by R Corona
The Magician’s Home
By R. Corona
THE MAGICIAN’S HOME
Copyright © 2015 by R. Corona
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher
except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. For permission requests, contact the publisher. Distributed in the United States of America.
First Printing, 2015
For those who have ever lent their voices to tell me a story.
Part I
The House
The coldness of the Dark Hall took my bones prisoner, numbing the blood within me. Immobilized, the darkness took advantage of me. Its profound embrace seized my movements, thoughts and emotions. In shivers, my eyes began adapting to the lack of lighting.
“Close your eyes,” Dez’ commanding tone hid the nervousness which ate away his spirit. The imbalance of energy was palpable. Even in the midst of obscurity, I could feel their bodies surrounding me; they were all here. Flows of energy bounced up and down, leaping around me; teasing my memories. “Now.” He cleared his throat, “Tell us what you remember.” His voice, ravished by fear, begged for my memories to reveal themselves. “Without your memories, our voyage to Fexorrous will be unsuccessful.” Dez pleaded again, “The members and I need you to remember.”
Solely in the presence of my eyes, a light source expanded itself, like a broken raindrop. Its power outlined my body and created a bubble of images. “It’s starting Dez. I can see.”
***
The darkness of the night surrounded me as I rushed into the Plains. The noise of their voices had ceased, but even then, I ran. A friendly breeze pushed me farther away from the House but I could never get far enough. It followed me, and its presence reminded me that my life was nothing but an illusion. Certainty had consumed my mind. It was the only thing left of me: the certainty that I knew less than nothing. The moonless night grew denser, allowing for a simple idea to visit the aching emptiness of my mind. Here…it had all started here at the Plains, where he fed my doubts in the form of dreams.
Chapter One
The Plains had become a familiar path by now. The stickiness of the hot air was like a friend I could, almost always, count on to show up in the most miserable moments of my life. It hadn’t been different that day. The warm gush of air was there to comb my auburn locks while I ran. As rough sand particles brushed against the skin of my face, a small thought in the back of my mind grew into a desire–almost a need to evaporate from the face of the universe, like the dewdrops on the grassland. Surrounded by the sun-dried grass, my body collapsed. Tears streamed from my eyes, cooling my red-hot cheeks. I wouldn’t cry, not this time. I sprang up and continued to run– pretending it was possible to run away from the shame of being neglected, or from the pain harvesting inside. It was silly of me.
The anger was towards myself, because I had rejoiced in their lies; consumed by the thought of what could be. Now, what consumed me was a loathsome feeling of hate. A sensation which, sadly, didn’t last long. I lacked the ability of retaining those juicy feelings of anger and hate. My legs ran faster, while past thoughts cluttered my mind.
During the last five years, living with Aunt Marcelle and Leev had been a blessing. They didn’t deserve my feelings of disappointment. Unlike my parents and I, Aunt Marcelle and Leev were a true family. Naively, I believed my parents finally wanted to settle down, to find me. After five years, we were going to spend the summer together; we were going to be a family too. It would be different this time. I dreamt of seeing each other once again.
Weeks went by after receiving the news from Aunt Marcelle. Naturally, I felt ecstatic at the thought of seeing my mother and father. Not a day in the five years had gone by without missing them or wondering what had become of them. I never understood why they had left me. But in the past three months their true intentions had been exposed, along with their lies. The sporadic calls grew less frequent until they became nonexistent. In that time, Aunt Marcelle and my cousin Leev had moved to a new town called South Ranches. Aunt Marcelle had tried to contact them numerous times to inform them of our move, but our calls were not important enough to reach them. We weren’t important enough. The source of my anger outburst did not come from the realization that they didn’t care about me. It came from discovering that I didn’t care. Not caring irritated me!
