1. Birthday Boy

Gabriel Locket sped down the windy paved road lined with all sorts of trees in his sea foam green '69 VW Beetle. The soothing voice of Miike Snow swam through the air and out the windows into the crisp evening air of mid October as he sliced the bug with such ease around the tight corners of Horseshoe Bar Road. Deeper and deeper he carved his way into the still wild hills of Loomis, the small town just a few minutes north of Sacramento California. Gabriel must have driven down this road a thousand times, and though he probably drive it backwards with his eyes closed, there was something about the wild trees, the never-ending sky, the staring cows that made him feel like a trailblazer, discovering the road, paving the way for the rest of the world into the heart of Loomis.

The white house was dark and asleep when he pulled into the extended driveway of 9604 Drambuie Court. He lived with his father David Locket, and his two sisters, Alexus and Breanna, though the children would have been better off alone. The girls, they were twins, both ten, and would be eleven on May 29th, but today was Gabriel's birthday, had been Gabriel's birthday, October eleventh. Eighteen years old, thank you very much, quite a big deal. The celebration, if you would care to call it a celebration, had already came and gone. His half drunk father got enough Chinese food for himself, apparently forgetting he had three mouths to feed, and Gabriel had to scrape the bottom of the fridge to get something for his sisters to eat.

Being eighteen, his dad thought he should get his son something special, so last minute mind you, he ran out to the local drug store and got an iTunes gift card worth fifteen dollars for Gabriel. His poor sisters, embarrassed and ashamed, made him a card from some old construction paper, and each wrote him a beautiful note. They felt horrible for not getting him anything, but with their father either drunk or hung over all the time, they didn't exactly have the money or the transportation to go to the mall for him. From his mom, Gabriel got something special.

"Dear Gabe," the card from his mom read, she always called him Gabe,

"Oh how I miss you! You don't even understand. It's only been three months and I am bored out of my mind! Massachusetts is a drag, I don't care what you say, its a drag, beautiful yes, but a drag.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Happy birthday to YOU! Happy birthday to YOU! I know we celebrated before you left, but I couldn't resist. I saw this and HAD to get it. It called out to me, GABRIEL! GABRIEL! I hope you just love it.

I know things are tough there, trust me I know, but just try and bear it. Your father loves you! No matter how much you think otherwise he does.

I hope your day is just fantastic! I love you so much! Keep sending me letters, I need to keep sane. KISS KISS! Tell the girls I say hi and I Love them! I love you so much! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!

-Mom
P.S. Have some chocolate, it will make you feel better.

He smiled at that last part. Gabriel stroked the long black, curling hair that hung in front of his face as he began to read the short note again, for the ninth time. With a large huff, he finished and starred at the black walls of his rather large bedroom. Poor Gabriel was shoved into the guest bedroom on the first floor, right next to the entry hall and the front door, while his dad sprawled out in the master bedroom and put his sisters in the room next to him.

He looked at the clock, 11:14. His father fell asleep at eleven, so it was probably safe for him to open the brown package on his lap. He would never even think about opening it in front of his dad for several reasons, but he could now.

Delicately, he untied the brown cord that kept the black paper in place around the tiny package. He treated everything from his mother like it was gold. Pulling away the rope, and tearing away the paper, his heart fluttered in anticipation. His mother always got him the best stuff.

A small black box, with gold borders sat in his lap now. He pulled the lid off and peered inside. There, sitting on the soft black velvet, was a clear sapphire wrapped in a silver cord and attached to a long, silver chain. Slowly, he lifted it out and squinted into the rock. It was rough and jagged, old and beautiful like the moon. The clear stone was almost glowing in the darkness of the room, lighting up his black eyes, his pale face. His gaze fell down to the box. There was a small card in it that he didn't see before, pressed up against one of the walls. Pulling at the card, he picked it up and flipped it over. He had seen one of these before.
There was a picture of the rock on it, and a word underneath. Motus

He smiled widely, and shot up from his bed. Lunging for the door, me grabbed his black bathrobe and landed on both feet with a soft thud. At the door he came to a stop, and after a deep breath, slowly he pushed on the wood. It cracked open silently and he tip-toed into the dark hallway, watching the end of the stairs down at the far end of the house. He waited there for a moment, waiting for his dad to appear. But he didn't, and before he could conjure second thoughts, he was off.

He pulled on the gold handle of the front door, and it cracked open with an almost silent creak. With one foot, he slipped through the openeing, just wide enough to fit his six foot something body that was thinner than a piece of paper, and took off for the rocks.

