Magical Children: In Between the Lines

Chapter 5: Madi

Gwen came to help me with the Giant Spiders (even though I didn't need it) but something happened and this strange light made us exit the GSD. I thud down on surprisingly hard carpet and find myself in someone else's house. "Shit." I shift into a mouse and hide under a couch. It was a good thing I did that because someone walks into the room and stands around cautiously. This person seems to be in middle school, maybe Gwen's age, and he is pretty tall. "Hello? Is anyone there?" He walks around for a bit looking for someone to be in his house. I guess he heard my thud. I don't know this guy or why I'm in his house but something feels off about this place. Not creepy kind of off but... almost like a magic kind of off. The boy walks seems satisfied that no one is invading his home and walks back to where he came which I can only guess to be his bedroom. I decide to follow him sneakily by running under various furniture around the house such as tables, chairs, a few strange vases, and an oddly placed cabinet. 

I'm quite a ways behind him and get a door in the face when he walks into his room. I squeeze under the door and run under a nearby desk. I can feel something about him that feels almost magic. I try to sense any magic but since sensing things isn't one of my magics its kinda hard. It takes a lot of effort to sense things but I am getting better. After sensing around the house I feel where the magic feeling is coming from. I run back to the boy's room and I think it's obvious where the magic is when he starts to float above his bed. He must not have noticed it at first because when he looks down he almost freaks out. "Shit! Not again!" He closes his eyes and slowly floats back down. "What. The. Actual. Fuck." I whisper to myself. I quickly run to the front door and squeeze under it. I look around and find myself on a back road somewhere. "Good." I shift back to my normal self and fly high into the air. "Now I have to find my way home. Or... I could try to find Gwen and make a portal." 

Portals are strange. No one in the magic community uses them anymore so Gwen and I are the only two who can create them. Gwen can create portals in the blink of an eye but since I have only shifter magic portals aren't my strong suit. I have to take time out each day to practice on my portals. When you make portals you can either think of the place you want to pop up at or the person you want to pop up by. When you think of the person or place you want to go to, its like your seeing into a window through dimensions and worlds at where you want to go. Sometimes it feels like a third eye and sometimes it feels like your mind has been enhanced. For someone who doesn't have portal making magic (which only Gwen does now) it can be really hard to learn. Which is why I don't practice a lot.

I try my hardest to think of Gwen and where she is and its as if my mind flies through the trees and buildings on Earth to where she is. I can see her flying through the sky like I'm watching a movie but the quality isn't great so the image is a bit foggy. Gwen says that when I get better at making portals that the image will become less and less foggy until it is as if I'm right there where I want to be. I concentrate on her flight path and aim for about twenty feet in front of her and about three feet to her right. The portal slowly appears and I make my way through it. Portals have never been a clear sight to where they go, they have always been like a grey haze swirling in on itself like a pond but staying in place. The grey haze in front of me was even more swirling and a lot less peaceful than a pond. I just need to practice more but I'm too lazy for that. When I pop out the other side I find that my placement of this portal didn't do anything because it moved to right in front of Gwen. "Ahhhh!" We scream and she runs into me at full force.

We stagger in the air for a few seconds before we regain our balance and look at each other. "Well you just popped in. I don't know if you are getting better or not, can't tell." She says, watching a bird go by. "Well I'm not getting worse. So what the fudge happened back there? Why did I end up in some dude's house?" Her face becomes a mixture of both confusion and worry. "Did he see you? Who was he?" She starts to fly slowly in the direction that I am hoping is home and I follow. "I doubt he saw me but he looked about your age. Dirty-blonde hair, kinda skinny, uhh... I think that's it." She puts her fingers to her mouth as if in deep thought. "Maybe I know him, I'm not sure with those little facts." I scratch my head trying to think if I know anyone like that, but I'm sure I've never seen anyone like him. "But that's not the best part..." She turns her face to look at me, her eyes wide with curiosity. "He was floating!" She stops in her flight and stares at me. "He was fucking floating??"

