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I leaned against the door for all I was worth, knowing it was futile. The younger of the two mages was at the other door to the small back room, probably enchanting the locks to open.
How did this happen? How did I end up here?
Mother, why did you betray me?
I looked back on what I’d done that day, wondering what I’d done wrong…
My neighborhood was unusually small for being in the U.S. Than again, we were in the middle of nowhere. There was a small town, but it was nearly two hours to get to a city with a mall or anything. We had electricity and all the amenities, but no high-speed internet…and since it was just my mother and me, it wasn’t like we were able to get satellite internet.
My father had left my mother when I was young; the divorce was official but we hardly ever heard from him after then. Since I was only four at the time, he lost the battle for custody for me because my mother had a steady job by the time it was final he was only putting a down payment on a new house. I’d ended up living in this little town for the last twelve years. I was five when they were divorced.
I never really knew why they got a divorce; my father didn’t seem to trust my mother, and he once said she was cheating on him, but I had a hard time believing that. Sure, my mother would act strange sometimes or get home really late with no explanation ever now and then, but that only happened ever six months or so. She’d been having some strange guests recently, and had been leaving extra early for work recently, but I hadn’t given it much thought…until I was being hunted by men calling themselves “mages”.
That morning was like any other, I got dressed in a red T-shirt and faded jeans before heading out to school. I did have one expensive garment of clothing I wore regularly; a pair of L.L. Bean boots I’d gotten a birthday present. They were the only boots I didn’t destroy in a year…
On my way to school, I always walked, I passed by one of the familiar houses and heard a strange conversation drifting out of the open windows. I stopped when I heard what sounded like my mother’s voice inside. I listened closely, struggling to hear the voices due to the sound of piano playing.
“Yes, I’m ready on the northern sector.” What sounded to be a young man said irritably.
“A disappearing act is easier said than done, even though you do hold great power you’ve never done this kind of spell on such a high scale.” An older man, maybe even elderly, replied. My mother was with the police department; she was trained in telling age by voice and that sort, and had taught it to me.
“It’s nothing I can’t handle though.” The younger voice replied irritably.
“If he says he can do it, he can do it!” A female voice snapped.
Mom? I wondered, waiting for her to say something else to confirm whether or not it really was here. And did the older one say ‘spell’? Like magic? Doesn’t that belong in fairy tails?
“Thank you, Lady Elaine.” The arrogant young man said.
“You’re welcome.” My mother replied.
“Reckless.” The older man said, “If my half of the spell works and his doesn’t, half this pathetic down is going to end up in a pocket in the space-time-continuum.”
The house was on pilings, so there was no first story and I saw a trashcan by a window on the side of the house. The voices were coming from the open windows in the front on the house, but I tiptoed over to the trashcan and hoisted myself up, hanging on to the window sill.
I peeking in, seeing the piano player across the room. The house was elegantly furnished and designed with mainly whites and blacks. Elegant, almost valedictorian, but a little different. The piano player was a young man on a grand piano, he had short blond hair but he was turned away playing so I didn’t know what color eyes. I looked to my right, trying to catch a glimpse of the people at the table.
I nearly fell off the trashcan when I saw the occupants of the table. My mother’s appearance didn’t surprise me much, but her eyes were impassive and cold. There was an elderly man there too, dressed strangely in robes that belonged in the era of castles and nights. There was detailed embroidery on it, all in gold on a red robe. The younger man, was in similar attire with a green robe with silver embroidery.
What on earth…?
“What about Gyne?” The older man asked. “Where is he?”
“In the western sector of the town, getting ready to set off the trap to get all the citizens in one place.”
“What did he call those god-awful gatherings again?”
“It’s a festival, Walter.” My mother sighed. “We use them here to celebrate important anniversaries.”
The older man, Walter, grunted as a response irritably.
I looked over to the piano player who nodded at a person in the corner by the side door I hadn’t seen. He was tall, in a black suit like the piano player, had black hair and dark sunglasses so I didn’t see his eye-color. I also couldn’t really determine his age, but I guessed he was in his twenties. I couldn’t hear the piano player, but I could tell he was talking. The guy that looked to be a guard, nodded, and left through the door he’d been guarding. The piano player, without stopping once, glanced over his shoulder at me.
