A Different Kind of Witch
Page 10
Now to meet Boke by the statue, she was thinking to herself when a smaller body bumped into her. Having already been surprised just recently, her sense were more prepared, and she knew better than to instinctively scream this time.
¨It has to be now!¨ Boke hissed. ¨No one is about,¨ she insisted again almost irritated, when Sophie remained rooted on the spot just a second more.
Boke was impatient, and so grabbed the keys from her immobile hands and rushed forward to the door, trying a few keys in the hole before it finally opened noiselessly. The whole exercise took less than a minute.
Boke seemed agitated, and patience was a luxury for her at the moment.
Why couldn't anyone stick to the plan? Sophie was thinking to herself when she finally managed to make her muscles work again and slip past the open crack, before the heavy door slid shut.
The room before them was dark, too dark, with not a single source of light except for the low glow from Boke's unsettling eyes. They were soon complemented by another glow that emanated from her hands. She seemed unsure at first on how strong it ought to be, as she kept adjusting its intensity, before finally deciding on one that was the dimmest they could have, and still manage to see.
Their eyes soon adjusted to the darkness, and long shadows formed and followed after them as they walked down the corridor slowly, throwing their eyes to this and that direction.
¨Onyesha yaliyofichwa,¨ Boke started whispering over and over again in the lowly lit corridor, each time being sure to look around to see the effects of her words. Nothing.
She reached one hand into her omnipresent bag, revealing the small fireball in her other palm. Sophie stared at it. It was an odd fire that crackled in her palm, ball like, and with tamed flames that never leap out of their ball-like formation. Round and round, the flames seem to catapult, but always managed to remain in the same spot on her palm.
The sound of clicking glass against glass, and then some rustling paper ensued, the sound managing to snap Sophie’s eyes away from the strange fire. Boke’s hand finally emerged from the bag, palm closed around something. She was holding it away from Sophie’s view, so that she couldn’t see it unless she walked around her. Evidently, she was hiding it.
¨Bhakoro!¨ Boke called suddenly, a little louder than before, her voice a very high screechy octave.
It was the sight of her eyes that frightened Sophie most. Her pupils were completely altered, the yellow in them separating and forming into a number of yellow rings around white centres. She then erupted into a dance of sorts, lifting her legs and hands in time to create a distinct but unfamiliar rhythm.
Sophie couldn’t imagine the other Witches, especially stuck-up-Klaus, doing such a dance when casting spells.
It was clear that Boke was a different kind of Witch.
¨Bhakoro nisaidieni!¨ She continued to call over and over again in a half sing song rhythm in beat to her odd dance. ¨Onyesha yaliyofichwa, bhakoro!¨
Sophie now feared for their discovery, for the girl before her was not attempting to be discreet. She seemed to be in a trance, and had forgotten of all other existence.
Sophie thought to tap her shoulder to snap her out of it, but then thought better of it. She was honestly a little scared of her now, especially because an odd looking white knife was in her hands. It was the item she’d pulled out of her bag.
It appeared to have been carved from a bone- maybe an elephant's tusk, or even a human being’s femur. The latter sent shivers through her body.
Boke startled her further when she suddenly broke into mystic laughter of satisfaction. Sophie didn’t understand it, she couldn’t see any door other than those that had been there before.
Boke stopped chanting and turned towards one of the doors to their right, with the word Toilet, and a female symbol painted above it. She pushed it open, and then stood back rather than step in.
Sophie walked forward and peered over Boke’s shoulders. A door stood fast shut on the other end of the bathroom, just past the two hand basins.
Sophie’s joy at the hidden door having been revealed was short lived, as she remembered that another spell was needed to open that door.
Why couldn't just one part of this break-in be simple? She had a feeling that they’d spent fifteen minutes or more already, and the sleeping potion would only last an hour.
Boke swiped her hand before that door knob when they stepped into the bathroom, revealing what Sophie now knew to be Runes, as they resembled the writings they saw on the door leading into this administration corridor.
¨Is it also impossible to open this door with magic?¨ Sophie asked deflated.
Boke turned towards her, her eyes had still not returned to normal, but were on their way. The yellow rings were blurring away and merging with the others to eradicate the whites they'd enclosed.
¨The Runes spell a riddle,¨ she said, tracing the ink strokes with her fingers, a smile crossing her face as though she was very excited to try solve it. “And I know the answer.”
¨Mwiba!¨ She whispered. A click sounded. She turned the knob, and the door gave way.
Chapter 17
To call it a record room was ridiculous.
They stepped into a large hall, in great contrast with the small bathroom on the other side of the door, spanning three floors in head height, with a staircase leading to a lower floor. Bookshelves aligned every single wall from floor to ceiling, packed tightly with endless arrays of folders.
How would they ever find anything in here? Sophie wondered overwhelmed.
After their initial shock, the girls began to rush between the first few rows, and soon realised that the files were arranged in ascending years.
Sophie was of course more interested in her parents’ files. Her father was thirty four years old, and her mother thirty three. They would have attended the school twenty and nineteen years ago, 1994 and 1995.
