Triwiccan Wars

Triwiccan Wars

Introduction

The Matrio siblings existence on earth had been pretty regular to all those who knew them. No one ever would have suspected that the three children of Finola and Hugh Matrio were anything special.
I mean sure, Ella was one of the most popular students in school, a cheerleader and class president, not to mention a straight ‘A’ student. She was a pretty girl who was never without a boyfriend, but that doesn’t make her anything but lucky (right?)
Sam was the average teenage boy listening to music, playing footy with his mates, but wasn’t exactly someone you would call special.
Cedar had nothing incredible about him at all. So, he had good looks and killer abs, that doesn’t mean he was the greatest person on earth.
However all three of the Matrio kids had one astonishing feature in common, each of them had striking violet coloured eyes.
Their mother Finola, had always said this made all three of them special, the trio she had called them. When they were younger, Finola had told them a story, of how, many years ago, a old gypsy fortune teller, had foretold that one day, three children would be born and with them a force of goodness so pure, that all things evil would consider a threat to there existence. It would evolve powerful enough to destroy the most evil of them all, the Apocorite, these were to be the four shadows of the apocalypse and would destroy the world as we knew it. Only those three siblings would be powerful enough to stop them. The three siblings, it was foretold, were destined, for greatness.




Chapter 1
“Night Mum”, Ella called from her bedroom “Night Dad ”. “Night honey, see you in the morning”, said Finola and Hugh Matrio.
A petite, slim girl with long blonde hair and violet eyes climbed the long winding staircase; her bedroom was on the top floor. As she entered her room everything became laced in violet and white. ‘This is home’, she thought to herself, as she flopped down onto her bed.
She looked over to her windowsill and remembered what she had been doing before dinner; she got up and picked up the magazine ‘So are you a witch?’ The article read. ‘Take our simple quiz and find out!’ Ella walked over to her desk and rummaged around for a minute. Picking up a pen she went and sat on the windowsill, magazine in hand.
‘Question 1’,the article read, ‘have you ever experienced anything out of the ordinary?’ Ella thought for a moment and scribbled down the answer ‘yes’.
‘Question 2’,the article continued ‘do you have any siblings?’ Ella didn’t need to think for this one her elder and younger brother, Cedar and Sam, sat in the games room across the hall, playing noisily on computer games. ‘Yes’ Ella wrote once again. ‘Question 3’, Ella read on ‘Does you surname begin with a M?’ This question Ella looked at astounded, how did this magazine know that here surname began with an M? A little freaked out she was determined not to let this put here off. ‘Question 4’,it said, then a dark, husky voice said behind her ‘ is your name Ella?’ Ella swung round on her seat and screamed.
A tall, lanky man was stood towering over her, a knife in his hand dangling loosely at his side. His face was concealed behind a blue mask and Ella could see that his pockets were bulging with wood, paper and matches, behind him was a canister of gasoline.
The man noticed Ella staring at his pockets and said “aw now come here lil’ lady and hush your screamin’.” Suddenly he grabbed Ella’s wrist and yanked her towards him, holding her waist tight against his chest he bent over and whispered in her ear,
“Now, you just do everything I say and everything’s gonna be alright.”
“Get off me you jerk!” Ella shouted her heart hammering hard against her chest.
There was a thumping at the door Ella’s heart leapt as her elder brother Cedar’s voice yelled out “Ella, are you ok? I heard you screaming.”
The Man slapped his hand across Ella’s mouth “oh no you don’t lil’ missy!” he whispered in harsh tones.
Ella realised she had an arm free; instinctively she slapped the man across the face with all the strength she could muster.
“CEDAR, SAM! Help me! There’s a man, in my room! With a knife, some gasoline and a box of …”Ella shouted frantically to the door, but before she could finished the man had grabbed her round the throat the glistening knife only centimetres away.
“I thought, I told you, to shut up! You stupid girl!” The Man shouted sounding nervous.
“You don’t scare me!” Ella said spitting in his face.
“Ella!” Cedar shouted from outside the door “I’m coming Ella, Sam, get you ass over here, right now and help me break down Ella’s door!”
“Well hold up lad, see, if you come in here, then your damn sister, is going to get visit from mister knife.” the Man said laughing.
“You dare touch my sister and I will, kill you!” Cedar said as the door swung open and hit her dressing table with a loud bang!
“Oh good, just in time for the show lads.” The man chuckled, and then without warning, he plunged the knife into Ella’s side. The pain was excruciating, it felt like red-hot pokers and Ella fell to the floor in agony. The whole of her right side was screaming, soon she felt a cold liquid being poured over her. She screamed in pain, as she lifted her hand of her wound and peered at it, it was covered in blood.
“NOOOOOOO” Cedar screamed. Suddenly rushing forward from nowhere Sam leapt at the man and hit him over the head with a chair. The man fell to the ground motionless.
“Ella!” Cedar and Sam cried in unison, running over to where Ella lay.
“Oh my god, he stabbed her, she’s bleeding and covered in gasoline, what do we do Cedar? Sam said his voice and hands trembling.
“Get her out of here, while I sort him out, then call an ambulance.” Cedar said, reaching up and yanking down some old fairy lights from off a shelf “While I try him up with these” said Cedar holding up the fairy lights for his brother to see, “Then call the police and tell them what’s happened, got it?”
“Yeah”, Sam said hastily “help me get her up, will you Cedar?”
Without much difficulty the boys gently lifted the now unconscious body of their only sister Ella into Sam’s arms. “Go quickly, before the guy wakes up!” Cedar said gesturing to the body in the corner. “Right.” Sam said and he turned and walked as fast as he could down the stairs.