Dammit!
It was hard to hop of a trashcan quickly and quietly. I felt the thing about to topple and I panicked falling backwards. I was caught, and felt a hand wrap around my mouth instantly.
“Get out of here.” My captor growled, he was more than a head taller than me. He jerked me out of the alleyway and back into broad daylight adding,
“And don’t come back.”
I broke into a dead run, and I was nervous all day at school. A few of my friends asked me what was wrong, and I left them believe it was PMS. I was jumpy, even though nothing distinctly strange happened until gym. I was on the track team, and I’d just finished running my laps and was slugging down a bottle of water when I saw something…or rather someone strange.
I saw a man in his twenties standing in the center of the track field, in the center of the loop, with a large lance in his right hand pointed at an enemy that wasn’t really there. The lance was at least ten feet long, made of dark blue metal with a twelve-inch silver blade at the top and pointed dark blue end on the other side that looked capable to running a person through with the right force.
“Hey!” I said pointing at him, “Who the hell are you? Get out of here!”
When I blinked, and the entire team was staring at me, I went red and he was gone.
“I think you should get out of the sun.” One of the girls said guiding me inside the locker room.
“Yeah…” I replied, “I think you’re right.”
“Hikari, you’ve been acting weird all day. Are you sure you’re alright?” My friend, Mitsuko, asked. She was Japanese, and even though my name was Japanese I wasn’t.
“I’ve just been feeling a little sick. I think I’ll head to the nurse’s office and ask if I can leave early today.”
Mitsuko nodded saying,
“Sounds good. Want me to go with you?”
“No thanks.” I said shaking my head. I smiled saying, “Thanks, Mitsuko.”
She smiled too, but looked worried saying,
“Dewa, nochihodo Hikari-chan.”
“Sayonara Mitsuko-chan.” I replied.
By the time I was checked out by the nurse, and allowed to be sent home it was two PM. I decided to head home a while and do my homework and crank my music.
Mom should be home around six… I thought as I entered the house, dropping my backpack by the door and heading into the kitchen for a snack. Distinctly, a piece of cold pizza and orange juice. I picked up my backpack on my way up the stairs, and booted up my old desktop computer as I turned on my CD player. The computer was really old too; I’d gotten it as a present for my tenth birthday…it was seven years old, slow as hell, had limited memory and didn’t burn CDs only floppy discs, but it served it’s purpose to gather information for homework and to e-mail friends.
I sat down and signed to embark on my homework, and I looked at the time on my computer noticing it was nearly six fifteen. I figured my mother had stopped at the store or something, but I’d been wary all day. I also remembered I’d used to deadbolt on the front and back doors…so my mother wouldn’t be able to get in when she did get back. I looked out the open window by my bed, and my mother’s old Ford Crown Victoria wasn’t there. I sat back down at my computer, stewing for a moment before the power suddenly cut out. My PC blacked out, and my CD player fell silent.
I couldn’t of blown a fuse…I only had my computer and CD player on…
I stood up, pulled a fresh pair of socks on along with my boots and headed downstairs into the basement. I grabbed a flashlight and a spare fuse on the way. I opened the fuse box, surprised to see nothing was blown. I left the basement, locking the door behind me.
I grabbed the spare house key my mother had given me stuffed it in my pocket. I headed out the backdoor, and walked over to the neighbor’s house and banged on their door. It was an elderly couple that ate around eight o’clock, so I was confident I wouldn’t be interrupting dinner.
“Hello? Is anybody here? Mr. and Mrs. Holgar? Is your power out too?”
I reached for the doorknob, surprised that it was unlocked. I walking in slowly, hesitant.
“Hello?”
There was no response, but I did notice there wasn’t any power on in here. I jumped when I heard the front door slam closed.
“Mr. Holgar?” I called out, feeling panicked again. I heard loud and fast footsteps coming from the upstairs, too quick to be one of the elderly people. I heard the footsteps approaching the stairs and ran out the back door and back to my house. On the way, I noticed nobody was around the town. No people walking around, no activity at all. I ran up to my room, looking around for my cell phone. What if I heard a bulgur in the Holgar’s house? Should I of checked to investigate? I found my cell phone in a discarded pair of pants from yesterday, surprised to see it was off.
