Hi everybody! Some readers have noticed that I'm posting this story on this website and archive of our own. I will be posting chapters on archive of our own first, but they may not be final drafts. Also, as I plan on this being a longer story, the pacing is slower. Just FYI.
As always, thank you to everyone who reads my work and extra thanks to everyone who comments!
TiredOfBeingNice: The Bethan will come. I promise. I'm gonna hold off on giving hints, but basically I'm trying plot first and romantic subplot second.
MBAV fan66: All good things comes to those who wait ;-) Yeah real life is getting in the way of reviewing as much as I'd like too. But when I have time I will continue to review your writing. I love being a part of this community because of writers like you!
cubillos: No, this is Patrick!
Benny groans in response to muffled ba-na-na-nahs emitting from inside his pillow case, from his cell phone. Mindlessly groping the device, he manages to hit a button that silences it. A quick check over the foot of his bed confirms that Ethan remains unconscious, his chest rising and falling evenly.
Stage one cleared.
A mere hour has passed since Benny climbed back into bed. And there's another hour before Ethan has to get up.
The phone screen blinks off while Benny is staring at it, struggling to remember why he chose to wake himself up this early. The blood potions. Right. Crazy idea 271 to free Sarah from the shackles from vampirism is make blood better so she doesn't have to drink as much. They're still hammering out the details of exactly what "better" means.
Mornings are the most magical, Benny reminds himself of Grandma's favorite adage as he half rolls, half falls out of his bed. It's totally worth it to get up before the sun does.
From the floor, Benny untangles his foot from the sheet with one hand while groping around the pile of clothes for his sweatpants. Ever efficient, he combines standing up with stepping into the pant legs. On a particularly hard step, Ethan snorts.
Stage two: leave quietly!
Benny freezes listening to Ethan's breathing and his movements. No shifting; that's always a good sign. The breathing eases back into the gentle snuffling.
Three steps and Benny's out the door, which shuts silently against the foam weatherstripping lining the door frame.
Admittedly there is something about this time of day, the patient calm of the world waiting for people to wake up, that appeals to Benny. As if any actions completed in the emptiness of the morning are less scrutinized. And, oddly the freedom to fail more completely has resulted in the success of many of Benny's far-fetched endeavors.
The young spell caster pads down the hallway, his bare feet alternately slapping on the hard wooden floor between rugs. He drags his fingertips along the wall to guide himself, a habit to guard against tripping when he sometimes forgets to keep his eyes open-basically still asleep.
The Morgans are definitely still asleep. Even the house itself seems sleepy, dreaming its own house dreams. Grandma's around somewhere though.
Only the furniture sits in the near complete darkness of the living room.
"Morning guys," Benny mumbles in greeting as he passes through, his hand walking along the top of the couch like a handrail.
The kitchen is equally devoid of intelligent life. Grandma's probably out in the garden then.
The basement door, however, waits innocuously at the back of the kitchen. When Whitechapel's supernatural population had still been secret, the basement had been where Grandma hid everything overtly magical.
Opening the door reveals the plain wooden staircase descending into cold darkness. The rather typical sight still inspires a twinge of fear in Benny's nearly-adult heart.
He yanks the pull cord just inside the door frame, setting the single bulb into motion and creating dancing shadows. Not bone-shiveringly terrifying at all. Benny shambles down the worn wooden steps, which creak slightly. In retrospect, his fear of the basement may have been one way Grandma had kept magic under wraps for so long.
Grandma has long since moved her workroom out of the garage, and like raccoons Benny and Jane have infested the empty space. Mostly Benny. Jane could be described as 'neat' and 'welcome.'
There are two windows set high in the wall where thin morning light diffuses in illuminating the cold concrete floor and heavy wooden worktables. Benny opts to supplement the light with his desk lamp rather than turn on the overhead lights. Jane has her own desk and set of shelves pushed up against the adjacent wall. She has even hauled down a floor lamp with three colorful cone-shaped shades on repositionable necks.
Benny shoves a clear spot on his desk using his forearm. Grandma keeps warning him that his mess will result in mixed up spells and unintended consequences. Benny scoffs to the empty room, clicking on the magenta cone on Jane's lamp. The light is just a normal white CFL-the plastic cone is colored just for kicks.
