30 Witchcraft

After the short laugh, they shared Monke took a seat on the sofa and just stared at Joao. They didn't say anything to each other for a while and Joao was getting shaky from the inside, he barely ever smiled but today he tried to force a smile.

A lot of thoughts bounced around in his head and most of them were assumptions.

'What brought him here? Did Monty snitch on me? Am I going to get punished, and why did that weird?" As he thought and thought he suddenly remembered a girl telling him something from his first meeting with Tumi.

In all honesty, this was something that was supposed to be reported as soon as he caught wind of it. Life happened and he never got the chance to tell Monke anything, even so, Monke would've not taken it seriously but it was urgent.

He then again thought about Po, and so he quickly tried to turn around and look for his phone. Monke caught him and placed his giant hand on his face, tilting it towards him. Joao reddened and his heart raced, Monke still a somewhat furious look on his face. His hand wasn't at all there to restrict Joao's movement but he still felt its strength as he tried to turn away from his gaze.

"Don't you have something to say to me?" Monke finally uttered as if it was a way to stop him from trying to run away from him.

Joao sighed and calmed himself down a little if Monke was seeking an explanation from him then it must be about the garage incident. "I didn't mean to do it, it was just that,"

"Good," Monke interfered. "Get dressed and go out with me?"

"Why?" Joao felt let down by this response, but he was able to gain enough energy to toss aside Monke's hand.

"You said you wanted to get stronger, didn't you? I know that since you're new to this you probably aren't aware that training is an everyday thing."

Joao sighed and slouched back on the couch, 'why do I even bother?' He thought to himself as he let his eyes close for a second. "How come you rarely ever train?"

"I don't have reason to do it."

"Do you want to train with me then?"

Silence… Joao opened his eyes to check on Monke and found the guy awkwardly looking around the living and pulling the teddy bears into his grip to keep his hands busy.

"What do you want?"

"So last night this morning two families got into an all-out shoot out and then the police intervened. Then there was a black flash out of nowhere like bshwaa! And when the lights came on there was no one there, the police shot for a few more seconds but no. Nothing, no one." Monke rarely ever raised his voice, he also didn't this time. Although his tone subtle and contained he was still visibly excited.

"And what does that have to do with me?"

"Well, they took down the video and claimed that they were hacked and it was a fake. But everyone in class was talking about it, some guy has a cousin working for one of the gangs involved and he said one of them had a spell caster."

"A witch."

"It could be a man."

"What matters is that your thinking is stupid, even if was true the cameras would have been cut after the darkness consumed them." Joao got and stretched as he talked.

"Are you going to look for your pc?"

"Of course I am, if I don't prove you wrong you'll never let me rest." He looked over to Monke and smiled briefly before going away.

Monke leaned back on the couch and eyed the lifeless living room that reminded him of his own. But unlike his which was filled with portraits and paintings, this one had musical instruments and bad pictures everywhere. It ranged from golden records to old wooden guitars. The weirdest thing Joao had was drumsticks of various types and sizes almost next to every instrument.

He flung himself over the couch and continued observing, it was a big house, but it wasn't at all empty. Everything you laid your eyes on made you think, right next to the wooden piano Joao had a statue. Monke followed it up and noticed that the room had two more floors.

From his angle though, it was hard to see what was on the other floors. Despite Joao's love for technology, his apartment was left in the past. Apart from the front door, all other things Monke noticed were not electrical, that or it was disguised.

That's when Monke thought to himself that Joao might also be a wizard trying his hardest to blend in. That would explain all of his vigilance, no normal person was as worried as Joao when it comes to having people around him showing interest in him.

"What are you looking for?" Joao said as he came down the stairs on the side of the front door. "Stop staring at me like that."

"Walk faster then, we still have to go out you know?" Monke raised his right arm and protested in the most bored way possible.

"I am not going to run in the house, don't you see all the priceless artifacts?" Joao humphed as if he was going to walk even slower but did the opposite. He looked up last night's news feed and couldn't find the clip.

After that, he did a follow up on the hacking claim and found that someone was arrested this morning confirming such claims. He hesitated a bit, wondering if it would be wise to hack the government just to prove Monke wrong.

"Just do it." Monke urged him on. Joao put up a well-informed protest but he ended up losing to Monke's illiterate persistence. But there was no way Joao wasn't going to hack the government with his pc. He put it down and they left the house to look for a computer.