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Author's Note:Look at me still being on schedule. This is great. I haven't been this on schedule in a long time lol. I'd like to thank djkauf for the excellent editing.~Enemyoffun.

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Chapter 4:
 

“You’re serious?”

I nodded, not the least bit surprised at the look of shock Mary was giving me. It was the same look I had given that stupid schedule list a few days ago. I couldn’t help but smile as my cousin continued to look as if she swallowed a gold fish. It was not every day that someone could surprise Mary Crawford. I waited a few moments to let it sink in before I continued our weekly Skype session.

“She’s a slave driver too,” I said, sighing heavily.

“When are these assholes going to learn that you’re not dangerous?”

That was a good question.

It took me a few days to get around to finally calling her, what with the tight schedule “Witch Bitch” had me on. Witch Bitch was Mary’s phrase not mine but I was so totally going to steal it now. It fit the overbearingly evil Magistrate Graham rather nicely. Everything about the woman made me want to pull out my hair and gouge out my eyes with number two pencils. The woman was trying to literally control every aspect of my life and she’d only been here a few days. First, it was her tight ass schedule, which I had to follow to the letter or else be punished. Her punishment: reduced time to do my own thing. The free time thing was a compromise I inked out for myself the first time she was there. Apparently, every single bit of the damn time I was supposed to be working on my magic but it was too much. So with the help of her somewhat nice Warden---Mr. Duncan---I was able to get a few hours of the day to myself.

Of course that all depended on whether I played by the strict rules.

Rule Number One: No deviation from the schedule.
Rule Number Two: No talking back.
Rule Number Three: She was in charge
Rule Number Four: When she wasn’t there, Mr. Duncan was in charge
And Rule Number Five: If I followed the rules things would go better for everyone involved.

I’m not even sure if that last one even counted as a rule. It was a more of an afterthought or something. Regardless they were all pretty stupid. I mean who in their right mind gives a teenager rules and expects them to follow them. Anyway, the first two days of Bitch Boot Camp, I followed the rules pretty well. But yesterday I couldn’t take it anymore. It was during one of her strict and pointless magic lessons that I snapped. She was trying to teach me self-control through meditation, it was supposed to help me find my center and calm my inner core. It was total bull. When I called her on it, she got snippy. I was hoping to actually learn something for once. Sure, controlling my magic was important but it was more important to know how to use it, too. The last encounter I had with someone trying to kill me I nearly got sacrificed to a demon because I didn’t know how to fight back. When I brought this little tidbit up she completely ignored me, telling me that there was no use for practical application of my craft. When I brought up Scary Sherry, she brushed that off too. It seems she was looking into it. Whatever the hell that meant.

Anyway, after failing once again to meditate properly, I lost it. I didn’t erupt in a blast of magic or anything; I just kind of erupted in anger. The outburst earned me a reduced free time on this call, which was already almost over with. It all sucked really bad. This was my house and my life, this bitch had no right to come in here and take it over. It was only Thursday too; I still had three more weeks of this crap. Yeah that’s right, three more. Mom called last night, apparently they were going to have to stay in Sacramento another week. She didn’t give a reason but it was clear that the Coven was railroading them. It pissed me off that these bastards would try to keep us apart.

“You want me to tell Grams?” asked Mary, trying to be helpful.

I shook my head. “I don’t think there’s much she can do from way over there.”

“This is bull shit,” said Mary, visibly pissed off. “Who the fuck do these people think they are, fucking with us.”

“Us?” I asked, amused for once.

“Yeah, our family. I have half a mind to hop on a fucking plane and come lay some ass kicking on that bitch.”

“I don’t think that would help either of us.”

Mary sighed and fell quiet for a moment. She leaned closer to her laptop screen. “You gotta get out of there then. Call that Felix guy; get him to fly you here. I clear it with Grams; as soon as she finds out what they’re doing, she’ll steam roll them.”

The offer was tempting but it wouldn’t really solve anything. I wasn’t going to run from my problems. Besides, I wanted to live a normal life now. Being in Ravencrest again would only complicate things. I had enough complications to worry about. No, I definitely had to stay here. Grams had helped enough and now I needed to fight my own battles.

