Phoenix and the Dark Star

by Gerald Pruett

  “Okay, well, for the rings, as long as you can legibly draw those two symbols tiny enough on the band—which I have seen people do successfully—it will work.”

  “Cool,” Ellen said as she laid the necklace on the table.

  “I’ve seen that incantation fail also,” Blaire quickly informed. “Some people just can’t draw tiny enough.”

  Ellen nodded before saying, “I want to try.”

  “Okay,” Blaire said. “Let’s get started.”

  “You don’t need me,” Allyson pointed out. “In fact, I need to wake up Sonya from her nap; otherwise she’ll have me up all night.”

  As Allyson and Riley were leaving the kitchen, Ellen and Blaire proceeded to cast the incantations.

  Ellen and Blaire were able to reload the blow-back incantation onto the ruby-heart necklace, successfully linked the blow-back incantation to the three rings, removed the six amethyst stones from one of the two bracelets and linked the illusion spell to only that bracelet before Andie’s mother rang the doorbell.

  After Andie had left—while taking the movies ‘Skeleton Key’ and ‘Hereafter’ with her—Ellen and Blaire linked the four remaining incantations to four of the six amethyst stones.

  Before Ellen had a chance to start gluing the amethyst stones back in place, Blaire suggested, “We should link spells to the remaining two stones before we glue them back in place. So what other incantations would you like to activate with simple commands?”

  Ellen shrugged before asking, “What are the common ones used?”

  “You had already linked two of the common ones to tokens,” Blaire informed. “Which were the telekinetic incantation and the blow-back incantation. Another common one is to catch something small and flammable on fire. You don’t need any of the animal incantations.” Blaire sighed. “I know there are more that don’t have a one-time use to them, but I can’t think of them.”

  “Okay, well, let’s do that fire one, and I’ll worry about the last stone later,” Ellen said.

  “Alright,” Blaire agreed. “I don’t have the spell with me, so I’ll be giving it to you from memory.”

  Ellen nodded while saying, “Okay.”

  Before Blaire could instruct Ellen, Ellen picked up one of the two remaining amethyst stones and smeared her blood on it.

  Blaire grinned before instructing, “Repeat what I say.” Ellen nodded before Blaire continued.

  Minutes later, after all the amethyst stones were glued back in place, Ellen stepped into the back yard to test each of the spells. Blaire, Harris and Devon had followed her out.

  Ellen tested the whirlwind first while standing ten feet from the house. Harris, Blaire and Devon stood near the back door.

  The activation phrase was short, and the wind came quickly while forming a severe dust devil that was twenty-five feet in diameter. Ellen stood untouched at its core as dust, dead leaves, small rocks, twigs, broken branches and anything lighter than two pounds that happened to have been within the yard, circled around her.

  When small rocks, twigs and broken branches began to bombard Harris, Blaire, Devon and the windows of the house, Ellen uttered, “Oh shit!”

  “Quickly move away from the house!” Devon quickly instructed as he, Harris and Blaire shielded themselves from the flying debris.

  As Ellen moved quickly away from the house, so did the whirlwind.

  Once Harris, Blaire, Devon and the house were out of range of the dust devil, and to be heard over the noise that was being generated, Ellen shouted, “How do I stop this?!”

  “You can’t,” Blaire shouted back while staring at her watch. “The wind will have to dissipate on its own.”

  “Hey! You’re the leader of the Raven, Blaire,” Ellen pointed out. “Can you end it?”

  “Ellen, the neighbors don’t need to hear that,” Harris informed.

  “I’m standing in the middle of a whirlwind, so I think it’s a little late to be concern about what the neighbors hear or don’t hear,” Ellen retorted.

  “Be patient,” Blaire requested while watching her watch.

  “What are you timing?” Ellen asked.

  “I’m timing your wind’s duration,” Blaire informed.

  Ellen rolled her eyes. An idea then suddenly came to her. She closed her eyes and said the activation phrase for the illusion spell. Ghostly images of cows suddenly appeared while swirling along within the whirlwind.