Chapter 2


Satisfied that Sam had got down the stairs safely, Cedar walked over to the body and grabbed both of its wrists and yanked them behind his back. After securely tying the guy’s wrists and ankles he left the room after quickly grabbing Ella’s wallet and mobile, you never know when you might need it.
That’s when he realised there was trouble. He turned around and saw that one of the Mans pockets were on fire. ‘A box of…Matches!!’ that was what Ella had been trying to say, the fairy lights he had pulled of the shelf must have been plugged in and created a spark when they were yanked off the shelf, setting fire to the mans pocket. Damn, there was gasoline all over the floor; he needed to get out of there, fast! When he reached the hall he ran down the staircase as fast as he could.
When he reached the bottom something occurred to him ‘Mum and Dad’. “God, no!” he cried and walked across to the door directly opposite. He touched the handle of the door tensely, it was boiling hot, and there was smoke billowing out from under the door. “Oh my god!” he cried and grabbing the tablecloth next to him he wrapped it around the handle and opened the door.
Smoke swamped him as he entered the room coughing and spluttering, he looked over to the bed, and his mum and dad were both lying on it. He took a step closer to them and as he did one of the beams above his head fell and landed on the bed then caught fire. When neither of his parents got up, or started screaming, or withering in pain, he realised two things. First off his parents were dead, as he realised this an icy sensation ran through him, his parents could not be dead .In a minute they would sit up turn on the sprinklers and shout ‘April Fools Cedar!’ And secondly the fire was now spreading rapidly all through the house. He had to get out of there! With a last reluctant look at his parents he turned and staggered to the front door.
He heaved open the heavy bolt and went outside; there he saw teams of fire fighters and police squad cars, still coughing he looked around for Ella and Sam, and suddenly spotted them surrounded by paramedics. He ran towards them finding it increasingly difficult to breath. “Sorry son no one but family past here,” the policeman said indicating a yellow caution line. “I’m their brother” Cedar wheezed trying to catch his breath. “Alright son you can pass”, said the policeman after looking into his eyes. “I don’t know many other folk round here who have violet eyes, seems to me, you lot have got to be related.”
“Thanks” Cedar said hastily as he ducked under the tape and rushed to his brother and sister. He grabbed Ella’s hand and asked the paramedic who was bent over her with a stethoscope “Is she gonna be ok?” The paramedic looked at him and smiled “Should be sweetie, until we get her to the hospital we can’t be sure.” Cedar looked over his shoulder, realised it was bleeding then gasped, “What about Sam?” his throat was so dry. “Minor injuries and shock, he will be fine once we get him to the hospital. At the moment sweetie I‘m more concerned about you, you weren’t in that house that’s on fire, were you?” the paramedic said staring into his violet eyes, Cedar feebly nodded his head. “Well why in heavens name didn’t you say so! Huh! Get me an oxygen mask and some morphine over here STAT! Honey, you just lie down on that stretcher there, ok?”
Cedar wasn’t going to argue. He lay down and watched the paramedics discussing something across the front lawn. The lady paramedic who he had been talking to came and knelt next to him. “My name is Caroline, alright Cedar, I am just going to put this needle in your arm, ok? I promise it will not hurt. So what we’re going to do is…for your shoulder…have a bath…might sting…”
Cedar didn’t here what they were going to do next because the he kept drifting in and out of consciousness. The last thing he remembered was been told he was in a helicopter with his brother and sister going to a hospital, because that’s when he fainted.





