Awaken (11 page)

“You mean there are more of them?” Colin’s voice dropped and he sank into the sofa.

“Oh, yes. A lot more.”

“Wait! Hold up a sec! I am still trying to understand this world travel thingy,” said Meghan.

Jae explained again.

“There are doorways to other worlds, other realms, dimensions, realities… whatever you want to call it. You simply need the right key to open the door.”

“I believe it!” exclaimed Colin. “It is just like all the books I read.”

“It is all very real,” said Jae, morosely. “We travel between worlds to survive. Always trying to stay ahead of the hunters, but never seeming to be able to do so.”

“Can’t you just hunt and kill them, instead?” asked Meghan, still perplexed.

“We tried. So far, though, we have not found a way to kill them, only to injure, temporarily.”

“So if I get this all straight,” sighed Meghan, trying to make sense of everything she had witnessed and heard that night. “You are Gypsies, with real magical powers, that travel between worlds, realities or whatever you want to call them, trying to escape those Scratchers, who hunt 93

you, constantly, but you cannot kill them, or outrun them for long?”

“That about sums up what I can tell you safely,” said Jae.

“And somehow, Colin purchased a book that also turns out to be magical in some way, and on the very day we would need it the most,” she added.

“That mystifies me just as much as it does you two,” noted Jae. “As I said, I have never seen a book like that before.”

Silence overtook the threesome again and for a long time the only sound was the crackling of the fire. Jae was the first to break the silence.

“Even though it went awry, thanks for trying to warn us.

I think what you have told me might be useful, if I can get back to my caravan.”

“Can you rejoin them then? Do you know which world they moved on to?” asked Colin.

“Yes, I can get back to them. But not until the end of the month, you see, the door only opens at certain times and as you have seen, it does not stay open long.” Colin lost himself in thought for a moment.

“The blue moon,” he then blurted out. “It opens again on the second full moon, doesn’t it?”

Jae grinned in impressed surprise.

“Good guess.”

“My brother watches a lot of Sci-Fi Channel,” Meghan said, as an excuse for her brother’s geeky brain.

“I’ve heard of that, never seen it, though,” Jae said.

Colin could have easily gotten them off subject discussing his favorite shows, followed by movies, and then books, so Meghan kept hold of the conversation.

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“So basically, this means you have to stay here by yourself for an entire month. I am sorry, Jae. It is completely our fault. We thought you were in trouble.”

“It can’t be helped now, besides, maybe the information you gave me will help us better our fight. Still, I have never been away from my family before. We train for these situations, but it is the first time someone has not made it through in time.”

Colin decided it was time to get back to the twins’

original question.

“How do you do all this?” he asked, waving his arm and pointing to the inside of the wagon. “And who are you?” Jae sat quietly, as if struggling with an answer.

“The best way I can answer is to take you back to the beginning. When this world began, ages and ages ago, it was a magical world. Everyone knew of and practiced magic. The short version of the story is that there was a war; one that lasted many years. You could probably guess over what.”

“Power?” assumed Colin. “It’s the reason for nearly any war.”

“And this war was no different. By the end of it, nearly every living person had been stripped of their magical powers. There were survivors though, and they banded together, hoping to better their chances of fixing what had gone wrong.

“Over time though, people forgot about magic and when it showed itself, they started to fear it. The survivors became outcasts, travelers trying to stay hidden from a world that no longer accepted them. They became the Svoda Gypsies, my ancestors.”

“Wow!” said Meghan. “This is… a lot to take in.” 95

“It’s a lot even for me,” added Colin. “I have always hoped real magic existed, but never dreamt it actually did.”

“Welcome to the real world,” Jae sighed. “It is not a pretty one, but yes, it is very much real.”

“Oh crap!” Meghan suddenly blurted out. “Colin, do you realize what time it is?”

“You don’t think Uncle Arnon is up yet, do you?”

“No, but we had better not take any chances. If he wakes up and finds out we are not in bed…”

“We are grounded for the rest of our lives!” Colin finished, already getting up to depart.

“Look. It is kind of our fault that you are stuck here, Jae.

