Hurricane (The Charmed)

by Dianne Nutting

Chase looked at Lyla. His stomach clenched. He had never felt this way before. He looked at the ground and kicked a pebble, looked out at the lake and back at Mr. M. “If you need us to.”

  Mr. M let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding. “Thank you. Now I’m going to get into the car, say your goodbyes.”

  A few minutes later Chase climbed into the car and slammed the door. He stared out the window, he finally broke the silence, “She told me she was being homeschooled. Why?”

  Mr. M sighed. “You know why.”

  “There’s no reason why she can’t still go.”

  “There’s no talking her parents out of it Chase. It’s homeschooled or leaving. After six months if all goes well, you two can start seeing each other again.” Mr. M parked the car in the driveway and looked over at Chase. “It’ll go fast.”

  Chase got out of the car and slammed the door.

  Chase tried to sleep but grew restless, it was midnight and he was still awake. He lay on the bed staring at the ceiling thinking about how much his life had changed. He had all but ignored his other friends. It wasn’t unusual for each of them to do that. Being in a circle can make you feel claustrophobic sometimes. All of them were working on taking the SATs and applying to colleges. Brendan most likely would play football in college and Harley would follow him. He originally thought Jaden would go where he did but now that Lyla was in the picture Jaden might feel like a third wheel. His thoughts came back to Lyla and he became restless again. He could never get enough of her. Most of his thoughts centered on her bottom lip and how much he wanted to kiss her. Always, it seemed.

  Maybe this is what falling in love was like, he thought. Always needing and never getting enough. A thought bloomed in the back of his mind. Not really a thought but a spell to alter, the writing spell. Chase didn’t know where it came from but he didn’t care. If it worked, he could see her and nobody would know.

  Chase focused his mind on his dresser mirror. It was a large piece of furniture that was impossible to move. The mirror took up almost the whole wall. Chase found it annoying until now. Chase spoke the charm but focused on the mirror. He placed a hand on it, then said Lyla’s name.

  A picture formed. It was a dark room, a person lying on a bed. Chase hoped he got the spell correct. It would be really embarrassing to appear in someone’s room he didn’t know. Chase looked closer. He could see a purse and coat that looked like hers. The person on the bed was all bare legs. Chase could see the outline of a birthmark in the shape of a heart behind the knee. It was Lyla. But it didn’t look like she was wearing much. Chase started to feel like a peeping Tom, a creeper. He remembered a few days ago when he was in a position to kiss that birthmark. His heart began to race, he felt warm all of a sudden. He realized it was a mistake to peep into her room unannounced when she began to stir. He should have wiped his image away but he couldn’t, the part of his world that made his pulse race wouldn’t allow it. Lyla sat up. She was wearing a thin tank top and matching panties. That’s it. Chase was sure he should have left. Lyla would find out he was peeking in on her and tell him off. Maybe.

  Lyla walked toward the mirror rubbing her eyes. Her hair was a mess and part of her tank had ridden up exposing a healthy amount of flesh.

  Chase swallowed, he couldn’t move.

  “Chase?” Lyla whispered.

  Chase moved closer to the mirror. He held up a piece of paper and wrote on it.

  Lyla spoke the words and read the paper.

  I’m sorry I didn’t mean to wake you. I just wanted to see if my spell worked.

  A smile spread across Lyla’s face.

  Relief flooded through Chase. Maybe she didn’t think he was a creeper after all.

  Lyla wrote back: Creeper

  Chase’s heart dropped, he looked up. Lyla was smiling.

  Chase wrote: I’m sorry I’ll leave

  Lyla: If I wanted you to leave I would have wiped you away by now how did you think of this?

  Chase: I don’t know it just came to me you look beautiful by the way I love what you’ve done to your hair.

  Lyla read the note and smiled. Thank you I’ve been working on this all night.

  Chase: I’m having a hard time concentrating with you in almost nothing.

  Lyla: I can put something on. She reached over and held a sweater up.

  Chase shook his head: No No Please don’t! Chase smiled.

  Lyla’s face lit up and she giggled.

