Emerald Bay

Living and learning to live again.

Chapter 2

Elisa was thankful that the High school day was over, but seemingly disappointed to be leaving Michael when she had so many questions to ask him. She had cried a little telling him about her past, about her Jacob, but he had understood it all and told her a little about his past as well. Then she cried again, hearing how Michael’s parents and younger sister had died in a car accident just less than a year ago. He had even shown her a picture of Nina, a sweet little 3 year old that never had the chance to grow up, never had the chance to live. She was the mirror image of Michael, with the blonde hair and blue eyes, a true angel.

But now the little angel had gone, along with her mummy and daddy. This left Michael almost completely alone, he was only 16 and had lost his whole world. Except for one person. His brother, Shane. He was also in the car accident but managed to cast a spell upon himself to survive. Not just himself , Michael had explained defensively. They had found Shane holding Nina in his arms, as if trying to save her. But the price of keeping his heart beating had come at a price. He had been in a coma since the accident and doctors just had no medical explanation. There was of course no medical explanation, and there never would be. Michael hoped that one day his brother would open his eyes and become the 18 year old brother he had missed for so long.

Now, as Elisa sat in her car, remembering Michael’s face as he told her the way he lost his family: his eyes shining with tears, the pale pallor of his cheeks, and the way his lips so slightly moved at each new word. She tried to be strong but couldn’t stop one single tear sliding down her face and onto the leather seat of the car.

She drove steadily, almost slowly back home, too scared by the tale Michael had told her to go above 50mph. Jordan had been picked up by mom and was already home. As Elisa got out of her car, she smelt something delicious, her mom had been busy. She paused outside the door, took a deep breath then focused on the lock. It clicked open easily and saved the trouble of using a key. This was the kind of magic that Elisa considered safe to use in broad daylight and hardly showed her true magical ability. But keeping her full ability kept her profile low and stopped the hunters from finding them and that was the way she preferred to keep the situation, even if it meant not practising the difficult spells she longed to perfect.

The minute Elisa walked through the door; Jordan was talking to her about her day at school. Elisa told her sister about the simplicity of all the lessons, the new friends she had made and the lunch time she had spent with them though missed out the fact that all were witches and she had experimentally thrown a pencil across a room with her mind. Jordan never needed to know these sorts of things and Elisa prayed she never would find out. Her mom gave her a curious look as she set the dinner (a very British toad in the hole) on to the table and Elisa quickly shot her a look back that clearly said ‘later’.

 Soon Jordan had taken herself to her room, excited to complete her first school assignment. Elisa sat down with her mom and told her about her new witch friends and the lunch time she had spent with them. She contemplated telling her about Michael, but felt that the story he had told her was private and not something she should just go around telling people. Then she had too taken herself to bed and spent her night thinking about her past. Her dreams were vivid and extremely realistic that night and when she woke up, she felt as if Jacob was with her again and not just with her in spirit. Elisa could literally see Jacob stood before her- His eyes, strangely a purple colour, his hair blonde and tussled- everything seemed real.

Elisabella, please help me, you can save me. She had heard that voice, the voice of Jacob and it had said that she could save him. But she couldn’t. He was already dead; she had seen him die and even seen him lowered into the ground at his funeral. But something plagued Elisa’s mind all morning- how real it all was. The dreams were unlike any others, real in a way and the voice she had heard brought back so many beautiful memories.

She was still thinking about it when she arrived at school the next morning and didn’t foresee the events that were about to unfold. She was day dreaming and trying to walk to class at the same time, she hadn’t seen two figures hurtling at top speed towards her but did feel the pain as she flew through the air and managed to crack her head on the brick wall as she landed. Elisa knew that if she had been a normal person, an injury like this could have been fatal, but she was a witch and had slight healing abilities. She lay there for a few seconds wondering what sort of damage she had done. The last thing she remembered before drifting into unconsciousness was the smug face of a huge, jock type boy looking down onto her, the face of a slightly concerned yet utterly gorgeous boy and the face of Michael, shouting her name, telling her not to close her eyes....

Elisa. Elisa. Can you hear me, squeeze my hand or open your eyes. Elisa could hear the voice telling her what to do and tried to do both of the things. Every time she tried, she just couldn’t move, couldn’t even open her eyes. She felt herself drifting and often heard conversations.

“She just isn’t making progress, she may be in this coma for months, but she’s stable.” Said a voice.

“She must be making some...I swear I saw her blink yesterday!” Came another voice.

The first voice spoke again. “Look, it has only been 5 days since the accident; she suffered quite a serious head injury and needs time to heal”

It all went quiet then and Elisa just listened to the occasional comment and she was glad she did, as one name the two voices talked about rang a bell. Shane Glasser. Michael’s older brother. She realised that she was in a coma and on the same ward as the boy she was thinking about just 6 days ago. She couldn’t stand lying there for any longer and mentally mumbled a healing spell to herself.

After what felt like eternity, she finally had the strength to open her eyes. She saw that she was indeed in hospital, hooked to all sorts of machines that she didn’t need at all anymore. She took the oxygen mask off and ripped out the IV. Then, Elisa sat up and felt instantly refreshed. Magic was always tricky in some ways, but this spell was something amazing. The tricky part was learning to say the words because of the age of the spell. The easy part was the feeling of health that radiated once it had been performed. Elisa saw that she was in a private room and all the blinds in the room we’re open. She had only a few minutes before the nurses would notice she had moved from the bed so decided to act fast. She knew that as a long term patient, Shane would probably be in a private room as well so checked the rest of the ones she could see. On the third one, she saw someone that caught her eye. Michael, He was sat next to a bed, holding his brothers hand. He looked hopeful and his eyes looked bright. Elisa decided the best thing to do would just be to walk in, so she did. Michael literally fell out of his seat and ran to steady a perfectly healthy Elisa.

“How? But you were in a coma? The doctors said you were a long term case but it’s only been a couple of days! Sit down please; let me get you some help.” Michael said, shocked.

Elisa you looked at him and started to speech. “I did a healing spell and now I’m fine and have come to help heal your brother.”

Michael just stared at her, as if he couldn’t quite believe his own stupidity. Elisa knew that Michael didn’t know the complicated spells such as a healing one, but also knew that he had must have overlooked it when searching for a spell to help his brother. Michael was still stood by Elisa, frozen like a statue so she decided to just go ahead and say the spell. She walked to the bed and saw for the first time the person that lay in there. His hair was black and grew long past his ears; he was pale, yet muscular and strong. The complete opposite looks-wise to Michael, but so very the same in other ways. She gently took the boys cold fingers and placed the hand gently between both of hers and began to speak the words of the spell.

It took a while, but after ten minutes, she was satisfied and slowly placed the hand back down on the bed. Shane, who had before been still, twitched and slowly opened his brilliantly blue eyes, the complete double to Michael’s.  He blinked a few times as reality set in and he remembered why he was lying in the hospital bed. Elisa could have cried herself as she saw the fear in Shane’s eyes become one single tear drop as he relived the car accident. She saw the hope, as his eyes drifted to Michael and the surprise as he saw Elisa for the first time.

“Thankyou”, Shane said, as he quickly sat up in the bed. She couldn’t think of what to say so left the room and went to find someone who could get her discharged and back home...