I wished

2

I open my eyes, feeling groggy, only being able to get real sleep, the last seconds of the morning, before mom called me with her over-friendly voice.

“Breakfast.” She calls in a sing-song voice, making me roll my eyes.  I lift my heavy head with the help of my sore muscles and pull myself in a sitting position.  My head feels so heavy, I let it rest on my hands for a while, before mom calls me again.

“I’m coming.” I call back, feeling vicious towards her.  I’m really not in the mood for one of her overly friendly, innocent vibes.  I clench my teeth and stand, feeling wobbly on the wooden floor. The rising sun meets my eyes through the window and it somehow reminds me of choices that’s to come.  I feel nervous.  All through the night I kept thinking about the book and I couldn't find anything.  The scribbling was gone with no new ones.  I wanted to tell mom, but I’m afraid that she’ll tell me to leave it.  Or get angry at me.

I walk out of my room, almost bumping into mom.  I immediately feel her hyper vibe and forcefully get out of her way.

“Ah, I just wanted to come wake you.”  

I nod and walk past her.

“What’s your problem?” And she won’t leave it.  And I won’t leave it either.

“Just leave me alone.” I say, sitting at the table with a bowl of porridge. 

Mom rolls her eyes and puts a cup she’s holding with force on the counter, making me roll MY eyes. 

She stays quiet, with her mouth in a thin line as she sits infront if me, taking hold of the cup.

“What’s that?” I ask, eyeing the cup suspiciously.

“Tea.” Mom says, taking a sip

I casually nod, knowing she's lying.  I know she has these leaves she mixes together with some kind of berry, making her addicted and acting strange.

Without even eating further I pull  from the table, sniff and exit the cottage.

My heart skips a beat when my eyes land on Timothy, sitting by himself, staring at the red sun.

I bite my lips when he turns his head when he sees movement and once again I’m disappointed  by the face of Blake.  I sigh.  I wish I could see his real face again.  I put courage in my heart and legs and  walk up to him.

I look down on him sitting on a rock, not being able to say anything.

“Good morning.” He says in a charming manner, not caring that I’m just awkwardly standing in front of him.

“Morning.” I grunt and sit next to him, already feeling the warmth of the sun on my skin.

“You’re delightfully grumpy this morning.” He says with a chuckle.

“No, I’m not.” I argue, knowing I feel much better than the past few days. But when my mind lightly blows on my fragile part I literally picked up, I get a sting in my heart.  I close my eyes and look down.

“You read?” He asks, after a few seconds of silence.

“No.”

“No?” He repeats my answer in a question.

“Yeah.” I lift my shoulders and look at him, sighing, seeing Blake’s face so close.

“Come with me.” He insists, already standing up.

I eye him with a frown.

“Where?” I ask suspiciously .

“Just come.” He lightly puts his hand on my arm and I flinch at the coldness.  I look at him and our eyes connect and for a moment I didn’t see Blake’s dark eyes but Timothy’s.  I take in a shaky breath and follow him. I eye the cottage and the cage to see no one in sight.  I swallow feeling excitement brewing in my stomach.  I smell a minty scent  coming off of him and a small smile lights up my face. I quickly turned it into a frown when he glanced at me. 

“Where are we going?” I ask when he leads the way towards the woods.  The wind is blowing softly through the tree, making my rushed heart feel calm.  Until my thoughts get alerted.  I still don’t know what Timothy’s plans are.  What if he’s here, planning to kill us all and I’m here keeping him a secret.  I clench my teeth as his steps become faster as we enter the woods and it makes crunching noise below our feet.  I sniff the earthy air and it immediately makes me feel at home.

“You okay.” Tobias asks and the insides of my body lights up when I hear it isn’t Blake’s voice.  My eyes scan him, to see Blake’s Body and face gone but Tobias’s.  I almost trip over a rock but he catches me with a tight grip.

“Thanks.” I say softly, making him chuckle. I shake my head and give him lazer eyes at the back of  his head.

“Sorry I scared you.”

“You didn’t.”  I roll my eyes, wondering where he’s taking me.

“We’re almost there.” He says, as if he read my mind.

I clench my teeth and don’t say anything.

When he stops and kneels to the ground I  I try my best to keep quiet and see what he’s coming up with.

He shoves a few leaves away with his bare hands, making the veins pop out. I’ve never noticed how beautiful and muscly his hands are.  I look away and shake away my stupid thoughts.

“Aren’t you afraid someone will see you?” I ask,  violently rubbing my hands over my face feeling embarrassed  that I haven't even washed myself yet and here he is smelling like mint and clean.

“Nah.” he says, breathy as his hands make a whole in the ground in swift movements, “Are you?”

I shake my head as he looks at me with a smirk on his face.  His beautiful eyes.  I take a moment to look away.

