Eartha- Chapter 2

So, instead of doing what i claimed (putting up a new story) I have reverted back to the one that is finished already. Sorry about that. You see, I haven't gotten the opportunity to write out the new idea yet and I suppose this is as good an alternative that I can offer. At least I'm publishing something, right? Too bad, if you disagree. I'll get the new idea out here as soon as I can, until then you will have to suffer an old idea. I'm noticing so much wrong with my old story now that its finished. It's not the worst thing I've written, but I know now where I need to improve. Enjoy.

Chapter 2

Eight Years Later

“Ah! Mora, it’s been some time since I heard from you!” Dr. Timmus exclaimed.
“Yes, we’ve had our hands full with Eartha,” she replied.
“And how has Roger been? I haven’t heard from him in quite a while,” Dr. Timmus asked.
“He’s doing well. Things have only gotten better throughout the years, largely due to you,” she replied.
“Why me?” he asked.
“Well, if it hadn’t been for you I would have never believed anything about his past. Now, that I do believe him he has become a different person. He’s so much happier knowing that he doesn’t have to keep secrets from me,” she explained.
“Well, then I believe it’s you that have made things better not me,” Dr. Timmus laughed.
“You helped,” she replied defiantly. They both laughed and then Dr. Timmus became serious, “I know there’s another reason that you have called.”
“Yes,” she said quietly, “But I haven’t really discussed this with Roger.”
“What is the matter?” he asked calmly.
“Well, it’s Eartha,” she answered quickly before she lost the nerve to explain her situation, “Her gifts have been showing for a few years now, but we didn’t think it was necessary to alarm you since it wasn’t anything we couldn’t handle.”
“And now?” he prompted her.
“Well, Eartha has been telling me some problems she’s been having with school,” she said her voice lowering, “Roger’s due home soon and I don’t want him to know about this just yet. Is there anyway I could come to see you today?”
“Of course,” Dr. Timmus replied quickly, “We’ll have someone by the main entrance to let you in.”
***
“Welcome, Mrs. Wicken,” Dr. Timmus greeted her with an ear-to-ear smile.
“The place looks quite different when school’s in session,” she commented.
“Yes, lots more people,” he replied. He ushered her inside the office and closed the door behind her. He motioned for her to sit down as he took his place behind the desk. “This room hasn’t changed in eight years, though,” she said.
“No, I like it the way it is,” he said, “Now, tell me about your daughter.”
She got serious and a look of anxiety crossed her face. “Well, right after we left you all those years ago Roger began to teach me a few ways of protecting myself and he also explained a lot more about the different types of abilities he had seen during his time here. So, I know quite a bit more than I did when I came here the first time. I also managed to do quite a bit of research on my own ability. There was actually quite a bit of information that was helpful on the Internet. All the information I found tends to call what I have a form of an empathic sense. It said in one of the articles that most people have a basic empathic sense, but I know that it isn’t the same thing my daughter or I have. Ours is more acute. We know when we are healing and we know for us its not about a choice. We have no choice but to feel other people’s pains. A general empathic sense that the everyday person has is basically picking and choosing whose pain they feel. Plus the everyday person doesn’t heal, they just share the pain which, let’s face it, isn’t very helpful.
“Since my pregnancy my ability has intensified. It has more than tripled since I began taking lessons from my husband on psychic protection. At first it was a little hard for me to control. I was healing people without even concentrating on it and it wasn’t little things like it always had been before. When I went to a hospital to visit a friend of mine, I passed a sickly man in a wheelchair. As he was being wheeled pass me he reached out and took my hand. I felt his disease inside him, all those cancer cells eating away at every part of his being. It was coming into my body like a wave crashing over my head. I pulled away from him as quick as I could. The man wasn’t offended. He started laughing and as I rushed away I could hear him telling the nurse that he felt better than he had in years. I never tried to find out what happened to him after that. I felt faint and feverish for the next week. It was a bit unnerving. I mean, I’ve never been able to do things like that before,” She paused for a second and Dr. Timmus cut in.
“Why didn’t you call when you were having problems?” he asked.
