Sunday 24 April 2011

Random piece - Witch Way Round? - part 7

Town was only five minutes walk from our house if you had long legs... so it always took me nearly ten to get there. Walking into town with Lee was like being four years old and walking with a grown up - I actually had to hold his hand most of the time just to remind him that I couldn't keep up. Probably drove him crazy, but he never really complained - just occasionally looked at me in that way that says "haven't your legs grown yet?"

Normally those extra five minutes aren't a problem. You can always be five minutes late anyway - people will wait that long without getting too impatient. With Lee you could be as late as you liked - if he would wait a minute, he'd wait an hour for you; if he wouldn't wait a minute for you... well, best be early. Lee would wait forever for me, thought not without getting worried; I always had a longer grace period than anyone else with him - though I'd never really worked out why. Guess it was because we'd been such good friends for such a long time... or maybe he just knew that I was always late, so didn't take offence to it.
But the fact that he'd sounded strange on the phone kept me practically jogging all the way there.
I really need to take up running I thought to myself as I slowed down enough to catch my breath back. Four minutes of jogging and I was already running out of breath. Not good at the best of times, so when you're pretty sure you may have to run to save your ass it's really bad.

I kept going over the conversation in my head. What was it that had made me nervous?
The main thing that had gotten me was his tone of voice. It was as if there was something he really wanted to say but wasn't doing. Not to mention he hadn't asked me to meet him after work in a long time... though in his defence that was probably more my fault than his.
Had I just been stressed over the psi balls and he'd heard the strain in my voice? That could have set him off. The abrupt 'bye' could have been because I'd sounded like I really wanted to get off the phone, couldn't it?

So why was my stomach still in turmoil?

Over the past few months I've learnt to trust my instincts.
Your instincts are basically your subconscious processing everything at super high speed and letting you know if something's wrong or not. Sometimes it's wrong - after all, it's working at top speed not in detail; but a lot of the time it's right.
Add to that the fact that magic enhances your senses, letting you practically smell danger, and your instincts are probably the best thing you have going for you.
Tanya and some of the others in Circle White Dawn liked to act all mystical; "I sense that we should not hold the circle tonight..." blah blah blah - they call it premonitions, but they aren't actually psychic. You ask what they see and they just say "Misfortune".
That, to me, is instinct. Premonition is where you full on know what's going to happen.
Lee and I had both had experiences of 'seeing' the future. Nothing big or impressive, but still - that's premonition. That's magic. Not sensing something is wrong.

Right now my senses weren't telling me anything. Doodly squat.
There didn't seem to be anything wrong at all in town. I couldn't even feel the normal amount of power flow through the crowd as normal.
A large majority of people have what we call magic in them. It's just that a lot of people prefer to ignore it and carry on with their lives as if the supernatural just doesn't exist. No, like it couldn't exist. Most people would actually freak out if they realised what they were capable of; them in their little every-day-lives being able to control the weather, or create a ball of light between their hands.
We leave them alone, let them be blissful in their ignorance. But you can still feel it. Little pin pricks of warmth or cool through out crowds where people are more or less 'gifted' (Tanya's words). Today either I wasn't paying enough attention with that extra 'sense' of mine, or there were just no 'special' people in a crowd of 500+ people.
I'd think it were fine, but my gut was clenching as if I were about to need a toilet - fast.
At least I can't feel any bad-guys around here. They'd stick out like sore thumbs
Then it hit me. What if the bad guys were here? What if they were damping my senses; or worse, what if they were damping the magic around this area?
I'd heard of spells that could be set up that totally deadened peoples powers. They could be specific or have a blanket effect on everyone who passed through the area it was dedicated to. In either case there was always a space limit to them. Like a bubble of 'safe' space that is created during treatise between witches. No one can cast, so theoretically everyone is safe.
It's also effective if you intend on stabbing, shooting or kidnapping a witch.

I didn't like any of these theories.
I don't like having part of me dampened down by someone else.

Paranoid? Me?... a little.

I'd slowed enough to totally catch my breath now, and was walking calmly through the busy street towards our favourite café.
Little Jim's is a tiny blue coffee shop that sells the best sandwiches for miles (unless you count Subway - but they're expensive). If you knew Jim, he'd sometimes shove some chips on in his own little fryer back in his kitchen. If not, he couldn't be bothered.
Jim's a nice guy - a little lazy, a little abrasive to new customers - but he's a laugh, and we've been coming here for years now. He knows us by name and age - a rarity for him he says... but I'm pretty sure he knows everyone in his shop's date of birth, national insurance number, bank details... okay, maybe that's an exaggeration.

