Chosen Chapter 3: Under The full Moon
Chapter 3 of the Chosen series. It is advised to read the previous chapters before reading this one.
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A little before midnight, Violet walked down the street next to Billie. Before them walked Duncan and Mikelle, along with Tyler. They were all on their way back to campus while a full moon lit the black sky above them. The group had just been to the movies and had watched a romantic comedy science film Billie and Violet wanted to see and the guys hated. As she walked behind them, she could hear the guys and Mikelle complaining about the movie. Meanwhile Billie was texting someone on her phone and not paying attention. Violet remained silent and stared ahead, but she could stop her eyes from wandering to Duncan. During the short time they had known each other he had become a good friend. He was just a friend, but Violet couldn't deny the fact that she was crushing on him a little. Ever since a few days he had been on her mind constantly. She couldn't stop thinking about him.
"Enjoying the view?" Billie suddenly asked.
While a little confused, Violet realized she was staring right at Duncan's butt as he walked in front of her. She quickly adverted her eyes and felt embarrassed.
"It's okay to look, you know, he has a cute butt." Billie said so loud Violet freaked out.
"Shut up. What if he hears you? " Violet whispered panicky. Luckily the group in front of them was so busy talking they didn't hear a thing.
"When are you going to ask him out?" Billie asked, ignoring her panic.
"I don't know, never." Violet said. "I don't even know if he's interested."
"Only one way to find out." Billie replied.
"But what if he says no, it will be awkward and stuff. We're part of this whole destiny thing together." Violet said. "Something like this could ruin everything."
"Vi, if there is one thing I've learned as a witch, it's that you can't put your personal life on hold." Billie said. "That is what the Charmed Ones have taught me."
"I don't know. I'll think about it." Violet replied.
The group kept on walking and passed a large park, the campus was on the other side of the park. Suddenly the group in front of them stopped at the entrance and turned around.
"Hey guys, if we talk the shot cut through the park we'll be home in a few minutes." Duncan suggested.
"Through the park?" Violet asked. The park looked scary and dark at night. She didn't want to go through it.
"It's shorter." Duncan said.
"I don't know. I try to avoid dark, remote locations like that." Billie said.
"Why? You're witches, you can defend yourselves." Tyler remarked.
"It's because we're witches that I try to avoid them." Billie said. "Freaky stuff always happens just when we're around."
"What do you think, Mikelle?" Violet asked.
"I don't really care one way or the other." Mikelle shrugged. "Though it is getting pretty late. I promised Paige and Henry I'd bring Tyler home in time."
"Hey, I am seventeen!" Tyler said offended. "It's cool you guys asked me to go to the movies, since I don't know anyone at my new school yet, but I don't need babysitters."
"Why don't you just orb Tyler home?" Billie suggested. "There is no point in you following us all the way to campus. Your apartment is on the other side of town."
"I guess, I mean, it's personal gain, but I've done worse." Mikelle said as she shrugged.
"Come on, it's Friday." Tyler said. "It's not like I have school in the morning."
"Look, I promised Paige, so I am orbing you home." Mikelle said.
"Fine." Tyler said reluctantly. "Guess I'll see you guys later."
"I'll see you tomorrow, right?" Mikelle said. "We got some magical training to do."
Mikelle grabbed Tyler by the arm and the whitelighter and firestarter disappeared in a column of orbs after making sure nobody was watching them.
"So Duncan, how'd you like the movie?" Violet said, changing the topic.
"Honestly, I don't know why I let you drag me to some chick flick romantic comedy." Duncan said. "I would have rather gone to that horror movie."
"Well, that's the price you pay for hanging out with girls all the time." Billie said. "You never had a girlfriend drag you to the movies?"
Violet gave Billie a dirty look for bringing up the word girlfriend. She knew she was trying to figure out if Duncan was interested. She never asked for help. For girls like Billie, the pretty girls, dealing with boys was completely different. Violet had struggled with her insecurities about boys her whole life, she had never even had a boyfriend, while Billie must have had plenty.
"Not really." Duncan said. "But I did spent most of my life stuck in Magic School, so going to the movies was never really a thing there. That is exactly why I decided to attend mortal college."
"So what did you do for fun if you had a date?" Billie asked.
"I think we should keep moving." Violet interrupted. "I don't want to go through the park, so it's still quite walk and I'm pretty tired."
"Okay, so we'll skip the park." Duncan said.
The group continued walking and Billie slowed her pace so that she fell behind on Duncan and Violet. As Violet looked back, she saw Billie not so subtlety signaling her to talk to Duncan and making silly faces. Luckily Duncan didn't seem to notice, since he was searching through his pockets instead.
"Did you lose something?" Violet asked.
"I'm not sure yet." Duncan said as he stopped and continued to go through his pockets.
"What's going on?" Billie asked.
