No Witch Is Like What You Think

CHAPTER 1: THE BOOK

If you are reading this, it probably means that you have just lifted the cover of this book. Well, I know that you have to lift the cover to read a book, but this book isn’t any book. I mean, if you are my kind, you could read this without even lifting the cover. And usually my kind reads this book. That’s why this book is special. Well, whatever. You probably didn’t understand me. If you didn’t, you are a human. And me? I’m a witch.

Now, that gave you creeps, didn’t it? Because you think that witches are supposed to be evil and cruel with funny hats and huge noses, standing in front of a cauldron all day. No, no, no. Witches aren’t like that. They’re like normal people. Besides, witches are good. Usually.

Fairies are the bad ones. Ha! You didn’t know that, did you? You thought that fairies were beautiful, good and had angelic, cute wings, right? That’s wrong. Fairies are the masters of brainwashing. That’s why you think fairies are cute. You are brainwashed.

Why do I tell you all this? Will your opinion on us witches change? I don’t think so. But I have to tell someone. Or I’ll explode.

OK. Now. Who am I? My name is Scarlet Hobbes, a witch who lives with human step-parents. They have no idea about me being a witch, and I used to have no idea why my real parents abandoned me. I didn’t know I was a witch either. Now I do.

I have black hair and blue eyes, and I find myself gorgeous. I like to read a lot, and I like spending time with my friends. I also like chess. Even though I’m cool, I can get geeky sometimes. Like, one day, when I and my friends were walking home down from school, I lectured them about how to solve a math problem. All the way. You see, I can get really geeky. So… You think I’m your average teenager? No, I’m not. You’ll see.

***

“Reddy! Come and sit with us!” I turned back to see my best friend, Melinda waving at me. Yes, by the way, she’s just called me “Reddy”. It’s a name she came up with years ago because my name means “red”. How funny. Whatever, I went towards her to have lunch with my usual gang at school: Melinda, Judith and Janet.

Judith and Janet were twins, even though they had nothing in common except for their looks. They were both blond and had brown eyes. They were pretty short, too. Personally, I liked Judith better, because Janet was a very good actress and you couldn’t tell whether if she was acting or genuine.

“What’s up?” I asked. We were in the same school, but in different classes.
“Wanna go to the garage sale? It’s tomorrow,” Melinda said.
“What garage sale?” I asked.
“You know, the one on the other side of the town. The twins are coming too.”
“Great Mel, and you are gonna go there by what? Flying? Or with bikes? If you are planning a bike journey, I’m not in.” Melinda glared at me behind her glasses.
“Ha ha ha. You might not have noticed, but there are things called cars. They have wheels and stuff.”
“And the ghosts will drive?”
“No, my brother Matt will. He’s just got his license and he’s pretty eager to drive.”
“Hmm… OK, I’ll be there.”
“Great! We’ll pick you up at 10:00 tomorrow.”

***

“Get up you sleepyhead! Your friends will be here in half an hour!”

That was my foster mother, Eleanor. She and Joshua, my foster father had found me on their doorstep fourteen years ago, when I was only one year old. They told me that I was clutching a paper with a strange symbol written on it. It was like a V on a sun. Later when they showed me the paper, it didn’t ring a bell. How could it? I was just a baby when I was abandoned.

“All right, all right! I’ll be right there!
“Quick!”

I groaned. Mother was so strict. And she was a kindergarten teacher. I pitied those small children. I got up and threw on a t-shirt and pants then went to the kitchen. Breakfast was already ready.

“Hurry, hurry!” said Mother.
“Ellie, it’s Saturday today,” said Father. “What’s the hurry?”
“Her friends will be here in exactly four minutes!”

I rolled my eyes. I knew I had at least ten minutes because Melinda was never on time. But Mother had never gotten used to that fact. She always wanted things to run smoothly.

Fifteen minutes later, the doorbell rang and the girls and Matt were there. I grabbed my jacket and without giving an opportunity to Mother to lecture on timing, I stormed out of the house.

