Chapter 5

2 hours later, they'd gone through about a third of the castle. Kelly and Ryan had to take a break to check up on their parents (for whom it'd only been a while under a half hour).

Kelly took the headphone and fell onto her bed.

Daniella picked up the phone and laid it on the table. "What's going on?"

"Not much," Kelly said, resting her head on the pillow as Ryan sat on his bed, "Did you know Arielle had a brother and sister?"

"Yep. Really big story there."

Wendy came up. "What about the Coven? Tell me Penelope's not still there."

Kelly thought about that. "Uh…no?"

"Liar!" Wendy cried, "She is, isn't she?"

"Yeah, pretty much. Did something happen with you 2?"

"It's a long story," said Daniella, "So who've they got heading the magic otherwise?"

"Royal twins, Karen and Carmen."

"Karen and Carmen?" Daniella scoffed. "Should've known."

Kelly snapped up. "What? They're the good guys, right?"

"The best," said Daniella, "Of course, Karen always was a Wendy."

"Hey!" Wendy snapped, "I'm not that bad!" She thought about that. "OK, maybe a little. But she always had a thing about Halflings and I'm fine!"

"Because you married a mortal!" Daniella corrected.

"So did you, Ms. Pregnant!"

"Hey!"

"Well, think about it: Karen never did like us."

"Which is why Carmen's holding her in check. Twins!"

"Hang on, I don't—"

"Uh, hello?" Kelly piped in, "Still here!"

"Yeah," said Ryan, "And that sounds kind of like an 'after-we-go-to-bed' conversation."

"Right," said Daniella, "Sorry."

Sophie rolled her eyes and came up. "So, anything really bad going on?"

"No, not really."

"Well, call us if there is."

"OK-love-you-bye!"

"Wait! I gotta warn you—" Sophie started. But before she could, the phone clicked off.

"Warn them about what?" Tech asked, suspiciously.

"Nothing," Wendy said. She looked at Sophie. "And if they've read the book at all by now, they'll know anyway."

"I'm just naturally worried about them," Sophie said in return, "But you're right. Knowing them, they've probably read that thing cover-to-cover by now."

"So when are we gonna open that book?" asked Ryan.

Kelly shrugged, pulling it out of her bag. "Let's see…" She opened the book. "OK, magic, magic, magic, blah, blah, blah, yadda, yadda, yadda, etc., etc., boring, boring, boring. Done." She tossed it against the wall. "Mom and Aunt Danni and Aunt Wend trust Karen and Carmen. If there's anything we need to know, we'll get it from them." She jumped up. "Speaking of which, we better meet them back in the lobby." She left, Ryan following…and the 2 were pulled down the stairs by an invisible and right up to Karen.

"Oh, good, you're back," said Karen, "We've gotta go over a few things."

"Yeah, warn us next time you do that!" Kelly cried, shaking herself off and grabbing her stomach, "That hurt!"

"Sorry! Just be happy I'm not premature like you, you probably would've fallen down the stairs!"

"Wait, these don't change, too, do they?" asked Ryan.

"Thankfully, no," Carmen said, coming up behind her sister, "It's just in the towers. Well, we need to go over some stuff." She led them off. They came back to the room they were practicing magic in. "OK, let's start with a simple transfiguration spell. Kelly?" Kelly came up to the table with her as she put an orange on it. "Orange into apple. Just concentrate and…point." Kelly closed her eyes, concentrated hard, and pointed at it… "OK, apple, pineapple. Not bad for a beginner." Kelly opened her eyes. Sure enough, it had come out as a pineapple. "Don't worry. You can do this."

5 minutes later…

Karen and Ryan were collecting about 50 pineapples in a bag to take to Haven.

"Well, we can only go up from here!" said Carmen.

"I'm doomed," said Kelly, "Forgive me for stealing Jack and Duck's line, but I am hopelessly and utterly doomed! I can't do magic!" She groaned. "If you need me, I'll be wandering through the halls moping." She left the room, slamming the door behind her.

