by Rain Oxford
We reached the school in time for lunch. I grabbed a turkey sandwich and coffee and headed to my office.
When I touched the doorknob of my office, I froze. My instincts were warning me that there was danger inside. I contemplated drawing my gun, but there was a chance that a child was in there, along with the threat. I opened the door of my office cautiously and was surprised to see Jameson and Jason Vegas sitting on the couch. Standing in front of my desk was a teacher I didn’t know.
“Hello,” I said. “I’m Devon Sanders.”
“I’m Manuela Polo. I am a counselor at the North and Headmaster Hunt’s orphanage.”
“It’s nice to meet you…” I looked at the boys. Jason looked guilty and Jamie looked furious. “Maybe. I take it they’re in trouble.” They were identical with dark brown hair and dark brown eyes. The twin five-year-olds were mature for their age, but it was only by special permission that they were allowed in as young as they were. Their human mother, Elizabeth, didn’t want to give them up, but she couldn’t take care of them herself.
“They have been using their powers to prank other students and teachers. We are equipped to deal with all manner of wizards, fae, and shifters. These two are different.”
“Both of you, go wait out in the hallway. Don’t go ten feet away from the door, though.”
“We’re just gonna read your mind,” Jamie said, standing. “We didn’t want to hear your stupid talk anyway.” Jason followed him out without a word.
“Those two have a serious problem. Jason is a good kid, but he won’t leave or stand up to his brother.”
“I think the problem they have is that everyone hates them.”
“What?” Ms. Polo looked appalled. “You can’t say that about children.”
“It’s what they feel. Or, it’s what they think they feel. Their mother loves them, but she’s terrified, and they think that means she hates them. They can feel it. She sent them here, and although you and I know it’s because she wants them to get help, they don’t see it that way. My father yelled at me a lot as a kid, and I remember what I felt. As a child, I believed that when someone was mad at me, they couldn’t also love me. Those two things were mutually exclusive. Their biological father was a nightmare, and they have the potential to be even worse. Fearing them and pushing them away isn’t the answer. I know it’s difficult. There is a way to show them right from wrong.”
“We can’t risk them hurting other students.”
“Then don’t push them away. If they’re not ‘fixed’ now, they’re going to be everyone’s problem. You even know how to get them on the right path.”
“How?”
“Jason knows what they should and shouldn’t be doing. Jamie wants to punish the world for the rotten deck of cards he and Jason were born with. Come up with a way to let Jason teach Jamie. In the meantime, I suggest giving both of them therapy, but you’re the expert on that, so how and when is up to you.”
She pursed her lips. “I agree with you that they need therapy. I will do everything in my power to keep them here and safe, if you do their therapy.”
“I’m not a therapist.”
“But you know what they’re going through better than anyone. There are rumors about you going around, Mr. Sanders. A lot of us have encountered John Cross and we know what a monster he was.”
I nodded. “Fine. I’ll talk to them.”
“Thank you.”
She left and I had the boys come back in. “Just expel us already,” Jamie said.
“Does your brother want to be expelled?”
“Yes— wait, what?”
“I don’t want to be separated from Jamie,” Jason said. “He needs me.”
“Shut up,” Jamie barked at him. “No one asked you.”
“Jason, have you made any friends here?” He shook his head.
“He’s too stupid to make friends.” Jamie said.
“Go back out into the hall.” He and Jason both stood. “Jason, you stay.”
Jamie glared at me. “You can’t separate us!”
“You’re going to end up separated by more than a wall if you don’t get out of this room.”
Jason lowered his eyes, but Jamie balled his fists. I stood. I felt him trying to control my mind, but my defenses were too powerful. At least, they were so far. The kid was getting more powerful, so I needed to teach him the world didn’t revolve around him before it did.
Although I barely knew my half-brothers, I didn’t want to see either of them killed for the safety of others. I especially didn’t want to have to kill them for the safety of others.
Finally, Jamie stepped out of the room and slammed the door behind him.
“I want you to make some friends, so I’m going to…” Jason shook his head frantically. “What’s wrong?”
“I’m not allowed to have friends.”
“What about Scott? Weren’t you friends with him?”
“Jamie said I can’t talk to him anymore.”
I sighed. “You and Jamie need friends other than each other.”
“Jamie will hurt them.”
“Then he needs to learn not to. I want you to know that whatever he does isn’t your fault. You can’t change him. Nobody can except him. You can help him, you can show him a better way, and you can talk him through things, but you can’t make him change. If he doesn’t change, do you want to live the rest of your life this way?”
He shook his head.
“The first step in living a happier life is deciding to do it with or without him.”
“I don’t understand.”
“You have to stop giving him power over you. Stop letting him tell you what to do. Do what you want to do, and if you don’t know what that is, then find out. He’ll see that you’re having fun and he’ll want to have that, too.”
“He’ll take it from me.”
“Don’t let him. Tell him that you’ll show him how to have fun, but if he wants to be with you, he has to act the right way. If he doesn’t or he gets mad, just leave or make him leave. You have just as much power as him, and you have all the power over yourself. If he tries to hurt you or your friends, come to me. You can go now.”