When we reached there, Matt told us that he was going to pick us up at 4:00 o’clock. It was a long time, but the sale location was gigantic. Before I had time to wonder if six hours would be enough, Matt was gone.

We began traveling through the stands. There was nothing interesting. Then, right before we had to leave, a stand caught my eye. It looked like it belonged to an old woman. Melinda didn’t seem to be interested but the twins and I stopped by to look.

The stand looked like some kind of a magic shop. There were all kinds of spell books. Judith looked very surprised, but Janet stayed calm and asked,

“Spell books? Crystal balls? Do you believe that these actually work?”
“Of course,” the lady said. “If you can use them, they will work.” She looked directly at me.

Janet “Hmph”ed, and she and Judith ran to catch up with Melinda. I stayed behind to look at the things more closely.

“At least you seem to be interested,” the lady said, somewhat angry at Janet. “That book would be useful, if you ask me.” She gestured towards a very old, nearly ancient book. “There are no schools anymore; they burned ‘em all down. So now the books are the only way to learn.”

I looked up, bewildered. Learn? School?

“Excuse me? What can I learn? What schools?” I asked. This time, it was her turn to look bewildered. Then, she looked as if she understood something. She reached for the book, and gave it to me.

“Here.” she said. “Take it. I won’t take money from you.” Then she suddenly turned back and walked away. I looked at the book. But when I lifted my head to protest, she was gone.

I could’ve left the book right there, but I didn’t. I couldn’t. Instead, I hid the book under my jacket and began to search for my friends. I wasn’t aware of the fact that the lady was watching me from the shadows.

CHAPTER 2: WITCHES

“Where have you been?” hissed Melinda as I caught up with her. “Were you in front of that stand about witchcraft?” Her face was all red; she was always red when she was angry.
“Yeah, maybe I was.” I said. “So what? It was pretty interesting.”
Melinda rolled her eyes. “How many times should I tell you? There is no magic.”

I knew what she meant. She was talking about the times when I used to believe in magic and by some magical way, my real parents were going to come back. That was mostly because weird things used to happen around me. Like, once, I made a huge bee do whatever I want. Like biting a guy I was so angry with. And I didn’t even know he was dead scared from bees! Or another time, when I didn’t like the color of the dress Mother had bought to me, I changed the color of it. From gray to blue, my favorite color. Gray was way too dull. Then there was me, breaking every kind of machine that I lay my hands on. But when I told all this to Mel, she didn’t believe me. She kept telling me that there wasn’t any a thing as magic, but I kept on believing. Finally one day, I lost interest in it. Mel became quite happy. I understood her: She never had my imagination.

“I know. I was just…” I thought, for one moment, of showing her the book the old lady gave me, but I finally decided against it. She would instantly throw it into the garbage. Instead, I followed my friends during the trip, not paying attention to what they said. I also didn’t notice Janet looking at me darkly.

***

When we reached home that afternoon, I hopped out of Matt’s car and raced to our house with a rushed “Goodbye”. Mother and Father were out. I collapsed on my bed and took out the book. It looked like a notebook rather that a real book. It didn’t have a title or anything else on the cover. It was just plain red. I opened the cover. It was an empty notebook. Empty. EMPTY? That woman had played a trick on me! I felt anger well up inside me. I threw the book to the opposite wall. I was rushing out of the room when I saw the writing on it.

“Hello, witch.”

I froze. I was sure that there wasn’t any writing on the book. I turned slowly, and picked up the book. “Hello, what?”

