The jeep parked on the driveway, and the occupants just stayed in the vehicle in shock. None of them could speak to each other or believe what just happened. All was quiet for a few moments, and all were in silent reflection. Melinda was the quickest to recover.
"Come on everybody. Let's snap out of it. We still need to take care of Jack," Melinda tells the other two. She turns to them and sees the reflection of the same down trodden feelings that she is experiencing. "Come on. Let's go into the Manor."
"Yeah…we should get him inside. If you want, I can use my powers to move him inside. It's dark enough that people shouldn't notice, and we can take the back way," Trish offers.
"Yeah that would be great. Thanks," Melinda replies. She turns in concern to Alex who was still deep in thought, "Hey Alex, you ok?"
He shakes head to clear his thoughts and responds, "Yeah, I'm fine. Don't worry about me. You know, I was just thinking…about stuff." Alex looks up and tries to give a reassuring smile. "Come on. Let's get inside and make sure Jack's all right."
"Ok. Trish you ready?" Melinda asks.
"Yeah. You guys should run interference just in case there's passing cars or people walking," Trish answers. The three get out of the automobile and head to Jack's side of the jeep. Melinda and Alex block the view of anybody looking from the street while Trish opens the door. Melinda and Alex keep watch of the road but they turn their head back occasionally to check on Trish's progress and Jackson's condition. Trish reaches over to unbuckle Jacks seatbelt and notices that he was sweating, trembling and shaking his head back and forth. Trish says in a quiet and calming voice, "Hey, it's going to be all right Jack. We're just going to move you inside." As if he heard her, he calmed down noticeably. Melinda looks on with concern, and Alex gives her arm a squeeze. Trish takes a step back and cups her hand in the air; miming the position her arms would be if she were going to physically move him. She gently pulls with her power and slides Jack out of the car. She then turns her hands over and makes a flattening motion. Jackson straightens as if he was on a bed.
"Ok, guys we're ready to move," Trish tells the other two. The three quickly move Jack inside the house. They go pass the kitchen and head to the living room. Trish gently lowers Jack down on their sofa. Melinda rapidly goes down by his side and holds on to his hands. She gently rubs his hand and gives him whatever comfort she can give. She moves back one of his sleeves to see some of the damage. She gasps at what she finds. Melinda can see the new bruises forming but she could also evidence of old scars and old pain. She's crying for the hurt that was done to him.
Seeing his condition, Alex calls out, "Uncle Leo! Please we need your help!" He tries to put all the need in his voice in hope that his uncle would get there as soon as possible.
Leo arrives in swirl of blue lights. He turns to his three young charges and sees a fourth lying on the sofa. "What happened here? Did any of you get hurt?" Leo asks worriedly. He sees his daughter kneeling and crying next to the young man on the sofa.
"Please Dad, can you heal him?" Melinda pleads. Leo can hear the sadness in her voice and moves toward to what he surmises is their innocent.
"Sure honey. No problem," says Leo to reassure his daughter. He places his hands over the young man and his glow a golden yellow. He can detect some fractured bones, a lot of bruises, some bleeding, a sprained ankle, and a slight concussion. "But wait, what's wrong? Why isn't he healing?" Leo asks himself. He turns his head to others with confusion in his eyes. "I can't seem to heal him," Leo tells them in worry. "It seems like there's a powerful ward on him. The magic just seems to slide off of him."
"What're we going to do Dad?" Melinda pleads.
"We may need to take him to the hospital. He needs somebody to look at these injuries," Leo recommends.
"No we can't! They'll ask questions we may not be able to answer, and he'll be vulnerable to the Source at a hospital," Melinda protests. Leo looks at her with shock at the mention of the Source but he quickly recovers. He's deep in thought trying to think of a way around their problem.
Leo looks up them and with answer to their dilemma, "Well, powerful wards are very hard to do. They're done either with very powerful dark magic or a very intricate ritual spell. In this case since it was done on a person, it would have to have been a close blood relative, usually a parent. Now, I recall a Power of Three spell that can break this type of strong magic. I suggest we move to the attic."
"Wait. If we remove the warding, he'll be vulnerable to magical attacks," Alex cautions.
"It doesn't matter. We're here to protect him now. And we need to heal him," Melinda replies back.
"Okay. I just wanted make sure you know," Alex says. Melinda nods her head in understanding and Trish with agreement.
