Chapter 4: A Secret Revealed

When they arrived at school, the car pulled up at the side of the building. CJ explained that they didn’t want to attract a lot of attention, so she always got dropped off at the side of the building. They walked around to the front entrance of the building. Coming around the corner, Wess saw Richard Baxter. He almost dropped his backpack. He was about to turn around and run for another entrance, but CJ grabbed his arm. “Relax,” she said, “it’ll be fine.”

They continued to walk toward the front entrance. Wess tried to keep his head down so he wouldn’t see him, but Richard spotted him. Richard started fighting his way through the crowd. He was getting closer by the second. Wess was about to panic, but CJ kept him calm. It must have been a spell. He felt his fear going down. It wasn’t gone, just more manageable now. Then his bones almost jumped out of his body.

“There you are, Weez,” Richard said, pounding his fist into his hand, “Who’s your new girlfriend? Did she come to see you get beat up?”

“I’m CJ,” she said, “And I’m sure that won’t be happening!”

“Oh yeah, who’s going to stop me?”

“Do you have to ask that question, or are you really that stupid?” she asked.

“Maybe you’re right,” He said, “I’ll give you his morning beating and catch him later. I have no problem hitting girls.”

“Okay,” she said, “Give it your best shot!”

He stepped forward and took a swing trying to punch her in the face. But before he could connect, she stepped toward him, causing him to miss and leaving him off balance. Then she nudged him with her shoulder, causing him to fall flat on his butt. He jumped up and ran at her. She quickly sidestepped him and punched him in the kidney as he went by, causing him to collapse on the ground. He got up with his fists clenched.

“That was just a warning,” she said, “if you want more, you’re welcome to try again.”

He stood there for a moment thinking about it, and then he dropped his fist. He started to raise his fists again, but suddenly his pants fell. CJ took a step forward, causing Richard to take a step back. Richard tripped over his pants, falling to the ground. He jumped up, pulling his pants up at the same time while running for the restroom. His friends ran after him. Wess and CJ walked to class and found their seats before the bell rang.

The rest of the morning went by without incident. Before Wess knew it, all of the students were flooding out of the classrooms for lunch. Wess and CJ decided to skip lunch. They waited until the halls cleared and went into the library. If they got caught in there, it would just seem like they were studying.

“What was that this morning?” Wess asked, “I mean did you use magic to do that?”

“No,” she said, “well, I did make his pants fall, but that was the only magic I used.”

“Then how did you do that?” he asked. “I didn’t know you knew how to fight!”

“I do, but that wasn’t fighting. It was just a little self-defense.”

“Where did you learn to do that?” he asked, “can you teach me?”

“It’s part of our magical training. You’ll learn it too, don’t worry!”

They didn’t talk anymore after that. Wess and CJ just sat in silence, not knowing what to say. When lunch was over, they had PE, and boys and girls had PE in separate buildings. That worried Wess a lot. Richard was also in PE this period, along with his gang of thugs. He went to the boys’ gym, expecting the worst. When he got there, he didn’t see Richard or his goons anywhere.

As the class progressed, Wess got more relaxed. Maybe it worked, he thought. It seemed like Richard was avoiding him to avoid the embarrassment from this morning. When the class was over, Wess was in a hurry to get back to CJ. He left before anyone else. As he went around the corner, he ran into someone and fell down.

“There you are, Weez, and you don’t have your mother to protect you,” Richard said.

Wess realized that they had surrounded him as he pulled himself to his feet. Panicking, he turned all the way around, looking for a weak spot where he might escape. He realized that he was trapped.

“There’s no escape for you,” Dane said.

“Shut up!” Richard said, “I’m talking here. There’s no escape for you!”

“I heard it when Dane said it,” said Wess without thinking.

Richard punched him in the face. However, before he fell, Dane and Joseph caught him by the arms and held him up. Richard punched him in the stomach hard enough to make him throw up.

“Now look what you did,” Richard said, “you got some on my shoe. Lick it off!”