“As cool as that sounds I think I’m going to stick it out here.”

“You’re serious.”

That was the second time in so many minutes she’d used that phrase.

“Dead serious.” I said and meant it. “This is something you can’t run from. Sure it’s a pain in the ass but a very manageable one. I might be pissed but at least people aren’t trying to kill me or something.”

“Ravencrest isn’t all that crazy.”

“Says the Witch whose best friend is a gender changed werewolf.”

Mary stuck her tongue out at me.

We talked a few minutes more after that. I wanted to know about her life seeing as I’d dominated most of the conversation already. She filled me in on everything crazy in Ravencrest. I’d been right of course, that place was nuts. I’m not going to go into all the crazy details but suffice to say nothing has changed there. After she finished filling me in on my friends, there was a knock on the door. I groaned, knowing what that was all about. My allotted free time was up and now it was bedtime. I looked toward the window, it was barely dark.

I hated this stupid schedule.

“I gotta go Mary, talk to you later.”

She sighed. “It’s getting late here anyway. Cya cuz.”

I ended the video chat just as Mr. Duncan stuck his shiny head around my door.

“Ten minutes till lights out.”

I nodded and he was gone.

I took my merry time getting ready for bed. If there was one thing that I dreaded more than the Bitch lessons, it was sleeping. The dream from the other night was sadly not a fluke. Every night since I’d had the same one or one that was very similar. It was always the same too. Me being chased by angry villagers then eventually losing it and burning them all to ashes. They were starting to freak me out too, so much so that I hated going to sleep now. I thought about telling the WB about them but I’m sure she’d say they were nothing so I did the next best thing and called Melissa. Unfortunately she was out of town on some kind of errand for her father. I called Jess about them too, but because of her busy class schedule, we kept missing one another.

I did leave a few voice mails though.

After getting into my bedclothes, I couldn’t help but take a deep breath as I laid down my head.

School the next day was murder.

Ok not literally but it sure felt like it. Once again, I had a nightmare, the same one with the fire and death. I barely got a wink of sleep because of it. Due to my constant tossing and turning, I was in a stupor for my first three classes this morning. It didn’t help that there was a pop quiz in history that I didn’t see coming. By the time lunch finally came around, I was ready to call it quits as far as the day was concerned. Thankfully our table was pretty much deserted again. Thanks to my newfound popularity, I’d become something of a social butterfly in the lunchroom. Not by choice of course. Ever since standing up to Becky twice now, people had completely forgotten I used to be the pariah.

Suddenly everyone wanted to hang with the girl who didn’t take shit.

Thankfully, today it seemed that craze was at an end.

I found Penny sitting in her usual seat, her nose stuck in a book as usual. I dropped my tray on the table loudly as I took my seat across from her. She didn’t even flinch at the hard plastic tray banging the table. She did raise an eyebrow when I dropped my head into my arms, practically ready to fall over.

“Long day?”

“Rough night” I said, sighing. “Been having this recurring freak-mare.”

“Ah, been there, done that.”

“How did you get it to go away?”

“My dad took me to see someone.”

I raised my head at that. “Seriously?”

She set down her book. “It was shortly after…well shortly after something bad happened to me. I was having these horrible nightmares because of it. Dad finally got fed up with me screaming and waking him up every night so he took me to a shrink.”

“And that worked?”

“Eventually.”

That didn’t sound too promising.

It was amazing what a couple of days had done for our friendship. Sure she was still a bit introverted but Penny was finally starting to open up to me. She wasn’t exactly spilling her guts or anything but at least she was talking. It was more than say the beginning of the week. What’s more, I actually saw her talking to other people too. Ok so Mark and Frank weren’t exactly people per se but they better than most.

“Hey ladies” said a voice as the Brothers Dim appeared.

Speak of the Devils.

Frank dropped into the seat next to me. No matter how much I tried to get rid of him, there was no stopping him. I think he figured we somehow bonded over our mutual barrage of Becky. Sure, I came to his defense but I would have come to anyone’s defense as far as that bitch was concerned. Then again he’d come to my defense first which complicated things. Then there was the whole “dating” thing. Ok, so it was a planned run together but somehow Frank got it into his thick head that the two of us were somehow an item now. Talk about seriously dense. The stupid run through the park wasn’t even supposed to happen until Sunday but already he was planning the rest of our day together.

