Chapter 17

  It hadn’t been long since mum had left and I was already starting to get bored, I had managed to heal another plant but it didn’t hit the same now that I had no-one to show off too. Then an idea came to mind.

  I drop Lucan a message, having added his number into my contacts earlier, asking for him to come over asap.

  Not even thirty seconds later, there’s a knock at the door. I hurry to open it only to be greeted by Lucan, aggressively panting, hands on his knees as he sucked in great lungfuls of air as if he had just ran a marathon.

  “Seriously? You live next door, how unfit are you?” I question as I open the door further for him, keeping myself behind the door as not to be spotted.

  “I- was...at the park… with my sister” he gasped out

  “And you just left her there alone? Respect.” I said as I guided us towards the living room, plopping myself down on the sofa.

  Lucan shuffled in after me “What? No! She’s with my parents.”

  “Wow, might have to hurry back and make sure they aren’t piles of dust soon, I hear sunlight isn’t good for vampires”

  “How are my parent’s vampires? They don’t even like meat” Lucan replied, face screwed up in confusion

  “Because they suck the life out of me with just the idea of them” I snort

  Lucan sat beside me, his features getting more perplexed by the minute “If they were vampires, would that mean I was one too? I mean… I am allergic to garlic bread”

  He cannot be for real.

  “Lucan” I say, deadpan.

  His face remained genuinely puzzled

  What a poor, stupid boy.

  “Your parents aren’t vampires. But they do suck.”

  Lucan awkwardly laughed “Yeah… I guess.” he instantly perked up “anyway, what’s up? You told me to come asap.”“I did. But honestly I didn’t expect you to be that fast, I thought I had a good ten minutes left until you came round.” I explained “I just asked you round because I was bored. I’ve been stuck in this house for so long I think I’m going mad.” I pause for a moment before I ominously point to the corner of the room, hiding a smirk as I layout my plan, struggling to keep a straight face. “Do you see that shadowy figure, over there?”

  Lucan’s eyes instantly widened as his head jerked to look at the corner “N-No, but should I?”

  I fake a look of horror on my face “Oh God, Lucan it’s moving! It’s-it’s coming towards me!” I start backing away on the sofa, climbing on the cushions as I try and get away from the ‘figure’

  “Lucan! Do something! It’s going to get me!”

  Lucan stammered and stuttered unsure of what to do, frozen to the spot in fear.

  “Lucan! It’s almost here! It’s-” I let out a scream, loud and dramatic and thrash around, this caused Lucan to let out a blood-curdling scream.

  I couldn’t help it, I broke down laughing. Holding my belly. Lucan looked over at me with the grumpiest face I had ever seen, his frown was deep and his mouth upturned which only made me laugh harder, he shoved me playfully “Not funny Veylyn!” he scoffed, crossing his arms like a child having a tantrum.

  “Oh come on” I said once I had calmed down and regained my breath “It was a little funny, I can’t believe you fell for that. I bet you’d even believe me if I told you that I had written gullible on the ceiling”

  Lucan’s eyes glanced to the ceiling for a split second before he huffed even harder.

  A pause.

  “Are you for real? There is no way you just looked at the ceiling, it’s not even funny at this point, it’s just sad” I shake my head in second hand embarrassment. “Moving swiftly on from this train wreck of a conversation, I have something to show you.”

  I gesture him to follow me into the kitchen “Grab me a flower pot from outside, any one is fine, and bring it here.”

  Lucan nods and wanders off into the garden, returning a moment later with a flowerpot in hand, a red one. The flower in it indeterminable.

  And it was all going so well.

  Until he tripped over his own feet, sending the plant pot – and himself – crashing to the floor. I rolled my eyes. “Seriously Lucan, how useless can you be?”

  Lucan looked at me with sad eyes as he clutched his hand, he must had cut it on a shard of pottery when he fell. I kneel beside him “I’m not saying you’re useless but a chocolate tea pot is at least able to make hot chocolate. You however…”

  I let the sentence hang on the air as I examine his hand, the cut was small but deep. I wondered if I was able heal his wound, having not actually practised healing magic on anything other than dead plants, but I was determined to try at least, plus what’s life without a little magical, medical malpractice and it’s only Lucan. He’s so forgiving, he’d still invite me round for tea even if he watched me strangle his cat.

  I held his injured hand in my left and hovered my right over it, trying my hardest to ignore his questioning. I imagined the structure of the body and the layers of skin and muscle. I imagined them being knitted back together in my mind and felt a warmth flow from my hand, enveloping Lucan’s. He let out a gasp and I felt him instinctively snatch his hand back, but he fought against it as he realised that he his wound was being healed before his very eyes.