"Have you seen my wallet?" Duncan asked with a concerned look.
"No." Violet and Billie said.
"I don't have it, I think I left it at the movies." Duncan said.
"Well, they're still open, I think." Billie said. "You should go check. We'll wait here."
"No, it's okay." Duncan said. "You guys go ahead, I'll see you tomorrow."
"Are you sure?" Billie asked.
"Yeah, I really need my wallet back." Duncan said. "It's no problem."
Duncan turned and started running back to the movie theatre. Violet immediately had an uneasy feeling about it, though she tried to ignore it. It was probably her crush acting up. Like Duncan said, they were witches and could defend themselves, what could possibly happen? She stared at the full moon for a second and turned to Billie, continuing their way around the park to the campus.
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Meanwhile, in the park, another college student was out of her daily run. Her name was Abby and she was a short, blonde freshman. She didn't mind running at night, since she preferred the peace and quiet and had taken self defense lessons at school. That way, if some creep showed up, she'd be able to kick his ass despite her small size.
After running a circle around the park, Abby stopped at a bench near the fountain to have a drink from her water bottle. She unplugged her music and sat down on the edge of the fountain, running her hand through the water. Her run had exhausted her, she hadn't practiced for a while and needed to get back in shape.
Suddenly there was a rustle in the bushes and Abby jumped up. It sounded like there was something large in the bushes, too large and loud to be a simple animal.
"Hello?" Abby called out. "Anyone there?"
Suddenly the rustle came from behind her, she quickly spun around and watches her surroundings, but nothing was there. Then the bushes started rustling again and she heard a deep growl. Abby screamed, dropped her bottle to the ground, and started running. As she ran, she screamed for help but the park was abandoned. She felt whatever was after her getting closer, she could almost feel it's breath on her neck.
As she passed a tree, Abby suddenly tripped over a root under the stones and fell to the ground. She turned around and tried to get up and crawl away, but before she could, a dark shadow jumped on her and started tearing her to pieces, mixing her screams with its loud growls.
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A little while later, Duncan left the theatre right as they closed down. The cleaners had found his wallet on the stairs, so it must have fallen out as he put on his jacket. As it was getting colder, Duncan zipped up his jacket and started walking home, wishing he had a teleportation power. Tonight had been fun, hanging out with friends, going to the movies, those were the kinds of normal experiences he had missed at Magic School. He was glad he had made the decision to come here, despite what his family thought about it. Only next time he would pick the movie, a romantic comedy wasn't his idea of a good movie.
Duncan stopped when he reached the entrance to the park again. He wasn't really interested in walking all the way around it, so he decided to take the shortcut through the park. He wondered why the others were so hesitant to take this route. It was twice at fast and the path was lit enough with lanterns. Surely there was nothing to worry about, and even if something happened, Duncan always had his powers or a quick spell to protect himself.
After walking a bit, Duncan suddenly nearly tripped over something. He balanced himself to avoid falling over and turned around to see what nearly tripped him. Then his heart nearly stopped. There, on the ground, lay the body of a girl, covered in blood and with a huge ripped open wound on her chest. Her eyes were wide open in terror.
Duncan, freaked out, tried to control himself from screaming and took a step back. He wondered what could have killed that girl, it looked like a wild animal attack. Suddenly, Duncan heard a deep and menacing growl. He looked ahead and saw a monster standing a few feet away from him, huge and hairy, with glowing yellow eyes and huge teeth.
"Oh, crap." Duncan whispered desperately.
His mind raced for a solution, since the beast looked it was about to attack him. He put his hand behind his back and conjured something. The beast noticed and growled, prepared to strike. Suddenly the beast leaped forward and Duncan fired the crossbow he had conjured. The arrow struck the beast in the side and it howled in pain and anger.
Duncan turned and started running while the crossbow in his hand dissolved. He was to freaked out to focus on maintaining it. He needed to get away, maybe he could call Mikelle, although she could never orb in time without getting torn apart as well. In the distance, he noticed a phone booth and ran toward it as he heard the beast coming nearer.
As he arrived at the booth, Duncan quickly opened it and got in, though before he could close it, the beast slashed his arm open. He cried out in pain and he slammed the door shut. Meanwhile, the beast kept pounding at the booth until it was knocked over. However, when it realized it couldn't get in, it let out a frustrated growl and ran away.
Freaked out, Duncan waited as he clutched his painful arm. After a few minutes, it seemed like the beast had disappeared. Duncan conjured an athame to defend himself and crawled out of the booth. When the coast seemed clear, he started running toward the campus and didn't stop until he was safely outside the park and inside the door building. Once inside, he let out a relieved sigh before checking his arm, which had three deep bleeding claw marks across it.
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The following morning, Violet headed to the dorm hall for breakfast, where she met Billie at a table near the window after getting herself some breakfast. When she had gotten home last night, she had almost instantly fallen asleep, though she was still a little tired.
