Spellcaster series #3: The Adept

Reclamation

HEIDI

The first drop of rain fell from the grey sky and eventually showered the suburbs of Orchidville with heavy rainfall. I stood in the middle of the front yard, rain pelting on my cheeks and my hair plastered onto my face.

"Miss Danielson! Get inside! There's a storm coming!" Robert yelled from the living area through the windows.

Trees swayed and bent as the wind picked up. On the other side of the pocket fence, a man in a cloak stood by his window from the second storey. We locked eyes for a few seconds. They glowed like slow-burning embers, his whole presence unmoving. The noise of the storm fell away as low whispers took over me.

"Miss Danielson!"

The figure disappeared and instead, a crash from another bedroom window. A body was hurled out of it and fell onto their front porch. I snapped out of the trance.

I jumped over the wooden fence. I heard Robert call my name. I knelt beside the Spellcaster but his pulse was gone. Blood splattered onto the beige-painted door and brick walls. It formed a pool of red that leaked through the gaps between the wooden slats.

"Heidi!" Robert's voice was faint. The rain was crashing around me.

I looked up to the neighbour's bedroom window to see the cloaked man dematerialising. I headed back into the house where Robert was.

"I think we need to leave," I said, my voice high and frantic as I burst through the front door. "I think we shouldn't be here."

Silence.

"Robert?"

I headed into the kitchen but no sign of Robert. Then a voice from behind interrupted my search.

"You must be Heidi."

I whirled on my heels. Her golden eyes were the first things I noticed. They levelled my gaze as she stood at the entrance of the living area. I stood behind the kitchen island where Robert beheaded the summoned corpse of my father just moments earlier.

The girl had pale skin, almost the colour of ivory. Her ginger hair was long, down to her waist. She wore a long black cloak, the same one I saw earlier.

"And you who might you be? Captain Black Cloak?" I asked sarcastically.

Her pink lips curled into a smile, golden eyes narrowed. I had never seen anyone so cold to look at.

She raised an eyebrow, "Someone's got a sense of humour."

"So I've been told. What do you want?"

She shifted her weight and pulled out a thin, black wand. It had a crooked end, a type I had never seen before. She took a few steps forward.

"What I want is what you have. And I can't get to it unless I take it by force."

I gently wrapped my fingers around my wand in my back pocket. "I'm good, thanks."

She nodded at my hand with her chin, closing the distance between us, "What are you going to do with that, Acolyte? Shoot me with a flame spell?"

"It's Adept, and no," I released my grasp from my wand. "I just want to know what you want with...whatever that I have."

She rolled her eyes, "Your dark energy, woman. You don't deserve it."

I don't even want it," I retorted. "But you're still not getting it."

I picked up a porcelain plate from the dish rack and threw at her like a frisbee. She cast a spell that zapped the plate into pieces. I hopped over the counter and swung my boot to her face. She flinched and stumbled back before casting another spell. I dropped onto the linoleum as the spell flew above me. It landed right onto the in-built oven behind me and dispersed.