. “I’m just so happy to be out of that damn cage!” he spun around joyfully and flopped down on the grassy, star-lit floor. He put his back on the ground and folded his hands behind his head. She sat down too, right next to him.
“Ahh. This feels good.” Then he looked up at her. “And I don’t just mean hanging with you.” Maia giggled, and then lay back on the floor too. She let her hands lay limply at her sides, and her knees were up propped up in front of her. Something brushed her hand. She looked down and tried to shoo it away, but as she looked, she saw it was Steven’s hand holding hers.
“Steven?” he looked at her.
“Yeah?” he asked. She motioned to her hand. “Oh, I’m sorry.” And let go of it. A part of her missed his warm grip.

Ch. 8
Family tales

They passed the time telling stories of the constellations and making up their own. Then, finally they looked up and the sky and received the shock of their life. The sky was lightening.
“Uh oh.” Steven said.
“Vida’s gonna kill me!” Maia groaned. They looked at each other, and then bolted into the tunnel. This race to the house reminded Maia of the beach-side race in her dream. The feeling of the memory made her feel like a million bucks and gave her enough strength to beat him, but then she had to wait for him to get the right tile. They got through the barrier and down the hall, to her bed room door, then they stopped and he turned to look at her.
“Listen, come back tomorrow night.” He grinned at her. “I really want to get to know you, spend more time with you.” Maia blushed again. Then seriousness slid back onto her face. But wait, if he would change tomorrow? Something she had read long ago popped into her head: ‘the werewolf only emerges on the full moon for one singular night.’ She smiled and said,
“So all that stuff about a werewolf coming out once a month is just bull isn’t it?” He nodded, and then said,
“See you later.” And walked out.

Maia could not get to sleep. All those memories, the events of the last week, it was horrible. Finally she gave up sleep, and, pulling a book and her book-light out of her back pack, clipping it to her book, ‘The Old Willis Place’ somehow, Maia thought it wasn’t quite the book for tonight, so she put it back and picked a better one, ‘the Secret of NIMH’ . “Perfect.” She muttered. Vida turned over in her sleep.

It was seven o’clock in the morning. Maia had fallen asleep just after three, but was woken up by Steven.
“Morning, sleepy-head!” Steven whispered into her ear. Maia jolted upright and before she could do anything, he bent down and said, “When you wake up all the way, come to the clearing.” Then he swept out the door. Maia sat up, rubbed her head, and groaned.
“I wonder what sleep feels like?” She asked herself. Then, not wanting to disturb Vida, (or, for that matter, anything else in this house.) she got up and dressed quietly.

As she pulled her T- shirt over her head and, not bothering with shoes, walked out barefoot. She had barely cleared the porch when she heard a voice behind her.
“You really shouldn’t be sneaking out so early.” Maia spun around.
“Piper? What are you doing here?” She asked, bewildered and suddenly suspicious.
“Just out for a walk. You?” Maia frowned.
“At this time of morning?”
“Yep. The night’s more to my liking than the day.”
“That makes two of us.” She muttered. He looked at her closely and said,
“So, what are you doing outside?” She looked down at her feet.
“Um, ah,” she couldn’t answer. But her eyes strayed to the tunnel leading to the cage. That was a mistake. Piper’s tone changed with the speed of a bullet.
“Maia did you go back there?” his voice was cold. Nothing like his normally young, carefree voice. She didn’t answer. “Maia, I’m serious, did you go in there?” Maia jutted out her chin.
“Yeah, so what?” Piper looked like his worst fears had been confirmed.
“You stupid, silly girl!” he shouted. Suddenly, another body materialized next to Piper.
“Jeese, Piper! It’s six in the morning. What’s going on?”
“She, she, arrgh!!” he just glared at her. “She was over there.” And he pointed to the tunnel. Lauren only looked shocked for a moment, and then she said,
“Is this true?” she looked at Maia sternly, and then turned back to Piper. “Yes, I can see it is. Well, do you want to tell her? Or shall I?” Piper said, through gritted teeth,
“You tell her.” and then evaporated into smoke.
“Fine!” muttered Lauren, turning around and beckoning Maia to her side. “Maia, do you know anything about Steven?” Maia shook her head. No, not much. But she knew enough to tell that Steven wasn’t a bad guy. “Well, do you know about his, ah, condition?” “Yes, I do. And why does that make him bad?” Lauren just shrugged.
“Listen, Maia, sit down and I’ll tell you Steven’s story.”
“You have,” Lauren began, her voice was cracking. “A cousin.” Maia swiftly intervened.
“Yes, I know, Steven-”
“No,” Lauren shook her head again. “No, your uncle had,” was it Maia’s imagination? Or did she just see Lauren cry one single, solitary tear? “He had a baby girl.”
“A girl?” asked Maia in awe.
“Yes, Steven’s sister. Your uncle and Steven loved her like the most precious gemstone in the world. Her name was Isalia.”
“Isalia.” Maia tasted the word. She sounded like a rare flower.
“Yes, Isalia. She spent so much time with Steven, they were inseparable. They ate together, read, did their schooling together, and at night, they gazed at stars.” Maia was reminded of her star-gazing experience with Steven. Lauren began to sob. Maia Put her arm around her shoulder and patted her arm. She made a shushing noise that her mother had done when she was a baby.

Finally, Lauren regained her courage and resumed her story. “I’m sorry. But it’s that sad. She was a beautiful girl.” ‘I believe it.’ Maia thought to herself.
“A few weeks before the incident, Steven had sustained a very bad bite from a wild dog. Or at least, that’s what your uncle thought it was.” Lauren suppressed another sob. “Don’t make a fuss!” said Lauren, brushing Maia’s hand away.
“Anyway, after Steven got bit, no one was any the wiser. He started acting strangely; his father and sister just attributed it to growth spurts.” Lauren stopped to take a breath, and then continued.

“One night, he and his sister were star-gazing. He told me the sky was cloudy; there were practically no stars. Then, the moon broke through the clouds and shown right on them. Steven told me that when he started changing, she didn’t notice. Only when she heard a low growl, she looked up and screamed. Steven told me that the scream was the thing he remembered most. She screamed and threw a huge rock at its head. It only dazed him. She ran to the house. But she was no match for the wolf. He ran her down and, and, oh!” Lauren nearly fainted.
“Oh my.” Said Maia, horrified.
“Yes.” Said Lauren, and began to cry. Through she sobs, Lauren said, “they buried her in the clearing, by that patch of Jasmine.” Maia dried her tears and said “so that’s why you were so worried about me hanging out with Steven.” As if waiting for his name to be called, Maia heard a noise behind her and Steven, himself, came into view. His face looked a wreck. It was puffy and tear-streaked. So, he had been listening!

He looked at Maia, there was no shame in his face, but it DID go profoundly red.
“So,” he said to her, “she told you?” Maia nodded. “Good, good.” All three of them stood together in silence for a moment, then,
“I suppose you two need a minute to talk.” Said Lauren. “I’ll just be in the house.” Maia nodded. “Over there.” Steven waved. “Away.”
“GO!”both of them said. Lauren left, by way of her shimmering thing.
“So,” Said Maia when they were finally alone. “Why didn’t you tell me?” Steven looked downcast.
“Because,” he said, “because I knew you would hate me, or worse, fear me. I thought you would run away, or call me a monster.” Maia looked shocked.
“How could you think that I-? That I would say something like that?!”
“How could you not?” he replied.
“Well, I was a little freaked,” Maia admitted. “But then, who wouldn’t be? I mean,” she laughed. “I mean, I just found out I had a cousin! And that he was a Werewolf! How freaked would you be?”
“When I found out that I was a werewolf, I was freaked out enough.” He said fairly. “Also, you’re lucky Vida didn’t catch you when you went out.” Maia scoffed and embraced Steven in a hug. They were interrupted by a little cough.
“Oh, Lauren, what’s up?”
“Did you two make up?”
“Uh huh.”
“Good.” “Now I-”
“what’s all the shouting about?” an annoyed voice shouted from the house and all three of them whipped around and said,
“hello? Who’s that?”
“Me.” Said Vida and emerged from the house.”
“Vi?!” said Maia incredulously.
“Yeah, it’s me! I w-” then she came into the clearing and stopped, dead. “What’s going on?"
“Ah, ah,” but Maia was too shaken from Lauren’s story to say anything.
“Just a misunderstanding.” said Steven so that Maia wouldn’t have too. Vida raised her eyes to where Steven was standing.
“Oh, uh,” he stopped abruptly.
“Ah,” said Vida. “Well, may I ask, what are you two doing out here?” Then she caught sight of Lauren. “Oh, hey Lauren.”
“Hi Vida. What are you doing out here?”
“I woke up, and heard a lot of loud shouting, so I decided to investigate. So, what is going on?” Lauren glanced to Steven.
“Is it ok?”
“Fine.” mumbled Steven. Maia looked at him again and he gave the smallest shake of his head. Like, wait till later. And so, Lauren told her the whole story. All about Isalia, and Steven getting bit! Maia glanced up at Steven from time to time and when she did, she saw a glimmer of something in his eyes. Was it regret? She looked quizzically at him then glanced at Vida, but Vida was paying rapt attention to Lauren’s story.

When Lauren reached Isalia’s horrible end, Maia saw Steven turn and walk away out of the corner of her eye. ‘Where’s he going?’ she thought to herself. Finally, after the story ended, Lauren said, “Well, I need to get some sleep. ‘Night all!”
“Good night.” Said the girls as they stood up.
“How can she sleep after telling that story?” Vida asked herself as Lauren disappeared.
“Twice.” Said Maia. Vida let out a long exhaling breath.
“Wow.” she said. “I can’t believe it.”
“I know.” said Maia, in a distant voice. “It’s a horrible story.”
“It’s not that.” Vida said, wearily. Maia glanced up at her sister,
“Well then, what?” Vida exhaled again, slowly.
“It’s the fact that Mom never told us we had cousins. Or an uncle for that matter!” she kicked the nearest tree stump in frustration, but all she received was a sharp pain in her foot.
“OUCH!” cried Vida in pain.
“There you go.” Maia said, trying not to snigger. “You kick a stump, it kicks back.”
“I don’t have time for your stupid proverbs!” Vida grumbled.
“You know what?” said Maia, remembering Steven’s absence. “I don’t either!” But Vida caught her arm, just as she began to rush off towards the woods.
“Maia,” said Vida, in such a solemn voice that she thought someone had, or will, die. “Maia, I don’t want you hanging out with him alone. Maia could hear her concern, seeping through her words like gas. She was touched by how much her sister really cared about her.
“I’ll only be around him in the day, and on the night of the new moon.” Maia promised, and stepped up and gave Vida a great, big hug. Vida sighed and said,
“You can see him tonight. After that, its days and new moon nights!” she glared at Maia. “Do I make myself clear?!”
“Yes ma’me!” said Maia and gave a laugh, a mock salute, and ran off to the tunnel.
“I hope she takes care of herself.” Vida said to the darkness.
“I do too.” Vida spun around and saw Piper emerging from the shadow of a big tree.
“You were listening?” He nodded.
“I had to make sure everything that needed to be was said.” He said simply.
“What do you mean?” Vida asked, full of confusion.
“I’ll tell you some time, but now, let me walk you back to the house. None of us have gotten any sleep!”
“Except Uncle John.” Vida muttered.

“Steven?” Maia called into the darkness. “Steven, where-?” she was cut off by a pair of hands wrapping around her shoulders and spinning her around to face their owner. “Ahh! Oh my god, Steven! You scared the bejezus out of me!” His thin face broke into a wide smile.
“Sorry. I didn’t expect you to scare so easily.” She grinned and said,
“Would you mind letting go of me?”
“Not at all.” They waited a few minutes, then,
“That would actually imply you letting go of me.”
“Shoot!” he said, but he let go.
“So,” he said, uncertainly. “What do you want to do?”
“Hmm, how about,” she looked around. “A moonlight run?” and she took off. Steven gave a great “HA!” and took off right behind her. He LOVED this girl!

[Abby-normal]

Ch. 9
Bliss, cartwheels, and a broken milk jug.

The first thing that Maia heard was the clinking of plates, the scraping of a spatula on a skillet, and a loud voice from the kitchen saying, “Breakfast!”

Maia yawned, sat up and stretched, then looked at her surroundings. She was in her bedroom. It looked like someone had laid her down, then made up the bed, and then put her down over the covers. And she had a hunch who.

She got up, dressed, and then proceeded down the hall to the kitchen. The kitchen was full. Uncle John was sitting next to the stove. He had a plate of eggs and beacon balanced on his lap, and was talking to Vida; who had her plate on the table. Her hair was a mess.
“Morning.” Said Vida brightly.
“Mm.” was all that Maia said, because her attention was focused on someone else.

Two people sat at the table that Maia didn’t recognize. The girl had short brown hair, green glass colored eyes, and a huge scar that ran from right above her eyebrow, all the way down her face to the left corner of her lip. She seemed to notice Maia staring at her, because she quickly turned her attention to the boy sitting next to her. The boy had lanky blond hair and green eyes, just like his sister, (or at least, Maia thought it was his sister,) and as she looked him up and down, the most blissful, content, happy feeling came over her. And this little voice in her head was saying ‘Do a cartwheel. Come on, you know you want to. Do a cartwheel.’