While searching for the shade of a tree, a queasy feeling overcame my body and began to drain my energy. There was only one tree close to the Plains. I stopped running and walked towards it, panting, suffocated, tired as I had never felt after a run. The exhaustion caused me to drop to my knees as soon as I stepped out of the sun’s inferno. My head fell softly on the brown tree-trunk. Leisurely, my eyes closed as the summery breeze caressed the warmth of my skin. While laying next to the tree, a strange and hypnotizing sound flowed harmoniously into my ears–I didn’t know it then, but his plan had just taken off:
“June, dear sweet June,” whispered a disembodied, masculine voice. “Don’t be afraid, just listen.” My body cringed at the feeling of being watched. Searching for the source of the voice, I strained to turn my head. All of me had been paralyzed. I could not move! Then, a fixed vision emerged from the Plains; the most astounding thing ever witnessed.
Suspended above green freshness, it stood alone. The mansion naturally shimmered, as the moon itself. Glazed in an icy-white color, it reflected its own shine through the glass windows. There were entryways on different sides of the round-like structure. The doors were made of cherry wood and the handles were carved from ivory. A fresh paradise enclosed the house, gardens invaded by monarch butterflies and sea-blue flower buds.
“You have a home here, June, your personal sanctuary; seek it.”
Sluggishly, my eyes opened and the illusion vanished. My dream had come to an end and so had the daylight–Oh no, Not good…I wished for wings to fly home, but nothing had ever gone my way and that day wasn’t the exception. The moonlight mirrored on rain puddles along the streets, guiding my frantic steps. The feeling of going back to the place called home was horrid, not because I didn’t love my aunt and cousin, but because my true home was out on the Plains. Nothing brought me more joy than its breezy, quiet hours of darkness. Amidst the dry grass, my energy balanced, expanding outwards in proximity to the celestial bodies that brightened my nights and days. Contemplating the past lights of the universe, I imagined could control them.
The opening of our house’s back entrance startled me. My eyes turned at the sound my cousin’s voice. “There you are! What is today’s excuse?” Leev stood by the kitchen door. A yellow blanket dragged behind her feet as we came inside.
“—still awake?” Stating the obvious was sometimes helpful when arguing with Leev; tonight that wasn’t the case.
Her eyes rolled down from the top of my hat to the mud on the floor carried in by my dirty sneakers. “Where were you?” The irritation in her voice grew as she spoke. “I have been worried sick about you! What’s going on? This whole week you’ve been coming late. What am I going to tell my mother?” She focused her attention on a pot of boiling water.
“Did she find out?” My voice was dim, almost soundless. Suddenly the reason for going to the Plains had vanished. All that remained in my mind was the House of the dream.
“Luckily for you, she came home with a huge migraine and went straight to bed. What am I going to say if she does find out?” Leev’s pitch became higher as she poured the bubbling water on a mug.
“Why are you making such a big deal out of this? It’s not like I robbed a bank or killed someone, Leev. Would you calm down? Aunt Marcelle won’t find out—well that�
�s if you stop screaming.” I searched my brain trying to find the words to ease her mind. “Look, I’m sorry. Time went by…it won’t happen again. Promise.”
“I’m almost twenty and I don’t come home this late.” Leev lowered her voice and submerged a tea bag into the mug. “But that’s not the point. We’re like sisters. There’s nothing you should hide from me.” The smell of peppermint seeped out into the room and the air became infused with its flavor. “Help me understand why you would go to that deserted place, away from everyone. — I’m always here to talk, to listen.” Her narrow green eyes glistened with intrigue. “Don’t tell me you didn’t go because I can tell by the color on your shoes. Something’s wrong. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have stayed so late.” Leev raised her arm and rested it on my shoulder, waiting for an explanation.
“I did go.” My head dropped, heavy with embarrassment. Leev loved to listen to other people’s problems and concerns, and I hated sharing them. By running, they evaporated away. It was my way of dealing with…mostly myself. She couldn’t understand why the Plains were so important to me and whatever Leev couldn’t understand, she disliked. “I can’t help it, being between these four walls, makes me go nuts and today I just couldn’t take it anymore.” That wasn’t a lie, but it also wasn’t entirely true. Still there were questions about why or how, but for the first time ever I had fallen asleep on the Plains. Letting Leev know would have been less than necessary.
