UNISION

Leave me alone

It had been weeks since I've seen my friends nor have I spoken to them. I moved out of town with my family since my mom wanted to get out of here and because of that, I also had to move to another school. Not gonna lie, I felt relieved since I never have to see the school's principal again. The secret that she had been keeping from all of us.. if I ever tell anybody, they wouldn't believe me. That poor girl whom I saw on that day still gives me nightmares. And that poor boy looked traumatized. Those two children who I've been seeing playing at the playground.. I've never seen them since. 

It's late at night and I just received a call from a random number I've never seen. I ignored the call and tried to fall asleep but the same number from before kept on calling me over and over again. I've never answered any calls from random numbers for safety reasons. Again, I ignored the calls till they would stop calling. They didn't. I thought they'd leave me alone, but no, I received a text message from the same number as before. 

"Hey Nilam! Remember me?" 

"I don't know who you are."

"It's me.. your childhood friend!"

"Childhood friend??? I've never had one.."

"Oh, come on. Now that's just mean. I have your location."

"Who are you?"

"Oh you know.. well I know what you know, dear."

"I know who you are now. Leave me alone.. or else."

"I just want to make sure no one knows about our little secret and keep your mouth zipped."

"You're crazy, no way!"

"I'm coming over."

"I'll call the cops!"

"If you call the cops.. someone here you love dearly has to suffer. You don't want your friends to die, do you?"

"What do you want?"

"To make sure you don't tell anyone else.. don't worry, I wont hurt you.."

"Hard to believe but.. okay."

At this point, I'm horrified. I'm alone at home and unarmed. If I call the cops.. someone will die because of me, and I can't live with that. 

My phone chimed, bringing me out of my thoughts. 

"I'm here.. there's no running away." 

Oh no.

 This kind of thing truly activates my fight-or-flight response. I'm panicking. I have to hide from this freak. I went into the basement which was hidden somewhere under the carpet in our living room. I locked the doors and quickly tried to find something which was given to me by my late great grandmother before she passed away. I noticed a box which had elder furthark alphabets written on it. Said box was placed on a shelf. I grabbed it and opened it up, with shaking hands. A wand which would only work if I had my hat on. I quickly grabbed the witch hat from the opposite side of where the box was and put it on. 

"From the universe comes your wisdom. From the sea commands peace. Guide my knowledge to where it belongs. Let me be where I'm supposed to be free!"

The wand in my hand lets out a little spark.

"It works!" I breathed out in relief.

I felt something soft tie itself around my neck, the cape. I felt ready and started to head back upstairs. I heard footsteps from the kitchen. She's here. 

"Well, well, well..there you are." she said with her raspy, snake-like voice.

"Look, we can settle this.. peacefully. No one will get hurt. You will go home and I will go back to sleep."

She slowly chuckled and pulled out a machete from its back scabbard.

"You must've known what I've done with this.." she said menacingly, as she was admiring the stainless machete, running her index finger on its blade.

I glared at her and gripped my wand tightly, still with trembling hands.

"You know.. I need more lab rats."

"Look, woman, I'm not gonna say yes."

"I'm not asking.."

She took a slow step closer to me, and before I knew it, she was tackling me to the ground. I struggled and struggled but she was too strong, by then, my wand had flew far out of my grip. She held the shiny, cursed machete above her head.

"Say goodbye.."

Before she could finish me off, I recited an enchantment to summon my wand, remembering what my great grandmother had taught me about magic before she passed away. The wand immediately flew into my hand, causing enough of a distraction to puzzle her. I quickly recited a spell to freeze her as she tried to claw at me, stopping abruptly due to the spell. I got her off of me and unfreezed her. She growled and tried to catch me but I quickly moved before she could. I quickly cast another spell on her so she could forget what had happened and send her back to where she came from, her  figure slowly disappearing out of sight.

With a big sigh of relief, I trudged down the stairs to the basement, turning on the tiny light bulb illuminating the old, dusty room. I walked over to the shelf which the box was from, slowly blowing away the thick layers of dust accumulated on a big chest below said shelf. I opened it to reveal many items used for witchcraft and wizardry such as potion bottles, spellbooks, strange ingredients, and related things.

"It's been a long time since I've played with you guys." I breathed out with a toothy grin on my face, putting all the items in a big rucksack I found laying around in the basement.

I raced up the stairs to my room and grabbed a wooden storage box under my bed, placing all the things in it and pushing it back under my bed. I slowly got in bed and tucked myself in.

"Today was a rough day.. goodnight me."

I quickly fall asleep peacefully without any disturbances.

To be continued...