How did this get out of hand?

“So what were you girls talking about before we rudely interrupted?”

“Parasites” said Penny, not skipping a beat. “And how to get rid of them.”

Way to go Pen.

If I didn’t know any better, I’d swear she was channeling Mary.

Mark snorted even though it was directed at both of them. Frank feigned being hurt before turning his attention toward me.

“You ready for our date this weekend?”

I groaned. “It’s not a date.”

He continued to talk as if I never spoke. He was rambling about our plans but I was hardly paying attention. I had a new target now: George. Ever since our run in together last weekend, I couldn’t help but feel there was something off about him. I know it was stupid but I found myself watching him to see if anything felt out of place. Sure he seemed like the same old asshole as before but whenever he turned in my direction he flinched. It was almost as if he remembered what happened at least subconsciously and was reacting to it. I guess it was possible that he remembered everything, what with memory spells being so fickle but usually it was the smart ones who remembered.

And George was definitely not.

There was definitely something different about him though.

Today for instance.

I watched him earlier today and he seemed fine but now as he walked into the lunchroom I couldn’t help but feel there was something different about the way he was walking. It was only a slight change but it was stiff, almost as if he hurt his back or if something was stuck up the back of his shirt. It was a stupid thing to obsess about but I couldn’t get it out of my head.

“You got a thing for Davis?”

I turned and saw Mike sitting in the seat his brother had recently vacated. I think Frank was in the bathroom or something.

“What?”

“You’ve been staring at him for a couple of minutes now, intently.”

I scoffed. “George is a punk.”

Mark shrugged. “Don’t girls like bad boys?”

“Not this girl.”

“Then what’s the deal?”

I shrugged. “Just wondering what his messed up friends see in him.”

Mark gave a look. “Oh” he said, sounding slightly disappointed. “I almost thought you noticed, too.”

“Noticed what?”

“The freaky way he’s been acting.”

“What do you mean?”

Crap, did Mark know something?

“Well he used to terrorize the hell out of me. Every morning the bastard would wait by my locker, demanding whatever cash I had and stuff. But this past week there’s been nothing. No sign of him whatsoever. Not that I’m complaining but it’s kind of creepy that’s all.”

I nodded. It was kind of creepy. Did something from the weekend mess him up, something “Scary” did to him?

Suddenly George stood up, carrying his empty tray with him. He had that stiff walk again. I watched as he deposited his tray then made his way to one of the doors. He was leaving the cafeteria. I bit my lip and made a split decision, standing quickly, startling Mark.

“I gotta go to the bathroom,” I said as if in explanation.

“And you’re telling us, why?” asked Penny, giving me a strange look.

I shrugged, not having an answer. Instead, I quickly made for the door that I saw George leave out of. Ok, Penny probably thought I was a freak now but I’d deal with that later. Right now I just needed to know where George with going. Ok so maybe I was a little bit of a freak but there was just something about his behavior that made no sense to me. It made me wonder about that time those Black Horn dudes took over Tommy. Something about the way George was acting made me think that maybe “Scary” had done the same to him. I’m not sure why she’d bother but it was the only other explanation out there. I knew George and the way he’d been acting all this week was definitely not the George that I knew. Not that there was anything wrong with new George but I just couldn’t sit by and let a bitch like whoever she is mess with him like that. Even if I did kind of find the other day somewhat amusing. Hey he did kind of have it coming.

I managed to catch up to George in the hallway. He was standing in front of a locker; I’m assuming it was his. I tried to look inconspicuous but seeing as we were the only ones in the hall, it was a little hard. So I decided to play things nonchalant. I walked slowly down the hall, passing him then stopping a few lockers down. I pretended that my shoe was untied not that he was really paying attention. As I was “tying” my shoe, I looked back at him. He had the locker open now and was taking a cell out of it. I watched with increased interest as he quickly dialed a number and started to talk. Unfortunately he was too far away for me to make out the conversation but it didn’t last long.

