Fated Fantasy Adventure

by Humphrey Quinn

  “He isn’t magical?” questioned Meghan.

  “No. Strange he would end up in Grimble, with no magical ties.”

  “He’s funny,” said Colin, watching the boy flutter around in circles above.

  “He has been quite a hoot. Timothy, come down for a moment.” The ghost boy dived and abruptly halted in front of the twins.

  “Hi! You must be Meghan and Colin. Nice to meet you. So Eddy is your uncle? You’re so lucky. How is it that you are alive and he’s dead? You didn’t tell me they were alive. Wow, I never get to talk to alive people anymore.”

  “He sure is an excitable ghost boy,” sent Meghan to her brother, who nodded in amused agreement.

  “Nice to meet you, Timothy,” said both twins, together.

  “You too,” he twittered. “I have to go now. Going to go help a new ghost child arriving today. Hope I get to see you again. So many questions I’d like to ask an alive person.” He floated away.

  “Bye, Timothy,” said Eddy. “Stay away from that Duppy ghost, eh.”

  “I will. I promise,” his voice trailed off into an echo and he was gone.

  “Okay, where were we?” said their uncle, getting comfortable on a wooden beam hanging over the twins.

  “Before we do anything Uncle Eddy, can I ask you about something that happened earlier this morning?” asked Meghan.

  “Yes, of course.” He looked at her with unease in his gaze. He floated down off his beam, to be closer to her.

  “This morning I fell, and Jae grabbed my hand to help me up. Somehow, I ended up in his mind and...” she glanced sideways at Colin, giving in. He would find out eventually anyway. “There were feelings of wanting to hurt someone, and Jae not surviving. I don’t understand how I know this, I just do.”

  Meghan’s fear overwhelmed Colin’s thoughts, and though he was upset that she had not told him everything, he said nothing.

  Uncle Eddy’s frown formed into a knowing smile. “I should’ve seen it,” he muttered.

  The twins waited eagerly for him to explain.

  “Meghan, it may not appear so at the moment, but what you have is a great gift. And the more I think on it, the more it makes sense.”

  “A gift? You mean a magical gift?”

  “In a manner of speaking, yes. Your gift runs in the family, your mother and your grandmother and her mother... you get the picture, although it can skip a generation or two. It’s no surprise to me that this would occur. I should have been expecting it.”

  “Expecting what?” Meghan wished adults would get to the point faster.

  “The gift of sight,” her uncle answered without further delay.

  “So I can see things, and feel things, like Jae’s feelings?”

  “Yes, I would imagine you can see other things too, like glimpses of the past, present, or future. Out of curiosity, do you have any idea how the sight comes to you, what mode allows you to see?”

  Colin was not sure he understood what his uncle was asking, but Meghan knew immediately.

  “Fire, its fire.” She read Uncle Eddy’s face; he looked surprised that she already knew this.

  Something dawned on Colin. “That’s how you knew about the Scratcher attack, back in Cobbscott, isn’t it? Jae had lit those things he was juggling, on fire. And you had some kind of premonition or something, didn’t you?”

  “I guess so. I think somehow, I knew it was a vision of the future. I just didn’t really believe it at the time.”

  “I wish I knew more about having the sight,” lamented Eddy. “It is not a subject I am very familiar with. Perhaps there are some books in the Svoda library that might help you, Meghan,” he suggested.

  “Books?” questioned Colin. “You obviously don’t know my sister very well.”

  Eddy chuckled, and Meghan glared.

  “Well, we’ll work on it,” Eddy said. “See what we can discover.”

  Many memories came pouring into her mind. Everything she experienced while she was sick. Voices speaking incoherently over her. Images surging through her brain. And one that stopped and played like a movie in her mind. What was it again? An orphanage, with cloaked figures taking away a couple of babies. And then there had been a dream after. A woman sleeping on a feather. It had all been such a bizarre thing.

  “Let’s have an early lunch,” suggested Eddy. “And then get down to the business of the day after.”