She didn’t want to obey, but the voice was so insistent, so persuasive, it stated the order like it was a matter of life and death. Though she tried to resist, eventually, she obeyed the voice. She did cartwheels around the room whilst Vida was looking in admiration at the boy. Only after two incidents, one with a milk jug and the other with a chair, did Uncle John put his hand on the boy’s shoulder and said,
“Allan, that’s enough.”
“Fine.” the boy grunted. And as she stopped cartwheeling, all the bliss, all the happiness, seemed to flow out of her, like the milk in the poor milk jug that she had broken. She sat down, and asked,
“What happened to me?”
“It’s ok, kid.” Said the girl sitting across the table from her. “No one likes getting hypnotized first thing in the morning.” Maia looked up at her and was about to say, “What?” but was shocked enough to jump up, utter a small scream, and back away from the table. The girl looked up in dismay.
“What’s wrong, kid?”
“You had a, a scar, right there” Maia pointed to the left side of her face.
“Now it’s gone, what happened to it?” but before the girl could answer, the blissful, calm, happy feeling that she had experienced earlier, rekindled itself inside her. ‘Sit down. Please. We’re going to explain everything. Please sit down.’ and she found herself walking towards the table, sitting down, and looking across the table straight at the boy. Wasn’t his name Allen? Yes, it was. “Allen, that’s enough.” Said Uncle John, again.
“I just wanted to calm her down.” Said the boy, and shrugged.
“There’s a difference with reassurance and control.” The girl said.
“Hmm.” The boy said.
“Maia,” said Vida, gently. “These are Allen,” she pointed to the lanky boy. “And Cristina; they are here to help us.” Maia looked skeptically at them.
“Help us? What are you guys from, a medical clinic? We’re not mad!” she said indignantly.
“Not that kind of help, kid.” Allen said quietly.
“That’s right,” interjected Cristina. “We’re here to manifest your capabilities.”
“Manifest our what?!”
“Your magical strongpoints,” Simplified Uncle John. “You two girls come from a long line of magicians, dating back to the thirteenth century, I think.”
“Huh?” said Maia clearly puzzled.
“They explained it all to me.” Vida said. “Take a look at the hall tapestry. I’m going to my room to pack. ‘Pack?’ Maia’s brain was on overload. ‘We just got here!’ clearly, Vida knew something Maia didn’t, but she thought it would be best if she did as she was asked.

Vida turned the corner and Maia was about to do the same, when she heard something that drove all else out of her mind.
“Do you think it’s safe? Sending them to the Academy?” It was the girls’ voice. Maia heard the lock click, so that she wouldn’t come back in, and the girl continued. “I just don’t think it’s safe.”
“Yes, I think that is the best way. The academy is safe. And if they do run into trouble, the Headmaster will be there to help.” “I agree with Christina, it’s not as safe as it is to train them here.” said their uncle.
“They’ll be fine. The grounds are safe, the rooms are warm, and they’ll be with their own kind.”
“Own kind?! You make them sound like animals, or beasts!” Maia could hear anger seeping out if his words like a toxin.
“Let’s face it! Your, nieces,” Allen said the word cautiously, as if he could think of better ones but didn’t dare say them aloud. “Your nieces are a breed apart from regular humans!” Maia pulled her ear away from the door, horrified. ‘A breed apart?! What does that mean? What am I, a racehorse?!’ She didn’t want to, but she put her head back down and listened.

“That may be, but-” Allen interrupted him again.
“Really Jonathan, you of all people should know that no matter how you try to tamper with it, fate unravels the same way.”
“How dare you-”
“Get over it, old man. You lost something precious, I get it, but that doesn’t mean the whole world falls because of it! There are always casualties in war.”
“Casualties?!”
“Life isn’t fair, old man! The sooner you get that through your thick skull, the better.” Maia heard the back door slam and she knew Allen had gone.

“That idiot! That stuck up brat! That stupid, ignorant, hoity-toity, arrogant, freak-brat!”
Maia was pacing and bellowing at the portraits in her room. “How dare he talk to my uncle that way!” then there was that ‘breed apart’ stuff.
“What does that mean? Breed apart?” she had so many questions! “And I know who can answer them!” she said in triumph. ‘Steven!’

“You’re going where?!”
“Some place called ‘the academy.’”
“Oh boy.” Steven said with a sigh. “I had hoped they wouldn’t send you two there.”
“What’s so bad about an academy?”
“It’s not just any academy, it’s the academy. The biggest school of magic ever built.” He sighed. “I went there. They had special classes for those with animalistic problems. I met a few nice other werewolves, some vampires who took night classes, and a very nice ghoul who lived in the attics. It was a pretty hard place though.” He said, and then looked at her. “You’ll have a very difficult time.”
“Don’t make me feel worse!”
“It’ll help. The harder people push you, the better off you are.”
“What do they teach?”
“Lots of stuff. It all depends on what you are. I was a werewolf, and I had a natural attachment to potions. From what you told me about the people that came today, I’d say that you are in ‘mind games.’ And your sister is in ‘metamorphosis.’ The same one I was in.” Maia looked at her feet and asked tentatively, “which group was your sister in?” He was silent for a minute, then,
“She was in ‘abilities.’ She had the most magnificent ability ever known to man!”
“What was it?” Maia asked intently.
“She could copy other’s abilities.” Maia looked confused, so he said, “If someone was around her who could turn invisible, Bam! So could she. She was even learning to file the powers away, and not rely on the original owner’s power to use her’s.”
“Wow!” said Maia in disbelief. What kind of power did her family have?!

“Maia? Maia! Wake up!”
“Huh?”
“Snap out of it!” Said a sharp voice. And a light blow came to her cheek.
“Ow!” Said Maia and shot up from the table.
“Whoa, steady girl!” said Vida and forced her to lie back down.
“What happened?” said Maia weakly.
“You passed out.” Steven said. “You passed out on the ground.”
“On the ground? No. no, I, I went inside and, and, I don’t remember!”
“You passed out on the ground, started twitching and thrashing! I thought you were having a fit or something! So I yelled, they came,” he pointed to Vida, Uncle John, and the people from the academy. “And we took you inside and put you on the table. Then,” he looked over at Vida. She shook her head, only slightly, but Maia saw it.
“Then what, Steven?”
“Nothing. I have to go!” and Steven turned and walked briskly back out the door.
“Steven?!” called Maia. But he didn’t turn back.
“What the hell,” she said turning and frowning at Vida, “was that all about?”
“Um, well,” said Vida, looking thoroughly uncomfortable.
“You know I’ll get it out of one of you! So don’t try to hide it.” Maia said strait.
“Fine.” Vida said, deciding to give up. “While we were taking you in, you started thrashing around, shaking.”
“Yeah, so you told me, what else?”
“We put you on the table, and you sat bolt upright. You started saying things.” Maia was getting really freaked out now.
“What, what kind of things?” Vida shuddered. Now Maia was downright scared. If it was that freaky, she wasn’t so sure she wanted to hear it. “Well, you kept saying ‘why? Why did you do it?’ and I think you said ‘the sleeper won’t wake’ what does that mean?” Maia shrugged. A look of distrust crossed Vida’s face.
“You know. You know very well, you just don’t want to tell me.” Maia’s face erupted in a series of objections.
“If I did, I would tell you! You know I would. We’re sisters!”
“That’s another thing!” exclaimed Vida lifting her first finger. “You kept saying ‘we’re family, uncle, we’re family! How can you live with what you’ve done?’” Vida looked at her sister with the most untrustworthy expression on her face.
“Please, tell me what’s going on!” begged Vida. “I’m your sister, you can trust me.”

Maia stared stonily at her sister. She remembered the dreams, the visions of Vida’s lifeless corpse, and Uncle John standing over her. The ghostly sound of her own words haunted her. ‘We’re family, we’re family, how could you do this?’ could she protect Vida from what was to come? But the words she had heard while listening through the door came back to her: “‘you of all people should know, no matter how you change it, fate always ends up the same way.’” she couldn’t change the future, she knew that, but if there was the slimmest chance that Vida would survive, she was sure as hell gonna try!

“No.” she said, flatly. Vida looked confused.
“But, Maia-”
“I said NO!” Maia bellowed at the startled sister. Vida stared at her sister as she turned and swept away. Vida stood, staring after the Maia, then, after pinching herself twice on the arm, she jerked back to reality and ran after her sister.
“Maia, wait, I-” she began as she put her hand on Maia’s shoulder. And then, Maia turned around.

Her eyes caught Vida’s eyes and Vida gasped and stepped back. Maia’s eyes had thick, green smoke that smelled like old gym socks floating out of her sockets and a dark, thundery voice issued from her mouth.
“Be warned, child.” Said Maia. “If you interfere again, I shall have to DISTROY YOU!” the voice bellowed. The force of the roar blasted Vida off her feet. Her body flew ten feet, smashed into the counter-top, and sank to the floor. Maia screamed, and fainted. Just then, Steven, Piper, Lauren, the academy teachers, and Uncle John, all came hurrying into the room. “What the-?” said Lauren, gasping.
“Oh…my…god!” said Uncle John.
“Maia?!” said Steven and rushed over to feel her heartbeat while Piper did the same for Vida.
“Both girls are still alive.” The boys reported.
“What happened?” asked Uncle John, scooping Vida up and taking her into the bedrooms.
“I think they were dueling.” Said Steven, who was following him with Maia in his arms.
“No, I don’t think so,” said Lauren. “I think they just argued, and things got out of hand.”
“But to do that much damage, it would’ve had to be an immensely powerful spell. Even I couldn’t have produced a blast with that capacity.” Allen said.
“Nor I.” said Cristina.
“What does it mean, Cristina?” asked Steven anxiously.
“Truth be told, I have no idea.” Said the shape-changer. “But I do know one thing; these girls are immensely powerful beings.” She glanced towards Jonathan.
“Train them well.” He nodded. “We must be off.” She said, brusquely.
“But, the girls?” asked Jonathan.
“We do not take beings with strength of that magnitude through our doors. Train them here, it is for the best.” She said, and with a quick spin, transformed into a great, black crow and disappeared into the gathering dusk.

Late that night, as the moonbeams fell on the sleeping occupants of the house, one solitary figure snuck into the girl’s bedroom. His alert ears heard his father’s snoring and proceeded to creep through the girls’ bedroom door.
“It’s pointless for her to be in pain.” He muttered to himself as he neared Mia’s bed. He glanced down at the sleeping girl and had to pinch himself to keep going. He reluctantly proceeded to Vida’s bed. He rummaged through his pants pockets for a few seconds, then triumphantly pulled out a small, plastic baggie. He ripped the package bag open and poured it into a glass of water which was standing on the bedside table. As he forced open Vida’s mouth and poured the potion down her throat, she jerked a bit but didn’t wake up. She swallowed the potion and her breath became steady again. He sighed.
“I just hope it works.” He muttered as he moved to Maia’s bed. He pulled over a small chair and just sat there, gazing at the blissful, calm expression on Maia’s pale face in the moonlight.

Ch. 10
In the bedroom

Maia woke up screaming. “Vida, Nooooo!”
“Calm down dear. Vida is, well, I can’t say she’s fine. You really did some damage.” Maia blinked as she looked up at the man who held her in his arms. It was Uncle John.
“Uncle, what happened?” she asked, trying to sit up. Her joints ached and her muscles felt like lead. “Where is Vida? You said I did some damage, wha-” but Uncle John made a shushing noise, put a finger to his lips, and gently pushed her back on to the pillows.
“I will reveal all,” he promised, ruffling her hair, which was drenched with sweat. “But for now, rest. You have had a lot to deal with. I also think that the young man there would like a word.” Young man? Maia turned her head on the pillow. There, by her bed, on a small chair, sat Steven.

His hair was matted, his unsteady breath smelled like he hadn’t brushed for days, and he had his eyes closed.
“Poor boy, he was worried sick about you, you know. He hasn’t left your side since you went down.” He looked fondly at Steven. “How long have I been out?” she asked, propping herself up on her elbows.”
“Two days, six hours and twenty,” he checked his watch. “Three minutes.”
“Wow. That long, huh?”
“I’ve been up every second of it.” Her uncle replied.
“Yeah, me too. Well, most of it, anyway. And, by the way, you gotta stop this fainting frenzy. You’re gonna give me a heart attack.” said a voice from beside her. Steven had woken up.
“Hey Steven,” Maia smiled apologetically. “Sorry if I worried you.”
“Are you kidding?” he said with a laugh. “I haven’t had this much fun in years. People doing cartwheels in the kitchen, girls fainting, the counter getting blown up! I gotta say, I was worried when you first here, but now, I think you’re a riot, Maia Callow!” he laughed again. Maia grinned.
“I think you are too.” She said. “I think you’re the most interesting boy I’ve ever met!” it was dark, it being early morning, but she could see him blush. She laughed again. “I mean it! How many girls can say that they’ve got a cousin-”
“lots of kids have cousins, unless their parents were only kids. Or, if they had brothers and sisters, but their uncles or aunts had no kids. Or if-”
“I meant, how many girls can say they’ve got a cousin that’s a werewolf!”
“Not many. Werewolves were almost hunted to extinction twenty years ago.”
“Oh,” Maia looked down.
“It’s ok.” He said, grinning at her. “The less there are, the less likely people are to get bitten and turned into werewolves themselves.”
“That’s true.” Maia admitted. But he just kept grinning.
“Well, I’m just glad you’re ok.” She smiled, weakly.
“Well, it’s not me I’m worried about. It’s Vida.” She looked over at the bed next to her. “I’m so worried. I can’t believe I blew her backwards and into a counter top.” Maia held her face in her hands.
“Hey, shhh, it’s ok.” He said. He cautiously put his hand in hers and held it firmly. His other hand felt up her back and rubbed her shoulder. “She’ll get better soon.” The way he talked reminded Maia of the dream by the beach.

She lifted her head and replayed the vision in her head. “What’s up?” asked Steven, confused by her far-away expression. Maia shook herself a little and came back to reality.
“Oh, nothing.” She said as she started to get up out of the bed.
“Oh no you don’t!” said Steven, who was ready for some kind of escape attempt. He grabbed her arms and pushed her back onto the pillow. “You are still mending. You need rest!” she struggled.
“I do not! Ergh! Let me up, wolf-boy!!!”
“Nooo waaaay. You can barely stand! No! You’re staying down!” Finally, Maia just gave up and stopped struggling.
“Fine.” She said with resentment. And Steven sat back down.

Then, her eyes lit up. Steven noticed this. “What now?” he asked, cautiously. It just occurred to her.
“Are those goons from the Academy still here?” she asked.
“No, they left, they said that they couldn’t take beings with that much, ah,” Steven twiddled his thumbs nervously.
“That much what?” asked Maia, confused.
“Uh, power. That was a major display of juice back there. Anyway, why?”
“Well, if me and Vida are injured, how can we go to the Academy?” he looked at her. It was difficult to decide his expression, because there wasn’t one. His face was as smooth and as expressionless as glass.

Then, suddenly, his face broke into a wide smile. “Smart, brave cousin,” he said. His smile reached from ear to ear. “You have figured out a way to prolong your attendment to the Academy.”
“What? My head’s still hurting from yesterday, repeat ye?” He grinned.
“You found a good excuse to ditch school.”
“Oh.” They sat in silence for a few moments, then,
“Where’s dad?” Steven asked, not seeing his quirky father, anywhere.
“He’s over-” but as she looked, she saw the door close. “Oh, I guess he left.”
“Oh.” Said Steven looking at the door, and then back at her. The silence fell again. It was broken this time by a loud shout from under Maia’s bed. “BOO!”

