Wish (12 page)

Keith held out his hand again. I held tight to Magic, ignored
Keith’s hand and stepped out of the car. As soon as my foot hit the ground,
Magic shrieked and leapt from my arms. An agonizing pain tore at my insides
threatening to rip my stomach through my bellybutton. I sank to my knees,
clutching my gut.

“Sydney, are you okay? Sydney?”         Keith huddled over
me, his features swooshing all together. He bent down and his body blocked out
the sun. For a moment as his outline hovered above me he looked sinister, as if
he were going to attack me. I shrank back and closed my eyes.

      He touched my forehead. “Hey, you okay?” The sudden
contractions disappeared as fast as they’d come.

      I snuck a peek. He looked like Keith again.

I frowned. “I am now. God. That hurt.” He helped me to sit up
and then plunked down on his butt beside me.

      “Is it, your er, uh… you know, your girl stuff, your
crampy things?”

      I wanted to laugh. I didn’t, but I wanted to. We were
hanging out at the edge of a forest. I wanted to go in there like I wanted to
dance solo in the boy’s locker room. Naked.

      “No. Not my crampy things. I think I have nervous
stomach. I’m stressing out.” I half laughed and cried and it came out of my
throat like a belly fart. “I wished the girl cramps thing away. Ha. How about
that for witch power?”

Keith blushed and turned away from me, staring into the evil
shrubbery. “Maybe just a weird reaction to this place.” His voice changed. The
forest looked dark and ominous, thick with green leaves and sprawling branches. 

“I never went in last time I was here,” he whispered.

“Last time you were here?”

He nodded. I began to suspect Keith was pretty good at hiding
things from me.

“I had a feeling. Not as strong as this one. But I checked
this place out the night of your birthday. It was late when I got here. Dark.
So I didn’t go in.”

I didn’t bother commenting on that. At least the boy still
had some good sense in him.

“You think you could have a feeling about a place less icky?”
I finally asked.

      He glanced at me and raised a shoulder and let it drop.

“Remember when you and Stevie wanted to watch that old horror
movie, The Blair Witch thing?” I asked.

      He frowned. “You mean The Blair Witch Project.”

      “Whatever. Do you remember how I left Stevie’s house
because even the thought of watching a scary movie about a forest was enough to
give me nightmares until I turn 60?”

      “That whole movie was just a hoax. You know that. A
movie that was supposed to scare people. Pretend.”

      “You’re right. And this is real life. But let’s think
for a moment, shall we. Hmm. Fact number one. I have witch powers. Not so
normal, right? Fact number two. A teenage boy has disappeared. Fact number
three. A teenage girl is hating on the witch. All the trappings of a good
horror movie, don’t you suppose. I mean, come on. It’s a scary looking forest,
dude. Don’t you know you’re not supposed to go traipsing into forests? That’s
how teenagers disappear. Never to be heard from again. The Sydney Witch
Project.”

      “Yeah, but you’re a teenager with powers.”

      Hmm. He did have a point there. My powers were real.
Not special effects for a movie. I reached up and touched my necklace. I lifted
my t-shirt to peer at the tattoo. It buzzed on my shoulder but the swirls moved
slower.

      I looked around. “Hey. Where’s Magic?”

      “Your cat?” Keith asked.

      We both looked toward the forest.

      “Magic,” I called.

Nothing.

      “Here kitty, kitty,” I yelled, but the cat didn’t
respond.

“He must have gone inside,” Keith said. “We’ll look for him.
Come on. Let’s go.”

      Keith got to his feet and pulled me up beside him.

      “I really, really don’t want to go in there,” I told
him. “          Keith slipped his hand into mine. When he applied pressure my
stomach swooped in a completely inappropriate way. Way to crush on my best
friend in the middle of danger.

“Come on, Sydney. We’ll be okay. We have to go.”

He stared down at me and his voice became urgent, almost
panicking. “We have to get to your Mom.”

“You know. She did leave me for a whole year. And she kind of
lied about where she was. Maybe I should just let her and Nana find their way
out.”

Keith didn’t appear amused.                                                             

      “This isn’t a joke. This is serious.” He pulled my
hand, but I pulled back just as hard and dug my heels down.

      “I don’t think it’s a joke. She didn’t leave you.” An
unexpected sob caught in my throat and I blinked quickly to keep from bawling.

      “No. She didn’t. But she loves you, Sydney. There had
to be a good reason why she left. God. I only wish my mom cared about me as
much as yours does.”

      “Your Mom is at home.”

      “Yes. With her new husband. And her twin babies. I’m a
leftover kid from an old life she’d rather forget.”

      I shook my head. “That’s not true.

      “No? Well. We’ll debate this later. You don’t jam on
your Mom when she needs you because you’re mad at her. You have to get her out.
You’re the only one who can.”

“Again. Your source of information would be?”

He laughed a short, quick sputter that evaporated into the
air as soon as it left his mouth. “Don’t ask, I have no idea.  But trust me,
okay? They’re getting closer.”

“They?” I asked.

He shrugged.

“Don’t tell me. A feeling.” My fear became so tangible I
tasted it in my mouth. Sour and vile. The forest loomed in front of me,
taunting me, branches reaching for me, wanting to suffocate, strangle me. “I
don’t want to go in.”

I glanced at Keith to catch sight of his disappointment in my
weakness. Something unusual passed behind his eyes. For a brief moment his
features changed. His brown eyes sparked some serious voltage.

      I pulled my hand out of his and stepped back. My
stomach flip-flopped like a fish out of water. I re-planted my feet into the
dirt and turned to stare longingly at his car.