As he was putting the phone back and closing the door, he caught me looking. For a moment, I saw the same look he’d been giving me all week, the one of fear but then it disappeared. In its place was the same sneer that always decorated his face.

“What are you looking at freak?”

“Nothing important.”

“What the hell does that mean?”

I stood up, stretching slightly. “It means that you’re nothing to look at, dick,”

He scoffed. “Tell that to my girlfriend, you freak.”

Girlfriend? What stupid girl would ever date him?

I couldn’t help but laugh. He didn’t like that one bit. He started toward me with malice in his eyes, looking like he was about to do something dangerous. I couldn’t help but think about the knife and the look he had in his eyes then. That same look was there now. AS he got closer though, that looked started to fade and in its place was once again the look of fear he’d been giving me all week. It was as if a switch had been flicked and he was a different person all of a sudden.

This new George stopped about five feet away from me.

“What do you want from me?” he stammered.

“I don’t want anything from you,” I said, taking a step closer.

“Leave me alone,” he whimpered, tears streaming down his face.

I took another step toward him. He was trembling. I reached for him but he pushed my hand away then tripped backwards. As soon as he hit the ground, he started to back pedal away from me. It was almost as if he was terrified of me. It made no sense though. One minute he wanted to pound the hell out of me and next, he was a crying, simpering coward. What the hell was up with that? I took another step toward him then the switch was flicked again. The look on his face changed and he blinked a few times. It was during one of these blinks that I noticed it. There was something up with his eyes. I only saw it for a split second but there was something there, a quick glimmer. Whatever it was, it seemed to be what was “flicking the switch” on him.

“Freak” he said, looking up at me.

Freak, me? I think the guy needed to look in the mirror. Not that it was his fault because he was clearly being messed with. I’m not sure if it was residual from the weekend or something else entirely. I wanted to ask questions but I knew there was no way he’d answer them. So I was going to have to do the next best thing even though it was going to be painful for me to do so. I groaned at the thought, pushing my face past George as I headed back to the cafeteria.

“Are you certain of this?”

I sighed and nodded. “Yes, I’ve seen it before.”

I was sitting at the kitchen table with the WB and Mr. Duncan. As soon as I got home from school, I went right to them and told them what I discovered about George. Hey, I learned my lesson in Ravencrest. If I found something out, there was no way I was keeping it to myself anymore. It only took about a minute or two to tell them everything I’d discovered. Though by her reaction, it was clear my new “teacher” didn’t believe me. Frankly, I didn’t care if she did or not, I know what I saw. It was clear someone was messing with George and using magic to do it. She said they were going to handle “Scary” and this was definitely a part of that.

The two of them gave one another a quick look. Neither said anything for a moment. Then Mr. Duncan nodded.

“Reginald will look into it”

“You believe me?”

“You gave concrete facts and given your prior incidents, we don’t have any reason not to believe you.”

Wow, maybe she wasn’t such a bitch after all.

Mr. Duncan---aka Reginald---left the kitchen after that. I wanted to scoff at his name but that would have been rude. Hey my parents named their son Kelly so I really had nothing to laugh about. Of course, all that worked itself out but still. When he was done, I slowly got up from the table. I had some homework to get done before magic lessons started. I wasted no time as I started up toward my room. I didn’t have a lot but I was hoping I could stretch it out a bit, trying to avoid lessons as much as I could. I definitely didn’t want to spend any longer than I had too trying to meditate. When I told Mary about all that she actually laughed. Of course, as soon as she done, she actually told me it was a good idea. Meditation was actually a good way to learn how to relax. She seemed to think I needed it too, what with my powers being based around anger. I guess there was some truth in that but not enough for me to jump into it one hundred percent.

Unfortunately, homework didn’t take as long as I wanted. An hour after starting I was done. I thought about extending it just to avoid lessons but there was a knock on the door. As I was getting up to answer it, the WB stepped into the room.

“All done?”

How in the hell did she know that?

“Are you spying on me?”

