 
### RESURRECTION

### A Dark Fantasy Tale

### By Zed Amadeo

### Smashwords Edition

### Copyright 2015 by Zed Amadeo

### www.zedamadeo.com

### DESCEND INTO A WORLD OF DARK MAGIC...

### Get a free spellbook when you sign up for my newsletter:

### <http://www.zedamadeo.com/magicbook/>

I thought I had been imagining the two floating dots in the distance, zooming across the night sky. Sitting in my car in a deserted parking lot of a local strip mall, during the twilight hours between night and day. Waiting for my sister Kayla to meet up with me there. Finding myself exhausted after attending another unremarkable party hosted by a friend of a friend. It would've been the scene from a typical Saturday night had it not been for those dots.

As they came closer to me, I could see that they moved as if chasing each other. As they drew closer, I realized that they weren't just dots. They were people. At this range, I could hear the awful names they were calling each other, goading each other on. I thought I was surely dreaming when I saw the broomsticks they were flying on. I blinked, rubbed my eyes, but when I looked back up, they were still zipping across the sky. Now they were flying right over the strip mall, close enough for me to see the youth in their faces. Which meant that they were close enough to see me. I shrank down into my seat, hoping that they wouldn't notice and that my sister would soon arrive to take me back to my ordinary reality.

The two men flew dangerously close to where I was parked. I ducked down even lower, hoping to get further out of sight, and pulled the key out of the ignition to turn my car off before they could hear the engine. Before I could slink down to the floor, one of them saw me and pointed me out to his companion. They both looked down at me, frozen in mid-air, as I stared back up in fear and confusion.

"I think she can see us," one of them said.

"She can," the second one said. "She can see us." He smiled, and they began banging on the window shield. I screamed, struggled to open my door, and stumbled out onto the concrete. I tried to run away, but my party heels and dress made any motion difficult. I turned in the direction of the parking lot, yelling and screaming for help, but I could not see or hear anyone nearby, not even a car. As I stood looking for refuge, I was knocked flat on my stomach from some force from behind me. The snickering grew closer until it was right above me. Another force involuntarily rolled me over so that I was looking right up at them. The two hovered on either side of me.

"How can she see us?" the first one asked, talking about me as if I weren't lying helplessly beneath them.

"I really don't know," the second said. "Guess that invisibility spell wasn't so long-lasting."

"I'm gonna kick Greg's ass for that next time we see him," the first said. "What a fucking scam." He turned toward me.

"What's your name?" he asked. I was far too scared to respond.

"What's your name?" he repeated.

"Dina," I mumbled. My name somehow stumbled out of my mouth through no voluntary action of my own.

"Well then, Dina," the first said, "We're going to have some fun with you tonight." Both reached for one of my arms and hoisted me up into the air between them as they began to ascend. I begged for them to let me go. But the more I screamed, the more they laughed.

They finally released me while flying over a patch of grass. Even with the slight padding provided by the foliage, the fall still hurt. As I groaned in pain, they descended, dropping their broomsticks, and walked over to me. I felt that strange force taking control of me again, uncurling my body against my will, leaving me vulnerable before them.

The first one laughed as he walked toward me, extending his arm as if he were going to touch me, but never did. I suddenly found myself hovering above the ground before he dropped me again. He raised me a little higher each time before letting me crash back down. Then he decided to change the rules of his little game. He waved his hand to and fro, slamming me back and forth onto the trees and the ground. Every part of my body screamed with excruciating pain. While I whimpered after his last drop, he stepped away and told the other one, "Your turn."

The second one stepped toward me, muttering words that I couldn't understand. I felt as if my body had been doused in fire, then freezing, then submerged in boiling water until I thought I was about to drown. When it was all over, I found that I was still lying on that patch of grass, the first one now standing above me again. I hadn't gone anywhere. And I was still alive.

"This one's tough," the second one said. "The other ones would've been dead by now."

"You know what that means," the first one said. "Time for the real fun to begin." I tried to crawl away while they were talking, but with the pain that I was in and with all of the blood that I had already begun to lose I did not get very far before they caught on. The first one ran up to me and grabbed me by my hair.

"Don't try that again," he said. I didn't have the energy to even nod my head. He grabbed my arms, forcing me to sprawl out again. I did not try to fight back.

"I think she deserves a punishment," the first said. "What do you think, Joe?"

"I think you're right," Joe, the second one, said.

"I'll handle this one," the still nameless first one said.

I couldn't struggle against it. I could barely even scream. I was scared and bloody and hurt and I knew what was about to happen, yet I was powerless to stop it. The nameless first wore the vilest grin as he lowered his face down to mine, blocking out the little light and comfort that the moon had given me. He tore the remains of my dress from my body, taking away my final shield. I wanted to scream as his body buried mine and took away all of the light from the sky. I wanted to look back at Joe and plead with him to help me. But I couldn't. All I could do was let the tears well up in my eyes, waiting for it all to be over. My eyes were so full that I thought I was going to cry, but none of the tears pushed past the threshold onto my cheek. My body was outstretched, defiled, broken like my mind. And they were laughing at me. I suddenly realized that I was able to move my body again. I could get away. But no part of me was eager to move anywhere.

The two turned around as if they were about to walk away. I was on the verge of crying tears of relief that this nightmare had finally come to an end. But then they came back toward me, holding handfuls of stones.

"You must know," Nameless said, "That in our world, there is only one punishment for trespassing: death. Consider this as a lesson to your kind." I tried to scream, as one stone after another crashed into my naked body, launched by some other force besides their hands, shattering what little part of me remained. I grew numb to the pain.

Nameless had one final trick up his sleeve. Joe handed him a knife he had pulled from some hidden pocket in his cloak. Nameless pierced the already broken flesh of my stomach with its sharp edge as both he and Joe whispered words in a language that I did not understand. I wanted to lose consciousness, to finally be away from this horrific scene.

My head slumped to the side as the two of them flew away.

"It was nice knowing you sweetheart," Nameless said. Then they disappeared from my view.

When they were gone, the unbearable pain returned to my body. I stared at the ground, stained with puddles of my own blood, until my eyes filmed over and even the grass seemed to disappear.

My world went from comfortably dark to painfully bright. My formerly private patch of grass was flooded by sunlight. I was surrounded by a crowd. Someone was disturbing my sleep, telling me to wake up. Someone else was throwing up in the distance. One person was calling the police. Another was asking for my name. A stranger laid their coat over my indecency. I appreciated the thought behind the kind deed, but the mere touch of soft fabric on any part of my broken body was enough to send me into another fit of pain that I kept inside. I wanted to return to my land of darkness, where no pain existed. This world had too many sensations.

After drifting in and out of my world of darkness, I awakened to find myself in a hospital bed. Days later, when they finally released me, I was on so many painkillers that I barely qualified as conscious. My family became another small crowd for me to deal with upon my arrival home until Kayla politely shooed them away.

My bed was covered with "Get Well!" cards and flowers and candy, none of which I could appreciate in my current mental state. Kayla cleared it off for me and helped me lie down.

"They found me in the grass," I told her, the words falling out of my mouth. "They beat me." Kayla turned toward me, a look of concern growing on her face.

"I know, Dina," she said.

"They were flying," I said. "On brooms. They moved me with their minds." Kayla remained silent.

"They're never going to find them," I said. "They've escaped forever." I told her everything then, even the details I had neglected to tell the investigators who had paid me a visit in the hospital. As expected, she tried to hide her disbelief, although it was still obvious to me. I allowed myself the luxury of tears for the first time since the incident. She brought me a smoothie with a straw and left me alone to rest, which was what I really needed. Some time to deal with myself before I handled anything or anyone else.

My first night back home was one of the worst in terms of my recovery. The body length mirror on the wall across from my bed gave me my first good look at the entirety of my damaged body. My face was swollen and bruised almost beyond recognition. Below the bandages, invisible to the mirror but clear in my mind, was the strange symbol of a triangle within a circle etched in my stomach. One of the many marks that night had left on me. I wanted it to scab over and heal so that I could forget it had ever been there in the first place.

That night, as the incident that had left me bedridden played within my mind, the tears came in gushes and waves, then small trickles and streams. Even when I had no more tears left to cry, my face never left that painful expression. Sleep reluctantly came to claim me and take me back to that world of darkness, but only after I had fully exhausted my supply of tears.

For the first time, my family was talking about me. Up until that night, I had spent the entirety of my life as a secondary character in the lives of everyone around me. Trying much too hard to be what I could not, living a life somewhere between happy and unhappy, always in the shadow of Kayla, star of the show. Kayla, who was destined for greatness and glory. I had wanted some event to bring my days of anonymity to an end. But this was not how I had imagined earning my own story.

Kayla told our parents the confidential information I had given her, and they managed to gossip it into the family's collective knowledge. They didn't think that I would hear them doubting my story and my sanity, thinking that I was too doped up or traumatized to be functional, but I heard every word. I saw a new look of pity and sorrow on their faces during their increasingly rare visitations. Now on top of everything else, my own family thought I was crazy. My mother bluntly suggested that I talk to a professional. Maybe she was right, but after having been betrayed by my sister after telling her the truth, I wasn't ready to talk to anyone. I retreated into myself, allowing my bed-ridden hours to blur into each other. I was more alone now than ever before.

My life didn't become distinguishable again until the night when I thought I saw a bug flit into my room through a crack in the window. I wasn't able to get a good look until it settled onto my desk, which was when I realized that whatever had just come into my room was not a bug. The tiny blue faceless humanoid that had flown into my bedroom had two tiny wings as dark as the rest of its body. While I stared, it jerked its head toward me.

I knew I should have been scared or at least confused, but I was more curious than anything. Too many terrible things, both fantastic and mundane, had happened for me to be afraid of this relatively small mystery. I reached toward it with my relatively healed right arm. To my surprise, it flew toward me, settling into my palm. When I lowered my arm to rest beside me, the creature did not move an inch.

"I'm Dina," I told it. "Who are you?" Though it didn't, maybe couldn't, respond it still seemed eager to listen, so I continued on.

"Do you know how much it hurts being here?" I asked it. "I want to get away from all of this." A silent pause fell between us.

"I don't know why I'm even talking to you," I said. "I don't know what you are, or if you're real." It tilted its head as if curious.

"You're the first to really listen to me in a long time," I said. It remained silent.

"Thank you for listening," I told it. The creature bowed its head before flitting away through that same crack in the window. I didn't understand what had just happened, nor did I really try to figure it out. But I did fall into the best sleep that I'd had since the attack.

Night after night, the creature continued to visit, collecting more pieces of my story. The second night, when I asked it if there was anything it wanted, it pointed to one of the gift boxes of chocolates from a family member on my dresser. I nodded, and the creature flitted over, humorously prying the cover off and heaving a candy into its mouth as if the action were a chore before picking up another one. It drowsily hovered back to my hand. As it opened its mouth to take a bite of chocolate, it revealed a mouth full of tiny, razor-sharp teeth. It always sat down to listen more of the story until I drifted off to sleep.

