“Yes, well, I don’t have to like any of it,” Everett mumbled barely coherently.
“Everett, I know how you feel about witches and wizards, but you had accepted me,” Ellen said.
“Because you were straight with me,” Everett retorted.
“And I’m not now?” Ellen quickly asked.
Everett thought for a second before saying, “I’m not saying that you’re not straight with me.” When Ellen gave him an inquisitive look, he sighed before saying, “I’m just worried that’s all.”
Ellen thought for a second before saying, “You’re worried that I will become evil and if I don’t, you’re worried that I could be killed on the job.”
Everett nodded before saying, “Yes.”
“Yes, well, I feel that I have a good moral compass, and with your help and support I can keep my moral compass pointing in the direction of good,” Ellen began. “As for me getting killed or hurt on the job—if or when I become a police officer—I don’t want that either, so I promise to be careful.”
Ellen took Everett’s hand before continuing, “So please don’t give up on us.”
Everett thought for a second before saying, “I won’t give up on us.”
Ellen pleasantly smiled before giving Everett a kiss. When the kiss ended, Ellen said, “I know you might not like it, but Jessica and Karla are my friends.”
“Right,” Everett said with a polite grin. “That you three are friends, and I won’t try to persuade you otherwise.”
“Thank you,” Ellen pleasantly said.
“So how is Karla coping with her post-possession anyway?”
Ellen grinned before saying, “Good. In fact, most of her memories that she had of being possessed are gone… faded as if it was a hard-to-remember dream.”
“Perhaps she’s the lucky one,” Everett suggested.
“Mmm,” Ellen said in agreement as Danny stepped up. Ellen and Everett turned towards him.
“Hey, Danny,” Ellen and Everett said.
“Hey,” Danny echoed as Ellen was looking around and noticing how moderately crowded that the corridor was becoming. “So how was your two’s weekend?”
Danny saw the ‘not going to tell’ look that Ellen shot Everett before saying, “Good. How was yours?”
Danny gave her a curious look before saying, “It was okay. I visited my grandma in Jacksonville.”
“Cool,” Ellen said before moving to open her locker.
Once Ellen and Everett were done at their lockers, Everett walked Ellen to her first class.
During the walk, Ellen volunteered, “Before Jessica, Karla and I went to our beds last night we talked. We believe that casting spells to obtain riches, power and better health is the road that can turn an uncorrupt wizard into a corrupt wizard, so we agreed to adopt the rule from the show ‘Charmed’.”
“Which rule is that?” Everett asked.
“With the sole exception of casting defensive spells on ourselves—for protection against sinister wizards—we agreed not to cast spells for personal gain.”
Everett grinned before saying, “I’m glad to hear that you three are taking steps to stay off that… that road of corruption.”
Ellen took and held Everett’s hand while saying, “That’s definitely a road that I want to stay off of.” Everett shot Ellen a pleasant smile. “Jessica and Karla want to stay off of that road as well.”
Everett slightly hesitated before nodding and saying, “Because of my former belief, I’ll admit that I was unfair to Jessica and Karla. So until I see something sinister about them, I’ll trust your instincts that they are good people.”
Ellen grinned before saying, “Thank you.”
Everett nodded with a grin before starting a different conversation.
Halloween night, Ellen, Everett, Jessica, Karla, Simon and Karla’s date Allen went to a costume party in Allen’s minivan. The house that was hosting the party was not much smaller than Jessica and Karla’s mansion.
Ellen was dressed as a vampire; Everett as a pirate captain; Jessica as super girl; Karla as a female grim reaper; Simon as a doctor and Allen as a cowboy.
As they were walking from the minivan to the house, Karla—as if it was an afterthought—uttered, “Oh, uh, Ellen. Anymore psychic visions?”
“No,” Ellen said sullenly as she glanced nervously towards Allen. Allen didn’t seem to have heard as he was talking to Simon. “Just that one and only time.” Ellen then continued barely loud enough for Everett, Jessica and Karla to hear. “Harris, on the other hand, has learned to move small objects through telekinesis.”
“Jessica and I still haven’t attempted astral projection yet,” Karla said.
“We’re still reading the books on astral projection and self-hypnosis,” Jessica added.
Ellen nodded before saying, “Perhaps I should get books on how to develop my psychic powers.”
“Or maybe you just need to duplicate the conditions of when you had done it,” Jessica suggested.