Today there's a group of people that I've never seen before.
Two tall guys and a nicely shaped young woman who I was instantly jealous of. Her hair came to her waist in gentle curls of gold and silver, her dress was tailored over perfect breasts and a small waist, showing lovely long, tanned legs beneath. She was stood by the counter, smiling up at Jim. The two men, both rather well tanned themselves, and just as attractive as the woman, were in shirts and shorts - like every other man I'd seen today. A bit of sun, and it becomes a uniform, I swear!
One had dark brown hair to just below his ears, the blue of his shirt made me think he'd have blue eyes - there was something too coordinated about his appearance that made me assume he'd colour coordinate with his iris's. He reminded me of Kali in that way. The other man was about an inch or two shorter, with very short red hair. Not ginger, bright red - as if it had been died that colour. It matched the red lines in his black shorts, and contrasted a little too much with his green shirt for my liking.

No one else was paying these exotic strangers any notice - apart from Jim of course. I wondered if I would have noticed if it weren't for a familiar face among the two men, smiling and chatting away. Lee's black hair was gelled into place, but had this tendency to move like normal hair. Kind of like those kids you see whose hair just sticks up in random directions - only this was more tamed.
My instant thought was that they were his work mates... but I still proceeded with caution.
After the week I'd been having, anyone would approach strangers with caution. Heck, I was proud of myself for leaving the house without a bullet proof vest and hard hat.

There was a second where I was tempted to run. That little hot wave of fear swept over me, pushing me towards the door like a gale force wind. But I didn't move. I didn't run - because even if this were about to go wrong, I couldn't leave Lee.
And how much of an idiot would I look if I ran away from his work mates?
That thought alone plastered a smile on my face and got me walking confidently towards the group.

"Hey Lee!" I called in my indoor voice.

His head turned and a smile washed over him. It was as if the smile started from his hair line and moved downwards, pulling the smile out of him like a brush of happiness sweeping over his face.

"Lilly!" He stepped around the two men and hugged me.
I hugged back, and it felt good. We hadn't hugged in public since this whole thing started. I felt like lifting him up and spinning round - but I refrained. After all, the old lady sat at the table by my hip probably wouldn't have been happy about it.

It was a surprise to realise he was clamping down on his aura again. I frowned at him questioningly as we let go of each other. He flicked his eyes behind him to the strangers in answer.
Why did Lee think he had to hold back so much around these people? They didn't seem...
I focused for a second, and there it was. That little flick of something that you could find in someone no matter what if they were a trained witch. It took a lot of focus though, and I realised these people weren't trying to hide it.
There was a damping spell then.

The woman turned to me and smiled. It was the sort of smile that would take your breath away - especially if it had the full force behind it that I could tell normally went with it. There was still an echo of it there in her eyes.
Lee was looking at me in concern.

"What's wrong?" He asked, noticing my tension.

"Nothing." I said and smiled up at him. He frowned, and I could tell he was frowning at himself now - his eyes not focused on me - as if he'd made some faux pas.

He hesitated a second, then "I ordered your usual, Jim's being cheeky today though - says the chips'll take a while. I... figured that'd be okay?" He wasn't so sure any more.He did well though, not darting a look at the people behind him or searching my face too hard. It was as if he'd read in my mind "Play it cool..."
Either that or I was taking this all wrong - as usual - and he just wanted to be polite. Not nice to make assumptions about people's food.

"Yeah! Of course!" My voice was bright, and a little too close to fake to escape his notice.
Or so I thought.
He smiled and turned back to the group who were now finished ordering.

"Shall we take that booth at the back? It's got the comfiest seats." Lee grinned, gesturing to the booth farthest from everyone else, with a good view of the door. I was glad he'd picked that one.

"Lead the way." The brunette man had a nice voice. Smooth, warm and persuasive. He gestured for Lee and I to go first.
This was both blessing and curse. We would get to choose the seats that faced the door so I could take up my paranoid position looking at the door. However, it meant walking with them at our back. I just didn't feel up to trusting these people just yet - but I also didn't want to make things awkward for Lee, who was already stepping forwards happily, my hand in his.
We'd fallen back into the habit of staying in contact because we couldn't feel each other again.