“Oh June,” Leev hugged me. “Is this about your parents?”– Oh yeah, Leev was psychic. The kind that accidentally stumbled upon my hidden emotions. The fake kind. Her question brought back the feelings I had tried to leave behind on the Plains.
It took a while to answer back, “My parents?” A troubling thought visited me suddenly. It should have been the first thing on my mind, but I was predisposed to blame everything on them. The idea moved through me and chilled my skin. “Something bad happened to them. That’s why they haven’t been able to communicate. Leev what if, what if…?” Tears began to build up again but I managed to retain them.
“No, June. Don’t do that.” Leev warned. She handed me the warm mug and started preparing one for herself. “Those thoughts will eat you alive from the inside out. Besides, haven’t you heard that saying; bad news travel fast, or something of the sort?” She was right. How could it surprise me anymore? They had always been careless. “None of this is your fault.” She took a sip of the tea and continued, "Frankly, you should put it behind. Mom and I will always be here for you. We will never leave.”
“It doesn’t bother me anymore, not as much as it used to. I’ve become immune to them.”
My comment made Leev laugh, she blinked and then hugged me. “I’ll let you go. You must be tired. Think about what I said, ok? I’m more than happy to listen; you shouldn’t keep anything bottled up.” Her eyes almost closed with exhaustion.
“Ok, off to bed now.” I set the cup of tea down and began to push her up the stairs. She sank into the bed when I left her in her room.
The touch of my bed sheets promised a profound sleep, hopefully restful–but I would never rest again, because my dreams were now his. By the middle of the night my mouth felt parched. Leaving the tenderness of my bed for a glass of water proved to be a challenging task. I waited for my eyes to adjust to the darkness, but having walked down the stairs, not a ray of light could be seen. A blackout maybe. The power came back when I was past the living room. Forgetting my initial purpose to quench my thirst, I returned to the bottom of the stairs. The walls were tinted with different colors; it was as if a rainbow had blown up inside the house. The arrangement of the furniture had changed, the TV was gone, and Aunt Marcelle’s Australian face masks were also gone.
The walls started to change colors. The colors blended to form the shade of dried grass, and a clear blue sky. I could see, I could clearly see, the Plains; where his voice had visited me earlier. The picture of the Plains was then, abruptly, ruptured by whiteness. It later condensed into its perfect form; the white mansion, the House. Alternating changes in the sceneries of the walls amused me until I became unaware of myself.
“There’s more June, more than you’d ever imagine.” With the same tone as before, the voice called deep into my being. A calling, which fascinated my ears and scared my soul. The origin of the voice absorbed my attention. Could it be that it was real or was it merely in my head, only for my mind to hear? A sudden realization of self, electrified my senses. I was taken into a lucidly, unconscious state where I couldn’t be anything but what I could ever be.
How had I gotten inside the House? The voice faded into the colorful background, but the thought of it was now, unexplainably, terrifying. The fear was fed while thinking of the ways in which it called my name. It wasn’t real, none of it was and the uncertainty before me was the root of the fear. I fell into a struggle to uncover reality from all the illusion around me. Could one be awakened even if this wasn’t a dream? Still inside the House, I searched for a way out. Out of the House, out of the dream. There was only one door in that universe of fuzziness; I only hoped it led outside. The blurriness was practically blinding my eyesight. The door seemed to be so far away. I stepped on the next tile in an effort to pursue it. Oddly, the door appeared right in front of me. It had been one step away. Pulling the handle did not work, neither did banging on the wood. Soundless noises came from my mouth. They cursed the door and what was hiding behind it. Then, soft knocks broke through the silent breakdown, but they weren’t mine.