Maia screamed. Steven jumped about two feet in the air and picked Maia up from the bed. Not a sound. Steven and Maia looked at the bed and gulped. Steven sat Maia down in the chair and proceeded to lift the sheet hanging over the gap between floor and bed. A blood curdling scream came from under the bed and Steven had to shake himself a little bit to keep him going. His hand inched towards the sheet and suddenly, with one tearing motion, ripped the curtain away and bent his head to look. There was nothing there.
“Ok, this isn’t funny!!” said Steven in a thundery voice. “Whoever you are come out and face me like a-” his demand was cut short by something invisible jumping on his back.
“AARGH!” yelled Steven, trying to roll the thing off his back. It was slimy, and small, like a toad. Maia screamed again and grabbed the lamp off her bedside table, in case there were more. There were. Steven thrashed about wildly, but the more he tried to get it to loosen its grip, the tighter it held.
“Help! Help!” Maia and Steven shouted together. The thing on his back had its hand around his throat, choking him, knocking him out. Maia raised the lamp, aimed, and brought it down on the thing’s head. It was knocked cold. As the slimy thing slid off Steven’s back, it became visible. It was a dull greyish brown. It had a black, armadillo-like shell, short, black arms, and a big blackish bruise on its head where Maia had smashed it with the lamp. Its skin was leathery, like an shoe.
“Whoa.” Said Steven, straitening up and massaging the red finger marks it’s short, stubby fingers had made.
“What is it?” asked Maia curiously.
“No clue.” Steven said, truthfully. “It looks like a cross breed.” She looked at him quizzically.
“Oh, I forgot. Well, little creatures like this, good and bad alike, are very rare in this world. All the new technology, the cars, people buying up every place they can, bulldozing the land and building hotels or shopping malls, it’s very hard for a creature to live in an environment like that, so, they are forced to live in artificial forests.” She looked at him again.
“Forests with controlled plants. Only certain trees, only certain plants, barely any of the forests of old are left.”

A forlorn expression came over his face when he reached this part of the story. He was remembering his days as a boy, running through the trees, racing his sister, Isalia, picking plants to make into potions and tea. Pretending they were pirates or warriors drove into hiding; those were the best days of his life. His sister was alive, his mom was alive, his dad was happy, and he had a real family. Now, all he had was his dad, and this girl, whom he had vowed to protect. She looked so much like his sister. Like Isalia.

“Steven?” Maia asked. His eyes had become glossy, and when she touched his arm, she saw visions of things that had happened years before she was born. Visions of Steven, she guessed it was Steven, running through the glade and the tunnel outside. There was a little girl running beside him.
“Isalia.” Maia whispered. It had to be. The name caught the wind and swirled into Steven’s ear. He suddenly came out of his dream-like state and asked an important question.
“Why didn’t anyone come when we were attacked?” Maia looked up.
“Good question.” She got up and made her way to the door. She turned the knob, but the door remained firmly shut. “Hey, Steven, help me over here.” But Steven didn’t hear her. He was looking at the window.
“Maia,” he asked, his voice was quiet, almost a whisper. “Did you leave that open?” He turned his face towards Maia. Maia’s face blanched.
“No.” She whispered. It was a second too late. The creatures jumped, as one, onto Steven.

Though she could not see them, Maia wrapped her hands around the lamp and struck out, blindly, at the things. They were washing over him. An enormous tidal wave of stubby armed things. They smothered him, crushing the very life out of him. Their fingers grasped his throat. He felt something cold touch his wrists. They were chaining him up! He fought, but more and more kept coming. They bound his arms and legs. He could see Maia still fighting them, swinging her lamp left and right, he managed to say “don’t give up, Maia!” before the biggest one of all, the king of the nasty creatures, gave him a hard blow on the head, and he was knocked unconscious.

“STEVEN!!” Maia screamed. “NOO! I’ll take you creatures on, myself! You’ll pay for whatever you did to him!! YAAARRGGH!” she bellowed and took a furious swipe at the attacking monsters. The lamp worked, for a few minutes, she screamed. She yelled, but there was not one sign of life from the rest of the house. Maia couldn’t hold out for much longer. The things, whatever they were, had quadrupled in number. And her lamp was broken! She was using a chair at the moment to defend herself, but that would soon be gone! She looked around wildly, ‘I need a weapon, something, anything!’ The creatures had made a wide arch around her; they were making room for their king: the biggest, nastiest, and fattest one of them all. She lashed out again, but her chair made no contact.
“Where are you?” she asked, angrily. The creatures made a hollow, choking sound. They were laughing at her. Her anger flared. “Come on, I’ll take you all on, if need be!” suddenly, something pulled the rug beneath her feet, then, they were on top of her. She scratched and kicked. No good. She tried calling for help, no one came. Finally, she could fight no more, and the things had bound her in a sticky substance.
“Spider’s silk.” Said a scratchy voice from behind her head. “Never go kidnapping without it.” Maia stiffened. ‘Kidnapping?’ “Well, sire?” said a more high-pitched voice, off to Maia’s right. “Will the Bookkeeper be pleased?”
“Yes, Gradlock, I think he will be most pleased.” The scratchy voice replied. The scratchy-voiced thing turned towards Maia. It was lucky that one of the things shoved a gag into her mouth, otherwise, she would have screamed. “Well well, such a pretty thing, I can see why he paid so highly.” Said the scratchy voice. She spit the gag out and glared at the spot where the thing stood, watching. “What are you?” she asked. “Why have you come here?” the thing remained silent.

Around him, Maia could hear the noises of scuffling feet, the clink of chains as Steven was dragged to one side, and the heavy breathing of the surrounding creatures. “We were paid a high price,” began the leader, but one of the things said,
“My lord,” in a low voice. “We are ready to depart.” The big creature seemed to be the king of these creepy little things. “Momentarily.” Said the king. “We were paid very well to capture you for a client. You see, we are book worms. Ancient creatures that live on the words and inks in books. Our employer promised to give us one thousand copies of a certain book, one that will, once we consume their pages, enable us to become immortal.” He looked coldly at Maia. “Your cousin, however, was not part of the deal. He interfered, so, we had to immobilize him.” the king of the bookworms laughed. “It was a futile fight; he will recover, in time. Now, say goodbye to your cousin,” he said, holding a palm full of sparkly powder in his hand, “you will never see him again.” and before Maia could protest, he blew the powder into her face. “Nighty-night.” He said, grinning, sickly. The last thing she saw Steven’s unconscious body, then, she drifted into an unfightable sleep.

[Abby-normal]

Ch. 11
The Truth

Instantly, Jonathan Callow knew something was wrong. All noise coming from the bedroom ceased. He pounded on the door. “Maia?” he said. He was getting worried. Suddenly, he heard a bang, a cry of “Ouch!” and a split second later; Piper was sitting on the floor in front of the door, nursing a slight bruise on his nose.
“YAH! Sheesh, Piper, did you have to do that?” Piper looked up at him. John was expecting him to laugh, or start yelling, but he stayed deadly quiet for about a minute, then,
“No,” he said, looking very, very scared. “No I didn’t.” John looked quizzically at him.
As he helped him to his feet, Piper said “I meant to appear in the bedroom, but,” he looked disorientated. “It blocked me.” He said, simply. John looked horrified.
“What did? Speak to me Piper, what blocked you?” he hauled the nearly unconscious boy to his feet and shook his shoulders. The ghost-boy didn’t faint, but he was getting close. Jonathan dropped him on to the floor. He was about to turn away, when, “Book.” John whirled around. “What?!” he grabbed the boy again. “What did you say?” Piper’s head lolled. “Book, travel, M-Maia gone.” “Yes, I know.” said John. And he picked Piper up in his arms, almost as if he were made of air, (air and a few other choice substances.) and carried him back to the kitchen where Lauren sat, reading.

Piper’s condition seemed to put Lauren in a panic, for when she saw him, she shrieked: “What happened? Is he alright? Where are Vida, Maia, and your son? Oh, for god’s sake Jonathan, TELL ME IF HE’S OK!!” “QUIET!” thundered John. “I couldn’t hear myself scream with the racket you’re making!” he calmed himself. “Now, Piper is fine. He has a little disorder but he’ll be fine. I don’t know where the girls or my son are, but I will find out! The bedroom door is locked. Not from the inside, or the outside. It just stays put. I think some good magic would do the trick, but I have no idea how powerful a spell it is.”

That pretty much answered her questions. She only had one more.
“What are we gonna do?” Uncle John gritted his teeth.
“Find my son and find my nieces.”
“How?” he hung his head.
“I don’t know.”
“Well,” said Lauren, taking charge, (she could tell that he needed help.) “First, we need to see whether the girls and Steven were actually taken or not.”
“Mmm.” He murmured in agreement.
“Then, if they were taken, we need to find out where!” Another “Mmm.”
“Come on, old man. Pull yourself together. We need your help to find them.” Jonathan raised his head. “Yes, we will find them. No matter where, no matter how far, I will find the children I have strived so long to protect!” and with renewed strength, he leaped up and rushed to the bedroom door. In a horrible, booming voice he commanded the door “OPEN!” the door flew off its hinges and the two rushed inside.

Lauren gasped. “Oh my god, Steven, are you ok?” as his father flew to him and felt for a heartbeat. He could hear it, bump-bump, bump-bump, it was a wonderful sound. “He’s still alive.” He said “help me get him over to the bed.” Lauren rushed over and ducked her head and shoulders under his arm. Together, she and John hauled him to the bed and laid him down. His eyes were closed. “Son?” he said, anxiously. No sound. John turned away, and began to cry.
A weak voice said “Dad?” John spun around and leaned in close to his boy.
“Son? Steven? Are you alright? What happened?” Steven coughed.
“I’ve never seen you cry.” He said, half-heartedly grinning. “Yes, son,” he hadn’t even cried at his wife’s and daughter’s funeral. “What happened?” he repeated, looking at his son’s face with worried eyes.
“Creatures, invisible, took Maia.” he coughed again.
“Son, can you tell me where they took her?” The poor wolf-boy looked at his father, sadly.
“No dad. They knocked me out before they took her.”
“Took her.” muttered Lauren and glanced over to the other bed where Vida was still in her stasis.
“Vida’s still here.” John observed, confused. “Why didn’t they take both girls?”
“I don’t know, dad,” said Steven, pushing himself to his feet. “But I’m going after her.”
Jonathan was horrified. “Absolutely not! I forbid it!!”
“Dad, you have to look after the Vida, and Piper and Lauren, how can–?”
“If you go, we go!” said the headstrong father.
“Fine.” Steven said, (although he had no intention of keeping his promise.)
“Good,” said his father. “Now, we need to find out where they’ve taken her. Any suggestions?” he asked his dazed son.
“Nope.” Steven said.
“Lauren?” John turned to the ghost girl.
“No idea.” Lauren said.
“Well, we’re right back where we started.” Steven said, kicking a chair in frustration. “Nowhere!” suddenly, John’s eyes lit up.

They both looked at him. “What?” Lauren and Steven asked together.
“I think,” John was ecstatic! “I think I know how to find her.”
“HOW?” they both yelled, together.
“Matches.” Said John, and rushed to his bedroom.
“MATCHES?” the two frantic teenagers yelled as they rushed after him, sure that their lovable friend and father, had gone mad.

“What on earth do you need matches for?”
“You’re not going to burn the house down, are you, father?”
“Goodness, no.” said Jonathan as they met up with him in his bedroom. He was digging through the drawers of his dresser. “I’m looking for some rather special matches.” His hands were working like mad, pulling stuff out of the pockets of his coats, pants, and shirts, inspecting it, and then throwing it onto the bed beside him, occasionally muttering “No. Not that. Blimey, I’d forgotten I had that in there.” Finally, he straightened up, pulled a tiny box out of an ancient cedar chest, and giving a great “HA!” of triumph.

“Um,” said Steven after a minute. “So, what do they do?” His father looked at him; the most bemused look came over his face. “These, my dear boy,” he said, holding up the box. “Came from the legendary story of the Little Match Girl, written by Hans Christian Anderson.” He looked at them, obviously expecting some kind of praise.
“If they came from a book, how did you get them?” Steven asked, suspiciously. John looked abashed.
“Your mother,” he began, but Steven interrupted him.
“Mom? What about mom?”
“Let him finish!” Lauren whispered harshly into his ear.
“Your mother, this was before I met her, had the uncanny ability to enter and exit storybooks. She went from book to book, living wondrous adventures. Crossing swords with pirates! Escaping Cyclopes and murderous cannibals! Swinging from one adventure to another. And, from every book she entered, she brought something back.”
“Like the matches!” Exclaimed Steven.
“Correct. Except she made a copy of everything she took so as to not disturb the original story.” His father beamed and, was it just him, or did a shadow of guilt cross his father’s face?
“I never told you this,” he began, shakily “but I, in fact, also, came from a book.” Steven looked stunned.
“But you, no, no, you can’t be from a book!” he said, backing away from his father.
“Which book?” Lauren asked with interest. “From a child’s series called ‘The Children of the Red King.’ My name was Peyton Yewbeam. Your mother visited my story. She fell in love with me, and we decided to elope from my book. Your mother sought the help of one of the characters in the book, a sorcerer. Together, he and your mother conjured a very powerful copy spell. They made a copy of me and left the book the same. So, I left the book to be with your mother. And now you know where my strange endowment came from. I learned how to put the bulbs back together from your mother. Oh, April,” he sighed. “She was a talented woman.” “But then,” said Steven. Now hopelessly confused. “Then, the girls aren’t your family. I’m not their cousin.” His father looked stricken.
“Yes, yes you are. You see, there was a little hitch to the spell your mother preformed. It made a copy of me, but it also made me young, three years old, to be precise.” They heard a giggle from behind them. It was Lauren. Steven gave her a ‘quiet!’ look.
“Sorry, I was just,” she giggled again. “Sorry.” John sighed.
“Any way, I couldn’t live with April as a baby, she had no idea how to take care of one, and so I went to an orphanage. But when I left her, April promised that she would come back to me. When I got there, I was adopted immediately, by a Mr. and Mrs. Callow, your grandma and grandpa. They named me Jonathan, after Mrs. Callow’s father.” John sighed. “Three years later, Mrs. Callow had her first real son. You’re Uncle Thomas. Maia and Vida’s father. I loved being a big brother. Almost as much as you did,” he smiled at his son.
“Go on!” prompted Lauren. “What happened next?” John looked irritated.
“What else? I grew up. I obviously didn’t know I was a character from a book. And as far as my adopted parents were concerned, I was just a normal kid. There was an occasional light bulb incident, but no one noticed. I and Thomas grew into teenagers. Eventually, we became men. Then, April appeared.” Jonathan had a wistful look on his face. Steven thought he’d just let the old man bask for a bit. Lauren, however, had no such whims.
“Oh, do go on! My sides are splitting from anticipation!” The dreamy look left his father’s eyes and Steven had a strong urge to kick Lauren.
“You know, I am seriously considering telling only Steven, in private!” His father said, angrily. “You wouldn’t.” Lauren said, condescendingly. “So just get on with it!” Steven could hear his father muttering, “Insolent little-. Ahem. Anyway, for the second time in my life, I was in love. April and I got married, (Thomas was my best man, of course.) And then had you and Isalia. God, it was the happiest time of our lives. Then, well, you know the rest.” He smiled apologetically.
“Yes, I know the rest.”
Lauren whistled. “Wow. When I first met you and April, you told me you came from abroad, but I didn’t think you meant that far abroad!” He smiled.
“You wouldn’t have believed me if I did tell you, my dear ghost.” “Dude,” said Lauren, walking strait through the wall and poking her head out of it.
“I’m a Ghost!!! I believe in anything!” Steven scoffed.
“You don’t believe in the Beev-coon!” Lauren’s head glared at him.
“There is no…such…thing!” And the head vanished.
“Yes there is!!” yelled Steven. A black tongue popped out of the wall, and stuck out in Steven’s direction. “Gross.” Said Steven.
“You’re telling me.” Said John.
“Dad?” John turned to face his son.
“Yes, boy?” Steven was sure he was going to regret this.
“How did mom die?” Jonathan Callow looked at his young son.
“I’m afraid you’ll have to wait to learn that, my boy. It is a very bitter story.” Steven stared.