  The twins ate in silence. Eddy did a quick check of the perimeter around the old mill. Once he was satisfied they were alone he allowed them to begin their practice for the day. Eddy used himself as a moving target. Colin successfully sent rocks hurtling through his ghostly body time after time. Meghan watched, jealously impressed.

  Uncle Eddy was thrilled. He had never seen someone take to magic like Colin and grinned proudly. And frankly, other than reading, his sister had never seen him take to anything.

  Meghan, on the other hand, was not having such an easy time. Today she attempted to balance items, like she had seen Jae do. However, she never successfully balanced more than three items before they plummeted to the ground.

  Timothy returned, watching them practice. They ended the day exhausted, and on Colin’s part, elated with his progress. On Meghan’s, not so much. But Eddy congratulated them both on a job well done regardless. He was pleased with their progress in such a short time.

  Timothy escorted his new friends on their walk home. The twins did not speak the entire time as Timothy had not yet stopped; which for the present they found amusing.

  Before they reached the circle of wagons, the twins stopped in their tracks. Unfriendly footsteps advanced from the woods, encircling them. Timothy flitted high into the air, watching from a distance as the scene unfolded below. Three figures emerged from the woods. Two they recognized, Darcy, along with her partner in crime, the eloquent speaking Dulcy. The third was a towering, skulking girl they did not recognize. She kept pace with Darcy and Dulcy as the three ambushers circled their prey.

  “You were right, Darcy,” bellowed Dulcy. “Wait and they’ll come, and then we’ll see what they’ve been up to.”

  “Shut it!” warned Darcy harshly. The skulking girl sneered as the trio tightened their circle around the twins.

  “What do you suppose this is about?” sent Colin silently, trying to keep his nerve. Meghan kept her eyes on their ambushers, showing no fear. This only elevated Darcy’s anger.

  “What do you want?” demanded Meghan.

  “We’ve seen what you can do,” Darcy stated, her eyes blazing. “And we think you’re spies.”

  “Oh, no,” sent Meghan to Colin. “Not good if they caught us.” She made sure not to outwardly show her anxiety.

  “I don’t think this is how Uncle Eddy imagined our abilities being found out,” stammered Colin back into her mind.

  “It doesn’t exactly bring about trust, does it?” she sent back dryly.

  Darcy waited for a reply, growing angrier as one did not come. Meghan cleared her mind and Colin grew aware that she slipped into her own defensive mode.

  “Why should we care about what you think you’ve seen, Darcy?”

  Meghan obviously had no idea who she was dealing with. The other two girls jumped backwards as if complete fury was about to be unleashed.

  “It will matter to you when I get you both kicked out and left here to ROT! I’m going to turn you in for what you really are.”

  “I see,” said Meghan. “What is that by the way, Darcy? Who are we? What are we really?”

  The skulking girl stood at the ready, awaiting orders to pummel the twins.

  Dulcy, the worded wonder, to the twins’ benefit, threw Darcy off her game.

  “Banon Blackwell is going to flip out when we bring you in as spies. We will totally be rewardified.” Dulcy’s eyes rolled as she attempted to pronounce the word. “No, rewarided,” she corrected, still wrong.

  Darcy cringed, gritting her teeth. “Stop. Speaking.” She hissed at Dulcy, her nostrils flaring. “I
don’t know why I keep you around. You’re an idiot!”

  Meghan took advantage of the momentary switch in attention and nudged Colin to step to the left, which was now open since Darcy had moved closer to her idiot counterpart.

  “Darcy, they’re trying to get away!” the skulking girl thundered. “You want me to pound ‘em?”

  Darcy whirled around facing the twins. “No one walks away while I’m talking to them,” she roared.

  “Oh, really? Watch me,” goaded Meghan, taking another step.

  “Are you trying to get us killed?” yelled Colin silently.

  “Look, you two... Ditch Witch’s!” Darcy stopped, gloating over coming up with such a clever term. She waited until the other girls had a good laugh, before continuing.

  “We’re watching you,” she warned. “And when you screw up, which you will, we’ll be there to show Juliska Blackwell who you really are. And then we’ll see who’s scared.” Darcy marched away followed by her companions.

