Goodbye Normal (13 page)

Zoe sighed heavily and muttered “oh my god” fearful tears threatened to crawl out.

“Can you tell me more about this immortal person?” she asked dutifully, overpowering the urge to open the door and run.

“Look. I’m no story teller, I only know the basics. Enough info to make me chose my stand. But who ever your mentor will be is the one who will take you down to history zone, and your responsibilities.

We are scared that your action might trigger dark magic witches to hunt you down. It is said that
you
have the power to restore their master’s powers back. That is why you are worth a war in our world.”

Zoe’s head was spinning, and her face was becoming pallid. If she was white she may have been chalklike. She swallowed hard refusing to look at her instructors face, for pride reason.

“I have…” Liz begun, turning over for something on the back seats. “Three files of the mentor witches who you will asses and decided which one of these will suit you.” she finished giving her the files and restarting the car.

Before doing character assessment, she looked around the environment they had parked. They were in the outskirts of town. A place she had never been before. It was all green, farmlands and extensive plantation to beyond the eye’s ability.

“Is this where you took as on that night?”

“Yes. We will be there in ten.”

She glared down at the files on her lap then started scheming through each one, concentrating on the basic profile information.  Each one had a passport size photo attached to it. The first file was of a brown eyed brunet Lady.

Doomsberg Association of Witchery

Name          Marlene Palmer  

Age             25 yrs

Sex             female

DAW          for 7 yrs

Specialty Fortune telling

Employment Shop Owner

The second file was of a guy with strawberry blonde hair and dark blue eyes.

Doomsberg Association of Witchery

Name          Iann Small

Age             23

Sex             male

DAW          for 5yrs

Specialty telepathy

Employment           Bar Manager

The last file was of no stranger but a medium brown haired, hazel eyed CHRIS.

Doomsberg Association of Witchery

Christopher Moore

Age             21

Sex male

DAW          for 4yrs

Specialty Plants and Clairvoyance

Employment           Florist Assistant

“Yeeeeeeeeees…yesssssss……yes, yes, yes…Chris Moore???.” She screamed blithely in her head as her eyes grew wider with excitement. “How in the world is this possible? Chris is a witch, a witch, a witch”. Zoe pressed her lips so hard to contain the claustrophobic happiness. She really wanted to blurter out a huge relieving laugh. But what if they don’t allow someone she knew to mentor her? She concealed her broad smile with a protective palm over her lips.

Her eyes were glistening with happy tears, Gigi turned instinctively to face her and saw the unquestionable difference.

“Is everything alright?”

Zoe cleared her throat “These are some interesting mentors.” she said with a silly smile.

“By that you mean Christopher Moore?” Gigi smiled knowingly.

Zoe blinked, with a face that said how the hell did you know that? “Are you telepathic too?”

“Darling, we are witches, the moment we told that x boyfriend of yours that you are the Channeler, he nearly caused Maydith a migraine with his head screams.”

Zoe simpered “So it’s okay to be mentored by him?” she asked hopefully.

“Yes it is, that’s why we included him in the top three.”

“I thought a mentor was supposed to be older like 30, 40?”

“Not necessarily. In this case we had to pick younger witches, especially those who would have flexible work hours. Because this witchy warfare calls out for energetic people, the older once will do the counseling, teaching and decision making, and Chris proved to be dedicated and very talented in his field, so he will be okay.”

“Wow. You can’t imagine how I felt when I saw his name, it was phenomenal”

“We thought it would be.”

“Thank you so much.” She said with unfathomed sincerity.

Gigi smiled and a second later she drove into a driveway then parked her car on a spacious vertical parking lot. There were some other cars parked around in the same compound.

“We are home.” She announced.

“I can see that.” Zoe observed, getting out of the car, slack jawed.

Her eyes graced one of the most beautiful one story antebellum mansions they had ever come across. It was white, wide and a wow, an absolute titivation. The ornate circular columns rose high to the ceiling, rivetingly surrounding the entire mansion like shields. On the very top of the building it read Doomsberg Association of Witchery, with an emblem of a star that resembled her pendant. The exquisite mansion was in between an extensive Greenland, with large oak trees, never-ending lawns and a- to die for serenity. Better yet it seemed like the ocean wasn’t very far away, she could feel the intoxicating breeze wash over her. And she thought how in Doomsberg had she never heard about the magical place. Not unless it was in truth magical.

“Is this place magical?”

“Only visible to the gifted” Gigi replied with an ostentatious grin.