Chapter 3


Chemical, sterile, that’s how everything smelt, when Sam woke up the next morning. ‘Mums probably having one of her mad cleaning sprees again’ he thought to himself, smiling slightly. He opened his eyes expecting to see his room with its dark blue walls and posters on his slanted ceiling above his head but instead he saw stained curtains, a bright white light pounding down on his face and some IV bottles hanging down from a hook at the side of his bed. He followed the tubing and realised he had a needle sticking out of his arm.
‘Ah, good to see your awake Mr Matrio.’ said a kind looking nurse. ‘I believe your brother, Cedar, I think he said his name was, has been into see you quite a few times.’ the nurse said smiling ‘Is there anything I can do for you Sam?’ she asked.
‘Yes’, Sam said after a few seconds thought, the memory of what happened last night had come shooting back to him ‘Could you please let me go see my brother and sister, Cedar and Ella Matrio.’ He smiled at the nurse with a pleading gleam in his eyes. ‘Sure, you seem well enough to walk to me, their over at B5 and B6 ok? That’s just down the corridor second and third door on your right.’ said the nurse pointing to the door. ‘Thanks’, said Sam smiling he got up to go and then stopped ‘can you please take these out of me?’ he said indicating to the tubing sticking out of his arm. ‘Sure. The doctor will be along in a minute, so I’ll ask him to do it for you.’ the nurse replied smiling.
As soon as the doctor had fixed Sam up he dashed over to ward B5.In there he found Ella with Cedar sat beside her. ‘Oh my god, Cedar, I am so glad to see your ok…what did you do to your shoulder?’ Sam enquired with a puzzled look on his face. ‘Sam your ok now, great!’ Cedar replied as he tore his anxious, bloodshot eyes away from his sister, ‘Its nothing forget it.’ he said rubbing his shoulder which was now covered in a big plaster. Sam gave him a look of disbelief ‘How’s she doing?’ he asked pulling up a chair and sitting down beside his brother.’ ‘ Doctors say she’s going to be ok; they operated on her last night. She had internal bleeding but they managed to stop it.’ Cedar said, he had rehearsed the answer for the question he knew, Sam was going to ask next. Then it came, ‘What about mum and dad?’ Sam asked, Cedar was just about to tell him when Ella started to stir. ‘Ella, are you awake?’ Cedar asked brushing his hair out of his eyes. ‘Yeah’, Ella replied she opened her eyes and saw both her brothers sat beside her. Her side was aching and she stank of something she couldn’t quite place. Instinctively she turned to her brothers and asked ‘where’s mum and dad?’ As she stared at Cedar, his normally bright purple eyes, were cloaked in shadow, and, before he even answered, she knew the news to come wasn’t good
They sat crying together for a long time. It just didn’t seem real; there had to be some other explanation. Their parents had placed dummies n their bedroom that had a striking resemblance to them, and they had gone away on holiday, yes that was it. Soon they would burst through the doors and they would all start giggling. But it didn’t happen; nothing they could say or do would bring their parents back. It wasn’t long after this they all realised something, they were now orphans. They would probably get taken to some run down children’s home and then some moody foster parents would be arranged. What if they all got split up, what if no one wanted them. It was at that moment that all three of the Matrio orphans silently; unanimously they decided they would not be found. They all decided that as soon as Ella was released from hospital they would return to the house one last time, selvedge what they could and then run away.
‘Right then Miss Matrio, you can leave, I’ll just go and get someone fetch your clothes for you, ok?’ said the doctor a week later ticking a chart at the end of her bed. ‘Thanks’ said Ella smiling as she realised she was still in one of those stupid hospital gowns, you know the ones, where no matter how hard you try you always have your bum on show.
As soon as she retrieved her clothes she went to the bathroom and changed into them. Cedar and Sam were waiting for her outside, so as casually as she could, she went back to her bed, grabbed her belongings and walked out of the main entrance. Side by side the three siblings walked off into the sunset towards what would be their greatest adventure yet.