“Because I learned to control it. I told Roger what had happened and he helped me learn how to protect myself from incidents like that. If it had been more than I could handle I would have called you. Okay, so getting to the reason I came to see you today… I thought it would be helpful for you to know that I have been trying to understand this ability mainly to help my daughter when she started to have the same issues that I was going through. So I would be able to teach her how to protect herself. Unfortunately, it’s getting to be more than I can handle now. The other day she came home and practically collapsed on the living room floor. I asked her what was wrong and she told me that she felt like all the energy had been drained from her body. I asked her if she had touched anyone or bumped into anyone that she could remember and she told me no. So, I tried to help her out. The next day I dressed her in a turtleneck and tights and a long skirt to cover up her body so no one could accidentally touch her. I told her to keep her hands covered and not to let anyone get too close to her face. That afternoon when she came in from school she told me she still felt like she had no energy left in her body and she went upstairs to take a nap. After that Roger tried harder than ever to teach her how to put up shields like mine. They didn’t work. It’s not that she can’t do it, honestly, I think her shields are thicker than mine, but they just don’t work for her. Then just yesterday Eartha came in crying and I asked her what was wrong. At first she wouldn’t tell me or I guess she couldn’t tell me trough her sobbing, but she finally managed to say ‘There’s just too much sadness in the world’. I asked her what she meant thinking that maybe she had seen something bad happen or kids were mistreating her, but then she explained to me that she could feel other people’s sadness.
“Not like absorbing wounds or physical pain like I can, but actual emotions. She can feel when someone is upset or if they’ve been emotionally hurt. Her body or essence or whatever it is, was trying to heal emotional hurts. She was telling me about a little girl that she had befriended at school whose parents are going through a very difficult divorce. Eartha said that when she listened to the girl talking about her parent’s arguments she could feel the sadness of the other girl. She then told me about other kid’s problems at her school and then she asked me why there was so much hate and pain in the world. Now, you tell me, Dr. Timmus, what I’m supposed to tell my daughter about that? This is beyond anything I’ve ever felt. You know my ability, I only absorb physical pain and that’s when I’m in physical contact with the injured person. Eartha isn’t touching these kids all she has to do is listen to them and she can feel their emotions. I just don’t know what to do anymore and my problem now is that I’m not sure that putting her here is going to be any better. The kids here probably have more intense emotions than those kids in the normal public schools.” She sighed heavily, but Dr. Timmus didn’t answer immediately. He was staring at the ceiling when he finally said slowly, “I’m not going to lie to you we know very little about this particular ability. What we do have more resources about unique abilities than what you will ever find out there. Even on the Internet. I’m not sure that I can help Eartha, but I think she will have a better chance at learning to control this with us than she would in a school where most of the teachers don’t even believe what she can do is possible.”
“But what if this just makes it harder for her? My gift amplified when I began to research and study the subject. She doesn’t need her gift to become more powerful,” Mora said doubtfully.
“Your power didn’t amplify because you became more informed,” Dr. Timmus argued, “It intensified because of your pregnancy. The other changes are from you learning new abilities. Like the shield you use. Has Eartha shown any tendencies towards an actual psychic ability?”
“Not that she’s told Roger or me about,” Mora answered.
“Well, something is bound to emerge in that respect as well. Don’t you want her to be here among people who are going to understand and accept her a little better?” he offered. She sighed heavily. She didn’t really know what she wanted for her daughter. She was afraid that putting her into this school would just make her life more difficult, but she also couldn’t stand to see her little girl come in crying everyday because of some feeling she picked up from one of the other kids. And what was she going to do when Eartha hit puberty? Her emotions would be running wild and so would the emotions of her peers. It would only worsen as time went on. Could Dr. Timmus actually help Eartha stop the overflow of emotions?
“Maybe you should talk to Roger before you make any decisions. He should be able to clear some things up for you,” Dr. Timmus suggested, “He can tell you what the school was like and then you both can decide if you think bringing Eartha here would be helpful. Call me, whatever you choose and maybe you should ask Eartha her opinion on the mater.”
“Thank you,” she said absently still thinking about what she was going to tell Roger.

