My (Not So) Charmed Life

I Think I Just Entered the Twilight Zone

I tiptoed as quietly as I could through the last few blocks as I followed Ryan to his house. I had put on a brave face when confronting Ryan, but inside I was terrified. I didn’t know what was happening, and now I was stuck alone with someone who could probably kill me without a second glance.

I stood on Ryan’s front porch as he unlocked the door, looking around me expecting something to jump out and attack me at any moment. Ryan gestured for me to come inside, and needless to say, I hesitated. Did I really want to be alone in his house with him? Did I really believe that he wouldn’t hurt me?

“Liza, I swear, I. Will. Not. Hurt. You. You have to believe me; I would never allow anything to hurt you,” he said beseechingly.

I wanted to believe him, I really really did. But while my heart told me to follow him, my mind was screaming at me to run far and run fast.

“How can I trust you? I want to, but this is something that’s got more at stake than simply going in your house with you,” I said, trying to make him see.

“If I was going to kill you, I wouldn’t have saved you from what was out there. I could have let you die. And if you stay out here much longer, it’s going to come back.”

The look on his face was so genuinely scared that it melted away the barrier that I was trying to put up between us. I took a step inside and he closed the door behind me, locking several locks that I hadn’t noticed when I’d been at his home before.

He walked past me and sat down on the couch in the living room, and I followed him. I drew my legs up under my chin and clasped my hands around them, nervously awaiting his explanation.

“Okay, so… I should probably let you know that I know about your secret.”

I looked up at him in shock. He couldn’t mean what I thought he meant, could he? I had been so careful around him to make sure that I wasn’t doing anything even remotely magical around him.

“Wha- how? I… uh,” I spluttered. He looked at me with a small smile.

“Don’t worry, I know you tried to be careful. And you were. But I knew about your powers before I even met you. I was sent here to watch you,” he explained gently.

My mouth hung open in shock. I scooted away from him on the couch, now thoroughly freaked out.

“No, not like that. I’m not dangerous. I was supposed to protect you. They wanted me to befriend you and watch over you, but I wasn’t supposed to… well, you weren’t supposed to know that I was a wizard.”

My mouth was still gaping wide, and no sound was coming out.

“Have you ever heard of the High Council?” I shook my head mutely. “Okay. The High Council is the ruling party of the magical community, chosen by Merlin himself. Recently, another group has been trying to overthrow the Council, and let’s just say that they aren’t good news. They use their powers to manipulate and kill, and the Council has been trying for over a year to keep them away from gaining power.”

My mind was trying to wrap itself around this torrent of information. But I managed to ask the one question in my mind that mattered most.

“What does this have to do with me?”

Ryan sighed. “A long time ago, the Council received a prophecy from one of its oracles that claimed that a child would come along who would be able to help the Council be saved from a dark power. This child was said to be a female born on the seventh day of the seventh month of a year ending in seven, who would, at the age of seventeen, make the decision that could save the Council.”

My birthday was July 7th, 1997. I was seventeen years old.

I fainted.

~~~****~~~

“Liza? Shit, I shouldn’t have said anything. She probably thinks I’m deranged…” I made out Ryan’s voice mumbling to himself. I groaned softly and blinked my eyes a few times.

“Liza, you okay?” He sounded relieved when he saw me blinking, and he eased a hand under my head to help me sit up.

“Please tell me that I’m at your house to do the project and what I thought you told me was a dream,” I said hopefully, looking into his eyes and knowing the answer before he spoke.

“Sorry, but it really is true,” he replied sadly.

“Then why is this the first time I’m hearing about any of this? I mean, if I really was this person, don’t you think my parents would have mentioned it to me? I didn’t even know that people like us had any kind of government!” Now that the shock had subsided a little bit, what was left over was anger.

I had two options, well okay, maybe three. Choice one? Ryan was a dangerous liar and was trying to lull me in with this story so that he could kill me.

Choice two was that Ryan was telling the truth, which meant that my parents have been lying to me for my entire life.

Choice three, which seemed like the most appealing option at this point, was that I was going completely insane. At least then there wouldn’t be anyone lying to me.

Ryan was giving me a sympathetic look. I got the feeling that he understood the turmoil going on in my head.

“They probably knew about it and didn’t want to tell you because they were afraid. Afraid that if you knew that people were coming after you, you would freak out and never leave the house. They didn’t want you to hate them. Letting you believe that you had some control over your life for a few years was kind of them. You needed to be a kid and a teenager, and you couldn’t have done that with this looming over you.”

“Okay, so if, and I’m not saying I do, but if I chose to believe you, what would that mean for me?”

He looked thoughtful. “Well, for starters, you need magic lessons. And fighting lessons. And a bodyguard…” he trailed off in thought.

“Ryan, I don’t know if you’re aware of this, but my parents told me that you and your family were dangerous. I have controls and limits on my magic, and my dad is the only one who can remove them. And why would I need fighting lessons?”

I still couldn’t understand why my parents had told me those things about Ryan. If Ryan wasn’t lying to me and he wasn’t dangerous, I didn’t know how I was going to convince my parents that he was on my side. Plus, I didn’t exactly relish the thought of them finding out that I’d lied about who Ryan was when I introduced him as Sam Collins before the dance.

“We’re going to figure this out together, I swear. But first, I need to speak to your parents.”

Well, if my parents killed me, I had to let Shira know that she could have my sticker-covered lamp that we made together. I had fought to be the one who got to keep it, but it wouldn’t do me much good if I was dead.

Author's Note:

Hey everyone! Surprised? I hope not!

Can we get My (Not So) Charmed Life to 500 reads and 50 votes before the next upload? It would make me soooo happy! 

Love you all and leave me a comment letting me know whether or not you think Ryan is telling the truth or not!

TTFN <3