Disclaimer: I do not own Boy Meets World.

Chapter 7

Cory looked down at the business card he held in his hand and then back up at the storefront sign. Journey into the Unknown. This was the place.

He wasn't sure what he expected a bookstore like this to look like, but he was surprised he walked in and found it looked normal. There wasn't anything overly flashy or showman-like about this place. No fabric draped around the place with talisman thingies hanging down to make it look mystical. It was just a plain old bookstore with plain old wooden bookshelves filled with books. Then again, he guessed he really shouldn't have been that surprised it looked so normal for a bookstore that dealt with otherworldly stuff considering who owned it. That psychic guy at the superstition dance hadn't been all dressed up in magician or gypsy gear. Nor had his table setup had any exotic tablecloth or crystal ball or anything. He'd just been a guy in a sweater and jeans sitting at a normal looking table.

He walked around, not really sure where to start. There was a large section on UFOs, ghosts, out-of-body experiences, and a whole bunch of other stuff straight out of sci-fi movies along with stuff he had never even heard of. All stuff he would have been inclined to think weren't real if it weren't for Dani, but all stuff that wasn't exactly helpful with his current situation.

"You look lost. What can I help you find?"

Cory looked over to find the psychic guy. He was just as casual as the only other time he saw him—in blue jeans and a green sweater.

Cory shifted a little. This was more than a little embarrassing and awkward, but he wasn't having any luck finding it himself, so what the heck? Why not? "Do you have anything on love spells or enchantments or something?"

The psychic guy took a slight step back and waved his hands in front of him. "Whoa, whoa, dude. That is not something you should be messing with. That is some seriously messed up mojo. Messing with anyone's mind and heart and free will like that is just wrong."

"No, no, it's not like that," Cory said. "It's not for me. I think my foster-sister is under a love spell or something. I need to know how to snap her out of it."

"Dude, have you considered the possibility that she's just in love? Just leave her be."

"That's what everyone keeps saying, but I know her. The way she's acting . . . it's not normal. Maybe for other people, but not for her. It's way too fast. You did a reading on her at the superstition dance at John Adams High. Do you remember? She's the last one you tried to read before you left." Cory held his hand at about forehead level. "She's a little shorter than me. Black hair, brown eyes . . . . Ring a bell?"

The psychic guy frowned. "Yeah, I do remember." He walked off suddenly with a steady, determined stride.

Cory followed, not sure if he was supposed to or not. The guy stopped just as suddenly in front of another set of bookshelves, pulled a bunch of books down, and handed them back to him without even looking. Cory stared at the steadily increasing pile in disbelief. "You do realize I'm a high school student, right? I can't afford all this."

After throwing a few more books his way, the psychic guy turned towards him and looked at the leaning tower of books in Cory's arms and started throwing book after book over his shoulder. Okay, this guy may not have all the flashy decorations and costumes that most psychics have, but he was sure eccentric enough to make up for it. In the end, Cory was left with one large, text-book sized volume and one smaller book.

"You should be able to find everything you need to know in these. If you have any questions, you know where to find me." The man walked away.

Understanding the Heart: A Beginner's Guide to Love Enchantments

So You Think You're Under a Love Spell: Fool Proof Warning Signs and Countercharms

Man, Cory hoped no one found him with any of these. He did not want to have that conversation. It wasn't for him, though. That's what he had to remind himself.

After a quick stop at the cash register and a few much-appreciated discounts, Cory was on his way back home.

He hid the bag in his backpack so no one at home could question him about it. I mean, it did sound crazy, after all. And he seemed to be the only one who believed something was wrong with Dani.

He couldn't believe he, of all people, was willingly researching something. It was even harder to believe what it was he was researching. Cory stared at the books he had dumped on his bed, after making sure his door was closed, of course. Where to even begin . . . .

He almost cringed when his gaze landed on the text-book sized Beginner's Guide. It made the most sense.