I told it of a time when I had simply been Dina Durst, aspiring actress and an average blond. Living a life permanently playing second fiddle to Kayla, smart, beautiful, successful Kayla, who had already managed to land herself multiple acting roles. I had been dumb enough to think that by living with her, I would somehow mooch off her success and make my own acting career and finally be noticed. I had been smart enough to know that something was missing from my life, yet too shallow to figure out what it was and go after it. I was tired of being second-best, second-loved, the accident child that my parents produced when they had already planned and created the bundle of perfection that was Kayla. All I had wanted was something that would finally set me apart.

Who would have known that it would be this?

Even after I was no longer bedridden, I still remained trapped in that night. The thought of taking a step beyond my door was too overwhelming. I could feel everyone's growing frustration with me as they gave me endless suggestions to go outside, talk to someone, get some fresh air. These were the same people who had previously discounted my story. I didn't want to hear anything else from them.

When the creature came back to me some time after our first night, I give it a piece of chocolate and told it about my recent irritations. It sat and listened for a while as usual, but then it did something new. As I had been venting, it stopped listening and grabbed my right index finger. I didn't understand its intentions, but it kept pointing my finger and jerking its head toward the mirror that cast my reflection. Looking at myself full on like that reminded me of everything that I wanted to forget. I could see the attack happening all over again. When the faces of the two men flashed before my eyes, my anger bubbled to a new high. My mind was released from this cruel circle of thought when I heard a crack.

The mirror had broken.

"I need to figure it out," I told the creature one night. "I need to know why all of this is happening to me." I could no longer let my fear hold me back. It nodded its head as it took a large bite out of the chocolate in its hands.

"Can you help me?" I asked. It nodded.

The creature hovered in the air and made motions for me to follow it into the hallway and up to the front door. While I stood frozen in the doorway, it continued to make motions for me to follow, though I was not sure if I was able. It grabbed another one of my fingers, pulling me forward. I took one last deep breath before crossing that threshold into the outside world for the first time since the attack, putting all of my trust and safety into the hands of this mysterious creature.

I shuffled behind the creature as quickly as I could. I didn't know where it was taking me, but I had to believe that it was to somewhere better. As we approached our destination and I began to form an idea of where it might be taking me, my confidence in the creature began to wane. I almost would have rather returned to my bed.

When we got back to that small patch of grass, I dropped to my knees. I could not control the flow of memories that played out in third person before me. I could see myself being beaten and violated, cut all over again and my nearly lifeless body losing any spirit that remained. I had become frozen in time again. I cried for my lost self that these two men had taken from me. I spread my limbs out onto the grass around me, wishing that I could find some escape from the place that had taken me as its prisoner. I felt a faint tugging at one of my shoulders, so I opened my eyes and looked around. I was still in the same patch of grass. Only everything had changed.

I had stumbled into a world that oversaturated my senses. The scene around me resembled a carnival, full of bright tents, loud chatter, and the pervasive smell of unknown food. Many of the people around me looked normal enough at first glance, but a second one tipped me off to the alien nature of this place. Out of everything, their clothes were what hit me the most. Many wore cloaks similar to what Joe and Nameless had worn that night. I didn't know where I was, but I knew that I didn't belong. I could be in danger right now, all because I had decided to make the stupid decision of following this unknown creature through the dark. It began pulling at my shoulder again, but I did not respond to it this time. Against my better senses, my mind had become too engrossed in the new world around me. I would have ignored the second tug had it not been accompanied by a voice.

"What are you doing here?" the raspy male voice asked me. I didn't want to turn around and see who it belonged to. Though the creature was tugging my other shoulder in the opposite direction, I was still too scared to move.

"Did you hear me?" he asked again, now yelling. "I said, what are you doing here?" He grabbed my shoulders and forcefully rolled me onto my back.

"Nothing," I said. My lips trembled with every word. "I just want to leave."

"You're one of the Ordinary aren't you?" he asked. "I can tell." I didn't know what he was talking about, so I didn't respond.

"How did you end up here?" he bellowed.

"I don't know!" I said, close to tears. "Please, I just want to leave!" He shook his head.

"Do you know what we do to people like you?" he asked. "We can't just let you leave." He whistled, and within seconds I was surrounded by a crowd, staring at me from all angles.

There was going to be no getting out of here for me.

The man who had discovered me grabbed my legs, while someone else took my arms. Despite my attempts to struggle against them, they heaved me above their heads, carrying me through the crowd to a ring of stones. They tossed me in the center, pinning down my arms and legs. The scenario felt uncomfortably familiar. I felt like I was having yet another flashback, only this one existed outside my mind. Though I screamed, no one seemed to hear me until someone ripped off my shirt, revealing my scar to the crowd. That did more to silence them than anything I could've done.

"What's that symbol doing on her?" someone yelled. "A living Ordinary?"

"She should be dead," another said. She clasped her hands over her face and began to whimper.

"How did you get that?" someone asked. The little blue creature suddenly reappeared, hovering next to my face. My only comfort in this increasingly terrifying situation. The crowd's disdain and disgust toward me transformed into stares of wonder. They began to make startled noises and started sentences that went unfinished. I wanted to get away, but could see no path out of this terror.

"It can't be!" someone yelled, pointing toward the creature at my side. "A companion!"

Some woman pushed her way to the front of the frozen crowd, gasping when she caught sight of me. I was in too much shock to get a good look at her at the time.

"What have you done?" she asked, her question directed toward the crowd. The man who had begun all of this was the first to answer.

"I thought she was an Ordinary," he said. "We were gonna take care of the situation." He bowed his head in shame.

"Can you not see what she is?" the woman said. "She bears the mark. Everything about what you are doing is wrong." The crowd remained silent.

"Come with me," she said. I didn't realize she was talking to me until she held out her arms. She embraced me and pulled me away from the crowd, handing what remained of my torn shirt to me. She gave her parting words to the crowd as we walked away.

"Enjoy the rest of your carnival."

She walked me to a tent decorated like a festive candy cane, brushing aside the curtain and setting me down on a pile of cushions. A moment later, the tiny flying creature joined us and sat on my shoulder. My face was all wet and snotty from crying. I was too embarrassed to look her in the eye.

"Hey," she said. "Look at me." She grabbed my chin and tilted my face upwards, forcing me to look into her eyes, blue and watery, surrounded by golden brown skin and hair almost as blonde as my own.

"Don't be afraid," she said. "You're safe with me." I felt like she was peering into my soul. Without my permission, she was seeing into me.

"There is nothing to be ashamed of," she reminded me. "Those people were out of line. You did nothing to deserve what just happened." I nodded my head like I understood when I was actually more confused than ever before.

"You went through something terrible to get that scar," she stated. My temporary lull in crying came to an end as I found myself back in tears.

"I'm tired of being misunderstood," I said. "I don't want to be afraid anymore."

"You don't have to be," she said. Her voice soothed me like a spoonful of honey. "I know you don't realize it now, but you have the power to do anything you want and more." I knew that she was probably trying to comfort me, but so far, she was only succeeding in adding to my confusion.

"What do you mean?" I asked. She pursed her lips and smiled like she was hiding some delicious secret.

"You're like me," she said. "You're made of magic."

"'Magic?'" I asked in disbelief. She nodded.

"I'm Alejandra," she said to me. "What's your name?"

"Dina," I mumbled.

"Dina, I know that all of this might be hard for you to understand now," she said, "But I promise that it will all make sense in time."

"I never wanted any of this," I said.

"It's too late for that now," she said. "You're going to have to understand and accept that. What is happening to you isn't scary. It's beautiful."

"How do you know?" I asked her.

"I because I went through the same thing." She grabbed both sides of my face and forced me to look directly into her eyes again.

"Better now?" she asked. I nodded. She smiled and took her hands away.

"We should get going," she said. "I think I've spent more than enough time here tonight." She started walking toward the tent's entrance.

"I expect that you'll have many questions," she said. "I can give you answers."

"I would like that," I said. She smirked like she had been expecting that answer.

"Follow me," she said. I again put my trust into someone that I did not fully understand. I followed the woman out of the tent, to her broomstick leaned up against the side. She straddled the broomstick and it began to hover parallel to the ground. She hopped right on it. I stared at the flying broom beneath her, feeling a flurry of paralyzing emotions.

"Hop on," she said. I still didn't move.

"There is no need to be afraid," she added. I didn't have much of a choice. I got on the back of the broom, trying to block the memories that I could feel bubbling to the front of my mind.

"Hold on tight," she said. I wrapped my arms around her waist. The creature's little fingers dug into my shoulder. Within minutes, we were up in the sky. The carnival became a vague association of colorful shapes and gave way to the rest of the city. I had to get over my fear of falling to appreciate the entirely new view of the city below.

Alejandra descended when we were over the well-to-do part of the city, landing in the backyard of a palatial house. When our feet touched land, she told me it was safe to walk around. After we had gotten off, the broom plopped down onto the ground, now an ordinary household cleaning device. She picked it up and carried it in her hands. I followed her through the back door and into the house. As we walked through one room after another, I thought I could hear the indistinct sounds of something moving in the distance. Because Alejandra did not seem to acknowledge them, I decided to ignore them as well.

"Welcome to my home, Dina," she said. I followed her through room after lavishly furnished room until we reached the dining room, populated with a long wooden table surrounded by several antique-looking chairs.

"Have a seat," she told me. "Anywhere you want."

Once I had selected my seat, she took the one across from me. She snapped her fingers, and immediately after a thumping sound began to approach the room, culminating in a figure appearing at the door. I watched in silence as a huge humanoid figure, electric-blue from head to toe, walked into the room and wandered over to Alejandra, shaking the floor with each step. I wasn't sure whether I needed to be scared, but my terror began to flare up regardless.

"What...would...you...like?" it asked, stretching out a short sentence into a novel. Its flat voice startled me, as I had not been expecting any speech. As it spoke, its face remained locked in a blank, almost bored, expression.

"Tea and biscuits for our guest," Alejandra said, glancing over at me with that sly smile.

"That will be all," she added. The thing thudded back out the way that it had come in.

"He's my newest creation," she said. "Still working out a few minor difficulties, but he gets the job done. I used to have human allies for this kind of help. Had to get rid of them all recently. It can be hard to trust anyone around here." I nodded my head. She was only pushing me further into confusion. I was too afraid of doing the wrong thing, so I kept silent.

Alejandra proudly watched as he thudded back into the room a moment later to place the tray of requested items on the table between us before leaving again. Alejandra removed two of the cups from the tray and filled them with tea from the fancy kettle. I nervously took the cup she handed to me, still too concerned with other emotions to think about my physical needs. The cup shook in my hands all the way from the table to my mouth. Alejandra wasted little time in pointing this out.

"You have no reason to be scared," she said. "You're safe here. I promise." I forced myself to take another sip of tea to be polite.

"There must be so many things that you want to know," she said, ending with a pause. I had so many questions that it was hard to think of which one I should begin with.