She found the 90's decade eventually, and rushed forward through the rows, with Boke right behind her.
94- the numbers embossed on a metal plate gleamed in the dim light. Sophie looked through the shelved folders, they had more students admitted then than they do now, she noticed, for there were about 40 large folders.
Leighton, Leighton, she repeated to herself scanning for her father's name, aware that they didn’t have much time left before the head-girl came to. But it was another name that caught her eyes.
Maiga.
Boke's surname.
“Boke,” Sophie whispered as she drew the folder off the rack and handed it to her.
Boke looked up and met her eyes, they were wide and wild- a young scared face stared back at Sophie. Her hands shook involuntarily, almost causing her to drop the file, and so Sophie took the file from her, and lead her to sit on the floor.
Sophie then opened the file, for Boke still seemed too scared or nervous to do it herself. They poured over it almost instantly, hungrily tracing the words with her fingers as she read.
Sophie was now also too curious to look away.
Personal Information
Student’s Name: Maseke Maiga
Being: Witch (Wailer)
Date of birth: 1978
Home Address: Serengeti Plains (Mong’ena Cairns)
Parents:
Mother (Living)
Name: Nyangwi Maiga.
Being: Witch (Wailer)
Date of birth: 1950
Home Address: Serengeti Plains (Mong’ena Cairns)
Father (dead)
Name: Manga Msweti.
Being: Human
Date of birth: N/A
Home Address: N/A
She flipped over the first page that held information of when her mother first arrived to school, and what she received from the prefects and matrons.
Then Sophie’s eyes caught on staff notices filed into the folder.
Maseke's mother, Nyangwi, not to be allowed at the school or near her daughter.
Nyangwi is an extremist and is not to be al
lowed near her daughter to poison her mind.
Maseke not to be allowed home for the holidays. She is to stay with the Sanguines for safe keeping.
Maseke not to be allowed outside the island, mother suspected to be in the whereabouts.
Boke's mother was purposely being kept away from her mother. How odd? Was she being abused? Sophie wondered to herself.
They flipped through the next few pages filled with more receipts of expenditure and school records. Then it began to get more interesting- records of detention; starting with minor squabbles with other student, using dark magic in class, breaking into the records' room. Sophie giggled at that- here was her daughter doing the very same thing years later. How bad would it be if they were caught right now? Boke would be a third generation culprit!
The next records were more detailed, as though Maseke was kept under constant watch. They reported what she was seen doing almost every single moment, including night time. Then another report of someone having stolen black seaweed from the herbs lab pond declared her the main suspect. It sounded harmless enough to Sophie, but for it to be in the records, she suspected that the seaweed could be used for not so ‘beneficial’ spells. And then in her senior year, Maseke was involved in a peaceful demonstration.
A demonstration in Drachenburg? Sophie’s interest in the case kept growing.
Maseke apparently led a demonstration asking for the curbing of the Avalon population. The demonstrators asked for all Avalons that had lived over two hundred years or more to offer themselves to die, so as to reduce the Avalon population. Sophie had no idea that Avalons could live that long to begin with!
All participants of the demonstration were detained and kept under constant watch in school, in fear that they would try harm the other students. Abruptly after that, Maseke's graduation picture, a copy of her diploma, and then there were no more pages.
Boke suddenly got up and ran along the rows in the newer sections.
Her file.
She rushed back with it even before Sophie could decide whether she’d also want to flip through hers or not. Boke flipped it open and they poured over it.
Sophie let out a gasp of shock when she came to the bottom of the first page, under father.
Personal Information
Students' Name: Boke Maiga
Being: Witch (Wailer)
Date of birth: 2001
Home Address: Serengeti Plains (Mong’ena Cairns)
Parents:
Mother (dead 2001)
Name: Maseke Maiga.
Being: Witch (Wailer)
Date of birth: 1978
Home Address: N/A
Father (not to be disclosed)
Name: Jan Sanguine.
Being: Avalon
Date of birth: 1975
Home Address: N/A
¨Your father is..¨ Sophie started in shock. The school principal? Could it be?
¨No, he is not,¨ she answered, shaking her head. ¨My father is dead.¨
¨But it's written here..¨ Sophie began to argue, but Sophie shook her head resolutely.
¨Maybe he is the guardian appointed to me by the Realm’s High Council, or maybe it means something else. My father is dead.¨
Sophie wished to discuss it some more, but then stopped herself. No way the reserved Avalon could be this spirited girl's parent. Boke didn't even look mixed race. They'd certainly lied about his date of birth. The shrivelled up cloaked being she'd only seen once couldn't possibly be thirty nine years of age!
They flipped to the next page. It also contained receipts of things the school had provided for her.
An official looking document followed the receipts, its stuffy legal-like heading saying something about detaining her in the school environs once she arrived. Apparently she was never to be allowed off the island, Sophie read on in shock.
However the next document appeared to dispute the previous one’s directive. She was to be allowed to roam freely. There was no evidence of terrorist tendencies as in the cases of her mother and grandmother, it read. Discreet searches through her things and schedule did not reveal an extremist's mindset. Boke was henceforth to be treated as a normal student.
