Malefica

Chapter 10

Max had started spending most of her time at Rowan's after school, taking lessons from Lilah. Lilah's icy disposition never lessened, but the longer Max was around her, the less it bothered her. It was just a part of who she was. A real bitch, sure, but a real bitch with power.

When she wasn't training with Lilah, she was playing guitar, and when she wasn't doing that, she was trying desperately to keep up with school work. She would sometimes text Phoenix, and they would text for a few hours, but they hadn't met in person since that day at the park. Which, in retrospect, had only been a week ago. But the days passed like centuries, so it felt like an eon.

Now, she was lying back on her bed, reviewing information she had learned whilst studying. But thinking wasn't enough. Here lately, she had been consumed with so many thoughts, that thinking was no longer a fun activity. It felt lackluster in comparison to doing. So she stood, and made her way to her desk. She pulled out a candle, set it in front of her, and placed her fingers on either side of its thin frame. She closed her eyes, and pictured the flame sprouting onto the wick, flickering in and out of life, bouncing off of her bedroom walls. But when she opened her eyes, the candle remained unlit. She sighed. She wasn't sure what she had been expecting. She pointed to the candle, and it lifted slowly off the desk, and with a flick of her wrist, she sent it sailing across the room. She had been practicing telekinesis a lot, and though she couldn't lift a human the way Lilah could, light objects were a piece of cake.

Rowan, who had been training for years, seemed both impressed and annoyed by Max's quick progress. "It took me two years to master telekinesis," she had whined.

"Your power isn't in your brain," Lilah had reminded her coolly, "It's in your hands. It would take Max decades to make plants grow the way you do. Now, shhh, and let us work."

Lilah had a tendency to treat Rowan like a baby sister, and Max envied that. She wished she had siblings, wished she had a family member that was at least present sometimes. She couldn't remember the last time she had seen her parents, either of them. Sometimes, she would walk by her father's office, and press her ear to the door, and she could hear the clacking of his typewriter, and soft classical music. It seemed weird that he was right there, but so far away. She missed him. She missed her mom.

She collapsed warily onto her bed, her body tired, her brain still talking. She ignored it, and curled into a ball on her side. She slowly fell into a troubled sleep.

She was in the science building. It was cold, all of the doors and windows were open, and there were rose petals trailing down the hallway. She smiled, and began to follow them, not thinking, just walking. Like her brain was following her body. She walked for what felt like hours, in the cold hallway that was progressively getting darker. The lights were flickering on and off, and she desperately wanted to turn back. Something was horribly wrong. But when she turned around, she realized she was where she had started, and that the hallway was a loop. Suddenly, there were no doors, and no windows, just this horrible cold. Another light turned off. There was only one light now, and it was far down the hall. She could see the reflection of it on the shiny floor.

She looked down, and realized that the red rose petals had turned to drops of blood. Her stomach sank, but she kept walking. She kept walking toward the light. As she neared it, she heard grunting. She stopped, before finding the will to carry on. But the closer she got, the louder the grunting got, and the bigger the puddles of blood got.

She felt sick.

Finally, the light pooled around her, but she was no longer in the hall. She stood in the middle of the park, the stars blanketed the sky, and a lady was breastfeeding her baby on a park bench. She stared dead ahead at the fountain.