“ Witch, girl.” the next word appeared right next to the first one. Then, one by one, the pages started to fill themselves. There were all kinds of things: potions, spells, even a small history lesson. I began to read:

“Generations ago, there were two kinds of witches. One kind was more powerful, had wings and only needed strong sticks to cast spells; the things that people call wands. Then, there was another kind: They were less powerful, without wings and they needed the help of the nature to cast spells. Together, they lived in peace.
As time passed, the powerful part began to crave for more power. That’s how they began to practice brainwashing and became more cruel. They needed good-quality material to make good sticks, to cast magic. They wanted more and more, and they got what they wanted. But then, the humans began to realize what was going on as their jewels and good woods were disappearing. But the Winged were ready for this. They combined together and brainwashed all the humans; they made them think that they were cute, nice people. That they were fairies.
As for the Non-winged, humans were convinced that they were cruel, terrifying and ugly people. They started to kill them. The Non-winged were usually burned, so they started to practice Fire magic so they could stop the fire from burning them.
Today, the witch-burning has stopped, but the so-called “fairies” are still cruel. They will do everything to gain beautiful things. They would even kill.”

“It’s a joke, right?” I thought to myself. “It’s a terrible joke. I’m a witch? Bad fairies? Yeah. And I’m a giraffe.”

“It seems to me that you are brainwashed, too.” I looked at the book to see this line. I started to feel sick. I tried to remember what I ate today that made me see hallucinations.

“You don’t believe me? Let me show you. Get some garden sage and sugar; mix it with liquid soap, boil them and say ‘Obey me and turn this substance invisible.’”

I tried to ignore what I saw; I was starting to get a headache. But the words were echoing in my head. “Invisible…”

I finally stood up and went to the kitchen. I found the ingredients. I boiled them. It felt like it wasn’t me doing it. After a while, I finally managed to boil them without burning anything else. It had a terrible smell.

“What makes me do this?” I asked to myself. Then I found the answer myself. “Because deep inside I really believe that I’m a witch. I used to believe in magic. I still do.”

I automatically picked up the hot glass, pulled out my old teddy bear out of my wardrobe and poured the revolting mixture on it while saying the incantation. “Make the bear invisible.”

I poured the mixture on the bear. It made a strange whizzing noise, and then the bear went invisible. Not all parts of it became invisible though. Only the tummy, and there wasn’t enough mixture to make the whole thing invisible! I swore under my breath. What if Mother and Father saw this? It looked as if there was a huge hole in the bear. I looked at the book.

“See? I told you.”

I was actually beginning to like this witch thing. Then an idea struck me: My parents! They were probably-

“Witches.” the book said.
“Do you know anything about them?” I thought eagerly.
“Sure. I know about every witch. I’m a talking library. In fact, I know everything.”
“Yeah, you sure are library, only not a very modest one.” I thought.
“I know that, too. And because of your rudeness, I won’t tell you about your parents.” the book said arrogantly.
“Oh, no,” I thought. Then I had an idea.
“OK” I said. “Don’t tell me. Like I was interested.” I stood up, closed the book, put it in my bookshelf, then began towards the door. I was sure that the book was calling for me, but there was no sound. But then, suddenly the room was washed in red light, then green, then blue, then yellow. And guess what the source was. Yes, that was correct. The source was my red I-know-everything witchcraft book. If I went out of this room, the book would keep glowing and it wouldn’t stop until someone -probably my parents- saw it. And I had this feeling that no one should see that book.

I sighed and turned back to the bookshelf, grabbed the book and opened it.

“You came back. I knew I was irresistible,” the book wrote. I laughed.
“Yeah, or maybe you are such an eye-catcher. So will you tell me about my parents now?”
“Sure. For one thing, they were witches.”
“Thank you very much,” I said sarcastically. “Anything else you might like to add?”
“Oh, and they were killed.”
“Omigosh! Are you kidding me? COULD YOU GET SERIOUS PLEASE?”
“Fine, fine. They were blacksmiths.”
“Are you serious now?”
“Yes. They were blacksmiths. And good ones, too.” Blacksmiths? Weren’t those the guys that were dealing with iron? In the old times?
“Why the hell would people need blacksmiths anymore?”
“This is not non-magic people we’re talking about. These are witches. And since they knew this fire stuff really well, they used it to manipulate metal.”
“So? Why would the fairies want to kill innocent people?” For some reason, the book sighed. Not sighed, really, because it’s a book, but I could practically feel it sighing.
“Did you actually read the text I’ve written for you? About history?”
“Yeah…”
“Good. And it told you that the fairies wanted expensive, beautiful things. And your parents did very nice things with metal. The fairies invaded your house to find artifacts. They killed your parents in the process, just because they tried to protect their belongings from getting stolen.”

