Escape the Woods

They shoved us into the cabin, slammed the door, and locked it. I heard the click of three chain locks outside. No way to get out by picking the lock now. It was pitch black inside, and I couldn’t see anything except for some faint outlines. It was nighttime, and the moonlight shining through the barred windows provided the most light.
Drew slammed her foot into the door, but it remained perfectly intact.
I heard them laugh, then shuffle away after a while.
“I’m scaaaared!!” Zoey whined. “It’s daaark!”
“Shut up,” Drew snapped, “let’s find a light switch. David, do you still have your flashlight?”
“I did, but he took my backpack,” he said glumly. “My books were in there,” he muttered.
“I’m scared!” Zoey shrieked.
Drew groaned. “Okay Zoey, just sit down on the floor and close your eyes okay? Pretend you’re in your room meditating or something We need to find a light switch.”
“Okay,” I heard her sit down on the floor.
The rest of us groped along the walls, but couldn’t find any light switches, there was a lot of wall to cover.
I stopped and closed me eyes for ten seconds, then opened them. It didn’t help much, but it helped nonetheless.
I could make out a bed, and table next to a nightstand. I walked slowly towards the bed. I could see something shiny under it.
I discovered that it wasn’t a lamp, but a book. I couldn’t see anything, let alone what the book said, so I went over to the barred windows to read it. It was total gibberish. It was written in another language, but it didn’t even look like any language I’ve ever seen. That wasn’t saying much though, since I don’t bother taking the time to learn to recognize which language is which.
I knew David, Drew, and Zoey didn’t know any language except English and French, but I asked them anyway, maybe David would at least know what language it was.
They crowded around me and peered at the book, squinting at it because of the small amount of light.
Drew rolled her eyes, “It’s English.”
“Uh, no it isn’t,” I said.
“That’s obviously not English,” Zoey agreed.
“That’s not any language I know,” David added.
“No, it’s clearly English,” Drew stared at us like we were the stupidest idiots in the world. “It says ‘Spellbook’.”
“I’m not falling for that,” I said.
“I’m not kidding Logan, that’s what it says!”
“How can you read that?”
“Because it’s English!” She looked and sounded highly irritated.
“Okay fine,” I said. I opened the book and looked at the first page. It looked like a table of contents.
“It’s the table of contents,” Drew said. “Give me that.” She took the book and started flipping.
“It’s full of spells,” she told us. She stopped at one page. It had some weird comic about a girl at a beach.

“Dihelio?”

she said it like a question.
Dihelio
Immediately light flooded through the window. We all turned behind us and saw the sun, blazing right next to the moon.
“But…” David looked completely flabbergasted, well, everyone did, “that’s not possible.”
“That was a spell,” Drew said, she was as amazed as we were, “make two suns. The comic shows two suns right beside each other, but I guess using this spell could also make another sun whereever we want it to be.”
“How come only you can read it?”
“How will am I supposed to know that?” She went back to the book. She flipped through a few, “Hey, this one’s cool.”
She held the book away from her a little and said,

“Centceph.”

Centecph
Zoey, David, and I screamed so loud we were probably heard in China.
Instead of one head, Drew had about a hundred heads. All blinking and grinning at the same time.
“Wow,” all the heads said. It sounded like a crowd of people, “your scream is very high pitched.”
Zoey fainted.
David stared in horror at Drew while I just stood there with my jaw hanging open.
“Um,” David said nervously, like her heads were going to chew his head off if he said the wrong thing, “can you…turn back to normal?”
“Monoceph.”
All the heads disappeared except one, leaving her back to normal.
“Ooh this one’s cool,

Polypub”

Polypub
She split into seven identicle copies of her, almost like the other hundred heads spell.
They looked at each other, “Awesome!”
David shook Zoey back to consciousness.
“Okay Drew, stop. Is there anything useful in there?” I asked.
Drew changed back to normal. “Hm,” she went to the table of contents, then flipped to a page.
“Hurry!” Zoey burst into tears the moment she regained consciousness. “They’re burning us!!!”
I thought maybe she was hallucinating, but then I turned to look at what she and David were looking at, and saw that the flames were burning the wall behind us.

“Mobilmacro,”

Drew said quickly.
Mobilmacro
She ran over to the door and pushed with one hand, the other still holding the book.
We heard a loud ripping noise, and the entire door fell down. The chain locks and the hinges had broken completely off, and the deadbolt lock had torn a hole in the wooden wall.
Drew grinned at the wreckage she had caused, “Wicked!”
“That was a bit loud,” David said.
“Pff who cares,” she said, “we have a bunch of awesome spells. Look there’s even one that can control time! It’s very complicated though.” She read a bit more, “And it’s extremely hard to do.”
We ran a bit farther from the burning cabin. Drew found another spell,

“Benescope.”