Dane and Joseph started pushing his head down toward his shoe. Wess fought hard not to go all the way down. Getting tired of waiting, Richard kicked him in the face.

Richard put his foot on the back of Wess’ head, pushing his face into the puke. Wess fought as hard as he could, but everybody piled on, holding his face in his vomit. Wess couldn’t breathe and felt like he was going to pass out. In the background, Wess could hear some say, “I think that’s enough; you could kill him.”

Holding on as long as he could, he realized that he had to do something. He searched his mind for a spell that he could use. A strength spell! If he could make himself stronger, he might have a chance. Wess concentrated, forming the words in his mind. He cast the spell. Brrrrrrrrrrt. There was a long, loud fart sound followed by, “Oh, that stinks!”

“That’s nasty, Weez,” Richard said. “Now you’re really going to get it!”

He punched Wess in the back of the head, and they all pushed him down harder. He tried to think of another spell, but it was too late. Wess felt himself blacking out. At the last moment, a magic spell popped into his head. He was too far gone to know what it was. He just cast it. The next thing that he knew, everything around him went cold. It felt like a pit opened up under him, and he was falling into it. Wess just kept getting colder. The cooler it got, the more he could feel his energy coming back. No! That wasn’t his energy.

Wess stood up as everyone fell off of him. It was their energy. He tried to stop, but he couldn’t. He didn’t want to, but he felt the urge to drain their life force completely. Wess knew that it wasn’t him! He fought harder, but it was no use. Suddenly, a sense of fear swept over him, but it wasn’t his fear. He was also absorbing their fear now! As they got closer to the edge of death, Wess now knew what genuine fear was. At that moment, Wess started to cry. He wept for Richard, Dane, and Joseph. He wept for Terry, John, and Rick. But most of all, he wept for himself. What am I becoming? he thought.

Just when he thought it was too late, he felt a strange sensation. Suddenly, the spell stopped, and he could see all of the bullies on the ground convulsing. Then he saw CJ with her arms out in front of her and her eyes closed. He started getting dizzy again. Blackness began to creep in from the edge of his vision. He passed out!

The next thing he saw was CJ leaning over him. He was in a bed. Where was he? He looked around. At first, he couldn’t see much, but his vision started to clear, and the room came into focus. He was in the hospital. CJ looked at his eyes.

“Can you hear me?” she said. Her voice sounded like it came from a tunnel, but it was way too loud.

He winced before saying, “yes, but why are you talking so loud?”

“Here, drink this. It should help you feel better,” CJ said, handing him a small flask.

“I don’t drink,” he said.

“It’s a potion,” she said, “you’ll need it to counteract the evil residue from the spell you cast.”

He drank the potion. The effect was almost immediate. His vision cleared up, and everything sounded normal again. He could also feel his body warming up. He was returning to normal. Except now, he felt a deep sadness down to his soul. He knew that the spell didn’t cause this. He felt bad for Richard and his friends. After what they did to him, he thought that he would relish their pain. Why do I feel bad for them? he asked himself. Then he was aware that CJ was still there.

“What happened?” he asked, “how did I get here?”

“You passed out like the rest of them,” she said. “Luckily, they think it was a lightning strike. Someone called an ambulance, and the paramedics brought you here.”

“Am I in trouble?” he asked.

“No,” she said, “but that was dark magic! Why were you messing around with it anyway? The only thing you’ll find on that path is pain and death.”

“I didn’t mean to,” he said, “I just read a book about dark magic. I didn’t even read any of the dark spells. I don’t even know where it came from.”

After seeing the doctor and being cleared, they arrived back at the mansion a few hours later. The doctor told him to take the rest of the week off to recover. CJ decided to take the week off too. She invited Wess to walk in the garden before dinner, but he just wanted to be alone. He didn’t want to have dinner either. He just went to his room. After sitting on his bed for a while, Wess had to go to the restroom. When he came out of the bathroom, he heard something knocking at his desk.