CHAPTER 3: ANSWERS

The next day, I didn’t go out. I lounged on my bed, shuffling through the book. Neither Mother nor Father came along to check on me. I didn’t notice that it was weird then, but it was very weird. Mother always checked on me. She was very protective of me, and that sometimes drove me insane. But that day, nobody came near me. And I thanked God for that, because the things I learned from the book weren’t very…normal.

Fist of all, I learned that all those fairies I used to listen about in fairy tales couldn’t even go near the real fairies. Fairies are not nice to be with, people. I learned that fairies were insane, joy-sucking, frightening, power-craving thieves. I read about all the nice witches they killed.

So, in conclusion: Fairies are horrific. Don’t ever believe what they tell you about fairies being nice people. If you ever meet a fairy, don’t dare to go near. Turn back and run the way you came.

I know that you might ask this: Why on Earth do I believe what a stupid book that has disco lights? My answer is: I have no idea. Maybe because it showed me how my life would be with my parents. Or maybe because it showed me some magic tricks that you can’t imagine. Like, did you know that you could make things fly by just mixing vinegar, oil and some witch-power? I know. Magic in the kitchen.

***

The next day, I was woken up by the disco-lights of my book. And I was, as always, late. While I was getting dressed at the speed of light, I thought that I was taking this witch thing really well. I mean, if some of you were at my position, you would possibly be so freaked out that you would start eating your socks.

Ok, that was a bit exaggerated, but still.

On my way to downstairs, I realized something: The house was completely empty. Strange. Mother has never left me home alone, which annoyed me, but this time, completely without warning, she had disappeared.

The next thing I realized was I was half an hour late, so I took off in a hurry.

***

“Hey, Red, why didn’t you answer my calls yesterday?” Melinda asked.
“You called me? I didn’t know,” I said, while waving to the twins to come over to us. I had no calls yesterday.
“It means that your phone has gone nuts again,” Melinda said. “Lemme have a look.”
I took my phone out. She took it and examined it cautiously. Then she took her own phone out and dialed my number. It looked like it worked, but no sound came from my phone.

“This is weird.” Melinda said. Her parents are both engineers, so she knows a lot about machines.
“Hi,” said a voice. At the same time, my phone began to ring. I turned around to see who it was. The twins.
“Hello,” we said as they sat down. I eyed them suspiciously. Why did the phone begin to ring just when they came near? I finally decided that it was just coincidence.
“Look!” Janet said. “I bought this from the garage sale!” She was showing us a hand-knit sweater.
“When’d you buy that?” I asked. I didn’t remember her buying that one.
“While you were stuck with that witchy-looking old woman,” she said.
“But you had no money left when we got there, how did you buy it?” Melinda asked, surprised. Janet cast a glance at Melinda, and then shrugged. Melinda seemed to be convinced by the answer, so she didn’t push it anymore. How strange. Melinda usually was the nosy type. She wanted to know everything. I opened my mouth to state this, but the bell rang.

That day after school, I went on shuffling the book. Today, I was on a chapter named: How to Recognize Witches and Fairies. I sometimes feel like I am reading a course book with a talkative teacher packed in it. It was a pretty boring chapter; the first two or three pages were about how the witches and fairies used to wear different clothes from each other in the ancient times. What was the purpose of telling me this? People dress all the same today. Then, on the last page, I finally caught something useful.

“Fairies can have different type of powers, while witches have just a main one. Fairies can become invisible, hypnotize people, fly…”

“Basically they can do whatever they want to.” I sighed.

“Yeah.” The book wrote. Then it went on.

“They are into engineering and industry and architecture; they like building nice things and they feel comfortable in places that have no forests or animals. They also don’t like colors that much. They only like the color of metal. On the other hand, witches like nature because they wouldn’t have had any power if it wasn’t for the nature.”

