Disclaimer: still no W.I.T.C.H. ownership for me. Sorry for the long wait for chapter too but I'm very happy to see my new story is getting some good reviews after such a long wait. It makes me want to write more and I'll do my best to update often. But Shagon seems to have cursed this fic. My first beta had trouble reading the files, then she got real busy. I got a new beta for this fic, thanks again FantasyFan551, but we then we had trouble getting each other's email until finally, Success! The next few chapter are already written so the updates should be a little quicker. This fic is going to get a bit darker from this point on but any good hero or heroin must overcome adversity in the darkest times to shine the brightest.
And now that we know both danger and tragedy approaches will anyone else? Surely they can feel…
Something in the Wind
Time passed rather quickly for W.I.T.C.H. and the boys. It was late October and the weather was becoming colder by the day. And while it had been quite, as far as life threatening battles were concerned, there was a chill in the air. You could feel it on the wind, there was danger approaching, and something bad was going to happen. At least that's what Will thought. But she didn't voice her concerns to the others thinking the upcoming holiday was the cause for her concern. A thought seemingly justified by Napoleon, Lillian's familiar, going stir crazy as the 31st approached.
Cornelia wasn't nearly as concerned, in fact, she was getting rather annoyed that her cat kept waking her up in the middle of the night, jumping at shadows, literally. But she really couldn't be blamed, with the lack of activity since the incident with Professor Sylla and Mr. Riddle everyone had let their guard down.
It was just what Nerissa and Shagon were waiting for. But the time was still not right to strike, they would not be rushed this time. Their time was coming, they could feel it in the wind.
Will was over Matt's house helping him clean out the garage that Sunday afternoon. She was hoping with her help they could be finished and still have time for a nice romantic dinner. Matt seemed to be anxious about finishing up as well. As he was trying to put a large box on the top shelf in the garage, while making sure the rest of them didn't fall on his heard, his cell phone rang from inside his backpack.
"Shoot!" he exclaimed still trying to keep the boxes from crashing down on him. "Will can you get that? Nigel and I have been playing phone tag all weekend since he lost his cell. I need to know if we're playing at the Halloween dance or not."
Will put down the box she had in her hand and reached for the phone. "Sure no problem." She answered even though she didn't recognize the number. Nigel was probably calling from a friend's cell. "Hello, Matt's phone."
"Will? Is that you? It's been such a long time." Will gasped as she recognized the voice on the other end.
"Mandy, how…nice to hear from you." she said sweetly through gritted teeth. Try as she might, she simply couldn't bring herself to like the girl who she considered a rival, both in swimming and for Matt's heart. She thought she was over her little jealously streak but it whenever she heard the two of them laughing at an in joke or even just talking Will eyes became as green as Shagon's. Somewhere in her mind Will knew Mandy wasn't mean or trying to steal Matt away from her, but the non rational part of her brain would always be jealous of the fact that Mandy had a connection to her boyfriend that she didn't.
"Nice to hear from you too. Say is Matt finished with the garage?" Mandy said in a happy but weird tone.
"Why do you want to know?" Will asked barely noticing.
"I wanted to talk to him about our plans this evening." Will's eyes narrowed. Surely Mandy wasn't telling her about plans with her boyfriend. Again the rational part of Will's brain wasn't functioning right at the moment so she did something equally irrational.
"Well I don't know what he was planning with you but he did say something about a romantic evening with me tonight." She smirked into the phone.
"Oh…" she heard Mandy say sounding disappointed. "I guess he forgot….are you sure?"
Hearing the utter sadness in the other girl's voice made her pause. Something was telling her to stop and that this was wrong. "Yeah, I'm pretty sure." There was silence on the other end and it was making Will uneasy. "Mandy?"
"Hu? Oh, never mind then. You two have fun."
"Are you OK, what was-"
"It's not important, I've got to go. Bye Will." Will wasn't sure but she thought she heard Mandy starting to cry as she hung up.
"Will?" She jumped hearing Matt's voice. "Who was it?" he said walking toward her to get another box.
"Ah…wrong number."
"Darn, I wish Nigel wound find his phone. At least I could call him." Will was now feeling really guilty about lying to him as well as a little uneasy. She didn't know why it was just…something in the wind.
A few hours later they were finished and Matt was glaring at his cell phone. "Great, no Nigel and now Mandy's not answering."
Will stiffened at the sound of the other girl's name. "And why would you be trying to get a hold of Mandy?" Matt gave her a sideways glance.
"Because today's her birthday and I wanted to know where she wanted to go out for dinner." Suddenly Will flushed red with embarrassment and shame.
"Her…birthday?"
"Yeah, that's why I wanted to finish the garage as soon as possible."
"Then why ask me for help?"