“Please, just tell me, was she killed, or did she die?” Jonathan looked at his son in surprise. “What’s the difference?”
Steven shrugged and said, “If she was killed, someone did it. If she died, that means she just died.” John looked proud. “Excellent work, my boy. She died, I’m very sad to say. Although there was a culprit,” Steven’s head snapped up.
“Who was it?” He growled. “I’ll rip him to shreds!” His father looked sadly at his son.
“Cancer, I’m afraid, was the culprit.” Steven’s anger drained out of him.
“Cancer? She was sick?”
“Yes.” Said his very sad father. “She had a form of brain cancer. It was caused by over excitement, jumping from book to book became too exhilarating for her. She died in her sleep. It was painless, son.” Steven was about to start crying when they both heard a sniff from the doorway.
“Lauren?” Steven called, furious that the ghost girl had the nerve to eavesdrop. But the girl, who stepped out from behind the door frame wasn’t Lauren. It was Vida.
“Vida!” Gasped Steven. ‘It worked, then, just a little sooner than I expected!’ Uncle John spun around, and both guys ran over to her.
“Morning, boys!” she said, brightly. She looked like a million bucks. Her hair was two shades darker black than before, her stormy-grey eyes flashed thunder and her outfit was so white, the guys had to take two steps back to avoid being blinded. Uncle John was dazzled.
“Vida? What? How?” The words died in his throat.
“Completely cured!!” she exclaimed. “Now, where’s that bungling sister of mine? I haven’t hugged her in two days!” she looked at their sad faces.
“Jeeze, who died?” Then a split second later she said, more seriously, “Oh god, who died?” Steven brightened up at the joke. “No one,” he said, giving Vida a hug.
But he didn’t fail to hear his father mutter, “Yet.”
He flashed a look at his father over Vida’s shoulder. They broke apart and Vida proceeded to Uncle John.
“Uncle John, I’m sorry that I eavesdropped. I was going to spring in and scare you two, but I heard you talking about your family, please forgive me!” He took hold of her shoulders and made her look into his face. Her’s was bright pink, but a little gloomy. “My dear, you are my family. You and Maia, both! And I love you.” He engulfed her in a mammoth hug.

“As a matter of fact, Vida, when did you, ah, pop in to the conversation?” Steven asked. It was his father’s turn to shoot a warning glance. Taking no heed of this, Steven waited for an answer.
“Well, I think it was when he was telling you that your mom was ‘a very powerful woman’.” She replied.
“Oh.” Vida and her uncle broke apart and he asked,
“Vida, you're all and well?”
“Well, sorry to disappoint!” She huffed.
“Don’t be silly,” said her uncle, giving her another hug. “I just want to know, how did you recover so fast?” Steven put up his hand. “I’m afraid I’m to blame for that.” His father turned around to stare at his son. “You? How?”
Steven blushed. “I borrowed some potion-making ingredients and inside one of the bundles was a sprig of dried Vervain. I remembered from my classes on herbs and maladies at school that Vervain was the best health-booster there ever was, but it must be used sparingly. If you use too much, the affected will expand with energy, and in most cases, explode.” “Thanks, that makes me feel better.” Vida snorted.
“Hey, it worked!” Steven said in his own defense.
“At a terrible risk!” said his father.
“Dad, nothing happened to her, in fact, I probably boosted her powers as well as her strength!”
“Well, there could have been-”
“Yeah, could have been! Nothing did happen to her, personally, I think she looks ten times better.” Vida snorted. “I was giving you a compliment!” said Steven angrily.
“Well, funny, it seems to be my life we’re talking about!”
“KIDS!” Uncle John bellowed. Both kids stopped in mid rage.

“Now Steven, what you did was rash, and it could have killed Vida, but I also think it enabled Vida to help in the search for her sister.” He turned to Vida.
“Vida, Steven was trying to help, and, though he took a bit of a risk, he did it. He gave you back some of your powers. You both owe each other an apology.” Both kids stared at their feet. Finally, Vida spoke up. “I’m sorry I yelled at you.” Steven looked at his father.
“What exactly am I supposed to be apologizing for?” His father sighed. “For putting Vida’s life in danger by giving her an unstable cure.”
“I apologize for that.” Steven said. They both grinned.
“Now,” Vida said, clapping her hands together and rubbing them together.
“Where is Maia, and what’s all that talk about magic matches mean?” Steven looked suspiciously at her.
“I thought you didn’t hear anything before ‘my mom was a powerful woman’?” Vida blushed.
“Well, maybe I heard a, an occasional fragment of sentence.” She started scuffing the rug with the toe of her shoe. “How long-” began Uncle John.
“Since you were looking for the matches.” She replied without looking up.
“And when is someone going to tell me where my sister is?”
Uncle John put his arm around her shoulders. “Well dear, it’s kind of difficult to say. We know she’s been kidnapped by-” “KIDNAPPED?!” squealed Vida, ducking out from under John’s arm and looking in horror at him, her hands covering her mouth. “Where is she?”
“Well, as I was just going to say, we don’t know. We were going to use the magic matches of the Little Match Girl to find her.” “Then I’m coming too.” Vida said, flatly.
“Oh, no. I don’t think so!” Said Steven.
“I don’t mean to brag, but I’m completely on form, here.” Vida said, looking at her weather beaten Uncle. “I’m sorry to say this, Uncle, but you two are way below the belt.”
“WE are going, YOU are not!” Yelled Steven.
“Yes I AM!”
“KIDS!” Uncle John bellowed again. They stopped yelling and looked at him.
“Steven, its Vida’s sister we’re going to rescue, Vida,” he turned his eyes on Vida. “Vida, there is no need for you to shout like this. All of us are going. And that is the end of it!” The kids looked abashed. “Now, before I was interrupted, this box of matches,” he held up the box. “Can transport you to anywhere in the world.” “So, their kind of like Dorothy’s slippers?”
“Exactly. I have those here, somewhere, too!”
“Really? Wow! Can I try them on?”
“Yeah, I think you’d look great!” Steven said, mockingly. Vida just threw him a dirty look and said, “So, we’re gonna use the matches to find Maia?” Her uncle looked at her.
“Apparently not.” He said, and showed them the empty match box. “Empty?! NOW what are we gonna do?” Steven grumbled.
“I don’t know!” Cried Uncle John, exasperatedly. A sudden thought sprang into Vida’s head.
“I do!” she ran over to Steven and pulled him out the doorway. “Steven, come on, I have an idea!”
“What?” Steven said, thoroughly annoyed. But Vida didn’t answer; instead, he heard her mumbling things like: “Oh god, I hope I brought it! Did I leave it at home? It had better still be there!”

“Would you mind telling me what the heck you are talking about?” “All in good time.” She muttered. They were in the wreckage of her bedroom, luckily, nothing of her’s had been disturbed. She let go of Steven’s hand and began rummaging through her bag.
“Please, please tell me it’s here!” she said, throwing things out left and right.
“What the heck are you looking for?!” said Steven, for he couldn’t stand the suspense any longer.
“A wand.” She said as she threw out a pack of kleen-x. Steven nearly jumped out of his socks.
“A wand?! Where, in the name of the goblins, did you get a wand?”
“Found it in a book.” She said, then let out an “AHA!” much like her Uncle’s, and triumphantly pulled out the book.
“Unless that’s a shape-changing wand, it looks kinda useless.” She smiled at Steven and began to speak in a pompous voice. “My dear boy, with all the magic around you, you have discounted the most important magic of all!”
“Oh yeah,” he sneered. “And what kind is that?” She grinned.
“The magic, of sneakiness!” Then opened the box, and held out the wand to Steven. Steven gaped.

“Vida, do you know whose wand this is?” Vida’s smile faded.
“No, I just figured it was a wand.” Steven turned towards her with a wicked grin on his face.
“This is the legendary wand of Taliesin!” Vida look confused. “The great medieval poet?” She still looked confused, “And wisest man on earth?” She just looked dumbly at the wand.
“This is the third most powerful wand known in existence!” This did nothing to cheer her up. “Look, let’s take this bad boy back to dad, he can tell us more about it.” She nodded, silently. They walked back down the hall and into the bedroom. Uncle John was busy, rifling through a bunch of papers on an old fashioned desk.
“Dad! Hey, dad! Look at this!” Steven practically sang to his father. His father looked up from the desk.

“What is it, s-” the rest of his sentence was cut short at the sight of the wand. “Steven, where in the world, did you get that?” Steven held the wand out proudly to his father, expecting praise and excitement. What he got was
“Do you know how dangerous this wand is?”
“Dad,” said Steven, stunned. “This is just the wand of Taliesin, harmless little poet wand, hardly capable of destroying the house!”
“Son, this is no mere poet’s wand. This is the wand of Gwydyon,” his son looked confused. And so did Vida.
“’Harmless little poet wand?’” She asked, eyeing Steven. “Before, you called it ‘the third most powerful wand known in existence.’”

Steven looked abashed. “Well, I might have exaggerated, a bit. Anyway,” he said, shrugging off the look of disgust Vida gave him and looking at his father. “Who’s this Gwydyon? Was he powerful?” His father sighed.
“Gwydyon was one of the most famous transfigurators of the thirteenth century. It was said that he made a wife for his cursed nephew out of flowers, and nursemaids out of moss and rock to care for him.”
“I’ve never heard that story.” Said Steven, interestedly, “Can we read it?” “Sure.” His father said, and pulled out a book covered in dust and cobwebs. Vida leaned in and read the cover:

The Story of the Flower Maiden

“Cool,” she said, and flipped to the first page. “Can I read it out loud, Uncle J?”
He nodded. “I haven’t heard it in a long time, and please don’t ever call me that again.”
“Great. Will do.” Vida said, and as he settled himself in an armchair, Steven heard Vida’s voice filled the room.

“There once was a great magician called Gwydyon. He lived in a grand old mansion by the sea. Gwydyon had a nephew. He loved his nephew more than life, itself. But the nephew’s mother, Aranrhod, had put a curse on the poor child,”

“You mentioned that,” she said, turning on Uncle John.
“Why did he have a curse on him?” asked Vida.
“Keep reading.” Steven said, Vida shot him an angry look, but read on, she did.

“Because he was not the son of the man she had married.”

“Oh.” Vida said.

“The curse was that he may have no name until she gave him his name.”

“That’s a weird curse.” Vida said.
“Names were things of power in those days.” Said Uncle John. Her cousin sighed, exasperatedly. “Please, can you just read it?!”
“Jeeze!” Vida said.

“The clever magician disguised himself as a woman and left the nephew on the doorstep of the nephew’s own mother, a wealthy lady of court. A servant found him and took him in. She decided to ask her mistress to name the child. She took him to Aranrhod and asked her to name him. Aranrhod, oblivious to the fact that he was her son, christened him Lleu.”

“That’s a nice name.” Vida said.
“Yes, I know.” Jonathan said, motioning for her to go on.

“At that moment, Gwydyon burst into the hall and said,
“’Glad to see your son, Aranrhod?”’ Aranrhod was furious. He had tricked her, so, she laid another curse against poor Lleu. He would have no clothes put on his back until she put them on him.
Gwydyon whisked the boy to the hills and hid him in a cave, deep, deep underground. Gwydyon made woman of moss and men of rock to take care of the boy. And there Lleu hid, for three long years. After those years had passed, one night, the magician snuck down to the cave and cast a spell on the boy, turning him into a doll. He tucked the doll under his arm and walked down the mountainside to Aranrhod’s house.
He used more magic to float the doll into her house and onto her daughter’s bed. When Aranrhod’s daughter returned to her room, she saw the beautiful doll and immediately whisked it back to her mother. “’Mama!”’ she said, running to her and showing her the lovely boy-doll. “’Mama, thank you for the dolly!’” Aranrhod was surprised.
“’I did not give you this! It has not a stitch on its bare body.”’
“’Help me dress it, Mama.’” The little girl demanded. Aranrhod commanded her dress-makers to spin a lovely coat, jacket and pants for him, and she commissioned a cobbler to make him ten sets of little shoes. When these were done, Aranrhod helped her daughter dress the doll. The second the last button was in place, the doll was transformed back into Lleu. He smiled at Aranrhod and his half-sister and Aranrhod exclaimed,
“’You surely must be a magic child!’”