I got it now - why the world was into industry that much. Because the world was under the fairies’ control.

“You got it right.”

CHAPTER 4: MORE ANSWERS

The next day, Melinda was absent. Strange. Melinda rarely gets sick. There must’ve been something else. I decided to go to her place after school. But I got stopped by the twins. No, scratch that. I got stopped by Judith alone.

“Scarlet?”
“Yep?”
“Umm… If I were you, I wouldn’t go to that house.”
“And why is that?” I was surprised. Judith usually backed me up with these visiting business.
“Er… Because I heard Melinda’s sickness could spread around and become serious…”

To be honest, that didn’t convince me. For one, Melinda would call if she was that sick. If I was having issues with my phone –as usual-, her parents would call mine. Second, Judith wasn’t Janet and I could tell clearly that she was lying. I narrowed my eyes at her, but before I could open my mouth, she yelled, annoyed:
“No, I’m not lying to you! Fine, go there, and get that disease yourself! Make yourself sick and upset me even more!” With that, she went away, crying, leaving me with tons of questions.

What was happening? I was starting to get concerned… What would I do if something happened to them, because of me? Would fairies catch them? I didn’t even know if the fairies could track witches down. Why weren’t my parents home yet, and haven’t been answering any of my calls? Hang on. The second part of the second question is easy. Because I have problems with machines. But… Why did the machines used to work around me, even a bit, and now they are totally useless?

Aha. Looks like my know-it-all book knows about it. It started to glow again. Lucky there’s no one around.

I got up from the bed and started towards my school bag. While I was shuffling around for the source of the glow, my eye caught the study books. I really should start doing homework sometime.

“Glad you finally decided to check up on me.” I rolled my eyes, even though the book couldn’t see it.
“You’ve just started glowing.”
“Do you really think that I’m stupid enough to glow in front of people?” The book didn’t actually write “I am angry,”, but it felt as if it was angry.
“OK, you’re not an idiot. Now, I think you caught some of my questions I had, right?”
“Of course I did. Again, I’m no idiot.”
“So?”
“So what?”
“Answers please?”
“Oh, that. Well, the machines are going crazy because you’ve become a full witch now.” Oh. Full witch. What a term.
“So, before… I was a zero-point-seventy-five witch or what?” I said sarcastically.
“Ha ha. No. You just didn’t know how to use what nature gave you. You didn’t know how to use the herbs correctly. Since you have learned now, you’ve gotten into nature more and more every day. Which means the industry and machines put more and more distance between you and them every day. When you become a professional, which might take some time, even the cars would stop working around you.”
“Perfect.” I thought back. How was I supposed to communicate? That fire-smoke thing that Indians used to do?
“Second, yes there are fairies around you and they can track witches down. Right when they are born.” Oh, no.
“Who are they?” I thought, eager to learn more.
“How am I supposed to know? I know about every witch, not every fairy. Because they can prevent themselves from being tracked.”
Ouch. I’m doomed. They could be everywhere.
“And it looks like they’ve already tracked you. Which means that they intend to kill you.” My insides froze. I was new in this witchcraft thing, and they’ve already tracked me down? To kill me? How nice.
“This is the work of the Grenileda Cult.”
“Fairies have cults?” I mean, come on.
“Of course they do. So do the witches. For example, you are from the Verinochia Cult.” That explains the meaning of the paper I was clutching when I was found.
“What’s with the stupid names?” The book was angry again.
“They aren’t stupid! They are words from the old and noble language of magic!” I rolled my eyes at this.
“OK, sorry for the insult. So, on with the answers please.” I was actually valuing my own life more than being polite at the moment. “How’d you understand that it was that specific cult and how on Earth will I get rid of them?”
“You can’t get rid of them. They’re too much for you to handle.” Oh, Lord.
“Thanks for your support.” I said angrily.
“Anytime. Anyway, the fairies of Grenileda Cult always try to isolate the witch first. They take her close friends and family and they keep them as prisoners. But they don’t kill them because they have the opportunity of having the witch work for they in return of her loved one. In your case, they seem to have kidnapped your parents and Melinda.”

