The group sat there in silence. They were all stunned. And frightened. The intensity of the fear in the room was so high you could practically smell it.
"So," Michael said finally breaking the stunned silence. "I guess we're in trouble."
"You think?" Audrey snapped. She gestured vaguely at Summer's body lying there pathetically on the floor. "What are we supposed to do about that?"
How were they supposed to explain it? They'd had a hard enough time trying the first time Summer had disappeared. And now she was dead. Really, really dead, and they had a new enemy, twice as deadly. And no one had the slightest idea what to do about it.
"Is there any way to find out what we can about this new girl?" Dee suggested.
Jenny shook her head. "I have absolutely no idea."
Nobody knew what to do. Shavone was a complete mystery. The last time they'd been drawn into the Shadow World they had all been very clear of Julian's plan. What he had wanted had been made very clear right from the start of the first game. They'd been aware of what dangers they had to face. But this time it was different.
It was very clear that Shavone seemed to want them all very dead. But how she was planning to do it, they didn't know. She was messing with their heads, and doing a damn good job of it. There was no way of knowing when she would strike, and who she would turn on.
And from what it seemed like there was no way to defeat her. But there must be...
Jenny stood up and walked slightly away from the group. Somehow, she knew this was all her fault. Shavone hated her, and her alone, and was using that hatred as an excuse to murder her friends. It was Jenny she wanted to make miserable. She was winning this game.
Jenny didn't want to see any more of her friends die. No matter how hopeless the situation looked, they would come up with something.
There must be someone who could help them...
* * *
Zach felt numb. Since Summer's horrific death he hadn't really felt anything. She had changed him so much. Before, the only thing that had mattered to him was his photography. Everything had to be just right, the colours, the background, the symmetry if necessary...
But since she'd come along, she'd shown him there were more fun things to do than being shut up in a dark room all day. She'd even convinced him to join the Mixed-Athletics team with her. She was bouncy and happy and cute. She had been wonderful.
But now...she was gone. Gone. And there seemed no point in anything more. The dark room seemed empty and pointless now. Life was meaningless without Summer to make it fun.
"Poor Zach. For someone so smart you can be so stupid sometimes."
Zach looked up, hearing the amused voice in the shadows. He couldn't quite focus, all he could see in the darkness was a flash of orange hair, the occasional flash of glowing cold blue eyes. Shavone. The Shadow Mistress.
"I already faced my nightmare," he said.
Shavone laughed. Such a chilling sound. Something to make even the worst demons shiver and feel ice slipping down their spine. "Nightmares...it's been a while since I've played that game. You think you have. But you haven't." She stepped out of the shadows. Her beauty was dazzling. Every inch of her was perfect. Not a flaw...except for her ice-cold personality. The laughter faded, and for a moment, she seemed almost pensive. "I didn't have to be this way," she said softly. "I could have been better. But no, you people all made sure that wouldn't happen. I'm just returning the favour. You made me miserable, and I make you miserable."
"I think you've done more than enough damage already," Zach said, trying to sound as if he had some backbone. He refused to give into the fear sparking inside him. She was going to kill him. Now, right now. He would die. And there was nothing he could do to stop it. How do you defeat the Queen of the Shadow Realm?
She continued to smile that unnerving smile, not making no move to attack, settling against the door frame as if for a friendly chat. "Since you didn't really cause me all that much bother I'm going to give you a choice. You can decide how you snuff it." She inspected long dangerous-looking nails.
Zach didn't say anything. The decision was an impossible one. He didn't want t die. No one ever did when they were faced with a situation like this. How did you decide how you wanted to die?
Shavone seemed to be getting impatient. "You're annoying me, Zach. Not a smart thing to do." She sighed heavily. "Since you can't decide I guess I'll have to decide for you. I was prepared to give you a nice, painless death. But that bird has flown. You took too much time." She turned and started to walk out of Zach's room, waving a hand, as if waving good-bye. A permanent good-bye. The world exploded into flames, and the last thing imprinted forever in Zach's mind was a laughing, beautiful face and cold blue eyes of an indescribable colour. Hang on Summer, he thought. I'm coming.