  Colin yelled at Meghan.

  “You don’t think we are in enough trouble, without pissing off that crew? I mean, why not just walk in and announce hey, we can do magic and we’re here to spy on you and report back to our evil... people.” Colin was never good at arguing.

  Meghan sucked in, let it out, and let him have it. “When will you learn that you have to stick up for yourself? Especially here. More than even back home. And so what if they get pissed off! It’s clear they’re not running home tattling to anyone. You heard them, they’re waiting for us to screw up.”

  “More fun for them, then. I think Uncle Eddy would agree that we, or I should say, YOU, just screwed up.”

  Meghan threw up her arms in defeat. “That’s it, Colin. I’m not sticking up for you anymore. If you think you could have handled that situation any better, then next time, YOU DO IT!” she stormed off crossly.

  Anger overwhelmed her, along with a strange sense of heat. It wasn’t a particularly warm day, but she wiped sweat off her brow and tried to stretch out an ache building through her entire body. “I’d so better not be getting sick again.” She huffed her way home. Pissed that she had to live with the Svoda. That they had so many secrets. That they had to deal with bullies like Darcy and her friends.

  And they were from a magical bloodline! Something their Uncle Arnon never told them. And they were stuck here unable to find out if he was alive or not.

  It was all too much. And Colin did need to learn to stand up for himself. She recalled her trip to the Blue Moon Festival with Sebastien. He had warned her then. She chuckled, remembering how she thought he’d been acting way too much like a grown up. And here they were in the exact situation. Alone. On their own. And she might not always be around to protect him.

  And yet how could she just not? How could she just let him fend for himself? He was still her little brother. In size only, but he was.

  She stopped, holding her stomach.

  “I can’t do this,” she muttered to herself. “I don’t think I can do this.” What was happening to her? Was this a panic attack? She’d never had one before. She’d been in Colin’s mind when he’d had a few, and it was never fun. But she’d been able to block him out. She could not block out her own thoughts. Or her own fears.

  Meghan did not want to go home. She veered off the road, taking the lane that led to the ocean shore instead of the Mochrie house. She needed air, not confinement. She needed to feel the bite of the ocean on her face.

  COLIN SLUMPED OVER on the wagon steps. Up above, Timothy, looking forlorn for a ghost, floated in circles over him.

  “Sorry, Timothy,” said Colin.

  “Oh that’s okay,” he said shyly. “I hear people argue all the time around here.”

  “My sister can argue with the best of them. Um... you won’t tell Uncle Eddy will you,” Colin said nicely.

  “You mean a secret, between you and me?” Excitement rose in Timothy’s voice.

  “Yeah. A secret.” Yay, more secrets... Colin chided himself silently.

  “Wow, I haven’t had a secret to keep in such a long time.” He swirled around, happy as any ghost could be and sang a little song, “I won’t tell, I won’t tell.”

  “I gotta go, Timothy. See you later, okay.”

  “Yes, later, friend of which I know a secret.” Timothy held his hand up and saluted Colin, then floated away.

  Colin headed into the wagons hoping to find his sister waiting for him, but to his dismay, he did not. He walked through Bedgewood alone, feeling every staring eye. Every glare. Feeling the hardness of each breath in his lungs.

  He didn’t bother reaching out into his sister’s mind. She had a block firmly in place, and he didn’t want her in his head either. He didn’t want her to see how much he really did need her. How afraid he was when she wasn’t there. He really wished there was a spell to make him taller.

  He made it to the school entrance and hid behind a bush until he saw Jae and Mireya walk out of the school. Jae glanced at him oddly but didn’t ask when he popped out at them unexpectedly. When his sister did not follow, it was their first question.

  “Not sure where she is. We had a fight,” Colin explained.

  “Oh, sorry. Maybe she’s already home,” twittered Mireya. She ran to catch up with a friend.

  “What happened today?” asked Jae.

  In reply, Colin asked his own question. “What can you tell me about a girl named Darcy?”

  “Not Darcy Scraggs,” grumbled Jae. “Was Dulcy Hadrian and Daveena Troast with her?”