"What are you?" I asked.

"That's simple," she said. "I'm a witch. I have the ability to direct the flow of magic. I can see into worlds that ordinary humans cannot."

Witch.

"You're a witch too, Dina," Alejandra said.

"I don't understand," I said. "Just a few months ago I was normal Dina."

"Dina, you've gone through something traumatic," she asked. "And since then you've seen things that neither you nor anyone else can explain." My response was confused silence.

"You were on the news," she added. "The victim of a brutal attack. Left for dead. As soon as they saw that symbol on your stomach, everyone knew who you were. That is a symbol reserved only for specific types of sacrifices." I finally felt ready to let the question that had been burning inside of me into the world.

"Why me?" I asked. "I never wanted any of this!"

"You must understand," she said, "What happened to you wasn't your fault. The only thing you can do is make good of it, and right now, right before me, I see something amazing."

"This isn't amazing!" I yelled. "What about any of this is amazing? Why did they do this to me?"

"Because they wrongly thought that you had seen too much," she said.

"But that wasn't my fault!" I said.

"You're right," Alejandra agreed. "None of that was your fault. You see, we usually disguise the more visible parts of our world with magic to keep ourselves hidden from all of the Ordinaries," she continued. "But no magic is foolproof. Sometimes a stray human gets sight of our world. If they've only caught a glimpse, we simply let them go. We have different rules, however, if we think that they have seen too much." Her words started to touch upon what Joe and Nameless had said to me that night.

"Death?" I asked.

"Yes," she said. "If an ordinary person has seen too much, we have to kill them. Otherwise, they put our world at risk for being revealed to everyone. We are supposed to sacrifice them in a certain way to ensure that their death brings prosperity to our community. That symbol carved into you is a part of that ritual. A human who dies this way disappears from the outside world. That's what would have happened to you."

"Then what happened?" I asked. "Why am I still here?"

"The ritual must have gone wrong," she explained. "Your attackers thought they had killed you, but they did not. In certain magical rituals, if a human isn't killed, they will rise again with latent powers activated within them. There are two ways to become a witch: you can either be born, or you can be created. Having that kind of power flow through you turned you into the latter. If your attackers had carried out the ritual correctly – "

"'Correctly?'" I yelled. "I didn't deserve anything that they did to me. How can you sit there defending them?"

"I am not defending them, Dina," she said. "Not in the slightest. What they did to you was unacceptable. They should not have performed the ritual in the first place. You saw something small once, late at night. They should have fled as soon as they realized that you saw them. Even when the circumstances do call for it, the ritual is supposed to be quick and dignified. It's not supposed to involve the kind of torture that they put you through. But rest assured, we have taken justice on these two sadistic warlocks. When I found out about their deed, I had them branded and banished. They will never be able to hurt you again."

"After what they did," I said, "You only banished them?"

"The rules are different here," she said, taking a pause.

"Those two warlocks are gone," she said. "You must move beyond that moment. You can take that horror and turn it into something good."

"So this...ritual," I said, still in shock, "Changed me? Into a witch?" Alejandra nodded.

"Exactly," she said. "We call the marvelous little creature that has been by your side a companion. They come from another realm entirely to accompany created witches and warlocks with their initial journey into magic." The creature. My companion. In my mind, she transformed from an "it" to a "she." She leapt off my shoulder and onto the plate of biscuits, shoving her face into one and devouring the treat with her previously hidden mouth of sharp teeth.

"What if I don't want any of this?" I asked.

"It doesn't matter whether or not you want it," she said. "I didn't choose this path. I was born a witch. And despite some of the grief it has caused me, I wouldn't have it any other way. At this stage, you only get to choose whether you embrace it or push it away. Should you decide to reject it, you must remember that you can only bury this so far down. You'll never be able to shield yourself from the other face of the city." She spoke too strongly. I couldn't resist agreeing with what she told me.

"Of course, the choice is still yours," Alejandra said. After my companion had engorged its-herself on biscuits, she crept back up to my shoulders.

"I can tell that you're ready to leave," she said. "Let me give you a ride home." She stood up from the table and I followed her to her broom in the backyard. After I told her my address, we arrived at my house surprisingly quickly.

"Goodbye, Dina," she said once I had disembarked toward my front door. "I trust we'll be meeting again soon." She flew off again, disappearing into the distance.

Kayla flipped out when I walked back into the house, asked me where I had been all night, almost calling the police out of worry. I just sat on my bed in a daze, uncertain of my future. My life was finally beginning to settle into a strange, logical truth, though not a truth that I wanted to accept.

After my terrifying encounter at the carnival, I felt surprisingly ready to put all of the strange and frightening events that had happened behind me. It took another traumatic event for me to accept who and what I was becoming.

A loud crash woke me from my sleep that night, followed by a shriek from my sister. I jumped out of bed and rushed over to the sound's source. As I moved into the doorframe of the living room, I could already see the horrible scene going on in front of me.

Kayla was lying flat on the floor, struggling against a man in black mask who had his hands wrapped around her throat. I wanted to jump in and do anything to save my sister from what was happening to her. But all my body did was stand there in shock as my sister and her assailant transformed into me and Nameless. I was replaying the incident again in third person, watching myself fall unconscious as Nameless walked away from the scene, leaving me for dead in the grass. Nameless didn't turn back into my sister's assailant until he reached down to grab his bag and slip out of the window, seeming to ignore my presence. Even after he was gone, I remained horrified and frozen.

Kayla wasn't moving. I thought for sure that she was dead, and it was all my fault because I was too scared to do anything beyond watch the attack happen. I didn't move until she called out to me.

"Call the police," she said in a voice barely higher than a whisper.

I kept apologizing to Kayla, repeatedly trying to express my sorrow for being a bystander. Even though she kept telling me that there was no need to blame myself, it became all that I could do. I couldn't even escape it in my dreams. My home had been my final sanctuary. After what had happened, I realized that I was not even safe there anymore. I wasn't safe anywhere. I think Kayla began to understand my predicament more than she was willing to say. We had never been close enough to have deep talks with each other, but I started to notice how she became more withdrawn, going out increasingly less. I needed a way out of my broken sanctuary.

I remembered what Alejandra had told me about how I could keep trying to push magic away from my life, but I could never be truly successful. I yearned for the presence of my companion each day. I couldn't wait for the night when my companion flew into my room, holding one of the candies that I had left out for her on my windowsill.

"Do you remember how to get to Alejandra's?" I asked her. She nodded her head in delight.

When we arrived at Alejandra's estate, I was in tears. My companion led me through the rows of plants and bushes that stood on either side of her front door. After a couple of knocks, a low, grunting voice asked me for my name. I was crying so hard that I could barely even get that little piece of information out of me. The voice left, and after what felt like an eternity, Alejandra's voice awaited me instead. I fell into her arms when she opened the door.

"Welcome back," she said. She took me into a room filled with bookcases and flat pillows on the floor, suitable for seating.

"I don't want to feel this way anymore," I told her. "I saw my sister get attacked, and I just stood and watched, because I was too fucking afraid to do anything else. I'm stuck and I don't know how to get out." Alejandra wrapped an arm around me.

"You've come to the right place," she said. "You have no more need to be afraid."

"But this fear," I said, "is always following me."

"You have great power within you," she said. "You just haven't learned how to use it yet." I knew she was talking about magic. I no longer had the energy to keep pushing it away. The only other option I had was fear.

"I can help you Dina," she said, "If you are ready."

"I'm ready now!" I said. "I don't want to go back. I can'tgo back."

"Very well," she said. "But for now, I think you need rest." I nodded my head and followed closely behind her through the rest of the house, again hearing the same muffled noises from my previous visit. I had little time to dwell on it, instead focusing my attention on trying to keep myself together. Alejandra took me to a large bedroom at the top of a staircase

"Make yourself at home," she told me as she left, closing the door behind her. My companion flitted down onto the bed. I saw little option but to follow suit. On my great journey to the world of peace that sleep provided me, I found myself confronted by those strange, distant sounds again. But my mind slipped away before I could consider them any further.

I experienced a momentary panic when Alejandra's voice woke me the following morning and I did not see my own bedroom around me. My head needed a few moments to catch up before the fear subsided.

"Dina," Alejandra said from the other side of the door, "Breakfast is ready. Come down whenever you'd like." I thanked her and prepared myself for the journey downstairs as I stumbled into the hallway with my companion hovering at my side. The indistinct noises I had heard before were now gone, making me wonder whether I hadn't been imagining them all along.

Walking back into the dining room felt like wandering into another dream. The table was filled with a variety of dishes and drinks, foods that I didn't recognize. Alejandra was already seated at the head of the table, looking at me with that knowing smile. She made a gesture inviting me to sit next to her. My companion immediately went to work stuffing her face with food. I was more hesitant, mostly out of nervousness. While Alejandra began eating, I stared at the empty plate in front of me.

"Feel free to eat," she said.

Partially through the meal the blue being came plodding back into the room and said something to Alejandra that I could barely hear. Whatever he told her made her jump up in her seat in anger.

"Well then go fetch her immediately!" she said. I continued to eat and tried to pretend like nothing was happening. This became almost impossible when another person entered the room and seated herself next to Alejandra. After I got my first good look at this new guest, I could not stop myself from staring at Alejandra's younger reflection.

"Dina, this is my daughter Lisa," Alejandra said. "Lisa, this is the lovely young woman I was telling you about." Lisa looked at me for only a fleeting moment. I couldn't understand why she was reacting to me like this.

"Aren't you going to speak to our guest?" Alejandra asked her.

"Hello," Lisa said, still not looking at me.

"Don't you want some breakfast?" she asked Lisa.

"I'm not hungry," Lisa said.

"Very well," Alejandra said. "You may be dismissed." Alejandra sighed after Lisa's dismissal.

"Teenagers," she said. "She won't bother trying to involve herself in the outside world, so I teach her here. She's practically afraid to leave the house. Surely you must understand that." I nodded my head only out of a subtle fear of what would happen if I did not.

"How did you sleep?" she asked.

"Well," I said. I was again tempted to ask her about the strange sounds, but I did not.

"That's wonderful," she said. "I want you to understand that you're free to stay here for as long as you would like. As long as magic is your priority, you will always have a room here."

"I've thought about it and...," I began, "I've decided. I want to learn."

"I have to know that you are serious about this," she said. "You must know that there is no turning back from here."

"I understand," I said.

"You must have friends, family," she said. "Is there anyone you would like me to send a message to?"

"Yes," I answered. "My sister." She gave me the materials to write the briefest letter I could muster.

Dear Kayla,

Hello

I hope

How

Do not worry about me. I am in a much better place now. Sorry I didn't say goodbye before I left. I will see you as soon as I can. Send mom and dad my regards.

Since Best With Love,

Dina

Alejandra promised it would be delivered promptly. Another step toward distancing myself from the unremarkable life I had once led.

Even now, the words were still spinning around my mind. Alejandra had gone through the ritual with me, step by step. What to say. What to expect. Now that I was descending the staircase in almost complete darkness, I began to feel as though nothing could have prepared me for the adventure that was soon to come.