Benny sets to work mixing up his potions. Frankly it's amazing Grandma hasn't had issues with unexpected results. Benny carefully measures out all of his spell ingredients by weight, whereas Grandma she uses teaspoons and intuition.
Too tired to focus on anything but the task at hand, Benny places a new small metal bowl on his digital scale and tares the weight. He keeps a jar of clean metal scoops, and he uses one now to dump small increments of powered fox bone into the bowl until the scale reads 0.35 grams. So not a lot.
He tips the fox bone into a graduated test tube that already has 1.7 grams of ground thyme and 10 mL of Ethan's blood. He tosses the used bowl and scoop into his bin of dirty labware.
Modern equipment can't replace everything. He had still had to use a mortar and pestle to grind the thyme because an electronic grinder (aka coffee grinder) leaves too many whole bits.
Fox bone and thyme is the last combo. He couldn't find glass graduated test tubes with screw caps, so seals the test tube with a black rubber stopper, and gives it a shake before placing it in the rack of the test tube rocker with the other mixtures. The blood sticks to the sides of the glass, running down in red rivulets as it gathers.
The fox bone and thyme mixture joins nine other mixtures on the automatic rocker. Each test tube has 10 mL of blood and some combination of magically potent ingredients Benny had a reason to believe effective.
Satisfied, Benny turns the rocker on. True to its name, the devices rotates 45 degrees off center in each direction, gently ensuring the mixtures remain homogeneous. Benny sets the speed to low as they have at least the whole school day before they're using them. The whole test tube rocker is placed in the mini-fridge on the floor next to his desk.
Benny runs through his mental inventory of his equipment and supplies, trying to determine if there is anything he has to clean now. After badgering the coven to fund the couple of thousand dollars worth of lab equipment he now possesses, he plans to actually take care of it.
Benny is wiping out the mortar with a wet rag, when the workroom door opens and Jane bounces in. She still dresses like a normal teenage girl-a loose blue blouse, which Benny figures looks stylish but understated, and jeans. Ethan talked her into wearing a thin silver chain with a citrine teardrop pendant, but it's not even charmed. It just stores excess magical energy that Jane would otherwise give off.
"What are you up to?" Jane asks. She's already awake and functional. Hopefully she won't be expecting intelligent responses.
"Enchanting blood samples," Benny informs her gesturing his head towards the mini-fridge.
Jane crouches down in front of the fridge and peaks in, only opening the door a crack like she's worried about letting the cold air out. She probably is.
"Ethan's not up yet?" Jane asks. It's a layered question.
"No he had a dream last night," Benny explains rubbing his hands up and down his face.
"Bad?" Jane has to repeat the question before Benny responds.
"Wha? Yeah. Really bad," Benny answers simply.
"Oh, I'll make coffee," Jane decides. At the door, she turns around, "Shower's free by the way." It's her polite way of telling him to get his ass into gear.
Benny has gotten out most of the thyme dust from the stone bowl of the mortar. Enough that it can wait at least.
Jane has taken to pre-making potions and storing them in a well labeled cabinet. She has reasons, they're probably good ones. Regardless she won't mind if Benny takes a couple if it's for Ethan's benefit. It's a better excuse than 'it looked cool.'
Despite how badly the vision dreams drain Ethan, he has not yet taken the day off. Which is where Benny comes in. He will physically drag that boy through the halls of Whitechapel High if it comes to it, but why do things the hard way when he could do them the awesome magic way.
Benny selects Ducerebra, Consurge, and Virgis alligatos et folia from Jane's shelf. One of these has to work.
Benny shuffles back up the stairs, tugging off the light before exiting out into the kitchen. Jane is loading up the coffee grinder next to where Mrs. Morgan appears to be making pancakes. Benny's stomach rumbles greedily, but he has other things to do before eating.
He'll check in on Ethan quickly before jumping in the shower and finishing his more mundane morning rituals. It'll be a good day. He'll make it be a good day.
Tune in next time when we discuss Benny's love life.