IV

All Rights Reserved ®

 

 

Shelby Crouch

 

 

March 2013

 

 

 

 

Chapter IV

 

 

 

 

 

The others refused to leave me alone that night. I mean all in one day, I had almost been killed by my father, then my Gram's fainted after spitting our what may have been a prophecy. I think I can see why they were still here.

 

 

Scarlett was leaning her head against a window, her eyes shut. Ace was lounging on my bed, singing some pop song that I had never heard of.

 

 

Xavier and Christian were both on the floor, playing with a deck of cards. I was pacing the other side of the room, wanting them to leave so I could think freely about what Grams had said.

 

 

“Peyton, are you okay? I mean your Grandma just like, fainted.” Ace looked at me with worry in her blue eyes.

 

 

“I'm fine, the EMTs said she was gonna be okay. I believe them.” I gave her a smile that I hoped she couldn't see right through. I had my doubts about her well-being, but I wasn't about to share them aloud. I turned my back to her and opened the curtain to the other window and looked outside. A shape moved and I looked closer. My father was outside my house.

 

 

I gasped in shock and flung the curtain shut, jumping backwards on my bed a little.

 

 

Three pairs of eyes looked at me, Scarlett just yawned and ignored me.

 

 

“What happened?” Ace was standing in front of me, her hands ready to use her magic to hurt somebody.

 

 

“My father, he was outside.”

 

 

Xavier and Christian were pushing Scarlett out of the way and glancing out the window. Ace was doing the same thing with the window next to me.

 

 

“I don't see him now. That witch hunter is not going to stop, now that he knows who you are. You can only be safe with us.” Ace gave me a small smile and I leaned backwards on my bed, covering my head with my pillow. I didn't need bodyguards, yet that's exactly what I was going to have.

 

 

I had to get out of this room, Grams must have been hiding something from me, right? She knew what the necklace had meant the whole time, and only did something when I brought it home with me, she knew something, she just didn't tell me, because she hated me. Or at least what I became.

 

 

I turned to walk out the door, with Ace following my every move. “Do you really have to follow me Ace? I'm going to go to the bathroom, and I can do it in private.” I gave her a look that she didn't appreciate.

 

 

She glared at me, but stayed in the room, and I shut the door behind myself. I walked into Gram's room and shut the door quietly. I had no idea what I was looking for, but I was going to find something.

 

 

I ran over to the nightstand and tore through the drawers, searching for something that might explain something to me. Anything, about who I was, about my father, about my mother, about this whole witch business. Something that made me think that someone besides four strangers knew what was happening to me, because this was straight up crazy.

 

 

Psychotic witch hunter fathers, mothers in insane asylums who have freak screaming fits, secretaries with gleaming eyes, glowing symbols, and fainting prophecy spewing grandmothers. This was so crazy that it could have been a dream, maybe it was. I was past being able to tell the difference. I felt a tear escape from the corner of my eye and I wiped it away.

 

 

But they kept coming, I opened the top drawer and stared at the contents for a minute, before I began to dig through them, just wanting to find something, anything.

 

 

I tore through the drawers for a good ten minutes, tears streaming down my cheeks, blurring my vision. I fell to my knees in front of the nightstand, trying to keep from screaming. Why couldn't something just work with me for once? Just let me win, for once in this crazy life.

 

 

 Then I heard it, a sound like something scratching in the nightstand. I sat up, and cautiously began to move things around in the top drawer. I made it all the way to the bottom, which is when I found a white star, glowing bright as bright can get.

 

 

Surrounding it was a circle, and then a dark black square, with a hinge on one side of it. I pried up the little square, and it sitting underneath of the thin wood.

 

 

A black book, with cracked leather, and was about the size of a pocket dictionary, sat in the little square. It was about a inch and a half thick, with words written in perfect calligraphy in what looked to be black or dark brown ink. The pages were faded and yellowing on the edges.

 

 

I picked it up, and a letter fell out, sliding to the floor. It was addressed to me. How cliche, right?

 

With shaking fingers, I opened the letter, to find the loopy scrawl of my Gram's handwriting.

 

Peyton,

You reading this means that something I've tried to keep from you is happening. Your destiny is unraveling before you and its not an easy one. Being born from the lines that you were born, you have a choice you need to make, and no one can choose for you.