“And to do that I’ll need to be mentally linked with you and Harris,” Ellen said before they entered the house.
“Perhaps you just need to duplicate your emotions at the time,” Karla suggested.
“I don’t even remember what my emotions were,” Ellen retorted before a man at the door greeted them.
The man was handing out color-coded armbands to indicate who were the minors and who were the adults.
The house was packed with partygoers in assorted costumes, and half of them were friends and classmates from school. The other half were strangers and their ages ranged from fifteen years old to twenty-nine years old. Five thirty-something-year-old adults or older—three men and two women—were there as chaperones.
Against one of the walls of the large party room was a long table, and setting on the long table were two large bowls of non-alcoholic punch and a wide assortment of food.
On the floor next to the long table were two kegs of beer, and the five older adults were taking turns at standing next to the kegs while making sure that the minors stayed sober.
A record DJ was playing CDs on the opposite side of the room, and between the DJ and the food were dancing couples.
As the evening slowly progressed, Ellen, Everett, Jessica, Karla, Simon and Allen socialized, drank punch and danced.
After being there for an hour, Ellen had finally decided to try the barbeque little smokies.
A pallid-looking seventeen-year-old male dressed in everyday clothes stood next to the food table while talking to anyone who would talk to him.
As Ellen was walking up to the table, she noticed that the seventeen-year-old was looking curiously at her.
“Hi,” Ellen told him before she grabbed an empty Styrofoam plate.
“Hello,” the teenager said politely.
“So are you enjoying yourself?” Ellen asked as she filled her plate with little smokies.
“As much as I can.” When Ellen gave him a curious look he supplied, “I don’t really like Halloween.”
“Bad experience?” Ellen asked as she continued to fill her plate.
“You may say that,” he said with an amused grin.
“Mmm, bummer. I actually like Halloween.”
“From your vampire costume, I suspected as much,” he said. Ellen just politely grinned. “Do you really believe that vampires dress like that?” When Ellen gave him a curious look, he added, “If they really exist, of course.”
Ellen slightly grinned before answering, “If they really exist, I bet I couldn’t pick out a vampire if I was standing next to one.”
The teenager amusingly grinned as if he was thinking of an inside joke. He then gestured towards a mirror that showed his and Ellen’s reflections while saying, “At least I know you’re not a vampire.”
Ellen followed his gesture. After seeing what he was talking about she faced the teenager again. “If vampires exist, I have a feeling that them not having reflections is a misunderstanding of the facts.”
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br /> “What do you mean?” he asked curiously.
“If vampires exist then maybe witches exist,” Ellen began. “So perhaps a witch has to cast an incantation on a mirror that would make it capable of reflecting spirits and souls before a vampire’s reflection can’t be seen.” The teenager’s expression went from amusement to an expressionless one. “Of course I’m only fictionalizing and throwing out what-ifs.” When the teenager nodded with a polite grin, Ellen stuck out her hand to shake hands. “I’m Ellen by the way. “
The teenager stared at Ellen’s hand without taking it while saying, “Excuse me for not shaking your hand, but I am a severe germ-a-phobic.”
Ellen dropped her handshake offer before saying, “Hey, it’s fine. Don’t worry about it. So what’s your name?”
He slightly hesitated before lying convincingly, “It’s Patrick.”
“It’s nice to meet you, Patrick.”
“Likewise,” he said. “So do you think that there are witches out there… somewhere?”
A vision of Ellen’s nightmare wizard had flashed across her mind, and in her vision, the wizard was ritually killing someone in New Orleans.
When Ellen saw that the teenager was looking curiously and slight disturbingly at her, she shrugged and questioned rhetorically, “Who knows?” She then quickly gestured towards her group while saying, “I really need to rejoin my friends.”
The teenager politely grinned and nodded while saying, “Of course.”
Ellen nodded with a grin before turning and walking away quickly with her plate of little smokies.
The End?
Other books by Gerald Pruett
A Crossed Reality
Randy, a Harvard student who was ahead of his time in the field of science, set out to prove to his professor that alternate realities were more than science fiction nonsense, and while doing so, he had inadvertently caused himself and six of his friends to switch bodies with their alternate selves of another reality. To make matters worse for Randy’s six friends, Randy, the only one of the seven who could correct the crossed reality, wasn’t attending Harvard nor was he in his hometown.
Published 2009 – ISBN 978-1-926585-20-8
Legacy Page 46
