It was the last Friday of the term, and the final Eleball game of the year was upon them, it was Fire versus Spirit yet again, and both teams wanted the win badly. The Spirit team wanted revenge for the loss last year, and Fire wanted to win to keep the Spirit team from strutting around next year as the Eleball champs. Katy looked forward to it because it was normal, and for once the center of attention was the whole Fire team and not just her and the events that have occurred.
The game started quite nicely, there were no unexpected attacks. Fire and Spirit were neck and neck. It was the last seconds of the game, and the ball continued to change hands over and over again. Then it happened. What Katy feared, became a reality. She heard the screams, and then turned to look toward them. She barely had time to process what she had seen, when a bolt of yellow light came toward her, it wasn’t normal, the power was mixed with black lights and green, the power of Earth. But what did the black represent? She thought as she took the hit square in the chest. She had the sense of falling, but she knew that if she hit the ground from this height she would not get a third chance. She concentrated on anything that would slow her down. Anything that would stop her impending death, but the silence spoke the truth, she would fail. The spell had done something, but it wasn’t what she had thought. She was stuck inside her mind. She fell into the strange workings of her own mind.
Katy landed on what seemed like ground, but she knew she was not here. Well at least her body wasn’t, that as back on the Eleball field, or moved to the hospital, where her body may lay broken from the fall. What had happened there, she didn’t know. But she moved her head and looked up from the ground and saw a person that looked familiar but so strange and unknown. She was pure white, her skin, her eyes, her hair, all of it was white. It was the woman of her nightmares. And she couldn’t shake the feeling she knew this white being. Katy could see large red and yellow jaspers imbedded into her the beings palms. Katy looked up into the being’s eyes, which were completely white except the iris of her right eye appeared to be made of lepidolite and the left made of amethyst, which gave her two very different purple eyes. She also had a small tear-drop shaped onyx in her forehead. “Who are you? What have you done?” Katy asked, but it seemed to echo within her ears.
The being looked at her and smiled, there was something dark about it, no matter how pure this being looked, Katy knew she was dark. Why else would she have haunted her nightmares, as she killed those Katy loved. She put her fingers to her lips, and a voice echoed through Katy’s head. “We don’t need to speak. We are stuck within you. Well, you are stuck. I am just visiting.”
The voice was so cold and hard, that Katy felt like ice had dripped down her back. “Who are you?” Katy needed to know how to get out here.
“That answer will come shortly, my dear. For now, why don’t you just give up? Join your Aunt Raven. Better yet use your power and control her. Use her. Use them all. Fool them all. Pretend to be Goodness personified, when in fact you are made from Darkness herself. Use them. Control them. Destroy them. Take their powers, take them for yourself. Find your power.”
Katy stood up, and looked the being straight in the eyes. “GET OUT OF MY MIND!” Katy’s voice echoed against the walls of her mind. “I am not Darkness, I am Katherine Lillian Fitz. Witch. Human! And you are not welcomed here!” With that the being smirked and disappeared, and left Katy alone with her thoughts, literally.
Katy didn’t know how long she stood there until the answer came to her. She couldn’t get out of here alone. But she did have a strong connection to Riley and Deen. She could use their powers, just a part of them, just to release herself. She looked down at the charms on her wrist; she knew they were there on her wrist in real life as well. She also realized the Earth one contained some of her mother’s power. Katy made up her mind to only tap into her mother’s powers first; if that didn’t work then she would try the others. Katy wasn’t sure how this would work, but she thought of everything she had read, everything she had heard, and concentrated on her family, on being back with them, not here, alone, with only her thoughts for company. She needed to go back now. Back to Deen, Riley, and her family.
Katy closed her eyes and called upon all her power, and tapped into the power of her mother’s charm. She heard voices around her, they talked about her, talked about something else; it was fuzzy but started to become clearer. What seemed like forever; was just minutes. She opened her eyes and found Deen as he looked down at her.
“Katy! Thank heavens! You are okay.” Deen grabbed her up in a hug. “They said you may never wake up from that spell! How did you do it? They said you would be trapped forever within your mind, unless the person who cast it released you, even their death could not release you.”
Katy didn’t say anything, but looked around and counted her family, all of which stood around her hospital bed. “It was Ebony, wasn’t it?”
“Yes.” It was Edgar who answered. “I don’t know where she has gotten that power. She was never powerful. She applied to be a Guardian but couldn’t do basic spells.” There was a deep frown in Edgar’s face.
Katy knew to be concerned. “Did you get Ebony?”
