Chapter 0ne
The Witch
“Come on Tristan! Let’s go!”
“I’m coming, I’m coming!” I yelled back down in an annoyed tone. My 10 year old best friend, Dean could be so impatient at times.
I threw on my favorite red jacket, with the broken zipper and dashed to my full length mirror. Normally I wouldn’t have had a full length mirror in my room but the girls at my school had begun to look so good-looking, that I had to start worrying about my looks.
I looked over my reflection. I was about as tall as a four year old sapling. I was wearing white sneakers, which were covered with dirt, slightly baggy jeans, a black t-shirt, and my red jacket over top. I looked at my face. People say I look older than my ten years of age. I have straight, white teeth, an oval face, and cloudy blue eyes. I reached up with a smooth hand and tousled my brownish-blonde hair. It was messy and spiked in all directions, just the way I liked it, though it drove my mom crazy.
“Tristan!!!” Dean screamed up the stairs again.
“I told you I’m coming!” I yelled back.
I turned to my right and ran out of my room and down the tan, carpeted stairs.
Dean was waiting for me impatiently at the bottom. I looked over his skinny, but well-formed body. He was an inch shorter than me. With his piercing green eyes, pale lips and soft, thick, brown hair that shined in the sunlight, he was an attraction to many girls.
“’Bout time you’re done,” he snarled, crossing his arms.
I glared at him and we headed through the kitchen and out the back door leading into the woods.
Dean is adventurous and he always drags me along for the ride. What can I say, he’s my best friend. Just yesterday he decided that we were going to go exploring in the woods behind my house. So after receiving permission from my parents I told him I would meet him the next morning.
We stepped out side into a damp, warm morning. It was
mid- summer, June 25 to be exact, a Thursday.
We walked through the woods for about a half hour, stopping to gaze at anything interesting, when we heard a crack close by.
“Maybe it’s a deer!” whispered Dean quietly. “Be really quiet, Tristan.” He lightly ran and stood behind a tree, peering around its trunk. I came and stood beside him.
We waited for about thirty seconds when she came.
It was not a deer but a purely beautiful woman. She was white. No, truly, she had extraordinarily pale skin and long white hair that reached her thighs. She wore a silver band that twisted around her forehead and her white dress dragged the ground, though never got dirty. She walked gracefully, barefoot.
“That’s no deer,” gasped Dean.
The woman must have heard him, because she turned towards us and said in a sweet, melodic voice, “who’s there?”
Dean started to step out from our hiding place, but I
grabbed his arm. There was something about this woman. She seemed to have this glow about her. It made me uncomfortable.
Dean, without even speaking a word or looking at me, shook off my grip and stepped out from behind our hiding place.
“It’s just me, Dean Roland, and my best friend, Tristan Winters, ma’am.” Dean said in a polite tone. He motioned for me to join him, but I shook my head and stayed hidden. “We live a mile from here.” Why did he give a complete stranger our names? It was like he was under some kind of trance.
The woman looked confused. “I am Yorna, You are very kind, but I should be leaving.”
“Why don’t you come to stay at my place?” offered Dean, he look desperate for her to accept his offer. Why did he think she needed a place to stay? She looked perfectly fine to me.
“No, I must be going.” replied Yorna. She started to walk away.
When Dean started to talk again, trying to convince her in his trance. The woman seemed to grow angry. She whipped around and started chanting. “By the light you are created, but all you are is darkness. You cannot be heard and cannot be harmed, but you can be everything but thoughtless.”
When she started chanting, I figured out what she was. This made me want to run, but I stayed frozen in place. The best I could do was close my eyes tight. I only opened them when the chanting stopped. I stepped out from behind the tree and saw, to my relief, that the witch was gone, but so was Dean.
Chapter Two
The Shadow
“Dean! DEAN!!!” I screamed for all my worth, but there was no answer. I had to face it, Dean was gone. If only I hadn’t closed my eyes, then I would have known what that woman did to him. Now I knew I had no choice. There was only one person who would know what happened to Dean, Krista.