"Because she invited you too." Now Will felt terrible remembering the sad voice on the other end of end of the line and groaned.
"Will, what's wrong?" Knowing she was going to get it but feeling to need to cleanse her soul she confessed.
"She…called earlier. I…sort of said you made other plans."
"WILL!" he shouted waving his hands.
"I'm sorry, I didn't know it was her birthday and I thought-"
"You thought what? She was trying to make a date with me while talking to my girlfriend? Honestly!" She looked away, he must have been really mad to shout at her like that. The fact was, he was right.
"You don't see me flipping out every time I see you talking to Caleb do you?"
Will raised an eyebrow. "Caleb? But he's just a friend."
"My point exactly." He sighed willing himself to calm down. "Will, I love you. You're kind, thoughtful, beautiful, full of live and you've got a great heart. But this jealously side of you can be really unattractive."
He grabbed his bag and headed out the door. "Grandpa will give you a ride home."
"Wait, where are you going?"
"To Mandy's to apologize."
Will grabbed her own bag and tried to run after him. "Wait, I'll come with you."
"I think you've done enough for one evening." And with that he got in his car and left her in the dust. Will could only think that she screwed up, she just didn't know how bad.
I sense there's something in the wind
That feels like tragedy's at hand
And though I'd like to stand by him
Can't shake this feeling that I have
The worst is just around the bend
"Sally's Song" Preformed by Fiona Apple
The next day was Monday and Will felt like something you scrap off the bottom of your shoe. She met up with the other girls before class and told them the whole situation.
"So now I feel like a total ass and Matt never called me back. I'll bet he's still mad at me."
"Well your right." Irma said. "You did kind of act like an ass."
"IRMA!" Taranee scolded but Will just shook her head.
"No, she's right. What I did was horrible but, what am I supposed to do about it?"
Hay Lin looked thoughtful for a moment before answering. "Well, I think you should just bite the bullet and apologies to Mandy in person."
Taranee nodded in agreement. "She right Will, you need to make this up to both Mandy and Matt."
Will sighed but she knew her friends were right, she had to set things straight. "You're right, when I see Matt today I eat some humble pie and we'll go to Mandy's together so I can apologize for being an overly possessive girlfriend. I just hope he'll talk to me after last night."
"I wouldn't worry about it." Cornelia said tossing her hair. "That boy can't hold a grudge against you for long."
It may have made Will feel a little better for the moment but as they made their way to home room she could have sworn she felt something chilling in the wind.
Matt wasn't in school that day, and that made Will feel more then a little nervous. She decided she needed to check up on him even if he was still mad at her. She had a bad feeling all day and it wasn't going away. She tried calling him but her call went straight to voicemail. She took this opportunity to apologize to both him and Mandy and offered to see the girl herself and formally make it up to her. It was only a voice mail but she didn't want to wait until school let out.
She was planning on finding him after school. After he was kidnapped by Nerissa without her knowing last year, she wasn't taking any chances. She was about to leave after the last class when she saw Matt's best friend Nigel.
"Hey Nigel!" The boy turned around after hearing his name being call out and quickly recognized Matt's girlfriend.
"Will?" The girl ran up to him but she suddenly got nervous. She knew Matt was trying to get in touch with him yesterday and was worried that Matt had told him about what happened between her and Mandy.
"Were you able to find your cell phone? Matt was trying to get a hold of you yesterday." He seemed a little surprised by the question.
"Ah, yeah, I found it last night and told him we didn't get the gig, why?"
OK, so they had talked but did Matt say anything? Giving up on all pretenses Will told him straight. "Look Nigel, I don't know if he said anything to you last night but I was kind of rude and mean to Mandy when she called Matt yesterday." She didn't notice that he flinched after hearing that.
"Y-yeah, he mentioned it."
"Do you know why he didn't come to school today? Because I feel really bad about what I said and I need to apologize to both Matt and Mandy. He's not answering his cell and-"
"So…you haven't heard?" He said interrupting her. There was something in his tone that made her tense. Something was wrong.
"Heard what? Did something happen to him?!" She said growing more concerned by the moment.
"No but…" His silence did little to quell his fears.
"But what? What happened?!"
The red-headed boy looked Will in the face, eyes full of sorrow. "Will…Mandy died last night."
She felt like someone had just punched her in the gut. Her eyes went wide with horror. This couldn't be true! "Wh-what?"
Nigel took another deep breath and looked away. "Matt found her last night. He said…he said she killed herself."
To be continued…
Next time "Bad Day"
Matt's just lost his long time friend, and part of him believes Will is to blame. Grief stricken and confused by all his conflicting emotions for a moment, one single moment of weakness, he finds himself hating her. And that's just what Shagon's been waiting for.
