Magical Children: In Between the Lines

Chapter 4: Gwen

The warm breeze flowed through my hair like, well, a warm breeze. I take the hair tie out of my pocket and tie my long hair back into a ponytail. If I do run into any spiders I don't want my hair getting in my face. I wonder if Madi is doing anything today since she doesn't have to start school for another few days so I decide to message her on my watch communicator thing. "Hey, you wanna hang out? I'm bored and I got out of school early." I don't expect her to reply immediately since she might still be sleeping. "Maybe she's already here and doing I don't know what." I tell myself. "Wasn't she always waking up kinda early anyway? So she might be awake at least. But knowing my luck this is the one day when she didn't wake up early and will sleep 'til noon." I walk around for a bit just to take in the odd and different colors of this world's nature before finding myself at this old house we sometimes hang out at. I've never understood why there was a human house at a dimension full of giant spiders much taller than any human. I approach the porch of the house and realize that the door is open. Further examination of the place reveals a few strings of spider webs. "Great, well at least I know that Madi has to be awake now."

After quite a while of walking and trying to track the foot prints of the spiders I find myself on the border of their territory. "You know what, I actually don't know how I got here." The Giant Spider territory was always dark, musty, and just a little moist. I've never actually went into their territory because fuck spiders. They are gross, disgusting, hairy, they have too many legs, and they are aliens. I have never liked spiders nor will I ever. Mustering literally all of my courage I begin my walk through the strange woods and hope to God that I don't see any spiders because I don't feel like fighting. I was never sure how big this territory was and I don't know where the castle is if they even live in a castle but I'm pretty sure they do because I heard one of the spiders talk about it one day. I have been taken close to their territory a few times but I always manage to get away and go back home. And I've never known why they want to kidnap me all the time because they never give me the answers I want. "Maybe I should just go home and check if Madi is there first before I get myself killed." I turn back to get out of this creepy place but something blocks my path.

I am somewhat surprised that they decided to come out so soon but also not surprised. There isn't as many spiders in front of me than I expected. "Never thought I'd see you here ever." Says the first one. A closer look at the two and I notice that they aren't taller ones like the other ones being about ten to twenty feet tall. "I never thought I would either." I say clenching up. Every time I see a spider, even an Earth spider, I clench up and end up forgetting that I have magic. Trying as hard as I can to remember that I do in fact have magic that I can use, I take a few steps back just in case I have to run. Better to fly than run, I am very slow on my legs plus I can fly higher than they can reach. Wait, why didn't I just fly above this place in the first place? "So what brings you here?" Asks the first spider. "Oh you know, just decided to take a nice walk through nature to calm down a bit and also because I'm bored. You know, just the usual reasons to be in Giant Spider infested strangely colored forests where I could possibly die." I say sarcastically, actually trying to stay calm. "Well a little birdie told me that the other one is here and not having fun." Says the second one. 'The other one' is what they call Madi sometimes because why would they call us by our real names? When they aren't chasing me around and just trying to have rude conversations with me they tend to call me Mystic, Human, or Small one. Its not like I hate it but I don't really like it either. "So is that why I saw your disgusting web shit at that house a few miles back?" Throwing my thumb to the left to emphasize the direction I take a few more steps back. "That explains a lot." I say sarcastically. 

"Well if you want her to be safe then come with us and we will leave her alone." Both spiders inch closer than I would like them to. "Why do I have to come with you when I can just save her myself without getting killed? I can handle myself." I take a few more steps back. "I didn't know forgetting that you have magic is considered taking care of yourself." The two take larger steps towards me. "Well maybe it is." I start walking back now trying to avoid these stupid spiders. A large thump behind me reveals another of the smaller types of spiders. "This is unfair I hope you know." I say stopping in my tracks. "You know better than anyone that we don't 'play fair'." Says the new spider, inching closer to me. "Maybe I don't care." I jump into the air and try to just fly as high as I can to get away from them but its hard to do when three Giant Spiders are grabbing at your feet even though they don't have hands. I start to gag because of how gross they are fly faster. I get high enough to be out of their reach but that doesn't mean I'm out of the red zone yet. Not far from us I see a few larger spiders luckily not looking at us. I fly higher so as not to be noticed by them and make my way in the most logical direction; where pretty much all of the spiders are. "There's bound to be some answers there." I tell myself. Flying as quiet as I can I try to fly past the hoard of spiders but doing that is a lot harder than you would think.

