Ch. 67: First Phase
CHAPTER SIXTY-SEVEN
Ally~
It was five minutes until the full moon was at its highest. And I was already in pain. I was wearing the orange pendant, like my grandmother told me. But unlike anything I imagined in my mind growing up, rather than being whisked off in air like Princess Fiona in Shrek making a transformation, this was painful. My mom felt terrible. She had told me about hers, but from what she remembered it was no more painful than some period cramps. We knew mine would be different with my level of power being higher according to grandma, but yikes.
“Oh Al-,” my mom said sadly at my side, “I feel so helpless, I’m sorry. Keep breathing through it, you’re nearly there. I’m going to bake you the most giant bundt cake when this is over.”
I laughed and winced. Mom handed me a pillow and I squeezed into it as the next wave built.
“I’m taking you up on that,” I said quickly, out of breath from biting back a scream.
Two minutes to the full moon full height and the pendant started to glow. Heat came from it and I felt like I burned my chest. My mom lifted it for me and sure enough there was a tiny scar where it had zapped me. She started to take it off when I stopped her. My grandma was very specific about this.
One minute. The pendant glowed brighter and suddenly we heard her voice.
“My angels, it’s time,” he voice said from the pendant.
My mom had tears in her eyes. From watching me in pain and perhaps from hearing her mom’s voice. The pain built and built and I squeezed my mom’s hands while she chanted a small healing spell. It cooled me a little and the kindness from that gesture filled me with love for my family as my head was flung back.
I was overwhelmed with it all and could feel heat all over. And then, like someone had doused my whole body with a fire extinguisher, my vision had gone dark. I next found myself on the floor next to my mom, blinking furiously, trying to regain my vision.
“Ally?” my mom asked me and I squeezed her hand briefly to let her know I could hear her.
She helped me sit up and I got my bearings.
Ally, Angel, I’m here, my grandma’s voice said.
I whirled to my mom but she didn’t seem to have heard anything.
“Did you hear her?” I asked my mom.
“Yes, when you were glowing! She told us it was time,” my mom confirmed with misty tears in her eyes.
“But not just now?” I asked her as she helped me up off the ground.
Ally, this part is just for you, my grandma said.
My mom shook her head and creased her brow in thought, “It’s the pendant right?”
Always a smart one, my Hope, my grandma said, apparently in my mind.
“Grandma says you’re right, she said you were ‘always a smart one’,” I told mom, making her tear up.
After having a small discussion with my grandma, my mom and I rested by the fireplace. The house had long ago been decorated for Christmas. We were a pretty Christmas-crazy family of two. We had started by getting our tree the day before Thanksgiving. Mom and I talked a little more about my experience, and I tried out the two working spells we did have. They both worked for me this time. Which was something. We talked about what we thought was next, and started looking at old spells we had written down that hadn’t worked before. Still no luck. The family grimoire is supposed to ‘find me,’ whatever that means. Maybe when it did I would finally be able to help Rachel and Kyle. In the meantime, my mom was ordering us both to bed.
I woke up in a sweat a few hours later. I had a crazy dream. It felt so realistic. Vance was there, and he was watching Rachel sleep. He was… he looked like and felt like he was absorbing something. I mean, in all honesty, he looked like he was… getting off on it? The realization of that made me want to gag. Seriously, what was that?
I held onto the pendant and channeled my grandma. I asked her about what I had seen and she told me she had a few ideas of what it could’ve been but she wasn’t all knowing, and she hadn’t seen it through my eyes. She did say however, that everything that it could be, well - they were all quite dangerous. Nothing like comfort from your grandma to guarantee a good night’s rest.
Rachel~
Sean drove me out to the tidepools in a nearby town. It was a sweet midweek date idea, really. He brought along a picnic like he had done in the past and I really loved how simple and sweet he could be. We were sitting on a blanket on the beach when I spotted something in the water.
“Oh, Sean, look!” I yelled pointing out some tall rocks and something popping its head out of the water there.
“Oh cool, it’s a seal!” He clarified for me, “Keep an eye out, they're usually hanging out in groups.”
“They’re so darn cute! There’s two more,” I said, spying a few of them now.
“Just like someone else I know,” he said, leaning in.
Our lips met briefly, and I felt the usual ‘zap’ between us. I pulled away first and found myself for a split second seeing someone else in front of me. But the image didn’t last long enough for me to remember anything but deep, warm, brown eyes.
I shook my head trying to clear my vision and thoughts, and felt a pang of sadness. This empty, dark feeling. Like grief. I looked out to the ocean and blinked away these tears that started to build up behind my eyes. I found my gaze drifting to the mountains surrounding the coast, and wondered what was up there.
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