THE CHARM

Samantha

I had to go back and find Allen. I didn't know what had happened, but something was very wrong. I couldn't believe my sister told her daughter to attack me. And why would Samirah leave? The last thing Donna told me to do was to look after her daughter. I had to find Samirah. I wasn't sure if this was just a game because she couldn't cope with her mother passing, or maybe she thought I would give her up eventually. Whatever the case, I needed to find her soon. Emotional children with magic is a complete nightmare.

Allen's place wasn't far from here, maybe a 20 minute walk. I decided to hail a taxi from the street. I didn't have any money on me, but I had faith in my looks. I could dope a guy into giving me a free ride. I didn't need magic for this.

I stood by the street, waiting for some cars to pass by, and I got a bad feeling. Like paranoia. I starting looking over my shoulder a little, even though I knew the park was empty. My magic may have been gone, but I still felt connections to it and the magical world, just like someone might feel phantom pains in missing limbs.

For some odd reason, I felt like I was in danger.

My heartbeat sped up without my control. I got a little sweaty and twitchy. It was making me nervous. By the time someone did slow down to offer me a ride, I was too suspicious to get into it. "No thanks, I was waiting on someone." I lied to a person who asked if I needed help.

"Alright, but it'll be dark soon, so be careful out here." he said as he pulled off, with his children eyeing me awkwardly from the backseat. The man had his children in the car, and here I am about to have a panic attack. I needed to focus and get back to Allen's place. I decided to walk.

The strange sensation didn't leave me after I started to walk. If anything, it increased. I started walking a little faster, and the bugs were no help. Mosquitoes attaching themselves to my arms and flies buzzing around my ear. This is why I hated the summertime. They were such a nuisance that I went from walking to jogging. As I jogged, I started thinking about what could be causing this fear. Why did it feel like someone was coming after me?

I stopped for a break at a gas station, went inside, and used the restroom. I grabbed a Gatorade, a bag of chips and some jolly ranchers because I knew some guy would offer to pay for it. After one did, I thanked him and quickly went outside.

Paranoid thoughts filled my head, and I started to think that the guy that paid for the stuff might come after me and ask for a favor.

"Hey, lady! Excuse me!" I overreacted. I took off running from the store, heading straight for the street. Then, there was a flash of purple light behind me, and I was tackled as soon as I made it across the street.

"What the hell are you running from?" asked Allen.

He rolled off of me and helped. "Oh my god, finally." I hugged him tight. "Samirah is out of control. She-"

"Hold on," he put his hand up and closed his eyes. "We have a bigger problem."

At first I didn't understand it, but then I realized. My feeling of danger didn't stop after he appeared. I was still in trouble.

"What are you doing to her? Where did you come from?!" screamed the man that paid for my food. Allen turned towards him, with a bored look in his eye.

"I know you heard me." the man demanded. "Let her go."

He grabbed Allen's shoulder. Hard.

Allen's body grew hot. Extremely hot. "Allen," I whispered. "Don't do anything you'd regret."

The man's eyes glowed yellow, and he froze.

"Fine. Let's go." Allen moved away from the man, who stayed petrified. "I have to get you out of here."

Allen

In a flash of grey, we were back in my place. I had to explain what was happening, and quickly. She had something to tell me about Samirah, so I let her go first.

"Where is she? What happened?"

"Samirah ran away from me at the park."

"What did you do?"

"Nothing! Everything was going fine. One minute she was playing with some kids and the next minute she disappears, the kids disappear, and shadows fly across the park."

"Did you talk to her? Maybe you offended her or hurt her feelings."

Samantha rubbed the sides of her head.

"She saw a puppy, and she asked if she could get one."

I gave her confused look. "So you lost your niece because you wouldn't give her a dog?" I asked.

"No! Shut up and listen. I told her she could use magic to create one, but she knows that magic is why my sister is gone. She knows that it's hurt our family for generations. Then, I told her that magic isn't all bad, and that our family was only hurt because all we did was use magic."

I was listening, but I closed my eyes for a second, and had a vision. The vampire, Elijah, was leading a horde​ of creatures to our location. I saw dozens of them that weren't even in the bar that night, so Elijah must have called in other creatures that had been wronged by Samantha. Oddly, there were werewolves and vampires working in tandem, and lots of other creatures that I couldn't differentiate. A few of them even reminded me of Barron.

"Sam, could you hurry, I have to tell you something that might be slightly more important."

If she still had her magic I would've been turned to ash

"Well excuse me!" She snapped. "What's more important than my niece missing?!"

I took a deep breath, and waited a second.