Chapter 4

Salvaging through the remains of their house they came across something rather odd. A battered old tin box about the size of a phone book had survived the fire. Ok, so it was a little blackened from the smoke and ashes, so what, something had survived the fire which had exterminated all other aspects of their lives. It had a strange marking on the front, which looked a little like a bracket with a line through it.
On the back there was an inscription that read;
‘A treasure lies in anguished wait, through many centuries past,
The powers reside inside this box; the three have come at last.
3 powers of good entwined as one, has never been as violet strong,
So evil beware, your time is up, you’ll soon be dead, banished, gone.
They looked just beneath the inscription was a sticker with their fathers writing
On which said, ‘To open the box, all you have to do is believe you can.’
Stood on one side of Ella, staring at the box Cedar said ‘is it me or is this sounding a bit like Pandora’s box to you?’ ‘Definitely,’ Sam said nodding his head in agreement, and then looking past Ella he whispered ‘Do you think we should open it?’ But before he had even finished asking, Ella already had. Suddenly the weirdest sensation hit each of them, it was like someone was pushing a tube straight into their hearts, looking down they saw a bright white light split in three, then mould into the same shape, as the one from the front of the box, before disappearing with a loud bang! ‘What the hell was that?’ Cedar said staring daggers at Ella. ‘I…I don’t know’ stuttered Ella. ‘YOU IDIOT!!’ said Sam throwing his hands up at Ella in horror. ‘Stop it! Stop it right now! STOP IT!!’ Cedar said furiously and as he threw a hand up in rage to stop them an explosion erupted from his hand firing straight at Sam and Ella narrowly missing Sam’s ear. Ella and Sam recoiled back to a remaining wall of the house in horror. ‘W-what did I do?’ stammered Cedar staring at his hand shocked at what he had just seen.
Ella had a thought; this is what the inscription must have meant. ‘3 powers for Violet strong.’
All three of them had violet eyes; all three of them must have inherited some kind of powers.
She looked down at the box by her feet; there was a small sheet of paper folded neatly at the bottom of the box that she hadn’t noticed before. Ella scooped down and picked it up opened it and read;
‘You have inherited 3 powers, Manipulation, conjuring and cruising, Cedar and Sam have two other powers each, but I don’t know what these shall be, only Ella shall have all three and no others, the boys shall each have 1 or 2 of hers and 1 or 2 of their own.
Evil is all around you now and will be trying to destroy you, you will face danger in more forms than you can imagine, monsters, demons, but you are super humans now and although one day you will have to battle The Apocorite, by then you shall be ready. Seek out Lily and her friends; they will help you to learn what you need to know. Blessed be my children. Remember if in doubt trust the bondage of blood.
P.S My diary is under the floorboards in the highest place in my house.
Mum xxx
‘What the hell is ‘cruising’’ thought Ella, as she thought about the note and what it said.
‘The highest place in the house’ Ella thought aloud. ‘The attic’ said the boys simultaneously ‘why?’ asked Cedar staring at his sister. ‘Oh, its nothing.’ Ella replied as she tried to stuff the note in the back pocket of her jeans. Cedar noticed ‘let me see it’ he said holding out his hand. But Ella wasn’t listening ‘the highest point in my house’ she thought for a moment, this was her mums writing and when Ella was a little girl, her mum used to say that if this were her house, that she would say that Ella’s bedroom was the highest. Her mother had always said this, because in actual fact, Ella’s room was only 2 inches lower down than the attic, plus it had the prettiest views from the windows. Ella thought about her room and closed her eyes and… ‘Ella!!’ Sam exclaimed as she disappeared with a small ‘pop!’