Looking down below me I see all kinds of different spiders gathering with the others. I fly higher and enhance my eyesight to see to the ground. I see no castle or even any form of shelter for the spiders other than their disgusting webs. Blech. "Seriously why haven't I at least flown over this place? Wait, have I and just forgotten about it?" I push the thought out of my head, best not dwell on those ideas. I scan the area and spot Madi in the center of everything. Although she isn't tied up or in a cage or stuck on a web. She is simply sitting down as though she's okay with what is going on, as if she is watching t.v. None of the spiders are paying attention to her as if they don't care too much about their hostage situation. Not even the king is paying attention. My brain sparks an idea and I think that I can actually pull it off. Wait, why doesn't she just fly away? I fly over Madi and make sure none of the spiders are looking before slowly floating to the ground. I wish the way down was less filled with huge spider webs but that would be too easy. I hold in my disgusted sounds and make my way to the ground near Madi. "Yo, what are you doing?" I whisper to her. "Just sittin' around, relaxing a bit. The usual." She replies. "Why don't you just fly away?" She moves her foot out from under her and shows me the woven spider web rope stuck to her foot.

"This plus I was bored." She shifts her hand into a blade and cuts the web from her foot and stands. "So why are you out of school so early?" she asks. "I'll tell you later." I start to float and Madi follows. We got pretty high and I stop her. I face the spiders and use my loudest voice. "So why did you do this again? Because I am confused." They all whip their heads to face me and their faces were priceless. Madi and I both laugh. "How did you...?" The king looks at me funny, almost as if he was expecting this. He seems to be getting smarter. "How else did I?" I retort. "Magic." I wave my hands in front of my face dramatically. "So we're gonna go now. Bye." We turn to fly to a safe territory but a barrage of webs are thrown into the air at us. We dodge most of them but one gets me in the back and I am pulled down to the ground. Not long after I hit the dirt Madi lands and I notice she was pulled down as well. "This is why we did this." The king says walking close. Clenching up again! Forgetting I have magic again!! His large hand-like arm, leg thingies come closer to us as he reaches to grab us. A strange light fills the area as it comes from beneath me and Madi. I look to her and see her confused expression. We fall through the light and I thud down on hard pavement. "Ow. Ugh. Whyyyyyyy?" I groan as I stand and rub my spine of the pain. I look around to see a mall and a lot of people. "Shit. I hope no one saw any of that. What the hell happened?" I look around some more and see that Madi isn't with me. "Was that a new defense mechanism of mine? Did I just discover a new magic of mine?" Many people pass by me and pay no mind to the teenager awkwardly standing in the middle of the sidewalk. Among the people who pass me I see one of my friends. "Nikki?" 

She must have heard me because she turns and looks at me. "Gwen? What are you doing here?" she walks towards me with another of her friends and one of their moms. "I could ask you the same thing. You were just at school like an hour ago." She takes a glance around and seems to stand more awkwardly than she normally does. Is something wrong with her? I feel something strange in the air like something not human. I sense the air and the people around me and can immediately tell what that feeling is. Someone here is magic. But there hasn't been magic on Earth for thousands of years other than me and Madi so who is it? Did someone figure out about me? Does someone know what I am? Do they know I'm a Mystic? I start to worry for my and Madi's safety and realize that Nikki was talking to me the whole time. "...So why are you here?" I snap back into reality and try to ignore the other Magic User. "Uhh, just to get out of the house. I was bored." Her other friend and their mom walked away a few feet and Nikki looks back to them. "I got to go but have fun." we wave bye and I notice that she is walking with a limp. I look closer and notice a little red scale poking out from under her skinny jeans. Nikki Is a Magic User!? But I never sensed it before. I need to find Madi and get answers. Something is not right here.