Whatever you need, we will do our best to help, until the second moon,” insisted Meghan.

“Absolutely!” added Colin in agreement. “Will you be safe here, in the wagon alone?”

“I am fine here. Once you two leave, I will make the wagon vanish again. No one from the camp will even know I am still here. It’s just one month. As long as the Scratchers stay away, I’m golden!” he smiled, wistfully.

“We will come back and check on you tomorrow then,” advised Meghan, as they departed the wagon. Colin waved goodbye and as they stepped onto the ground, the wagon dissolved into nothing, vanishing before their weary eyes.

The twins tiptoed their way home. Thankfully, Uncle Arnon’s snoring told them he had not awakened during their absence. They covered up the secret escape hatch on the floor. Colin put Magicante on the bookshelf and the twins climbed into bed. Both were exhausted, and yet found they could not sleep.

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Giving up, Colin sat up, leaning on his elbows. “Sis,” he sent wearily, sensing she was also still awake.

“Yeah, Col.”

“If I had to wager, I would bet that these last few days did not actually happen.”

“I thought we had already figured that out, when you pinched me and I punched you, and we were both wide awake.”

“I know, I know, but magic. I can’t believe it’s real. Even crazier though is that I got this book today,” he said, stroking the cover as it sat on the shelf. “Maybe I was meant to buy it, so we could help Jae?”

“I am not sure we helped anything. We got him stuck here,” argued Meghan.

“Jae did not seem overly worried. His family must be though.” As the twins lay back down, sleep finally came.

Visions of dark shadows and bright lights filled their dreams.

Colin awoke three different times, believing for sure that he had heard Scratchers in the distance. Meghan reassured him that this time, she thought for certain it was just an owl, and begged him to go back to sleep. After the third time she yelled into his mind, “We have to get up soon enough as it is, Col, go back to sleep already!”

‘Soon enough’ did come too early for the twins. In the blink of an eye, the smell of brewing coffee infiltrated the trailer. The twins, as tired as they may have been, were eager to see Jae.

“How are we going to work out the Sebastien factor?” asked Colin. “Can we tell him? I hate the idea of lying to him.”

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Meghan had not thought about Sebastien. So much had occurred since they had seen him the evening before.

“I guess we will have to feel it out, plus, I don’t think it’s our decision to make, its Jae’s.”

“I suppose you’re right. We should come up with a story as to why Jae is here. Adults are bound to be suspicious…”

“And ask questions,” Meghan finished his thought. “And he cannot stay hidden in the wagon for the entire month.” She then looked directly at Colin with her warning face.

“You better not blow this, Colin! Make something up!

Lie! We cannot tell Uncle Arnon or Sebastien, at least not for now.”

“Why do you always think I will be the one to ruin everything?” he spat back.

“Because, Colin Jacoby, you have never successfully told a lie in your entire life! You always give yourself away.”

“I can’t help it. I’m not a professional liar like you!” Meghan gasped, and then sighed. Yes, she told a few fibs here and there, but it had saved her hide along with Colin’s on numerous occasions. She hid her thoughts from him, embarrassed that she felt mortified by what he had said. I only lie when I have no other choice. Don’t I?

Meghan decided to ignore him and sauntered into the kitchen to make breakfast. They hurried to eat and get dressed. Colin even helped Meghan clean up, without her ordering him to. Once they were ready to leave the trailer, their uncle, while still sitting at the kitchen table reading the newspaper, said, without even moving his eyes from what he was reading,

“Hope you two had a good time last night. You realize you are both grounded, right?”

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5

To the twins’ bewilderment, Uncle Arnon did not question where they had been the previous night. He did however, find ways to keep them annoyingly busy over the next few days, and did not allow them out of his sight.

They desperately wanted to visit Jae and whenever they could, they stole glances next door, in hopes he would give them a sign, indicating he was still safe.

Colin mentioned nervously, at least ten times during their punishment, that at least there had been no sign of the Scratchers.

Sebastien visited daily, under strict guidelines. They had to be either in the trailer or within sight of the trailer, and always, within Uncle Arnon’s view.