I charged it last night though…
I tried turning it on, checking the sticker under the battery to see if it was red and my phone had gotten red, but the sticker was white but the phone still wouldn’t turn on. I bit my lip, and jogged down the stairs to the landline. It was a corded phone so it should still work even during a power outage…
I leaned against the counter in the kitchen, as I picked up the phone. I heard the dial tone for a second, feeling greatly relieved but cut out in seconds. I heard a loud bang at the front door, and dropped the phone as I jumped. It hung by it’s cord and I heard the large bang again. It wasn’t knocking either, it sounded like somebody was trying to knock the door in. My hands were shaking as I reached for the large butcher knife my mother used to cut roasts or anything of the like, and kept it in my right hand as I peaked around the wall to see who was at the front door.
I saw shocked to see no one there. My hands were shaking worse and I felt the hairs on the back of my neck standing on end. I looked slowly back to the back door in the kitchen and screamed when I saw the younger of the two men from the conversation I’d been eavesdropping on at the door, smiling evilly.
“Open up Hikari!” He called banging the door with extreme force.
I froze, not knowing what to do. Was the house surrounded? Hiding would be suicide, but what if I couldn’t escape. I ran into the living room, ducking behind the sofa when I heard him call from the front door.
“Oh, don’t hide Hikari. Light can never hide in darkness.”
I tiptoed into my mother’s room on the first floor, silently opening the window, my hands trembling worse than ever. I slid over the window sill, doing my best to stay silent. I heard his footsteps coming around, and stopping on the back door. I didn’t hear what he said, instead I jumped the fence into the yard of the other neighbor. I also knew who lived here, a middle-aged widow that had always been friendly, even when I was little. I found the key to her backdoor, taped to the trunk of her large evergreen bush, hidden my the needle-like leaves year around.
I used it to get in the back door, closing it silently behind me hoping I’d lose the strange man in the green robe. I walked through the house quietly, looking inside every room not daring to call out or make any kind of sound. I still had the butcher knife with me, hoping I wouldn’t need it.
“Hikari?” I heard the voice of Amy Zame call out, sounding worried.
“Amy?” I called out, remembering she wanted me to address her by her first name.
“I’m in the den, is something wrong.”
“Thank god, you’re here Amy! I was really getting for little while there! There’s some creepy guy trying to break into my house!”
I looked into her a comfortable room with a fireplace where she had her computers, and stepped in and from behind the door a strong hand clasped over my mouth.
“You fell for a simple case of voice-modification?” A man in his thirties said mockingly. I turned around in his grip on me, he smiled down at me evilly saying,
“You outwitted Diane pretty easily. You won’t outwit the mighty mage Gyne though!”
I tried jerking out of his grip, but he was strong. He also wore the strange robes of the other two men my mother had been talking to, his were purple with golden embroidery. I heard a gun shot, and his grip on me instantly disappeared but I didn’t stick around to see who had fired the bullet. I ran out of the house through the front door, trying to get as far away as I possibly could.
Where should I go? I thought frantically. Then the idea hit me; the old abandoned train depot! I used to hide there when I was little, they wouldn’t look for me there…would they?
The sun was fading from the horizon when I reached the old depot. I found the lose boards over the one window, and slid them aside as I hoisted myself through the window into the room the ticket ladies used to keep stocks of tickets. I was careful to make sure the boards looked undisturbed as I sat down and leaned against the one wall of the square room. There were two doors, one to the right and another in front of me. There was also a window to the right, on the far side of the wall that the light was streaming in through.
I felt a little calmer here, even though I was still afraid. I did feel rather unprotected though, for I’d lost my knife in Amy Zame’s den.
“What on earth is going on here…” I moaned. “Who were those guys? And why did they dress so strangely? What did they mean by mages, anyway?”
Then I realized something; the festival that celebrated the formation of the town was tonight. I laughed, feeling silly that I’d forgotten. That explained where everybody was, for the most part, and it’d also make sense if the town’s punks and ruffians went on a crime spree when few people would be around…but, how did they break into Amy’s house? And why would they be after me?