  “Dulcy was, and if Daveena is the biggest, scariest girl you’ve ever seen, then yes she was.”

  “Something else I forgot to warn you guys about. The Three D’s.”

  “The Three D’s. They have a name. I take it they’re not just nasty to us, then?”

  “No. They’re mean period. Darcy, she’s the worst. Daveena could crush any of us, but she doesn’t do anything unless Darcy orders it, and then there’s Dulcy.” Jae frowned.

  “She doesn’t seem to fit in.”

  “Don’t let that stupid act fool you. She doesn’t have a decent bone in her body.”

  “Noted,” said Colin gravely.

  “So what did they want?”

  “Actually, they acted as if they knew about our magic,” whispered Colin.

  Jae froze in his tracks. “Do you think they do?”

  “Honestly, it’s hard to say. If she did know though, will she tell?”

  “If it served her well to do it, Darcy wouldn’t hesitate,” exclaimed Jae.

  “Why not turn us in and get it over with then?”

  Jae contemplated before answering.

  “Knowing the Three D’s, they are either scheming some way to expose you, or,” he paused. “I wouldn’t put it past them to try to pin this on someone else, too.”

  It took only a second for Colin to realize that Jae meant himself, and maybe even his family. “You have to tell the truth, Jae. Meghan would insist if she were here. We can’t let anything bad happen to you, for hiding our magic.”

  “No, I can’t do it. I might be wrong, Colin. I shouldn’t have even brought it up. Forget I said it.”

  “Why do they dislike your family so much?” asked Colin.

  “It’s not just us. They have a false impression that they pull more weight than the rest of us in the group. Banon Blackwell keeps them in check though.”

  “If it comes down to it, Jae, I don’t want you or your family getting into trouble because of us.”

  Jae would not hear it. “I can’t. If it does come down to it, I’ll stay behind with you and take full responsibility. I’ll say my family didn’t know.”

  “But you would be away from your family again, which is how we ended up here in the first place.”

  Jae could not argue this point.

  “Let’s wait and see how things play out for a few days,” he suggested. “I honestly don’t think we’ll be in danger of anything happening right away. Fall’s practi
cally here and we all have school exams then, including the Three D’s. I think it’ll buy us some time.”

  Colin agreed to Jae’s thinking and they slipped inside the Mochrie house.

  Meghan was not home. They made an excuse at the dinner table thirty minutes later when she still had not returned. After dinner, Mireya headed off to meet a friend down by the wharf. Jae sat at the kitchen table working on schoolwork. Colin paced the kitchen trying to reach out for his sister; he could sense her, but she was getting better at blocking him for longer periods of time. The house was deafeningly quiet.

  And then, it was not quiet. Distant screams echoed through the open windows.

  “What on earth?” asked Sheila Mochrie, from the back of the house. Irving Mochrie rushed out of the cottage to investigate, followed by Sheila, Colin and Jae.

  Billows of smoke were rising from the ocean shore.

  “The wharf, something’s happening at the wharf!” Sheila screamed, charging down the road, panicked; that’s where her daughter was supposed to be.

  Irving ran back inside, before following Sheila, hooking a belt over his shoulder. Colin and Jae followed his mother. Neighbors flew out of their homes and very swiftly, a crowd raced toward the wharf. Colin was horrified to see they were preparing themselves for a battle. They each wore belts like Irving’s over their shoulders. Most contained lines of pockets, with vials stuffed inside.

  Jae explained as they ran to the wharf.

  “Some carry potions, some weapons, and some store magical energy, so when they tire they have a backup supply.”

  As they neared the wharf, uniformed men and woman popped in out of thin air. Colin heard someone say, “The Balaton are here, let them survey the situation before we all go running in.” He threw Jae a questioning look.

  “Balaton are our version of police.”

  Colin had assumed as much.

  The Balaton made a line, each with a palm raised, poised for battle.

  Children were screaming and running to find their parents. None of the Svoda could imagine what enemy they could be up against. Nothing had ever penetrated the wagon’s borders before.

  Mireya appeared, out of breath, yelling over the screams and chaos.