Wayward Mages

Chapter 21

Important authors' note at the bottom! Please read it!

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Kaira

OMG!!! Kyle and I almost kissed. This is the best day of my life. Wait! Oh, yeah, Charlie is ill and quite delusional now. Let's hope she feels better.

Kyle pulls my arm and it snaps me out of my reverie.

"Kaira, Mara is asking why there is blood on the floor," he says stupidly. "Well, actually.... 'Altera Slamite'," I murmur.

"Hello Kyle and Kaira, how are you today?" Mara asks.

"Fine, I mutter,I'm sorry for spilling milk on the floor."

"Milk?!? Where's the milk?!" Kyle exclaims.

"Right there, silly,I'll just get the mop and clean it up."

"Thank you dear, next time try to be a bit more careful," Mara says.

"Sure, Mara. I'm sorry."

"No problem, dear. I'll be in my room if you need me for anything," Mara says.

"Thank you Mara."

After that horribly weird conversation Mara climbs up the stairs to her room. Immediately, Kyle turns to me for an explanation. I hold up my hand to stop him from asking his question and say, "I used fog warping. I changed the blood to look like milk."

"Ohhh..." he mutters. "Well, what are we going to do about Charlene?"

"We'll say that she tripped on the stairs. Basically, we're leading her to believe that being clumsy is a family trait."

"Good idea," he says, impressed. He's impressed? Woohooo!

"Now, how about we start cleaning up this so-called milk?"

He grins. "You're on."

We actually have fun, racing to see who finishes. I win and laugh in his face.

"I let you win, all right?'
"Yeah, right." I say with a grin.

"Oh yes I did."

"Nope."

"Yes."

"Nope."

"Yes."

"Nope."

"Yes."

"Nop-"

Suddenly I hear Charlie moan upstairs. I felt guilty, I'd been having so much fun with Kyle that I'd forgotten about her. From the look on Kyle's face, him too.

I rush upstairs, ashamed of myself. Apparently Charlene wasn't awake yet, she was just moaning in her sleep.

I really hope she's alright, even though she tried to threaten me. I mean she is still my sister. I still want to talk to Kyle even though it would be so irresponsible of me. I take a cool cloth and wipe her forehead, 'cause she's burning up.

"She's been running a high temperature for the past half an hour, according to how pale she looks. She also seems to be having some major swelling in her forearms which I hadn't noticed before. They are red and look bitten.I notice a slight bulge in her jacket pocket. I gently take out what's inside, which is the chip from the cyborg we defeated out of the pocket of her jacket, and now I understand it. Before, I had thought that they used the chip to build a new body and inserted it. But now it looks like the chip turns the closest person when the chip breaks, into a cyborg. I look at Kyle, who's standing in the doorway, looking awkward. "Kyle, could you go talk to Mara and keep her away? I don't think that she'd approve of this mages stuff." Kyle agrees and leaves the room.

All of a sudden I see Charlie's fingers twitch and then she opens her eyes. They're still red. I get off the bed and sprint for the door. She immediately jumps off the bed and grabs my arm. I try to struggle out of her grasp but she is too strong (curse my muscles...).

I start screaming for Kyle and I can see him emerge through the doorway shocked and really pale. He's about to reach out to me. He looks shocked and stands stock-still, paralysed. I scream his name again and he blinks, regaining his senses. He jumps forward and grabs my waist. I'm stuck in the middle, both pulling from one side; it was like a game of tug of war. I would've laughed is the situation hadn't been like I was about to be ripped in half. Suddenly, Kyle lets go of me, and I go flying and land sprawled on top of Charlene. I examine her face. Sheesh, she's passed out again. Kyle offers me his hand and I take it and pull myself up. Yeesh! Charlie has got to stop doing that.

"Are you okay?" he asks. "Yeah, I'm fine," I lie. Actually my arm is throbbing and my feet are swollen. "Children!, Why is there so much of screaming in this house?" shouts Mara. "Oh, nothing Mara I was just showing Kyle that I can scream louder than him," I say. "Well dears, if you want to do something like that, do it outside," says Mara. "Well, sorry, Mara, I'm super sorry."

I can hear footsteps receding so I'm pretty sure she is walking away.

"Kyle we need to fix Charlie, but I don't know how!" "We'll try to figure something out. It's getting kind of late so let's get a good night's rest and we'll figure it out in the morning," he says. I agree and we both walk to our bedrooms.

I hope Charlie feels alright and I'm really scared for her.

Authors' note: I'm so sorry guys for taking so long to upload. And we have a really good reason too- writer's block just moved in on our street. I know, it's not really a good excuse.

So, to make up up for it, we are having a contest. You can enter graphics, one shots, sketches, trailers, etc. The last day for the entries are on September 1 at 12:00 (IST).

We will be checking them out on September 2, but we're only announcing the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place on September 9.

The prizes are:

3. You get a dedication and a shout out for your beautiful work.

2. You get a dedication and shout out for your spectacular work( and a spoiler if you want one).

1. You get a dedication, shout out and a spoiler of the next three chapters in your PM.

Just PM us your entries! The top 20 entries will be on display for the chapter heading pics.

Wish you guys all the best!!!

Hope you can win!