She collected herself with a readiness for the escapade and an added amount of longing for the extraordinary. When Zoe placed her foot on the massive greenness, the lawn bellow her suddenly turned to a pavement that stretched straight to the front porch. She almost jumped out of it, but absorbed the newness with a daring fortitude. She kept going forward and reflexively turned to see if there was a change on the magical lawn. And there it was, the pavement behind her was disappearing and getting substituted by the lawn.   

On the large front porch they found Maydith Fairgood and Seth Krukton patiently waiting for their arrival. They both had a different vibe from the last time they’d met. This time she noticed they were casually dressed and looking anti witchlike.

Pleasant greetings were thrown around like a ball, until each had answered their share of salutation. Maydith led the group inside the humongous entrance hall. On its walls, framed pictures were decorated all the way around it. As she ascended the grand staircase Zoe noticed a few head turns watch her, or point and wave at her with such conspicuous admiration. She smiled at them, and waved back with unforeseen pride. She felt important, for the very first time in her life she felt like somebody who really mattered. They walked through the spiral flight of stairs which had been adored by a bright red carpet to the very last room on the first floor marked meeting room. She peered around and it looked like there were rooms enough to accommodate a good sum of people.

  Maydith opened the door honorably for them and closed it when they were all inside.

The room was large, with equally large windows, a table big enough to accommodate fourteen people. They occupied the first chairs of the table but Maydith remained standing. It was as if she never sat down.

“Thank you very much for meeting us in such short notice, Zoe” Maydith said, looking every bit relaxed and in control.

Zoe nodded in response.

“Did you make a choice, about your mentor?”

“Yes. I picked Chris Moore”

“Chris Moore it is. Gigi go fetch Mr. Moore.”

When Gigi was out of the room, Mr. Krukton who was seated facing her, voiced his views.

“We hope you have learned a lot about Doomsberg’s witches from Gigi, you still have along way and you will learn more as time goes, in the mean time, do you have any questions that involve the association or anything relevant bothering you”

“I have a lot of them,” she signed “Like umh, the first time I used my powers this pendant glistened,” Krukton and Maydith glanced at each other momentarily “Is this where my power lies? In the pendant I mean?” she asked holding the necklace.

“Am afraid we do not have the answer to that. About the chain’s powers or your powers to be exact” Krukton answered looking rather helpless.

“Why not?” Zoe asked confused.

“There are believed to be two books that talked about you and so many other important details that our ancestors had compiled. Sadly the books have been missing for many years; we have been in such a maze about them. Regrettably until this minute we are not fortunate to relocate any of them.” Mr. Krukton replied

His reply added more questions instead of answering the one she’d asked. Maydith cut her short just when she was about to throw another question.

“What Mr. Krukton is trying to say is, you are the very first Channeler, we do not know if there will be any others after you, but there were none before you. This is new to us as it is to you.  Your powers are not witchy tales that have been foretold for years! These are new experiences that will be celebrated and told about in the coming years. You have to be careful on every account when it comes to them. We on the other hand will help you through the process and direct you whenever possible. All there is about you is that you’ll have so much power enough to restore those who had lost theirs.”

“What about the books he is talking about?” Zoe asked veering Krukton

“They’re written by the first coven members. They were the ones who had predicted your coming but none have been retrieved until today, and no one knows where they are.”

“So has anyone ever seen them?”

“None, nobody we know of, we hope-”

Maydith was interrupted by a knock and so was everyone else. They all turned alert and faced the door. It was opened by Gigi who was followed behind by Chris.

“Chris, please come in.” Maydith beckoned.

Zoe couldn’t help her exhilaration; she shot up from her chair and ran to the arms she once called her boyfriend’s. She held on tight to the familiarity and forgot for some second that there were other people in their midst. In his hefty arms it automatically felt just about okay to be a witch. And a teenage confused witch-hood rookie of the twenty first century at that.

Her eyes were closed when Chris’s voice whispered against her ear.

“Hey beautiful witch”

She smiled to the conversance of his words, ignoring the added wit. With her eyes still shut she whispered back to his ear.

“It is so good to see you again witch.”

Maydith broke off the touchy reunion with a purposeful cough.

“I think Chris can take it from here, we will be around incase you need our help.” Maydith told them.

Both Zoe and Chris nodded in agreement and watched silently as the threesome walked out.

When they were left alone Zoe hugged him again, slightly this time. They broke off immediately and sunk down on chairs nearest to them. She stared at him and couldn’t decide where to begin asking.

“It is so so good to see you.” Zoe begun.

“Same hear, I couldn’t believe it when they told us the Channeler was you. I was literally ecstatic. How have you been?”

“I was told about that.” she chuckled remembering Gigi’s comment.

“Oh, Gigi right?” he asked

Zoe nodded still giggling.