“No, in our panic of hearing the spell and watching it hit you square in the chest…” Edgar paused, and a pain flashed through his mind as well as anger at himself for not being able to have caught Ebony, he also answered Katy’s unspoken question of how they knew what spell she was hit with, and it scared her that Raven would be so bold to scream it out loud.
“Somebody was helping her. The bolt of light had black light, and green. I know green is for Earth, but what is the black?” Katy stated, she didn’t need Edgar beating himself up.
“Black are you sure?” Edgar asked, and for once fear entered his voice.
“Yes, I thought it was strange, and the next thing I knew I was falling.” Katy asked, suddenly she was filled with fear.
“I don’t know. I have never seen black light…” Edgar stated, and the old legends started to go through his mind, but he shut them down and locked his mind up tight.
“Perhaps you should tell us what happened? Why she would want to trap you in your own mind? She wasn’t very silent about the spell she used.” Antonio stated, Katy couldn’t help but feel the pain he felt at that memory.
“There was a being there. She was white, I mean really white. Her skin, her eyes, her hair, was white. She wouldn’t tell me who she was, but she seemed familiar. She told me I was made of Darkness, and to use Raven, to use all of you. To trick you… to follow my destiny of being dark.” Katy stated as she hung her head, she needed them to know the truth. Even if it meant losing them now, already they felt more pain for her than they should have to feel. She didn’t want her existence to be a source of pain. She didn’t tell them this being had been haunting her nightmares since her birthday.
“That being was lying!” Deen yelled. “You being made of Darkness is insane! That being is lying! She is the one trapping Katy in her nightmares!” Deen yelled at all of them as he revealed Katy’s secret.
“Is it? Look at my father’s family! They are dark! Riley and, hopefully, the twins are the exception! What if I really am made of Darkness and it just hasn’t, I don’t know, consumed me yet?”
“That is foolish.” Sandra simply stated. “Dark is dark, there is no way you are dark.” Sandra said, as she moved toward Katy’s bed. “Don’t think of it.” She said and bent down and hugged Katy.
“But…” Katy started to tell them of her dark thoughts.
“No buts, if you were dark you wouldn’t worry about being dark.” Jane stated.
“But…” Katy started again.
“This white being…” Antonio brought up the question Katy didn’t want to answer. “What is she doing in these nightmares?”
“I…” Katy felt the pain with just the thought of the nightmares.
“The being kills us, making Katy watch.” Deen said bluntly.
“Deen!” Katy didn’t want them to know.
“Is that true?” Antonio asked.
“Yes.” Katy admitted.
“She traps you there?” Edgar asked.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know…” Katy started to lie. “That is a lie. It is because she wants me to be dark. She tells me to use my power. She promises to kill Ebony. She promises even to kill my father. As long as I use my powers for dark. I say no, and she shows me the images of a battle. She kills all of you, and makes me watch. I can do nothing but watch as the color seeps from each one of you. All of you and the world turn white with death.” Katy told them one possible future the being showed her.
“My…” Sandra gasped.
“No…” Jane stated and grabbed onto Edgar and Jerome.
“That is not all.” Katy stated. She didn’t want to hide anything else from her family.
“More?” Edgar swallowed and asked.
“She shows me another possible future. My eyes are red with power, only the magical beings and mortals are alive. The world over came by darkness. But you are all alive. Sad. Disappointed. But alive. She tells me if I join her, then you all live.”
“No.” Antonio stated. “Evil lies. Darkness lies. We will fight this war and win. There will be no compromising who you are for our lives. There is no point to our lives if we know your soul is tormented.”
“Antonio is right. Don’t dwell on it. Everything will work out. You will see. In the end the light will overcome the darkness.” Edgar stated.
“Are you sure?” Katy asked.
“Yes. Now why don’t you two go and finish packing for your Archeology trip. I will be joining you again.” Edgar stated, and Katy and Deen left the room. Jerome and Riley followed them to the outside of the Fire dorm.
“Katy, dad is right. Everything will be fine.” Jerome stated. “I have to talk to my Alchemy professor before I leave. See you after break. Be careful you two.”
After Jerome left, Riley spoke up. “Katy, the white being, who is she?”
“I don’t know she just looks familiar.”
“Don’t worry she is lying.” Riley walked away.
Katy knew the adults would discuss her, but she didn’t want to hear anymore. What the being had said bothered her. That she was born from Darkness, and then she looked at her father, and wondered if it could be true. Could she really be from Darkness?
Kris Charles - Author 