Chapter 5


‘Oh so that’s ‘cruising’ Ella thought to herself as she arrived up in the remains of her room. She unlike her brothers was pretty cool with the whole ‘supernatural powers thing’. Carefully treading around the weak wooden floorboards she found what she was looking for. Through a crack on the floorboard, she saw an identical box to the one they had found down stairs, picking it up, she opened it with caution and pulled out black leather bound book. She called down to her brothers and told them, she’d be back downstairs in a minute and not to come up because it wasn’t safe, when she realised the importance of this event. Ella had found it the last remaining item of their mothers, her diary. Or at least that’s what she thought it was, at the time.
Ella blew the dust off the top of the book, it was dated 1592 ‘God this book is old’, she thought to herself as she opened it up. Inside was an entry in a handwriting that she had not seen before. ‘This book is to be passed down to the prophesised three from which they can learn all they will need to know to defeat the Apocorite. Add in whenever you feel necessary. Their powers will become of use when the last chime of the sixteenth birthday ends. Then they shall be ready to battle whom ever they must to for fill their destiny.’ ‘Great’ Ella thought to herself ‘just what I need, some other person saying we supposed to battle the worlds greatest evil. That’s exactly what we need to top everything off.’
‘Ella where are you? Is everything alright?’ Sam’s voice called from the bottom of what remained of the stairs. ‘I’m fine Sam I’ll be down in a minute’ Ella called back as she slid the book into her jeans pocket and closed her eyes again, in her minds eye she pictured herself standing next to Sam, and again with a small pop she arrived next to him. ‘How the hell did you do that?’ Sam said, staring at the spot where Ella had appeared, with a mixture of a look of excitement and fearfulness on his face. ‘I don’t know I just …oh, never mind that now. Sam when did you turn sixteen?’ ‘What, oh yesterday.’ Sam said ‘you mean you forgot my birthday’ he said with an incredulous look on his face. ‘No…I mean yes…I mean at what time?’ Ella asked.
‘Nine o’clock last night’ Sam said. ‘Why do you need to know? ’Cedar asked. ‘Because lads’ Ella said ‘as of nine o’clock last night we just became super powerful humans, with powers and everything like it said in mums letter.’ ‘What letter?’ Sam asked, ‘the one she’s got stuffed in the back pocket of her jeans’ Cedar replied ‘let us see it Ella’ he said holding out his hand. Obediently she handed over the letter. As he read it his eyes skimmed the page again and again, as though they were trying to absorb the information written on it. ‘ …Only the girl shall have all three and no others, the boys shall each have 1 or 2 of hers and 1 or 2 of their own.’ ‘What the hell does that mean?’ passing it to Sam. ‘I have a feeling that what ever it means would explain what has happened over the last half hour.’ said Sam, ‘and anything else we need to know I’m guessing is in the book Ella’s found.’ ‘Have you had a good look through it Ella? ’ Asked Cedar. ‘No not really’ she said, ‘I just read the first page, listen’, she read the page out loud to them ‘ But I don’t recognise the hand writing’ she said puzzled. ‘Well of course you don’t Ella. If the books from 1592 then you won’t do.’ Cedar said ‘Have a look through and see if you can find out what just happened, ok?’
Ella nodded ‘Sure its not like we haven’t got the time.’
Flicking through she found all sorts of weird entries had been added, Finally she found what she was looking for, ‘The Powers of the Matrio Line.’
‘Cruising: The ability to think of and visualise a place. Close your eyes concentrate on where you want to be and you will appear there. Note, this power is strictly female inheritance and no male born child can receive it. The one with the ability to cruse may take passengers along with them by holding their hands,
However, the more passengers, the weaker she will become afterwards.
Manipulation: The power to manipulate objects, your appearance or the word around you, be careful this is a difficult power, so use it well. (You can’t manipulate time.) Just will the object to change.
Conjuring: pretty self-explanatory power! Hold your palm facing upwards thinking of what you want and blow, it will materialize in front of you.
The first-born female sibling shall receive all three of these powers. The first-born male shall receive two of the powers above and one of the powers listed below. The last-born shall receive only one of the above but to of the powers listed below.
Temporal combustion: aka the ability to blow things up. To access this power you must focus on a point in your life in which you became very mad. Concentrate on the amount of anger you felt then recreate that feeling, aim you hands at the target and will the anger out of your hands and into your enemy.
Astral projection: the ability to produce a copy of ones self. Close your eyes and imagine taking a step forwards. Open your eyes and you will see an exact replica of yourself with which you can do whatever you please. To return your astral state, just imagine yourself taking a step back.
Time manipulation: the ability to move time back and forward. You can also travel through time. Think of the hour, the day, the month, the year of the time you want to go to. To return just repeat the process and think of the time when you left. A word of caution don’t stay for more than you need to you can take passengers just hold there hands and always remember that changing a past action will have many unforeseen consequences. ’