Now I understood why my parents weren’t coming home, and why Melinda had this so-called disease. I had to save them. Without calling the police. This was going to be hard. All I had was this arrogant book, and Judith and Janet.

CHAPTER FIVE: CAUGHT!

Hang on. Did I say I had Judith and Janet? Now come to think of it, I don’t think I do. They’ve been kind of… distant from me ever since… Ever since… I don’t know. I don’t expect anything from Janet, for she’s always been cold like that, but Judith… She has changed. She doesn’t laugh anymore; she looks nervous. And Janet seems to be eager. I know it now. They’ve been like this since I discovered who I was. Do they know about me? Does their new behavior have anything to do with me being a witch? Strange. How many times I’ve said strange by now? A lot. In a short time, my life has gone from “normal” to “strange”. I sighed. I knew I had to find Mother and Father and Melinda, but didn’t know how.

I finally decided not to trust the twins and go to Melinda’s place. Even though I usually go there by car, I had to go by foot this time because there was no one to drive me.

The moment I grabbed the handle of the door, the phone rang. I’ve got luck like that. Whenever I try to do one thing, something else prevents it. I sighed again and picked up the phone. It stopped working, but not before I caught this: “Teacher? We miss you! Get well soon!” that was Vera, my Mother’s favorite student.

“So that’s what’s happening,” I thought. They’ve told the school that Mother was ill, so they won't come out and look for her. I wondered what they did to hide Father’s absence. Then I realized that I didn’t have time to think anymore, so I stormed out.

Outside, it was quite crowded, because people were returning home from their works. Some were on their phones, talking, and I decided not to disturb them by my presence, I know they won’t like it when I mess up their lines, and took a very empty way only known by few. I didn’t know if that was safe, but what would happen if I stopped the cars in the traffic? No, can’t take the risk.

I took a right, then a left until I realized I was lost. Oh, no. I was lost while going to my best friend’s? Perfect.

I still don’t know what came over me that moment, but I started crying. Like a baby. I sat there, for minutes, until I realized there were people around me. They were lined as a circle around me, and the circle was getting tighter every moment. I stood up, without knowing what to do. What could I do? Without those herbs? I started to think. The only magic I’ve ever practiced required herbs to be performed.

The fairies, or so I thought, were getting closer. Think, Scarlet, think!

Aha. Scarlet. Red. Fire. If my parents were so good at manipulating fire, if they dealt with metal using their fire magic, then why couldn’t I? I started to concentrate.

The fairies were almost on top of me. I could see their transparent butterfly-like wings now. Some were snickering. Some were actually laughing. Oh, what a joy to hunt a little witch down!

“Concentrate, Scarlet. Or Reddy, as Mel calls you. Stop being afraid. Be brave, so you can save her and your parents. Stop being such a chicken.”
The fairies had guns, rifles and even one of them had an electric saw. Yeah, I know. Fairies with weapons, right? Not unimaginable, believe me. They all looked like they were coming from some mannequin studio. As they approached, I concentrated more and more. Finally, I saw one of them scream and drop his gun! The others did the same thing as well. Ha! The metal was burning them! It was melting because of the heat! I was doing it!

I just stood there for a moment, looking at the fairies, and that moment cost me a lot. Before I knew what was going on, strong and hot hands had grabbed me from the back and I was soaring in the air. Oh, yeah. Wings.

I don’t know if you know, but soaring in the air is just perfect, even though you are kicking and biting as hard as you can, and screaming at the top of your lungs. Let me tell you, those fairies have an iron grip, just like the artifacts to which they are so addicted.

But to get on with the story: After a short flight, we landed in a backyard that looked familiar. Way too familiar, in fact. They opened the also way-too-familiar backdoor and hauled me inside. Then, a way-too-familiar voice exclaimed,

“Scarlet!”