Now Loomis was a small town, a farm town with lots of trees, grass, hills, wild animals, and big houses. Gabriel's house no exception. He lived in a small development of rather large homes called "Sterling Point". Nothing was ever overgrown in Sterling Point. Each house, each mansion was perfectly framed in trees and bushes and vines that separated the lots. They ranged anywhere from one acre, to seven. His house at 9604 Drambuie Court, sat in the middle of an achier and a half. A long, narrow driveway led up the front of the house and swung around to the back. On the left side of the driveway, when looking down it at the house, was a large lawn of grass and trees. And just beyond that was Gabriel's neighbor, and the last house on the street before the road ended. And on the other side of the driveway, the right side was a huge outcropping of rocks that made for beautiful scenery. What many people didn't know was that there was a flat clearing at the top of the rocks, the very highest point of the property.
Gabriel eyed the boulders, and took off toward them. He climbed around the back, where the land wasn't too steep to climb, and minute later was at the top. The outcropping hid the clearing at the top of the rocks from the house and the driveway and the road, a perfect place for secret things. Gabriel headed for the tall oak, sitting in the middle of the small clearing, the roots of the monster tree rippling through the earth below. Right at the base of the trunk, one of the roots had a large stone shoved up against it where Gabriel knelt down and placed the box at his side. He cleared away the dirt from the stone, like he had done a thousand times before, and pulled it away, like he had done a thousand times before.
A small hole in the ground, bordered by the roots of the tree, held home to Gabriel's most valuable and secret treasures, all accept for a ring that he wore on his third finger. Books, boxes, orbs, slates, and coins filled the space of the small hole. He looked over each one, remembering exactly when he got them from his mom. He knelt down, and gently, he pushed aside the books and boxes toward the back of the hole, and grabbed hold of a large long box. He pulled it out, careful not to turn it upside down or on its side, his heart began to pump, filling him with adrenaline, and trying to contain himself, he took a deep breath and slowly opened the box. He lifted away the ribbon to reveal a specially carved, sixteen inch, willow, wand.

It had a curved handle that was carved into the head of a horse at the end. Along the side of the handle were carvings and symbols, and the curve straitened out to a long, strait shaft and a point. He grabbed it by the handle, where the symbols were, so that the curve fit perfectly in his hand, and the horse's head rested around his pinkie finger.

For a moment, he simply watched it, and loved how it fit him perfectly. His mind wandered to when he turned eleven, only seven years ago to the day, the best and worst day of his life. The wand was excited to see him, happy it didn't have to wait in that box any longer.

Gabriel put the small black card on the ground, held the stone in his left hand and his wand in his right. He read over the card again, took a deep breath, focused hard on the clear stone, and muttered,

"Motus."

A light sparked in the stone as it rocked back and forth. Suddenly, it began to change colors. First black, then purple, yellow, blue, red, orange, white, green, and black again. Slowly, the black faded and once again it grew clear. Gabriel pulled the chain over his neck, and the stone rested perfectly at the heart of his chest. A color faded in. A blue green, vibrant with color and life. Gabriel smiled, and tried hard not to hold back laughter.

"Whooooooh whooh! Whooooooooooooh!" a small, black, barn owl cooed from a branch of the oak tree.

"Jasper," Gabriel whispered. The owl stretched open its dark wings, and hoped down, catching what wind he could till he landed on the large tree root.

"Coooooh," it swooned as Gabriel stroked his small head. He noticed the green stone and pecked at it.

"Its a Pith Pinch," he told Jasper, "it knows what I am feeling and what others are feeling too. It can tell me what your feeling."

The owl turned its head sideways, watching Gabriel with wide eyes. Gabriel put the stone up to his ear, and the stone turned a sort of yellow purple.

"You're curious," Gabriel told him. The owl shook his feathers in agreement. Suddenly, the rock turned black, and Gabriel's eyes opened wide. He stood up and turned toward the house.

"Dad's awake."

He bent down and placed his wand back in the box, and carefully put it back in the hole. He shoved the large rock in its place and covered the edges with dirt. Jasper hopped up the trunk of the tree and cooed softly.

"I got to go. I'll see you later boy," He whispered as he took off down the outcropping. Jasper watched him, his head cocked and eyes wide.

Gabriel bounded fiercely, but silently down the rocks to the large front door. He cracked it open and slipped past lunging for his door on his right. He shot a glance at the staircase, and a light turned on upstairs. He slipped into his room and pressed the door nearly shut, but left it open just enough to peer through. He watched silently through the crack as his dad, half asleep, stumbled down the steps still drunk from Gabriel's birthday, and tripped into the kitchen where Gabriel could no longer see him. He listened as David Locket opened the freezer, mumbled and groaned, and stumbled back into the hallway and up the stairs with an icepack on his forehead.

The light upstairs went off, and Gabriel listened for any movement. He lowed his gaze to the stone on his chest. It started to fade from black to blue. Then it cleared up completely. Gabriel sighed in relief. Exhausted, he stood and shuffled back to his bed in the middle of the large, but blank room.

He was afraid of his father. Gabriel was a powerful wizard, but his dad was a scary muggle. His parents got divorced when Gabriel was twelve when father found out that his mother was teaching him magic, a profession that she had neglected to tell her husband about. They were divorced a month later, and magic was banned from the house. But that didn't stop Gabriel. He practiced whenever he could, and when he lived with his mother during the summers, she caught him up on everything he would have learned from going to Cobblecot School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in Cambridge Massachusetts, a place his father would never allow anyone to speak of. But Gabriel was a fast learner, and actually was learning things that were years ahead of him. So leaving his mom to come back to the dark world of Loomis was not exactly a happy thought for Gabriel.

He pulled his robe off and left it on the floor, jumped into bed, clasped the stone in his hand, closed his eyes, and dreamed of his mother, Rose.