  They spoke until four in the morning. Chase was up at six for school. Part of him was happy to have figured out a way to see her still but upset because she wouldn’t be at school. He knew that he was going against Mr. M’s orders to stay away with no contact but there was nothing he could do about it. He had to see her.

  Most of their days went much the same way, they would talk late so no-one suspected anything after dinner and homework. The weeks stretched by until it was almost Christmas and there was a cool breeze in the air.

  This particular night a storm was brewing outside. Lyla watched from the window. The swans that lived around the lake had all taken shelter. She could see the wind whipping the water onto the banks. She held up a finger for Chase to hold on as a shiver ran down her back. Lyla turned and walked to the bed to get a sweater.

  Chase noticed a large patch of markings on her right shoulder.

  Chase: Lyla what’s that on your shoulder?

  Lyla: They appeared a while ago they’ve been getting more spread out I don’t know what it is I’ve been a little nervous about it but I can’t find any books that would tell me.

  Chase read the words, an unease spread through his body. Chase took his shirt off and turned his shoulder toward Lyla. The same marks were spreading on his shoulder as well, only on the right arm.

  Lyla put her hand to her mouth and gasped.

  Lyla: When did they start?

  Chase: Our first phone call what about you?

  Lyla: Same. Do you think this has to do with why we’re not supposed to see each other?

  Chase: If it is then it was already too late nothing we do now can change this.

  Lyla: Do we ask M about this?

  Chase: I’m at his house now I’ll stay here a few days and look through his library it’s pretty big maybe I’ll find something.

  Lyla: June is a long time away

  Chase: Yeah, I know

  Lyla: Chase I’m sorry I got you mixed up in this

  Chase: Well first of all we don’t know what ‘this’ is second I wouldn’t have had it any other way If I die tomorrow it will have been worth it

  Lyla wiped a tear from the corner of her eye.

  Chase: Don’t cry please we’ll find out what this is

  They said good night an hour later, both of them uneasy about the recent developments. The next day when Lyla woke, the marks had spread over her shoulder and halfway down her arm. She put a sweater on and walked down to breakfast.

  Her mother was in the kitchen already. She turned and smiled at Lyla. “What would you like for breakfast, dear?”

  “I’m not hungry. Actually, I’m not feeling well today. Can I take the day off of school?”

  “Of course.” Lyla’s mother kissed her on the top of the head and turned to resume doing the morning dishes.

  Lyla slept most of the day. By nine at night her mother walked in to take her temperature.

  “Well, you don’t have a fever.” She was looking at the thermometer and scowling.

  “I’m just tired Mom. I don’t think I’m sick.”

  “Most likely you’re just depressed. Tomorrow I want you to get up and out a little. You have to battle through this Lyla.”

  “Yes, Mom.” Lyla knew she wasn’t depressed. She was mad. Mad at her mother and father for not explaining what problem she had, mad at Mr. M who wouldn’t tell them either, mad she couldn’t see Chase.

  Her mother sighed and looked down at Lyla she placed her hands on her hips and looked around the room. “Get a good night sleep and we’ll go
shopping tomorrow.”

  Lyla looked up at her mother. She didn’t think her mom had ever smiled once in her life. If she had, it was before she was born. “Okay Mom.”

  Her mother turned and walked out of the room.

  Lyla was out cold until two a.m. An unease was creeping into her blood. Lyla sat up and looked around. The room was completely dark, even the mirror. Lyla put on a pair of jeans and a sweater, slipped some socks on and plodded down the stairs to the kitchen to get some water. Just before she got to the door Lyla put a hand on her head. She felt woozy, dizzy even. She reached out to the wall to get steady but didn’t find the wall. Lyla fell to the ground, her world going black.

  Chapter 6

  And the changes begin

  Chase was over at Jaden’s trying not to sulk but doing a bad job of it. He was lying on Jaden’s bed throwing a ball up at the ceiling. Jaden was finishing up a paper at his desk. Chase sat upright he hadn’t felt well all day. He thought he might be coming down with something. Chase felt his forehead, yep, he had a small fever. He took his sweatshirt off and threw it across the room. He stood and looked over at Jaden.