Benescope
“Whoa!” she looked around.
“What?” Zoey asked.
“I can see everything!” Suddenly she shrieked, “Ah!”

“Petrpopu!”

she yelled.
Petrpopu
I heard something heavy fall somewhere in front of us, maybe ten metres away.
“What was that?” Zoey asked nervously.
“A person,” Drew answered. She scanned the trees around us, “I don’t see anyone else…”
“I hear something,” David whispered.
“I hear you talking,” Drew whispered back.
“No, that’s not what I—”
“I know what you meant, now stop talking,” she said back.

“Inmem!”

Inmem
she shouted. She was pointing at some trees beside us.
A man burst out of the trees, yelling something incoherent as he charged toward us, then stopped and looked confused.

“Zoanthro!”

Zoantro
We stared as he began staggering around with a rabbit’s head for a head. He then dropped to the ground and chewed at the grass.
“Wow,” Drew said, “this book is awesome.”
“Is there anyone out there still?” Zoey asked.
“No, not that I can see.”
David pointed to the right, “If we walk that way for twenty minutes or so, we’ll probably make it back to camp…if I’m not mistaken.”
“Hm, I guess we go that way then,” I said. We trudged that way for a while.
Drew read the spellbook as she walked, “Ooh, this one’s cool,

Decachrom!”

Decachrom

Decachrom


A tree next to us burst into a rainbow of colours
“Why would they lock us in that cabin?” Zoey asked as we walked . “And who are they?”
“You think I would know?” Drew asked. Then she added, “They seemed to really hate me.”
“Not surprising,” I said, “you’re really easy to hate.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” she demanded.
“It means what you think it means,” I answered.
“Stop it!” David ordered. “We have bigger problems. Look!”
Two more men were coming at us.
Drew acted quickly,

“Oligmania.”

Oligmania
The screeched to a stop and started doing the tango while making chicken impersonations, which looked very strange.
“Can I try a spell?” Zoey asked.
“Sure.”
“Uh, I only remember the hundred head one, um…centceph.”
Nothing happened. She looked a bit relieved that nothing did.
David and I tried as well, but our efforts were proved futile.
“Wait,” David said suddenly, “who’s that?”
A woman holding a chopstick was walking towards them. She didn’t look threatening, but of course, looks can be deceiving.
“I have a spellbook!” Drew threatened, “I can make you turn into a frog! With huge and ugly warts!” she added.
“Oh, there’s no need for that,” she smiled. “I was the one who put that spellbook under the bed.”
Drew blinked, “You serious?”
“Yes, I am. I am a witch you see. You are one as well. You can read the Fantasian language, you can do magic while you’re friends cannot. You are a witch.”
“They’re not my friends,” she said quickly. “So why were those crazy lunatics after us?”
“After you to be exact. They hate our kind, burning us is kind of their hobby. You’re acquaintances were caught in this mess by accident, since they were with you, they thought that they were like you, wizards and witches. Those crazy lunatics are magicians, very different from us wizards and witches. They are an entirely different branch of magic. You are special, because you do not need a wand to cast spells. That means you are Extraordinary, with a capital ‘E’. You are the Extraordinary Witch, the first in decades. I am merely an Ordinary Witch. You with a wand, will be very, very powerful.”
“Wow,” Drew said, “cool.”
“But with great power, comes a great price. Magicians will constantly me tracking you, trying to get rid of you. Your friends and family as well.” She gave Drew a sad look, “You will never be safe from harm.”