"I may have accidentally sent a bunch of monsters out to kill you."

She swung hard with her left hand and slapped me.

"How?" She screamed. "Why?"

I explained about my search for Jacob, and how, when I went back to the bar, everyone told me about her.

She listened closely, the expression on her face switching from anger to guilt.

I stopped talking, and waited for her to respond.

"Well?" I demanded. "Say something. Did you feel any remorse for all the people you've gotten killed? Did you think that spell you put on me would last forever? My eyes are opened, and now I can truly see what type of person you are."

She didn't say a word. "I only came to help you because I was afraid Samirah could get hurt in the midst of all the chaos. Now I see that even she doesn't want anything to do with you."

Her eyes started to water.

"I'm still going after Jacob. I'll probably go to Danielle's house and ask her to help me. Maybe Marissa will too."

I turned, and slowly walked to the door. I could've just teleported out of there, but I still had something to say. I just didn't know how to say it.

When I reached the door, I turned the knob, and stopped. "I... I guess I'll keep an eye out for Samirah. Is there anything, anything, that seems significant enough that will help us?"

She tried to speak, but her voice sounded kind of raspy. She cleared her throat and said, "You remember the necklace, the one we were searching for?"

"Of course I do."

"It's gone. But I don't think Samirah took it. I checked my pockets, and I found this." She pulled out an unusual looking charm bracelet. "I took this from my room before I burned it down."

I walked back towards her to get a closer look at the bracelet.

"Why did you keep it?" I asked her.

"Because, after I got my powers, I used this to watch Donna, to make sure she didn't harm other kids with her powers.

"Was that really necessary?"

Sam laughed. "You should've seen her back then.

"Okay, if the necklace is gone, and you have this bracelet, that must mean that the necklace wasn't the only genuine thing in the house. This bracelet was."

She stared at it in disbelief. "No, that's not possible. I charmed this so I could look after Donna. I used magic on this, so there's no way this is genuine."

"Then how did it survive?" I asked her.

"I don't know." She responded.

I gave her a minute to think, and then I asked politely to see it myself.

I peaked at the little mirror on the charm bracelet, and saw a little blue glow reflecting off of it.

"What's this?" I asked her.

She nearly snatched it out of my hands. "This was only supposed to show me Donna's location, that's how this is supposed to work!" she exclaimed. "Maybe Donna is still alive, somehow. Maybe Samirah ran back to her!"

I didn't want to hurt her feelings, but this made no sense to me. I saw when the house exploded. Samantha was actually inside it when it happened. How could she believe her sister survived when she watched her die with her own eyes?

I took a second to come up with a better theory.

"Maybe... maybe when you charmed the bracelet, you were tracking your sister's magic, and not her. I think... This could show Samirah's location, since Donna gave her powers to her before the house exploded."

I watched her face carefully, because I wasn't sure how well she would react to it, but she took it better than I thought she would.

"Yeah," she murmured, her eyes fixated on the bracelet. "That makes more sense."

"If I'm right," I continued, "This means we are able to track her. After we get rid of the mob, are you going to go after her?"

"Give me your hand." she commanded.

"Um, okay."

I held out my palm, and she dropped the bracelet into it. She started murmuring something, and pointed her index finger towards the bracelet. There was a little popping sound, and a small blast of light was so bright it almost blinded me. When the light subsided, There was a mirror hovering over my hand. It was transparent, and besides showing my face, it did nothing.

"Why'd you that?" I asked. "Wait, no. How'd you do that, if you gave me your powers?"

"Allen, I wasn't born with powers. My powers manifested because my family had gained them by doing lots of things, some good, and some bad. I trained and taught myself. If I did it once, I can do it again."

"How long will it take you?" I asked.

She smiled. "It won't take long at all."

We were interrupted by a loud crashing sound downstairs.

I looked at the door, then back at Sam.

"Crap, we took too long."

She looked scared.

"What should we do?"

"Simple, I'll teleport and get us out of here."

I pulled her in close to me and closed my eyes.

I tried to imagine the bar, but nothing happened. I tried to imagine the park, my college, the bunker, but nothing seemed to work.

"Sam, what's happening to me?"

She pulled back away from me, aware that the magic wasn't working. "It's some type of anti magic field. They've sounded surrounded the house, I can sense it."

We heard shouts and screaming from downstairs. I even started hearing things being thrown, and glass breaking. I guess those bastards forgot I said that Sam was in MY house.

I heard crackles of electricity, and the power went out. I popped my knuckles. "It's a good thing I still have claws." I let my wolf side take over, and I creeped out the room.