  Once I was done, I let his hand go and stood up, stretching my arms out wide. “Ta da. I learnt healing magic”

  Lucan’s eyes were wide and filled with delight as they bounced from his hand to me and back again. “Wow, that was amazing!”

  I bow dramatically “Thank you, thank you. I must admit, I wasn’t sure if it was going to work. I had only ever done the spell on plants.”

  “Plants?” he asked

  “Yeah, not exactly overflowing with injuries here Lucan, and I certainly wasn’t going to be making any deliberately.” I say, holding my hand out to pull him up to him feet. He took it gratefully. “Anyway, that was all I wanted to show you but do you wanna watch a film or something? It’s gonna be just me and you for a bit while mum is out food shopping. We haven’t got much in but I’m sure I can rustle up some popcorn from the back of the cupboards, I think we still have some left from the last time we had a movie night”

  The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  Lucan smiled widely, his eyes shining in the afternoon sun. “that sounds like fun! Want me to pick the movie like last time?”

  I nod “Sure, but no romance or musicals” I make my way over to the cupboards, rooting through to see if I can find the remaining bag of popping kernels, adding “And maybe something you’re not going to scream at so much, I think my ears have only just stopped ringing”

  Lucan gasped, literally gasped. I could hear it all the way from the living room.

  “That movie was terrifying! My screams were entirely justified” he argued

  “You literally picked it and even when the film was finished you screamed as soon as Ma came through the door” I retort as I load up a pan with butter and the kernels, shaking my head.

  I could hear him opening up a DVD case, hearing the clicking of the plastic case as he closed it. The whir of the DVD player opening and closing the drawer as it swallowed the disk “Listen, she caught me off guard. You jumped too don’t forget that”

  I rolled my eyes, he couldn’t see it but at this point with Lucan, eye rolling is a guarantee regardless of if he’s in the room or not.

  “Only because you screamed so loud half the street probably heard you”

  The kernels were popping nicely and were almost done, having only had a small amount left. I send a quick text to mum and asked her to pick some more up.

  “Still jumped though” I could hear the smugness in his voice.

  Tosser.

  I roll my eyes again, this time hard enough to see my past lives – No doubt they were also dealing with a Lucan – and wander into the living room with the bowl of popcorn, the DVD menu playing the title screen music. This time it was a psychological horror, less jump scares. Thank god, I don’t think I could take another film with Lucan gripping my arm so hard my fingers go numb. “Right, this is all the popcorn and if you eat all of it like you did last movie night me and you are gonna have problems. Got it?” I threaten

  Lucan nods “In my defence, I was hungry last time.”

  “Lucan,” I groan “half of it ended up on the floor. I could have eaten that but nooooo, someone” I glare at him “had to keep snatching great handfuls and stuffing his face”

  Lucan chuckled nervously “whoops?”

  “Yeah, whoops indeed.” I start the film and shoved a few bits of popcorn into my own mouth “I thought you didn’t like sweet popcorn anyway?”

  Lucan had already started inching closer, stuffing a handful of popcorn into his mouth as he did so. “Listen, food is food. Salty is better but I’ll take what I can get”

  It was my turn to gasp dramatically, “Salty is not better than sweet! Now shut up and keep your absolutely balmy opinions to yourself or you’ll get lost during the film”

  We had to pause the film half way through so Lucan could pop to the bathroom. I check my phone, no message from mum in response to my text about popcorn but I think nothing of it, she never was any good at replying to messages.

  The credits roll and the music blares through the speakers. The bowl of popcorn long since empty at our feet. Lucan looks at me confused “I don’t get it.”

  I roll my eyes, I knew this film wouldn’t be in Lucan’s wheelhouse when he kept asking me questions during it, I just told him to shut up and keep watching since the film would explain it in time. Apparently I was wrong in that assumption. I sigh “What bit don’t you get?” I ask

  Lucan looked at me sheepishly “Erm… All of it?”

  “For the love of-” I pinch the bridge of my nose “Alright so the main character, Daniel, has a weird reflection right? You saw that at the start of the film where it doesn’t quiet match his movements and shit right?”

  Lucan nods “Right, but I don’t get why the reflection was weird?”

  I groan and throw my head back against the backrest of the sofa looking up at the ceiling “God give me strength – Because it wasn’t really his reflection, you muppet, it was a thing, a monster, a demon, whatever. It just wasn’t him. It was pretending to be him”

  “Why was it pretending to be him though?” he questioned innocently.

  This boy!

  “My god” I mumble under my breath “Because it would be a pretty shitty film if it didn’t. Seriously, Lucan, were your eyes closed the whole time or something?” I pick up my phone to see if mum had messaged. The film had gone on for at least two and a half hours and she still wasn’t back yet and I was starting to worry. I know I ate a lot but three hours to do a food shop for two people seems a bit excessive, didn’t it? Was she buying the whole of the shop or something?