CHAPTER 6: CHANGING SIDES

“Are you one of… them too?” Melinda asked, wide-eyed and upset. There were tears in her eyes, and she was bound to the white wall of the house.

“Them too?” I thought. Who else was one of them? But before I could ask anything, the fairies practically threw me into the all-familiar living room. I was trying to resist, and at the same time I was trying to find another useful spell or incantation to overcome them. But I’ve always been too busy with history; I’ve never looked at the combat spells before. I looked for my parents, though they weren’t there.

I finally looked at the couple of fairies that were trying to bind me too, not caring a bit about all my kicking and punching. I gasped. The fairies grinned. They were the parents of the twins!

“Judith, Janet! Come see your dear friend!” the woman said. She had a cold, raspy voice. I’ve never heard her like this before. The woman I used to know was sweet and kind. She used to bake cookies and cakes for us. I can’t believe that I ever loved her.

Two figures were running down the hallway now, two same figures with heavy-looking black wings. No, they weren’t exactly the same. Janet looked happy, almost… hungry… while Judith wasn’t having fun at all. The fairies went out to leave us alone.

“Hi, dear!” Janet said, with the same raspy voice as her mother. I felt like I’d puke any moment. They were my friends, and now, all of a sudden, they were my worst enemies, even though I didn’t quite know why.

“What? What’re you gonna do with me?” I asked, trying not to sound aghast, but it didn’t work. Janet laughed, while Judith was close to tears. How did my stupid head never understand something was wrong with them? How did I ever consider them as my friends?

Janet was going on. “What are we gonna do with you? Didn’t your precious book tell you that? We’re gonna kill you, girl. With you dead, the last descendant of the Fire element, the last of the Verinochia Cult will be gone!” Then she threw her head back and started laughing madly. It was a bit movie like and dramatic actually, but that was what she did.

“And… Why would you want me dead?” I asked. I had to keep talking; I needed the time to think. Or to give time to my knight with a white horse to come to rescue me, which was unlikely at the moment.

“Because, your fire manipulating skills have caused a lot of problems to us in the past! The elements were the only ones we couldn’t posses! We killed all the witches with other elements, and only Fire is left! We both pretended to be your friends all this time, just to see how your powers were gonna develop, and till now, it wasn’t developed at all, so we felt safe. I almost dread to kill you, you know? I started to like you lately…”

If I could just see the top of the table, there was supposed to be a vase there… I shifted my position. “So, you are trying to kill me… And when you do, no witches will be left? I’m the last witch?”

Janet looked at me if I was an ignorant bug. “Of course there are other witches, but they are practicing other things now, like the power of Time. Time won't harm us, but fire would, so…” she went on, but I was too busy concentrating. I didn’t hear her. All I heard was the warm wind’s soft whispering around me, and all I saw was the huge vase on the table. Then, suddenly-BOOM! The vase exploded. Its pieces stuck into the twins’ backs. They started screaming and I knew why. The pieces were bloody hot.

I stood up, and undid the ropes on my legs. They didn’t see a reason to bind my hands. Idiots. All I had to do was to grab my family, Mel and her family and get outta here.

But, of course, that was prevented as well. All the other fairies burst into the room at the sound of the screams, and they were all around me.

There were screams from upstairs too. I recognized them: My parents! I went berserk and rand towards the fairies like I was a bull seeing red. I was sure that they were going to kill me at the moment, but they couldn’t touch me. I stopped to see what it was, because it wasn’t me who was keeping them from touching me. Then I felt a hand pushing me, and heard a voice saying, “Come on!”

I didn’t pause this time, this gentle voice belonged to Judith. We ran upstairs. There, in Melinda’s room, laid Melinda’s and my parents. I unbound them all, while Judith said, “Quick! I can’t keep them much longer!”

My parents were both scared and confused. “Scarlet?” they asked. “How are you included in this?” I told them that I was going to tell them that later, and gestured to all four of them to stand up. Then I turned to Judith, “What do we do?”

