Powers of the Red Moon

Chapter 14

That everything we wanted to say was through our minds. We never said a word out loud to each other. Then after dinner all of us just sat in the hall and talked about totally random stuff and then at around eleven I yawned and my mom’s sharp eyes spotted the apparently badly hidden gesture. “Off to bed.” My mom said and my mom shepherded me and Max out of the hall and into our rooms. There was a single bed beside by bed where my mom was supposed to be sleeping. “Mom can you sleep with me. Please.” I said because I really needed my mom right now. I was still overwhelmed by the fact that my mom was here with me. In flesh and blood and not in some photograph. “Of course honey.” My mom said and quickly changed her clothes and slid into the bed beside me. When I felt her weight on the bed I grabbed my mom’s hand and held it close. I was out like a light and might I just say that that was the best sleep I’ve had in such a long time.

The next morning I woke up and my mom was not there so I got up brushed my teeth had a bath and pulled on grey denim shorts and a white tee. I pulled my blonde hair into a ponytail and walked out of the room to find everyone but Max at the table eating breakfast. “Where’s Max” I asked, yawning. “Still asleep.” My mom replied passing me a plate of pancakes, butter and a bottle of maple syrup. “Can I wake him up, please?” I pleaded. I really wanted to scream in his ear and wake him up. My mom correctly guessed what I was thinking and chuckling slightly nodded.

I ran to his room and looked at him lying peacefully in bed. He looked so calm and relaxed that I didn’t have the heart to wake him up abruptly. I walked over to his bed and poked his shoulder saying “Wake up Max. Its 9 AM. Come on.” He stirred but simply turned in his bed and went back to sleep. ‘Alright’ I thought. ‘Damn subtlety.’ I yelled ‘Wake up Max’ through our mental connection so loudly that he sat up as if hit with defibrillator panels. “What.” He said looking around confused. Then when he saw me lying on the laughing hysterically it dawned on him what I had done. “Alexis, I am going to kill you.” Max growled. I looked at him innocently and said “I have no idea why.” Then sensing that I was just going to make him angrier if I acted anymore cheeky I quickly left the room. Behind me Max groaned and slumped back on his bed.

“I hope you know, I did all of that to wake you up. Not to send you to sleep again.” I thought broadcasting my thoughts to the figure lying on the bed behind me. “Shut up.” Max yelled from behind me but he didn’t sound quite as angry. I just laughed and walked out of the room.

When I sat down at the table my mom asked “What did you do? I heard Max shouting.” My mom asked. I told them and all of them burst out laughing. 30 minutes later Max walked out of his room, his hair still damp from the shower. He sat beside me and devoured a plate of pancakes pausing only once to glare at me. I just looked the other way, pretending not to have seen the glare. After breakfast we went to the training room and started for the day. That day my mom taught us how to move things without touching them. I quickly realized that magic basically relied mostly on my imagination. For instance to move a chair around the room was easy. I was supposed to imagine the chair flying around the room and put all of my will and power into that image and the chair would levitate around the room.

My mom taught us how to dig into the ground using magic and how to melt ice. Needless to say when night came both of us were exhausted. When we used to get very tired my mom used to give us chocolate. “Chocolate restores energy. Whenever you get exhausted just eat a bar of chocolate. That is why if you are going anywhere keep bars of chocolate handy in case you need energy.” So we trained and trained and trained. At night both of us fell asleep as soon as our heads hit the bed.

After 3 months continuous training both of us are much stronger than before. One day I wanted to make the sofa in the hall levitate just because I wanted to test my limits. I didn’t tell anyone what I was gonna do but I just walked out of my room one day when no one was in the hall and just did it. After three minutes I almost collapsed. My body was wracked with pain and when I tried to end the spell I couldn’t. I could feel my life force ebbing away. I dropped to my knees because of the pain but Max walked out of his room and when he saw the sofa in the air and me on the ground he guessed what I was doing.

I would have died if he hadn’t lent me his strength. We set the sofa down again and I collapsed. My heartbeat was faint and I was sweating profusely. I could see black spots and there was a ringing in my ears. The ringing was becoming louder and Max’s face was fading slowly. My voice was barely a whisper and when I asked for water. Then apparently my eyeballs rolled back into my skull and I passed out. The next thing I remembered was lying in my bed and my mother beside me looking worried, and scared.

She was holding my hand and when I squeezed her hand she jumped up with a start. “Oh my god Alexis I was so worried. I thought I lost you. Your heartbeat was so faint. Good thing Max walked in when he did or else you could have died. What were you thinking? I told you not to do something like this. Why didn’t you listen to me? You could have died.” My mom said all this in one breath. I groaned and sitting up asked “How long have I been out?”      

“3 days.”                                                                                                                                                                     “What! And you guys didn’t wake me up?” I asked throwing off my blanket and jumping off the bed. When I landed my feet couldn’t take my weight and I fell. My mom jumped up and helped me back onto the bed. “Don’t get off the bed. I’m going to get you something to eat. And believe me we tried to wake you up but not too hard because you almost died and you needed rest.”

My mom went to get me something to eat and Max walked in. “You know you should knock right?” “How you feeling?”  He asked me, totally ignoring my question. “I’m fine. Thank god you came into the hall when you did else I would have died.” I said. “It wasn’t luck. I felt lots of pain through our link and I ran out as fast as I could and when I saw you on the ground and the sofa in the air i helped you put it down.” He replied. I smiled and my mom came in with a bowl of hot chicken soup. The smell made my stomach rumble and I eagerly sipped when my mom held a spoonful to my lips.

But I guess one good thing came out of it. My mom had told me not to do anything that would take too much energy but today I truly understood that experience is the best teacher.