My Life As A Magical Delinquent

“Protomono,” I uttered. It was the spell that would ensure that I would be the first one in line.
Protomono
I confidently took my place at the back of the lengthy line to the check-in for the hotel. After a while, someone called, “You can line up here too!”
I didn’t even have to move fast, I got to the front desk before anyone else.
“How may I help you?” the woman asked. She wore glasses, and her hair was swirled in such a tight bun, it gave the impression that her hair would be pulled out of her scalp.
“Pseudocred,” I told her, “My name is uh, Caitlyn Kate, I’m over 20 and I would like to check-in please.” In truth, my name was actually Drew Hill, I’m 15, and Caitlyn is one of my cousin’s names.
Pseudocred
“All right,” she typed some stuff on a computer then said, “I am sorry, but there are no one-person suites open at the moment.”
“Oh great,” I murmured, “when is there going to be one open?”
She peered at the computer screen, “In an hour or so, but we already have twenty one people reserved for one-suite rooms.”
“Oh,” I said, “how about the double suite rooms? Are there any rooms available?”
“I’m sorry, no,” she gave me an apologetic smile. Ugh, why are you people smiling so much?
To make sure I said, “Veridict,” then, “are you sure?”
Veridict
“Yes,” she said, “I’m sure.”
I considered either breaking into a random room in the hotel, or just break into another house or hotel.
Houses had more useful things, and less security, so I chose the houses.
I went towards the neighborhood, I saw some yellow patches in the grass. Bored, I said, “Bioflor.” Where I went near, the grass turned greener and flowers bloomed. I grinned in spite of myself.
Bioflor
I put my hand over my mouth, “Neohydro.” Water squirted out of my hand straight into my mouth. I wiped my mouth on my sleeve.
Neohydro
I spotted a police car. Instinctively, I said, “Velomega” I turned a bit taller than I was.
Velomega
The police car passed by, then I heard the sound of a car stopping. I disguised looking as sitting down on a nearby bench. I looked at the car through the corner of my eye.
A police officer was coming out, walking not towards me, but to the hotel.
“Benescope,” I muttered.
Benescope
I looked through the window, thanks to my good sight, I could see him talking to the woman at the front desk. Then he pulled out a piece of paper and showed it to her.
At once, I stood up and began strolling away, I knew that that paper must be my mug shot or something.
I had only escaped less than 24 hours ago, so it wasn’t a surprise that the fuzz were looking for me. I had even seen myself on television.
“Are you that escapee from that juvenile prison place?” someone accused.
I whirled around to see a guy around 16 with disheveled dark hair with nerdy glasses, holding hands with another girl. The girl was looking at me a bit apologetically, and the guy glared at me.
How did he know that? I’m wearing sunglasses for goodness sake!
“No…” I said, “what are you talking about? Was there a prison break?”
“Yeah, there was,” the boy said. “You look a lot like the girl who escaped. Same hair, nose, mouth, eyes,” he stared at my face. He must be looking really closely to be able to see through my shades.
The girl rolled her eyes, “You’re an idiot Noah, you can’t just go accusing her of being a fugitive, just leave her alone.” She turned and walked away.
“Alright! Wait!” he turned to me, “I’m watching you…”
Noah turned back around. Suddenly he whirled around again and smacked my sunglasses straight off my nose.
“AHA!” he cried triumphantly, “You look exactly like that girl!” He dug into his pockets and took out a crumpled piece of paper. It was a news article about me.
“Found it on the floor,” he said smugly.
“Are all you New Yorkers this rude?” I snapped. I picked up my sunglasses and put them back on, “I’m leaving. Good day.”
I turned and fast walked away.
“HEY! STOP!” he yelled.
“Ughh…” I’m really getting tired of this guy, “Teletrans”.
Teletrans
I reappeared in an alley near the building. I leaned against the wall and listened to what he was saying.
“Sammy, it’s her! I know it is! Her face is exactly the same!”
“Noah you know—” Sammy started.
“No really! I’m sure! A hundred percent sure!”
“Alright, but if you’re wrong I swear—”
“I’m not! She teleported away!She teleported! Didn’t you see?”
“Well yeah, but—”
“You know how in the news they keep saying her escape was like magic! There were no holes, no broken windows, and none of the other kids there knew how she did it, just that strange things happen around her!”
That was it, I sneaked up behind them, “Inmem.”
Inmem
Sammy suddenly froze, then scratched her head, “What’s happening?”
Noah stared at me with a horrified expression, “What…what did you do?”
“Erased her recent memories,” I said.
“But…you can’t do that!”
“Sure I can, and you’ll get a worse fate than her.”
“What?”
“Don’t worry, this isn’t permanent,” I said. “Inmem, Petrpopu,”.
Petrpopu
I strolled away as he slowly turned to stone.
“There she is!” someone yelled.
I whipped around, policemen.
Oh God, I took off running, then muttered, “Polypub.” Immediately five more identicle copies of me took off in other directions.
Polypub
I reached a front yard. I looked at the dark windows, newspapers were everywhere, and I couldn’t hear any sound coming from the inside.
“Teletrans!” I teleported right inside, in front of the front door.
I peeked out the window, no policemen in sight.
I slid down the door with relief.
Some barking got my attention.
Bracing for the worst, I turned and saw a dog.
He growled at me, then got ready to pounce.