Chapter 4. Impossible

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The morning that Wren left for the Castle was cool. The wind swept through the basically deserted streets, pounding on the doors and rattling the windows. It wasn't the nicest morning, and everyone who was lucky enough not to have to go to work was indoors, asleep or continuing their daily lives inside.

They were the lucky ones.

That exact though was going through the mind of a lone figure. He was being buffeted by the wind, keeping an arm up in front of his face as if to ward it off. His long dark hair whipped around his sullen, irritated face, and his dark gray Manuscriptorium robes flew out behind him like voluminous grey wings. The figure looked, though he did not know it, rather intimidating.

Merrin Meredith did not feel intimidating right then. He struggled to tame his Manuscriptorium robes and wrapped his cloak a little tighter around him. This was no easy task, for it was flying out in all directions like the kite of a child, and refused to do as it told him. Eventually Merrin gave up and resigned to shivering for the rest of the walk. He ran a hand through his messy dark hair and sighed irritably. Even in summer the mornings were cool here; was it too much to ask for a little sunshine every morning?

"I love the Forest at this time, it's always so warm..."

Merrin yawned and stretched sleepily, trudging out of the Palace gates. His legs felt like lead as he followed the cobblestone path up the Wizard Way. Towards the Manuscriptorium. Merrin groaned inwardly; why on earth anyone would want to begin work at 8 o 'clock was completely beyond him, but that was Jilie Djin's idea, not his. If he ran the Manuscriptorium, work would begin at 10 o 'clock at earliest.

But he didn't.

So there he was, walking around the Castle at twenty past seven, waiting for work to start.

Awesome.

Merrin yawned again, and he rubbed his eyes as he walked – as slowly as possible – up the Wizard Way. His limbs were heavy and he was very tired, but he knew he wouldn't be able to go back to sleep. Not that he really wanted to, what with the girl's screams still ringing in his ears.

"Help me, Merrin!"

"Please!"

He shuddered and hugged himself, glaring at the ground like he could burn a hole in it. Why did it have to be him who was haunted with these dreams? Why was it that he was the one who had to watch helplessly while invisible forces took away the only girl who bothered to listen to him? Why was his name the only one that she screamed? Merrin glared, he bet that Septimus Heap guy didn't have dreams like that. He bet that he wasn't woken up every morning with screams in his ears and Darkenesse around him. He had plenty of girls who all wanted to talk to him, and he didn't have to worry about losing them.

Why did he have to spared of this, while Merrin woke in a sweat every night. He was just as good-looking as he was, wasn't he?

Why Him?

Merrin looked over at a teenaged girl who was setting up for the morning's sales. The daughter of Una Bracket, Merrin knew, for she often came to the Manuscriptorium on errands for her mother. What was her name again? Jo? Josey? Josephine! Josephine Bracket. She had chest-length strawberry blonde hair that she generally wore up in a "regal" looking bun, and grey eyes that were somewhat suggestive when they looked at boys guys her age. She was one of Septimus' many groupies, and one of the most devoted. It was rumored that once she had stolen his Apprentice belt and would only give it back in exchange for a night with him. Merrin believed that the pig-head had gotten his friends to get it back instead. Not surprisingly, Josephine Bracket didn't have the best reputation in the Castle. She caught his gaze across the street and flashed him a suggestive smile. He shuddered.

Merrin had gotten his share of sleezy glances when she came to the Manuscriptorium, and he didn't enjoy them one bit. He felt sorry for her, to be honest, just thinking about the type of boys she spent time with when not with Septimus. The Ex-Young Army boys had a reputation almost as bad as her's. As unpleasant as he normally was, Merrin couldn't imagine how guys could treat girls like that. Like they were their property. It disgusted him. If he could find his dream girl... well he didn't know what he would do, but it wouldn't be what the Ex-Young Army boys did to Josephine Bracket, that's for sure.

"Come on, Merrin! You'll have to wait another full day for the clearing to look this beautiful if we miss it!"

"Nothing like it. Not in the whole world, I'll tell you."

Merrin kicked at a stone angrily and sent it spiraling down the cobblestone street. He needed to find a way to kill some time before work, something to do, something to take his mind off of his- his problems. That's what he would call them. He didn't know what, but he knew that if he didn't do something soon, he would explode!

"Of course not! I'd never forget you, silly boy!"

"Never, I promise."

By this time, Merrin had almost reached the Manuscriptorium's big purple door. Number thirteen Wizard Way, home of the Magykal Manuscriptorium and Spell Checkers Incorporated. He looked up at the huge clock tower along the Way, hoping that somehow time would've sped up and it would time for work.

7:25.

Fabulous. 35 minutes.

"Don't mind what the Castle-dwellers say! What do they know about us?"

"Nothing, that's for sure! Hahahaha!"

Merrin sighed, clenching his fists in annoyance. He couldn't get her voice out of his head. Laughing and carefree, warm and mischievous, or laced with fear. Whatever it was, it churned his belly and made him want to throw up. He couldn't do this anymore! Suddenly, he whirled around and took off down the Way, back towards the Palace. He took a turning and ran down an alleyway, then a back way, then another street; he didn't know for how long he ran, but he just kept running.