Chapter 6

Ella, although astounded at what she had just read, was curious to find out something else, who the hell was Lily Maison. She flicked through a couple of pages Reading the titles, How to duplicate, the Triwiccan trident, How to create an atomic storm, How to strengthen your powers, How to create a shopping guru, Mystic love arrows and their powers. Then she found it in the ‘useful contacts’, list at the back of the book. She laughed out loud, Sam turned round and looked at her, ‘sorry’, she mumbled as she turned back the book.
She looked down at the page and saw that it looked just like a regular address book with a few added extras. Underneath the regular section it said ‘Description, power and level of silk.’ She found Lily Maison’s name and read the following:

Full Name: Lily-Bella Maison
Address: 73 Pine front Road,
Piccadilly circus,
Stop 2,
Trimill,
47U 1@2
Description: Lady Godiva curves
Power(s): Element controlling, conjuring
And manipulation of them too.
Level in Triwiccan silk: Black

After reading through the page a few times she started to make sense of it. She guessed that the level of silk thing was some kind of organisation. She thought that the address looked a bit weird, ‘Piccadilly Circus stop 2’.
‘Cedar, Sam come over here I’ve found something’, Ella called. They came over and Ella showed them the page in the book showing their possible powers. ‘This is so cool!’ Sam exclaimed in delight, and grabbed the book of Ella and re-reading the page. ‘ So if I understand correctly’, said Cedar ‘then Ella, you can cruse Manipulate and conjure. Sam because you’re the youngest, you’ll probably have the powers of astral projection and time manipulation because I already almost blew some thing up didn’t I, which means because I was the first born, I get Manipulation and conjuring because cruising is strictly a female power.’ he paused for a moment then said ‘I think I need to sit down.’
After a little while Sam got restless ‘Come on, you two have already had a go with your powers let me have a go with mine.’ He had now been pestering them for the last 15 minutes. ‘Fine’ Cedar shouted and handed over the book that he had snatched from Sam earlier, he now had a headache, ‘Just quit bugging us ok!’
Sam nodded; though he wasn’t really listening, he was more interested in the book.
‘Ok’ he thought to himself, ‘I’m imagining taking a step forwards, so when I open my eyes…’Not daring to look he felt around blindly in front of him, he touched a hand! Sam opened his eyes and realised he was touching his own hand! ‘Whoa, Sam how the heck…’Ella started. ‘I don’t know’ Cedar finished
Sam gave himself that is to say astral Sam a good look to check it was actually him. Sure enough staring back was himself, complete with an identical navy hoody and baggy jeans. ‘I never liked having two brothers, let alone three.’ Ella blurted out.
‘How nice to know’ Sam said imagining himself stepping back into his originally body. ‘Now I should also be able to manipulate time and from what the book says I can take passengers, want to try?’ He asked Ella and Cedar holding out both his hands. ‘Sure said Ella grabbing on ‘ Come on cedar it could be fun.’
‘I’m not sure’ said Cedar uneasily ‘Don’t be a chicken’ Ella said and stared making chicken noises. If there was one way to persuade her brothers to do something, it was by calling them a chicken. Ella had sixteen years experience of getting favours with that useful little trick; ‘Alright, alright I’ll come’ said Cedar and he grabbed hold of Ella’s other hand. ‘When to Cedar?’ Sam asked though he already knew the answer. Just as he had predicted Cedar replied ‘When we were all happy, when Mum and Dad were alive.’
‘I think I know exactly which memory your thinking of.’ said Sam but as they were about to leave Cedar pulled his hand away. ‘Wait! I know we all want to see mum and dad again, but don’t you think we should first go and find Lily, we might be in danger.’ Cedar said anxiously.
‘ Oh, I suppose your right, but I’ll take us it will be quicker.’ with a sound of urgency in her voice Ella added, ‘I think the police are coming, I just heard sirens.’
‘ Ella do you remember the address?’ Sam shouted over the ever-increasing noise of the sirens. She nodded.
‘Right then, blooming well go!!’ Cedar screamed and with a small pop all three of them disappeared.