When Sebastien found out that the twins had been grounded, he was at first hurt, that they had gone on some crazy adventure without him. Meghan was quick to point out that then he, too, would be in trouble. This smoothed things over, for now. He did try, repeatedly, to get the twins to explain what they had snuck out to do. Their luck held though, and they never found the need to come up with a false story, as their uncle continually had himself within earshot. Sebastien knew they would not talk about it in front of him.

During the evening on the fourth day of their torturous punishment, Sebastien arrived, toting goody bags full of sugary treats. He emptied it out on the kitchen table and 99

all their faces hungrily drooled over the pile. There were whoopee pies, crème horns, devil dogs, maple sugar candy, bismarks, and three different kinds of fudge.

After gorging themselves into sickness, Uncle Arnon, chuckling lightly, announced they were no longer grounded. Meghan and Colin assumed that their sickly faces, green from the over abundance of junk food, combined with all the work he had made them do, was finally sufficient.

It could also have had to do with the fact that someone needed Uncle Arnon, the handyman, on the other side of the camp, or that he was just sick of being stuck at the trailer watching the grounded twins.

Regardless, in just minutes, the twins could finally check on Jae Mochrie.

“Only one problem,” sent Colin to his sister.

“I can’t ask Sebastien to leave. Maybe one of us could go and the other stay here?”

“Okay, but which of us does what? And how will the other make an excuse to leave?” They did not mind allowing this problem to stew for a while longer, being that their sugar-filled, rumbling bellies greatly discouraged them from moving.

Sebastien solved their dilemma by stretching and yawning, over-dramatically.

“I think I’ll go now. Maybe hit the hay early tonight.

Now that you are not grounded anymore, we can hang tomorrow.”

“Are you sure?” Meghan questioned their easy luck.

Colin wondered if Sebastien had somehow read their minds. Meghan caught onto his thought.

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“NOT!” she yelled back silently, aghast at the thought.

Aloud, she said, “It’s still early Sebastien.”

“Are you nuts, we want him to leave, don’t we?” shouted Colin in her head.

“That does not mean we should act like it,” she said.

Sebastien’s eyes darted between them, realizing they had been speaking without him being able to hear, again.

“Why don’t you guys tell me what is going on?” interrogated Sebastien. He stood with his arms folded, waiting.

“Say something,” urged Colin.

“Why me? What should I say? Can I just tell him?” Sebastien shook his head and left the trailer.

“Wait,” shouted Meghan, running after him.

“I realize that being grounded and stuck in the trailer that you could not tell me what’s going on. However, your uncle is gone, and you still don’t want to tell me. And then you sit there and have your private conversations with each other, forgetting that I’m even here!” He turned to leave but Meghan grasped his arm, stopping him.

“Wait a second!” she pleaded. She had never seen Sebastien so angry. He stopped, waiting for her to speak.

Meghan stumbled for the right thing to say.

“I. Well. I mean. We are not talking about you. You understand that, right?”

“I didn’t actually think you were,” he said dryly. “But that’s not the point.”

“What is the point, then?” asked Colin.

“The point is, you are always doing it, even when you think no one is paying attention. You leave everyone out of your conversations.”

The twins finally realized that he felt left out.

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“What if we promise to try really hard not to do it?” squeaked Meghan. Sebastien was their oldest friend; they certainly did not want to jeopardize that.

“Usually, it’s not so bad. This summer though, seems you two have a lot going on up there.”

The twins were stuck. Did they admit Jae’s story to keep their friend? Their only alternative was to lie, and hope he forgave them if he found out.

“Lying is starting to get too complicated,” Meghan quickly sent to Colin. Maybe we should just tell him?” She did her best to pretend she was paying attention to Sebastien as she said it.

“I don’t see how we are going to get through the next month without telling him,” Colin shot back.

Meghan took lead.

“Sebastien, there is a good explanation. If you would,” she paused, her eyes grazing Jae’s hidden camp. “I think the best way to explain is to follow us.” Colin cringed with uncertainty. What if Jae was not home, or did not answer. Sebastien would think they had gone mad. Moreover, they were just as unsure about how upset Jae would be, since they had not visited, after promising to help him.