He skimmed through most of the chapters that seemed relevant, only stopping to actually read when it seemed important. It said the most basic fundamental of casting love spells or enchantments was the understanding that it wasn't real. The whole thing was manufactured to make the object of the caster's affection believe it was real by playing on what that person naturally loved—whether people or pets or even hobbies the person enjoyed doing—and turned that love towards the caster. It essentially stripped away any sense of the person's ability to think or act of their own free will. It strongly advised the caster to be careful, because the more powerful the enchantment, the more the object of affection lost his or her sense of self. If the enchantment was too powerful, the person under the enchantment could become nothing more than a puppet for the caster. It could strip away everything that the caster "loved" about the person and leave the person basically just a shell to store undying and unmoving love for the caster—someone who would do whatever the caster wanted, just to make the caster happy and earn their love in return.

Cory felt sick. Why would anyone want to do anything like this? What could possibly possess someone to think this was a good idea ever? No wonder the psychic guy reacted the way he did when Cory asked about this stuff.

What did Brody want with Dani? If Cory was right, and the jerk of a boy did have his foster-sister under a love enchantment like this . . . .

Cory set the Beginner's Guide aside and started leafing through the other book, starting with the chapter detailing all the symptoms and signs of being under one of these enchantments. According to the book, the signs and symptoms varied by the enchantment. Some of the most common were a distinctive difference in how the person acted, a sudden development of a one-track mind solely focused (or mostly focused, if the enchantment wasn't as strong) on the caster, all emotions other than love for the caster dimmed or non-existent, and unfocused gaze.

He'd noticed every single one of those things in Dani in at least some capacity.

He flipped back to the table of contents. Enough trying to understand how love enchantments worked, now he needed to know how to snap her out of it.

"You are a disappointment to the back row."

Cory looked up. Shawn stood just inside the doorway to his room. Not good. Cory closed the book he was holding and shoved both it and the other one under his covers.

Shawn just quirked an eyebrow at him. "What are you reading?"

"Nothing. Why would you think I'm reading? I'm not holding any books. No books here. I'm just sitting here admiring the ambiance of this room. It's amazing how I've spent so much time in this room but never really take the time to look at it and appreciate it," Cory said.

"Okay," Shawn said, dragging the word out. "What are you hiding?"

"What? Me hiding something? What? That's just—Hey!" Cory reached for the covers Shawn was pulling back, but Shawn was too quick. Oh, boy. So not good.

"Beginner's Guide to Love Enchantments? You already have Topanga. I don't think you need to put a love spell on her. And So You Think You're Under a Love Spell? Cor, if either of you in that relationship were under a love spell, it would be Topanga under yours. No offence."

Cory grabbed the books out of Shawn's hands and shoved them aside. "This isn't about me and Topanga."

"Then what is it—" Shawn shook his head. "Unbelievable. This is about Dani still, isn't it? Cory this. . ." Shawn picked one of the books up again before dropping it. ". . . is insane. She likes the guy. Just be happy for her and get over it."

"Why?" Cory stood to face his friend. "Why is this so insane? How is it any more insane than Dani having powers? Than you facing all that stuff back on the island? What was all that again? I remember something about water-ice demon-ish things and fire that sprung out of a wall and some lucid hallucination mind-game thing. How is this any crazier than that?"

"I guess it's not, but—"

"You've seen Dani, Shawn. You've seen the way she's been. That girl who's been around today is not Dani. I wanted her to give Brody a chance when she was reluctant to do so. I wanted her to be happy, but this isn't happy. This is . . . I don't know what this is. There is just something really off about all of this. I'm scared she's going to get hurt because of this, and why can't anyone else see that there is something seriously wrong?" Cory lowered his gaze, unable to meet Shawn's eyes after his little outburst.

"Maybe because there's nothing wrong. I get that you're worried. It's called being a friend—a brother, even. Brody's a great guy. She likes him. He likes her too. That's all there is. Now forget all this crap and come to Chubbie's with me. We can shoot pool or something. Get your mind off of this."

Cory shook his head. "No. I can't. You're wrong about this. I can't just let it go."

"Whatever, man." Shawn walked towards the door. "If you change your mind, you know where to find me."

