After School

When he returns us to school, everything is the same as when the world started to blur. The same people, heading in the same direction, talking about the same thing as before I left.

It feels weird, especially since nobody seems to notice that I had left the school for some time. I begin to wonder if everything I know is fake. Two people disappear from a crowd for some minutes and no one notices. I almost can't believe I was once like these people, unable to truly see what is happening around me.

I hardly pay attention in class as everything that has happened to me recently makes my head spin in circles. Magic, the Fasuru, the Laen, Drew, and his friends, and the strange man, Tahku, but mostly the Metorium. From the way they talk about it, it doesn't seem to be a small place, but I can't think of any place in the city capable of hiding a large group of magicians. As a result, I can't help but wonder what it will look like.

At lunchtime I eat alone. Drew didn't come to the cafeteria at all. I wonder if he feels as awkward around me as I do around him.

Cassandra waves at me as she passes by my table. I wave back absent-mindedly before my mind returns to the issue of Drew.

He had said there are only three reasons for me being able to see the Fasuru. First, someone in my family may be able to use magic. At first, I had thought it might be my father, it had made sense until he mentioned the other two reasons. Second, someone had made me able to see them. This just didn't seem likely. Then lastly, my potential for magic was so high that it overcame my next-to-useless core and forcefully absorbed magic before I unintentionally used it to open my eyes.

Even though he said I would be unable to repeat the feat, I can't help but want to try it on my own. If it works, then doesn't that mean I have basically become a magician.

Recalling everything I have learned about magic from books and TV, I close my eyes and focus, trying to feel the magic around me. Drew had said I absorbed the magic, that can only mean magic is everywhere right? Now all I need to do is focus and absorb. After a few more self-encouraging talks, I begin to try to feel the magic.

After a couple of seconds of squeezing my eyes shut, I finally realize the futility of it all. I feel nothing, absolutely nothing. Drew was right, I doubt this is something I can consciously replicate.

I open my eyes and look up, only to find Arthur, who is sitting on the other side of the cafeteria, looking at me weirdly. Probably wondering if I'm crazy, I think to myself. At least that's what any normal person would think, seeing me sitting there with my eyes shut for no damn reason.

Some part of me unconsciously tries again to absorb magic as I wonder what Arthur would look like if I look at him through magic-filtered lenses.

This time something unexpected happens. I feel something. It happens too fast for me to fully understand what I was feeling, if I wasn't paying attention I would not have noticed it.

I blink and the world around me changes. Colors seem brighter and more pronounced, there are even colors I have not seen before, and pervading everywhere is a strange shifting multicolored mist. But none of these attract my attention. My eyes are fixed on Arthur. Only it's not Arthur anymore.

A strange dark presence hides him from the world. It is unstable, flickering in and out of sight. Sometimes so thick it is the only thing I can see, other times so thin it is barely there, but never truly gone.

All of a sudden I feel like the thing is watching me intently. The feeling is so strong it renders me breathless. Fear begins to take root in my mind.

I blink again, and everything returns to normal, the only difference is this time, Arthur is looking at me with murderous intent. I look away from him as my heart beats hard, wondering if everything I just saw was a figment of my imagination.

For the remainder of lunch, I sneak glances and try my hardest to see what I had seen again, but it does not work and soon it makes more sense that I imagined it all than that I actually saw what I saw.

As it gets closer and closer to the end of the day, my focus on what is going on in class also begins to wane. I wonder what I will see in the Metorium and what the Masters will do to me. Tahku seemed pretty convinced that they will make me a Laen, but what if he's wrong? What if they decide to wipe my memory again? What would it feel like for me not to remember any of what happened since I remembered? Will it feel weird? Or will I feel nothing because I cannot remember to feel anything?

A loud sound pierces through my thoughts. For a moment I freeze as my mind goes blank, then my heartbeat spikes. The final bell has rung. It is time.

My breathing is unusually heavy as I pack up my stuff and leave the class. I keep a sharp eye on my surroundings, expecting him to pop out of nowhere.

I keep walking until I stop just outside the school. I have not seen any sign of him yet and am unsure what to do next. We did not pick any place to meet up once school was done and who knows how long it will take for him to find me. I wonder if he can use magic to find me.

"You ready?" a voice asks from behind me, causing me to jump.

I turn around to see Drew standing behind me. He looks a bit different from the Drew I normally see, the one who is always smiling and cracking jokes. He looks dead-serious.

He walks on ahead of me and I follow quietly behind him.

After some time I realize we are following the same path I do on my way home from school.

I can't help but ask."Where is the Metorium?"

He says."Don't worry, we're almost there."

I look ahead and see the bookshop I had seen him and his friends try to go in last Friday. Could it be in there? I ask myself as we get closer to the incredibly small building. It doesn't seem possible but we are dealing with magic so I don't exactly know what is possible.

As Drew turns to enter the building, I realize that my theory is right. The Metorium must be here, but how could such a small building be where a worldwide order decides to make its base. It makes no sense.

"Is this the Metorium?" I ask Drew as I follow him into the small building.

I am instantly overwhelmed by the sight of books. Shelves after shelves of books, with tables and chairs interspersed between them for reading. Opposite us at the other end of the room is a counter with two doors, one directly behind it while the other is adjacent to it. Curiously, there is no one in the shop and no one comes to check who it is as we move towards the counter.

"Of course not," Drew says with a small laugh, "this is just one of the entrances."

I look around the shop trying to see if I can find anything that screams: 'I am the entrance to a magical place'. My search leads me to the conclusion that this place looks perfectly normal.

Drew moves to the door adjacent to the counter and reaches out to open it when I hear the voice. "Stop right there!"

I freeze like someone who has been caught doing something wrong and shoot a worried look at Drew. He is perfectly relaxed as he turns around all smiles.

"Hugo! I thought you weren't around."

I hear a snort as the door behind the counter opens to reveal a hulk of a man. He is huge, covered with thick muscles that are inked with strange-looking tattoos. He has long blonde hair which he packs into a ponytail. He would have been handsome if not for the fierce expression on his face as he stares at me.

"What are you doing Drew? Wait, is he the one?" Hugo asks suddenly as his fierce expression suddenly becomes curious.

"He is," confirms Drew.

A strange light flashes behind Hugo's eyes and is gone before I can even figure out what it is. "Oh! Okay, go quickly, some students are about to come in."

Drew nods before walking into the room while motioning for me to follow. Just as I follow Drew into the dark room, I hear the door of the bookshop open, followed by the sound of voices as a bunch of people come into the shop.