Authors: Nicole Lee
The ground beneath her feet quavered. A colorlessly blinding combustion detonated in front of her. For a moment it seemed to blend, as if time itself had decreased to a measured pace.
Snippets of ashen fire flowed like snakes within the fence of luminosity, and Rose feared that the large wholeness of its radiance would consume her forever. A wall of sightlessness overtook her, the radiance scorching everything in its path.
The screaming of a thousand spirits, each of them sent away from their home lands at some point in history, could be heard at a volume so loud that it would have been possible to bust the eardrums of everyone within ten thousand feet. For the remaining seconds she saw stars, before it faded to black for all but a minute. Rose felt her whole body quake before passing out.
After regaining consciousness, she peered upwards to see that she was still in the center of Blume Park. Grady was leaning over her. Groaning, she pushed her upper body to bring herself closer towards him.
“
It worked,” her boyfriend said this with a smile.
She looked intently at everything around her - the flora, the azure mountains peaking countless miles away, the stars shining eons above her. Her four acquaintances were nearing where she was lying.
Rose clutched the side of her head. There was a mild throbbing.
“
Are you all right?” Grady asked, helping her up.
“
Yes,” she said. “What about you?”
“
Of course I feel fine,” he boasted. “I mean, look at me. I’m Grady Bell.”
They hugged each other. Melinda ran up to them, also giving an embrace.
“
I thought you were gone, girl.”
“
Everything‘s good,” she said. “I’m only concussed.”
“
Good to know that’s all that’s wrong,” Melinda said. “As if that’s not a big deal. Should we get you to an emergency room?”
Rose rolled her eyes and pulled out her wand for the last time that night, pointing it to the center of her head. She let loose a stream of what must have been perceived as murky words to everyone around her.
“
Where’s Miss Harvey?” Rose asked.
“
Oh,” Grady said, unfolding his arms and putting his hands in his pockets tensely.
Alexis came up from behind them after having emerged from a dark valley in between a pair of verdant knolls.
“
Where’s James?” Rose asked.
They all peered at one another worriedly.
“
Let’s split up in two groups,” Alexis said.
Melinda and Alexis went together to explore the eastern area of the Park, whereas Rose and Grady were held responsible for the north, to regroup later if other directions needed to be investigated. Alexis inserted a protruding light at the ends of both of their wands, and soon they divided themselves to explore different quarters of the square.
When Rose found herself alone with Grady behind several rows of trees, she brought him in close.
“
Thank you so much for coming to my rescue,” she whispered while hugging him.
“
Someone had to do it. To be honest, I still have little to no idea what’s going on here, but I know this. If anyone harasses you, I’m there.”
He leaned in, when suddenly a muffled groan was heard. They both looked to their right and noticed a figure draped in blackness. They ran over to him as fast as they could, jumping around a few monstrously large oak trees in their path.
James was positioned face up, moaning in pain and only half-conscious. They both shook him.
“
Are you there?” Rose asked.
“
I love you,” he grumbled.
“
You’re dreaming,” she said.
His eyelids fluttered open, and he gave them a wide eyed expression, one hinting at absolute and nearly immutable shame.
“
She’s my girl, buddy.”
“
How are you feeling?” Rose asked.
“
As if I’ve just been hit by a van. One carrying steel. And an entire football team. A professional one, not an amateur league. No offense, Grady.”
Alexis and Melinda came around the corner of a pine tree. They grabbed a hold of his arms and helped him stand. He wobbled while gaining balance on his legs.
“
Where did you two send them?” James asked, folding his arms in a meager attempt to get warm. Rose turned to Alexis, suddenly as interested in the answer as her friend.
“
Far away from here, to a place they belong. A part of the world where if the sun doesn’t end them the isolation will. They will probably murder each other before the elements do.”
Although Rose could not admit it then, a bit of guilt suddenly overwhelmed her.
Melinda raised her voice. “While we’re on that subject, I think we should get out of here. It’s cold and we’re exhausted. Am I right?”
“
Rose,” Alexis said, “I trust you can get your three friends to where they need to be safely. Here‘s the keys.”
Rose caught the roll of metallic objects in her hands, and then stared at her teacher. “How are you going to get home?”
Alexis winked. “I have a broomstick.”
“
Please.”
“
I have to give this place a few more enchantments, just to ensure that they will not return. It’s unnecessary, but it is better to be cautious.”
“
Sounds like a plan to me,” Grady said, reaching out his hand.
The teenagers strolled through the cerulean glowing grounds, feeling more alive than they ever had before as the frigid wind brushed against their skin. They turned their backs to Alexis, and began to leave the field.
23
After waking up, she dressed and looked out her window, happy to not be in a foreign place. Rose had slept in most of the day, and it was not until peering onto her street that she saw how it had snowed heavily during the night.
Walking downstairs, it did not take long for her to notice an eerie silence. She turned on the television station and found out that the curse had, indeed, been lifted. There were no more uncontrollable waves of bad luck for the town. The stories were now as blasé as they had ever been.
Negative thoughts still overwhelmed her. For how long would it all be kept away from the vicinity of Lake Pines?
She looked to her right, seeing the hallway leading to the master bedroom. The doorway was not open, which was strange. He always left it cracked to allow air in.
Rose sat up from the reclining chair, making her way down the narrow winding walkway. She turned the doorknob and walked through the threshold, seeing that his clothes were lying in a bundle near the pillows. Her father was not even in bed.
