Hidden Magic

Lies

Rosie quickly jumped up from where she sat on the pavement. Her heart was thudding fast and fearfully in her chest for what she might have just seen... For whom she might have just met. What did she do now, run after her and fire a bomb of questions and accusations? No, that would be crazy stupid. But could she just stand there and watch her opportunity slip away? No!


She forced her feet to move down the pavement and towards the corner. When she got there she retained some of her common sense and flattened her back against the cold brick wall of a large house. She peered out and saw...nothing. The cloaked woman...or more accurately thing was gone and there was no way to find it again.


“Crap.” She sighed and with one last reassuring look around unlocked her phone. There were no messages or clues; it was just her ordinary, black touch screen phone that had been touched by something that had her sister. Something that knew where her sister was and what Charles wanted. Her phone had been held by answers, the most important thing of all.


Groaning she shoved it back in her jeans pocket and ran back in the other direction. She pounded her fist on Amber’s door for the second time that day. A moment later the door was pulled open. Rosie started to blurt out her frantic words until she registered the terrifyingly familiar face and took a giant step back. An ice-like shiver went up her spine as Lorraine flashed an amused smile. She knew how scared Rosie was, and she liked it. Anything for power, anything to fill that never ending void of hunger and thirst. Power meant life or death to people like Lorraine. Rosie may not have been in this supernatural world for long, but that was something she knew for sure, and was not going to forget anytime soon.


“You,” Rosie said and gave her such an angry glare that she surprised even herself by doing it. “Are in my way. Move.”


Lorraine blinked as if she couldn’t quite believe it. “Where are you manners, rude child?”


“They left when you tried to kill me, bitch. Now move. I mean it.” She levelled her eyes with Lorraine and put a cold purpose into her words. “Care to test me?”


To Rosie’s shock Lorraine took a step back and she could have sworn that there was a small flicker of fear in the woman’s eyes. It vanished as quickly as it had materialised though.


“I wouldn’t test me either, Rosie,” Lorraine said as she crossed the threshold beside her. “I might not be so careful next time.”


Rosie started to open her mouth to snap back some witty comeback she didn’t even know she had in her when Lorraine carried on speaking, words that hit Rosie with a huge blow. “But before you trust your new magical friends I would stop and think. You’re a smart girl, right? I know you are, more than you could ever imagine. So surely you can see that things might not be exactly the way they seem. Who can you really trust, dear, when everything is a lie?”


“Wh...What do...What do you mean?” She stuttered.


Lorraine smiled a sick, knowing smile. It irritated her that she knew something, something that was important. “Ask yourself who you trust? Amber? James? Shane?” She smiled as Rosie’s eyes looked down at the floor. “Ahhh, Shane? Well maybe it’s not such a question of trust but what you know? Who is Shane, Rosie, really?”


“You know nothing about him.”


“Oh but I do. I know Shane White very well.”


“Just tell me what you’re saying!” Lorraine crossed her arms and raised her eyebrows. Rosie hated how much it reminded her of Amber, how alike the two of them could look. It was only the eyes that were different, really. Lorraine’s were a hazel green colour, but in certain light they looked pure, cat-like green. Creepy style. “Please,” she added.


“Well, since you ask so nicely, sure.” She led Rosie into the large study. Inside was the beautifully carved woods and lovely big desk. It held lots of papers and books. Sitting at the desk there was a figure in a clean white dress shirt that looked like something one of the characters in a Shakespeare play might wear. It was the somewhat trustworthy, somewhat crazy vampire, James.


He looked up and his expression told a thousand stories. “Rosie,” he said. He sounded worried, which didn’t do anything to help how scared she felt deep down. Who wouldn’t when facing Lorraine? She could only put the act up for so long before she started screaming. His eyes snapped onto Lorraine. “What are you doing?”


Lorraine sat on the edge of the desk and crossed her legs in a lady-like manner. Her curvy figure was highlighted by the black pencil skirt she wore. The strange woman looked dark today, and fierce. Not good.


“Telling her some truth.” Her eyes flashed what Rosie thought looked like a green-red. Not human, not human! Her thoughts screamed and screeched at her, every human part of her told her to run. But she didn’t. She stayed standing right there watching the two of the supernatural creatures staring at each other. It was James who looked away first.


She found the courage to speak. “What did you want to tell me?”


“Ahhh, that. Well...”


“Rosie,” James warned.


“Oh shut up, James. The girl can decide for herself, can’t you, Rosie?”


James’s eyes locked with hers. They pleaded her to say no and she almost did, but she didn’t know what she might be missing. Rosie nodded and said through the dryness that had started to build in her throat, “Yes.”


“Well that settles things, doesn’t it?”


James didn’t look away from Rosie’s eyes. There was something so sincere in them that she almost forgot he wasn’t human.


“Let’s carry on then, dear.” Lorraine tapped the big armchair with her black heel and gave Rosie what she thought was supposed to be a warm smile. She missed it by a mile. It came out looking fake and forced. “Did you know that Shane killed his own parents? Years ago there was a fire at his house and he did nothing to stop it. He just let his parent’s burn, screaming for him.”


“That is not true. Shane’s already told me all about that. He did everything he could to stop it.” Fury burned inside her for what Lorraine was accusing him of. There was nothing more sick and twisted than that. She knew it wasn’t true.