Then, a horrible voice said, “’There is nothing more Magical, than the love of a mother, Aranrhod. Look upon your son again.” It was the magician.
“’My son?”’ Aranrhod looked at the boy. The boy looked at her. She was angry and tired of being tricked. So, she laid one last curse against the boy.
“’Hear these words, magician,’” she said. “’When he becomes a man, not a living, breathing woman shall he touch, lest he die!’”
The magician swept his nephew back to his cave in the mountains. He used his wand and the spring waters that ran in those mountains to wash the boy’s memory. Make him forget that he ever knew such a horrible mother. Thirteen years later, the curse of his mother started to take effect. He couldn’t shake a woman’s hand, or hug the moss-woman who took care of him anymore. He asked them why. They said,
“’Do not ask, son of the mountain.’” The fact that he could do nothing about his nephew’s ailment frustrated him. He was a magician, was he not? He had overcome two barriers that blocked his nephew’s future, would he let this third curse beat him? No! And so, he shut himself up for three days and three nights, working on a magical cure for his nephew.
At the beginning of the fourth day, he burst forth from his laboratory, all smiles, for he had done what no man had thought possible, he had made a living, human woman. She had hair like garlands of wheat, eyes that shone like water on the moon, and a face that would be the envy of every maiden in the world. The old magician had used oak, broom, and meadowsweet to make her. The sweetest flowers for the sweetest woman alive. He rushed to his nephew and said, “’Lleu, I have found you a bride.’” Lleu looked at the girl and immediately fell in love with her. He asked her name and she said, “’Blodeuedd.” This meant ‘face of flowers. Gwydyon thought he had overcome the last obstacle to his nephew’s happiness, but there was one thing Gwydyon didn’t know.

When he was making the flower maiden, a small mushroom called Destroying Angel dropped from one of the shelves and contaminated the maiden. The mushroom induced disloyalty into the lovely maiden’s heart, and when she saw her husband to be, she scorned him. She pretended to love him, but when he went away to war, she fell in love with another man. Together, they plotted to kill Lleu upon his return. But there was another thing that Blodeuedd didn’t know; the worried uncle had placed another curse upon Lleu, before he left for war: That he would not die, until the magician granted permission for him to die.
This made Lleu the bravest fighter, the strongest warrior, and got him promoted to general in the army. When he came home, among fame and glory, he found his home bare and his wife gone. That night, Blodeuedd came back to her house with her new husband, and tried to kill Lleu, but the curse prevented this, so, she turned him into an eagle. When Gwydyon found out what she had done, he caught them in a magical trap and turned her into a screech owl and her new husband into a moth.
He found his nephew, turned him back to human, and lifted the curse of everlasting life. His mother decided to lift her curse because the poor boy had gone through so much. Years later, Lleu found his true wife and there was much feasting and celebrating in the town. They had many children and grandchildren, and many years later, Lleu died a wealthy, famous, and happy man.”

“Nice story.” Vida said, closing the book.
“So, this is a change-something-into-something-else wand, yeah?” “Yes, and it is very powerful.”
“But with great power, comes great responsibility, right?” Steven sighed.
“You’ve watched too many episodes of Buffy.”
“Huh?” Uncle John asked.
“Old T.V show, uncle.” Vida said.
“Oh.” Uncle John said.

“Well, now that we have this wand, where do we start looking for Maia?” Asked Steven.
“Your guess is as good as mine, boy.” Uncle John sighed.
“How are we gonna find her?!” Vida cried, throwing her hands up in defeat.
“We’ll find her.” Said Uncle John, confidently.
“Says you!” Vida grumbled and threw herself back on the bed, causing a big cloud of dust to rise and Steven to start coughing.
*cough, achoo!* “Jeeze, Vida, that bed’s ancient! Could ya be a little more careful?” Vida shrugged and looked up at the bare, paint less ceiling. At that moment, only one question was running through her head: Where was Maia?

Ch. 12
There’s no place like home

“Who is she?”
“No clue.”
“Hey, look, she blinked!” A gaggle of miscellaneous voices were all shouting and gasping around her. Maia couldn’t see, couldn’t move, and could barely speak. Someone shouted,
“Hey!”
“Do… you… know… your… name?” Someone else asked her. It took all the strength she had, but she managed to murmur, “I… hate…” and that’s all she got out before she collapsed on the floor.


When Maia came to again, four things immediately registered in her mind:
1. I’m not dead. (Then again, the bookworm told her the person wanted her alive, so no big surprise.)
2. I’m hungry.
3. This place looks more like a collage or a castle than a kidnapper’s hideout. (Which didn’t surprise her because the king of the bookworms or whatever, told her he had been paid a high price for her, that meant whoever wanted her had to be rich enough to own a castle.)
4. I’m not tied up? (Which was sort of confusing, but also a bit of a relief.)

That last thought seemed to shift her brain into gear and she blinked. The room she was in seemed to be a bedroom. She had been lying in an enormous, four-poster bed by the door, which when she tried it, found it to be locked. There were two bookshelves against the north wall, a sink in the corner with a wash cloth and soap, and a bedside table with a few books on it.
She glanced at the books and picked them up: The tale of Desperaux, (she had outgrown that years ago.) The Hobbit, (she still liked that book.) and The Phantom Tollbooth. (Nothing better than a classic!) She was still recollecting The Hobbit’s main plot when the door opened and a boy stepped into the room.

She hastily put the books down and sat back down on the bed. The boy stared at her for a moment, and then he said, “Hey. Glad you’re feeling better.” He had coarse, long, black hair and bluish/black eyes that looked like ink. He wore a set of thin, oval-shaped glasses framed in black metal, a pair of dark-blue jeans, a pair of beat up old Nikes, and a black T-shirt.

The boy walked over to her and held out his hand which displayed the marks of many paper cuts and ink stains.
“I’m Nicholas.” He said. His voice was soft and low. Like wind, rustling the pages of a book. She took his hand and he smiled. “How’s that head feeling?” He asked.
“Better.” She said.
“Can you walk?” He asked.
“Yeah, I guess.”
“Good. You’ll be up and about in no time flat.”
“Your concern is touching.” She said. He blushed.
“Anyway,” he said quickly, but Maia interrupted him.
“Why am I here?” She asked him. He nervously fidgeted with something in his pocket.
“Well, you fell from the sky, right on top of Marvin, too.”
“Oh, sorry, I hope he’s ok.” She said apologetically.
“Well, he’s made of stone, so he should be good,” Nicholas said, chuckling at his own joke. “Although I think he’d be happy to hear you say that. I think he’s kinda miffed.”
“Huh?” She asked. Maybe it was her, maybe her ears weren’t still in working order.
“Oh, my bad, I forgot you didn’t know. Marvin is one of our Gargoyles.”
“Oh.” She said. They stood in silence for a few seconds, and then he asked her, “Do you remember what your name is?” He asked.
“Maia. But the last thing I remember was having a handful full of sleeping powder blown into my face!” He looked at her curiously. “Sleeping powder?” Then recognition dawned. “You mean you were kidnapped?” He exclaimed.
“Yeah, by these ugly little things who called themselves Bookworms!” He froze. “What?” She said, really not liking the expression on his face. “You need to see the Headmaster.” He said, hopping off the bed and walking quickly to the door.
“Come on!”
“Who is the Headmaster?” She asked him as they walked quickly around the corner. “I’ll tell you when we get there.” He said. “His office is one of the creepiest places in the whole entire school!” she looked up at him.
“School?” She asked him excitedly.
“Yeah, you’re in the Academy.” He replied. She gasped. “What?” He asked.
“I was going to go here, and then they said I was too powerful to attend.” He whistled.
“Wow.” She looked quizzically at him. “That means you’ve come from a very powerful branch of magician’s family." He explained. "Do you know which one?” He asked.
She shook her head, then, remembering what Uncle John had told her, she said, “My surname is Callow.” He whistled again.

“You’re a Callow? Holy!” She raised her eyebrows again. He smirked. “They’ve got so much magic in their- I mean, your family, it’s a wonder they aren’t fully fledged sorcerers when they’re born!” She laughed.
“I only figured out I had magical powers about a week ago.” His jaw dropped.
“You’re kidding?” She shook her head. “Wow. Well, we’d better go. He doesn’t like to be kept waiting.” And together, they walked out the door, into the hall, and through another door which led them to set of stairs.
“I’ve got to go,” He said, “But I’ll see you at dinner.”
“Thank you.” She said.
“No prob, just follow those steps and knock three times, he’ll answer.” He turned to go, but he turned around and said, “Good luck.”
“Thanks.” She said, and then muttered. “I’ll need it.”

She climbed and climbed. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, she made it to a large wooden door with a brass knocker. She knocked three times and a harsh voice said, “Enter.”
She swung the door open. The room was filled with dusty tables and shelves filled with books.
“Come closer.” The voice demanded. Maia obeyed. There was a man at the large wooden desk. Maia supposed he must be the Headmaster. He had dark brown hair, like the fur of a mole, and piercing blue eyes hidden behind oval-shaped glasses. Even though she could only see the top half of him, she guessed that he was no more than forty.
The Headmaster said,“Maia Callow.”
She gulped. “Yes sir.”
“Your family has been somewhat a nuisance to this school.” She said nothing. “But, under the circumstances, you must stay here until we can contact your uncle.”

“The circumstances?” She asked, confused. the Headmaster’s tone became gentler, kinder, and softer.
“Yes. We intercepted the shadow-portal which was transporting you from your house to somewhere. And when we disconnected the link, regrettably, you fell and injured yourself. But, as I can see, you are fit and healthy.”
“There’s something I don’t get, sir.”
“What?”
“How come it was you who intercepted the portal? Why wasn’t it someone else?”
“Well, this building is strongly attracted to the natural abilities you and so many children have. The Portal got side-tracked because of the building’s strong magnetic pull to you.”
“Ah.” She said. Made sense. “So, I can go home?” She asked him, putting on her big-sad-puppy-dog-eyes trick. Didn’t work. “I’m afraid not. Your house is two-thousand miles from here and I can’t send you back by way of a portal. Whoever wanted you in the first place would probably intercept that like we did theirs.”
“But, Vida, Uncle John, they’ll be worried sick!”
“Don’t worry. I’ll send your uncle a message saying that you’re here, you’re safe, and that maybe he might consider letting you train here.” Maia stared.
“Really?”
“Really, really.” He said.
“Wow! Awesome!”

The Headmaster leaned forward in his chair and said, “You have the most potent aura of any child I have ever known.” Maia smiled. “But until he gives us the all clear in letting you become a student, I would like you to come down to the main school only if necessary. You may go to the library and the dining hall for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Otherwise, I think it would be best if you stayed in your room. I don’t want you to interrupt the classes.” She nodded. “At least, not until you’ve been actually registered for the Academy.” She smiled.
“Hey, if I do get to stay here, what classes will I be taking?” He looked up at her. “That depends on your gifts.” He said, and then waved his hand for her to go. She was almost half-way across the room when remembering how Nicholas had reacted at the mention of her captors, she turned and said,
“The things that kidnapped me, they called themselves Bookworms.”

The Headmaster’s head sharply snapped upward and he said in a deadly-quiet voice, “Are you sure, Maia?” She nodded. “Very well, you may go.” He said. But before he closed the door, she heard him mutter a string of words, but she only caught one: “Bookkeeper.”
As she descended the stairs, she thought about what the Headmaster had said.

“I could stay here, learn whatever they teach, and if I don’t like it, I’ll go home.” Plus, she liked the idea of this place. When she opened the door, Nicholas was right there, waiting for her.
“So, what happened?” He asked.
“I told him how I was kidnapped, he offered to let me stay and be a student here, he promised to message my uncle and tell him I’m safe.”
“That’s it?” He asked, shocked.
“Yeah.” She said, looking at the ugly paintings on the walls. They walked back to her room and he said, “Dinner’s at six. I’ll come and show you the way.”
She nodded her head and said, “Thanks.”
“Don’t mention it.” He said, then, as an afterthought, he said, “Really, don’t mention it. If my friends heard about me helping you so much and letting you sit by me, they might think-” she knew where this was going.
“No offense, but no. I already have a boyfriend.” He nodded.
“Yeah, me too.” Maia raised her eyebrows.
“NO, not that, I mean-” she laughed.
“I get it.” He smiled.
“It’s refreshing to find someone around here who knows the meaning of the word ‘Laugh.’”
“Huh?” She asked, and then she realized he was joking around.
“Well, I’ll see you at six.” He said.
“I’ll be waiting.” She promised. He closed the door and Maia checked her watch. “Three hours.” She muttered. “Enough time to get a quick nap in before dinner.” And she flopped back on her bed.

At five-thirty, she had brushed her hair, washed her face, and shook most of the dirt out of her jeans. She felt like new. The nap had worked wonders on her. When Nicholas came to the door, she promptly opened it and stepped into the hall.
“Hey.” She said, starting to walk down the hallway.
“Hi.” He said and followed her.
“Your head looks better.” He commented.
“Yeah. All it needed was a good sleep.” No knowing what to say, he nodded too.
“So, I’m curious, what kinds of classes are there in this place?”
“Well, it depends on that you are.” Said Nicholas.
“My cousin’s a werewolf and he told me he was in Transformations and Potions.”
“That’s right.” Said Nicholas, thrilled to be on a topic he could understand and comment upon.

“Ok, so, you have the classes, the stuff you are good at, then you have the Talent classes, which are kind of like electives, oh, and in the first week, you get to go to every class and try out for your talents. I have spells, potions, and T training.”
“T training?” She asked, confused.
“I want to be a teacher in this place when I graduate,” he explained. “So I have to take a teaching class.” “Oh, so the T stands for teacher?” He shook his head. She looked confused. “Then, what does the T stand for?”
“Troll.” He replied, causing Maia to start laughing so hard she bumped into a wall.

“Yeah,” he said when Maia had calmed herself “It’s pretty cool, but my friends can tell you more, I’ve only been here about a year, come Christmas.”
“Cool.” She said again.
“Oh, here we are.” He said as a great throng of people trudged towards the dining room. The tables were arranged in a straight line with one in front of the rest. There sat the Headmaster and the teachers. Allen and Cristina were sitting on the far left end talking to themselves.
“Our table is the one at the far end, Maia, they’ve saved us seats.” Maia could barely say “Cool.” Over the noise of the students as they sat down.

