Chapter 1
790 Words
Chapter 1
The Night the Magic Died
Four girls walked through the darkness, led by memory and moonlight to a familiar and secret place. They did not speak; the only sounds were the dry whisper of wind through tall, wild grass, and the occasional sob or sniffle as emotions peaked.
Everything had changed that night.
The sound of babbling water joined the wind, then overcame it, and the trail dipped into a darker valley. The canopy of a grove below was visible in the moon glow. The four girls’ silhouettes vanished into the shadows of the trees.
Moments later there was a flash of light in the heart of the grove, and a fire lit it from within.
They sat on boulders circling the stone fire pit and stared into the dancing flames, determinedly not facing each other.
Then one of them did look up, a girl in her late teens with waist-length blonde hair, fresh tears streaming from her wide brown eyes. She scanned the downturned faces of her friends.
“It’s our fault. We should have been there. We should have known.”
A second girl, tall and athletic, with bright green eyes and thick auburn hair jerked her head up, glaring. “It’s not our fault! She could have asked us for help, but she didn’t. We would have gone. We would have helped her.”
The third, a mousey girl with brown hair and small brown eyes behind thick glasses said, “She was trying to protect us. She felt responsible for us, because …”
“I don’t need protecting,” the second girl said. Her face was wild with anger, feral in the firelight.
The fourth, sitting furthest from the fire and hidden in shadow, spoke. “Stop it! Stop fighting. You’re only making it worse.”
“Can it get any worse?” the blonde girl asked.
A moment of silence followed her question.
“It’s getting weaker,” the fourth girl said. “I can hardly feel it.”
“That’s what he wanted,” the auburn-haired girl said. “Break the circle, kill the magic.”
The blonde girl rose and paced in front of the fire. “What are we going to do?”
The auburn-haired girl stood and reached inside her jacket, pulling out a slender, wooden wand. Its tip sparkled crimson in the flickering firelight. She gripped it in both hands and snapped it in half.
“We let it die,” she said. “I’ve lost too much tonight. Besides, we owe a debt now. We have to live long enough to repay it.”
“Yes,” the others spoke as one.
One by one, they stood and drew their wands, snapping them in half.
“Hurry,” the girl hidden in shadow said. “We have to get back.”
The auburn-haired girl pulled a burning stick from the fire and held it like a torch, lighting her way from the fire pit to the nearby creek. The others followed as she stepped carefully down the path to the water’s edge and the base of a huge old tree whose roots wound and twisted into the water. There was a long scar in the bark where lightning had once struck, a deep, wide crack where one of its huge twin forks had sheared away. The auburn-haired girl reached into it, her arm disappearing to the elbow, and withdrew a small wooden box, like a treasure chest.
She handed her torch to the blonde girl, pulled a large brass key from her pocket, and opened the chest. Inside was a small, battered book, its hard leather cover worn and curled at the edges. She dropped the halves of her broken wand into the box and held it out to the others, who did the same.
Finally, she drew a second wand from her jacket and held it up to the torch light. “I can’t do it,” she said, her voice catching on the last word. “It was hers. I can’t break it.” She dropped it into the chest and slammed the lid shut.
Crying out with anger, she hurled the chest across the creek, where it bounced into the open mouth of a small cave in the solid granite wall, vanishing in the darkness. A second later the key followed it.
The girl in the shadows moved forward, as if to run for the thrown chest and key, then stilled.
“It’s over,” the auburn-haired girl said. “Let’s go.”
They all rose and turned to go except for the fourth girl, the one in the shadows. She moved forward only a single step, and stopped. Another figure, tall, red haired, and with a ragged scar running down the right side of his face from temple to jaw line, stepped from the darkness and stopped beside her. He looked down into her face, eyebrows raised.
She grimaced, turned her face back to the others, and drew a wand hidden inside her jacket. She pointed it at their backs and closed her eyes.
There was a flash of blinding white light.
Then darkness.
- Writer