  Lucan seemed to notice my unease “You alright?”

  I hesitate a little. Do I tell him how I feel or do I lie?

  No, I told him no more lies. He deserves that at least.

  “It’s mum.” I tell him, fiddling with the phone in my hand “She went out shopping nearly three hours ago and she still isn’t back yet.”

  “And you’re worried?” He questioned.

  “Of course I’m worried” I snap. “The woman is supposed to be dead but she’s out here walking around the supermarket like some sort of resurrected prophet.” I bury my head in my hands and force myself to take a breath. There was no reason to believe that anything had happened to her but she wasn’t a stupid woman, she knew how much of a risk this was, there was no way she would willing be out for this long. Lucan looked a little hurt when I finally looked back up. I sigh “Look, I’m sorry I snapped, it’s just… she’s been out for so long now and I don’t know what I’d do if I lost her again.”

  Lucan placed a reassuring hand on my shoulder, squeezing lightly and I suppress the need to shake him off, “It’s alright, I’m sure she’s fine, why don’t you try calling her?”

  I nod, why hadn’t I thought of that? I press the call button and bring the phone to my ear only to be met with voicemail. “Try again, she might have just missed it the first time, you know how loud shops are sometimes” he tells me with a reassuring smile, but it didn’t quite reach his eyes.

  So I try again.

  And again.

  And again.

  Voicemail.

  “She’s not answering” there was a hint of panic in my voice as I keep frantically calling while I pace the living room, almost wearing a hole in the laminate floor, only being met with the same stupid automated voicemail. With a frustrated yell, I launch my phone across the room making Lucan jump as it smashes into the wall with a loud bang.

  “It’s alright we can figure something out, just relax” Lucan tries

  I whirl to face him, getting up in his face as I feel the fury flood my body like a wave. “Relax? Relax?” I bellow “How the hell am I supposed to relax when a city wide man hunt is out for me and my mother is missing! Not to mention the fact that I have the weight of the whole of humanity on my shoulders!” I push a finger into his chest with each word “I’m stuck in here watching stupid horror films with the human equivalent of a golden retriever mixed with a wet paper towel instead of fucking doing something!” I can feel the heat on my cheeks and know my eyes are ablaze, my mana bubbling up in me as I struggle not to blow my top completely.

  Lucan flinches, his face is etched with fear but he doesn’t step away, he takes in a deep breath and exhales, steady (for the most part) and measured, before speaking.

  “I know you have a lot on your shoulders” He says quietly, his eyes never leaving mine as an act of solidarity. Showing me wordlessly that he was with me. “I know you’re scared about your mum, but you’re not alone in this, you don’t have to bear those burdens all on your own any more. We’ll find your mum, alright? Whatever it takes. I’ll storm the castle if I have to”

  He hesitate, searching my eyes as he places a careful hand on my arm and I resist the urge to flinch, then gently adds “But you need to breathe first and relax”

  I was suddenly aware of how fast my chest was heaving and how tightly my fists were clenched, tiny sparks jumping from my skin to the beat of my racing pulse. I nod and close my eyes, feeling the heat behind my eyes, I take in deep breaths before letting them out slowly, my breathing steadies, my rage subsides and my magic recedes.

  I open my eyes, back in control.

  “Good” he murmurs “Now, let’s go find your mum”

  I nod and hurry to grab myself a hoodie and a hat to try and disguise myself from the public, I can’t look for mum if I’m spotted instantly. Once the jumper was on and the hood was up over my baseball cap – merchandise from a university I was supposed to go to – I slipped on my shoes when the loud slam of several car doors echoed around the quiet street. I shot a look at Lucan who scurried to the window, opening the curtain just a fraction.

  His face was pale as he looked back at me, his mouth forming words but no sound was coming out and his eyes were devoid of all hope. My heart dropped to my feet and the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end. They had found me, this was the end, but I sure as hell wasn’t going to go down without a fight.

  I steeled myself, my mask falling into place, unbothered and unconcerned, hardened and ready for the fight that was to come – and I was going to take as many Binders with me as I could. “Lucan” I say, my voice devoid of all emotion “Go home. If anyone asks, you don’t even know me”

  “What? No! -” he began attempting to grab my arm but I cut him off as I swipe my arm away from him before he could grab hold.

  “Now. Lucan. I won’t see you get hurt.” I shrug my shoulders, roll my neck, shake my arms to get the blood flowing then throw off the hat and the hood. If I was going down, I want the world to see my face, to see the person brave enough to fight. Let them be scared of me. Let the fear be my aid.

  I take a deep breath and open the door. But no amount of deep breaths could have prepared me for what I saw.