The basement was illuminated only by candles that had been set into the floor, forming a part of the intricate carved design that sprawled out across the entirety of the basement. Fear was beginning to creep into the forefront of my mind, sending my heart into a marathon. I thought back to what Alejandra had told me just before our descent.

"You must trust me," she had said. "Whatever happens, focus on my eyes." At that moment she glanced back at me with a knowing smile, and I regained my confidence.

"On your journey," she had told me, "You will see and feel the impossible. You will be terrified at times, that much is guaranteed. But you will gain powerful knowledge. Your life will never be the same."

Alejandra sat cross-legged in the middle in one of the sub-circles in the floor's design. I sat in the sub-circle across from her and mimicked her posture, my companion resting within my lap.

"You're getting scared," Alejandra said. I could not look away from her gaze. "Remember what I said before." I stared into her eyes. She then held out her arms to me, just as she had told me beforehand. I reached out my hands to clasp hers.

"Think about why you have decided to become a witch," she said. "Think about the circumstances that have brought you to this point in your life."

I allowed that nearly fatal scene to play out before me. I let myself feel the powerlessness all over again. I thought about all of those times when I had lain in bed one day after another, feeling too horrible to do anything else. I recalled the capstone of watching my sister get attacked in our home and being unable to stop it because of my own fear. Each memory unleashed a little bit of my frustration, culminating in a final, relieving scream.

"Dina," Alejandra began, before rattling off phrases in the language of magic. I remembered their meaning from our previous run through:

"You agree to undertake this journey to become a witch, with me, Alejandra, as your teacher, for the thirty days and thirty nights of tradition, upon which time you will work toward your first accomplishment as a witch."

"Na'am," I answered, nodding my head for extra emphasis. I clumsily attempted to repeat the words as Alejandra had taught them to me, fumbling my way through the unfamiliar sounds of the language until I got to the end.

"You will allow your companion, who has graciously led you to our world, to return to its home realm," she continued.

"Na'am," I said.

When I finished, Alejandra released my hands from hers to pick up the knife by her side. Even with my knowledge of what was to come, I still flinched when she sliced her wrist, smearing the blood into little pool below her. I hesitantly held out one of my wrists for her to slit and give my own blood sacrifice. Alejandra mixed my blood in with her own, and the blood began to move on its own, filling and illuminating the complex shapes around us.

Alejandra began reciting more magical phrases. The lights began to dim as Alejandra's words summoned a new shadow into a circle behind her, bringing with it a strong, impossible gust of wind and plunging us into darkness. All I could do was stare into Alejandra's eyes, even as I felt as if the wind were about to lift me out of my seat and my head and heart began pounding with fear.

I felt a momentary relief when the wind died down that died as soon as the sound was replaced. Though I could see nothing besides the strange shadow in the room, I heard a noise like a giant creature inhaling and exhaling deeply, each breath coinciding with a subsequent change in the shadow's shape, until I realized that it somehow must have come from the shadow itself. The more she spoke, the faster the creature began to breath. For one moment, it inhaled and I felt like all of the air had been sucked out of the room, only to rush right back in a few moments later, nearly pushing me onto my back.

"Khalas," Alejandra said. "It is done." The breathing came to an end. One by one, the candles flickered back into flame. My companion hovered in midair, and even though she had no eyes, I could have sworn that she was looking straight into me. She spread each of her tiny limbs out into a star formation before slowly disappearing from my sight until she was nothing but an afterimage, as if she had only ever existed inside my mind. With that, the only form of relative stability I'd had in recent times was gone from my life.

I remained where I was, heart racing. A new, unknown energy pulsed through my veins as I sat in silence, watching as the smile grew on Alejandra's face grew. She took my hands into hers once again.

"Congratulations," she told me. "This moment marks the beginning of your journey toward becoming a witch."

We emerged from the basement. The energy within me grew stronger, found its way into every part of my being. In that moment, I understood everything that Alejandra had told me. I felt a change coming over me, beginning to devour what remained of my old self.

I was awoken the next morning while in the middle of a dream, looking at myself in the mirror. Only in my reflection, I saw Alejandra instead of myself.

When I went down to breakfast, I found Alejandra already seated in her ordinary spot. This time, the delicacies that I had come to expect were replaced by fruit, bread, and a pitcher of water. I hesitantly took my seat. Alejandra seemed to sense my surprise.

"The way to become a witch requires clarity of thought and purity of the body. Your diet for the remainder of your training will be very simple. The fewer distractions you have, especially anything physical, the better off your learning process will be."

I pitifully looked over the options set in front of me before taking a piece of fruit and slice of bread, washed down with a glass of cool water, taking only a few minutes to finish my meager meal before beginning my first lesson in magic.

A "magic-free" society has never existed. Whether practiced in private or openly performed, magic has always existed in one form or another. Call us witches, warlocks, shamans, or sorcerers. Whatever you want to call us, there is no denying the place that we and our art have carved into every place throughout time.

The story of Siraj Ali and Zahrah, the founder of our kind, is present throughout the consciousness of our culture. The Adam and Eve of our magical folk transformed the desert around them into endless oases and created al-Alizab, a grand empire of magic, forging a center for all magical outcasts to flourish. The moment of their death marked the descent of their empire.

Most of their descendants had no vision for the empire. It was only in time that one of their successors, Tahani was able to gather enough followers to form a new society of magic, "al-Jafru." She and her followers made repeated spiritual travels to bring magic to new heights.

Al-Jafru was not allowed to live in peace. Members of al-Alizab brutally attacked al-Jafru, igniting a conflict that would lead to the slaughter of too many of our kind. Following this bloodshed, our people scattered across the globe, immersing ourselves into whatever communities we could find. That is why witches and warlocks, in some form or another, can be found everywhere. Only the method of magic created by al-Alizab and al-Jafru is the purest form. All others are merely less powerful corruptions of this pure source...

Alejandra closed the book and ended her reading. I hadn't understood half of the terms or the names, but I thought that I had at least caught the general idea. Still too nervous to speak, I waited for Alejandra to initiate the conversation.

"Is any of that true?" I asked.

"Maybe," Alejandra said. "I have reason to believe so. Regardless of its accuracy, I think you'll find great value in our mythology." Unable to determine an acceptable response, I remained silent.

"Spells provide a way to channel the magic force running through our universe with your intent to create change in the world," Alejandra explained to me on my first day of practice.

"When casting a spell, you must also use your hand as a rod to guide this energy," she said. "Speak the spell's name clearly and correctly. What is the most important is the image in your mind of your intentions. A spell is only a word without your intent behind it."

Each day became a lesson in casting a new spell, learning them at dazzling speed. First, we began with summoning small samples of each element. At the end of each day, I stood amazed as I held a new element in the palm of my hand:

Hariyak, for fire.

Bahara, for water.

Riyah for a burst of wind.

Sokrah for rock.

We soon moved on the spells that would allow me to have more specific effects on an object – or with a great amount of effort and practice, Alejandra explained, a person:

Fawuk, to ascend

Ila, to descend

Bayiden, to push away from me.

Nahu, to pull toward me.

"It is quite easy to affect a small object with this kind of magic," Alejandra explained. "Most mundane objects have nothing magical about them. No will to oppose your force.The situation gets a bit more complicated when you're dealing with charmed objects, but that's a lesson for a later date."

Soon after, Alejandra taught me the delicate art of potion making.

"Many of the best potions are passed down in families," she told me, displaying an ancient, ratted tome of recipes she kept in her dedicated workshop, a room that was packed with musty, tattered volumes and cabinets full of mysterious ingredients stored in glass jars.

"A colleague of mine gave me a copy of the recipe book that has been in his family for generations" Potion-making, as I learned, involved a lot more than gathering the right ingredients. Some of the components had to have been raised, killed, or obtained during a certain point of the year or moon cycle.

"To become a skillful potion maker," Alejandra explained, "You must memorize charts of nature and know the uses of hundreds, if not thousands, of ingredients, taking into account the proper incantations or rituals that must be performed to give the potions their effectiveness. It requires so much effort that certain members of our society specialize in creating the proper ingredients for the rest of us."

Alejandra began laying the foundation for what I considered to be the most difficult aspect of magic: rituals.

"Rituals are the surest way to invoke powerful magic," Alejandra she explained. "Many of them require great energy and concentration, complex incantations, and sometimes multiple people." I had been introduced to this particular kind of magic the night of the attack. For that reason alone, my education in this arena became the most important to me.

"But even the most complicated of rituals begins with the simplest of steps: the casting of a proper circle," Alejandra said, demonstrating how to ground myself before drawing a circle around my body. I used ink in this instance, but as Alejandra explained to me, you could use just about any substance as long as your intent was there.

"You can then determine the specific purpose of the ritual by adapting the circle in various ways and drawing the proper symbols upon the body," Alejandra said. Exactly what had been done to me.

Sometimes you could invoke mystical beings when you performed the proper rituals. This, as I learned, was exactly what Alejandra had done during my initiation.

"The being that appeared to us is an entity from another realm," Alejandra explained. "Witches may form a bond with such creatures to add power to their magic. This being is one that I have happened to know for a very long time."

Our world is inhabited with creatures great and small, many unseen by the mundane eye, others created by our kind for particular purposes.

Rafik. Another name for our companions. Miniature beings from an otherworldly place to assist new witches or warlocks.

Saldan. Winged beasts created by our ancestors for warfare to infiltrate rival communities.

Kadma. Short-lived humanoids with little intellect. Forbidden from creation.

Strewn throughout my lessons in magic, Alejandra taught me about the culture of witches and warlocks. Our beliefs, our backgrounds, our holidays. The practices of my new people.

"We often gather in regular festivals to share or sell our wares," Alejandra explained, "And to celebrate our culture. Knowledge is as valuable as gold among our people. We have no standard tome of magic, so it is up to us to decide what to do with that knowledge." I could only hope that the next festival I attended would be less terrifying than my past experience.

My days of studying were broken up by moments of daily meditation. In between reading about mystical creatures and new spells, Alejandra would interrupt my studies to take me into another room in her palatial estate, plastered with colorful fabrics from one wall to the next, with a couple of pillows on the floor. I would sit cross-legged in front of her, resuming our position from our previous ritual, letting her take my hands into her own. During the first of our many obligatory daily meditations, I found it difficult to sit still and empty my mind when I was still so confused about so many things, although it became easier day after day.

My nightly meal would often consist of a slightly more filling spread of breads and an assortment of jams while Alejandra quizzed me on whatever topic my lesson had been for that day. During one such occasion, the blue creature came back into the room, whispering something that I could not understand into Alejandra's ear.

"At this hour?" Alejandra asked. "Very well. Invite him in." The creature left the room. Alejandra turned toward me.

"Feel free to stay here or go back to your room," she said before departing. I was already full and saw little reason to sit around for much longer, so I decided to go back up to my room, passing a closed door. I at first approached it only to grab my companion, but became drawn into the sound of conversation going on inside.