The sound of a familiar voice made me feel at ease, it made me want to find it. Her voice was sweet and comforting; precious. Sun rays peeked through the thin curtains, filling the room with warmth. “I’m sorry to wake you.” She walked inside, pulling me out with her presence. My dreams had always been vivid, but this was more than a dream, it was a hallucination: an invite into a world of adventure—maybe it was a warning. But the House was beautiful, where was it and why was I dreaming about it? And, and the Voice…
“Just a strange dream.” I sighed.
“Welcome back to reality, June.” Aunt Marcelle walked forwards bearing a cheery smile. “I didn’t want to leave for work without stopping by.”
“Yes, I heard about your headache. You have been having many headaches recently. A stop by the doctor's office would do you well.”
“Oh, June,” She sat at the foot of my bed and continued to speak, “I’m fine. I’ve just been thinking too much.”
“Thinking, huh? Aunt Marcelle, what can possibly trouble you?” She was the most peaceful person I knew. Not much bothered her and so, I planned on never disrupting her peace because it was precious. Hopefully, Leev hadn't opened her big mouth. Rising from my bed, I noticed a change in her expression.
Her eyebrows lowered and she whispered softly, “Remembering, that’s all. The summer always comes bursting with memories of my childhood.” Aunt Marcelle stared out the window. Their childhood was barely spoken about since our family preferred not to dwell on the past. Aunt Marcelle and my mother were cousins; her mother and my grandfather were brother and sister. Both my grandparents had passed away before I met them, but according to Aunt Marcelle’s mother, they were living in another land. One day, I would get to visit. Aunt Marcelle’s mom had always treated me as her granddaughter. From an early age she encouraged me to call her Granny, just as Leev did.
“How come you never speak about your summers as a kid? Your memories must be amazingly good ones, considering those headaches.” I stepped to the side and began to make the bed. “That must mean you gave Granny some headaches too,” A giggle escaped me. “Come on, tell me. What did you and mom do that still makes your head spin?”
Aunt Marcelle softly chuckled, “June, you come up with such things. It’s nothing, really.” Her smile faded away quickly. She stood from the bed and left, insisting Leev needed help setting the table for breakfast. I had never considered the fact that Aunt Marcelle acted extraordinarily odd at times. Her moments of sorrow were
never grave enough to stain her overall happiness, yet there was something in her glance which implied that she concealed a painful burden. The glance struck me from time to time; when she thought of what troubled her.
Breakfast would be ready soon. I grabbed my green, knee-length skirt, a white shirt and my top hat. My mother had told me that my grandpa had left it especially for me. Because I needed it. He was right. The hat is the most valuable thing I possess. A bright-red, velvet stripe hugs the chocolate-brown bottom. On the top, it displays a yellow-mustard and lime, square pattern. The hat completes me. After tying my sneakers, I went down for breakfast.
Aunt Marcelle sat next to Leev, listening to her argue about how much she wanted to return to our house in the city. I missed the city as well but there were greater concerns haunting my mind. Taking a seat next to them, I took the opportunity to set aside some of my worries. “Have you ever seen a white house, in this town?”
“Maybe, I guess so,” Aunt Marcelle swallowed her scrambled eggs, not giving much thought to my answer. Her sleek hair fell backwards on the shoulders of a white, suit blazer.
“No, no.” I tried to explain, “Like a stunning residence, like a mansion, like… a gorgeous house. The most intriguing, most spectacular house ever.”
Leev and Aunt Marcelle glanced at each other, then eyed me. “Alright what’s going on in that head of yours?” Aunt Marcelle asked before rising from her chair and taking one last sip from her mug.
“Nothing. Just wondering.”
“Yup,” Leev chuckled, “We all know what happens when June wonders.”
When we finished eating breakfast, Aunt Marcelle excused herself and went to work. I began to clear the table as Leev cleaned the dishes. “You know, June, I’m actually excited about my new job interview today. I cannot wait to start working. The boredom is making me go nuts!” Leev yelled from the kitchen. “Can you believe we’ve lasted three months here? It’s my mother’s hometown and everything, but this place is just creepy. Besides, for a hometown, no one even remembers her as a child!”