Cory stared back at the books on his bed and frowned. What if he was just reading too much into this? What if Shawn was right?

Cory thought back to the night of the dance—how weird Dani got right after Brody left—that mark on her neck she claimed was a hickey but looked nothing like a "love bite"—how jumpy she was the next few days—how one very short conversation with Brody was all it took to take her from the Dani he knew to this alien-alternate-universe-pod-person replacement.

Sure, he could be reading too much into it and letting his imagination run wild, but he didn't think he was. If he was wrong, he could always apologize to everyone he annoyed over this later. He knew he wouldn't be able to handle it if there was something wrong—if something bad happened to Dani because of this and he did nothing like all the others.

He settled back down on his bed and grabbed the So, You Think You're Under a Love Spell book, opening it to the table of contents. It took some searching, because he didn't know enough specifics of what was going on to use any of the specific counteractive measures, but he eventually found a generic charm that the book claimed should work to undo just about any enchantment.

He felt ridiculous as he gathered all the ingredients for the charm. Thankfully they were mostly pretty normal—just spices and stuff he could get from the kitchen. He was relieved to find no one in there and even more relieved no one walked in on him. That could have been awkward to explain. Although, he could have always just said he was making something he saw when he and Topanga were watching the food network or flipping through a magazine. It's not like it would be the first time. Then again, that would also require him to actually make the muffins in order for his cover story to hold up. He didn't have time for that . . . or an actual recipe to go from. He was able to just pull a plastic sandwich bag to use for the stuff.

As easy as that first part was, the next part wasn't so much. No matter how he looked at it, getting some of Dani's hair to add to the mix was just plain weird. And creepy.

He swallowed down the weirdness factor as best he could and went into the joint bathroom. Dani's brush had to be here somewhere. He rooted through the baskets over by the girls' side. He tossed the brush with blond hair back in the basket and switched to searching the other. Bingo. There, right on top, was a brush with black hair. He pulled a few strands from it and placed them in the bag, again trying to ignore how bizarre this whole thing was.

Now for the really hard part: trying to trick Dani into letting him borrow her necklace and then do the rest of what the book said to do.

The book said he needed to put something she valued in the bag with the rest of the ingredients. The only thing he could think of was that Celtic style necklace she always wore. The only time he had ever seen her without it was back on the island after she and Shawn made it out of that 'Temple of Doom' place, and that was only because the chain was broken. She got a new chain once they got home. He hadn't understood why she still wore that necklace even though that supernatural serial killer targeted people with that necklace a few years back—especially since she admitted she had been caught and was one of only three survivors. He knew it had something to do with what she was—gifted and all that—but still . . . . Even so, that seemed like the best thing to use for this.

He knocked on her and Morgan's bedroom door before walking in. Morgan wasn't there, thankfully, but Dani was. She was sitting at her desk, writing in a notebook.

"Dani," he said. "Do you have a minute?"

"I'm a little busy, can it wait?"

Cory crept a little closer to look over her shoulder. The page was full of hearts—some with just her and Brody's initials, some with their full names in the middle. Okaaay. "No, not really. It shouldn't take long, then you can go back to your . . . uh . . . homework."

"Okay!"

Cory suppressed a shudder. The perkiness of that one word was getting dangerously close to sounding like the replacement pod-Dani in his nightmares.

"I'm, um, working on an extra credit science project on, uh, how to clean jewelry using spices and stuff most people have in their kitchen. I'd use some of mom's, but I don't want to just go through her stuff, and she's out picking Morgan up from dance class. Can I use your necklace to try it out? It won't take long, then I can give it back to you." Cory held his breath.

Dani's eyebrows scrunched together. "We have the same science class," she said. "There's no extra credit project, and since when do you do extra credit, anyways?" Her eyes appeared to dart down to his side.

Cory held onto the bag in his hand tighter and tried to subtly nudge it behind his back. Maybe he should have waited to put the hair in there until after he got her to agree to lend him the necklace. "Well, you know, I failed the last test and the two before that, so . . . ."

"What's that?" Dani asked, sounding curious.