I tried not to hesitate, and fell into step slightly behind Lee so that we fit down the aisle easier without bumping peoples tables or chairs. The three of them fell into step behind me, the woman closest and the brunette bringing up the rear. I got the feeling she took charge most of the time; but maybe that was just Tanya's influence. She seemed to think women were supposed to lead and men supposed to follow - maybe it was starting to rub off on me; or maybe I just clumped women together that made me uncomfortable.
None of them had done anything yet that should make me uncomfortable.
If my time with Circle White Dawn had been any different I might have brushed away the feeling.
But like I say, I trust my instincts.

We sat at the booth, Lee scooting across the bench seat so that I was by the aisle. Our backs to the far walls, the door in my peripheral vision, I felt a little safer as we watched the three of them slide gracefully behind their side of the table.
Smiles all around. But it was time to break this.

"So, Lee... who are your friends?" I asked casually, resting an arm on the table and turning slightly so my question was directed at him while I kept everything in sight.

There was a slight tension in his hand, but he didn't seem as shocked as I would have expected. I was expecting shock, surprise, disbelief - or a simple 'These are my mates from A&E'. Instead his hand tightened in my below the table and he shrugged languorously, relaxing back into the seat.

"They said they were friends of yours. I agreed to invite you here for a nice surprise lunch with them." His voice was just as casual as mine had been, though there was an edge of distaste to it.

Part of me wanted to scream at him "And you agreed?!" but we'd have that discussion later.
I kept my face pleasantly surprised.
Oh, I hadn't even thought they were anything other than your friends...honest...
It explained why he'd clamped down on his aura though. He'd sensed they were witches and assumed they were from my circle. Since we'd agreed not to reveal anything to my circle yet he'd automatically hidden his power deep inside.
I squeezed his hand.
"Really?" I said out loud "How interesting."

I looked across the table waiting for an explanation.
Their faces betrayed their surprise. Clearly they'd been expecting more confusion.  A round of "You mean they aren't your friends?" They weren't used to people telling the truth, especially if they thought they'd made a mistake. Most people will try and push the blame off on someone else instead of risk looking stupid.
I was rather proud of Lee for making the connection soon enough to not betray that he hadn't known all along. He wasn't normally a good actor, but he'd taken his cue from me.
We hadn't done this since we were kids. We'd be doing something we shouldn't and one of us would realise we were about to be caught. There had never been those moments of "Oh come on, you were doing it a minute ago" or "Why'd you stop?" - we'd always just stopped with the other person and started the innocent act.
Apparently we hadn't lost the knack of reading each other.

"My name is Hannah" The woman said with a smile when she realised that Lee wasn't going to introduce them "This is Alex" she gestured to the red haired man to her right "And this is Cairn" she placed her hand on the brunette man's forearm where it rested on the table. The gesture gave me the impression of intimacy. Both men nodded as greeting when their names were made known.  I smiled at each in turn. The way they sat made me realise that though Hannah was their spokesperson for today, she wasn't in charge. They were all of equal rank. Maybe they thought a girl should do the talking to keep us calm and feeling safe.

Lee nodded without realising it, confirming to me at least that these were the names they had given him. He didn't like being lied to; neither did I. Unfortunately I expected it, he didn't.
Working at a hospital where everyone has to tell the truth in order to be treated made you expect honesty more than working with witches who hide things constantly and work in untruths more often than truths.

Hannah glanced at Lee, uncertain of what she should and shouldn't say in front of him.
I realised that they hadn't told Lee what they were. He knew, but they weren't aware of it.
She hesitated then placed her hands together in her lap and looked at me.
"We just want to talk."

I was getting tired of them holding back. Maybe if I showed my hand they'd do the same.

"Hence the Treatise Enchantment. Though most treatise aren't conducted through the leverage of a hostage." My voice was steady, but a little firmer than it had been. I felt my eyes narrow, the threat hanging there. If they wanted a peaceful talk they had broken the universal rule of bringing someone they thought was leverage into the equation.
Then again, you weren't supposed to start peace talks without letting the other people know that's what you're doing.
The three of them glanced at each other, and I felt Lee grip my hand slightly tighter. I wasn't sure whether he'd just worked out what was going on, or whether he was irritated at being called a hostage.
We both felt the prickle of their energy though, and I was pretty sure they felt the first tingling of our fear.

We're in trouble...

--------------------------------------------------- Part 8

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