Her Evil Thoughts
CHAPTER ONE
It was the thirtieth of May; in other words, Musa d'Melody's birthday. She had been up for some hours now, walking around the lake at the back of the house.
What is so great about having the power of musical energy, if you don't even know WHERE TO BEGIN on controlling it?! Musa thought angrily, kicking a pebble, which exploded into a thousand pieces.
"Urgh!" she threw her hands up, and stormed inside.
Now that she was thirteen, her powers had reached their full potential, and all of a sudden every little thing she did caused some huge, destructive (and totally unexpected) reaction. Like this morning, when she'd been skipping pebbles across the lake: out of nowhere, this sonic shock rippled through the lake, and every ounce of water in there shot up, and came raining down on her, and everything else nearby. Where had it come from? Musa had no idea; her only guess was that this was another reaction to her new, fully enhanced powers that she had yet to learn how to control.
The back door shocked her upon re-entry, as did every nearly every other metal thing, it seemed. When she sat on her bed, feeling the usual energy spread through her body, Musa tried to get up. "N—n—no!"
Too late. Her bed jumped up at least three feet, throwing poor Musa up to the ceiling, and landing with a loud CRASH!
"Musa?!" Her dad stuck his head in the door. His voice sounded accusing. "What in the nine realms was that noise?"
"Oh, uh, you know..." Musa cut herself short, not knowing what to say. Oh, I'm sorry, Dad, but I just sat on my bed and it threw me a relative eight feet in the air! Like he'd believe that, even if it is the truth!
"Yeah?" her dad pursued her.
"Oh, you know, just tried a new spell and it totally backfired. So, uh, is that barbecue I smell?" Musa covered, quickly changing the subject. As much as she hated lying to her dad, she knew he'd never have believed her; after all, he met Mura when they were about thirteen, and nothing strange had occurred. All my family has been weak up to me, so why was it me who got this destructive power?
"—it's that new brand, Chardly, and, hey, Musa, are you listening?"
Musa had tuned in just in time. "Oh, yeah. You were saying? About some new barbecue sauce brand?"
"Oh, well, it just got shipped here from Adquistes and—"
"I've gotta go!" Musa interrupted, crossing her legs to prove her point.
"Oh, uh, go then!" Her father's face flushed, embarrassed he hadn't realized beforehand.
As she sat back down at the table, her father introduced the first topic of conversation that popped into his head. "So, how was the bathroom?"
"Dirty. You should clean it." Musa nearly smirked; this was how she was used to things.
"Well, yeah, your mom was the one who cleaned it, so..."
Her father would introduce wherever she'd just been as the topic of interest; she make some sarcastic remark; he'd stammer some reply that usually had to do with her mother; they would eat in silence; and then Musa would ask how the Octavians (her father's favorite football team) was doing in the championships (or however far along they were at the time).
"—and then, Number 14 makes this awesome pass to 20, who manages to score a touch-down in the last fifteen seconds! How's that for a thrilling game!"
"Uh, great, Dad...!"
"What's with you?" He could tell Musa was uninterested. "You usually love my football stories."
Seeing her dad's puppy dog face, she immediately acted perky. "Oh, well, yeah! I mean, in the last fifteen seconds?! That's incredible, Dad!"
Later that night, she picked up her flute and began playing. Naturally, my flute is able to cure any stress I've had all day! She relaxed, letting the music fill her room, when suddenly her notes started to go from normal, to faster, to higher, then became so loud she could barely stand it. Dropping the flute to the floor in anguish she looked in the mirror and thought: What is wrong with me?
Not wanting to go another round with the bed, she decided to try to siphon some of her power by doing a matter-merge exercise. She breathed in. "Okay. This is one of this simplest spells. You can do this, Musa, just focus." She pointed her finger at the set of crayons on the desk, and concentrated. The crayons became one big, multi-colored crayon, just as she'd envisioned. "So far, so good."
She pointed again, only to cause a sonic blast which charred her chair, and tossed her burnt behind to the ground.
"Ow...I cut my wrist." Tears stinging her eyes, she sucked the blood in while she hunted for a band-aid. "Here we go," she said, taping the sticky cotton to her wrist.
There's got to be something I can do about this crazy power! There's got to be! Musa thought, her eyes landing on "Simple Spells and Charms for the Beginner," an elementary textbook. Picking it up, she brushed off her chair and sat down. Opening to the index, she recalled all the things Torrenuvula Elementary had taught her. With such happy memories on her mind, Musa realized just how much she did miss being a regular kid—that is, before her powers got out of hand. Maybe this book can help. It was both a thought, and a question as to whether it really could.
Forcing all her strength to kindle the small flame of hope she had inside of her, Musa turned to page ninety-five: "When dealing with a stressful amount of power, either your own or an opponent's..." Musa skimmed the page until she found what she was looking for. Top Five Ways to Deal With an Uncontrolled Essence. Reading late into the night, Musa eventually fell asleep crouched over the book.