***

“Roger, honey, have you noticed anything unusual with Eartha lately?”
“Unusual? How?” he asked poking his head out of the bathroom where he was brushing his teeth.
“Well, I mean has she said anything about her, um, ability to you?” Mora looked down at her book that she had been pretending to read.
“No,” he replied turning the water off and coming out of the bathroom, “Has she said something to you?”
“Well, kind of,” Mora delayed not knowing how to tell him that she had gone behind his back to Dr. Timmus and discussed their daughter.
“What do you mean, kind of?” he asked climbing into the bed next to her. Her beating around the bush with whatever she was trying to tell him was frustrating him, but he tried to not let it show.
“Okay, well you know all about my power right? I absorb physical injuries and pain and we thought Eartha was the same way,” she said all in one breath.
“Yes, go on,” he prompted her.
“Well you also know that my abilities changed after the pregnancy… that they got more, um, intense and we were worried for a while that it would keep progressing until it was completely out of control,” she was losing her train of thought, “well, um, well you see Eartha… her gift is, um, well, evolving as well.”
“Evolving into what?” he asked sharply the annoyance taking over.
“She not only feels and absorbs other people’s physical pain, she can also feel and absorb their emotional pain as well and the problem is she doesn’t even need to be touching them for it to happen. She’s beginning to absorb their emotions from thin air!” Mora finally managed to blurt out.
“And why was it so hard for you to tell me this?” he asked slowly.
“Because I’ve noticed this happening for the past couple weeks and yesterday afternoon when I said I had lost track of the time at the park I was really back at Mead Institute discussing this with Dr. Timmus,” she said quietly.
“Oh.”
She looked up at him confused, “Oh? That’s all?”
“Oh.”
“I thought you might be angry that I went to talk to him first,” she offered.
“Why?”
“She’s your daughter.”
“No. I mean why did you go to him before you told me?” he asked not in the least bit upset.
“You always speak of the school as a safe haven for kids who were misunderstood or treated poorly because of their unique qualities. I thought that it may not be a good idea to put Eartha in the school because if she is absorbing emotions from her school now, how much more intense are the emotions running through that school. I think it might do more damage to her than it would good. I was afraid if I raised my concerns of her developing ability that you would automatically suggest putting her in Mead Institute. My problem is I think if I don’t put her in that school her problems with this growing ability is just going to get worse until she exhausts herself to death. I think he can help her, but I don’t want the school to damage her more,” she finished. He didn’t speak for a moment and when he looked over at her all he said was, “I see.”
“You see what?” she snapped.
“I see the problem,” he replied quietly, “and I agree with you… it’s going to be a difficult decision.”
“So what do we do?” she asked helplessly, “I can’t think anymore.”
“Let me think,” he said more to himself than to her, “I don’t know, Mora, give me a little time to dwell on it. I’ll be able to think more clearly in the morning.”
Her face sunk. That had not been what she needed to hear, but she understood. This was not something she had figured out in a couple hours time so why should she expect him to be able to figure it all out that quickly. She finally nodded and kissed him lightly. She reached back and turned her light off.
“What about keeping her at home?” he whispered in the dark, “You know, home schooling?”
“She’s going to have to have human interaction someday, Roger,” Mora answered, “We can’t just lock her up now and expect her to be able to handle it better with she’s eighteen.” He didn’t respond. He knew what she said was true. Even if they managed to keep her inside and away from the emotions that were overwhelming her, they couldn’t do that forever. She needed to learn how to protect herself, to block out these emotions that were not her own, and to build a wall around herself that would keep her safe from being hurt. Roger wrapped his arms around Mora and whispered, “We’ll think of something.”
***
“Mr. and Mrs. Wicken, welcome,” the woman said unenthusiastically, “This is Eartha?”