He weaved his way through the bobbing mass of heads, Maia in tow, and finally, they both plunked down on a bench directly opposite two boys. The taller, darker one introduced himself as William, and the thin pale-faced boy said that his name was.
“So, you’re the kid who fell on Marvin.” Josh said.
“Oh, yeah, sorry about that.” She said. “Believe you me, I didn’t have a clue I was going to-” “HEY, guys!”
A high-pitched squeal came from behind them and the boys groaned as one: “Hi, Martha.”
“Oh, Hi!” She said to Maia. “Who’re you?”
“Maia-” she began, but Nicholas shook his head. His meaning couldn’t have been clearer. “Kyle, Maia Kyle.”
“Martha Finch, so good to meet you!” she grabbed Maia’s hand and shook it enthusiastically.
“Um, yeah, you too.” William could tell Martha was about to start asking questions and he saved Maia from answering by saying, “Hey, Martha, is Tirana over there, trying to get your attention?” Martha looked up.

“Oh, yeah, she is, I gotta go! Bye, Maia!” Maia sighed.
“Thanks.” She said, gratefully to William.
“No problem.” He said. “I figure you should get at least a day to take everything in before you get bombarded with questions.” She nodded gratefully and asked,
“What do they serve for food here?” Josh snickered and William poked him in the ribs.
“Be cool, Josh, it’s her first day.” He said. “Sorry about him. He does that to all the newbies.” She shook her head. “No biggie, I just want to know what I’m missing.”
“You don’t have to have the same thing everybody else does, just say what you want and it’ll appear.” To demonstrate, he said, “Steak, medium rare, baked potatoes, butter, asparagus, rolls, and blackberry turnover.” And the exact things appeared in front of him.
“Asparagus?” Asked Nicholas skeptically.
“I meed I- ‘eggies” said William through a mouthful of steak.
Maia was starving so she immediately ordered: “A bowl of clam chowder, extra salt, Saltine crackers, a cup of milk, and a snickers bar.” The bowl of chowder was the first to appear, followed by the milk, and the crackers actually crunched themselves and all she had to do was stir them in. She grinned and quoted “I love magic.”

After shoveling down her chowder, gulping down her milk, and topping it off with the snickers, she wiped her mouth and said happily,
“That was the best dinner I have ever eaten.” The boys nodded.
“Everything is the best here, the food, the classes, the Headmaster, the teachers can be a bit edgy, but what can ya expect?” Nicholas said. Maia nodded. All of a sudden people fell Nicholas put a finger to his lips and Maia looked up to the table where the teachers sat.

The Headmaster had stood up and was making a speech.
“-must be thankful for our knowledge, for our friends, and for a newcomer among us, Maia Callow, stand up.” Maia rose uneasily amidst whispers and chattering:
“Callow?”
“Yeah, I was there when she fell from the sky.”
“From the sky?” and Martha Finch whined loudly.
“She told me her name was Maia Kyle!” But with one motion, silence fell again and the Headmaster continued.
“For those who do not know, Maia Callow is the cousin of Steven and Isalia Callow, she will be here only temporarily unless she decides to stay full time.” Maia clenched her teeth at the mention of Steven. “And we hope that she will; now, off to bed! Quote Albus Dumbledore: Pip pip!” Nicholas laughed along with the others and said,
“Have a good night Maia.” Maia nodded and said,
“See you tomorrow.” He left and she walked back to her room.

[Betta132]

Cool! Yay Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore!! (how many of you remembered the exact spelling of that name!) WRITE MORE OR MY PINK ECHIDNA SHALL EAT YOUR HAIR AND MAKE YOU BALD!!!!

[Abby-normal]

Uhhh, ok. glad someone reads my work.

Ch. 13
Advice from the newbie

The next morning dawned late for Maia. She woke up around seven-thirty and tried to read some of the books in her room. She could barely read four pages before putting it down and picking up a new one. The anticipation was killing her. Finally she got fed up with it and went down to the dining hall. About fifty people were there, including William and Nicholas.

Nicholas moved over to make room for her and asked, “Ready for your first day at the Academy?”
Maia shrugged and ordered a side of bacon, eggs, French toast with butter and maple syrup and a non-fat espresso.
“Actually, I’m not sure whether I am. I’m not really enlisted in the school yet and the only place outside my room the Headmaster said I was allowed to go was the library.” She said between mouthfuls.

“I can show you where that is” William said, yawning and finishing off his cereal.
“Ok. But I don’t want you to be late for class!” She said hurriedly.
“Don’t worry” He said, walking out the double doors to the main school. “I still have an hour before classes start.”
“Ok.” Maia said, struggling to keep up with the long-legged boy. He showed her the little markers everyone else used to find their way around: a tapestry here, a statue there, a suite of armor, a rug design, things like that.

“But there’s one place everyone can find, anytime!” he said, laughing. His voice echoed loud along the corridor.
“Where’s that?” she asked, bemused.
“The dining hall!” he chuckled.

Maia laughed loud and long. It was a jolly sound which bounced off the walls and rattled the suits of armor. Finally, William showed her to a big black painted door with two signs hanging on it. The first said LIBRARY in big, golden letters. The other was posted in a handwritten, curly script: Some books should be tasted, others devoured, but only a few should be chewed and digested thoroughly.

“Inkheart.” William and Maia said at the same time; then they looked at each other and laughed.
He opened the door and said “ladies first,” she swept through gracefully and he closed the door behind them.
As she did, she muttered, “And who says chivalry is dead?”

He led her to a room where a tall, thin girl sat with her feet up on her big wooden desk and a set of headphones plugging up her ears and reading a magazine entitled “Present Potions.” Either she didn’t acknowledge them entering the library or else she didn’t care because she just turned the page in her magazine and started banging her head to the music.
William motioned Maia to cover her ears. She did so. He walked up to a big brass bell which sat on the desk and rung it loudly. The girl jumped up out of her chair, dropping her magazine and cursing.

“My god, Willy, what’s the deal?” she shouted, (her headphones were in so she spoke in what she thought was a normal tone but was really twice her normal volume.) William’s hearing, however, was impeccable and when he replied,
“There’s a new girl and I want you to meet her.”
She just cupped her hands around her ear and yelled, “WHAT?”

Losing patience, William ripped out her earphones and threw them on the table.
“Come on, Sara, can’t you just buy a stereo and play music for the entire library?”
“The songs I listen to are rated A for adult. I seriously doubt your Ma would let you listen to this stuff.”
“Put in something for us then, like Avril Lavigne or Jennifer Lopez!” Maia raised her eyebrows.
“Jennifer Lopez?”
William shrugged. “I couldn’t think of a good artist! Anyway Sara, this is Maia, she’s new here.”

The girl raised her eyes to Maia and grinned. “Hi. Sara Bellum, at your service.”
Sara took a deep breath and recited: “Welcome to the Academy’s library, I am Sara, the librarian and I will assist you in any of your literary, artistic, or cartographic needs.”
Maia was about to say, “Thank you.” But Sara had only paused for a breath because she then continued, “The library is a studious place and I expect you to show apt respect to its occupants and its contents. If you have any questions, have trouble finding a specific book, or have a complaint to make about the book(S) condition you have checked out, come directly to me.” She inhaled deeply and then said, “Again, welcome to the library.”
Maia swallowed and said, “Um, thanks. Yes, I’ll be sure to confide in you if I have any questions.”
“Great, now may I get back to my magazine?” She said grumpily and stuck her feet right in Maia’s face.
William rolled his eyes and walked towards the shelves. Maia went her own way and began to browse.

She quickly noticed one thing; all the books were missing from the shelves. She sighed and thought to herself, ‘this must be like the food. You have to say what you want!’ she exhaled her breath and said, “Archenemy.”
She had wanted to read this book for years and had planned on making Vida buy it for her for Christmas. She waited for a minute. Two minutes. Nothing happened.
“You need to be more specific.”
William said from behind her. She turned around and asked, “Oh really?”
He nodded. “You gotta say the title, author, hardcover or paperback; they do Audio Books and Graphic novels too.”
“Remarkable!” Maia said in admiration.
“Yeah.” He agreed, gazing fondly at the shelves. “It certainly is.”
Maia was about to ask him something when-
“Hey, you two! No lovey-dovies back there, ok? There’s a group of kids coming in in ten minutes!”
William blushed. “Stow it, Sara!” He yelled back.
“Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me!” Came back the snotty reply. William blushed harder and said, “I have to go, class starts in a few minutes but I’ll be back around two to take you to your room.”
“How come I can’t go by myself?” She asked.
“A teacher might come along and think you’re skipping class.” He said as he walked out the door.
“Oh. Okay.” She said as she watched him walk away. She turned back to the shelf and rubbed her hands together, eagerly. “Right. Let’s see what this library can do!”

Five hours later, Maia was led out of the library by a grumpy-looking William.
“What’s the deal?” Maia said, nudging him in the ribs and dropping a book from the pile in her arms. William grabbed the book which fell and tucked it under his own arm and said,
“Nothing.” She rolled her eyes at him. “What?” he demanded. “I’m perfectly fine.”
“Yeah right.” She said.

They continued in silence for a few minutes then he said, “Well, if you must know, classes haven’t been going well for me.” She looked up at his face and saw lines of frustration etched in his suave, Asian features.
“Not going well, how so?” She asked.
“Well, my family has had a long and thick history of magical activity, much like yours.” He added, looking at her.
“Complement taken.” She answered.
“Anyway; Apparently, I’m not living up to the expectations of my family. They all achieved wonders when they went to school here. I’ve been here three years and I still haven’t figured out how to cast spells without a wand!”

Maia put her books down and gently laid her hand on his broad shoulder. “Your family’s lives do not determine the fate of your own.” She said, taking hold of the other shoulder and making him face her. “Generations of ancestors who have achieved miracles do not condemn you to the same fate.”
He raised his head to look at her, his sky-blue eyes shining with gratitude for her.
“You need to do what your heart tells you.” she said, letting go of his shoulders and turning to go.
“Wait, Maia!” He called after her.
“Yes?” she turned to face him. He bent down and picked up the books, walked over to her, and offered them to her.
“Oh, thanks!” she took them and said, “I’m gonna go to my room until dinner.”
He nodded. “You’ll probably polish those books off before nine tonight and get a whole new batch tomorrow.”
“Perhaps,” she said, walking slowly away, but turning to wave at him. See you tonight.” He nodded but she had turned a corner before he could say goodbye. He shook his head, smiling.
“Maybe she should be a counselor!” he murmured as he walked away.

Maia went back to her room and was about to begin the first book when a knock sounded from her door.
“Maia, it’s me. The Headmaster wants to see you.”
“I haven’t done anything wrong! I think.” She said indignantly, opening the door and coming face to face with Nicholas.
Both of them took a few steps back and he said, “No, you didn’t. He wants you to come up to his office to send a letter to your uncle and sister.”
“Oh.” She said as she walked out into the corridor and started off to the Headmaster’s room. Then she stopped and looked back at Nicholas.
“What are you, the Headmaster’s errand boy?” He shrugged.
“I guess. He never asked me to do things like this before, though.”
“Ah.” She said and began to walk away again. “And don’t worry Nicholas, I remember the way.”
“Ok.” He said as he watched her disappear around the corner. As she walked, she thought about what her Uncle would say to her. Or Vida! What would Vida say? “I don’t know, but it can’t be good.” She said to herself.

She walked up to the door that led to the Headmaster’s study and began to climb the stairs.
“One, two, three, four, and five…” She began to count the stairs. When she got to the door, she had lost count. But, no matter. She had more important things to worry about.
“Ah, Maia.” said the Headmaster as she entered the room and sat down in the chair again.
“Hi.” She said.
He nodded his head and said, “Yes, well, straight to business. I promised you that I would send a message to your uncle, yes?”
“You did. And I’m guessing you want me to talk to him?”
“Well, obviously.” He said.
“So, how?” She asked.
“I beg your pardon?”
“How am I going to talk to him? I understand cell phones go haywire in this place, all the magic in the air, be I right?” he nodded. “So, unless you have some… Wizard E-mail or something like that-” the Headmaster laughed.
“Oh, my dear, no. The idea! Plus, we are not wizards.” She was taken aback.
“But I thought-”
“Oh, don’t get me wrong, most wizard are a collaborative lot, but we don’t usually take them in.” He cupped his hand next to his mouth and said, “They tend to attract more monsters.”
Maia nodded. “I get it.”
“Anyway, back to business. I imagine your sister and uncle are very worried about you, hm?”
She shrugged. “I guess so.” She said, wondering what she would have to do.
“I hope so, otherwise the procedure might not work!” He said.
Maia raised her eyebrows. “Procedure?” she asked, warily.
“Ah, well, some years ago, a brilliant scientist/magician discovered the means to read other’s thoughts. Telekinesis, he called it. With a few more years’ research and the proper materials, he developed a way to transport the images of beings or things through the brainwaves of those gifted with abilities or magic. Sadly, he died in one of the experiments, electrocuted. Anyways,” he continued. “The scientist left behind a few papers, some notes, and many books he had collected on the subject. I found those papers when I took over the job of headmaster. They were locked away in a trunk under the floorboards right where you’re sitting.”

Maia gave a little jump and he said, “Oh, my bad, did I frighten you?”
She shook her head and said, “Please, keep going.”
“Well, after hours and hours studying from those books and papers, I finally figured out the formula and perfected his dream. Now, when I channel the brain waves of the person most thinking about you in your house, I can use the way they image you to load a tele-commutive corporeal image, TCI for short, into the occupant’s room.”
“So, you send a copy of me to my house through my uncle’s brain?” She asked.
“Or whoever is thinking about you most, but mainly, yes.”
“Cool.” She said excitedly. “Let’s do it!”
He nodded and said, “Just don’t move, or speak, or breath loudly.”
“Yessir!” Maia saluted and sat statue-still. The Headmaster closed his eyes and began shaking. His body vibrated with concentration and Maia felt herself slipping away from the office and back to her home.

Ch. 14
News at last!

At that moment, Uncle John was pacing up and down his room, thinking. “There’s no trace of her!” he exclaimed for the fourth time. He flopped into a chair and began looking through the papers on his desk for the millionth time. In anguish, he threw the papers against the wall and slumped against his desk, and began to cry.
“There’s nothing I can do!” he cried.

Steven was doing no better than his father. He had been researching the Bookworms all night and he was nowhere. He decided to see what his father was doing but stopped at the door when he heard the awful noise coming from behind door.
“Dad?” he asked, knocking on the door. “Dad, are you OK?” There was a groan.
“Son, go away!” Steven decided to let him be and walked out to the grove.