"Don't worry about her," said Ryan, "Probably just hormones."

"They are stronger on Witches," Carmen said.

"Face it," said Karen, "She's right. She's doomed. She just came of age as a premature and a half-born. There's no way! And if she's doomed, they all are."

"Karen," Carmen warned.

Karen sighed. "Doesn't mean I'm not wrong." She put one last pineapple in the bag and started walking off to the kitchen.

Kelly walked down a hall with her arms crossed. She walked past one hall and justly barely noticed a scuffling sound and one of the lanterns shattering. She backed up and walked into the mouth of the hallway. "Hello? Is someone there?" There was another scuffling sound and another light broke. She stepped back just in time to avoid getting slices by a few glass shards.

"Get away…"

Kelly started freaking out. She ran out of the hall and back to the magic room. Carmen was trying to teach Ryan the transfiguration spell and he was doing alright. Kelly noticed the "Big Book of Spells" (as Carmen had called it) lying on the table by the mirror. She held out her hand and carefully pulled it toward her…and it once again slid from her grip and hit her in the head, knocking her to the ground and falling on the ground next to her. OK, ow! She sat up and grabbed the book. She sat against the wall and started flipping through the pages, looking for something that could help with this situation. She couldn't seem to find an explanation for what had happened in that hallway. She groaned. "Why can't this thing just tell me what happened?" Suddenly, the pages started blowing around, but there was no wind. "Why am I not surprised?" The pages finally turned to reveal one spell in particular. Kelly started reading it and became intrigued at what she found:

"Witches and Warlocks that have experienced the torture spell are never quite the same again. Some lose control of their powers and can no longer do spells based on anything but their emotions, doing a spell involuntarily every time their mood changes should a female have already given birth. Virgins and/or those underage are usually unable to survive prolonged use of the spell. Should the torturer choose to, the spell can cause severe mental damage. Due to the symptoms of this spell, it has been made illegal by the Witches' Council since the mortal year 1745. Anyone who has survived the curse has either been exiled or hidden themselves from every form of life."

Wow, Kelly thought, That's horrible! I can't imagine having to go through that. I wonder if that's what's in that hall… She looked back at the hallway. She put the book on the table by the door when Carmen and Ryan weren't looking and ran back to the hallway. "Hello? Are you still there?" Another light overheated and exploded. "I'll take that as a 'yes.'" She started to slowly walk forward.

"Go away…"

Kelly followed her vibes and jumped back before another light exploded. "It's OK, I'm not gonna hurt you." She heard the scuffling noise again and followed it, going fast enough as to avoid the exploding lights, but slow enough as to not scare this poor creature… She finally saw someone huddled in a corner. "Hi." It looked at her, but she couldn't see it. It was too dark in that corner to see anything but the outline of the creature, which appeared to be a person. "My name's Kelly and…" The creature opened a secret passage in the wall and disappeared through it, the door closing behind it. "Wait!" Kelly knelt down in the corner and looked around. It seemed like there was a trick brick (no rhyme intended) in the wall. She examined the wall, followed the vibes, and carefully pushed in one of the white bricks, reopening the hatch. She crawled through the little door, which closed behind her, and found herself in an entirely dark hallway. OK, now what? I can't see anything! Follow the vibes…try to remember a spell… She followed the vibes telling her where to go until she remembered a spell her aunt had taught her in case she ended up in a dark situation. Kelly reached down to the skirt of her dress and pulled it up to reveal that she was still wearing her rainbow boots beneath it (Karen and Carmen hadn't bothered with her shoes since her dress was covering them) and pulled her wand out from her right boot. "Litonia!" Her wand lit up with a glowing light and she used it as a flashlight through the crawlspace until she came to a dark room with no other way out. She found the person there. "Hey."

The person backed away into another corner.

