Spellcaster series #2: The Acolyte

Distraction

TRISTAN

I entered the old Lucky Orphans, all singed walls and burnt paint. The signage was completely turned to ashes.

I felt an aura.

I slid my hand into my coat pocket for my wand. I slowly crept around the first storey. Nothing. I snuck up the stairs—the aura was getting stronger. I made my way around the second storey, checking every bedroom. My heart began to pick up its pace.

I tightened the grasp of my wand.

The walls were black from the flames and smoke. It looked eerie in the night, a high chance that a djinn or Synto's Vampire would reside.

Emptiness greeted me in the second storey. I headed for the stairs to make my way up to the third storey. My heart was racing and chills ran down the back of my neck. This seemed more like a djinn than a Vampire. I climbed up the stairs, one foot after another. I remained as silent as I could, leaving light footfalls. I slowly pulled out my wand from my pocket and held it out. I looked up from where I was. Nothing.

I reached the top of the staircase and felt the chilly wind wrap around me.

A bedroom door creaked open. The same bedroom that Dean, or Synto, and I duelled before I lost Heidi to him just a year ago. The door suddenly shut and as I turned to it, an unseen force pushed me down the staircase. I hit my head on one of the steps—

—and darkness.

~

I woke up shivering to the cold breeze. I had fallen back, sitting at the foot of the steps, my wand a metre from me, still lit with the Lunar. I pushed myself off the ground and dusted myself off. I picked up my wand and saw nothing but pitch black despite the light.

Am I awake? My thoughts swirled and my balance a little off. I held my wand out in front of me to see where I was.

A djinn's hideous face appeared in the light and disappeared the moment I shone at it. I gasped, taken by surprise, and cried, "Arsonion!"

Red flames shot out of my wand and to the staircase in front of me. During the split second where the stairwell lit up, three shadows fleeted away.

"Tristan?" Heidi's voice echoed through the stairwell. I heard her heavy footfalls from her boots make their way up.

"I'm here!" I answered. "Light your wand, Heidi."

Silence. The footsteps stopped.

"Heidi?" I called out. Something was off. I made my way down to the first storey to look for her.

The building was empty as it was before. It wasn't the first time a djinn mimicked the voice of a mortal. A distraction.

"Heidi?" I stepped out the door to the front of the building.

She was gone. I received a text message from her and opened it.