Maia felt herself floating, floating through the cool night air. As she flew overhead, the tips of her toes just barely skimmed the treetops.
“He’s not in the house; can I still go to him?” Maia sub-consciously asked the headmaster.
“It does not matter where he is, only that he thinks of you.” He told her. She nodded and soared down to where he was sitting on the porch.
“BOO!” she shouted. Steven must’ve jumped five feet in the air.
He turned around, swearing and said, “My god, Wh-” he stopped short, looking at Maia. “M-Maia?” he stuttered. “Yo- you’re dead?” Maia laughed. “Do I look dead t-” She stopped. Now that she thought about it, she must look exactly like Piper and Lauren, all Non-corporeal. “Well, I may look dead, but I’m still alive and kicking!” To prove her point, she kicked the porch. Her foot dissolved when it came in contact with the wood. Steven raised his eyebrows, skeptically.

“Weird.” She said, looking at her invisible foot. “Anyway,” she said to Steven. “I’m alive, I’m ok, and I’m staying at the academy.” His eyebrows rose so far, they were in danger of disappearing into his tousled brown hair.
“The academy? How did you get there? What happened to the bookworms? Did you-”
“hold on,” she interrupted him, “The headmaster says-,” “You only have a few more minutes, so you’d better make this fast.” He face changed from surprised to nervous to comprehension in a matter of seconds.
“He’s using the TCI projection isn’t he?” He asked her.
“Yep. That’s why-”
“The ghostly form, I get it now.”
Maia nodded and said, “Anyway, so, I need for you to tell Uncle I’m safe, he can contact me through-” She checked with the Headmaster.
“The Headmaster says he has an old crystal ball,”
“So does dad.” Steven interjected.
“Good. He can use that to contact me. Also, I need you to tell Vida that I love her and I’ll see her soon. Oh, and the Headmaster told me that if Uncle John says so, I can go to the academy full time! But I will come home for holidays and things like that.”
Steven raised his eyebrows again. “Well, after the big blowout between him and Allen, I think he might just teleport over there to get you.”
“Yes, I know, but I really want to, I want to learn to control my powers and abilities! I want to make friends with others like me! I want to-”
“I get it, believe me I do, but I just don’t think you’re ready for it. You think the bullies at your old school were bad, think about what you would have to deal with from ones with magical powers!”
Maia frowned at him. “You underestimate me.” She said. Steven looked shocked. “Don’t worry, I’ll be fine.” She said, looking down at herself. Her body was disappearing.
“And that’s the sign, I gotta go!” she said. “Bye!” she called to Steven. “Remember what I told yoooouuu!” and her voice faded back to the Headmaster’s room.
“Well, that was fun.” She said.
The Headmaster looked at her and said, “I’ll send Nicholas to you tomorrow if your uncle makes contact.” “I appreciate it.” she said and walked out the door.

When Maia disappeared, Steven shook the surprise off quickly and ran straight to his father’s room.
“Dad! Dad! You’ll never guess what just happened!”
Jonathan looked up from his books at him. “What?” He asked.
“Well, I was-” he stopped and looked at his father and noticed the dark rings around his eyes and the strained veins in his eyes. “Dad! What happened to you?”
“I’m fine, boy, go on.”
“Well, OK. Anyway, I was on the porch, and…”

Jonathan stayed silent as Steven relayed the story to him. When he finished, he said,
“Of all the places I didn’t think to look, The Academy! So, she wants us to use our crystal ball if we want to contact her?”
“That’s what she said.” Steven said.
His father pondered. “We don’t need to use the ball; we can drive up there so that Vida can see her in person. We can use the crystal ball to tell them, but we’ll wait until tomorrow.” He finally said, and then looked at his son. “If you can wait that long.” Steven blushed. “You’ve got to remember, I was your age, once. I know what it feels like.”
Steven looked up at his father. “Was it that obvious?”
“Not to the others,” Jonathan admitted. “It’s probably easier for me since I’m your father.” There was a long pause, then, “I think there’s another girl who’d be mighty glad to hear from her sister right about now.”

Steven nodded and began to leave, when his father called him back.
“Steven?” Steven turned to look at his dad from the doorway.
“Hm?”
“Nothing’s impossible.” He said. Steven didn’t get a chance to ask him what he meant before the door closed on him. Steven snorted. “He may be a bit weird, but he is my dad.” He muttered to himself as he turned the corner to Vida’s room.
Vida, meanwhile, had been pouring over Uncle John’s textbooks, searching for a reference to the Bookworms for hours and hours. Nothing. She had fallen asleep on a thick, comfortable book not three hours ago, and when Steven shook her awake, she had a funny-looking mark on her face from the pages.

“Vida, Vida! It’s me, Steven, wake up, please!” Vida’s eyes blinked sleepily as they awakened from her dreamless sleep.
“Steven?” She said, blinking a few more times to make him come into focus. “St- *yawn* Steven, what’s up?” she asked, looking at the expression of concern on his face.
“Well, you see something happen about half an hour ago, something rather marvelous.”
“What?” she asked, sitting up and listening intently. And he went on to explain his conversation with Maia. He told her where Maia was and her how much Maia missed her. After he finished, Vida sat still on the bed, looking down at her hands.
“Vida?” he asked, cautiously.
Suddenly, Vida’s face split into a wide smile! “I knew she wasn’t dead! I knew it! She’ll be coming home tomorrow!” Oops. Steven had forgotten to tell her about Maia wanting to register in the Academy.
“Ahh, Vida-”
“Oh, it’ll be so good to see her!” Vida’s face began to have the demeanor of a child’s at Christmas as she jumped up, clasped her hands and started dancing around the room.
“Vida?” he asked quietly as he moved over to her, but she didn’t hear him.
“Vida!” he said a little more forcefully, but she just kept dancing around saying,
“She’s coming home! She’s coming home!”
“VIDA!” Steven bellowed and grabbed her arms roughly.
“Steven!” she cried as he grabbed her and held her still.
“Listen to me!”
“I am listening, although now I’m a bit scared not to.” He let go of her and sat down on her bed.
“I’m sorry, but you might not have much cause to celebrate.” He said, taking her hands in his and looking into her eyes.

“Wh- Why?” she asked, she shook herself out of her daze and looked at him attentively.
“Well, Maia wants t-, she wants to-,”
“Wants to what?” he took a deep breath and said “She wants to go to school at the Academy. She wants to train there.” Vida looked at him for a few seconds, and then she laughed.
“Well, there’s no way that’s gonna happen! Cristina and Allen both said that they don’t take beings of our magnitude, and plus, uncle didn’t want us going there in the first place! He’ll forbid it for sure!” She looked at him, confidence shining in her eyes, but that shine deflated when she saw the expression on his face. Steven shook his head. A clear sign. “He- he said yes?”
“He said whatever Maia chose, he would stand by it.”
“When will I get to see her again?” Vida asked.
“We’re going to the Academy tomorrow to set this whole thing straight.” He said as he rose to go. When he left, Vida moved the books off her bed and curled up into a ball under her covers, reassured that her sister was safe and sound, but the fact that she might not see her for a while, still nagged the back of her mind.

Ch. 15
Day two

That night Maia had trouble sleeping. The anticipation of seeing her family kept her awake all night. The next morning, however, she was called to the Headmaster’s room almost immediately after breakfast.
“Did he contact you?” she asked the minute she walked through the door.
“Yes.” The Headmaster said. He was sitting behind his desk as usual, his glasses were perched on the bridge of his nose and he squinted intently at her over them. “He wants to come up here to discuss this in person.”
He waved his hand and a glowing sphere appeared with a wooden holder beneath it. He waved his hand again and she heard her uncle’s voice issuing from it like a jet of steam.

“Arthur, it’s me. I am aware of my niece currently residing at your school. I will come there this afternoon to discuss Maia’s admittance to your school. Maia, if you’re listening, I will stand by whatever decision you make about the Academy, I just want it to be the right one for you.” Her uncle’s voice quieted and Vida’s voice instead called out: “Maia, me and Steven are coming too; Lauren and Piper are staying home to watch the house.” (Maia could almost hear Vida smirking.)
“I’d like to see any burglar get into here with them on watch. Anyway, I miss you and I’ll see you soon. Bye!” The sphere’s glow subsided and Maia looked at the Headmaster.
“Your first name is Arthur?”
“Irrelevant.” The Headmaster (Arthur!) stated flatly.
“And I thought you said that my house was 2000 miles away?!” She continued and glared accusingly at him.
“Your Uncle obviously has some foolproof way to transport himself and the others to here.” He said calmly.
“Did he say what time they’ll be here?”
He shrugged. “Your guess is as good as mine.” Maia rolled her eyes and walked out the door.

Walking alone in the corridor had its demerits. Namely, the other people walking in the corridors stopping and staring at her like she just walked out of a lake. When she got back to her room, she immediately threw herself down on her bed and exploded into tears. She cried and cried. She might’ve created a new statue fountain, had she been leaning out of the window. Then, she had a sudden mental picture of herself, standing outside in the middle of a fountain, with her hands over her face and water leaking out from in between her fingers. It was such a funny mental picture, that she immediately stopped crying, looked at herself in the mirror, and began to laugh! She laughed and threw herself down on her bed again. she rolled from side to side, clutching her stomach, and when she finally got it under control, she started hiccupping and had to wipe her face.

After she got over her freak-emotions attack, she sat on her bed and read some of the books from the library. They were mildly interesting. She was just getting to the plot line when Nicholas knocked at the door.
“Hello? Maia, are you there?”
She looked up and said, “Yes, come in.”
He opened the door and said, “It’s time for dinner.”
“Thanks, I was just coming down anyway.” She said, closing the book and walking to the door. he held the door open for her as they walked down to the hall.

“Hey,” he said as they turned the corner. “I know it’s none of my business, but you seem, I dunno, down a little, anything bugging you?” she shook her head.
“Not really, I’m just nervous.”
“About what?” He asked. She didn’t respond. Finally she said,
“Well, about seeing my family again, and about they’ll react to my choice to stay here.”
“You’re staying?!” He said a little too loudly. “Um, I mean, brilliant.” He said, shaking her hand a little embarrassed.
“Thanks. I just hope they’ll be ok with it.” he smiled and took her hand again.
“They will. You just need to relax, calm down, don’t even think about them.” She pulled her hand away and looked at him stunned. “What do you mean? I can’t not think about them, how can you-”
“Jeese, I’m just trying to help!” he said angrily and began to walk away, but turned around half way down the corridor and said. “I’m sorry, Maia.” I don’t know what came over me.”
Maia nodded. “It’s ok, I can get pretty upset, myself.”
He nodded and said, “Can we please forget this?”
“Forget what?” She asked. He smiled.

Dinner was quaint. Maia wasn’t very hungry, but Nicholas begged her to eat something. She wondered why he was being so nice to her.
“Well, I think I’m gonna go upstairs,” She said after polishing off a small bowl of tomato soup.
William let out a colossal yawn, then a enormous burp and said, “Me too, and since your dormitory’s right by mine, we can walk together.”Maia nodded and they set off for her part of the castle.

As they walked, they talked about things. Maia found out that every three months, they hosted games at The Academy. William described them as a mix of Tron, Wizards 101, and The Quillian Games from the Pendragon series. It wasn’t exactly a fight to the death, but there were casualties; you could use any manner of magic, dark, light, as long as you were willing to pay the price.

“That’s one of the three lessons that will keep you alive: one, everything has a price,” he held up one finger. “Two, be on your guard! There are people outside who would stop at nothing to trap you and steal your powers. Some people are even suspicious of you.”
“I wouldn’t be surprised.” She said, dismissively. “I mean, I’ve given them good reasons to be suspicious: I’m new, I wasn’t even supposed to be here in the first place, and Cristina and Allen must’ve told everyone in the staff about the accident at my house.” “Accident?” He asked.
“Yeah. While they were at my house to try and convince my uncle that we should go here, I, kinda, blew up the counter.” He looked only surprised for a few minutes, then he started to laugh. Maia backed away from him a little bit, feeling uncomfortable. when he regained control of himself, he wiped his eyes and said,
“I’m– hic –sorry, it just seemed so funny, the way you said it.” she shrugged. “Anyway, where was I?” he asked.
“Um, oh! Lesson three,”
“Oh yes, thank you. Ahem; Three, never share your toiletries with anyone.” Maia cracked a smile and pointed an accusing finger at him.
“You made that up!”
“Ok, so I did, so sue me already.”
“So, really, what is the third one?” His smile faltered. He looked at her sadly. “William, what’s wrong?” she asked, afraid she might’ve hurt him somehow. He blinked and said,
“You’re gonna have to figure that one out by yourself, kid.” She started to say something, but he interrupted. “Every person at this school has to learn something, have some sort of realization, epiphany, call it what you like.”
Maia listened intently, and when he finished, she frowned.
“Then, have you had your epiphany yet?” he turned to looked at her, his face was a mixture of emotions; fear, anger, confusion, worry, and something she could not name, compassion, maybe?
“What was it?”
He stayed silent for a few minutes, then he said, “I’m afraid that’s for my knowledge only.” He said and started walking again, then he stopped. “For the moment.” He said over his shoulder.
_____________________

That afternoon, Maia could hardly contain her excitement. She was going to see them! finally! After what felt like weeks, she would be face to face with Uncle John, Vida, Piper, Lauren, and Steven.
“Oh, god, Steven!” she exclaimed. “What am I going to say to him? ‘I’m sorry I left you to die, I was kidnapped by monsters and then snatched by a mystical magnet which broke my back and sent me to the Academy?’ I don’t think so!” then she considered the phrase for a minute and saidm “Actually, most of that he would already know, so that might be the perfect thing to say!”