  “Jaden, I don’t feel so good.” Chase reached a hand out to steady himself but collapsed onto the floor.

  Jaden turned when he heard the thud. “Chase!” Jaden rolled Chase over and checked if he was breathing. His eye caught sight of the marks on Chase’s right arm. A cold shiver ran through Jaden’s body. He ran out of the room to find his father.

  Mr. M ran back into the room with his son shortly behind. He took one look at Chase’s arm and threw his coffee mug across the room, shattering it in several pieces.

  “What is it Dad?”

  “Those would be the mark of Occlusion. It appears the kids haven’t been telling us everything.”

  “Oh god. Then it’s happened? Chase is in this?”

  “It would appear so. None of us can do anything about it, except nothing which will kill them both. Most likely Lyla is somewhere in her house in the same position. Jaden, I’m going to wake Chase. When I do, I want you to get him out of here. His parents can’t know what’s going on.”

  “Why?”

  “I have my reasons. I’ll explain later. If we don’t get the next ceremony done soon,” He glanced at his watch, “More like the next two hours, they’re both dead. I have to get Lyla out of that house before her parents freak.”

  “Where should I take Chase?”

  “It has to be far from here otherwise his parents will sense it. I think he has a tracker on him. They went to Clearwater recently, let’s go there.”

  “Okay.”

  Mr. M placed a hand on Chase’s forehead.

  “Chase, it’s time.”

  Chase opened his eyes and looked around the room.

  “What the…”

  Mr. M looked down at Chase with sad eyes. He didn’t want this for him. “Chase, Jaden will explain what just happened. You have to leave, we’ll meet you.”

  Chase rubbed his face. “We?”

  “Lyla.” Mr. M said, his face going grave.

  Chase sat up quickly. “What happened to Lyla?”

  “Same thing most likely that just happened to you, now go, we haven’t much time.”

  Jaden helped Chase up and all three left the house. The boys got into Jaden’s truck and Mr. M took off in his toward Lyla’s house. Once there he used an opening charm on the door and walked in quietly. Lyla was on the floor by the kitchen, her parent’s hadn’t found her yet.

  Mr. M hurried over and lifted her up off the floor, trying to make as little noise as possible. He gently placed her in the passenger side of his truck, raced back to shut the front door and took off. He thought about placing a confusion spell on the house but decided against it, they wouldn’t be up for hours and by then, this would all be done.

  Mr. M maneuvered the truck down S. Florida Avenue as fast as its engine would allow. When he hit the on ramp for I-4 he glanced over at Lyla.

  “Lyla, wake up.” He placed a hand on her forehead and coaxed her out of her deep sleep.

  Lyla’s eyes opened. She sat up quickly, alarmed at her surroundings. “Mr. M? What’s going on?”

  “You passed out.” He waited a minute for that to sink in. “So did Chase.”

  A crease ran across Lyla’s forehead. “Is Chase alright?”

  “Yes. He’s the same as you. Lyla, would you do me a favor and push your sleeve up?”

  Lyla sat back and stared out the window. “Why?”

  “You know why.”

  Lyla looked over at Mr. M, she trusted him. He wouldn’t ask if he couldn’t help. Lyla sighed and pushed her left sleeve up to her elbow.

  Mr. M could see intricate lines snaking around her arm in the same pattern as Chase’s. “How long ago did they start?”

  “I found the first mark after meeting Chase. It started on the back of my shoulder.” Lyla looked down at her hands. “I can’t find any books about it.”

  Mr. M ran a hand through his hair. “You’ve had those marks since October?” It was worse than he had thought.

  “Yes, but it’s been growing pretty steadily. Do they have anything to do with this mysterious thing in my life?”

  “Markings of Occlusion, why don’t you sit back, we have a long drive to Clearwater where we’re meeting Jaden and Chase.”

  “Am I in trouble?”

  “No Lyla, you never had the opportunity to be in trouble. Your parents and I should be ashamed of ourselves for keeping you in the dark. I’m always telling you that knowledge is power, I violated my own soapbox lecture.”

  “Are we going to be okay?”