"It's OK. I…" Kelly stood up.

"Get away from me!" a female voice rang out through the darkness.

Kelly pointed her wand at her, accidentally shining the light in her eyes.

The girl looked away just a split second after Kelly got a glimpse of her radiant yet worried pink eyes. That's right, pink. Kelly looked her over and saw that she was a brunette with ivory skin. She was dressed in standard Witch's robes, but they'd been torn and beaten.

Who knows what she's been through, Kelly thought. She slowly approached her. "It's OK, I'm not gonna hurt you."

"They all hurt me. They don't know it, but they hurt me. They try to hurt me even though they don't know they're doing it."

"I'm not gonna." Kelly knelt down next to her. "I'm a friend."

The girl looked at her. "Friend. Word I haven't heard in a long time. No friends down here in the darkness. Just me. Alone. No friends."

"It's OK." Kelly took her hand. "What's your name?"

The girl jerked her hand away. "Jupiter. They called me Jupiter. Before he came."

"Who? What happened?"

Jupiter looked her in the eye. "You don't wish to know. Why would anyone? They don't care how I feel. They don't even know I'm down here. Why would they wanna know that I'm suffering?"

"I do," said Kelly, "What happened to you? Who did this to you?"

Jupiter let out a little half-smile. "I'll show you." She touched her fingers to Kelly's temple…

Kelly felt herself yanked from her body and raced through a memory of one night in this girl's life…5 years ago…

Jupiter was just 16 then. Her parents were the heads of the Witches' Council.

One evening, she went to bed. It was just a couple hours after sunrise. Before she could close her eyes and fall asleep, she heard the zapping of spells in the living room. She sat up. "Mom? Dad? Is something wrong?" She heard no reply. She got up and raced into the living room. She opened the door and saw her father lying dead on the floor and her mother being choked to death by a Warlock. The Warlock looked at her and saw the fear in her eyes.

Kelly looked closer at this Warlock's eyes. She knew those eyes… Mars. The castle crow.

Mars smirked at Jupiter. He held his free hand out at her and she felt her throat constricting. He was trying to choke her! Mars looked back at Jupiter's mother. "Pretty girl. Too bad she has to die for you all to understand no good can come from those mortals."

Jupiter's mother started crying. "NO!" She kicked Mars' stomach, knocking him back and making him let go of both of them, dropping them both to the floor. She crawled up to Jupiter. "No matter what happens. Don't let go. Remember what we told you last night…" She let out one last groan and fell to the ground, dead.

Mars pointed his wand at Jupiter. "What'd they say to you last night?"

Jupiter looked at both her parents' dead bodies. She felt the tears welling up inside her, but she fought them back. She had to be strong now. She looked back at Mars and shook her head.

Mars sighed. "Very well." Suddenly, he did a spell and zapped her with it.

Jupiter screamed at the top of her lungs, scared, hurt, and unable to fight back.

Jupiter let go of Kelly.

Kelly looked at her. "Mars did this to you?"

Jupiter nodded. "His name. Mars. The one who hurt me. Killed my parents. Tried to convince everyone that mortals did it."

"I'll bet he tried to convince the mortals that Witches and Warlocks had killed their leaders," Kelly pondered out loud.

Jupiter nodded again. "Yes."

"He was punished. He has no magic now."

"He is a bird. Flies about the castle. I can't face him. Can't face anyone. They'll all hurt me."

"Not me."

Jupiter looked at Kelly. "Not you?"

Kelly shook her head. "No." Kelly thought of something. "You trust mortals, don't you?"

"More than I trust this kind. Now. 5 years. 21 years of this kind."

"Good."

Jupiter looked at her again.

"'Cause I'm both." Kelly smiled at that thought. She and her siblings and cousins weren't freaks of nature or politically incorrect or any of that junk. They were the perfect blending of 2 cultures, even if different species. And nothing anyone said was going to hurt them. Sticks and stones.