Midnight Storm

Chapter 6: The Beginning

'Is he going to be ok?' I heard Hope's scared voice echo 'I hope so' I heard Maria say worriedly. 'We cannot be sure ma'am' I heard someone with an extremely strong French accent say. I assumed it was a nurse or doctor. The pain started again and I couldn't keep still, I kept moaning and tearing at my stomach willing it to stop, Maria must have thought I was still asleep because I felt her sit down next to me and pat my forehead with a damp cloth, 'Shhh my darling, it will pass. Shhh' Maria whispered calmly as she dabbed my aching head as I started to stop rolling. I fell back asleep and that dream came, I had never had this weird dream but it was somewhere in between a dream and a nightmare. I was back in my teen years, sitting in the library studying for something when she came past. She looked almost identical to Maria only her hair was beach blonde and her eyes were purple-grey. She came and sat on my lap and put her arms around me 'Can I help you miss?' I asked nervously. She got up and walked behind me then put her arms around my neck in an awkward hug 'Of course you can Darlin. You can help all of us, just say these words for us; Tenebris surget, lux erit evanescunt. And you can set us free' she said in a mocking voice. I looked around, there were around 20 people starting to crowd around me all of them with the same purple-grey eyes, there was something odd about them, I then realised they all had a symbol on their right eyes. 'No, I'm sorry miss but I cannot help you, or any of you. I'm sorry' I said as I picked up my books and started to leave, 'Oh, sorry wrong answer Darlin.' She said in a mocking voice, then they all started to chant in some ancient language no one could have spoken for centuries and they all held hands forming a circle around me. I started to rise into the air and glow, my breathing became more and more difficult it was like someone was slowly tightening their grip on my neck making it harder for me to breathe with every breath I took. I looked down and the library floor beneath me had disappeared and beneath me was a never ending hole. They suddenly let me go and I dropped. I don't really know how to explain it but I was kind of half asleep and awake at the same time. I screamed as the pain came back again harder than before but this time it was a short stab that seemed like it lasted for hours. I bolted upright panting, and sweating like I had just ran a marathon or something. 'Are you ok?!' Maria asked shockingly. 'I think so, something really weird is going on. Hope, you seem to know more about this than me, what is going on?' I asked weakly

Hope explained everything, when she had gone to Moonlight and Robert gave her the ring she had discovered she powers, she could control the elements fire, water, earth and air. She had been taking special classes to learn how to control it, but she couldn't use her powers outside of school. The ring apparently used to belong to a girl that used to go to the school and as I had noticed the ring's invisible symbol glowed whenever her lover and herself touched it or when the both of them had their rings on and made contact in some way. It was a way of showing their affection for one another without words, the symbol on her left eye was the same on her ring and it was the symbol for the name her lover had named her. The rings were like wedding rings if you like but for people with powers that had not been married. The symbol on her eye appeared whenever she thought of Robert which meant that he was her loved one. This shocked both Maria and I. 'Powers?! When did this all happen?' Maria asked. 'Just after I sent the letter to you both, I would have told you sooner but I didn't know how to.' She replied. 'What about the battlefield and all that? What was that all about?' I asked. 'I have one theory,' she said starting to tear up 'It must have been the ones that had owned rings before myself and Robert that we saw on the battlefield. The only reason the ring would have shown that to us is if my father has passed on, if the same thing happens with Maria it means that my mother has as well. However I have to find my closest friend to find out if my sister is still alive' She said. She started to cry and put her face in her hands. Her cry was so sweet, you could not hear her at all when she cried except for her short breaths that could be heard every now and then. 'Don't worry Hope. Here let us be sure,' Maria said as Hope lifted her tear covered face 'On the count of three. One.....Two.....Three' Maria said. They both held the ring as they held hands and with a sigh of complete and utter relief, nothing happened 'My mother is alive! She is alive! Next term I am learning how to talk to people through their thoughts! That means I can talk to my family! Well my mother and sister anyway.' She said still crying. Choking as she tried to talk, she was calming herself down after that and before we knew it she was asleep.

