Only The Young | ✔

Chapter Fourteen

The present, 6th of February 2020.

Phineas Peters had always prided himself on being one of the greatest wizards of his generation, above everything else. To him, being a wizard came above being a father or a mayor and now he seemed to have failed in all aspects. He hated that he let Tehani's raw power go untamed and unpolished, maybe if it were the other way around, they wouldn't be in this mess.

Phineas grew up with the stories of how his ancestors locked up and banished every evil entity in Ewreburg Island, and the day they let their guards down was the day they would doom the island to evil. When he was a youngster himself, he and his coven had to banish and evil Japanese spirit and back then he had thought he was the smartest person ever to come up with the idea of banishing the spirit to a place where people feared stepping foot in — the cemetery. It had taken four stupid witches four years ago to break it out, fracturing the bridge that separated it from their world.

So he had to interfere again, it had taken two covens to seal it back into an alternate timeline that was so much that their own world, it had been to trick the spirit but Yako spirits were the ultimate tricksters and it still tried to get out, the fractured bridge made it all easier for it to try and lure others inside so it could escape.

This time, Phineas was sure all would be lost, they could only buy time for his daughter and her schoolmates to figure a way out. He cursed under his breath and thought he should have killed the spirit while he had the chance, many many years ago.

Yako spirits toyed with emotions then thrived on grief, hate, fear and every other negative thing, so during the battle with it, it had possessed them one by one, never staying for long, but long enough to say something wicked to them while wearing the face of someone they knew, someone they loved.

For one long second, Phineas had watched it wear the face of his then girlfriend and he had wanted nothing more than to sink his blade in her chest to make both her and the demon in her pay for the venomous words that had come from her lips, but he had hesitated. He still remembered the laugh that had spilled from her lips when she saw the knife in his hand shake from fright, then the spirit was gone from her body, quick as she had entered.

Phineas remembered her collapsing in his arms and him never quite forgiving her for the words that had never quite been hers but a part of him knew the Yako had used a dark part of her that had always thought those words for a long while. They had broken up days later and the coven had broken down too, too broken from the fight that scarred all of them.

"We need to dissolve the alternate world, it is the only way to let them know they are running out of time." He said to his coven. They sat, gathered in a circle in the basement of his temporary home in Sunville.

The town of Sunville was so similar to Eden, except its people where hypocrites who tried to ignore the magic keeping the town together. It was a classic case of people turning a blind eye to things that confused them.

"Dissolving it will bring them into the present again, but you know the consequences, that thing follows them too." The woman in red warned, she was the mother of Bathsheba Kane; the daughter who had brought automatic shame to her bloodline when the magic skipped her. She was a wise woman and rarely ever spoke up in meetings and when she did, her words were serious. A few other voices in the room hummed in agreement.

"I can feel the distortion, it will still get out even though we don't dissolve it." Phineas warned. "The Yako is a trickster and we have four teenagers who know nothing about magic stuck with it, trust me, it will get out."

"We can either wait for it to escape, or we prepare for it's arrival — we know it will arrive in a host, it is the only way for it feed on power." He added.

"You should have trained that daughter of yours." Gowon snapped, he was a fairly new member of the coven having only moved from the main island to Eden a few months ago, he was yet to learn respect and Phineas was tempted to teach him.

His right hand, Arnold nodded at him, a silent communication that made the tension leave his shoulders. Arnold was a man that had been Phineas best friend since their diaper days. He and Phineas were the only remaining members of the coven that had once been and they worked like one mind in two bodies.

"If any of us remain hesitant, let us cast a vote, it is best we are quick with this, before the whole nation is alerted to it." Arnold said. "All in favour for the dissolving, raise you hands."

Seventeen hands out of thirty went up. Thirteen remained on their laps quietly.

"Then we perform the ritual, now." Phineas affirmed, he waited for protests, but none was forthcoming. I am their leader, they have faith in me, he reassured himself.

The knife was passed around, blood magic had sealed it away, blood magic would release it — at a cost they had all learnt to pay for, sometimes the magic requested for a firstborn son, other times it requested payment in the form of years. — the octagram was drawn on the floorboard, their blood dripping on it, it flowed with purpose, snaking as if it were alive then tracing the octagram until the blood went round as they chanted in harmony.

"Nos petere exitium." 

"Nos petere exitium."

"Nos petere exitium —