“
Dad?” Rose said, knowing that, unless he was in the garageor outside shoveling snow, calling out to him was in vain. Rose ran outside, sitting on the frosty porch while fumbling through her pockets for the cell-phone.
Retrieving it and dialing promptly, she waited to hear James’s voice.
No one was on the other end. After then punching in Melinda’s number, there was no answer except for the white noise.
She walked back inside and grabbed her car keys off the table, moving back into the light snowfall outside, opening her car door and trying to start the ignition.
The engine was dead.
The vehicle was running well prior to this day, with no complications apparent except the occasional minor heating problems. She stepped away from the automobile, slamming the door behind her while running down the street. There was an old man, Mr. Niffen, who lived four blocks down, and he was a complete gear head. Rose had hopes that he would be able to help her. She loudly knocked on his door. No one came to answer.
She moved to the side and wiped away the frost on one square of the sheet of glass, gazing into the living room, feeling a bit like a stalker, despite how she just wanted to make sure he was all right. What she found, to her astonishment, was a pile of tweedy clothes lying on a sofa.
She walked across the lawn, kicking heaps of snow behind her. Rose made quick steps back to her house, and once inside, she reached for her broomstick lying at the foot of the stairs.
Soon she was standing on her terrace, gazing at everything from the overhang. She was now sitting on the object, grabbing the end of it with both hands and closing her eyes, trying to focus on the thoughts it took to fly - merely imagining aviation, removing all possibilities of doubt, according to one of her books.
At first nothing happened. Or so she thought, until looking down and noticing that she was hovering. Like that, she fell.
The drop was only five feet, and all she did was bruise her ankle. She began the ritual again, reminding herself that the key was to remove all sense of inherent qualms with the idea of air travel without modern technology. She was a witch. It was in her blood to be able to pull this off.
Soon she was floating again, and it was not until she was above her own peaked rooftop that she managed to immerse herself in the required courage to look down.
Now, it was time for projection. Remaining attentive to the rhythms and sensations arriving from the broomstick, she visualized herself soaring in a straight line. Within seconds, she was doing just that. It gave her a rush of adrenaline that she had never experienced before, until she saw the tip of a tower coming dangerously close to her.
She avoided it with a quick swoop in the other direction. She breathed a sigh of relief, and when she was sixty feet higher, able to glance at most of the entire town, something became readily apparent.
All of the houses had cars parked, as if a permanent vacation had befallen the area. No one was entering or leaving their abodes, ones caked in glacial ice. Lake Pines was empty. She was the only person here.
She flew past endless amounts of store windows, seeing heaps of clothing everywhere. On the streets, in the shops, in cars that were lined up at traffic lights. There was not a single soul to be found. Clothes were all that was left behind.
She glided over a frosty lane, staying so low to the ground as to peer into every vehicle that she passed, and soon found herself in front of the Lake Pines shopping mall.
Rose walked through its two doors. Soon she was on her broomstick again, flying through the vast white foyer. A million thoughts of evil deeds soon took a hold of her. It would be no problem to steal all of the shoes, jewelry, and movies she could get her hands on. She repressed these urges. It would be best, she decided in the end, to only take what she needed. There was no food in her fridge at home, for today was the one part of the week where they were supposed to go out for groceries, or dinner - yet obviously her father was not here, so that left her with only one option.
There was a pizza parlor in the floor below the main part of the mall, a shopping plaza beneath the main precinct. She could have ordinarily heard the flow of traffic above her, yet on a day like this one all was quiet.
She strolled into the restaurant, walking into the kitchen and quickly making herself a meal, one topped with every kind of vegetable she could find in the cooks condiment rack. Is this thievery? Rose wondered, sliding the circle into the brick oven. No, she decided. This is survival.
Rose ate it all and walked out of the cold pizzeria, staring around her at all of the other places underground. Former offices filled with blinking computers and reclining chairs. Clothing shops for the winter filled with small knickknacks and gifts. Finding herself in one of the ski shops, she took a white beanie, discovering that it fit her head perfectly. Again, she chose not to feel any guilt - besides, it was cold out.
Walking through the main mall again, she saw the ornaments outlet. There were glistening diamonds near the front, yet she calmly walked on. Going into the video arcade, she walked up to the coin machine, pulled out a wand and released a spell so as to get the appliance to break in half. Once it did, a flood of quarters spilled out onto the red and black carpet.
She cupped her hands together and began stuffing her pockets with money, promising herself that she would return every cent once things became normal. For now it was simply a matter of continued existence, preparing for some kind of emergency situation where money would be needed.
She sat on a bench outside of a Nike shop and retrieved her cell-phone. She called her friends again. Once more, no answer came. Rose still left messages, more out of the need to give herself comfort, rather than with any hope they would hear her.
What’s happening here?
Leaving the mall and walking out into the filled lot, she found herself in mid-flight, weighed down with a pocketful of coins.
She flew by the Realm of the Out of Print. There was still yellow tape draped across the front the destroyed site. She looked into it, just to make sure, once and for all, that Alexis was not there. Rose landed near the corner, walked to the obverse part of the former book emporium, and sat down on the curb while trying to think very hard about what she should do next.
She could go home and wait whatever ‘it’ was out, for there was clearly no solution to the second predicament that had befallen the entire town. Finally, she walked past the caution tape and made her way into the bookstore, trying to find an answer. She spent the next five hours scouring through tomes and coming up empty. She went to the computer before discovering that the internet was as useful as the town’s cars.