* * *
Despite all the extra security Audrey had insisted her parents put up around their house she doubted it would be enough to keep the Shadow Mistress out. Shadow Mistress? It had been bad enough to face the Shadow Man. She remembered how silently furious she had been when Julian had forced them all to face their worst nightmares...that had been bad enough.
But this...
Shavone was just *insane.* What was the girl's problem? So Julian had decided he'd rather have Jenny than her, big deal. Surely there were other Shadow Men out there for her. She needed to get herself a life. Do something t take her mind off it, rather than go around killing everyone else.
Less than half an hour ago she had been given the news of Zach's death. It had been listen as "suicide" because he missed his girlfriend. Audrey didn't know Zach very well, but she doubted he was the suicidal type.
Shavone strikes again.
For some reason, Audrey suddenly felt a compulsion to go look out the window. It was strange, she never bothered taking in things like that, but...but this was too strong for her to resist.
Something in the woods beyond her mansion caught her eyes. Something...dark and moving, with glowing yellow eyes. She could see them clearly even from where she stood. What was it? Maybe she should just send one of the staff out of it.
But that could take time. She wanted to know, what it was, and she wanted to know now. She put on black pumps and left the house, to go investigate the thing in the garden.
If patience had been one of Audrey's virtues, and she had mentioned to the staff there was something strange in the garden, and let them go investigate, and sat down to do her homework, then maybe she would have survived.
But unfortunately, patience wasn't one of Audrey's great virtues. She made her way over an expanse of manicured lawn, spotting the dark shape, an animal of some sort.
"Didn't you ever learn what curiosity did to the cat?" An amused voice asked.
Audrey froze. At that moment she knew she was doomed. She turned around slowly to see Shavone lounging casually against an oak tree on the borders of the woods. The creature by her side was a large, bristling wolf, a red tongue lolling between its jaws, hungry yellow eyes following Audrey's every move.
Shavone's blood-red nails were just brushing the wolf's head. It was a gesture of affection. "I'm guessing you must remember my friend The Lurker?"
Audrey didn't reply. She ran. If only she'd run back to the house, the she might have had a chance. But of course, Shavone and the wolf were blocking the path to the house, forcing her where they wanted her, to run into the woods.
And the wolf ran after her.
* * *
The remaining members of the group, Jenny, Dee and Michael, decided something had to be done. They were dropping like flies, and they needed help, desperately.
"Any ideas?" Jenny said flatly.
"I see two options," Michael said. "One, we can fight her, using God knows what, or two, we can run away. Who's for two?"
"If I wasn't worried she'd find us no matter where we'd run to, I'd be all for two," Jenny admitted. She was tired. Just...tired. The last week had been...it had been a disaster. Four of her best friends were dead, all murdered by an enemy that seemed impossible to defeat.
Dee was appalled. "You two are such wimps! There must be something we can do."
Jenny looked up. "Dee, she waved her hand and you went flying across the room. There's no way we can physically fight her."
"Then what do we fight her with?" Michael asked. "I don't think she'd be too impressed if we tried insulting her into going away and leaving us alone."
"Fight her with magic," Jenny said finally.
And one type of magic came to mind instantly. It had been there all along really, a hidden possibility deep in the depths of her mind. It seemed impossible, she knew nothing about runes or magic...but she could learn.
She had to learn, because their lives depended on it.
She saw Michael and Dee eyeing her. Michael looked confused, Dee, suspicious.
"Jenny?" Dee said softly. "You're not thinking what I think you're thinking are you?"
"How about letting us in what everyone's thinking?" Michael asked, looking a little perplexed.
Jenny didn't say anything. She met Dee's dark eyes and nodded once. Dee turned away. "I knew something like this was coming."
"Like what?" Michael was getting annoyed.
Dee sighed. "She's going to carve Julian's name back on the runestave."
Michael didn't say anything. For the first time in his life it seemed he had been shocked speechless.
"Jenny are you *sure* you want to do this?" Dee asked. "Last time..."
"He changed," Jenny said defensively. "He wasn't the arrogant bastard he was at the begging of the first game when they took his name out. He was different. And I'm going to bring him back. I can't think of anyone else who can help us."