  “What the…?” Devon uttered after seeing the ghostly images.

  Blaire glanced up to see what Devon was seeing.

  Ellen immediately opened her eyes, and when she saw the images, she uttered proudly, “Hey it worked… kind of!” The images faded quickly. “Well that was extremely short!”

  “I’ll tell you why it was short once this whirlwind ends,” Devon shouted back.

  “Which will…” Ellen got out as the wind began to die down. Ellen continued weakly, “be soon, hopefully.”

  As the dust, the small rocks, twigs and broken branches showered down, Blaire informed, “Two minutes and thirty-two seconds.”

  “Okay,” Ellen said in an uncertain tone while walking towards the house. “And why is that important to know?”

  “Because now you know that you have two and a half minutes to really perform,” Blaire replied.

  “Perform?” Ellen questioned in a confused tone. “Perform what?”

  “You did the right thing, Ellen, when you had cast that illusion spell while standing in the whirlwind,” Blaire informed. “However, next time it won’t be phantom cows…”

  “Well, they weren’t supposed to have been phantoms,” Ellen defended as she was stepping up to them.

  “I figured as much,” Blaire amusingly said. “In any case, you’ll want to put the fear of God into your intended audience. And to do that, you’ll want to imagine that the whirlwind has grown into a tornado with lightning, and you’ll have two and a half minutes to really sell it.”

  “Okay, well, with how fast my illusion had vanished, I doubt that I’ll be able to sell it at all,” Ellen retorted.

  “Your illusion had vanished because you had allowed it to drop from your mind,” Devon was the one to inform. Ellen shot him a confused look. “When you create an illusion, you must hold the image in your head. And with that said imagine that you see a… a skeleton next to me. Hold that image and say the command to create the illusion.” Ellen nodded before shutting her eyes. “Keep your eyes open when you do it.” Ellen opened her eyes before shooting him a curious look. “You must imagine it—imagine that there’s a skeleton standing next to me—with your eyes open.”

  “Okay,” Ellen agreed skeptically before concentrating on creating the image in her head.

  With her eyes open, Ellen imagined that there was a skeleton next to Devon, and while holding that image in her head for a brief moment, she activated the spell. A ghostly figure of a distorted skeleton immediately appeared at Devon’s right side.

  “Good,” Devon praised. “Now hold it as long as you can.”

  Ellen took a breath and unconsciously held it as she concentrated on maintaining the phantom image.

  “Breathe,” Blaire told Ellen. “You don’t want to pass out.”

  When Ellen took a breath, she lost the ghostly image.

  “And I lost it,” Ellen announced.

  “You’ll do better after you have cast the spell that will sharpen your mental images,” Devon assured her.

  Before Ellen could respond, Blaire added, “Meanwhile, let’s test your telekinetic ability.” Blaire then gestured towards the yard. “Pick up one of those branches out in the yard and throw it.”

  Ellen looked towards the yard for a moment before a pleasant grin came across her face.

  “What are…?” Blaire was only able to get out before Ellen stretched her hand out in front of her and said the command phrase to mentally grab a branch from the yard, followed quickly by the command phrase to throw it.

  The branch shot into the air and tumbled
end over end as it came quickly towards Ellen.

  “Duck!” Harris commanded as he proceeded to do so.

  Blaire and Devon went to evade the branch as well. Ellen calmly stood her ground, and when the branch was five feet from her, she quickly restated the command phrase to mentally grab the branch. The branch immediately stopped and suspended itself in midair while only three feet from Ellen’s face.

  “Cool, it actually worked!” Ellen uttered as she stepped up to the branch and physically took hold of it.

  “How did you get that to come to you?” Harris quickly asked as he stood upright.

  “I figured that since the target is what I was looking at, at the time I said the throwing command phrase, then I could get it to come to me by looking at my hand and saying the command phrase,” Ellen explained.

  “A little warning would’ve been nice before testing a tricky maneuver like that,” Devon informed.

  “Sorry,” Ellen told Devon while tossing the branch to the ground. “Now I want to test the fire spell on this branch.”