“Do you want me to send Jamie in?”
“No. Jamie’s not ready to talk to me. Tell him that when he is, I will be here. Tell him that he can talk to me about anything, even if he just needs to yell for a while. I am an adult and can take it, so if he needs someone to yell at, I don’t mind. That way, he’s not hurting anyone and he can get that anger out. When he’s ready, I have advice on how to control his anger.”
“Were you angry when you were our age?”
“Not so much when I was your age, but I grew up believing my best friend killed my father and nearly killed my mother.”
“Why did she do it?”
“Well, I recently learned she didn’t; your father did and I had blamed her. The man she killed also wasn’t my father.”
They left.
* * *
I dropped by Remington’s office in order to tell her I was back, but when I heard arguing, I paused and listened in.
“I will not have you undermining my authority, Joe,” Remy said. “I am in charge of the school and when you tell students they don’t have to---”
“Just because your father got tired of your attitude and sent you here to get you out of his hair, doesn’t mean you know how to run a school,” a man responded.
“You are dangerously close to being shot in the face.”
“Cool your jets, Missy. We all know what you need is to get married. Then you can have your own kids you can play teacher to. Your father only sent you here to find a man.” That was when I heard a loud gunshot, followed instantly by his scream.
“That was a warning shot,” Remington said, her voice perfectly calm.
“You shot me, you crazy bitch!”
“You’re still alive.”
I walked away, confident that she had the matter in hand. I wen
t to the library and wasn’t surprised to find Cy asleep at a table with five books open and Misaki sitting on his shoulder. I shook his other shoulder and his head popped up. Misaki vanished. Cy blinked at me, disoriented. “Lunch is over.” He jumped out of his seat.
“Oh, no! I can’t miss fifth hour! I have a test.”
“Fourth hour is about to end. Where is Ms. Sommerfeld?”
“I don’t know. She said she was going to grab lunch and come back. She didn’t return before I fell asleep.”
“You need to sleep at night. Hurry to class.”
He nodded and left. I went to the history section and skimmed through the titles. I wanted to see if there was anything unusual. When I started pulling down a book, it flew off the shelf and hit me in the face. I slapped aside the next one that followed. “Leave!” a voice shouted behind me. I turned and saw a man. He was tall, thin, and pale with black hair and blue eyes. He wore a black wizard robe.
There was nothing ethereal about him, and I couldn’t sense death, but I knew he wasn’t alive. I also knew he was a creep. My instincts worked on ghosts. “How are you able to move books?” I asked.
“You don’t belong here!” he yelled.
“I belong here more than you,” I said. “I’m the deputy principal of this school. Who are you?”
“Eugene Cecil Greenwood. Those children will die and if you don’t leave, you will be the seventh!”
“Seventh what? Seventh to die?”
“Yes.”
“What are you doing to the kids?”
“You have no idea what’s coming. Everyone will burn.”
“Why are you hurting them?”
“They should have stayed away.” He took a step back and I reached for his arm to restrain him. He vanished.
* * *
While I was skimming through the discipline notices, my mind was on my new, unwanted ability. When I learned that I was a wizard, I was surrounded by wizards and expected to be one, so it wasn’t a big deal. My mind control powers stemmed from abilities I’d always had, so they didn’t really bother me. Necromancy really wasn’t that different. When I first started having visions, I hadn’t wanted that, either.
As I sat back and rubbed my eyes, I considered what the downside might be. It would be weird, but I was already that. I would be seen talking to myself, but I could say I was talking to my familiar. When I found out Julia was dead, I was shocked, but I didn’t regret helping her.
I had helped her. Even though she was already gone, I got her killer in prison and gave her husband an answer to what happened that night.
I closed my eyes, inhaled, and made the conscious decision to see the ghosts there were around me and accept that they were there, at least until I had a reason to push it away. I opened my eyes.
I was still alone.
* * *
At dinner, I sat with Henry, Darwin, and their girlfriends. “That gray cat popped into my class today, studied every wizard kid, and popped out,” Darwin said.
“He’s trying to find his wizard.”
“Is his wizard lost?” Henry asked.
“His wizard was in danger and that triggered him to be called, but the wizard must be rejecting him, because he can’t find the wizard to complete the bond.”
“Like how Langril called me without intending to?” Henry asked.
“Yes.”
“That sucks. It was a terrible feeling. I felt like I was lost, and there was something terribly important that I was late for.”
“I’d like to help, but there are a lot of wizards here to question.”
“You’d only need to question those who don’t have a familiar already,” Darwin argued. “You can’t have more than one.”
“Is there any way to learn more about the wizard from the familiar?”
“Well, black cats usually belong to females and white cats usually belong to males, but that doesn’t help finding the wizard of a gray cat. Statistically speaking, cats in general are the most common familiar of female wizards and dogs are the most common familiar of male wizards. That doesn’t mean you should only check females.”