"And his name?" Alejandra asked her unknown guest.

"Greyson, I believe," the visitor said. "He has been the worst pest. My customers are scared to approach me because they're afraid they might be his next target. "

"Yes, I've heard talk of him before," Alejandra said. "You are not the only one having problems with this warlock."

"The bodies just keep piling up, you know?" the visitor said. "How am I supposed to run my business with this nonsense?"

"Don't worry about it," Alejandra said. "I'll have him taken care of at once. As long as you comply with the terms of our deal."

"Yes, of course," the man said. "I would never think to break our terms. You're the only resource I have left. You'll have my services whenever you need – as soon as I can get my business up and running again."

"Excellent," Alejandra said. "I'll see to this soon." I heard the rustle of movement. They must be getting up from their seats. I sprinted toward the staircase before Alejandra could notice me, or more importantly, my eavesdropping. I had almost made it back to my room without further incident when I bumped into Lisa in the hallway.

I was too startled to say anything. For one long, frozen moment, we stood motionless before each other. She cast her eyes down, and without a word, shoved past me and headed in the direction that I had just come from. I practically sprinted the rest of the distance to my room.

In my solitary silence, I allowed myself to doubt Alejandra for the first time. Yes, she had saved me and taught me a new and improved way to live, but did I really know who this woman was? The strange ambient sounds that came and went and the conversation that I had just overheard made me think otherwise. I considered leaving altogether, running through multiple possibilities of my next course of action. I opened the bedroom door to go to an unknown destination only to find Alejandra standing in my way.

"Dina!" she said, looking pleased to see me again. "I came up to check on you. How are you feeling?" Before I could answer, she took several steps into the room and closed the door behind her. When we made eye contact again, I knew that she knew everything.

"You heard my conversation, didn't you?" she asked. I didn't say anything.

"You must understand that I am one of the most powerful members of this community," she explained. "I help the magical folk here, and in exchange, they help me. You should have seen this place before. Witches and warlocks were fighting everywhere. They were on the brink of revealing our world. I have helped a lot of people here. Just like how I want to help you." I had no proof that she was lying, and I felt too guilty to continue doubting her after everything that she had done for me.

"Join me for dinner?" Alejandra asked. I nodded and followed her downstairs.

While we were being served our evening meal, the bizarre sounds drifted in and out of audible range, which Alejandra continued to ignore. Feeling too uncomfortable to point them out or ask about them, I went along with the charade. Alejandra deflected my attention elsewhere when she pointed out a statue in the corner of that room that had not been there a day ago, a feminine figure permanently locked into a ballerina pose.

"Where did this come from?" I asked.

"It was a gift from a colleague," she said. Maybe from a colleague like the warlock who had been having that mysterious conversation about "Greyson."

"I did him a favor," Alejandra said. "And in return, he gave me that. When you do good for others of our kind, they will often return the favor."

"My purpose here is to build a community," Alejandra said. "People come to me for help, and I assist them as best as I can. You too should have a purpose in your studies to guide you. I encourage you to think of one, but you should let the purpose come to you."

I thought about my purpose for days afterward, crowding out the numbing thoughts that had permanently latched themselves onto my brain and meditated on it whenever I got the chance. My answer finally arrived midway through training in spell casting, which left me feeling increasingly exhausted at the end of each day. After a time, the fatigue, the studying, and the meditation swirled together to provide me with a new state of mind. I experienced a clarity that helped me to weed out my destructive thought patterns.

On the edge of sleep, I saw myself being beaten and violated all over again. And then I saw myself taking a backseat to everything else in my life, giving up on what few goals I used to have. All I had wanted to do was to lie in bed and retreat to a world where my daily pain did not exist. But why? Why had I become a bystander in my own life?

I could place the blame on those two men: Joe and Nameless. The damage they had done to me was irreparable. Almost everything that I had done since had been in response to the fear that they had forced into me. But why should I let them have the final say with what I did with my life? Shouldn't they be the ones suffering for that night? I would no longer be the helpless one. It would be they who would cower in fear. I knew that I had found my purpose. My eyes opened from pre-sleep.

I was studying magic to become less helpless. The first step in that would be carrying out my own justice to those two men.

Putting my purpose into a concrete statement made it possible for me to go through my training with a new sense of comfort. I had a specific goal that I wanted to work toward. Every action I performed and piece of knowledge I gained were stepping-stones to help me get there. The food felt less lacking, the meditation easier, and the studying more efficient when I put everything into this perspective. I was not only growing into a witch. I was becoming a stronger person.

I did not have to tell Alejandra my purpose. I showed it to her, during one of our daily meditations. My purpose flowed effortlessly into my mind. I suddenly saw myself roaming through the world, casting whatever spell I pleased, finally the one in power as I imagined in so many of daydreams while in training. I had become a weapon of magic. A saldan, as they had been described, creatures with mottled yellow skin, long claws on every digit, wings to carry them from one destination to the next, and the darkest eyes that would strike fear into anyone they encountered. A saldan could take on the skin of other humans, use them as a disguise against their hideous exterior. As one of these creatures, nothing and no one could hold me back as I sought my violent revenge. My vision concluded with finally finding Joe and Nameless, and twisting their existence into worlds of pain. Alejandra suddenly breathed in sharply, destroying the calm we had created together and sending my vision floating into the ether.

"Dina," she said, after looking into my eyes for an extended, quiet moment, "You are even more determined than I thought."

From then on, my training from Alejandra became more defensive than instructive:

Sarifa, to deflect a spell. It doesn't always work on every spell, Alejandra explained, but it's usually worth a try.

Kafada, to slice into flesh.

Alama, to cause a brief burst of pain.

If I ever became too drained to continue that day, Alejandra reminded me to think of my vision. That always gave me enough energy to continue on with full force. We continued meditating together for longer periods of time. The more we meditated, the closer the messages between us grew, until the images she passed into me became as clear as a movie.

During one of my final days of training, Alejandra began our meditation with a disclaimer.

"Dina, I've decided that I want to show you something special today," she said. "Something that I have not shown to anyone else. I want to show you because I want you to be a part of this. You have more raw power than any witch-in-training that I have met. I want you to think of this as the introduction for what is to come." I closed my eyes and concentrated on my breathing until it matched the pace of Alejandra's. Her vision became my own, although I could still feel the vision's foreign quality at the edges of mind.

Alejandra and I stood together, wearing magnificently colored robes. A feeling of accomplishment radiated out from my body. The two of us walked from one city to the next with impossible speed. No matter where we went, I was overwhelmed with an intense peace and calm as all of my previous fears melted away into insignificance. In each city, we were surrounded by our own kind. As we walked through the streets, other magical folk joined us, becoming our followers. I felt blissful. Tranquil. At home. I had finally found my place. The vision became a dream from which I never wanted to wake.

"We didn't have to hide ourselves," I said, after the vision had ended and I looked into Alejandra's comforting eyes.

"Precisely," she said. "Our kind has existed in a stalemate with the ordinary world for too long. We have this tradition of keeping ourselves hidden, but why should our kind shrink away from this ordinary, inferior world? I have found a way to raise our kind to a new level of existence. With this new freedom, we shall shape the world as we see fit. We will have the power at last. With your strength and the support of my network within this community, I know that we'll be able to make this vision into reality. I know that you have your own reasons for undergoing your training to become a witch, and I fully support you in fulfilling your purpose. I only ask that after you're finished training, and after you've sought your well-deserved revenge, that you never forget the greater goal that I have created for us. As soon as you return, we will be able to begin."

I couldn't have said no to her even if I had wanted to. All I could do was nod and try to fight back the inexplicable tears the vision had created. I had never seen my life as part of anything grander than the ordinary.

"This is amazing," I said to Alejandra, an understatement of my true emotion. But that felt like a barely adequate response, so I followed up with something more.

"I promise," I told her. "To never lose sight of the great goal."

The revelation came to me toward the end of my training, found in the same book that Alejandra had given me with our creation myth:

The secret that al-Jafru discovered formed basis of the most powerful kinds of magic in existence:

Blood.

What could be more symbolic of humanity's unique energy than the blood that courses through our veins and gives our bodies sustenance? Giving blood creates an unbreakable bond, powers your magic in a way that nothing else can. Just as blood magic can have more potent effects than anything else, one must remember that its consequences can also be far more dire...

All of this time, I had been trying to think of what I wanted to do with Joe and Nameless once I finally got a hold of them. I suddenly realized that I had no reason to waste my precious revenge solely on leaving them for dead. I could take their lives not only for vengeance, but a greater purpose. If it was true that there were no ingredients more powerful than the blood and the soul, it only made sense to make some use of theirs.

I revealed my intentions to Alejandra via meditation.

"Turning your revenge into a blood magic ritual to help you advance?" Alejandra said after I had shown her my intentions via meditation. "Superb. I'm sure you must be beating your mind trying to figure out a way to properly perform this ritual." I nodded my head.

"Excellent," she said. "We have much to discuss. I've got to get you prepared if you want to do this ritual correctly."

On the morning of my final ritual, I allowed my thoughts to swirl around me while soaking in a tub of warm water, surrounded by incense and steam. Small red rivulets spiraled out from my torso into the surrounding bathwater from the incisions on my body I had made to mirror the scarred tissue that Joe and Nameless had left on me before. Drawing a new design for my own purpose. I had grimaced at first from the pain as Alejandra had helped me carve into my own flesh. Even sitting in water had made it throb. Now I relished the feeling. Old scar tissue that had been reinvigorated and made anew. All a part of my plan to create a more powerful version of myself. I ran my plan through my mind, eagerly awaiting the moment that I would be able to launch into action.

I found the sacred basement much the same as it had been the first time that I had experienced its brilliance. Alejandra and I took our places in the same individual circles as before. She clasped her hands around mine as we had done so many days in meditation.

"You will be granted the power to fulfill your intentions and beyond," Alejandra said, speaking the sacred language of magic. "But you must remember the sacred bond between teacher and student, indebted to one another for life."

"You must show us your intentions for undertaking this journey," Alejandra said. I painted a clear picture of my revenge in my mind until it filled every fiber of my being, reaffirming my confidence in what was to come.

"State them aloud for the universe to hear," she said. I transformed my thoughts into words. As I completed my statement, Alejandra grabbed the knife beside her and cut into her arm, spilling her blood into the circle. I then embraced the weapon and accepted the infliction of pain upon myself, seeing it as a small price to pay for my grander plan.

Our voices as one, Alejandra and I chanted the incantation that would bring that powerful entity back into our world. My excitement, but not my fear, grew as that wind began to pick up and charge around me in every direction.

I gained the courage to look past Alejandra's head at the entity taking on an earthly form in its place in the circle. I could only see a dark expanding mass that didn't seem to come from anywhere. It remained a fuzzy mass that struggled to exist, never taking on a true shape even after it had stopped expanding. Though I could see no features on the entity, I could feel an intense power pulsing from its mass, enough to force me to turn back to Alejandra's face as it began to "breathe." Together, we chanted another set of ancient words. With every inhalation, I could feel more power rushing from the entity and into me, so much power that I felt ready to scream.

