Charmed

Chapter Fourteen

An incredibly strong smell startled my senses, and my eyes sprung open. I gasped for breath, although I wasn't sure why. The room I was in was unfamiliar. It looked like it was some kind of kitchen, but I didn't recognise half of the machines that were in there. A calendar hung on the walls, one that looked identical to the pictures in the history books we studied at school. The date said June, 2018. I clung to the wall for support. 2018 was the year in which the witches and warlocks took the world back from the humans, and by the looks of things, that hadn't happened yet.

Voices travelled through the room, and I followed them to a wooden door that was placed on the side of the stairs. The entire house confused me - it looked a lot like the farm before Pa sold me to the salve masters, but entirely different at the same time.

Someone placed their hand on my shoulder, and I spun to see Ana looking at me. She looked a little younger, maybe only three or four years, but just as beautiful. Her hair wasn't as long as it was when I had first met her. Instead, it stopped just above her breasts.

"Are you here for the meeting?" she asked. I opened my mouth, but no words came out. So I nodded. "Wonderful. You must be the last one. Everyone else is already here."

She opened the door on the side of the stairs and led me down the wooden steps into what looked like a cellar. Two dozen people were gathered around a small table, others leaning against the walls. There were four people sat directly at the table, and I recognised one of them immediately as Theodore. He seemed to be leading the discussion. No one turned my way when I arrived - everyone was too interested in the discussion.

"It's time for us to take action!" Theodore shouted, slamming his first down on the table. I jumped, not expecting the fierce action from the kind man who had greeted me in the council hall. "The humans have pushed us around for too long."

I quickly realised that I was watching the meeting in which the Elders decided to go to war against the humans. I looked around the room at everyone's cheering faces. Apart from two people. The woman looked disgusted, while the man sat next to her looked like he simply couldn't care about what happened.

"I say we kill them all!" one man screamed from the corner. "They killed enough of us!"

"Is violence the answer?" a woman responded. "Theodore was listening to everyone, quietly puffing on something that looked like a very thin cigar. "We could just use a spell that would work in our favour."

"A bit of violence couldn't hurt, could it?" Theodore said, glancing at Ana. His daughter shrugged, staying silent. "They slaughtered us for hundreds of years. It would be nice to show them how it feels. Obviously we wouldn't kill them all..."

"I don't believe this." The woman who had looked disgusted had paled at the suggestions from the group. Everyone's eyes were fixed on her. I looked at her, noting her brown hair and brown eyes. In fact, the more I studied her features, the more I came to the conclusion that she looked like me.

"You're talking of killing people," she continued. "Some of them have no idea what their ancestors have done. Some are completely innocent."

"Doesn't matter,"  someone retorted. "All humans are evil."

"They aren't all evil," she argued.

"Just because you sleep beside one at night, Alice, doesn't mean we all feel the same way about them," the man snarled.

Whispers and giggles circled the room. The man beside Alice moved away from her once her secret had been revealed. I felt instant sympathy for Alice and a sudden urge to protect her - she shouldn't be shamed just for loving someone without magic.