In a lifetime

Chapter 64: Joseph Flores

Thank god it's the weekend because I can not deal with another day at work.

Getting a job helping tourists isn't the best but living here in Athens, Greece makes up for the troubles.

I only got this job cause it was easy to get and what's surprising is if you know half of the history here then the job is yours.

Spending weeks learning the history of Athens was probably not worth it.

But the people here are really nice and sweet, some invited me and Daniel to come over when we first arrived.

Before we came here we visited Daniel's family for a few weeks into the first month of basically being banished.

They were nice but I could tell that keeping a secret of what's been going on back at home has been eating away at Daniel.

We've talked about it which seemed to help him a lot but then it brought more issues for me.

For a couple of months, I did nothing but put stress on myself to try and find a way back home.

Daniel saw that I was struggling and decided we travel like we wanted to.

For a few weeks, we visited Brighton in the U.K.

It was beautiful and I actually started to relax, leaving my worries behind me.

Then we moved to Athens, Greece and this is where we've been living for the last two months.

I've always wanted to come to Greece and now that I'm living here, with the love of my life, it just makes things feel complete.

It's still early to be up but to wake up to the sunrise makes the morning bearable, granted I'm still a night person and nothing will change that.

Daniel has a job as an Au Pair here so he works a little late, I'll probably see him later if I'm even awake by the time he's back.

I make myself some coffee and stare out into the window.

After staring into the distance for a few minutes I hear noises from the kitchen.

I check it out and see that no one is there. 

Trying to figure out what that noise was, the windows are blown open by the wind and in a matter of seconds, everything starts getting blown away from the strong wind inside the house.

I try to hold down important things to avoid breaking them in the whirlwind but I keep getting slapped in the face with pieces of paper flying around.

After a minute of fighting with the wind, everything just stops.

"Hola mijo" I hear and I turn around in shock as I watch my Abuela walk toward me.

I chuckle in disbelief and run up to hug her and ask her what she's doing here.

She tells me to sit down and I just know that it'll be about Laurel. 

"Joseph, I'm here because you and your friends have spent too much time away from home, you need to go back," she says and I get up to think.

Pacing back and forth I say, "I don't want to continue letting the people back home continue to suffer at the hands of Laurel but she's placed a spell over town and I don't know how to bring it down, I've tried"

To make things worse I haven't used my magic for two months.

She gets up and I stop pacing. 

"And since when has a problem become too hard to solve, it's never stopped you before and I also understand your worries about not practicing magic for a while but it's in your nature, it'll come back to you," she says grabbing my hands and reassures me that I can do it.

"Okay but it still doesn't help my number one problem, I don't understand how that spell works or any counter spells or loopholes and it's way too big for me to siphon," I say in defeat and she scoffs at me. 

"mijo no me estas escuchando, you have all this power, and you're letting a small spell get in your way? If I remember correctly a few months ago you created a spell to make the town at the witches' grounds good as new, you just need to look a little deeper and you will find the answer, only you are holding yourself back" she says giving me space and I know what I need to do. 

Before I perform the omniscient spell to look for the answers I have one more question to speed up the process. "Why did Laurel choose to capture the town, she could've done it to any other, why this one?" I say and she takes a deep breath. 

"Laurel was exiled from her home when she came into contact with dark magic and the town you live in was her new home, she fell in love and had a life until a mob lead by a witch came to her doorstep, the love of her life died trying to protect her and since then she's vowed to get revenge but know this, she wasn't always evil and you aren't the witch that wronged her so undo the troubles of the past," she says with a serious tone.

I'm not surprised that a witch before me caused all this to happen, making me the prime target makes a lot more sense now.

The town was originally the home she grew to love before it turned against her and the hill, the house, it's where she live before everything ended for her, when she resorted to dark magic.

I nod to show her I understand and I start the spell.

Keeping Laurel in my focus I get images of what's she's doing back home, seeing everyone I know living their lives as if nothing happening but I can see the spell's aura around them.

Soon the images start going through smoothly and now I can see everything simultaneously.

I open my eyes and say "I think I finally found a way to stop her" 

I look around the house to see that my Abuela is gone. Looks like she only came to give me a push.

I hear the front door open as Daniel says, "hey Joseph I'm home early" 

Oh shit, I didn't have time to clean up the mess.

He looks around confused and asks me what happened.

"Daniel we have to go back home," I say and he looks at me shocked but then understands and helps me start packing.

On our way to the airport, I texted Nessa, Veronica, and Eli to meet us at a hotel that is a town away from home.

They agree and now I just have to sit through this long plane ride to see my friends.

We haven't spoken in a while so I hope things don't become awkward.

I guess that's tomorrow's problem and I'll take time to get some sleep.