Krista was my 14 year old sister. I rarely talked to her because all she usually talked about was witches and fairies and mystical stuff like that. She was obsessed with that stuff. That’s basically all she had in her room, she refused anything else. She was homeschooled, so she usually finished her school, and studied these dusty, old books for the rest of the day. But right now, I was glad that she knew all about to the fantasy world, because now, she was the only one who could help me.
I ran to my house and made it within 10 minutes. Without a pause I threw open the back door and ran up the stairs. I turned the corner and ran to end of the hallway and knocked on Krista’s black door.
“What!” barked an annoyed voice from inside.
“Krista…” I leaned over and gasped for breathe.\ “I need…your help…Dean….in the woods…a witch…” with my mention of a witch Krista opened her door. It was the first time I had brought up the subject, every time she started about something like witches or fairies, I walked away. So you had to admit she was curious.
I looked at her skinny, five foot, five inches tall body, with lanky arms and long legs. She was wearing tight jeans and a plane red tee. She had amazingly straight auburn hair and dark shining blues eyes. Her dark pink lips stood out on her pale face. She had a long but soft face, which right now clearly showed her curiosity.
She leaned against her doorway and waited for me to catch my breath.
“What?” she repeated, much softer this time.
“I went with Dean into the woods and we met this beautiful woman, a witch, she was pure white.”
Krista walked over to the shelf above her bed, where all her books on witches were. She left the door open, so I took it as a sign to enter. I stepped in and closed it behind me.
Krista was already sitting on her bed, flipping through the pages of a large book. “Pure white,” she muttered to herself.
I waited impatiently until she finally found what she was looking for.
“Here it is,” she declared.
I walked over and sat down next to her, leaning over to see the page. There she was, the witch.
“That’s her.” I said, nodding. I read the title: The White Witch.
Krista scanned the page, and then said, “It says here that she is an evil witch that lures people, especially men, with her beauty. There’s a spell here.” She said, squinting and bringing the book closer to her face.
I had a feeling I knew what this spell was. “By the light you are created, but all you are is darkness. You cannot be heard and cannot be harmed but you are everything but thoughtless.” The spell was fresh in my mind.
Krista looked up at me and said, “That’s it. How did you…”
“It’s the spell the White Witch was chanting before Dean disappeared.” I told her, cutting her off.
“It’s the Shadow Spell,” she confirmed, before I could ask.
“What does it do?” I asked.
“The White witch uses it to turn people into shadows and if their not turned back before the night of the new moon, they stay that way forever and she has complete control over them. They become her slaves.”
I stared at her in shock. “You mean Dean’s a shadow?” she nodded. I got up and walked over to her fairy calendar and ran my finger across it stopping on the 27th. “The new moon is in two days!” I said in shock. Wait if Dean’s a shadow, maybe he’s here!
I looked on the ground until my eyes came in contact with a shadow of a boy waving at me.
Chapter Three
The Search begins
“So how do I get him back?” I asked Krista, as I watched Dean slip silently on to the bed. “And if I am a boy too, why was only Dean drawn to her?”
“You have to go and receive enough power from the Fairy Queen in order to use this counter spell,” she replied, looking at Dean too, obviously knowing he was there. “And as too why you weren’t drawn in by the witch, I don’t know. I think you might have an immunity to her or something, really rare.”
“How do I find this, Fairy Queen? And what do I have to do to get the power form her?” I asked. I was surprised at how much trust I was placing in my sister.
“Bring her a gift and she might give you enough power to use the counter spell,” replied Krista.
“What am I supposed to bring a fairy queen?” I asked.
“This.” She handed me a stone.
“O.K. I’ll take your word for it.” I said taking the stone.
Krista rolled her eyes. “It has magical properties.”
“So where does the Fairy Queen live?” I asked, ignoring her last comment.
“She lives in Portland.”
“But Portland is 50 miles away!” I yelled.
