spellbound | book #1 | completed

I I

edited: 27/01/2018

The key had grown so hot that Remy was forced to pull the necklace from her neck in one swift motion. Even the chain was too hot to touch now, so she pulled her jacket off despite the cold and gathered it up, making sure that her fingers didn't touch it. She had come back to the beach after deeming it strange to go home. She could not simply sit on the sofa and watch Keeping up with the Kardashians now, when she had just witnessed some strange sort of magic. Even as she thought of the word, she shook her head.

Magic wasn't real. It couldn't be. If it was, she would not be living in a rundown town where everybody walked around like zombies. Would she?

She hung the key into the water, her hand still wrapped in her jacket, and allowed the tide to wash over it a few times. She hoped that perhaps the ocean would cool it down. Just as she was about to splash some water over her face to be sure she wasn't going mad, she heard her name being called, causing her to jump and drop the key.

"Remy? What are you doing?"

She scrambled for the key before the waves could wash it away and was glad to find it was cool enough to hold again. She turned around to find her best friend stood behind her with a raised eyebrow.

"Nothing," she said quickly. She did not want to tell anybody about what had happened, partly because they would think she was insane and partly because she selfishly wanted to keep the boy for herself, as something that only she knew about. "I was just, er, looking for shells."

Sarah narrowed her eyes suspiciously but said no more on the matter, a wise decision. She was probably used to her best friend acting strangely by now, anyway. "Well, your mum wanted you to look after the kids for a while. I texted you, but you didn't reply."

Remy rolled her eyes and pulled her jacket on, preparing herself for a night of screaming children. The exact reason why she had come to the beach was to get away from her unbelievably chaotic family, but somehow, the peace never lasted for long, with her mother treating her as a babysitter rather than her child. "Great. I guess I won't be coming tonight, then."

Sarah sighed and looked at her sympathetically. The pair were supposed to be gathering with the rest of their friendship group, who Remy had barely seen since quitting college even in a town so small, and she had told her mother about it weeks ago.

"We can do it again another time, Remy. It's okay."

Like everything Sarah said, the words came out sounding monotonous, and Remy wasn't sure if it was because she was annoyed or indifferent to the matter. Remy and Sarah had always been the type of friends who would not be friends at all if they had anyone better to hang around with. They were polar opposites, with Remy thoughtful and filled with wanderlust and Sarah simple, taking everything the way it was and never thinking too deeply of anything. Perhaps telling her about the boy would not be such a bad thing.

"So, something weird happened today," she began, her eyes lowering to her black Vans in embarrassment. She already felt silly, knowing what she was about to say was not the least bit realistic. She still couldn't be sure that it had really happened, but perhaps if she said it out loud, it would make more sense to her.

"Something weird always happens to you," Sarah responded, frowning when Remy chose to go the opposite way to usual, the way that she had followed the boy earlier. "You're a weirdo."

"Thanks," Remy scoffed. Her eyebrows knitted together when she reached the alley and found that the portal had closed, replaced by the brick wall covered in what Remy thought was completely unoriginal graffiti, which could be interpreted to be a certain part of the male anatomy. She edged to the wall anyway, and when she reached it, her hands instinctively rose to it, finding that it was warm and buzzing the way her necklace had.