Her smile soon wore itself out after lunch as her new friends asked her about her family.
“Well, my sister is awesome, Uncle John is pretty cool, even though I never knew him until three weeks ago.”
“So, your sister was going to come here, same as you, but now that you are here, she can’t come?” Nicholas asked curiously.
“I guess. But I think it has to do something with her age.”
“I wouldn’t be surprised,” Jumped in William. “Age does differ here, all the kids here are between ten and eighteen. Most of them hover around the fifteen marker.”
“I’m sixteen.” Maia said.
“I see, and how old is your sister?.”
“Eighteen.” She conceded.
“There you go.” He said. She nodded and chomped on a bite of BLT with pickles and chips. The feeling in the pit of her stomach was making it hard to eat, but somehow she managed to scarf half of it down, chew some chips, and drink half a carton of chocolate milk. the food didn’t help settle the feeling of doubt that was nestling in her mind, also, it must have shown on her face, because a few seconds later, William tapped her shoulder and said, “What’s wrong?”
“Oh, nothing.” She said dismissively. He raised her eyebrows and she said. “Well…”
“Well?” We prompted her.
“Oh! I just feel excited about seeing Vida and I’m just too excited to eat!” She put on a falsely-cheery face which, for the record, he knew immediately was fake.
“C’mon, tell me what’s really wrong,” He said as he stood up and motioned her to the door. She looked at Nicholas and Josh, who were intently discussing something about trolls, and nodded. She joined him at the doors and said,
“Wait ‘till we get to the gardens.” He nodded and together, they made their way through the horde of people and out into the patio.

“Now,” he said, turning to her after making sure that they were alone. What’s really wrong? Have some jerks been picking on you?”
“No,” she said, waving the idea away with her hand. “It’s nothing like that. I’m just, well,” She bent her head down and shuffled her feet awkwardly.
“Please, just tell me,” He said.
She took a deep breath and said, “Well, I’m not exactly sure what I feel. I mean, how can you just walk right up to people you’ve just worried out of their minds by getting kidnapped, and then not contacting them for about half a week!”
“AHA!” He exclaimed triumphantly, pointing a finger at her. “That’s it! You feel guilty about getting kidnapped and your feelings are getting the better of you.”
She was taken aback. “Shat do you mean, getting the better of me? I do not let my emotions get the better of me!”
“There you go again,” he said. “I get that you feel conflicted, and that’s normal, I guess, just don’t let your feelings control you.” she just stared at him blankly.
“You really love these therapedic lectures, don’t you?” Then she laughed at the expression on his face. “I’m just kidding.” Then he realized it was only a joke and started to laugh.
And when he asked offendedly. “Do I really sound like a shrink?” she snorted so hard that she had to wipe it on her sleeve and William went and got her a tissue from the downstairs boy’s bathroom. She accepted the tissue gratefully.
“Fanks.” She said, with her face in the tissue.
“You’re welcome.” He said, bowing courteously. When they walked back inside, Maia felt satisfied. She had talked to someone finally, she had had some laughs, and she felt much better. She wondered when Vida and Uncle John were going to come.

Ch. 16
A visitation

At that moment, (and I know I’ve used that term before,) Vida and Co. were piling into the car. Uncle John’s old Volvo was not the snazziest car in the state, but Vida’s truck couldn’t fit them all, unless the ghosts sat on someone’s lap or in the back, and neither of them were very comfortable with either suggestion.

Uncle John made sure that all of Maia’s clothes and things that she’d brought and a few things to eat were stowed away, carefully in the trunk.

He hadn’t relayed his plans of travel to the others, so Vida was very surprised when he told her to get in the driver’s seat.
“You’re gonna sit back there?” She pointed to the back with her thumb.
“Nope.” He said, pulling out a diviner’s wand and waving it around them. “Listen, we need to get to a place that is very far away, yes?” They nodded. “Well, obviously, we can’t open another portal, the same people responsible for Maia’s kidnapping could use that opportunity to snag the lot of us!” Vida nodded. “But, I devised a clever way to keep from getting caught.”

“What way?” Vida asked, curiously.
Her uncle pondered for a moment, then said, “Let me put it this way, have you ever seen the movies ‘Honey, I shrunk the kids’ and ‘honey, we shrunk ourselves?’” Vida shook her head, but Steven groaned.
“Oh no, dad, no!” he moaned, causing Vida to say,
“What? What’s gonna happen?”
“Guess from the titles!” he muttered gruffly.
Vida thought for a minute, then said, “you’re gonna shrink us?!” excitedly.
“Yup. I’m gonna take a ferry to the Academy and keep you guys in my pocket.”
“We’ll be covered in lint before the ferry sets sail!” Steven groaned.
“Speak for yourself!” Lauren interjected bluntly.
Uncle john shook his head and said, “It’s the only option you’ve got. It’s better that using a portal and probably getting caught!” Vida rolled her eyes and said, “Ok, fine. You’re right. So, how does this work?”
“Well, first, I need you guys to not move too much.” They sat still in their seats while he performed the spell. The last thing they heard him say before the world became blank was “watch yourselves.”

The next thing they knew, the car was sitting on a plastic table-top with Uncle John’s face blown up to five times billboard size staring at them through the windshield.
“I’m on the ferry, we’ll be there in two hours at the most.” For some weird reason, they could hear him normally, (even though he was whispering.)
“Does the radio work?” Vida asked.
“Yeah.” Said Steven, turning on the dial.
“What station?”
“107.3.” Said Piper.
“A Canadian station? Will it come in?”
“I doubt it.” Steven said. But he turned the dial around a few times until the static cleared and they heard: “Cut my life into pieces, this is my last RESORT!” Blaring out the speakers.
Quickly Steven turned it down and said, “Is this ok?” the ghosts nodded and Vida asked Lauren if she would mind her putting her seat back a bit. “Ok. I’m incorporeal, so no biggie.” Vida nodded and pushed it back a bit so that she could rest a bit before seeing Maia.

Steven kept glancing out the window at everything. It was all mega-sized and was in superbly good detail compared to the detail of the regular-sized world. Vida felt like kicking back, relaxing and listened to the music. Eventually, the music lulled her into a calming sleep. When she awoke, someone was shaking her shoulder and whispering in her ear,
“Vida, wake up. Vida, Vida come on, we’re at bolt upright and here.” That jolted Vida back into reality. She sat bolt upright and looked at the person who had woke her.

“Oh, Steven, thanks, just give me a minute.” He nodded and opened the door and hopped out. Vida blinked three times, got her eyes into focus, and popped open the door. At first, she thought she was still on the table, then Uncle John walked up and said,
“Have a nice nap, snoozels?”
She nodded and said, “So, how far are we from The Academy?”
“About seven steps.” He answered. She looked behind him and saw a huge, dark-red bricked building and gasped.
“Was I asleep that long?” He nodded. She rolled her eyes, took a deep breath, and said, “I’m ready.”

Uncle John nodded and Piper tried to put his arm on her shoulder, but he could only make it hover over her shoulder. She looked at him and said, “It’s ok.”
He sighed and said, “I stand corrected. It sucks not being able to touch another living human being.” She looked at him sadly as they walked up the huge steps and knocked on the huge oak doors. They heard noisy footsteps inside and a tall girl with a bad case of ache and a set of headphones hanging down around her neck.
“Hello, you must be the visitors, well, come in, come in.”
They shared a confused look and said, “Yeah, sure, OK.”

As they followed her into the entryway, Vida saw the beautiful tapestries and statues scattered around the entrance and a few more strewn around.
“I’m Sara, by the way, the librarian here. Your sister is a good girl.” Dhe said to Vida. “At least, I suppose you’re her sister, god, if you’re not, I’m sorry.”
“Don’t worry, I am.” Vida said as she ascended the staircase. “And thank you, yes, she is a good girl, mostly.”
“Oh, yes, good. And I can tell you that she missed you plenty.”
Vida nodded appreciatively and said, “Thank you.” Sara nodded without turning around and led them up a steep staircase and to a wooden door.

“Goodbye, it’s been a pleasure,” Said Sara, turning to each of them one by one and shook their hands. She completely skipped Piper and Lauren. And when she saw Vida’s surprised look she said, “I’ve been living here since I was six, you think I don’t know ghosts when I see them?”
Sara winked as she descended the stairs and soon was out of sight. Vida looked At Steven, then at Uncle John.
“For Pete’s sake, let’s go! I wanna see the kid too!” exclaimed Piper, pushing through Steven and trying to push open the door. “Yech! Do I look like a door to you?” He asked indignantly. Piper pondered for a minute, then said,
“There’s a knob joke in there, somewhere.”
Lauren gave a loud and very indiscreet cough and everyone turned to look at her.
“What?” she demanded. “I’ve got asthma!”
“You don’t breath, Lauren.” Uncle John said.

“How long have you guys been standing there?” Someone said. They turned around to face a tall, Asian boy with stunningly bright blue eyes.
“Oh, um, we-”
He waved his hand and said, “Don’t worry about it, and I know some people who are dying to see you.” The boy turned around and led them into the room behind them. as they entered the room, Vida noticed immediately two people sitting on either side of a desk, one was old and had sharp glasses, the other was–
“Maia!” Vida said, pushing past Steven and embraced her little sister. “Oh my god, Maia, I missed you so much!”
Maia hugged her sister tightly and said, “I know, Vida, I missed you to.”
Piper and Lauren looked around for something interesting to inspect. Of course, ‘interesting’ hardly did anything in The Headmaster’s office justice. It was full of the oddest entities they had ever seen. Statues, things in glass jars, etc.

“So,” Vida said, breaking away from their hug and holding Maia at arm’s length. “How have you been keeping up?” Maia shrugged. “Pretty well. I made a few friends,” she nodded at the Asian boy. “Vida, this is William, William-”
“Your sister. Yes, I can see the resemblance. Pleased to meet you.” He held out his hand to her. She shook his hand and said “Pleased to meet you, and thank you for the complement.” He nodded and turned to Maia. “Ok, well, I’ll be in my dormitory if you need me. Nice meeting you all!” He said to the rest of them and walked out the door, slamming it behind him.

“Well,” said the man behind the desk. “It’s nice to see you two again, Jonathan, and you too, Steven.”
“Hello Arthur.” Said Uncle John.
“Good day, Sir.” Said Steven, walking over to the desk to shake his hand.
“How are you, my boy?”
“I’m fine. A little banged up after being chained and drugged, but fine nonetheless! How are you?”
“Well enough, well enough. Oh, if you five want to catch up, go right ahead, me and Jonathan have few things to discuss.”

Uncle John nodded and together, they walked through a small door in the back of his office and disappeared. When they had gone, Steven said,
“It feels weird, seeing The Headmaster again, after all these years.”
“Tell me about it!” Maia said. “From the first minute I saw him, he creeped me out. Now, I think he’s an OK guy.”
“Yeah, he’s pretty great.” Steven said, looking around the room. “God, it’s been so long, and absolutely nothing’s changed!” “Really?” Maia asked intently.
“Well, I guess he might’ve changed things around a bit,” He amended.
“Well, I like it here!” Maia said happily.
Vida smiled. “I’m glad you like it here.” She said.
“Me too.” Maia smiled back, but it vanished quickly. “Look, Vida, I know you might not like my choice, but it’s my choice. And I need you to be OK with that.” Maia looked at Vida with pleading eyes.
“Don’t worry, I am. It’s your choice and you’re growing up, I can’t always be there for you, so I have to take a leap of faith and trust your judgment.” Maia sniffed and said,
“Really?” Vida nodded. “Oh, thank you, thank you!” She said as she hugged Vida tightly around the middle.
“You’re welcome, kid.” Vida said. Maia smiled. This was one of those times where you just basked in the love of your family.

When the two released each other, Maia tuned to Steven and the ghosts.
“I’m sorry for ignoring you guys, but-”
“No no, it’s quite alright.” Piper said.
“It’s good to see you, Maia.” Steven said moving closer and abandoning his inspection of the office.
“You too, Steven.” She walked over and gave him a quick hug.
“Well, since you’re the only person that I haven’t hugged that I can hug, I thought you might feel left out.” She replied to the shocked expression on his face. He tried to mouth words, but the randomness of her action had shocked the voice out of him. finally, after several deep breaths, he said, “Yeah, sure.”
Vida smirked and rolled her eyes at the two. “Ok, you two crazy kids, there’s couple more things I need to talk over with Maia, then I’m sure we would all feel enlightened if Maia told us what happened between now and when she left the house.” Maia nodded. “Well? What do you need to discuss?”

“For one, how long are you stay-”
“That has already been taken care of.” Said a voice from behind them. Uncle John followed by The Headmaster came through the small door at the back of the room. “Your Uncle and I have decided that Maia is to train here for the standard seven months, and if she chooses, to stay during the Christmas term.”
“Seven months?” Maia asked and gulped.
“Don’t worry, child. It’s not as bad as all that. The classes are enjoyable enough, the teachers are experienced, and you are not, I repeat, not required to attend a class which does not suit you. However, once you choose a subject, you are stuck with it. Until next year, anyway.”
Uncle John came over and ruffled Maia’s hair, saying, “You’ll do fine.”
“Thanks, I hope.” She said nervously.

“Excuse me, Mr. Headmaster,”
“You are not a pupil of this school, Vida, so there’s no need to call me Headmaster. You may call me Mr. King.”
“Mr. King-,” Vida began, but Maia interrupted.
“Mr. King? So your name is Arthur King?” The Headmaster threw back his head and laughed throatily and Steven raised his eyebrow. “Arthur? Since when does the almighty Headmaster let his students refer to him by his first name?” He asked sarcastically.
“I don’t. Jonathan called me Arthur in his message.”
“Ah.” Steven said.
“Now, about your question,” He said, turning to Vida.
“Yes, well, I was just wondering, before, Maia and I were supposed to go to school here, then they told us we couldn’t, now only Maia gets to go! I mean, don’t I have to be trained too?”

Maia was ready for that one. “Vida, William told me that it matters what age you are in this place most of all, and since you’re eighteen, technically, you’re an adult, so they can’t take you in.”
“Ah.” Vida said.
“I wish you could stay, really I do, but once a magical child becomes an adult, the world is much more dangerous for them.” said the Headmaster.
“I see, so, I’ll be much safer at my uncles, away from here?”
“I’m sorry to be so blunt my dear, but yes.”
She sighed. “Well, I’ll just have to endure.” She said.

There was so much silence in the room that even the silence seemed loud. Suddenly, Maia yelled “BOO!” As loud as she could. Everyone jumped. Lauren, Steven and the Headmaster screamed “AHH!” Piper and Uncle Jonathan didn’t move.
“Did you have to do that, Maia?” Lauren asked shakily.
“He he. I hate silence.” She replied.
“Oh for the love of…” Vida grumbled.
“Heh heh heh.” Maia chuckled menacingly.
“I’d watch your step, Arthur. She might turn out to be even more trouble than Steven and Isalia!” Uncle John said, poking Steven in the ribs with his elbow.
“Well,” the Headmaster said, leaning back in his chair. “I can’t wait.” And they all laughed. Even Piper and Lauren.