I watched in equal parts horror and excitement as a portion of the dark entity stretched out from its place in the corner and slithered toward my body, coating every inch of my body in its mysterious black mist. I looked into Alejandra's eyes one last time for support before the darkness covered my face. I found my head pounding with strange, foreign thoughts. I listened to them as the dark coating shrunk closer to my skin.

The thoughts did not come in words, but images. The entity, whatever it was, was trying to show me what it was about to do to me next, foreshadowing the pain that I would soon experience. Before the pain began, it allowed me to see an image of the end result, granting me the strength to handle what was to come.

The mist solidified and constricted me until I could barely breathe. It forced my mouth open and began to flow into me. Even knowing what was about to happen did not eliminate the excruciating sensations. My skin felt like it was being torn from the rest of my body, cell by cell, until I emerged from my old skin. I was vulnerable, yet strangely free.

For just a moment, I felt a bit of pain as my body was exposed to the empty air around me. My body began to shift and change in reaction to its new exposure, my limbs growing or shrinking to new and unnatural proportions while I thrashed around on the floor, helpless against the transformations being performed on my body, until the pain came to an end.

I looked at my old body from my new perspective. The old Dina was sprawled out on the floor, while I had become this strange, new creature. My new form was yellow and mottled, my fingers replaced with long claws, and wings sprouting from my back. I could only imagine that my eyes had become as dark as the creature we had summoned.

A saldan.

"Revenge," the entity told me, suddenly shifting its form of communication from images to broken attempts at sentences. "Any...form. Free...no shell." The sound of breathing slowly began to leave the room, and with it, the presence of the entity.

"Khalas," Alejandra said, signaling the end of my official initiation into magic.

I had been granted a new and unexpected freedom. Free to be whatever I wanted. Do whatever I wanted.

I didn't want stay in that form for too long just yet. Despite all of the power that I had just been given, I wanted to be surrounded by the comfort blanket of a shell of skin. I scampered back over to my body, taking a good look at my old, hideous self, lifeless beneath me. In that moment, it became everything about me that I wanted to leave behind. It no longer defined who I was. I stood over my old shell and imagined myself taking on its exterior as my own, only a temporary vehicle for arriving at my final destination. Within moments, after only blinking, I was back within it. I pushed myself up, nearly hyperventilating from the experience, and wiped some of the sweat off of my brow. Alejandra was beaming at me with pride.

"Congratulations Dina," Alejandra said. "You are now a witch." She handed me the ceremonial knife we had used in the ritual.

"Now you shall fulfill your purpose."

Scrying. A method used to locate people by staring into a specially treated pool of water. Usually only possible to locate a person's general vicinity if you have a strong emotional connection to them. Even with those criteria, it didn't always work. I was determine to try anyway.

I stared into that bowl of water until my eyes went blurry, filling myself with the red-hot anger evoked by memories of that night. Hours later, after a substantial amount of effort, one of them came into focus, a fuzzy image formed in the water's surface: Joe, sitting in a well-known restaurant that was some distance away from here. First target located.

"You have wonderful things ahead of you," Alejandra said to me. "I am absolutely certain. Know that when you return, a world of opportunity awaits. Your true fate has only just begun." A surge of unexpected emotion rushed through me. A person that I had only known for little more than a month, and yet she had given more than the people that I had known for the entirety of my life. She gave me a kiss on each cheek and a last-minute gift of a witch's broom before I embarked on my journey.

My mind filled with wondrous visions of the road ahead. I already knew my destination, but the path to it was filled with endlessly satisfying possibilities. First step was finding Joe. All I had to do was stake out the restaurant, making sure to keep myself hidden, until I spotted him getting a meal. After containing my knee-jerk reaction to obtain my revenge then and there, I waited until he left, and followed him to his apartment. He left his windows open, blinds barely shut. I could see him sitting in the living room, watching television and lifting a small dumbbell with a glazed-over expression. His face took me back to that night. I broke myself out of that and reminded myself that I was the powerful one now. He would soon be the one cowering in fear.

I needed to start the night off right. I picked up the closest rock I could find and flung it at his window, shattering the glass. He dropped his dumbbell and pressed himself against the floor. When he yelled out "Who's there?" with his voice trembling, I knew that my first step had been successful. I walked toward the shattered window, savoring every step that I took toward his frightened form. By the time he repeated his question, I had already crawled through the nearly empty pane. He scrambled up from the floor and pressed himself against the wall farthest from me.

"What do you want from me?" he yelled. "Please, I'll give you money, anything you want."

"You really don't remember me?" I asked him. He stared at me, eyes full of confusion. "You don't remember the innocent woman that you and your friend left for dead?" His eyes widened and lit up with a combination of fear and recognition.

"But how did you-" he began. His chest expanded and deflated faster with every passing moment.

"Magic." I asked.

"Magic?" he asked.

"Yes, Joe," he said. "You're not the only one with that ability." He remained still as I continued to walk toward him.

"Please," he begged. "I-I don't even mess with that shit anymore. Not since we got kicked out. I've really changed. I've taken my life in a new direction. I'm-I'm sorry okay? Things got out of hand. We never-"

"-Intended for me to survive?" I asked. "I don't intend for you to survive either. Let's hope I do a better job that you did."

"Pl-" The last sound I allowed him to make before I struck out at him. Relying upon the anger invoked by his vile presence, I began to prepare myself for the ritual to come. He continued to stare at me with increasing fear and confusion at the knife that I now held, raising his palms toward me in defeat and revealing the complex brand that had been burned into both of his hands. I wasn't going to kill him just yet. I had other uses that I needed to get out of him first.

I dropped down to the floor, closed my eyes, and pulled myself out of my old skin with significantly less pain than before. He stared at my new form in horror, even as I grabbed his arms and forced him to look into my dark eyes, placing myself into his body.

A deluge of Joe's memories rushed into my mind. The faint visions of events that were useless to me, zipping uncontrollably past my mind. I stopped the stream when it came to the night of my attack.

I could see everything from his view. Flying through the air with my best friend Seymour at my side. He had just spotted an ordinary woman in her car, looking up at us. Our temporary invisibility spells had worn off. That night, I hadn't been quite in the mood for our usual shenanigans. I wanted to leave her alone. Seymour told me that he had other plans. He told me to lighten up and have some fun. So I followed him. He had been right. That night had been a blast, reminding me of the good old days. Surely, more of our secret nightly adventures were sure to come afterward.

I saw the news before Seymour did. The gristly result of our nightly fun laid out in a broadcast story. The woman had been found alive. I called him, panicking, asking him what we should do because sooner or later we would be found out. He told me to calm down and relax, everything would be alright, only I couldn't understand how.

I used to think that something was wrong with me. Ever since my early days of study, I had always had compulsions to hurt with my magic. I had kept them hidden for so long, until I had found a brother in Seymour for that reason. He and I thought in deliciously similar ways. Whenever possible, we would allow ourselves to give into our urges. Seymour helped nurture my dark side. He was the first to finally understand me.

We had always been in the business of ordinary bystanders. Mostly women. Broads were where we had the real fun. As long as they didn't survive, we were good, satisfied with the fact that the boring mundane world would never be able to discover the source of these disappearances. They would never believe that it had been warlocks.

Now that we were going to be caught, I would lose everything. All of the potential I used to have ahead of me. I was going to be a great warlock. I just needed to get this violence out of my system. I hadn't been quite there yet, but soon. I could've made it.

Alejandra, the closest thing we had to a leader, called a community meeting. She gathered all of the witches and warlocks in Greenville to watch as two of her associates held Seymour and I down, forcing our palms outward, so that they could burn the mark into our flesh. I almost passed out from the pain. When I became fully conscious again, the crowd was still around me, and she had ordered our banishment.

Among our community, news spreads fast. Seymour and I would never be able to re-integrate ourselves. He wanted to fight against her, but even he knew that that was a stupid idea. She was far more powerful than the two of us combined. Seymour and I went our separate ways: he to a city a few hours away, and me to my current apartment. I had only gone to visit him one time since. Being around him reminded me of the dark part of myself that I wanted to bury.

I had lost my place. The world had discovered the darkness within me and had rejected me for it. Now I would have to start from scratch, all because Seymour and I had fucked up and that broad had lived. If only she hadn't decided to pop back into my life as I was making progress.

With that last thought, I wrenched myself out of his body and went back into my own, having gotten the information that I needed most from him. I stood above him, waiting for something to happen. After only a few moments, the shimmering white haze of his essence descended through the ceiling and crashed back into his body, jolting him awake. I pulled my knife back out to silence him.

"Make a single sound," I told him, "And I will make this as painful for you as it was for me." His eyes went wide, but he did not speak a word.

I turned his TV all the way up before I got to work, slashing at his flesh to carve the appropriate symbol and watching the blood gush from him. He flailed around at first, instinctively trying to fight back. By the end, his eyes rolled up into his head and his entire body shivered. I chanted the ancient words that I had rehearsed that would turn his death into my power. He broke his silence and pleaded with me, asking me why I was doing this.

"It's only fair that I repay you the great favor that you did for me," I told him. I took in a breath before I stabbed him one last time, almost silently, blood spilling everywhere, staining the carpet. I placed my palms into the puddle, lifted them up to my face, feeling his strength pour into me. His spilled blood was so precious.

As I watched his life force leave his body, dripping out through his bloody wounds and streaming into me, I thought that I had never experienced such a pleasant sensation. I soaked up the moment, savoring his spirit while I waited for his body to begin disintegrating into nothing.

The moment of Joe's death and mystical evaporation should have helped to quench my thirst for revenge. But killing Joe became an appetizer, a mere teaser to a greater sensation. Without looking back, I set my sights on Joe's old pal, Seymour.

My only plan with Seymour had consisted of a vague bloodlust. Joe had felt guilty, but more so because he was caught than for the actual act that he had committed. Of the two, Seymour had been the ringleader. I needed to make Seymour's end extra satisfying. I hopped on my broom and began the next step in my journey.

It was morning by the time that I arrived in Seymour's city. Joe had given me some other crucial information about Seymour that I would use to my benefit: he thought himself a womanizer, a mini-Casanova even with the girlfriend in his life, and he could not resist the charms of a busty redhead. My hair color was the wrong shade for his taste, but I held the power to change that. I found a woman that more or less fit the description and followed her until she was alone before I took over her body. I tucked my own shell away in the woman's house, revealed to me during the flood of her uninteresting memories.

I hadn't even gotten to Seymour's house and I was already feeling some satisfaction. I was bracing the streets with my presence, gathering stares wherever I went, tall, curvy, and gorgeous. On my way to Seymour's, it began to rain, making my plan that much better. Lots of rain made for wet clothes, damp hair, and sparkling eyes. I went from gorgeous to stunning. As I strolled up to Seymour's doorstep, I braced myself for whatever emotions might arise from seeing the ringleader again. Soon after, I was propelled by how sweet revenge had been so far, and how delicious it would taste once carried out again.