Silence. No one was making any comments because they both knew Jenny was right. Shavone would listen to Julian. Jenny wasn't sure how she knew that, she just knew. Julian was the only person who could defeat her. So there was no choice.
She was going to bring the Shadow Man back.
* * *
Jenny had absolutely no idea how she was going to pull this off. She knew nothing about magic at all. She didn't know how to even start, or where to start. There was a New Age shop in town, but if she went and asked, would they think she was crazy?
Of course they would. You didn't go into a shop and say "Could you tell me how to bring back a creature from another world?" But maybe she could ask for some advice about runes. All she needed was a runestave, surely they must know about those things.
She hadn't asked Dee to come, and knew there was no point in asking Michael. She wasn't in the mood for sarcastic humour right now. So she had gone alone. This was her thing, she wanted to do this. Bringing Julian back had been her idea, and she was going to do it alone.
No one else felt the way she did about him. No one knew *how* she felt about him. She had kept her feelings to herself. Up until he'd gone she had no idea about her feelings.
He had frightened her, tricked her, deceived her, been cruel to her friends...but she couldn't help loving him anyway. It had been there all along really, deep inside, she had always been secretly flattered by the attentions he'd had for her. He had said himself there were other girls, prettier than her, girls like Shavone. Shavone was stunning, and powerful, she could have given him anything he'd wanted, but he hadn't wanted Shavone. He had wanted her.
She was nobody special. She had never felt it, or understood why other people liked her so much. But she hadn't denied their attention. She'd been happy to accept it, and had been totally happy in her life, and with Tom. She had thought Tom would always be the one for her, since that first kiss in second grade.
But now...she was beginning to think otherwise. She had clearly not been enough for him and the knowledge of what he had done with Shavone...
It hurt, but there was a way around that. Julian loved her more than Tom obviously ever had. And she loved him, and she wanted him, and she was going to bring him back.
She opened the door to the New Age shop and went inside. Strange music was playing, and a weird smell greeted her nostrils, making them flare. Not exactly in disgust, it wasn't a nasty smell, just...different.
She made her way over to a large bookshelf filled with books. Book on well being, Wicca, palmistry, astrology, tarot, meditation, Feng Shi, Druidry, star signs, crystals. All things that before had seemed like nonsense to Jenny, but now, after being introduced to the Shadow World, she was beginning to think differently.
She picked up one of the Wicca books and began thumbing through it. What would it be, to feel magic flowing through your fingers, to be able to influence things like weather, and love and wealth? It must be a good feeling, to be in league with the sky and earth and animals...
But she wasn't here to stuffy witchcraft, she wanted runes. She looked around the shelves, but couldn't seem to see anything that might be of interest to her. She looked around and saw a girl sitting behind the counter, dressed in colourful gypsy style clothing. She smiled brightly. "Blessed be! Can I help?"
Jenny frowned, and began to feel a little embarrassed, and that she was out of her league. "I hope so," she said finally. "I'm looking for a runestave, and something to tell me how to use one."
The girl stood up and moved into a back room. She came back with a long wooden staff carved with strange markings and symbols. "Here we are," she said cheerfully. She put the runestave on the counter and went to another shelf of books Jenny hadn't noticed. She pulled two volumes down. "You're going to need incense and candles too if you plan to use that, and some sort of protection. Runes can be dangerous when used wrong."
"Any ideas for what incense?" If she remembered correctly, didn't candle colours matter too? Certain colours had certain properties, and gems.
She took the books, and flipped through them, wondering she was going to need anything else. The store girl moved around, seeming to know what she was doing better than Jenny did. She came back with a wicker basket full of incense, crystals, and candles.
She totalled it up on the cash register and Jenny took her purchases and paid. She looked at all the stuff. She was really going to have to concentrate here, she didn't want to mess up like her grandfather had done.
"I hope you know what you're doing," the store girl said before Jenny left. "You don't want to use them wrong. It could be disastrous."
"I'll be careful," Jenny promised. "Thanks for you help."
