Wicca Awakened

Chapter Two:
A Walk In The Park...

Josh, as usual, was late for school. His mobile phone alarm rang … and rang … and rang. It'd been ringing repeatedly every ten minutes for the past hour! This time, he turned the alarm off and slowly clambered out of bed.

With a deep yawn and a stretch, Josh gathered his uniform and glasses from his small, 'oh my god did a bomb go off in here?' messy bedroom and went downstairs. In a few minutes he was in and out of the shower. He quickly dried off, dressed himself and brushed his teeth. After collecting his lunch money he quickly shot out of the front door with his heavy back-pack slung over his shoulder.

He shook his medium-length messy, mousy-brown hair from side to side and patted it into place with his hands. Unfortunately for him, the mass of curls worked against him and some of the curls stuck out awkwardly. He would have killed for a brush …

At the latest time possible, Kelly slid out of bed and stretched. She looked around her bedroom walls and admired the posters of various bands that have invaded the walls. She dressed and freshened herself up: deodorant here, a bit of hairspray there. There was a knock at the door and it opened.

"Oh my god! Have we been burgled?! … Oh no, it's just your bedroom," Darren, Kelly's brother, taunted. "Come on! Mum's gonna go mental if you're late again."

She threw him an angry look and booted him out of her room. Kelly returned to her refreshing and spent a further ten minutes applying make-up and then brushed her teeth. Once finished, she scooted down the stairs, tackled her older brother for her lunch money and left the house with her badge-covered school bag slung over her shoulder.

Over and over Ninja's alarm clock beeped. It beeped until finally a hand crept from under the blankets to the bedside table, searching for the button that turns the damned contraption off. To no avail, she blindly searched until she leant over too far and fell out of the bed.

"Aaahh!" Ninja screamed as she hit the floor. Grumbling, she stood up and stretched. She moved over to the clock and gave it a good ol' whack, stopping the beeping once and for all! … Until tomorrow, that is.

Rubbing sleep from her eyes she put on her glasses and looked for her uniform in her messy room. It wasn't a pig sty, but it wasn't exactly clean … you know, a few clothes thrown here and there (and everywhere.) She picked up her uniform and headed for the bathroom. After a nice hot bath and a good freshen-up, she got dressed and headed downstairs. Ninja grabbed a quick round of toast, bid her mum farewell and left the house, shoving her homework quickly into her school bag.

Phil shuffled under the bed's blankets and abruptly kicked them off. He stood, stretched and then headed for the bathroom. He brushed his hair and teeth, washed his face and then sprayed himself with deodorant. He dressed himself in his uniform, gathered his school belongings and homework and quickly threw them into his school bag.

Running downstairs and nearly knocking into his older sister, Jody, he made himself a bowl of cereal and sat down in front of the TV not really paying attention to it. Having finishing the cereal, he cleaned up after himself and did a few extra morning chores. Phil decided to leave earlier today since he had some time to kill. With a quick goodbye he left his house and made his way to school.

Restless. Leah lay in her bed trying to get back to sleep. She hadn't had a good night's sleep; randomly waking up in the middle of the night. Sleep. She needed sleep! Instead, she decided to watch a video – six o'clock in the morning – to try and settle herself. By eight o'clock she was wide awake and the video had finished. She even had the chance to straighten her long, blond hair. She got herself dressed in her uniform; ate a bowl of cereal and a spot of toast; had a wash and in no time at all she was nearly ready to leave.

She just needed to gather a few things; sort out her school supplies and correctly apply her make-up. Once she was finished she left the house, closing the door behind her quietly.

"Kala! Wake up! It's time for school!" Kala's grandmother cried, knocking on Mickala's bedroom door.

"Just five more minutes," she grumbled in response. Time passed and passed but still Kala lay curled up in her bed. She shuffled under the blankets and then poked her head out from the warm, cosiness of her quilt and looked at her clock. Twenty minutes had passed.

"Ah crap!" she cried. She was late. Again.

She jumped out of bed, put on her glasses and then scrambled her school stuff together; threw on her uniform and rushed to the bathroom just before one of her little sisters could get in there. She sprayed some deodorant, brushed her teeth and hair and quickly opened the door and rushed downstairs with her school bag. Kala raced passed everyone, shot out of the front door and left it open for someone else to close.

The Park is set at the end of a small neighbourhood. It's quite large and filled with birds, trees and even a small man-made waterfall that runs through it. Walking through the Park to arrive at school on time is a common thing in this neighbourhood, for the far end of the Park opens up across the road from the local High School. So it wasn't mere coincidence that brought Josh, Kelly, Ninja, Phil, Leah and Kala together.

Each of them dodged the frequent, thin near-leafless trees and stepped out onto an empty circular clearing. An eerie silence fell upon them as they all entered the opening. It was strange how they all arrived at the exact same time … Nothing but the gurgle of running water was heard.

A few strange looks were thrown about, until finally they began to move towards the 'tunnel' of trees at the far edge of the clearing that led to the Park's exit. Suddenly, their feet stopped moving. For some bizarre reason they were stood frozen in a circle. A light began to illuminate from the ground in the shape of a six-pointed star, with each point connecting the teens to each other. Wind began to blow forcefully and whatever leaves that were left on the trees were torn off and thrown about in the air.

At the centre of the circle the ground began to radiate with a bright white light. A ball of sparkling energy shot of from it and hovered in the air. Astonishment covered the teens' faces as they had never seen anything like this before. The light hovered in the air as if scanning out each and every individual. It began to shrink, almost imploding in on itself until suddenly it exploded and split itself into six smaller balls of white energy and they shot out at each teenager, entering their bodies and knocking them back a foot or two to the floor.

They were out cold.

A sudden force shook his body. He clenched his fist, held his head and breathed heavily. He almost spilt his coffee all over him. Luckily he was sat at his desk in the Police station when this sudden feeling overwhelmed him.

A young man walked over to him and asked, "Inspector Bailey? Are you O.K?"

Bailey looked up at the young police officer and said, "Uh, yeah, I'm fine. Just a little dizzy." He waited for the officer to leave before he said under his breath with a broad grin, "I'm just fine."