Those words irritated Sophie. Who were they to invade someone's privacy so much, decide whether to let a student go home or not? Had she been too naive about this school, and the Supernatural Realm as a whole?
Nothing further of interest had been recorded other than the classes Boke was taking, the teachers’ assessments of her capabilities and her curriculum activities.
A note was posted on the last page, filed by their class teacher.
In accordance with your request, I confirm that Boke has been alienated from her classmates, and it shall continue to be so until it is confirmed with absolute certainty that she does not hold any extreme ideas.
Mrs. Cahart
Sophie snapped the file shut angrily thereafter. How dare they attempt to dictate one's life so much, even edit her files to give her a father who in actuality is not her father? It must have been done so that the principal could have the right of attorney over her for as long as she was a minor, or something like that. The whole affair was infuriating!
Sophie stole a look at her watch- fifteen to nine.
¨We have to go now,¨ She announced.
Boke rose to her feet with the folders in her hands and set them back in place.
When done, they rushed out the door, and as they stood on the bathroom side, she waved her hand through the still visible door.
Good thinking, Sophie thought, as Boke’s movement caused the dust to resettle over where they had treaded, wiping out any obvious signs of their having been there.
When she pulled the door shut, it disappeared from view instantly, a tiled wall staring back at them, and Sophie might have believed she’d imagined it all.
They then left the bathroom, and walked quietly along the admin corridor to the heavy doors on the other end. Now the hard part. There was no way to know what lay waiting on the other side.
¨Sophie,¨ Boke whispered. They now stood behind the closed doors.
¨Yeah.¨
¨I need your help. I need to borrow your magic so that I can see if it's clear for us to leave,¨ she explained.
¨Why?¨ Sophie asked curiously, but also glad to know she possessed some magic that a super teen Witch would be interested in.
¨I've done too much magic already tonight, and my essence is momentarily depleted.¨
Sophie had no idea what that meant, but decided this wasn’t the best time to try understand the most cryptic girl she’d ever met.
¨Ok.¨
“Ok?”
“Yeah, go ahead.”
¨Alright, give me your hand.¨ She let Boke take her hand in her smaller one.
Something tugged at her suddenly, and then she felt her energy slip away fast, so that she now sagged against the smaller girl, barely able to stand on her own two feet anymore. Then she saw Boke's eyes, the yellow rings were starting to form again. Was this the sign to look out for when Boke was performing unnatural magic?
Boke swiped her hand before the door, and it appeared to be dissolving away, leaving behind a transparent screen from which they could see the lobby before them, and the large main staircase to their right.
Someone left Rhiannon House and climbed slowly up the main staircase. When the footsteps receded, it was all clear, and so Boke turned the key in the keyhole and pushed the door open, dragging Sophie out with her towards the shadows.
Renewed energy pumped back into Sophie’s veins now that Boke had stopped sucking it away. Boke pressed the key into Sophie’s hands, hers shaking slightly.
¨We can't be seen together,¨ she whispered, fear crossing her eyes. Sophie nodded in agreement. She was referring to what they had just read in her files. Sophie was being watched closely, and the administration wanted to keep her away from other students.
¨Thank you for helping me.¨
¨Thank you for in
viting me to this adventure. What next now?¨
¨First, return the keys to Monica. And then we can talk some more tomorrow.¨
Sophie bumped into Lola who was pacing impatiently at the entrance to the music department. She must have caught Sophie’s approaching scent, or picked up on her drumming heart.
Lola’s face was unreadable as she pried the keys out of Sophie’s hand and headed off with them. Sophie made her way back to the main staircase, and sat on the third one from the landing, too tired to keep climbing.
A minute or two later, Lola joined her.
“Thank you,” Sophie whispered. “I am so sorry that I had to involved you.”
“I hope it was worth it.”
“It really was! We couldn’t have done it without you.” Lola shrugged. “Will Monica suspect anything?”
“I doubt it. I rinsed out the teapot and her teacup. If she asks me, I’ll tell her I left you two alone. Then you can field all the questions after.”
“That’s alright. I don't want any fallback to you.”
“Neither do I Tinkerbell.”
Sophie smiled then, and Lola returned it, bumping into her shoulder playfully.
“Party?”
“Mos’ def’!”
They were laughing as Lola hooked her hand into Sophie’s. They rushed up to the fifth floor, Sophie panting heavily by the time they arrive.
Chapter 18
“One of us should join art or music club, just so we can get a more normal private meeting room,” Sophie said with a chuckle, and Boke answered with a smile.
They were crouched onto the cold stone floor at about 1am the following night, burning a sage leaf in Boke’s palm, while they talked about their latest findings.
¨Are you certain he isn’t your father?¨ Sophie asked in a low whisper, despite Boke’s assurances that no one could hear them due to the sage blades she was burning.
¨Impossible,¨ she answered.
“Maybe..”
“Not maybe- it's impossible, Sophie. I'm a Witch. My father can only be a Witch or human.”
“I don’t understand-”