"Okay. Since we all agree. Let's orb him up," Leo says. All hold hands and Leo and Melinda place their hands on Jackson as they orb up to the attic. Alex quickly goes to the Book of Shadows and flips through its pages. The others carefully move Jackson on a divan.
Leo calls out to Alex and says, "To turn to the warding ritual page, go a couple pages after the protection spells." Alex quickly goes to the page Leo points out. "Found it!" Alex says successfully. The others except Melinda, who stays by Jackson's side, go over to Alex. They read over the materials needed and the spell to be cast. Thankfully all the needed materials were in their kitchen. Trish goes down and grabs all the things they need. While Melinda is kindly asked to write down the spell that's needed. Alex and Leo move Jackson to the clearing on the attic floor.
"Ok got'em. So what do I do with them," Trish says as she returns. Jars in hand, she goes over to Melinda.
"Ok. You need to grind the mustard seed and pepper into a fine powder and then add it to the buckwheat flour. Then you need to pour it around Jackson in the form a circle," Melinda reads from the Book. Trish goes over to a table with a mortar on it and goes about her task. Alex goes to find three gray colored candles and places them around Jackson in a triangular shape. Trish, finished with her powder, goes over and makes the circle around Jackson and the candles.
"Okay I'm done," Melinda says as she tears the paper into thirds and gives the others their part of the spell. Alex lights the candles, being careful not to disturb the circle. The three take their positions at the points of the triangle formed by the candles. Leo is prepared on the side to heal as soon as the spell has been cast.
Melinda informs them, "Okay. Trish you will start the spell and then Alex and then me. As soon as I finish, we must sweep away our third of the circle and then step forward and blow out the candles that are each in front of us. Got it?"
"Yeah." "Sure." The other two reply.
"Ok Trish begin," Melinda instructs.
Trish recites,
"We wish for the undoing
To reach what has been warded."
Alex continues,
"We release this warding
To free what has been guarded."
Melinda finishes,
"With our power and with this spell,
We unleash and dispel."
The three move forward and sweep and break the circle, and they move to blow out the candles. As soon as they finish the spell, pinpoints of yellow light lift from Jackson's body and swirl in a vortex above them and then disappear. Leo steps in and heals Jackson proving the un-warding successful. A sigh of relief could finally be exhaled.
"Alex help me out, and we'll take him to your room. I hope you don't mind," Leo says.
"No Uncle Leo, I don't mind. I'll just take some blankets and a pillow to the couch downstairs," Alex replies. Leo takes Jack's upper body, and Alex grabs his legs.
"Hey, be careful with him. Okay?" Melinda tells them with concern. "I'm just going to clean this stuff up." Melinda turns around and starts to clean up. Trish silently bends down and starts helping her out.
"You really like him. Don't you?" Trish asks casually as if she hadn't dropped a bombshell. Melinda drops one of the candles in surprise. She turns to Trish and gives her an astonished look.
"Was I that obvious?" Melinda asks with a slight cringe.
"Obvious? You have to be kidding me. You were practically falling apart around the seams over this guy," Trish replies. They both stand in front of each other after they finish cleaning up. Trish was waiting for Melinda to answer back. Melinda was just fiddling with the gray candle in her hand.
Melinda looks up, sighs, and answers her, "I don't know what to tell you. I just have this feeling when I'm around him. I won't call it love but yeah I really like him. But I think it's something more. It feels like we were supposed to meet…not just him and me but meet all of us. Do you get what I mean?" She looks into Trish eyes seeking understanding.
"All I get is that you have a huge liking for this guy. But yeah, it's weird an innocent like that was warded with a whammy. Maybe he's supposed to be warded against magic until he's ready for whatever he's supposed to do in the future. Well, I guess now it's us that will be guarding him since there's no more wards. That's just a guess, I don't know I'm not the on you should be asking about what's supposed to happen or meant to happen. You should be talking to Mr. Premonition down there helping your father. Come on, enough of this girl heart to heart, and let's go check on your boyfriend." Trish gives Melinda a sly grin.
Melinda makes a shy smile and says, "Yeah sure let's go." The two girls put candles up and threw away the used spell powder. They moved toward the door and headed toward Alex's room. When they got to his room, the two guys were just finishing up and making sure Jack was comfortable.
"Now," Leo gives his three charges a lecturing pose, "would anyone of you like to explain what's going on? You should have told me that you had innocent to protect and met the Source." The three gave him abashed looks.