"Yes he was fucking floating!! But I don't think he meant to because when he did it he looked down and was all like 'Shit!' and had to concentrate to float back down. I thought we were the only people on Earth who could use magic anymore." She starts flying again and we keep it at a steady, relaxing pace. "I thought we were, but how could other people be using magic? Because that isn't possible, or at least I didn't think it was. Hell I still don't even know why we have magic." She pauses. "The Magic Council never tell me anything other than how to use this spell, how to use that spell, and how to use this and that magic. But that boy isn't the only one accidentally using magic. Wait, are you sure he was using  magic?" I turn to her. "Yes I'm sure! I even sensed it!" She puts her fingers to her mouth again and hums something. "Wait, what do you mean he isn't the only one?" I ask. "Well when that light 'took' us, I popped up in the middle of the sidewalk in front of a mall and my friend Nikki was there." 

"You popped up in a heavily populated place? Did anyone see you?" She shakes her head. "I don't think so. But Nikki was walking funny, like something wasn't right. I unconsciously sensed magic and when she was walking away I saw a few scales poking out from her pant leg. Something isn't right here." I look below us and see a lot of buildings dwindle to a little bit of buildings then to trees and roads. "Do you think this has something to do with the Magic Government? Do you think someone in the Magic Community is doing this?" She shakes her head again, looking down. "No, how could they? And why? The Magic Government has no reason to come anywhere close to Earth and the third dimension. We are the only ones in thousands of years who have magic at all. Not even psychics have magic. But something has to be happening. Maybe Nikki and the boy have magic families that retreated to Earth for safety and didn't tell them they had magic? That's the only thing I can think of." The trees dwindle to more buildings and houses. "That seems too obvious or something, definitely not the answer to our questions. You want to keep an eye on them? I don't think they know how to control their magic, something bad could happen."

"Hmmm, I know, but, I don't think they, gah how do I word this? I don't think that they were born with their magic, in a way, but for them to have magic then they have to be born with it, but then why didn't they know about it? And what even is their magic? And have they unlocked all of it? Oh my God I don't know! This is going to kill me." We fly in silence for a minute or two then she speaks up again. "I think we should keep an eye on them, just in case something happens. But I never sensed magic in Nikki before, and I've known her since like first grade. This is weird." I nod my head and watch the roofs zoom by as we pick up speed. "Yeah, it is." We fly in silence for the next few minutes thinking of what the hell is going on here. The buildings soon dwindle back to trees then a mix of very few houses to a lot of trees, we must be close to home. "You want me to come with you back to Union? I got nothing better to do." She asks me. We hover above her section of property, watching the few cars go by on the new highway. "Nah, I think I'll be okay. It only takes about twenty minutes by flight anyway." She starts to float down and I stop her. "Oh wait, why were you out of school early again?" 

She stops and snaps her fingers. "Oh yeah! So it wasn't a long day at all. We weren't even done with the introduction thing when a small Earthquake 'erupted' and I was in the bathroom at the time so because Potosi sucks a stall door fell on me. But I unconsciously put up a force field so I'm fine. But I went back to class and another one happened too. Wait, do you think that the Earthquakes have something to do with the magic stuff?" I shake my head. "I doubt it. Well I'm gonna go home. Everyone should be waking up by now." We say our good byes and she floats down to her house while I head in the direction of my mom's house in Union.

"How could other humans have magic?" I think out loud to myself. "No one has had magic for thousands of years, then Gwen and I were born and we have magic. The question is why? And why won't the Magic Council tell us why? What are they trying to hide? Maybe we aren't human after all? Maybe we weren't born here in the first place? I should visit the Magic Council and ask them. Well shit I can't. I don't trust my necklace and Gwen's is back in the fort in the barn. I'm already halfway home so I'm not turning back." I watch the trees and creeks zoom by and the buildings appear and disappear with each mile I fly. I get home and walk inside the house. Just as I thought everyone is waking up. My mom sees me enter the living room and walks in with me. I plop down on the couch and she sits beside me. "Where were you?" I slouch and sigh. "I was bored and had some questions for Gwen. Something weird is going on. I think it's too much for you so I'm not gonna explain it. How about you guys? Anything happen while I was gone?" She shakes her head and slouches as well. Carlie walks into the room and sit on the floor facing the t.v. "Nope. You want some eggs?"