Cory reluctantly pulled the bag from behind his back. "What? You mean this? It's for the project." He tried to quickly hide it back away again before she could look at it too closely, but she was too fast for that. It flew out of his hand and into hers. By the time he even registered what happened, she was looking at it.

"You think what I have with Brody's not real?" Dani asked, only the slightest hint of anger in her tone. Not good. Well, good that she could feel anger, but not good it was so subdued.

"No. I don't," Cory said.

More anger flashed in her eyes. "Meeting Brody is the best thing that ever happened to me. He's amazing. What we have is amazing. Think what you want about it, but it's real."

"Prove it. You obviously have some idea of what that is, so let me finish this little experiment and we'll see if it's real or not. If it is real, like you believe, nothing will happen. What can it hurt?" He held out his hand for the bag she still held.

"I shouldn't have to prove it."

"Then do it so I stop annoying you about it. Because believe me, I won't let this go."

She frowned and stared at him a moment before handing the bag back over. Cory gladly took it back off of her then held his other hand out for her necklace. She gave it to him with only a slight hesitation.

He put the necklace in the bag, sealed it, and shook it around a bit. He let it stay for a short while longer before pulling the necklace back out, cleaning off anything that hung on it, and handed it back to Dani. She put it back on.

"Well?" he asked after a moment.

"Well, what?"

"How do you feel about Brody now?"

"Still love him. Like I said. It's real." All traces of anger and annoyance melted away from her face to be replaced by a huge smile. "Still love him. Did you hear that? I love him! I can't wait to tell him! He's going to be sooo happy!"

It couldn't actually be real, could it?

Cory shook his head as she went back to her desk and back to doodling in her notebook. He'd done exactly what the book said to do. It obviously didn't work. Maybe he actually was wrong. Maybe she really did love him.

So why didn't the smile reach her eyes? Why were they so . . . well—empty?

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

Shawn saw John sitting on the couch the second he walked in the door. He had thought about going to Chubbie's anyways, even though Cory wasn't going to join him, but changed his mind. He wanted to get this conversation over with. The sooner, the better.

"Hi, Shawn," John said.

"Hi." Shawn sat down next to his guardian. "Anything good on?"

"Not really. I just needed something a little less mind numbing than the latest batch of 7th grade English papers."

Shawn cracked a smile. "So you've got a whole class like me and Cory."

"Worse." John shook his head with a slightly wide-eyed stare. "Bet you never thought you'd hear me say that. It's just a handful of students like that, but I saved all of theirs for last. Remind me to never do that again."

Shawn almost cringed in sympathy. He remembered some of the doozies he'd written back then—the poem on welfare being one of the highlights. He could only imagine. "I've thought more about what you said—about finding my dad and all . . . ."

"Yeah? And?" John turned off the TV and shifted in his seat to face him fully.

"Thanks for the offer, but I . . . I don't want to look for him." Shawn looked down. That was a little hard to admit. He knew it was true. It just was another reminder of how lousy his relationship with his father really was. It was hard to admit that he was officially giving up on it, even though he really had given up on it a while ago. It's just that he hadn't realized it until now.

"Are you sure that's what you want?"

He looked back up at John—his guardian, his teacher, his friend . . . his father-figure. "I'm sure." Shawn ran his hand through his hair. "I just—I guess I just felt like I was betraying my dad somehow by not wanting to look for him. If I really wanted to find him, the decision should have been easy. It wasn't. Now I know why. I have everything—everyone—I could possibly need right here . . . the people who are here for me every day even though they aren't obligated to be. I'll take that over someone who should be obligated to be there but isn't any day."

John put a hand on Shawn's shoulder. "You aren't betraying him. He's the one who left. Not you. You should never feel like any of this is on you. He left a great kid behind. His loss."

Shawn gave a soft smile. "Thanks, John."

"Anytime, kid.

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

Cory made a beeline over towards the psychic guy as soon as he saw him. He was behind the cash register, just finishing up a sale. Thankfully there didn't really seem to be anyone else in the store. Or if there was anyone else, they were behind bookshelves or something.