“Hold here.” He says, holding out an old wooden box.  I take it, making sure I have a secure grip, feeling the heaviness in my thin arms.  The wood has scratches and marks all over, making it seem like it went through a lot.  Wars.  I frown.  I can feel that this wooden box has some kind of story.  A story with much heart and soul. I swallow as I stare at it feeling a strange sensation, as I let my fingers lightly glide over it. I feel the closed latch of rusty metal.  I look at Tobias before I open it, seeing him still busy kneeling on the ground.  I clench my teeth and push the latch, letting it make a clicking sound.  Tobias lifts his head and our eyes catch, and I feel guilty for opening it, but he just smiles at me, pulling himself from the ground.

“You feel it?” He asks, taking a few steps towards me.

“What.” I ask, unknowingly.

He looks at me from under his eyes, with some kind of expression I can’t explain and softly puts his hand on top of mine, gently pulling and opening the top of the wooden box. I let out a shaky sigh, feeling his hands still cold and not even dirty from groveling the sand. Inside I thought there would be something magical, like diamonds and gold, but instead there's a book.  Plain, with no name engraved on it.

“A book?” I raise my eyebrow as he takes out the hard book.

“Yes, a book.”

I sniff and wait for him to explain what’s so special about the book.

He opens it, and it’s filled with sloppy handwriting.

“It’s a book about you.”

I jerk my head backwards, and scrunch my face together.

“A book about me?”

“Yes, about your kind.”

“What’s our kind?”

“Witches.” He says it so softly as he’s eyes stay glued on the pages, “You’ll learn a lot. You’ll learn how to control your powers, how to discover more.”

“My dad usually teaches me that.” I say lifting my shoulders.  I don’t need a book.  Besides, I hate reading.

“I think your dad is actually teaching you how to hold back.”

I bite my lips, “No.”

He shakes his head and shoves the book in my hands.

“Just take it.''He says, frustrated.

“Fine.” I say, squishing it under my arms with force.  

The wind blows harder and faster than the past few minutes and it’s because of me.

“Relax.” He says rubbing his nose, with his veiny fingers.

“Don’t tell me what to do.” I say, turning away from him.  I feel lightheaded with his way of saying things and his facial expressions.  There’s absolutely no one like him.  No one. But I can’t say much when I only know mom and the pack

“Wait.” He takes hold of the book and I open my arm for him to have it.

I look at him and wipe away the messy strands of hair in my face. A gasp escapes my mouth when the book turns into nothingness.

I frown, looking around, seeing it nowhere else.

“Where did it go?”

“Nowhere.”

“What?”

He smiles and as if on fire the book comes back to live in his hands.

“How?” I ask, my voice in a whisper.

You can do it too.” He hands back the book and I almost flinch, preparing for the book to be too hot but it feels normal.

“Make it invisible?” I ask, feeling excitement brewing in my stomach.  But I don’t know how. I reach for my mind, trying to find a way, but instead a smile fires up the book. I scream and out of reaction I throw the book to the ground, but before it could land, Tobias catches it and blows the fire away, effortlessly.

“Careful.” he says, not lashing out like I thought he would.  When the small fire is out he makes it invisible again.

“It’s all in the mind.” He says, with a small smile, as if he’s chuff at what he’s doing.

“Obviously.” I state the obvious.

“Think about it disappearing. Distress yourself.  Pretend as if no one can see it and if they do, something very bad will happen.”

I take the notes in my thoughts, but I still feel a little bit offended that he’s telling me what to do. When the book is visible again, I grab it and intensely stare at it, wondering where to start. I think hard, just like he told me. I imagine that it’s some kind of enchanted item and if someone finds it on me they’ll burn me to the bones. They’ll hit me through the flesh. I swallow at my violent thoughts but feel satisfied when a bubble appears in my mind.  Like a new path. I enter it and I feel a sensation of tingles over my whole body.  I concentrate on the book and see it’s still visible. I puff a breath, making ready to try again when something strange catches my eyes,

“Woah.”  I look at my arms and legs to see it gone, “What the hell.”  I’m gone. I’m invisible.  I gulp and wipe stress sweat from my forehead, without seeing any skin color.  This is freaky.

Toias burst out with a full blown laugh.  He tries to catch his breath and say something, but he chuckles and confronts the words.

“What the hell.”

“Well done.” He says, slowly breathing through his nostrils.

I exit the uble in my mind, to see the color in my skin again.

“Wow.”

“You went all in.” He says.

I smile, feeling powerful.

I try again and again, Tobias quietly watching me, making himself comfortable on a tree stomp until I finally get it right to just make the book invisible.

“You got it.” Tobias seems more excited than me.

“Thanks, Tobias.” I say, with a pursed smile.  

“There’ll be more stuff about this in the book.” He says and I nod.

I’ve never felt so excited to read a book before.  

“Thank you.” I say again, and we start walking back to the cottage and he turn himself back to Blake making my heart drop.  I sniff.

I hate Blake’s face.  But luckily it isn’t the real him.