Reawaken

NORTH

We're going north they tell me. The deep green sea of highway trees blurs by. It gets deeper the farther we travel. We're going north to the Greater Witchcraft Academy of Northern New England. They say it's in Caribou, Maine.

I never knew there was a Caribou, Maine. I never knew there were academies for witchcraft. Academies are high schools for teenage kids. I'm not a kid, am I? I can't rightly remember how old I am. I'm still scraping through my head for what I do know. I can't find much. Not even my name.

My face is pressed to the window, and I watch the white condensation of my breath swell across the glass. The woman in the passenger seat with buttermilk hair turns to get my attention. I pull my head up to acknowledge her.

She scans me over with her pale sage eyes, and winces. "Do you need anything?" she tries, "Bathroom? Drink?"

I shake my head, my long hair brushing on my cheeks, veiling my eyes.

The woman sighs, as she turns back around. "Well, I need to use the bathroom if you wouldn't mind."

She turns to the man in the driver's seat and he nods. "There's a rest stop in 3 miles."

I pull my legs to my chest and curl around myself. "What... were your names again?" I try. I don't know my name, but I could at least try to hold on to others.

The woman cranes her body around to look at me again, the beam of her smile as pale as her eyes. "Evangeline." Her beauty is striking, and her power holds undertones of a maturity unfounded in a woman still so young.

"Artemis." the man driving mumbles.

Artemis turns off the exit ramp into the small rest area. Everything is getting smaller and smaller as we go farther north. Older as well, and in more need of repair. It's clear to me we are creeping farther and farther into nature's domain. A place where people are ruled by their environment, and not the other way around. In spite of everything, this is a good thought.

Evangeline opens the door, and walks to the small green and brown building. Artemis puts the car in park, and gets out as well, pulling a pack of cigarettes from one of the beverage holders.

I figure I should stretch my legs too, and open my door, dipping my feet onto the worn, salt and oil stained pavement. My feet are protected by nothing but a pair of cheap, plastic and foam, Dollar Tree flip flops, gifted to me by my chapornes. I don't mind. They shield the cuts on my feet.

I gulp air. It's fresh, but still has a hint of acrid highway exhaust.

"You still don't remember your name, kid?" His voice surprises me.

I turn to him. "No." I say. "And I'm not a kid."

Artemis sighs, and takes a heavy drag off his cigarette. "You are to me, you can't be more than twenty, twenty one?" He snickers. "And you'll remember your name soon enough, trust me."

I move closer to sit against the hood of the car with him. He is the same height as me, and built on a lithe frame. He has shaggy coal black hair, that he keeps pushing out of his face, as not to burn it. He also has a pair of black wire rimmed glasses, and now that I'm closer, eyes like pools of nightime. Am I imagining it, or do they even have flecks of silver stars spotted through their darkness?

"How do you know?" I ask him.

He chuckles and takes another hit. I try not to choke on the fumes. "A lot of kids like you come to our school, the rejection of their parents, or just society in general, turning them so distraught they use their power against themselves. Try to bury everything about who they are. But as you stop denying your power your memory will come back. It shouldn't take more than half a year for you to regain everything. Though you may not be happier for it."