You looked around and saw no one. You paused, listening carefully but heard nothing and turned back to the book you had found. Opening it, you were immediately bombarded by an eerie dim light. It startled you at first but it quickly faded and you shrugged it off to flip through the pages. As you read the first few pages, though, your face began to turn pale; the contents of each page had an uncanny familiarity to them.
"This page talks about serum making." you whispered. "This page, 'events' or spells... and this page..."
You quickly closed the book, shaking your head. "It can't be..."
You placed the book down then leaned over the coffee table, waving your delicate hand over the center of it. The table top seemed to melt away and a large faded book rose from inside before the table top became solid again. On the cover of the book, in large bold letters was the title, 'The Magic Book'. You took the book into your hands and held it close to your heart. "Is it possible?" whispering, you asked yourself.
The book had been given to you by your Aunt Viva, shortly after your brother, James vanished. At the time, you blamed yourself for it happening, though your dad said it was not your fault. You did not fully understand then what Aunt Viva meant when she spoke to you about it.
"Everything in life occurs for a reason, Jessica." she said. "That is why I am passing this book on to you."
"What is it?" you asked her, curious.
"Something that has been passed down from mother to daughter for centuries in our family." cryptically, Viva replied. She then pointed to you serious. "You must not tell anyone about that book you now possess, especially not your father."
"Why?"
"He's not ready to let go." again, cryptically, Viva replied. "Study and practice the contents of that book well, Jessica, and I promise you it will, someday, save your family."
When you first opened the book, you found instructions to a hidden door in your bedroom and how to gain access to it. Beyond the door, you found a series of secret hallways that moved throughout the house and a secret room in a full attic you did not know was there before. It was already fully equipped with everything any witch could want or need, including libraries of books on the subject of magic. Upon exploring this new floor of the house, you discovered it belonged to mom who had passed away a few short years after your little brother Mat was born. You decided to follow in your mother's footsteps and began to study the curios book inside the secret room.
As time passed, you began to practice and soon love magic and witchcraft. You understood then why you could not tell your family. Your father would have feared for your safety and forbid you to study the magic any further, you were not about to allow that to happen. Volunteering to do help with the house keeping after school was a brilliant plan in your mind to earn some peace so to practice your magic without interruption. In the year that passed since then, you had become quite talented and, thanks to a few successful spells, rather intelligent. Only that had a down side as well. School became too easy, thus slightly boring, as you could teach the teacher a thing or two. Fortunately, at home, you found that just being yourself kept any suspicions from rising.
Returning your mind to the present, you looked at your book then to the one you found and sighed. "I guess there's only one way to be certain."
You placed your book next to the other and opened them both up to compare them to each other. As you did, your eyes widened, a cold chill running down your back. "This is nuts!" your fear and voice rising above a whisper, you said. "These books are practically identical!"
You then held out your hand and concentrated, summoning a bright but harmless flame to your hand, thinking about your discovery. "Have I been studying witchcraft.... or mad science!?!"
Unknown to you, as you mussed over your own question, someone was watching and listening....
Who was it? indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
| Members who added to this interactive story also contributed to these: |
<<-- Previous · Outline · Recent Additions © Copyright 2024 Scifiwizard Retired (UN: scilock at Writing.Com). All rights reserved.
Scifiwizard Retired has granted Writing.Com, its affiliates and syndicates non-exclusive rights to display this work within this interactive story. Poster accepts all responsibility, legal and otherwise, for the content uploaded, submitted to and posted on Writing.Com. |