"Pleasant dreams?" Billie asked with a smirk.
"Are you going to keep teasing me about this Duncan thing?" Violet asked.
"Just a little." Billie said innocently. "I am just playing with you. I want it to work, you two would be great together."
"I don't know." Violet said.
"What are you so afraid of?" Billie asked.
"Look, this is a little embarrassing." Violet whispered. "But I have never actually been with a guy before. I mean, I once kissed a boy during camp, but that was during spin the bottle. I always get too nervous to talk when I meet a boy I like."
"So you never, you know…?" Billie asked.
"No. Have you?" Violet asked.
"Yeah." Billie replied. "When I was in high school I had this boyfriend after a while, it just happened. My parents were gone for the weekend and he was so awkward and clumsy about it. It was cute, though it wasn't really good. He got better later on."
"I am so jealous." Violet replied.
"Don't be, he turned out to be an ass." Billie said. "I caught him kissing a dumb cheerleader a few weeks later and I dumped him."
Suddenly, a group of guys came walking by and one of them was checking out Billie. He was a tall guy with short black hair and light grey eyes. He wore a football jersey and was really handsome. He looked like one of those popular jock types that used to bully kids like Violet in school while dating the pretty girls like Billie. The guys sat down at a table a few feet away, but the guy kept staring and eventually came walking over.
"Hey, you're Billie, right?" the guy asked.
"I am, and who might you me?" Billie asked.
"I'm Craig, we met at that frat party once." He said. "I asked you to dance, but you had to take your drunk friend home, so you stood me up."
"Oh yeah." Billie said. "Sorry, my friend Taylor really needed my help."
"How about you make it up to me?" Craig asked. "There is a really cool band performing at a club called P3 tomorrow night. Do you know it?"
"Of course. Any chance you got a cute friend for my friend here?" Billie asked as she nodded to Violet, much to her shock.
"Sure." Craig said as he looked at Violet.
"Great, we'll meet you there." Billie replied.
"Cool." Craig said with a smile. "See you tomorrow."
Billie smiled back at him as Craig turned and walked back to his friends. Meanwhile, Violet angrily kicked Billie under the table. She felt so embarrassed Billie had just done that to her, as if she was some pathetic girl that needed to be set up by her friend.
"Why would you do that?" Violet snapped at Billie.
"Seriously, did you not see that body?" Billie replied. "I'm sure he got tons of hot friends just like that. Come on, it will be fun."
"A minute ago, you were trying to set me up with Duncan." Violet said.
"Yeah, but you're not doing anything about it." Billie said. "Sometimes, guys needed to be reminded what a catch is right in front of them. Right now, Duncan is oblivious, perhaps he'll start to notice you once another guy in interested."
"You want to make him jealous?" Violet asked.
"It's just how their minds work." Billie said. "Duncan just needs to see how hot you really are, so we'll let him see through another pair of eyes."
"Fine." Violet said. "But just for one night!"
Violet continued eating her breakfast while Billie continued flirting with Craig over at the other table. For Violet, it felt like high school all over again. She knew Billie was trying to help, but she was just not comfortable dealing with stuff like this. She liked Duncan, and she would rather figure things out her own way. When Violet looked at the time, she started to wonder where Duncan was. They were supposed to meet Mikelle in half an hour. She picked up her phone and texted him, thinking he probably overslept.
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The sound of his phone buzzing caused Duncan to wake up from a troubled sleep. He reached for his nightstand, but his phone wasn't there. He turned in bed and shifting on his other arm and felt a sudden sharp jab of pain. He sat up and looked at his upper arm, which had a torn towel wrapped around it covered in dried blood. He removed the towel and saw three deep claw marks carved into his flesh. Then he suddenly remembered how he was attacked last night and how he got back here. He had wrapped the towel around his arm and had fallen asleep after taking a few pain pills. Strangely, the claw marks seemed like they were already healing, as it if happened days ago.
Duncan wondered what that thing was that had attacked him last night, but his memories were a little fuzzy. Perhaps it was a bear or a wolf or something like that. He could not remember clearly. Suddenly, his phone started buzzing again and Duncan looked around. He saw his jeans lying on the floor across the room and got out of bed. When he picked up his phone he noticed a text from Violet and a missed call. He then remembered he was supposed to meet the others for magical training, but there was no way he was able to train now. He texted back that he was sick and dropped down on his bed, still tired.
A strange feeling came over Duncan. He felt tired and strange and wondered if it had something to do with the slashes on his arm. He needed to find out what had attacked him. He considered calling for Mikelle to heal him, but he decided that it was better to find out what had attacked him first. The wound was already healing anyway and it didn't hurt that much. However, that thing needed to be indentified and stopped before it killed or hurt someone again. Luckily, he knew the perfect place to find the answers he needed.
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