  “Well, I suppose that’s up to you. Let me tell you what’s going on. Your birthdate is November first. Do you know what significance your birthdate has?”

  “You told me that nobody has that date except me, which I still find hard to believe.”

  “Nobody of the Charmed Lyla, it’s our most powerful day. Every hundred years a baby is born on November first, at three thirty a.m. If they find their spiritual mate before they’re eighteen, that person heightens the other persons’ powers. Your parents kept your birthdate a secret. Lyla, your parents thought if they didn’t put down roots, you wouldn’t meet your mate before you turned eighteen.”

  “Why would my parents care? What happened to the others?”

  “The mate became power hungry.”

  “Every instance?”

  “Yes. But look at the different eras where those people lived in, war and famine.”

  “So I just put Chase in huge danger and he might become a crazy person from this?”

  “Not necessarily.” He looked at his watch again.

  “What aren’t you telling me?”

  “Lyla, we have to perform a blood ceremony.”

  “But that’s a marriage ceremony.”

  “Yep, and everything that goes with it.”

  “Are you telling me that in the next hour, not only will I have to marry Chase, but sleep with him too? I’m right, aren’t I?”

  Mr. M only nodded his head yes.

  Lyla was sitting up fully alert now. “But after that, he could become a power hungry lunatic?”

  “Well, the possibilities are there.”

  “I won’t do it.”

  “What?”

  “I can’t do that to Chase. First, what if he doesn’t feel that way about me enough to marry me. We’re both in high school still! Then to force him to sleep with me and then the possibility of going stark raving mad?” Her voice had risen with each sentence.

  “You have to, Lyla.”

  “No, I don’t!”

  “Yes, you do. If you don’t, within the next hour and a half, you both will be dead.”

  Lyla stared at Mr. M. The breath had been knocked out of her. She sat back on the seat and looked out the window.

  Mr. M hadn’t meant to be so abrupt but he hadn’t expected Lyla to say no either.

  “Die?” Lyla’s voice came out
as a whisper.

  “Yes. I’m sorry.”

  Lyla turned her head and stared out the window for a while.

  Mr. M broke the silence. “Lyla, the possibility that Chase doesn’t love you or want marriage is slim to none. He’s never dated anyone longer than two weeks. He has completeness about him I’ve never seen before. Plus, the markings don’t lie.”

  Lyla didn’t say anything. She thought about how she felt about Chase. It was true, even she felt better in this world when she was with him.

  Mr. M’s phone rang. “Yeah? Okay, I’ll arrive in ten minutes. Did you get the room? Thanks Jaden.”

  “What about my parents?” Lyla spoke quietly, still looking out the window. She turned toward Mr. M, tears in her eyes.

  “What about them?”

  “Shouldn’t they know?”

  Mr. M sighed. He had hoped not to get into this. “They thought that if they moved around you wouldn’t meet ‘the one’. If you didn’t meet him at eighteen, you wouldn’t die.”

  “But I would have anyway, wouldn’t I?” Lyla was catching on fast.

  “Yes.”

  “So, they almost killed me.”

  “Lyla, they just thought they were doing the right thing. No matter how much I tried to convince them, they truly believed you would live and have a normal life if you turned eighteen without so much as looking at another boy. There must have been some doubt though; otherwise you wouldn’t have ended up here.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I’m a bit of an expert on the subject. I’m sure they wanted you near so I could fix it in a pinch, which is exactly what happened.” He looked at his watch again just as they drove up to the hotel. It was four thirty, they had exactly one hour.

  Chase walked over to the truck door and opened it. He pulled Lyla into his arms and held her. He kissed the top of her head, his embrace tightening. “You okay?”

  Lyla gripped Chase around the waist. “I’m so sorry, Chase.”

  Chase pulled back and looked down into her gray eyes. “Oh sweetheart, I’d rather be with you like this than without you any day. The last few weeks without you have been hell.” He kissed her gently. “Ready?” He whispered.

  “I am now.”

  He smiled and took her hand. They walked up to the room together. Jaden and Mr. M were already there, supplies spread out on a table. While they set-up, Lyla walked over to the window. The ocean was spread out before them.