Cory stayed back slightly to allow the customer some space until the older woman left. The psychic guy seemed to spot him immediately. "Ah," he had said. "The superstitious dude wanting to know about love spells. How did that work out for you?"

"Not good." Cory approached the counter, looking around again. Still alone. Good. He felt weird enough about all of this as it was without having to worry about anyone overhearing. "She has all the classic signs. I did what that book said to do, and nothing happened. I don't know what to do. Am I wrong? Does she actually love the guy and is just turning into this weird alternate version of my foster-sister just because she's giddy with love or what?"

"What signs did you notice?" the psychic guy calmly asked.

"She's not acting like herself. She went from wanting nothing to do with the guy to being head-over-heels gaga over him in one short conversation with the guy. She's got a little more emotional capacity than just love, love, and more love, but not by much. About the only time she got angry about me prying about this was when she recognized what I was trying to do—and that's undo her love for this guy—and that wasn't even as full blown of an outburst as I know she's capable of. I've heard way worse from her. And it doesn't seem like she's fully with it. Her eyes are empty—emotionless. It's like looking at a very lifelike mannequin."

The psychic guy frowned. "What method did you try?"

"It was a general one that the book said should work for most enchantments."

The man waved his hand, as if asking for Cory to elaborate. "Um," Cory said, "it just required putting some kitchen spices, some of her hair—which is really creepy, by the way—and an 'object of value' of hers in a bag, shaking it and then giving the 'object of value' back to her."

"What object did you use?"

"A necklace she always wears."

The psychic guy nodded and his frown deepened. "That should have worked." He walked out from behind the counter and over to some of the bookshelves.

Cory followed him. "Do you think I was wrong? Does she really love the guy? What did you get from her when you did the reading at the dance?"

The psychic guy pulled a book off the shelf and leafed through it. "She was falling in love. It was strong, but not natural." He tossed the book aside and grabbed another. "Love spells and enchantments cause love, so the signs you saw could just mean she's the obsessive-love type, but it doesn't seem like it."

"You said what I did should have worked. Why didn't it?"

The psychic guy paused on a couple pages before continuing to flip through the book. "It should have if it was just your average overzealous love-sick guy casting it."

"What does that mean then?"

"Whatever she's under is much stronger—more complex—than what an average person could deal with. Whoever this guy is, he must know his stuff. You can't just find the strong enchantments anywhere. You have to know where to look." He tossed the book aside and pulled another from the shelf.

Cory felt a sinking feeling in his gut. Something that an average—a normal person couldn't—or wasn't likely—to be able to do. Dani had told their parents she sometimes had to deal with things most people couldn't—with bad people with abilities . . . bad people capable of things most people weren't. She'd been acting off even before she became all love-obsessed—acting like she had on the island . . . like she sensed something bad was going to happen. She wanted nothing to do with Brody, but she was even more insistent about Cory staying out of it and letting her deal with him.

This wasn't the first time Cory worried this situation had something to do with that part of her life. It's kind of what he figured all along, but there was a part of him—a big part of him—that hoped he was wrong . . . that at worst Brody was just a normal guy—a jerk, but normal—who just dabbled in the, uh, not normal.

Too much seemed to point to the unnatural when it came to everything about this situation, though. Unnatural like the psychic guy said he sensed Dani's love to be. Cory frowned. He thought back to the dance . . . back to the reading . . . . He remembered the psychic guy start talking about love when doing the reading on Dani, but he cut off before he finished. He cut off because he sensed something worse . . . something more pressing than that problem.

"At the dance, right before you left, you said you sensed 'a dark presence,'" Cory said. "What did you mean by that?"

The psychic guy looked up from the book he was paging through. "Why do you ask?"

"Right after you left, Brody—the guy I think has Dani under this enchantment—showed up. I don't know. Maybe it was a coincidence, but . . . ." Cory shrugged.

The psychic gave him a grave look. His face was more serious even than when he'd tried to warn Cory off of dabbling with love spells and enchantments. "If this Brody guy is what I was sensing, your sister is in serious danger. The dark presence I sensed was evil."