  Devon gestured towards the branch while saying, “Do it.”

  Ellen nodded before saying the command phrase. Immediately following, the branch whooshed into a flame from end to end.

  After a second of staring at it, Ellen informed, “I don’t have the spell to put it out. I guess that should’ve been the last token on my bracelet.”

  Blaire grinned before saying the two-verse spell that immediately put the fire out. She then looked at Ellen and said, “I didn’t suggest that as a token because the spell is short and simple. And it is only good for very small fires—fires that can be put out with stomping of the feet if necessary.”

  “Gotcha,” Ellen said. “I guess that the only token left to test is the token for speed.”

  “Are you sure that you want to test that one?” Blaire questioned.

  “I need to find out if it works,” Ellen replied. “And I’ll be careful.”

  “It’s totally your choice, but that spell can be a dangerous one,” Blaire reminded her.

  “I remember what you had said earlier,” Ellen said. “I want to test it though.”

  “Okay,” Blaire said.

  Ellen nodded before saying the command phrase. Suddenly—in Ellen’s perspective—the speed to everything around her had slowed down beyond a crawl.

  “What the hell,” Ellen said as she found breathing normally slightly difficult. She then discovered that slow easy breaths were the best.

  Again to Ellen’s perspective, Ellen moved slowly through the slightly-thicker-than-normal-air until she was behind Harris, Blaire and Devon.

  Harris, Blaire and Devon—while in an extremely slow motion—attempted to follow Ellen’s movements. Suddenly everything returned to its normal speed and Harris, Blaire and Devon swung quickly around until they were facing Ellen. Ellen closed her eyes and grabbed her head as if she was in pain.

  “Ellen?” Harris questioned.

  “I’m fine,” Ellen claimed. “A pain shot through my head as if I had eaten ice cream too fast. It’s going away. So I’m good.” As Ellen dropped her hands, Harris, Blaire and Devon looked curiously at her. Ellen caught the looks and again claimed, “I’m good.”

  “Ellen, your face is a dull red,” Harris informed.

  “Almost chapped looking,” Devon added. “Not that I’m calling you a chap.”

  Ellen felt her face before saying, “It does have a slight sunburn sting to it.”

  “A friction burn,” Blaire supplied. “You definitely don’t want to do that too many times.”

  “I guess I should put lotion on my face,” Ellen thought aloud.

  “We’ll use the healing spell on you,” Blaire informed. “You’ll be okay.”

  Ellen nodded with a slight grin.

  “That was the last incantation that needed testing,” Devon said before opening the back door and gesturing for Ellen to go in first. “So let’s go inside and cast the incantation that will sharpen the images of your mind.”

  Ellen nodded with a grin before stepping into the kitchen from the back door.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  As Ellen, Harris, Blaire and Devon were joining the others in the living room, Winona—after seeing Ellen’s face—asked, “What’s wrong with your face, Ellen?”

  “A slight friction burn,” Ellen informed. “I’m fine though. It just feels as if I had stayed out in the sun a little too long.”

  “How did it happen?” Sadie asked.

  “I was testing that speed spell and moving faster than human speeds,” Ellen explained. “Although to me, I felt as if I was moving normally and everything around me was moving extremely slow.”

  “You’re human and humans are not capable of with-standing those fast speeds,” Winona pointed out.

  “Yes, I figured that out from the friction burn on my face,” Ellen said while trying not to sound sarcastic.

  “Not just friction burns,” Winona retorted. “Sudden stops and starts to and from extremely fast speeds could cause a concussion and possibly injuries to your organs. Of course I’m no doctor, so I’m just guessing here.”

  Ellen thought it over for a brief moment before saying, “Okay, well, I’m planning not to use this spell anymore unless I absolutely have to.”

  “Good,” Winona said with a slight grin.

  “Okay, well, Ellen has one more spell to cast and a healing spell to be cast on her and then we’ll be off to the salvage yard,” Blaire said.