Alex spoke up, "Well, I had the premonition but we thought we could handle it. Actually I had two premonitions where Jackson was in trouble. Although, the first one hadn't happened yet, which is odd considering it would make my premonitions out of order. The first one had him with a darklighter whispering in his ear on top of a building. At first, we thought," Melinda coughs at this moment, "I mean Trish and I thought that Jackson was the Source or working for the Source. But talking to him and me seeing the second premonition proved us wrong."
"Okay, let me get this straight, you have an innocent whose name is Jackson. And apparently attracts trouble," Leo says.
"But that's not what should be worrying you, Dad," Melinda continues. "He was being broken and twisted by the Source or at least the Source was trying." The four hear a groan come from the bed.
"Maybe we should take this downstairs Dad," Melinda suggests calmly.
"Fine, let's go," Leo says calmly trying to get back in control after all the dreadful news. He leads the three witches downstairs and into the living room. The three sit down while Leo paces back and forth in front of them. After a few minutes, he stops and takes a look at them.
"Okay, I'm very shocked that you faced the Source this early. But I'm relieved that you're all fine and saved an innocent from the Source. What did the Source want with this Jackson? And how the heck did you get away?" Leo asks.
"Well, dad we didn't know that the Source was going to be there. We thought that his abusive father was hurting Jackson. We thought it was weird that Alex had a premonition about something that seemed non-mystical but I…uhhh…kind of persuaded the others to go in there instead of calling the police."
"What do you mean 'kind of persuaded'?" asks Leo with a suspicious voice.
"What she means is she wanted to mount a rescue for her boyfriend," Trish replies casually. Melinda turns and pinches Trish. "Ow! What'd you do that for? Uncle Leo would have found out anyway," Trish says.
"Now Melinda, you know we're try not get involved with our innocents," Leo lectures his daughter.
"I meet him before all this happened and plus we haven't done anything…yet. But that's beside the point. We're losing focus here and that's the Source. He's immune to our powers, and he's really powerful. I think the only reason he didn't kill us off the bat was because he was mocking us. Plus I think he was really distracted that he didn't accomplish what he came for, and that was to take control of Jackson," Melinda tells her father.
"I still don't understand what he would want with Jackson," Leo says in puzzlement.
"The Source said that he's suppose to do something great in the future, so he was trying to control or at least break him so he won't work against him," Trish adds.
"Well let me see with the Elders and see if I can't get some information from them," Leo says. He orbs away leaving the three behind.
"So what're we going to do about the Source. You know he won't stop and until he kills us," Trish says in concern.
"I don't know Trish. The spell our moms made didn't work so we have to come up with something new and even more powerful to defeat him. I just don't know what that would be," Melinda says.
"Maybe your father will find out something up there," Alex says.
"Yeah, maybe. I'm going up to check on Jackson," Melinda says, "I suggest that we get to rest. We can't do anything right now and there's still school tomorrow." The two grimaced at the mention of school but gave their assent to the inevitable. The three go upstairs and separate to their respective destinations. Trish goes into her room, Alex heads to closet to get some blankets and a pillow, and Melinda heads toward Jackson in Alex's room. Melinda goes into the room and finds the bed empty.
"Guys! We have a problem," Melinda calls out. "Okay, Melinda, stay calm. You found him once, you can find him again," Melinda tells herself to calm down. "Where could he be?"
"Hey Mel. What's wrong?" Alex rushes to his room. Trish follows close behind him.
"He's gone. Do you think somebody took him?" Trish asks.
"I don't know but we have to track him down again. Ready Trish?" Melinda asks.
"Yeah sure," Trish replies. They hold each other's hands again and try to trace where Jackson went. Since they've sensed him before, it was easier for them to locate him.
"Okay we've found him. Alex take my hand and let's go," Melinda instructs. The three orb again in order to find their lost friend. They find themselves on top of a building. They start look around and find Jackson standing on the edge with a dark clothed man standing next to him.
"There! I'm going to freeze them," Melinda says. She feels anger at the darklighter and fear for Jackson's safety. She waves her hands but nothing froze. Instead the darklighter explodes in blue orbs. The motes of light swirl around in the general area where the darklighter was standing. Melinda, shocked at the unexpected result drops her hands. The blue swirls reform back into the darklighter. The darklighter kneels down at the disorientation, and then looks up.
"You! The Source will be most pleased if I destroy you all," the darklighter threatens. He summons his crossbow, and it appears in black smoke. He aims and fires at Melinda.