I carried Hope up the stairs to out hotel room and tucked her into bed. Then Maria and I went into our room and laid on the bed in exhaustion. We talked for a while and spent some quality time together that we hadn't particularly done much of. The next morning I got up early and made us breakfast. The girls woke up and we had breakfast together on our veranda overlooking the city. After breakfast I washed the dishes while Maria watered the flower boxes outside our window and Hope read on the couch. When we finished we went to the Eiffel Tower and went all the way to the top. It was amazing, Maria stood up on the hand rails as I held her waist and she spread her arms out to balance. It was a really romantic moment and nothing could have ruined it, it was amazing. When we had finished there we went around shopping, after all Maria's pregnancy was getting closer and closer to a close and our little bundle of joy was getting pretty big so to speak and some of her clothes wouldn't fit her until her stomach went back to normal, that and Hope wanted some souvenirs to take home. We bought a lot of things there, I bought a camera, canvas and paint with brushes for Hope since she loved her photography and art, clothes, a bunch of velvet red and white roses, and some books for Maria and I even managed to get a camera for myself to capture our best moments in Paris so we could cherish them later on in life. We got back to our hotel room and put our new possessions on our bed side tables. I was making dinner in the kitchen while Maria was lying on the bed relaxing and Hope was sitting on her bed reading. I looked at the book she was reading, Supernatural Skeptic by Michaela H. It looked like she was really into the book, she was getting closer and closer to the book every time I looked at her like she was being sucked into the book.

I woke up looking down to see Maria with her head between my shoulder and my neck and her hand on the other side of my chest. I sat there for a while, enjoying the feeling of having her in my arms and then very carefully I lifted her off, covered her with the blankets, got dressed and tip toed out of the room shutting the door as I crept. I yawned as I lifted my arms above my head and stretched. Then I saw something odd, there was a letter on the terrace. I picked it up and saw it was addressed to Maria and myself. I sat on the chair beside me and began to open the letter. It was from Hope's school. They were sending their sympathy after hearing of her fathers passing and apologising that they had not told us about Hope's powers. I skimmed through the letter, Hope was extremely far ahead in her classes and was doing extremely well, the teachers all knew about her and her boyfriend Robert's relationship and were fine with it. Then I saw something truly strange. There, written on the page was the word 'Witch'. They were calling my sweet, innocent Hope a witch. A brilliant, powerful witch, but still a witch. I sat back in my chair and tried to take it all in, 'I know their intensions were good. This is all starting to sound very normal to me now.' And then I saw the note, from Hopes boyfriend inside the envelope. I picked it up without reading it, crept into Hope's room as quietly as I possibly could and placed it on the far side of her pillow in her line of sight. I went into the kitchen, made myself a coffee and went onto the terrace. I started to sketch in my notebook, it was Maria and I holding hands. I never thought I would draw that sort of thing but drawing that relaxed me and made me realise why we were here. I heard a door open and I quickly turned the page and as fast and carefully as I could I started to sketch a cherry blossom tree so that no one would know what I was drawing before. I was very shy about people seeing my drawings but I would rather who ever it was to see a beautiful tree from Japan than my drawing of Maria and I holding hands, Maria and Hope were the only ones that knew I had a sensitive side but I did not want people to see me as soft.

I turned in my chair and saw it was Maria coming towards me, I sighed a sigh of relief. I put my notebook on the table in front of me and Maria came and sat on my lap, 'Have I ever told you how amazing you are?' I asked her with a smile as she out her arms around me, 'Aw, surely I am not as amazing as you but I thank you for the compliment my darling.' She said, she kissed my cheek and elegantly walked into the kitchen to start breakfast. I laid back in my chair and I was so relaxed I did not have the energy to open my eyes let alone move. I sighed as the warmth of the sun rays beat down of me as a soft, cool breeze drifted to the terrace. Maria came as sat on my lap and held my hand, I smiled a weak smile and she leaned on my shoulder, I heard Hope come and lay down on the day bed on the other side of the terrace and every now and then I heard the soft scratch of paper as Hope turned a page of one of her books.