“Were lucky that it’s that close, because you have no choice but to walk.” said Krista calmly.
“Why,” I moaned.
“You could ride your bike. But I don’t have drivers license and mom and dad won’t be back from their vacation until Sunday.”
“You better get going, here’s a map.” She said handing me the map.
I nodded and turned to leave.
“Tristan,” I turned my head to look at Krista. “Be careful.”
She was smiling. I nodded again. That was the closest she had ever come to saying she loved me.
* * *
“How much further?” I moaned. I had been riding my bike for six hours, going slower than usual in the blazing heat and being slightly out of shape. Now, I was sitting under the shade of a tree, 10 miles out side of St. Helen.
I was prepared for this unreasonable 90 degree weather. Six bottles of frozen water that had melted into ice cool relief. Two lunches, 50 dollars, and a cell phone that Krista gave me incase I needed her. All in a backpack, laying on my bike besides me.
“Dean,” I said soaking in the coolness of the shade, “since when did all this magic stuff become real?” I looked over at the shadow as he shrugged.
I moaned as I got up. “Let’s get going.”
I started walking my bike, to tired to ride it and about an hour later I was passing a sign saying, 28 miles to Portland.
Chapter Four
The Fairy Queen
By about 6:30 I had made it to Portland. It had cooled to about 75 degrees so it was easier to walk.
I found a bench about a forth of mile in town and sat down. I flipped open the Nokia cell and dialed Krista’s number.
“Hello? Tristan? Did you make it to Portland?” There was excitement and worry in her voice.
“I’m fine,” I said, answering her unasked question. “Except for the sunburns on my arms and back. I forgot the sunscreen.”
She laughed.
“So how do I find the Fairy Queen?” I asked, getting straight to the point.
“Um…” I listened to her flip through some pages. “She’s the manager of the Baynard Apartments. It’s on Fifth Street, on the south end of town.”
“Alright, bye,” and I hung up.
I stood and made my way through the city passing many large buildings.
Portland was a very busy place and occasionally got lost but about an hour later I was finally standing in front of the Baynard Apartments. It was 30 floors tall and made of red brick. I walked inside and found that is was a luxury apartment.
I walked up to the front desk and asked to see the manager.
“Do you have an appointment?” the woman asked in an annoyed, tired voice.
“No, but I have a gift for her,” I replied.
“Fine,” she said regretfully and gave me directions to the managers to the office.
I rode the elevator to the top floor alone with Dean.
“I hate elevator music” I told Dean.
He nodded and the shadow seemed to shake as if laughing.
“We will get you back. You can count on it.” Some reason I felt a need to say this.
Dean nodded again. It was really boring talking with a shadow.
The elevator finally pulled to a stop that made me dizzy. I stepped out and made my way to the manager’s office, with Dean tagging close behind.
I stopped at the door marked MANAGER and knocked.
“Come in,” replied a stern but sweet voice.
I opened the door slowly and stepped in.
“Yes?” asked a woman at a cluttered desk. She was beautiful with navy blue eyes and skin that was neither tanned nor pale. Her hair was the base of her beauty. It was long, straight, black and shone in the office light.
“Are you the Fairy Queen?” I asked, cautiously.
“How did you know?”
I took that as a yes.
“You see, my friend was turned into a shadow by the White Witch. So, I just need enough power from you so I can turn him back,” I told her.
“If I give you the power you need what will I receive in return?”
“Will this be enough?” I pulled out the stone and held it out to her.
She took it and turned it in her hand. “Yes, this will be enough, but for only that one spell.”
“Um, could I maybe get a ride home?”
“You walked?” it was more of a statement than a question.
“Not quite, I rode my bike,” I replied in a polite voice.
“How old are you and your friend?” she questioned.
“I’m 10 and so is Dean,” I answered.
“So young. She usually goes for the older mortals.” The Fairy Queen muttered to herself.
“The ride?” I repeated.
“I’m sorry, but your gift was only enough for the magic.”