“Well it was good to know that I can be able to be myself with someone who is not a stranger and wont judge.”

“Yeah, I hear you. You can imagine the hell I’ve been going through these past few days, it has been too damn hard, keeping this from Mom and Liz…My God” she breathed out a groan.

“Don’t worry there will be a time you will be able to.”

A few seconds were covered with calmness. Zoe’s eyes had been fixed on the ground silently considering the relevancy of what he’d told her. She was still not ready to tell Carol or Liz then she shot up to glare at him.

“I still can’t believe it you know! It’s like too good to be true. How long did you know? How did you face this? Were you a witch in high school?” Zoe shot questions at him with so much eagerness.

“Before you continue throwing a million questions, why don’t I give you le Grande tour of this huge castle, then we will do those catching up interrogations.”

“Come on, don’t do this to me, I love suspense but not when I can help it, you will eventually tell me you know. I don’t see the point” Zoe tried seducing him with a meek act.

“Eventually you will.” Chris said ignoring the seductive efforts.

“Damn, hasn’t witch-hood changed you?” she asked irritated.

“Stick around and you will find out.” he said heading for the door.

“I hate you.” Zoe called out to his back.

Chris half grinned and the corner of his lips tilted.

“I can imagine you are ready to do anything to have me as a friend right now.”

“Arrggg… you are so full of yourself.” Zoe groaned standing.

“Shall we?”

“As if my opinion matters.” Zoe rolled her eyes at him and elbowed him on his ribs as she passed through the doorway.

“Ouch” he hissed and closed the door smiling to himself.

He walked her through a number of interesting rooms. The top floor was mostly occupied by offices and bedrooms. While walking through the rooms, he stopped in front of the Ritual room. It was the one they performed incantations and important sermons like finding the Channeler. 

It was the largest room on that floor. She peeped inside it and memories of that night begun flooding back into her mind.

“How did they do that?” it was barely a whisper.

Chris understood what she meant. How were they transported there in their dreams.

“Teleportation bounded with a powerful spell.”

They got downstairs silently and Chris ushered her to the front vestibule with lots of framed pictures on the wall.

“Who are all these people?” she asked pointing at one of the portraits. In it was a black and white waist length picture of a serious thin man. Below the picture it read Franklin Colam.

“Where did I hear that name before?”

“Colam?”

“Unhuh.”

“It has to be the Colam brothers, Moosemond and Fred.”

“Oh Yeees, we were introduced to them in the.” she elaborated pointing upstairs to the ritual room.

“Exactly. They are high coven members; their family has produced very talented witches over the years.”

They trailed on walking leisurely from one picture to another and Chris continued informing her.

“All these are the chairpersons of the association ever since 1827. In counting there are a total of 19 portraits, each one of them has led the association for a period of ten years then later passed on to the next.”

“Wow, that’s impressive--” she stopped commenting when her eyes came across a portrait of a beautiful woman, below her portrait was the name Hannah Wimbley. She glared at her eyes and felt that cliché feeling that the woman was looking right back at her.

“She was one of the best fortune teller of all time, wife to Thomas Wimbley one of the most powerful potion and spell masters of all time, a dope couple.” Chris said, beaming from behind her.

“She was really pretty.” Zoe muttered scrutinizing over the delicacy of her features.

“According to magic history she was the one who foretold your coming.”

Zoe’s eyes twitched then glared deeper into Hannah’s dead eyes and shuddered when she suddenly felt Chris’s arm grip her own.

“Let me take you to meet people and see other important rooms in the building.”

As they walked across the hall to the first room on the right, Zoe’s mind was still with Hannah Wimbley. She wanted to know a little more about her, but her wits were interrupted by the Portion room. In it was an old man, he looked like he was in his mid 70’s or early 80’s. He went under the name Mr. Turtlehead. He was short, with wrinkled sagging skin and wore old-school spectacles that went past his brows.

 According to Chris, after his retirement in the ungifted world, he nearly spent all his time in that room. Evidently there was a bed on the corner of the room. He was relatively very dedicated and talented in that particular field. Turtlehead invented portions that could rid of someone’s gift for a short time say 5hours. When Chris and Zoe invaded his territory he was in between a disorganized pile of potions. Other potions were getting cooked in a magic stove, while he buried his face on a large book that Zoe later figured was a witch herb-pedia.

He looked up from his book and jerked upright after noticing Zoe’s presence. Almost breaking his spectacles, he grabbed them in time.

“Chris, Hello. I see you have brought me the Channeler!” there was a hint of excitement in his low throaty tone.

“Helow Sir.” Zoe greeted.