“Yeah, that’s just what he says, Rosie. Trust me.”


Rosie laughed. It came out like a dry, humourless noise. “Trust you? Never.”


She could feel James tense from all the way on the other side of the room where she was standing.


“Fine then, let me give you something that will be a little harder for you to ignore.”


“Shut up, Lorraine!” James shouted and banged his fist so hard on the desk that it went through it, creating a big, gaping hole.


“I am not going to kill you for talking when I told you not to, I am going to kill you for ruining a desk that cost me over two thousand pounds!”


James was fast. He was standing beside Rosie in a matter of seconds, pushing her behind him and facing Lorraine. “Leave the child. She doesn’t deserve it.”


“I know it’s your job to protect her and all, but you really are doing a bad job. She’s neared death at least ten times by now.” Lorraine smiled slyly and got up from the edge of the desk. Rosie was amazed she’d remained sat on it with the force of a vampire’s fist smashing through it. “How does Charles put up with you?”


Lorraine knows about Charles?


“You’re testing my patience.”


“I don’t care about your patience, James. And I have no interest in harming the precious girl today. I just want to tell her something she deserves to know.”


“And I want to know.” Rosie stepped out from behind James, which earned her a vicious look. But she didn’t care, Lorraine was serious. “Just tell me now. No crap. Say it.”


“Shane knows where Amy is and when they’re planning on killing her. He wasn’t planning on telling you. He thinks she’s better off dead, Rosie.”


Rosie felt like someone had grabbed her heart and pulled it right out of her chest. She felt like part of her was gone, like she’d been betrayed but couldn’t believe it. “That’s not true. Shane wouldn’t...”


“Wouldn’t he? James?”


When Rosie looked at James he refused to look at her.


“Is it true?” She demanded, feeling the tears stinging in her eyes already. “James?!”


“Yes,” he said softly. “It’s true. But don’t you see that he’s right?”


“No, I don’t.” She turned back to Lorraine. “Where is she...and when?”


“In the forest. Tonight. I understand Shane took you there?” Rosie nodded, feeling sick about the whole thing. Shane whisking her off on a seemingly romantic date, all the time knowing exactly where Amy was hidden. Maybe he didn’t tell you to protect you? A part of her asked. What if he knows that no matter what, she can’t be saved? What if he was just trying to make it easier for you? She shut off that side of her. The side she couldn’t believe. “There is a cabin on the dark side of the Forest. There she is trapped by vampires, crying, wishing you would come to her rescue. Save her from the blood and terror.” Lorraine took a step towards her. “Can you imagine what it’s like not knowing whether or not you’re going to die? Not knowing when the torture will end? I bet she’s just pleading for it to be over now...”


“Stop!” She screamed. “Stop it!”


“You wanted to know.”


“Yes, I did. But I don’t need you...describing it to me. You think I don’t know already?”


“I don’t know. I haven’t seen much action from you so far.” Lorraine sighed and gave Rosie a disgusted look. “All I ever catch you doing is chasing dead ends or flirting away with your trusty Shane. Funny how the table’s turn, isn’t it?”


It was. Lorraine was right and she knew it. It just hurt. It really, really hurt. She’d trusted Shane. He was the only one she’d ever truly trusted and now all that was a lie too. Everything is a lie.


“Well, I best be going to work now. So many vampires’s to keep records of these days.” Lorraine’s voice sounded so nonchalant. She was acting as though Rosie had come over to visit for a cup of tea and a bit of chit-chat. “See you later, Rosie. It’s always a pleasure.” With a smirk Lorraine headed out the door.


James started talking as soon as Lorraine left. “Rosie, don’t listen to her. Shane was only trying to protect you. He cares about you.”


She wasn’t listening. “Where is Amber?”


“I don’t know. She headed out after you left earlier.”


“Fine then I’ll go alone.”


He flashed vampire speed into the doorway, blocking her exit. “No, you can’t. It’s too dangerous.”


“Then come with me,” she said. Either way there was no way she was going to wait again. She was getting into that forest and saving Amy if it was the last thing she’d do.


“I can’t get in. It’s a place built for witches, only vampires with certain admittance can get in.”


“Then move, because you’re in my way, James.”


“No.”


“Move!”


Rosie felt the force of her words swirl around her and James looked at her with shock and confusion. She felt the amulet heat on her neck. It knew what she wanted and somehow knew when she was upset. The power of it settled all around her, engulfing her in a warm, safe glow. She didn’t know how she felt about that, the magic around her, but it worked for her and she used it. Even if it’s all just a lie.


He stepped back and stared at her with wide, wide eyes. “How are you doing that?”


“It doesn’t matter. Let me go or I’ll be forced to make you. Don’t make the mistake of thinking I won’t.”


James looked at her for a long second. He was looking at her like he’d never seen her before, like he couldn’t believe that she was threatening him. It felt weird to be on the other end of the stick for once.


Finally he sighed and said, “Do me a favour and come back alive. I shouldn’t have to die for you too.”


She didn’t know what he meant by that last part, but she wasn’t going to give him any chances to change his mind. She wasn’t sure how much she’d actually been bluffing on the whole I’ll make you part. With one last look she ran down the eerie hallway and sprinted out the door, heading for the dark forest that waited for her.