She hurried home. Apprehension was strong inside her. She wanted to get this over and done with. She was excited but scared at the same time. It was going to take time and preparation to get this all ready. But she was feeling impatient, and her heart was thudding. She knew she had to slow down, but it was going to be hard.
She closed and locked her bedroom door, and took her phone off the hook, to make sure she wouldn't be interrupted. She sat in her desk chair, and carefully started reading the books. Two hours later she began preparing for the spell.
She drew a pentagram, a five-pointed star in a circle in white chalk on the hardwood floor of her room. She set the candles and gems in two rings around the perimeter of the circle and lit the candles. She sat cross-legged in the circle, and called upon the elements for protection. She didn't feel any different once she had done it. She just trusted to them and continued with the spell.
She followed the chant in the open book outside the circle. She reached for the runestave and the silver knife from the kitchen. She followed the symbol in the book, carefully, and stood, holding the stave above her head in her two hands.
Her chanting grew, echoing in the room. A strange light as beginning to grow just outside the circle, about two meters away from her. The light was just smoke at first, whirling around pointlessly. Jenny took the stave, waving it in the shape of a person, and the smoke began to go where she directed it. The smoke changed colour from a dusty white to a bright, shining green. It flared suddenly, the brightness blinding Jenny temporarily.
She blinked, little green dots dancing in front of her eyes. When she could see there was someone standing in front of her. Someone she thought she'd never see again.
Standing there like the first time she'd seen him, the boy in the More Games store, lean and elegant, dressed all in black, hair white as snow, eyes a blue of an indescribable colour. The only difference was the atmosphere about him. When she had first been confronted with him, her impression had been one of radiating danger and menace. Now...he was staring at her with a look of mild surprise.
Jenny had to control herself not to scream with delight. She'd done it!
"You...brought me back," was all Julian said.
"Yeah, I did." Jenny was grinning from ear to ear. She just couldn't help it. She knew she must look ridiculous. She noticed the candles had somehow moved. They were no longer lining the ring of the pentagram, they were dotted about the bedroom, their glow shining, and enchanting. Their eyes met, and Jenny knew what was going to happen. And when Julian smiled, she realised he knew too, and when he came forward to kiss her, she didn't deny him.
* * *
"So," Michael said finally breaking the stunned silence. "I guess we're in trouble."
"You think?" Audrey snapped. She gestured vaguely at Summer's body lying there pathetically on the floor. "What are we supposed to do about that?"
How were they supposed to explain it? They'd had a hard enough time trying the first time Summer had disappeared. And now she was dead. Really, really dead, and they had a new enemy, twice as deadly. And no one had the slightest idea what to do about it.
"Is there any way to find out what we can about this new girl?" Dee suggested.
Jenny shook her head. "I have absolutely no idea."
Nobody knew what to do. Shavone was a complete mystery. The last time they'd been drawn into the Shadow World they had all been very clear of Julian's plan. What he had wanted had been made very clear right from the start of the first game. They'd been aware of what dangers they had to face. But this time it was different.
It was very clear that Shavone seemed to want them all very dead. But how she was planning to do it, they didn't know. She was messing with their heads, and doing a damn good job of it. There was no way of knowing when she would strike, and who she would turn on.
And from what it seemed like there was no way to defeat her. But there must be...
Jenny stood up and walked slightly away from the group. Somehow, she knew this was all her fault. Shavone hated her, and her alone, and was using that hatred as an excuse to murder her friends. It was Jenny she wanted to make miserable. She was winning this game.
Jenny didn't want to see any more of her friends die. No matter how hopeless the situation looked, they would come up with something.
There must be someone who could help them...
* * *
Zach felt numb. Since Summer's horrific death he hadn't really felt anything. She had changed him so much. Before, the only thing that had mattered to him was his photography. Everything had to be just right, the colours, the background, the symmetry if necessary...
But since she'd come along, she'd shown him there were more fun things to do than being shut up in a dark room all day. She'd even convinced him to join the Mixed-Athletics team with her. She was bouncy and happy and cute. She had been wonderful.
But now...she was gone. Gone. And there seemed no point in anything more. The dark room seemed empty and pointless now. Life was meaningless without Summer to make it fun.