She didn’t answer. Her eyes were closed and sweat was trickling down her face. She was trying to keep the fairies out. So the thinking part was mine again.

I leaned down the window, trying to figure out a way to escape. I saw Melinda down there. She was bound to the chains that were somehow grown out of the wall. Then I looked to my side. Eureka! There was a pipe going down! I motioned the parents to come down.

“Can you slide down this pipe?” I asked.
“What’s going on?” Melinda’s mother asked. She was terrified, trapped in her own house and she looked that she was going to faint any moment.
“Come on!” I urged. She climbed through the window and slid down. The next three went down as well. They unbound Melinda.

“Our turn,” I said. Judith opened her black wings. She jumped out of the window after me.

EPILOGUE

“So,” my mother said, after, like ten cups of tea, a lot of explanations and tears. Judith and I had told everything to the ex-prisoners. “You are a witch, and she is a fairy.”

We were sitting in the living room, at Judith’s house, which she has sealed with some kind of fairy-magic. “No one apart from me can break this seal,” she had said. So there we were, sheltering until we found some solution. The fairies could raid our houses any moment and this place was the safest one.

“Yes.” I said. “I’m sorry I haven’t told you this before, guys. It’s all because of me. If it wasn’t for me, the fairies wouldn’t have touched you.”

My mother hugged me. “Don’t worry. I just wish that you’ve told this to me before.”

I smiled and turned to the others. Judith, Melinda and I have been refusing to look at each other in the eye for at least for an hour. It was the time to make it right, I thought.
“Girls, you wanna come out for a minute?” I asked. They got up and followed me to the outside. I noticed that the parents were huddling together as Judith passed. Once we were out, she half smiled and said,

“I guess I have a bad reputation now.” I solemnly said,
“We can fix that.” And just like that, we hugged each other. Melinda just stared at us. I turned to her.
“She helped us escape,” I said. She nodded.
“I know,” she said. “But why? If you are a fairy, why’d you help us escape?”
Leave it to Melinda to cut right into the heart of the matter.

Judith thought for a moment. “I really liked you,” she said. “Even more that my sister. I really didn’t want to hurt you. I didn’t know you were a witch, they had only told me that you were a nice kid, and it would be good if we became friends.” I remembered. Judith’s mom had told her to be friends with us on the first day of the first grade.
“But when I learned the truth,” she went on, “I decided not to hurt you. I should have told you the truth about me Red, but I couldn’t. I was a coward. Bu I’m on your side now. I’ll always be.” She was crying now.

This time, Melinda hugged her. There were so many things unspoken, so many things unexplained, but I think she understood.

“So we’re cool, right?” Judith asked. We nodded.
“Now, let’s talk about funnier things,” I said with fake cheerfulness. “Such as: What do we do now with so many fairies lurking around? We’ve got schools, our parents got jobs…”
“Let’s get inside first,” Melinda said. She may not have any powers, but she’s always the most logical.

We discussed those matters for two hours. (After convincing everyone that Judith was on our side, of course.) We couldn’t agree on anything but the fact that we must be protected.

“There are some magic, of course. To protect the houses. That must be our priority. But they’re too powerful for me. It requires at least two fairies.”
“Well, we two can do that,” I said.
“We can stay all stay in one house,” Melinda’s mother offered. We nodded.
“Come on, let’s try then,” Judith said. She motioned me to come to the couch. She was holding a necklace. It was gorgeous. It had blue beads. It was gleaming with magic.

We tried the magic for at least an hour. Then, finally, out of my hands and Judith’s necklace, a white-black light emerged. It went out of the window, not breaking it, and surrounded the house.

“There,” she said. “It’ll hold for a long time. No one can come from outside, but we can get out.”

I didn’t bother to listen. I was so exhausted that I fell asleep almost instantly. I was finally safe and relaxed. I didn’t care if none of us could go out ever again. This round was won, the point was ours. I felt Judith covering me up with a blanket. I muttered a “thanks” and drifted off to sleep.