She didn’t answer the question, instead her eyes drifted around the room before settling on me again. She then turned and walked out of the room, the cue that I was supposed to follow. So I did. We met one another in the family room downstairs. A couple of days ago, Mr. Duncan had shifted some of the furniture around so we had a clear space to work with. The WB also put some protection spells and wards around the room to keep me from burning the place down.

When I got there, she was standing in the middle of the room waiting.

“From our previous lessons, it’s clear that the fundamentals of control are completely lost on you. It’s not your fault, controlling our craft is one of the more difficult aspects to master. It’s also clear to me that meditation might not be the answer.”

Thank God to that.

“So” she continued. “I think we might try some breathing exercises.”

She then went on to explain how a simple breathing exercise might help me center myself better and control my anger. It actually seemed simple enough and made sense. So for the next hour or so, she instructed me on how to do it properly. This I actually didn’t screw up on. She seemed to think that if I could actually get control of my anger that I might be able to finally control the power I had within. This was not at all how I originally thought things were going to go. I was certain her strict, dictator tactics were her attempt to get me to pop. It was clear though that she might actually be trying to help me. Sure, she was still a bitch who had no idea how to handle teenagers but she was trying to help me in her own strange way.

The breathing lesson lasted another thirty minutes.

Before it came to an end, Mr. Duncan reappeared. He gestured the WB over and the two of them left the room. Of course, they wouldn’t discuss anything with me. They came back in a few minutes, both of them giving me a look and not a very good one either.

“Did you talk to George?”

“Yes”said Mr. Duncan, towering over me. “I spoke at length to Mr. Davis. Besides being a bit of a hard case, I can assure you that he is not bewitched.”

That was bull. I know what a bewitched person looks like and there was no way in hell that he wasn’t. Either Mr. Duncan was incompetent or a really good liar. Of course, what reason did he have to lie? I mean this didn’t affect me in the least; this was about George and that dark user. I started from the Warden to his witch and back again. They both seemed to be fairly good at their jobs, if a bit stiff. It blew my mind though to think that neither of them knew what they were talking about.

“Are you blind?”

Ok, that I shouldn’t have said but it annoyed me that he found nothing.

“Excuse me?” he asked, getting pissed that I questioned his judgment.

“You saw him right,” I continued. “I mean you spoke to him, actually looked him in the face?”

“Yes” he said defensively, then flashed his ring at me. “This doesn’t lie either. It’s enchanted, meaning it can detect when a spell is being used. Something like a mind control spell would react to my ring. The ring didn’t react, your friend isn’t bewitched.”

I scoffed. “He is not my friend.”

The two of them shared a look again.

“Then clearly you were wasting my time. I see where this was going. This boy wronged you in some way, broke your heart and so you thought to punish him?”

You got to be kidding me.
“Broke my heart! As if I’d ever be in love with that fucking scumbag! He pulled a goddamn knife on me, tried to kill me this weekend!”

The anger was started to build up inside of me. I could feel the tingling and my blood starting to boil. I wanted to breathe, wanted to control it but I also wanted to hurt him. How dare he accuse me of being a jilted lover and trying to punish George? How dare they not trust me? How dare they live in my house? Insects, pathetic little bugs!

Mr. Duncan’s eyes popped. He quickly stepped in front of Magistrate Graham, raising his arms. There was a flare of light and giant shield formed in his hand. My anger seethed out of me, the black flames forming in my palms. I wanted to barbeque them both, I wanted to roast them until nothing was left. I wanted to…I wanted to kill them all. Just when I was about to let go though, a warming calm fell over me. I’m not sure where it came from but it was there nonetheless. It washed over my body, forcing away the anger and the pain. Gone was my intense hatred and my need to kill. When the tingling stopped, I dropped to my knees, exhausted. I could barely move as the feeling of warmth washed over me. I saw a light and the vague outline of a figure. A man maybe but it was too hard to see.

Then a second later, there was only darkness.

Author’s note: As I’m sure all of you know, comments are life blood to an author. I’m not begging or demanding, but I certainly would appreciate anything you have to say (or ask). It doesn’t have to be long and involved, just give me your reaction to the story. Thanks in advance...EOF