“You can’t go home and pretend none of this is happening.
You’re a witch. You can make wishes come true, for God’s sake. You can deal.
You dealt with Jenny Truman, you stood up to her.”

“Jenny’s a stupid girl. This is a forest.” I tried not to
peek at the dark greenery mocking me.

I twisted away from him, pressing my eyes shut. “I wish none
of this was happening.”

I opened my eyes again. I looked around. Nada. No change.

Keith glanced around too and then lifted his hands in the
air. “I guess it doesn’t work all the time. Maybe it’s temporary, or maybe you
only have a certain amount of wishes or something. You know, like three or
whatever?”

“I have no idea. My mom obviously took the rulebook with her
when she split for the nut farm.”

“Institute,” Keith corrected, sounding just like Nana. I
frowned, remembering something else. “Cody mumbled something to me about wish
protocol, but he didn’t remember what he said two seconds after it left his
mouth. Too bad he didn’t tell me all the rules. Like how to stop you from
convincing me I have to go in the forest to help out my mom.”

His cheeks got spotty “Don’t sound so suspicious. It’s me.
Keith. Remember? I’m helping you.”

I glared at him. “Yeah. How do I even know you’re even on my
side? What if you’re a bad guy?”

He didn’t grace me with an answer. His features froze. Guilt
washed color up my neck and over my face.

I studied my shoes. “Sorry,” I mumbled. “I’m just scared.”

“I know. Me too.” Keith sighed. “Come on. We have to go in
there, Sydney.”

      “Promise you won’t leave me.

      “I promise.”         

I rubbed the necklace around my neck and my shoulder still
buzzed under the tattoo. I took a deep breath, and blew it out. “Okay. I trust
you. Let’s go.” I grabbed his hand and squeezed tight. He moved forward and I
followed on his heels.

As soon as we stepped inside the trees, I started coughing.
Choking. One second we were in a clearing, and steps later we were immersed in
serious shrubbery. My lungs compressed, craving fresh oxygen. Weeds sprung up
from the ground. Our feet crunched over dead leaves and fallen branches.

      “I thought trees were supposed to give oxygen, not
squeeze it out of your lungs?” My cranky voice sounded too loud, almost
offensive in the quiet of the woods. 

      Keith didn’t reply, but kept traveling, shifting
branches out of the way and holding them for me to step through. I heard a
noise from the ground. The ground I couldn’t even see. I halted.

      “Magic?” I whispered. I strained to hear more, but
there wasn’t another peep. 

“Come on, keep moving,” Keith urged.

He pulled me slowly through the bushes and trees, heading
towards an unnamed and unknown destination.

      “What’s the rush?” My voice squeaked. “You think the
cable is out at the funny farm?”

      “The Institute is not the funny farm.” He kept moving,
pulling aside branches, traveling deeper into the forest. I studied his back as
we plowed through. What made him so eager to get to whatever waited for us in
there? Whatever was threatening my mom? I wondered how he thought we would get
her out once we did find her. A branch flung in my eye and scratched my face. I
yelped and dropped Keith’s hand to cover the scratch. Distracted, I lost my balance,
tripped and stumbled. I slipped and crashed to my knees, my hands falling
through tall weeds, my fingers touching mossy cold ground. The smell of
evergreen and wild flowers went straight up my nose. The pain eased and then
disappeared, but there I was on the forest floor.

      Cursing, I brushed off and got to my feet. All I could
see around me was thick gnarly branches that looked like they may or may not
want to eat me.

      “Keith?” I called.

      There was no response. Fear bubbled in my belly.

      “Keith,” my voice went up a couple of notches.

      No reply. My chest tightened. “Hey. You said you
wouldn’t leave me,” I shouted. Panicking, I started to run. I yelped,
hyperventilating as branches scratched my cheeks up and marked up my arms. Then
disappeared.

      “Keith,” I shouted. “Keith where are you?”

      No one answered. I shivered as a sense of horrible deja
vous gripped me. The darkness seemed to close in on me, the branches trying to
grab me, hurt me. I shivered and stopped moving, wrapping my arms around
myself, too terrified to move.

      “Don’t panic, don’t panic,” I mumbled out loud. “You
can handle this, Sydney. You’re not a little girl. You’re a kick ass witch.”

      I took a deep breath and squeezed my eyes shut. “I wish
I could find Keith in the forest.”

      I looked around. “Keith?” I shouted. Nothing.

      “Oh, this is just great. When I really need this stupid
magic stuff, nothing.” I waited. Nothing. “Okay. I wish this would all just
stop now. I’m not having fun in case anyone out there in witch land is
wondering.”

      I heard a slight rustling behind me.

      Relieved, I turned. “Keith, you are so dead for losing
me.”

      The trees parted. A body flew towards me. It wasn’t
Keith.

      I gasped.

Cody plowed through the trees, crashing straight into me. Stevie
was right on his tail. She looked ridiculous in a short jean skirt with her big
clunky black boots in the middle of the wilderness. I snorted and hiccupped in
relief. Seeing them made me hope all this crap wasn’t really happening.

      “What the heck is wrong with you?” Stevie shouted. She
hurried forward and slugged me on the arm. Cody followed her but luckily he
didn’t punch me, too.

      “What is wrong with you?” he yelled. 

      I wrinkled up my brows and tried to look indignant. In
the presence of my obnoxious best friend and my brother, the forest lost some
of its brawn. 

      “What are you talking about?” I asked, using my Queen
voice. As if finding me in the middle of a forest outside the city ranked up
there with everyday occurrences.

I kind of hoped Keith would pop out of the trees, laugh with
us and tell me everything had been an elaborate hoax they’d been playing on me.
We could all go home and laugh at how I’d fell for all their elaborate pranks.
Believing I had powers. Ha!