Seymour answered on the second knock. Joe had cared enough to change his appearance since the attack. Seymour had not. He looked almost exactly as awful as he had before. I realized, just as I was gazing at him with a short-lived fear, he was staring back at me with wonder.

"Who are you?" he asked me. I sprinted away from the associations I had come to make with the sound of his voice. I drew upon every lusty stereotype that I could think of to create another persona, pursing my lips and attempting to sound as stupid and sultry as I could.

"I'm lost," I said, drawing out each letter to full effect.

"Lost?" he asked, staring at my lips. I slowly nodded.

"My car broke down," I said, "And now I'm soaking. Can you believe it?" I watched his eyes drop down from my face to my breasts and beyond. I could have been threatening his life and he still would have been too distracted to do anything.

"Can I use your phone?" I asked. "Mine is all out of power." He gulped and then stared at me like he was about to drool, finally nodding his head and allowing me inside.

"So, uh, what's your name?" he asked.

"Gina," I said. I turned around to take a look at him. His face gave me little reason to think that my false name had tipped him off to anything odd. He obviously wasn't thinking with the head on his shoulders. I decided to play up my lustfulness a little more.

"And you're...let me guess, Seymour, right?" I asked as I moved toward him. He crinkled his face with confusion.

"How did you know?" he asked.

"I know a lot of things," I said. I pretended to shiver. Seymour instantly attended to me. He placed a hand on my shoulder as if he were capable of being a genuinely concerned person.

"What's wrong?" he asked me.

"I'm just cold," I said. "Cold and wet. Can I use your phone? I'll be out of here in no time."

"My phone?" he asked.

"Your phone," I repeated.

"Yeah, my phone," he said. "I could get that for you." He ran out of the room and disappeared from my sight. While he was gone, I glanced around his living room, looking for anything that could prove useful. All I found was a row of photos hung on his wall of him and his girlfriend, to whom he apparently had no problem being unfaithful.

Seymour was about to teach me an important lesson: People rarely ever change. I couldn't have been staring at his photo for more than a moment before he came up behind me and shoved me onto the floor, flat on my stomach so that I couldn't see him. He held both of my wrists in one of his hands in a painful, vice-like grip, using his other hand to pin my neck down. Seymour had taken me by surprise for the very last time.

"You will do as I say," he said, "Otherwise I will make you realize that I am capable of doing things that will make you wish you hadn't come here in the first place. Do you understand me?" His words wished to frighten me, but I had already promised myself that I would never let this man scare me again.

"Do you understand me?" he repeated. I didn't think that he was worthy of being given a direct answer. I retreated into myself in concentration, picturing his hands as clearly as I could.

"Alama," I yelled. His hands suddenly released me, and he jumped back in pain.

"What the fuck is going on?" he yelled, staring at his hands, which had been burned just like Joe's. "How did you do that?" He clenched his hands into fists and came toward me.

"Hariyak," he screamed, and released two small streams of fire onto me, singing my skin. I barely even noticed the pain.

"Who are you?" Seymour yelled. "Why are you here?"

"Did you really not recognize me?" I asked. "Not even in this form? You didn't think that the name that I gave you was a bit odd?"

"Look," he said, "Why don't you just leave right now before things get really nasty?"

"No," I told him. "That's the not the way that this works. I can't just walk away and forget after what you did to me."

"What are you-" He quickly shut his mouth.

"Dina," he said, sounding more surprised than scared. I was about to change that.

"I didn't think that exile was a harsh enough punishment," I said.

"I'm going to warn you now, Dina," he said, "You really shouldn't do this. Whatever you're trying to do here is pointless. I almost killed you once, I can sure as hell do the deed again. Except this time, I'll do it right."

"Pointless?" I asked. "Really?" My momentary hesitation gave him the opportunity to gain the upper hand.

"You think you're so powerful now?" he said. "You're just as helpless as you were before. I can already see the seed of darkness growing within you. Killing me isn't going to make that go away." His little speech caught me off guard. He came toward me faster than I could react and grabbed my throat with his hand, looking dead into my eyes. All I could see was the darkness that existed within him alone.

"I don't know how you found this new body," he said, "But rest assured, it's not going to make it through the night." As he started to choke me, I used the last of my breath to whisper Alama. He didn't fully let go of me this time, but loosened his grip enough for me to breathe and fight back. I held out my hand to recite the word that would make him lie still for a few seconds, Sokara, the same method he had once used on me, and froze him in his current position.

Seymour began reciting something almost as soon as I spoke the word. Immediately afterward, a force came from my side and knocked me onto the floor. An invisible attacker, no doubt summoned by Seymour, that he had waited until this moment to unleash. It did not remain invisible to me for long. I could see the faintest whisper of smoke hanging in the air, the physical manifestation of whatever ethereal spell Seymour had invoked for his protection.

After becoming mobile again, Seymour came toward with me with a vengeance in his eye. I had little precious time in which to think of my next action. I decided that it was time for me to let go of this pretty girl persona and release the monster within me. I separated myself from the moment at hand and imagined myself tearing through the body of this beautiful redhead. With a small amount of pain, I was finally free.

There was nothing like standing above Seymour in my true form, so shocked that he was unable to move. Seymour was no longer the grand ringmaster of the show.

"You bitch!" he yelled. "I should have killed you when I had the chance!" Seymour seemed to regain some of his previous focus and began tossing spells at me, none of which was enough to keep me down for long, while he tried to get away. I used one of my claws to strike him against the wall, which only stopped him for a moment.

If I had been a normal body, in any other setting, his spells probably would have been enough to incapacitate me, perhaps even kill me. But then, with my anger and adrenaline soaring to new heights, nothing could keep me from moving forward toward my goal. My mind barely registered any of the pain or damage being done to my new grotesque figure. Unfazed by any of Seymour's actions, I clawed him a few times before letting him escape just to see him run around in desperation.

As I chased him, his spells growing stronger as his energy grew weaker, he somehow found the breath to yell threats at me, which softened as he became increasingly fatigued and frustrated until the only noise he made was panicked breathing. When I cornered him in a bedroom upstairs, I found him lying on the ground, his eyes brimming with fear, panting and bleeding profusely.

"You're a lot harder to kill than Joe was," I said. He couldn't have hid the surprise in eyes if he tried.

"You killed Joe?" he asked, before suddenly switching gears.

"What Joe and I did was wrong," he began. "Sick and terrible. But what you're about to do to me is also terrible." I did not believe his sincerity for even a moment. When I looked at his face, all I saw were more lies.

"I don't believe you Seymour," I said, my voice far more demanding in this form than it could have ever been in my previous life. "You tried to force yourself onto me again, and now you're here begging for your life. You're not sorry about what you did. You're just sorry that I lived."

"Maybe you're right," he said, dropping the masquerade. "I don't feel the least bit bad about what I did. I enjoyed it. We made you, Dina. You wouldn't be what you are now without us." I lunged toward Seymour and grabbed his chest with my clawed fist.

"You didn't make me into anything," I said. "You tried to crush me. But that's all in the past. You no longer have any control over me. You want to know who helped me become this? Alejandra. The same woman who took everything away from you. But you, Seymour, don't have control over anything. Not even yourself." I squeezed into his chest a little, letting his blood flow like raindrops.

"Your time has come," I said. I threw him onto the floor. He did not move. I started chanting the sacred words, using one of my claws to carve the symbol into his flesh. He tried to be strong and stubborn at the beginning, not revealing any of his pain. By the time, I had finished the proper rites, he was screaming just as much as I had. When the circle was cast, I stepped away to admire my work.

In his last moments, Seymour seemed to accept his fate as his body released the last drops of blood within him. When his arms dropped down to his sides, I was able to catch another glimpse of the branded mark of exile that he and Joe shared. I reveled in his blood, much like I had with Joe, feeling my strength grow with each passing moment, waiting for his body to dissolve. Nothing could match my rush. I was the most powerful being in the world, perhaps even in the universe. I had defeated the last of the two warlocks who had brought on the darkest days of my life. Not even returning to my old body could bring me down. It was just a shell. No matter what form I took, the fact still remained that I had taken on my attackers, against all odds, and emerged victorious.

I had fulfilled my purpose.

All I had to do now was return home.

Before I could make my final trip to Alejandra's, I needed to make one last stop to see my sister. I couldn't be sure of what her reaction would be. I hoped that her joy at seeing me again would be enough to eclipse whatever she felt regarding my disappearance and sudden reappearance. I knocked on the door with slight hesitation.

When she opened the door, we both stood motionless and silent. After a couple of excruciatingly awkward moments, she threw her arms around me, crying on my shoulder. Soon I was crying too.

"Dina," she said, "You've finally come home."

We sat across from each other in the dining room. Though the place was familiar, the emotions that I felt were not. I didn't understand my presence there anymore. I felt too much like I was trying to force myself into a home where I had never really belonged. I had no need for this place anymore.

"We were so worried about you," she told me. "All of us."

"But the letter I sent you," I said. "Didn't you get that?"

"Of course I did," she said. "But we were still so worried! Don't you understand that Dina? You had that horrible thing happen to you and then you suddenly went missing! Where were you all this time? How could you just send us a letter without even telling us where you had gone?"

"I'm sorry Kayla," I said, "But I just couldn't stay here anymore. Do you really want to know the truth?"

"Yes, Dina," she said. "After months of worrying, of course I do." I forced myself to continue.

"I was training," I began. "To become a witch. I was in this city this entire time. This wonderful woman, Alejandra, helped me with everything." She seemed to take all of this surprisingly well. I cut myself off without bothering to further explain my forays into blood magic or revenge, unsure of how she would handle those topics. After I took a pause from telling my story, Kayla launched into her own.

"This town is going downhill," she said. "There's been so much crime lately. You're not safe in the streets. You're not even safe in your own home. Murders are happening left and right. Someone's house got burned down. People keep getting robbed. You remember what happened when our home was attacked. They don't seem to ever catch the criminals, either. It's like no one is safe here anymore." It was if she hadn't heard a single word that I had said.

"Dina, I don't know where you went, and at this point, I'm not going to ask," she said. "Mom and dad know all about your evening wanderings and how you used to talk to yourself at night. They agreed with me when I told them that you needed more help than we could give you."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"You're not well," she said. "It's been several months, and you're still not well. We're all really worried about you. We really want you to get better."

"But I am better, Kayla!" I said. "I know it's hard for you to understand, but-"

"-You're right," Kayla said. "I understand that this...fantasy of yours might be a coping mechanism, but-"

"No!" I yelled. "This isn't a fantasy. This is real! It's the only reason why I'm still here now!"

"Like I said before," she said, "We all want you to get better."

"You really don't understand," I said. "I am better. Much better than I've ever been." I got up to go. I didn't see the point in staying any longer.

"Dina," Kayla said, following behind me, "Where are you going?"