"I don't think so," Trish shouts. With a wave of her hand, she takes control of the bolt and swings it around. The bolt embeds itself in the darklighter's right shoulder. Fearing death from the witches, the darklighter blinks away in pain. The three step forward carefully. They've noticed that Jackson had not stepped away from the edge yet.
"What's wrong with him?" Melinda asks fearfully.
"I think I know. Remember in my premonition. A darklighter was whispering in his ear. What if he was influencing him? By magic," Alex whispers back. As they move closer, they can hear mumbling from Jackson. They move closer to hear what he's saying.
"I'm completely alone now. I have no one. I have no one. It's better this way. Nobody is going to miss me anyway," Jackson whispers to himself.
Melinda firmly says, "You're wrong. I'm going to miss you. You're our friend, and you need to realize that." Jackson turns around with a blank look in his eyes, and then turns back around to look at the ground below.
Alex points out, "It looks like he's still under a spell or something. We need to snap him out of it and fast."
Jackson interrupts, "I don't have anybody. I don't friends. I don't have family. My own real parents abandoned me. And now, the only father I knew is gone. Life is pointless." Then with arms spread wide he jumps off.
"No!!" the three screamed. Melinda's reflex kicks in and orbs to grab him. Blue lights streak downward toward Jackson and envelopes him. The lights swing back up to the others, and then rematerialize. Melinda is kneeling on the rooftop with Jackson in her arms. Alex and Trish quickly go over to them. They see Jackson open his eyes with a confused look on his face.
"Oh god, what happened?" Jackson asked in dread.
"What do you remember?" asks Trish. Melinda helps Jackson to stand up.
"I'm not quite sure. It's such a mess in my head," Jackson replies in distressed. "I remember my father hurting me. And then I remember Melinda." He looks up at her. She gives him a warm smile but he returns it with confusion on his face. "Then I just remember the pain. After a while, I thought I heard some chanting and then just feeling good. Then I woke up in my dad's apartment. Something in my head kept on telling me my dad was dead, and it was all my fault. After that all I could feel was the pain and the loneliness." He turns away from them and hugs himself to push back the cold and the pain as well.
Jackson feels a touch on his shoulder and turns around. "Hey, we're here now, and we're going to help you," Melinda comforts. She takes him into her arms and tries to give him more solace. It was awkward at first with the height difference and Jackson being unresponsive. He was trying very hard not to breakdown in front of everybody, and especially a girl he likes. Melinda taking him into her caring arms broke the emotional barrier. He returns her embrace and sheds some tears. After a couple of minutes of the emotional release, he slowly, even reluctantly, removes himself from Melinda's hold.
"Thanks. I knew that it would be a good idea to make friends with you three," Jack announces. He looks down at Melinda and smiles. She could tell that Jackson still had sadness in his eyes but she trusts that he now has hope in his heart. Melinda returns his smile, and they're eyes lock. After a few brief moments, they were interrupted by a cough.
"Okay, soooo…since we're done here why don't we go back to the Manor," Trish says. She gives the other two a knowing glance. The two could only redden by their display of obvious liking for each other.
"Would you like to get some things from your apartment?" Melinda asks.
"No…I'm not ready to go back there yet. I'm just…not ready," Jackson replies. The reminder of the apartment sends shivers down his back. He knows something weird is going on, and along with what happened in the apartment, he couldn't make himself go back. He just wanted to leave.
Melinda notices the shaking so she grabs his hand. "Hey don't worry about. We can do it some other time. Come on we'll take you back to the Manor with us."
"Wait. How did you all get here?" Jackson asks in confusion.
"Do you trust us?" Melinda asks. She looks straight into his eyes.
"Sure. You three have been really nice to me when nobody has been. Not for a long time anyway," Jackson replies. Jackson notices Melinda turn head to her cousins. They give her a look that says 'Are you sure?' She gives them a nod.
"Please, keep an open mind, ok? Not a lot of people know about this, and we're trusting you with our secret," Melinda says seriously.
Jackson looks even more confused. "Okay you guys are confusing me even more. I just wanted to know how you got here. And now you're really making me nervous."
"Maybe it's better if we show you," Melinda says. She beckons to the other two hold her other hand. She makes sure she has firm, but not tight, grip on Jackson.
"Show me wha…" before Jackson could finish they were vanishing in blue lights. Melinda had orbed them back to the Manor.