“Yes,” Mora answered.
“Okay, Dr. Timmus is expecting all three of you. He told me to bring you to conference room three. Follow me, please,” she ordered. They walked down several long hallways before finally coming to a stop in front of a large archway that was identical to all the others in the hallway. The woman pushed the large double doors open to reveal an average sized conference room. A large mahogany table at the center surrounded by large comfortable looking swivel chairs covered in maroon leather. It looked like a corporate boardroom more than a school’s conference room. Dr. Timmus stood across the room at a counter where he was pouring iced tea into several tall glasses.
“Welcome! Welcome! Come in!” he announced carrying the tray of glasses to the table, “Please, have a seat.” All three of them sat close together at one end of the table without saying a word. Dr. Timmus joined them at their end of the table allowing a couple of chairs between them for personal space. He smiled at them. Mora and Roger looked nervous, but Eartha looked tired. He focused on Eartha for a moment and found that he could barely read her thoughts. All that he could see was surface thoughts that mostly consisted of doubt and distrust. “What are you thinking, Eartha?” he asked. She looked over at Dr. Timmus and smiled, “I taught myself that, you know,” she looked away from him, “I’m not exhausted today so I can block you out of my mind.”
“Why did you teach yourself that?” Dr. Timmus asked, “Neither of your parents are telepathic. Whom are you blocking your thoughts from?”
“When people touch me there is a transfer of electrical impulses that are similar to telepathy,” Eartha said her child’s voice giving what she had said an absurd quality.
“My, God!” he exclaimed, “How intelligent you are for eight!”
“I began looking stuff up when everything started to go weird and I realized that when I was feeling other kid’s feelings and stuff they were, in return, receiving thoughts and feelings from me. I had to build a wall around my thoughts to keep them to myself,” she explained.
“You are far beyond your years, little one,” Dr. Timmus said, “You don’t speak much like an eight year old.”
“I’m not much like an eight year old,” she responded.
“Eartha,” Roger said in a warning tone.
“We began her education much earlier than most children would be taught,” Mora explained, “We had to. Some of her abilities were already showing in infancy. My family is clueless to these kinds of abilities and we had to explain to her at a very early age that what she could do was not very common and if too many people knew they would get upset. She had to grow up a lot quicker than any of us really wanted her to.”
Dr. Timmus looked back to Eartha, “So, your parents have already discussed Mead Institute with you and you understand what you are coming into, correct?”
“Yes,” she replied.
“Okay, then let me ask you this,” he paused, “Do you want to come here to Mead Institute?”
“Can you help me distance myself from people?” she asked in return.
“I think I can teach you to protect yourself from others, well, me or one of my teachers,” he smiled at her.
“What can you teach me that I haven’t already figured out for myself?” she asked with the arrogance of someone so young.
Dr. Timmus laughed, “You may be smart for an eight year old, but there is still a lot that you can learn.”
“These people can teach you a lot, Eartha, and they wont think what you do is odd,” Mora added quietly.
“What are they going to teach me for when I’m sleeping in the dorms? And where am I supposed to go if I do become tired from all of them?” she snapped back.
“Eartha, I’ve been thinking of this situation and I think I might have figured out a way that will work for us all,” Dr. Timmus offered, “If you do come here we can isolate you temporarily from the other students… at least until you have learned to protect yourself. My teachers and I will instruct you until you are ready to join the rest of the student body. You’ll be able to do it in your sleep, but if you happened to get drained there are plenty of places you can stay in the school away from others.”
“And you think you will be able to block other people from me?” she asked with hope creeping into her voice.
“I think I have a plan that will protect you from those feelings just sneaking in whenever they want,” he answered. She nodded and a shadow of a smile appeared on Eartha’s face.