"I only came to say goodbye," I told her. "You won't have to worry about me anymore."

Kayla followed me outside for a bit, pleading with me not to go. I ignored her and kept walking forward. She stopped following me once I reached the road.

I should have known that going back "home" would be a mistake. All my family wanted was to hide me away in an institution and watch Kayla pursue her dreams. I used to wonder why our parents had even bothered having me after they had already created the flawless being that was my sister. You couldn't create perfection twice. Even at my best, all that I was ever capable of being was second fiddle. They would be better off without the blemish of my existence, and I was on to bigger and better things.

I approached Alejandra's house full of anticipation. My previous decision felt so real. I needed to see her and tell her everything, and then all would finally be right with my life. But as I walked the path to her house, it became increasingly obvious that something wasn't right. Even from afar, I could see the hints of destruction that awaited me, not fully revealed until I stood in front of the carnage. I thought back to my sister's comment about someone's house being burned down recently, and everything hit me with a force that almost knocked me over.

The grand estate that I had come to see as home no longer existed.

What stood before me now was a shell of a house, burned to a jagged crisp, the outer walls scorched with the remnants of fire. Her once secure home had become available for anyone to enter. I could have stood there for days staring into the devastation, trying to make some sense of it, but my mind refused to believe what my eyes were seeing. But even if her house had been burned down, that didn't mean that anything had happened to Alejandra, right? She could be somewhere else right now, being as potent as she had always been. I was not given much time to continue creating this fantasy. My illusion fell to pieces when I caught sight of a message scrawled across one of the walls:

We are the force of justice.

Those who do not follow will be punished

No matter the transgression.

Alejandra has fallen.

You must change your ways.

You have received your warning.

Alejandra. Alejandra has fallen. Her house burned down. She was gone. I dropped down to my knees as the news rolled over me. My throat closed up, and the tears rushed into my eyes.

Alejandra was gone.

"Well the short of it is that she was murdered," the woman told me. A neighbor from nearby, who had found me in fetal position in front of the burnt shell of the house. She had taken me inside and offered me some tea and cookies, though I couldn't bring myself to ingest any of it.

"About a day ago," she explained, "This crowd swarmed outside of her house. Burned it right down, destroyed everything in it. Lots of people around this neighborhood are magical folk. We handle our own messes. We never bother with the mundane police or anything like that. This group, they killed Alejandra, paraded her body around here as an example before they destroyed what was left of her. Took the daughter and ran."

"Who did this?" I asked. The woman shrugged her shoulders.

"No one knows who they really are," she said. "They seem to think of themselves as vigilantes of a sort."

"Why Alejandra then?" I asked. "She was a leader here. Why would anyone want to do this to her?"

"They claimed that she had committed 'transgressions of magic,'" she said. "I think that whatever you do with your spells and potions is your business. Who am I to judge? But when you're in the kind of business that Alejandra is in, you make as many enemies as you do friends. Who knows if she really committed any kind of 'transgression?' Someone probably just wanted her power is all. Something like this was bound to happen sooner or later."

Transgressions of magic? I thought again about the strange and unexplained sounds I had heard while in Alejandra's house. Her cryptic conversations. The strange behavior of her daughter. My mind was swimming with confusion. The tears left my eyes in big, heaving globs. I refused to believe that she was dead. She had always seemed too powerful to be brought down by something as ordinary and human as death.

"Are you okay honey?" the woman asked me. I shook my head.

"Take your time," she told me. "You're free to stay until morning." I accepted her offer.

Alejandra was dead. Even though I replayed the thought repeatedly within my mind, it still refused to sink in. I was never going to be able to tell her about my success or have her teach me more of her ways. I was truly alone, and even more uncertain and fearful for my future.

I left the woman's house the following morning without any plan for what I was going to do next. Despite my previous confidence with my decisions, as I walked alone through the city, I suddenly found myself veering from one place to the next. For the first time, I began to feel the exhaustion from my adventures pressing down upon every inch of my body. The pain within me grew until I was barely able to stand. I sought refuge on a bench, laying my face into my hands. Everything had been going so much better than I could ever have imagined before life hit me with the ultimate whammy. I couldn't see a path for what I was supposed to do next. Without a home, and without Alejandra, I was lost. In my fatigued state, I didn't know if it would be possible to go on. When my exhaustion had lifted a little, I got up and continued to wander from one spot to another, hoping to find the answer that would help me guide my future.

I shouldn't have been surprised when my wandering eventually led me back to Alejandra's house. I waded through the rubble, re-tracing those familiar paths that I had taken so many mornings before. What little was left of the walls and floors was covered with soot, as if this vigilante group had been trying to cleanse the house of something, perhaps Alejandra's presence. I picked up whatever scraps I could find: burnt corners of books, a piece of her charred dining room table, and singed bits of unknown material. I needed to collect all of the pieces of her that I could.

I carefully descended through a hole in the floor into the dark basement, the site of so many important events for me, illuminated only by the light that shone through that hole. I lay down and mourned Alejandra's loss. I sprawled out in all directions, searching for another piece of her presence. One of my fingers felt a lump of something unknown lying on the ground. I lunged out until I could grasp all of it and I heaved myself up into the floor above. Now standing in daylight, I held out the object in my hands toward the sun.

The item that I had discovered was a heart-shaped locket, with an "A" carved into the front and an "E" carved into the back. A small cursive inscription dated it to 1901.

The locket opened with minimal effort. One side held a tiny black and white photograph of a couple whom I had never seen. The other side held a few tightly coiled blonde, almost white, hairs. I closed the locket and clasped it around my neck. A small, personal trinket to remember my mentor. With the locket around my neck, I gave the house one last look before walking out into the early morning.

As I walked, my sadness over the loss of my mentor became anger. I began to truly understand that I was nowhere close to being done with magic or revenge. I didn't care how powerful these vigilantes thought they were. They had no idea what they had coming for them.

When I used to look upon this city, I had only felt jealousy. So many beautiful people trying make it in show business, living lives that I could not. Good fortune that I had been so close to having but was perhaps never meant to possess. Now I looked at all of these people and saw only the fantastic possibilities that their bodies could hold for my own life. I was free to leave this old body in pursuit of something better.

All I had to do was wait until the right tall blonde passed me, tear myself out of my body for the final time and leave my old useless self behind in a crumpled heap. I allowed the sudden stream of memories into my mind, processing them and gaining the knowledge of the life of whoever this woman used to be. Whoever she had been, she was me now.

I am the newest addition to your community of magic.

I am a student who has lost her teacher.

To the group that killed Alejandra: wherever you are, I will find you and make you pay for your "transgressions." You have my word.

You have received your warning.

### ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Zed Amadeo, indie author of fantasy and horror, has always held a curiosity for the unexplained. Especially that of the most elusive mystery of them all: the human psyche. After gobbling up works of speculative fiction and the paranormal and experiencing adventures across the globe, Zed pursued the study of the world's greatest enigma with an undergraduate degree in Psychology. Today, Zed continues to be inspired by the strange happenings in the world, serving as fuel for Zed's latest dark urban fantasy series "Kindred." Zed currently resides in the edge of your imagination, located in the place where wakefulness blends into dreams.

To keep up with Zed's latest adventures into the strangeness of the universe, subscribe to Zed's newsletter at <http://www.zedamadeo.com/subscribe>, or find Zed on Twitter @ZedAmadeo

### ###

### DEAR READER,

Thank you for reading Resurrection, the first book in the "Kindred" series! I hope you enjoyed the story.

As an indie author, getting reviews is crucial to my writing career. I would greatly appreciate it if you could leave a brief review of my story on the book's page at your preferred retailer.

Thanks again for reading Resurrection! Best of luck in all of your reading adventures.

Cheers!

Zed

### DESCEND INTO A WORLD OF DARK MAGIC...

### Get a free Kindred spellbook when you sign up for my newsletter:

### www.zedamadeo.com/magicbook/

### STAY TUNED!

Turn the page for an excerpt of the next book in the Kindred series, Reunion, available now!

"What are you doing here?" Shay asked the blonde who was now standing in her doorway. The same woman from before. Dina.

"She told me," Dina said. "She told me to come find you."

"What are you talking about?" Shay asked.

"The dreams," Dina said. "Surely you've been having them, too? I can't even sleep at night anymore. She's trying to tell me something, but it's not coming through all the way." She suddenly burst into tears.

"I can't do this anymore," Dina said. "I need someone else who understands."

"Why don't you come in?" Shay asked. She stood aside for the blonde to enter. After she closed the door, she pointed Dina in the direction of the sofa in the living room, where they were both soon seated.

"I don't feel safe anywhere," Dina continued. "And I've been on the run this whole time."

"What exactly are you looking for?" Shay asked.

"Any trace of the people who murdered my teacher," Dina said. "But I don't have a guide anymore. I don't have anyone or anything to hold onto. It's like my life has gone right back to the way it was after the attacks. I'm stuck." Shay placed a hand on Dina's shoulder.

"You were right about one thing," Shay said. "I have been having some strange dreams recently." Dina's red eyes leapt up from her palms to Shay's face.

"You too?" Dina said. "About what?"

"It's this woman," Shay said. "She's standing there, pointing at me, like she's accusing me of something. And I suddenly see my life the way I had imagined it would be. For the first time in my life, I finally felt..free. No one is trying to kill me or use me for their own wants. And when I look back at the woman, I finally see who she is."

"Who is she?" Dina asked, sitting on the edge of her seat.

"Alejandra," Shay said. Dina suddenly began to look a tiny bit happier.

"I know it doesn't make a whole lot of sense," Shay said. "When I wake up from the dream, my heart hurts. I've never had a life like the one she's showing me. I know she's trying to tell me that she can give me that life. But I don't understand why I'm dreaming about all of this now."

"Don't you see?" Dina asked. "It's a sign. She's trying to speak to us. She's trying to tell us that she still has a plan."

"Dina, Alejandra is dead," Shay said. "I'm sure she had plenty of great plans when she was alive, but she's already crossed over."

"Then her spirit must be trying to reach out to us," Dina said.

"If what you're saying is true," Shay said, "I don't think my dreams have been the only way she's been trying to reach out."

"What do you mean?" Dina asked.

"It hasn't just been the dreams," Shay said. "Lately there's been some weird shit going on in my house. I keep finding messages written in my mirror."

"Messages?" Dina asked. "What do they say?"

"One of them said your name," Shay said. "The other told me not to be afraid."

"It's Alejandra," Dina said. "She's trying to tell us something. I think she's trying to get us together for some reason. I don't know why. But this is the only real thing I've had in months. It's like she's trying to give me a new mission. Something beyond revenge."

"Why would she involve me then?" Shay asked. "It's not like I knew her when she was alive."

"I don't know," Dina said. "But it's probably all part of her plan. We just need another way to reach out to her. She's already been sending messages to us. Maybe it's time for us to return the favor."

### WORKS BY ZED AMADEO

The Kindred Series:

Resurrection

Reunion

Recipe (Coming Soon!)

Kindred Spellbook