 

I love you and I always will and I can only hope that this book can point you in the right direction. Learn who your friends are, you're going to need them later on. Just follow your heart.

 

 

I stared down at the letter, fresh tears coming from my eyes. All those months she avoided me, I was sure that she hated me. Hated me like a cat hates water. But she didn't, she loved me just like she always had, and right now she may be dying in a hospital bed.

 

 

I heard a knock on the door, and quickly shoved the letter back into the envelope and wiped away my tears.

 

“Peyton? Are you okay? We didn't know what happened to you.” Xavier stood in the doorway, his face concerned. He walked over to me, and he saw the book in my hand. “Is that a family spell-book? Every family has one, but no one has found one yet, but we've all heard of them.”

 

 

“Yeah, I guess it is.” I stared at the cover, which also had the star with a circle around it, i traced it absentmindedly with a finger.

 

 

"That's a pentagram, a symbol for witches. We also use them for spells, it keeps stray magic from harming people, like in the school. One point stands for each of the elements that make up the coven. You are the missing point to our pentagram."

 

 

I let out a small sarcastic laugh, which bordered on hysteria, and I began to cry again, right in front of Xavier. I never cried in front of people, never.

 

 

Xavier sank down to the floor next to me, and wrapped an arm around my shoulders. It was oddly comforting, even though I didn't know him that well.

 

 

“You know, Christian had a hard time adjusting when he came to us as well. He had just lost both his parents to a fire, which was caused by witch hunters, like your father. He didn't want any part of this either, so all of, we aren't that different.” His voice was soft, and I closed my eyes. I felt a soft breeze, it went across my face, and lifted my hair.

 

 

I looked up at Xavier, his face was inches from mine. He leaned closer, the breeze turning warm, and I wondered for half a second where it was coming from, there weren't any open windows, then it clicked. Xavier.

 

 

“Peyton..” He let the word hang in the air before he closed the space between us, his lips meeting mine. You know when they say when you have your first kiss that sparks fly? This was almost like that, except it was more like electricity, a shocking but not painful sensation flowing through the me.

 

 

He pulled away and I looked up, to see a figure dressed in black disappear down the hallway. Christian. Great, I was making a mess of things, wasn't I? I turned to stare back at the nightstand, but the glowing symbol was gone, and there was no trace of it.

 

 

That wasn't the least of my worries. I stared up at Xavier, “That was Christian, wasn't it?”

 

 

“Don't worry about him, he's just being broody.” He took my hand in his and I felt the same electricity running through my veins, like Christian had said, my power meeting someone else's. Christian. This was wrong, I felt something for Xavier, yeah, but I think I may have some for Christian as well. Maybe. I don't know, ugh this is so confusing. Why can't they just all leave me alone? That  would make things simpler.

 

 

He leaned towards me again, and I sucked in a sharp breath. “I don't think this is right.” The breeze stopped dead in its tracks. Xavier avoided my gaze.

 

 

“Okay.”

 

 

I knew it wasn't, but right then, I had bigger problems. I felt the oddest sensation, like it was too silent. I slight buzz in the air, like I was underwater, and a boat was somewhere else, its motor buzzing. I didn't hear birds, or the neighborhood dogs barking. Nothing.

 

 

Then the windows imploded, spraying glass all over the room, and over me as well as Xavier. He grabbed me and shoved me out of the way, just as a second explosion hit, the force knocking Xavier to the floor where he didn't move.

 

 

I bent down next to him, shaking him. “Xavier! Xavier, wake up!” I shook him harder. Blood was running down the entire right side of his face, small pieces of glass sticking to his skin. No one came looking for us, what did that mean?

 

 

Where were the others? Were they okay? Were they hurt? Dead? Being tortured? Who was doing this?

 

 

Then a figure appeared before me in the window, a black figure made unrecognizable from the bright light of the sun behind him. He laughed, a deep, cold-hearted laugh.

 

 

He stepped forwards again and I could see his face, with the creepiest grin imaginable. It was my father, scars and all. I recognized what the silence had been before, it was the silence before the storm, and now, I was in the eye of the hurricane.