So Eartha stayed. Mora and Roger went back home. And Dr. Timmus began the most difficult lessons he would ever have to teach. Eartha was given a temporary room that had originally been for storage. It was small, but since the school was not normally equipped for housing students in such a way, it would have to do. Eartha didn’t complain it wasn’t in her nature. She had much bigger problems on her mind and small rooms only made her feel more secure. It was much easier for her to know that no one was hiding in some dark corner. It wasn’t that she was overly paranoid; she just learned a long time ago that she couldn’t trust most people. If she told them what she could do they always wanted proof and even if they didn’t try right away eventually they would try to touch her. She didn’t like the distrustful nature of people in general.

***

“Dr. Timmus, what is this one,” she asked holding a book up. Every Saturday the library was closed to the rest of the student body and Eartha and Dr. Timmus had their one on one lessons. Dr. Timmus was teaching her protection. The other teachers all had set times with Eartha for one on one lessons throughout the week. She was getting a well-rounded education plus extra lessons that focused on her extra skills. All the students had to take a basic lesson plan and then they had the choices of extracurricular classes that would help them to develop their special abilities. Dr. Timmus didn’t really teach class, but for Eartha he had found it was necessary. None of the other teachers were skilled enough to teach her what she needed to know to protect her. They had never had to deal with that before. So Dr. Timmus devoted his Saturday afternoons to teaching Eartha advanced protection and defense. It had not been going as well as he hoped. She was taking in everything he taught her. She could do just about anything he told her to. The problem wasn’t her inability to learn, but the things he was teaching her was not really having any effect. She was still absorbing way more than she should from the people she was around.
She was holding up an ancient looking book. The gold filling that had been the title was flaking away leaving behind only the raised leather as the title. He took the book in his hands and pulled it closer to his face so he could read the title. Advanced Techniques for Protection. He flipped the book open and leafed quickly through the pages. “They’re spells, Eartha.” He snapped the book shut. “It’s old magic. Chanting these spells in the right way supposedly would disarm your opponents. They don’t work~ well, they haven’t worked for anyone that I know.” He paused and then opened the book and looked at one of the spells, “I don’t even know what language this is supposed to be. I doubt they will work.” Eartha pulled the book back over to her side of the table and flipped it open and began to read. “ ‘A very simple spell to protect you is the Force Spell. Your opponent will be force away from you if done correctly. First you must focus your mind on the person or object that you want away from you and then you chant or yell this one word spell: Ayay! This will create a force that will make the person or object back away from you.’” Eartha looked up and around the room for something to try the spell on. She got out of her chair and pulled it into the middle of the isle. She backed up a few steps and was about to shout the spell when Dr. Timmus stopped her. “Eartha, if you are going to try this and expect a result you need to do exactly what it says. Focus on the chair; focus on making it back away. Try imagining it tipping over. That’s what my telekinetic students must do to focus.” So she did. She pictured the chair skidding backwards across the room. She closed her eyes to concentrate harder, lifted her hand and pointed towards the chair, “Ayay!” she shouted. She heard a soft thud and she opened her eyes. Dr. Timmus gasped and looked in shock at the tipped over chair. “Hmm,” Eartha replied disappointed, “Not exactly what I pictured happening. I wanted it to slid across the room.”
“But you did it!” Dr. Timmus said amazed, “I can’t believe it worked! No one has ever gotten the ancient spells to actually work. We all assumed it was just a bunch of hocus pocus crap and you not even being telekinetic!”
“Why did you tell me to focus if you didn’t think it was going to work?” Eartha asked.
“Well, all mental work required a lot of concentration to actually work and I figured it couldn’t hurt if you wanted to try,” he replied, “I try never to discourage students from trying new or different things even if I don’t think they will work. Sometimes people need to learn on their own and every great once in a while I’m surprised.”
“But it still didn’t completely work,” she frowned, “it only tipped over.”
“It’s a start, Eartha,” Dr. Timmus explained, “Everything improves with a little practice.”
Eartha went back to the table and looked at the spell. She frowned and then flipped through the book further. “All the other spells are much more complex, Dr. Timmus,” she said, “I don’t know if I could remember all of it.”
“Let’s do one thing at a time,” he laughed lifting the chair back off the ground, “How about trying this one again.” She shrugged and came back to the chair. She cleared her throat and pointed at the chair. Without hesitation this time she shouted, “Ayay!” The chair slid a few inches before tipping over backwards and crashing to the floor.
“See!” Dr. Timmus exclaimed, “It’s already getting better!”
“What does ayay mean?” Eartha asked.
“I don’t know,” he frowned, “I don’t think it means anything… it’s not any language I know.”
“It’s not Latin?” she asked.
“A lot of spells are, but looking at all of these spells, well, it’s definitely not Latin. It’s like a made up language… I mean look here,” he pointed at one spell, “Mesa is a real word, but I don’t think it has the same meaning at all. And there’s other words like that too, but together they don’t actually mean anything.”
“Well, it must mean something,” she replied, “’cause it works.” She pointed down at the chair again “Ayay!” she shouted and the chair, already overturned, slid across the room. Dr. Timmus continued to study the book as Eartha went around the library knocking things over and sliding them across the room. Finally he looked up and said, “I think that’s enough for one day, Eartha. I’m going to look through this book and see if there are more useful spells that you can try and we’ll try some more next week.” She nodded and picked up the book she had just forced off the table before leaving the room.
Dr. Timmus had not paid any attention to the book Eartha had taken with her. He had been too focused on looking through the ancient spell book. Eartha had taken the other copy of Advanced Techniques for Protection. Dr. Timmus had not thought that there would be more than one copy of this book in his library. He wasn’t entirely sure he wanted her to learn some of the spells that were in the book. She had been able to perform the Force Spell a little too easy. If she could force other people and objects away from her so easily what else could she accomplish after only a few tries. Eartha was sure that this was the key to her protection and sanity. She would be able to find something in the book that would help her build a wall around her mind so others would not be able to drain her anymore. She got back to her own tiny room and locked the door. She immediately flipped the book open and began to read about the spell right after the Force Spell.
Another useful spell is the Compliance Spell. If performed correctly you will have temporary control over your opponent. You must have perfect mind control to perform this spell. Without control you will not be able to get in your opponent’s mind. Most often your opponent will have control over their own mind, which makes it difficult to make them compliant. Once you have gained access into the mind of your opponent you must chant this spell:

Aya fortu fera atu. Mesa fera atu.

The chant is simple enough to remember, but remember without control over your opponents mind this spell will have no effect.

“How can I practice that?” she asked herself aloud. It’s not as though she could try that spell on Dr. Timmus he had his mind sealed up in a cocoon. She couldn’t try in on any of the teachers here. Most of them had extremely powerful control over their minds and those who didn’t were already afraid of her. It wouldn’t be very smart for her to start chanting some unknown language around them and scare them even more. They would just tell Dr. Timmus what she had done and he would not teach her anymore. She already knew that she had more power in her than about half of the teachers at this school. She also knew that if she kept studying with Dr. Timmus she would surpass all her teachers before she ever left the school. At times this knowledge frightened her and at other times she would have loved to abuse her power, but she never did. Her parents had warned her about misusing the power that was given to her. She must never use her power to do harm to others that were not as powerful. Using your power against the weak did not show your strength, but your cruelty. Maybe this wasn’t a good spell for her to learn after all. She flipped back to the beginning of the book and glanced at the table on contents. Near the end she found what she had been looking for, The Sacred Shield. She flipped towards the back of the book and found the chapter on the Sacred Shield.

The Sacred Shield
The Sacred Shield is an ancient tool used since the beginning of man’s time on Earth. It is theorized that men were originally all telepathic and that was the only form of communication used in the beginning. To protect their minds from being read by everyone certain tribes began to use shields to protect themselves from other tribes. This practice began many of the wars between tribes. Many believed that the use of shields showed deceit. They assumed that if they had to shield their thoughts it was because they were lying or trying to keep a secret from them. The tribes using the shields became arrogant about their newfound abilities and were eager to try other mind-altering spells. They finally discovered a way to block their minds from all other thoughts. Wars began to breakout within the tribes causing mass destruction and death. Eventually, the people who had begun to use the shields in the first place were starting to forget how to communicate through telepathy all together. Certain tribes had to resort to using a spoken language. In the end telepathy as a form of communication was lost almost entirely. Today, very few possess the ability to read and transmit thoughts, and to control the flow of thoughts we use the Sacred Shield.
The Sacred Shield is no longer used as a secretive measure to keep others out of one’s mind. Today, it is used as a means to filter out the rambling thoughts of others minds from just seeping into your thoughts. The Sacred Shield is not a typical spell. You do not need to chant it every time you want it to work. Instead, you perform a ceremony in private to focus on the energies and thoughts that you wish to block out of your mind. The Shield can be changed for the amount of thoughts you wish to receive. At moments you will not be able to use the Shield at all and at other times you will be able to block out every incoming thought and have complete silence. Sometimes this will be by your choice other times you will not be able to control what comes in.
The next few pages went on in detail about the ceremony to perform for the Sacred Shield to work. As she read through she realized she would not be able to do this on her own. She would need certain herbs and ingredients to perform the ceremony. Which meant she would need Dr. Timmus’ help and she would have to wait until he found the spell on his own. Then she would have to test the Shield out to see if it actually would block out emotions as well as the rambling thoughts. She tossed the book down on her bed in frustration. It bounced off and hit the floor. It flipped back open and she looked down at it. It had opened on the Compliance Spell again. “Aya fortu fera