"Poor Zach. For someone so smart you can be so stupid sometimes."
Zach looked up, hearing the amused voice in the shadows. He couldn't quite focus, all he could see in the darkness was a flash of orange hair, the occasional flash of glowing cold blue eyes. Shavone. The Shadow Mistress.
"I already faced my nightmare," he said.
Shavone laughed. Such a chilling sound. Something to make even the worst demons shiver and feel ice slipping down their spine. "Nightmares...it's been a while since I've played that game. You think you have. But you haven't." She stepped out of the shadows. Her beauty was dazzling. Every inch of her was perfect. Not a flaw...except for her ice-cold personality. The laughter faded, and for a moment, she seemed almost pensive. "I didn't have to be this way," she said softly. "I could have been better. But no, you people all made sure that wouldn't happen. I'm just returning the favour. You made me miserable, and I make you miserable."
"I think you've done more than enough damage already," Zach said, trying to sound as if he had some backbone. He refused to give into the fear sparking inside him. She was going to kill him. Now, right now. He would die. And there was nothing he could do to stop it. How do you defeat the Queen of the Shadow Realm?
She continued to smile that unnerving smile, not making no move to attack, settling against the door frame as if for a friendly chat. "Since you didn't really cause me all that much bother I'm going to give you a choice. You can decide how you snuff it." She inspected long dangerous-looking nails.
Zach didn't say anything. The decision was an impossible one. He didn't want t die. No one ever did when they were faced with a situation like this. How did you decide how you wanted to die?
Shavone seemed to be getting impatient. "You're annoying me, Zach. Not a smart thing to do." She sighed heavily. "Since you can't decide I guess I'll have to decide for you. I was prepared to give you a nice, painless death. But that bird has flown. You took too much time." She turned and started to walk out of Zach's room, waving a hand, as if waving good-bye. A permanent good-bye. The world exploded into flames, and the last thing imprinted forever in Zach's mind was a laughing, beautiful face and cold blue eyes of an indescribable colour. Hang on Summer, he thought. I'm coming.
* * *
Despite all the extra security Audrey had insisted her parents put up around their house she doubted it would be enough to keep the Shadow Mistress out. Shadow Mistress? It had been bad enough to face the Shadow Man. She remembered how silently furious she had been when Julian had forced them all to face their worst nightmares...that had been bad enough.
But this...
Shavone was just *insane.* What was the girl's problem? So Julian had decided he'd rather have Jenny than her, big deal. Surely there were other Shadow Men out there for her. She needed to get herself a life. Do something t take her mind off it, rather than go around killing everyone else.
Less than half an hour ago she had been given the news of Zach's death. It had been listen as "suicide" because he missed his girlfriend. Audrey didn't know Zach very well, but she doubted he was the suicidal type.
Shavone strikes again.
For some reason, Audrey suddenly felt a compulsion to go look out the window. It was strange, she never bothered taking in things like that, but...but this was too strong for her to resist.
Something in the woods beyond her mansion caught her eyes. Something...dark and moving, with glowing yellow eyes. She could see them clearly even from where she stood. What was it? Maybe she should just send one of the staff out of it.
But that could take time. She wanted to know, what it was, and she wanted to know now. She put on black pumps and left the house, to go investigate the thing in the garden.
If patience had been one of Audrey's virtues, and she had mentioned to the staff there was something strange in the garden, and let them go investigate, and sat down to do her homework, then maybe she would have survived.
But unfortunately, patience wasn't one of Audrey's great virtues. She made her way over an expanse of manicured lawn, spotting the dark shape, an animal of some sort.
"Didn't you ever learn what curiosity did to the cat?" An amused voice asked.
Audrey froze. At that moment she knew she was doomed. She turned around slowly to see Shavone lounging casually against an oak tree on the borders of the woods. The creature by her side was a large, bristling wolf, a red tongue lolling between its jaws, hungry yellow eyes following Audrey's every move.
Shavone's blood-red nails were just brushing the wolf's head. It was a gesture of affection. "I'm guessing you must remember my friend The Lurker?"
Audrey didn't reply. She ran. If only she'd run back to the house, the she might have had a chance. But of course, Shavone and the wolf were blocking the path to the house, forcing her where they wanted her, to run into the woods.