The Fairy Queen stood up and walked over to me. She wore a black button up shirt and bell-bottom sweats.
That’s backwards. I thought. The evil witch is pure white while the good Fairy Queen wears black.
Once the woman reached me she stroked my fore head and both my cheeks. “There. Now you have enough power to perform the spell you need.”
“What?” I asked in shock. “But I don’t feel any different,”
This made her laugh. “Look at your arms.”
I did as she said and found that my sunburns were healed, a sign that I had received some power.
“Thank you very much,” I told her than left.
Chapter Five
Failure
I had been riding for a few hours, occasionally walking, and was halfway there, when a truck pulled up beside me.
“Hello! I’m Gerald, I work for the Queen, she asked me to give you a ride home. Sorry it took so long to . You must be a special young boy because she usually doesn’t change her mind once she’s made a decision.” A man in the driver’s seat leaned out while he spoke to me.
I nodded; there was something about this cheery guy that allowed me to trust him.
He dropped me off at the end of the dirt road I lived on, after the silent, hour long ride and than disappeared.
I entered through the kitchen door, and checked the clock; it was almost two in the morning.
I trudged wearily up the stairs; Krista must have heard me coming because she came shooting out of her room.
“Tristan!!” Krista yelled excitedly as she caught me when I lost my balance. “Your back!!!!”
“Yep,” I answered.
She followed me to my room and stood in my doorway as I plopped onto the bed
“Have Dean’s parents noticed he’s gone yet,?” I questioned.
“No. How could you forget? They went with our parents so Dean was staying with us for the weekend.” Krista scoffed.
“Duh!” I said sitting up and hitting my forehead.
“Why don’t you sleep. You’ll mess up the counter spell with how tired you are,” She watched me take her advice then left to her own room.
* * *
When I woke up the next morning, the sun was shining from the wrong direction, but I didn’t notice. I stood up, stretched, then walked over to Krista’s room and knocked.
“Come in,” came her voice.
I stepped in.
“Finally you’re awake!” she said.
“What do you mean by finally” I mocked her tone.
“It’s almost sunset!”
“Sunset!! Why didn’t you wake me!” I cried in shock.
“I was busy deciphering the counter spell!” she snapped, then muttered to herself, “Boy, when boys sleep, they sleep and are impossible to wake.”
“Well, I got the amount of power needed , now what do I do?” I said, walking over to her bed, not really caring any more why she didn’t wake me. We needed to get Dean back.
“Well, first off, we need Dean,” Krista noted.
I looked around the ground and sure enough the shadow boy was nowhere to be found.
“Dean!!” I screamed, getting impatient.
I watched as a shadow sleeked into the room.
I sighed, annoyed.
“Now, all you have to do is read this,” my sister handed me a piece of paper.
I took the paper and started reading.
“From the darkness you are created, but all you are is light.
Rise up now in mortal flesh, and take a new chance to fight.” Mid way through the counter spell the last rays of the sun began to disappear and I sped up my reading gtrying not to slur my words. I finished and looked up, the night of the new moon had begun and I had failed.
* * *
I had shut myself up in my room to grieve for the rest of the night, when a knock at the door made me jump.
“Go away!” I shouted through my tears.
The door opened anyway. “Tristan, why’d ya ditch me?” came a familiar voice.
I turned around and immediately jumped up. “DEAN!!!” I screamed.
“That’s my name. And yours is Tristan,” he said calmly, ignoring my excitement and stepping in. “You ditched me and made me walk all the way here in the dark.”
“Don’t you remember anything?” I asked, curious.
“Put it this way,” he looked straight at me. “The Queen and the White Witch are the most beautiful women we will ever see.”
We laughed and sat down on my bed.
I hadn’t failed. I had saved my friend from an eternal life of darkness and hopefully we would never see that evil witch again.
But perhaps if something like this did happen again, I would be ready, I would learn from Krista, everything she knew. We would be ready, me, her and Dean, to fight any dark mystics that came our way.