"I love to run, don't you? It's like you can fly..."

Merrin loved to run. When he ran he felt like he could grow wings and fly away from everything, from anyone who looked at him like he was worthless, who treated him like dirt, who couldn't see past the Darkenesse he couldn't escape. Merrin could fly away...

Disappear.

Go away.

Leave.

Forever.

At least, for as long as his legs would allow him to run for- which was generally a long while. While Merrin may not have exactly been the strongest looking guy in the Castle, he had amazing stamina. He could run for hours, faster than anyone he knew. When he needed to blow off steam, he would run. Just run. He never knew where to, but somehow his legs took him to the same place every time.

The North Lookout Tower.

Somehow, looking out at the lands beyond the Castle walls comforted Merrin. Just peering into the Forest, or past the Mountains, or over at the Sheeplands. Wherever he looked, he just felt calm. It was the only place in the Castle where he could think, for he had outgrown his "Secret Place" in the Palace wainscoting after Barney Pott had ratted on him for stealing Aunt Zelda's Safecharm when he was thirteen. The place had been discovered and was now used as a storage place for the Heap family's books.

And they had a lot of books.

Merrin had been annoyed at first, having lost the only place in the Castle where he could retreat to with no fear of being discovered. But after he had started running to clear his head and discovered the Lookout, he was glad to be rid of it. Plus, there was no danger of getting locked in now. The Lookout Tower was for the public, but since there were so many stairs, it was rarely visited. And it never got dark up there, for the morning sun hit it first, and a gas lamp was lit every night.

It was Merrin's favorite place.

Climbing steadily up the stairs, smiled to himself. The Lookout Tower had the added bonus of being one of the highest vantage points in the Castle. For anyone who might've had an illogical fear of heights, it wasn't the ideal place to go.

In short, no chances of being bothered by that pig-headed idiot who had stolen his name.

None at all.

Merrin reached the top of the staircase, breathing a little hard. Stretching his muscles and waiting for his heart rate to return to normal, he crossed to the window that looked out over the Forest. Merrin leaned on his forearms and let the morning wind toss his thick dark hair this way and that. He closed his eyes, enjoying the breeze.

He could stay here forever.

He really could.

Just looking out at the lands beyond the Castle, dreaming of places to travel.

Just dreaming…

A boy and girl sat in the dirt under a huge tree, gazing up at the sky. A Hawk was circling above them, riding the invisible currents of the wind and cawing to it's mate. The boy and girl sat, content, next to each other.

"I wish i could fly." the boy murmured up to the sky.

"Me too."

"Just to be able to look down on whoever you wanted to, and they would have no idea, you know? You could sneak up on anyone..."

"Hmm..." the girl thought about that. "I never thought of it that way..."

"No? What did you think of then?"

"Freedom."

The word took the boy by surprise. He had thought her free already.

"Aren't you free, then?"

The girl was silent for a while. "There are many meanings to the one word, Merrin. In some ways, yes I am."

"What about the other ways?"

"No. Not yet."

The boy looked at her in confusion, she seemed to him that she knew something that he hadn't yet learned... and perhaps never would.

Wise, he had heard it called. But the boy knew that what she was could never be summed up in a simple word.

She was a mystery to him, and he loved her for that.

"If you could fly... would you take me with you?"

"Depends. Would you want to come?"

"Of course I would. I wouldn't let you go somewhere without me, you'd get lost!"

The boy scoffed in mock indignation and pushed her slightly, making her grin and laugh.

Oh how he loved that laugh. Contagious and full of promise, something that he had always been told was lacking in his life.

Suddenly, the laugh disappeared, replaced with a mysterious thoughtfulness.

"Will you fly with me, Merrin?"

"Fly? How can we possibly fly? It's impossible!"

The girl laughed again.

"Impossible? There you're wrong."

"What do you mean?"

"Merrin, anything's possible! The word itself confirms it, see?"

In the ground before them, she drew the word. But not as Merrin knew it.

The word as she drew it looked colorful somehow, colored with light and a promise of forever.

I'm Possible.

"You see, Merrin? We can fly!"

The boy laughed then, a joyous sound that he himself was not used to.

"Yes, yes i suppose we can!"

Merrin jolted awake at the sound of the clock tower's chimes. For a moment, he was confused. Where on earth was he? He leapt up and looked around.

How had he gotten to the Lookout Tower? The last thing that he remembered was...

He had been early for work, so he had gone for a run to the Lookout Tower and had been looking out one of the windows when…

Wait a second.

What time was it?

Panicked, Merrin counted the chimes.

6..7..8..9..10..11..12!

12 o 'clock!

"CRAP!" Merrin yelped and raced down the stairs of the tower, out into the street, which had now become crowded with people. He dodged past them, muttering a long string of colorful language as he sprinted all the way to the Wizard Way. He was so late!

Little did Merrin know that at that moment, a pretty girl with mismatched eyes was had just passed through the North Gate…

"Now will you fly with me, Merrin?"

"Anything's possible, right?"

"Anything."

Will Merrin be meeting his dream girl after all? Maybe... maybe not.

Keep reading to find out!

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