And the wolf ran after her.
* * *
The remaining members of the group, Jenny, Dee and Michael, decided something had to be done. They were dropping like flies, and they needed help, desperately.
"Any ideas?" Jenny said flatly.
"I see two options," Michael said. "One, we can fight her, using God knows what, or two, we can run away. Who's for two?"
"If I wasn't worried she'd find us no matter where we'd run to, I'd be all for two," Jenny admitted. She was tired. Just...tired. The last week had been...it had been a disaster. Four of her best friends were dead, all murdered by an enemy that seemed impossible to defeat.
Dee was appalled. "You two are such wimps! There must be something we can do."
Jenny looked up. "Dee, she waved her hand and you went flying across the room. There's no way we can physically fight her."
"Then what do we fight her with?" Michael asked. "I don't think she'd be too impressed if we tried insulting her into going away and leaving us alone."
"Fight her with magic," Jenny said finally.
And one type of magic came to mind instantly. It had been there all along really, a hidden possibility deep in the depths of her mind. It seemed impossible, she knew nothing about runes or magic...but she could learn.
She had to learn, because their lives depended on it.
She saw Michael and Dee eyeing her. Michael looked confused, Dee, suspicious.
"Jenny?" Dee said softly. "You're not thinking what I think you're thinking are you?"
"How about letting us in what everyone's thinking?" Michael asked, looking a little perplexed.
Jenny didn't say anything. She met Dee's dark eyes and nodded once. Dee turned away. "I knew something like this was coming."
"Like what?" Michael was getting annoyed.
Dee sighed. "She's going to carve Julian's name back on the runestave."
Michael didn't say anything. For the first time in his life it seemed he had been shocked speechless.
"Jenny are you *sure* you want to do this?" Dee asked. "Last time..."
"He changed," Jenny said defensively. "He wasn't the arrogant bastard he was at the begging of the first game when they took his name out. He was different. And I'm going to bring him back. I can't think of anyone else who can help us."
Silence. No one was making any comments because they both knew Jenny was right. Shavone would listen to Julian. Jenny wasn't sure how she knew that, she just knew. Julian was the only person who could defeat her. So there was no choice.
She was going to bring the Shadow Man back.
* * *
Jenny had absolutely no idea how she was going to pull this off. She knew nothing about magic at all. She didn't know how to even start, or where to start. There was a New Age shop in town, but if she went and asked, would they think she was crazy?
Of course they would. You didn't go into a shop and say "Could you tell me how to bring back a creature from another world?" But maybe she could ask for some advice about runes. All she needed was a runestave, surely they must know about those things.
She hadn't asked Dee to come, and knew there was no point in asking Michael. She wasn't in the mood for sarcastic humour right now. So she had gone alone. This was her thing, she wanted to do this. Bringing Julian back had been her idea, and she was going to do it alone.
No one else felt the way she did about him. No one knew *how* she felt about him. She had kept her feelings to herself. Up until he'd gone she had no idea about her feelings.
He had frightened her, tricked her, deceived her, been cruel to her friends...but she couldn't help loving him anyway. It had been there all along really, deep inside, she had always been secretly flattered by the attentions he'd had for her. He had said himself there were other girls, prettier than her, girls like Shavone. Shavone was stunning, and powerful, she could have given him anything he'd wanted, but he hadn't wanted Shavone. He had wanted her.
She was nobody special. She had never felt it, or understood why other people liked her so much. But she hadn't denied their attention. She'd been happy to accept it, and had been totally happy in her life, and with Tom. She had thought Tom would always be the one for her, since that first kiss in second grade.
But now...she was beginning to think otherwise. She had clearly not been enough for him and the knowledge of what he had done with Shavone...
It hurt, but there was a way around that. Julian loved her more than Tom obviously ever had. And she loved him, and she wanted him, and she was going to bring him back.
She opened the door to the New Age shop and went inside. Strange music was playing, and a weird smell greeted her nostrils, making them flare. Not exactly in disgust, it wasn't a nasty smell, just...different.