Wait, there was one guy in Mr. and Mrs. Holgar’s house, and if he heard me and told his buddies to get rid of me because I was a witness that’d make sense…but what about the power going out? There wasn’t any power at Amy’s house either.
I heard footsteps in the not-too-far-distance, and fragments of a conversation. I froze, listening attentively.
“Are you sure she came out here?” One grumbled.
“Yeah, at leas this where Walter’s sensors were pointing…” The other voice replied.
“Crap, you were following that old fool’s magic?” The first voice grumbled.
“What, do you have a better suggestion? Besides, Gyne and Diane found her pretty easily thanks to Walter’s magic.”
“It was pretty obvious she’d be at her home in the morning and at school during the day.”
“Get off my back! Besides, who scared her half to death today?”
“Who nearly shot her trying to get Gyne?” The first voice retorted.
“Alright, we’ve both been bad bodyguards but we’re not trying to kill her like they are. Stop being so picky, Vince.”
“Maybe you’re not being ‘picky’ enough.” The irritable one, Vince, shot back.
“At least---damn, I hear Diane coming! I think Walter is with him too.”
“Great, all we need is the most powerful mage in Atoris here. Ever think he wouldn’t be here if you hadn’t shot Gyne? We’d of been better off dealing with Gyne and Diane rather then Walter and Diane!”
“Don’t worry so much, let’s just find Hikari. I hope you sharpened that lance before we left.”
“Maybe you don’t worry enough.” Vince growled. “And don’t worry about my lance, you’re the one that forgot ammo for your pistols.”
“It was a simple mistake!”
“If you hadn’t made it, maybe we’d have the girl by now instead of searching for her at an abandoned station when she’s probably scared half to death!”
Vince…his voice…he sounds just like the guy from that house I spied on, the guy that told me to leave and not come back…the person with him, could it be the pianist?
I didn’t have time to ponder it though, for I heard footsteps heading towards the small room I hid in coming from the hall in front of me. I jumped to my feet, locking the door to the right of me then the one in front of me. I instantly felt a pressure on the door and leaned against it with all my strength, surprised to hear the voice of my mother.
“Hikari? Are you in there, are you alright?”
“Mom? I called out.
“Hikari! Open the door, I’ve been worried sick about you.”
My hand hovered over the lock, and I listened the breathing of the person on the other side and let my hand fall to my side as I said,
“You’re not my mother!”
“Very good.” I heard the raspy voice of the old man, Walter, say with a chuckle. “I was wondering if you were going to fall for that again. It’s no matter though, I don’t even need magic to reach you, little Hikari.”
I heard the voice of Diane mocking me from the other door, also trying to get in.
I leaned against the door for all I was worth, knowing it was futile. The younger of the two pages was at the other door to the small back room, probably enchanting the locks to open.
How did this happen? How did I end up like this?
Mother, why did you betray me?
Is this the end?
Is this how I die?
Suddenly, the window I’d used to enter the room with the broken boards shattered, the remained of the glass and wooden splinters sprayed the floor as the young man from the house I’d first seen Walter and Diane at landed smoothly on his feet, long blue metal lance in his right hand. He grabbed me roughly by my shoulder, jerking me back and away from the door. I landed with a thud on my behind on the opposite wall as my rescuer flung the door open, instantly running the old man though.
The old man smiled sourly, as my rescuer stepped back and retracting his blade. Walter was coughing up blood as he said,
“Heh, good work Vincent. But you haven’t won yet…”
Vincent didn’t pay much mind to the man’s dying words, but opened the other door. Diane blocked Vince’s lance at first with a double-edged blade, but Vince ran him through with the sharpened bottom of his lance. After Diane lay unmoving the floor, Vince looked down at me, dark blue eyes impassive as he said,
“C’mon girl, we need to hurry.”
I didn’t move, for I was too confused and had felt too much fear in too short a time. My head wasn’t registering events properly anymore.
“Not bad at all, Vin! Not bad at all!” I heard Vince’s friend, the pianist coming in. I didn’t know what he said next, for I lost conscious shortly there after…
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