  “No one else is going to link these spells to tokens?” Ellen quickly asked.

  “We should,” Harris strongly agreed. “I’ll go out and grab rocks from the flowerbed next door and we can link the spells to them.”

  “I’ll help you,” Galvin volunteered.

  “We might as well help,” Devon said while indicating to Trevor and himself.

  “Okay, Ellen,” Blaire began as Harris, Jessica, Karla, Trevor, Devon, Galvin, Winona and Cory walked towards the door. “While they’re out collecting rocks, let’s go in the dining room.”

  “Okay,” Ellen agreed before she and Blaire walked towards the dining room.

  The spell that would sharpen images of Ellen’s mind was twelve verses long, and once it was completed, Ellen tested the illusion spell again.

  As before with Devon, Ellen imagined a skeleton next to Blaire, but this time, it wasn’t distorted nor did she lose the image after a few seconds.

  Once Ellen had allowed the image to fade from sight, after holding it for longer than three minutes, Blaire moved onto the healing spell. The healing spell didn’t take long to do, and once it was done, Ellen’s face looked normal.

  Harris and the others collected over sixty white gravel rocks from the neighbor’s flowerbed. The smallest rock was one inch long, one-half inch wide and one-half inch thick while the largest rock was one and one-half inch long, one and one-half inch wide and one-half inch thick.

  Once Harris and the others returned with the rocks, Harris, Jessica, Karla, Sadie, Blaire, Trevor, Devon, Galvin, Winona and Cory each linked the seven spells (The whirlwind spell, the illusion spell, the faster-than-human speed spell, the mentally-grabbing-hold-of-an-object spell, the mentally-throwing-a-mentally-grabbed-object spell, the fire spell and the blow-back spell) to seven of the rocks.

  After all the incantations were cast, everyone, except for Allyson and Sonya, left the house and went to the Salvage yard in his or her own vehicle.

  Wesley and Melanie had arrived at the salvage yard first and after Ellen’s group had gotten there, the Rottweilers, except for Shadow, were let out of their cages.

  Quentin had wanted to stick around and watch, but Blaire, Trevor and Devon had strongly urged him to leave. He left with very little protest, but before he drove off, he slid the two gates close, wrapped the chain around the gates as if he was securing the yard for the night as he always did and placed the heavy pad-lock in position without actually locking it.

  As Quentin was making the sal
vage yard look secure for the night, Ellen led the Rottweilers around the salvage yard while looking for an ambush spot for her trap.

  When Ellen came to the largest spacious part of the yard—a part of the yard that was illuminated by a pole-mounted area light—she ordered the Rottweilers to get out of view within and around the junk cars.

  The others got out of sight as well while making it look as if Ellen was alone within the yard.

  Ellen mentally imagined the details of the wizard’s face to activate her remote viewing psychic ability, and once she knew that the wizard knew where to find her, she paced back and forth within the clearing of the yard. She paced for several minutes before getting bored and sitting down Indian-style on the ground.

  At the hospital, Kristen was called into work a few hours early, and as she was walking from the entrance towards the elevators, April noticed her.

  April—with a slight grin on her face—caught up with Kristen and greeted her with, “Nurse Delaney.”

  “Dr. Robinson,” Kristen greeted as she continued towards the elevators.

  “I met my cousin today—a cousin that I didn’t even know I had,” April shared.

  “Okay,” Kristen said in a confused tone as she looked curiously at April. “Why are you sharing this with me?”

  “My cousin is Ellen Anderson,” April informed.

  Kristen abruptly stopped walking and looked towards April. April stopped as well.

  “Ellen Anderson is your cousin?” Kristen quickly asked.

  “She is, and she had informed me that she’s dating your son,” April shared.

  “Wow!” Kristen uttered in astonishment before moving into whispering distance. Without thinking, Kristen asked, “So are you a witch too?”

  “Excuse me!” April demanded, in an annoyed tone.

  Kristen realized her mistake and poorly tried to cover it up with, “Listen to me stumbling over my words. I meant which side of the family are you to Ellen…?”