She made her way over to a large bookshelf filled with books. Book on well being, Wicca, palmistry, astrology, tarot, meditation, Feng Shi, Druidry, star signs, crystals. All things that before had seemed like nonsense to Jenny, but now, after being introduced to the Shadow World, she was beginning to think differently.
She picked up one of the Wicca books and began thumbing through it. What would it be, to feel magic flowing through your fingers, to be able to influence things like weather, and love and wealth? It must be a good feeling, to be in league with the sky and earth and animals...
But she wasn't here to stuffy witchcraft, she wanted runes. She looked around the shelves, but couldn't seem to see anything that might be of interest to her. She looked around and saw a girl sitting behind the counter, dressed in colourful gypsy style clothing. She smiled brightly. "Blessed be! Can I help?"
Jenny frowned, and began to feel a little embarrassed, and that she was out of her league. "I hope so," she said finally. "I'm looking for a runestave, and something to tell me how to use one."
The girl stood up and moved into a back room. She came back with a long wooden staff carved with strange markings and symbols. "Here we are," she said cheerfully. She put the runestave on the counter and went to another shelf of books Jenny hadn't noticed. She pulled two volumes down. "You're going to need incense and candles too if you plan to use that, and some sort of protection. Runes can be dangerous when used wrong."
"Any ideas for what incense?" If she remembered correctly, didn't candle colours matter too? Certain colours had certain properties, and gems.
She took the books, and flipped through them, wondering she was going to need anything else. The store girl moved around, seeming to know what she was doing better than Jenny did. She came back with a wicker basket full of incense, crystals, and candles.
She totalled it up on the cash register and Jenny took her purchases and paid. She looked at all the stuff. She was really going to have to concentrate here, she didn't want to mess up like her grandfather had done.
"I hope you know what you're doing," the store girl said before Jenny left. "You don't want to use them wrong. It could be disastrous."
"I'll be careful," Jenny promised. "Thanks for you help."
She hurried home. Apprehension was strong inside her. She wanted to get this over and done with. She was excited but scared at the same time. It was going to take time and preparation to get this all ready. But she was feeling impatient, and her heart was thudding. She knew she had to slow down, but it was going to be hard.
She closed and locked her bedroom door, and took her phone off the hook, to make sure she wouldn't be interrupted. She sat in her desk chair, and carefully started reading the books. Two hours later she began preparing for the spell.
She drew a pentagram, a five-pointed star in a circle in white chalk on the hardwood floor of her room. She set the candles and gems in two rings around the perimeter of the circle and lit the candles. She sat cross-legged in the circle, and called upon the elements for protection. She didn't feel any different once she had done it. She just trusted to them and continued with the spell.
She followed the chant in the open book outside the circle. She reached for the runestave and the silver knife from the kitchen. She followed the symbol in the book, carefully, and stood, holding the stave above her head in her two hands.
Her chanting grew, echoing in the room. A strange light as beginning to grow just outside the circle, about two meters away from her. The light was just smoke at first, whirling around pointlessly. Jenny took the stave, waving it in the shape of a person, and the smoke began to go where she directed it. The smoke changed colour from a dusty white to a bright, shining green. It flared suddenly, the brightness blinding Jenny temporarily.
She blinked, little green dots dancing in front of her eyes. When she could see there was someone standing in front of her. Someone she thought she'd never see again.
Standing there like the first time she'd seen him, the boy in the More Games store, lean and elegant, dressed all in black, hair white as snow, eyes a blue of an indescribable colour. The only difference was the atmosphere about him. When she had first been confronted with him, her impression had been one of radiating danger and menace. Now...he was staring at her with a look of mild surprise.
Jenny had to control herself not to scream with delight. She'd done it!
"You...brought me back," was all Julian said.
"Yeah, I did." Jenny was grinning from ear to ear. She just couldn't help it. She knew she must look ridiculous. She noticed the candles had somehow moved. They were no longer lining the ring of the pentagram, they were dotted about the bedroom, their glow shining, and enchanting. Their eyes met, and Jenny knew what was going to happen. And when Julian smiled, she realised he knew too, and when he came forward to kiss her, she didn't deny him.
* * *