The Deception of Magic

The Storm

The day was warm and the air was sticky, although Ciara would not have known this, being inside with the air conditioning on full blast. Ominous clouds were forming on the horizon and Ciara was completely oblivious to the massive storm that was approaching. Large droplets of water began to fall on the roof, soon becoming torrential rain. Ciara tried to turn the sound up on the TV but to no avail. The lightning was bright and fierce, the thunder rumbled like an angry dog. The power flickered, but was too strong to succumb to the force of the storm. It was relentless, a result of the humidity and damp air that had plagued the town for days. Ciara got annoyed trying to hear the TV over the sound of the storm, turned it off and went to bed. She curled up under her doona and tried to go to sleep. The storm was too fierce to allow her slumber and she was soon sitting up in bed with the bedside lamp on. There was a sense of calm within the room, which was a contrast to the swirling, angry storm outside. Ciara looked at the book, but it had annoyed her too much to pick it up. She often gave up on books when they became too boring, too lame or cliché. She revelled in the idea of the strange, the weird and the quirky. What she had read that morning was beginning to sound like a cliché of a story that ended ‘happily ever after’. This annoyed her as she knew that stories should never end happily ever after, they should just simply end, either the story finishing which characters dying, failing miserably, (or achieving that huge goal), or just simply moving on.

There was a sudden breeze in the calm room, and the book fell open. Ciara quickly looked towards the window to make sure the window wasn’t opened. It wasn’t, and the blast of wind disappeared quicker than it had arrived. She felt an overwhelming sense of curiosity towards the book, where the wind had come from. It was drawing her to it again, the frustration she experienced early dissipating. The storm swirled around outside the house, the room now seeming like a safe cave. Ciara tried to relax and go to sleep, she had the early shift at work again but nature had other ideas. The storm seemed to either be quite large or it was small and hovering above her house. It was relentless, and she soon felt insomnia setting in. Trying to calm herself and make herself sleepy, she turned to the book for help, giving into the curiosity that she was fighting so hard to accept that it existed. She pulled her knees up under the doona and the book nestled perfectly against the grooves formed by her legs. The page that the wind had swept open was the ending of the honey trees and water ponds story that she had stopped reading in frustration earlier. Something seemed different now as she began to read again. The tone of the story had noticeably changed, as if the author had been changed half way through the story. Words of violence and disturbing acts of magical influence now filled the page…

The witch slashed at the Queen with a sharp knife, slicing through her clothing

and piercing the skin along her ribs. The Queen howled in pain and retaliated,

swinging her hand with full force, clutching her hand into a ball at the last

moment, and punching her face hard…

What the hell was going on with the story? Before it had been an almost magical story filled with a land that was prosperous and happy, to now one of a cat fight between ‘good’ and ‘evil’. The power of the words was mesmerising and they were somehow pulling her. She blinked, and tried to look away, but the power was too strong, the story being too compelling to turn away…

The unicorn was kicking at the door, trying to escape, it let out a loud cry that

formed a sound similar to word Ciara. ‘See – a –ra’ it whined over and over similar

to the bray of a donkey. The wood began to fleck on the door and soon peeled

and splinter. The queen and the witch on the other side of the door where still

screaming at each other, surely they wouldn’t last much longer.

Ciara could feel herself being pulled towards the book. Why was she included in the story? The storm raged around her and she felt herself topple into the book. It was dark, but didn’t have the sensation of falling. It was similar to driving extremely fast; Ciara could feel the wind rushing against her face. A loud thud filled the void of sound with something hitting Ciara on the head. She forced her eyes open, fighting against the passing wind. Green light filled her eyes and she had to blink hard a number of times for the picture to come into focus. It wasn’t really green light; it was actually a large tree that was hiding a sun in its full heat. The tree had thousands upon thousands of small green leaves, with an equal number of dark red trees sprouting next to them. The leaves covered the ground, with the green leaves turning half red as they floated towards the ground. Ciara looked down towards the base of the tree- the roots of which were half covered by dirt, looking similar to underground tunnels that had been dug up intact. Large flowers grew close to the root system at the base of the tree, and they were coloured red, blue and yellow. Each petal was a different colour and the effect was a bright rainbow, like a children’s candy lollypop. They did look edible, but Ciara seemed too dazed to even try and pick one. Was this a dream? It felt so real. The sun felt warm, the smell of the damp earth rose up and filled her nostrils like the smell of a freshly baked cake. She reached up to the tree and jumped ‘Ouch’, she yelped as she realised the leaves were razor sharp on its edges. A small droplet of blood formed along the cutline on her index finger. It was only a small graze, but it felt painfully real.