atu. Mesa fera atu,” she whispered, “I think I can remember that.” Just because she was trying to control someone’s mind temporarily didn’t mean she would make them do anything that would hurt them. She snuck out of her room and out into one of the hallways. She backed into a dark alcove and waited for some one to walk by. The problem was not many students were wandering around the hallways on Saturday afternoons. Most were in the dorms studying and those who weren’t were in the commons area goofing around. She couldn’t go into those areas because the students didn’t know her yet and she wasn’t supposed to go around them until Dr. Timmus could figure out a way to protect her mind from them. She waited in the alcove for fifteen minutes and was about to give up on anyone passing when she heard whistling. Someone was coming down the hallway towards her. She held her breath and waited to see if it was a student. She saw the person turn the corner, it was a student. A dark haired gangly looking boy. He had his hands shoved in his pockets and he had a look on his face like he was trying to figure out what mischief he could cause. She focused on the boy and tried to get close to his mind with her own. He stopped and looked around. He could feel someone nearby, but he couldn’t see where they were hiding. Good! She thought. This would give her more time to focus on his mind. Then she began her chant, “Aya fortu fera atu. Mesa fera atu. Aya fortu fera atu mesa fera atu,” the words began to come faster out of her mouth and they began running together, “Ayafortuferaatu mesaferaatu.” The boy could hear the sound and he was looking around for where it was coming from, but then a slightly dazed look came over his face. She stepped out of the shadows and looked at what she had done. She looked down the hall to see if anyone was coming and noticed that he looked at the same moment she did. She snapped her head back to look at him thinking he was not in a trance at all, but when his head snapped back to look at her she knew he had only looked because she had. Their minds were linked right now and he was doing whatever she was thinking. She had to give him a command or he would keep doing what ever she was doing. She got nervous. What if he stayed like this forever. Her eyes darted around looking for somewhere to tell him to go so she could go back to her room without him following her. His eyes rolled around in his head wildly mimicking her nervous behavior. “Sleep!” she finally hissed at him. He fell in a heap on the floor and his eyes closed immediately. She took off running back into her room. She couldn’t believe that had actually worked and she was actually kind of scared that it had. She raced into her room and slammed the door behind her. She clicked the lock and threw herself across her bed.
After a few minutes she lifted her head from where she had buried it under a pillow. She couldn’t believe what she had just done… was that kid still lying in the hallway asleep? She sat up and felt the cramp in her side. She had been lying on top of her book. She looked down at the spell again. Temporary. The spell was only temporary control over the other person’s mind. Thank God! She thought. Someone had probably found him by now or he had woken up on his own. She wonder if he knew what had happened… had he seen her when she stepped out of the shadows… or did the trance make you blind to the real world? He might be able to point out who had done that to him! Oh, God! Why hadn’t she thought about what she had been doing before she did it? If Dr. Timmus found out what she had done he would kick her out of the school. She was sure of it. She shoved the book under her bed and stood up. She felt light headed and weak. She grabbed the side of her desk to stop herself from falling over. What was this? Why did she feel so weak all of a sudden? She sunk down to her knees in the middle of the room. She was having trouble breathing and her face felt hot. Why was this happening now? Her ears were ringing and everything was slowly turning black. At the last moment she realized she was fainting… falling over… and the darkness swept over her like one heavy dark blanket forbidding her to move… even to dream…