“No, but it would me smart to start with females. On another note, I need you to look up Eugene Cecil Greenwood.”
“Sure. Any reason? It would help to know where to start since I don’t have my computer.”
“There’s a good chance he’s the one behind the comas.”
“Is he a staff member here?”
“It’s complicated. I think it’s time I told you, though.”
“You’re going to tell us what you wanted to last night?”
“Yes. Not here, though. We’ll meet in my room after dinner.”
* * *
In my room, Henry sat in my chair and Darwin sat on my bed. “This is something I really haven’t told anyone… except Remington. She kind of found out for herself and I had to explain. Remember that woman I helped? Julia Emerson?”
“The amnesia patient?” Henry asked.
“Yes.”
“I figured you solved that case because you didn’t bring it up again.”
“That’s because Julia Emerson died.”
“Oh. Sorry. Was it a medical complication or was someone still after her?”
“Shit. You lost a client?” Darwin asked, much more sympathetic. “That sucks, bro. I’m sure it wasn’t your fault, though.”
“No, I mean that she died in the car accident.”
“Wait, she wasn’t Julia Emerson?” Henry asked.
“She was.”
Darwin frowned. “If she died two years before she came to you…” He thought about it.
Henry also thought about it.
“Are you saying that you saw her ghost?” Darwin cautiously asked after a few minutes.
“Yes, I am.”
“How?”
“When I took the key, the ability started developing. I didn’t know at first. Vincent felt the presence of ghosts, but he couldn’t see or hear them and didn’t know what it was. He only told me about it after I’d gotten rid of the key.”
“And it didn’t go away after that?”
“No. Julia was the last ghost I saw over the summer and I only rarely sensed death. Then I talked to a nurse in the infirmary. I didn’t sense anything and Dr. Martin talked to her, too, so I didn’t think anything of it.”
“But Dr. Martin is a necromancer and would be able to see ghosts.”
“Right. The nurse was a ghost the entire time and I hadn’t realized it. Then I met a ghost in one of the classrooms who had been bothering students. I couldn’t feel him, either. I was warned off by Eugene in the library. He’s dead, too, and I couldn’t sense it.”
“When you got rid of the key, you lost a lot of power. You probably lost the ability to feel them.”
“I wish I had lost the ability to see and hear them, too.”
“Don’t be so hasty. I’ve heard of people with this ability. It could be a huge advantage to you.” When he paused, I didn’t speak. After a moment of silence, I gestured with my hand for him to continue. “Give me time to come up with examples. I never believed in ghosts before, so I need a minute to adjust.”
“I think you need to talk to Hunt and Vincent,” Henry said.
I didn’t like the look in his eyes. “You agree with me that I should get rid of it?”
“I don’t believe in ghosts or the afterlife. When you die, your body decomposes and that’s that.”
“It’s not that strange of a concept,” Darwin said. “Throughout all of human history, there’s been---”
“Mistakes, lies, and crazy people,” Henry interrupted. “Everyone who sees ghosts, spirits, demons, gods, and poltergeists is wrong. Even the beings we call demons are rationally explained as wizards from another world.”
“So you think I’m lying?” I asked.
“No, I don’t. I think you see something and felt something, but it’s a curse or a trick, because ghosts aren’t real. If they were, I would stil
l feel Zoe with me. She would see what I’ve done and I don’t want to believe that. I don’t want her to know that our son spent five years---” At that point, his throat closed up, making it impossible for him to breathe let alone speak. It happened to him when he was extremely upset.
Then he left without another word.
I was surprisingly pissed off. I worked great alone, but Henry and Darwin had wanted in. Over the years, I learned to trust them to always have my back. Although I figured they would be upset that I hadn’t told them sooner, I didn’t think either of them would believe I was crazy.
“Someone needs a chill-pill,” Darwin said uncomfortably. “I’m sure he just needs time to think.”
“So you don’t think I’m just seeing things, too?”
“I hope you’re seeing things, because the alternative is being blind, ain’t it? Shit, I’m mad at him for being a douche when we have a case. I wasn’t expecting that. I mean, I wish you had told us sooner, but Henry is being a bitch.”
“Well, I guess it’s just us, then. Can you start research on ghosts, particularly what they can and can’t do, and how they exist? In addition to research on Eugene and curses, of course.”
“I might have finally met my match on research. Why couldn’t you have been seeing magical flying cats? Elementals are easier to research. There is an unlimited supply of crap on ghosts and I’m supposed to find out what’s real and what isn’t? Talk about a needle in a needle stack.”
“Then you won’t do it?”
“Are you joking? It sounds like more fun than tying up Amelia and spanking her with a---”
“Shut. Up.”
Chapter 10
Darwin headed to his room to do some research. Before I could relax, shadows converged in the corner of the room and Hunt appeared. “You do not look prepared for another lesson,” he said.
“I had a bit of… thing that has me…” He frowned at me. “Anyway, I’m looking forward to a distraction.”
“Magic is not a distraction, Devon.”
