Chapter 3

Over the course of the next few days, Charlene was advised by Jason on how to control her mana. During his stay, Jason occupied one of Charlene's empty rooms.

"It's not much." Charlene admitted. "I didn't have a plan with this room, so I guess you can use it."

Everyday Charlene and Jason would enter the room to help Charlene get used to her powers. At first, it was difficult; Charlene would end up burning the contents of the room to ashes. Fortunately, Jason had a handful of counterspells up his sleeve. Eventually, Charlene was able to conjure flames of any shape or size.

"Your skills have improved a lot." Jason praised as Charlene summoned a small phoenix to fly around the room. "All that's left is planeswalking. Imagine that you're getting sucked into a vortex. Think vividly about the plane you're planning to go to." Charlene closed her eyes, for it helped her imagine easier.

A vortex…

Innistrad for starters…

Quickly, Charlene felt herself absorbed into a hole. Within a few seconds, the room disappeared from her eyes. She felt herself passing through the Blind Eternities, very gradually eating her away. All of the sudden, she hit solid ground on what seemed to be a cemetery. She surveyed her surroundings and caught a glimpse of the Helvault far away.

This is Thraben? Charlene wondered. Must be. There's the Helvault. Wait a second… She looked around her once again. She saw numerous tombstones around her. The province of Gavony is famous for their numerous graveyards. Charlene made a "calculation" in her head.

Lots of people = lots of graveyards.

Lots of graveyards = lots of graves.

Lots of graves = lots of corpses.

Lots of corpses = lots of zombies.

Wait, zombies!? Charlene felt the ground around her tremble. She broke out into an all out sprint, looking for the graveyard's exit. All around her decayed limbs broke through the soil or marble cases. The undead crawled out of their resting places and started clawing their way to Charlene. She eventually found a fence, but it was too high to jump over, so she ran along the fence, hoping to find the gateway out. All of the sudden, she tripped over a rock and fell to the ground. When she lifted her head, she could see the rotten corpses hobbling over to her, glaring at her with hungry eyes. Remembering Jason's words, Charlene tried to concentrate on making a spitfire to protect her, but not even a small candle flame appeared on her fingertips. She became more scared as each zombie made another step towards her.

Get me out of here! Charlene thought madly. Somebody! Help!

As if her wish was granted, a blue, glowing light shone behind the zombies' backs. It flew over the undead and stopped in front of Charlene. The light was the shape of a long, eel-like fish that was covered in runes.

"Is that…" Charlene questioned. "A Jace's Mindseeker?" Immediately, the illusion started tackling the zombies, knocking them to the ground. Charlene secretly questioned how an illusion could harm something solid, or at least, touch it. One by one, the undead disintegrated from the fish's attacks, until one of the corpses swiped at the illusion, which faded away. Charlene stared at where the illusion had been just seconds ago with fear.

I-it's gone? I'm doomed…

"Charlene!"

Charlene heard Jason's voice from behind the remaining few zombies. "Damn zombies!" Jason yelled. "Disperse! Time Ebb! Unsummon!" One by one, the zombies disappeared into the Æther. "You know what!? CYCLONIC RIFT!" A small, red tornado appeared, sucking in all of the creatures, never to be seen again. Jason turned to face Charlene, panting.

"You okay?" asked Jason. Charlene nodded. "Come on, let's get out of here." Jason reached out his hand, which Charlene grabbed. The duo planeswalked back into Charlene's apartment.

"I thought you were brave." Jason said, still breathing heavily. Charlene shook her head. "Behind courage, everyone has a small pinch of fear inside them." She replied.

"And you're scared of zombies."

Charlene nodded her head. "I've had a childhood fear of them," Charlene explained. "I've tried to suppress by watching Left 4 Dead gameplays and several zombie movies. I got over it for a while, but after seeing real live zombies, it came back." She shuddered. "Also, I'm scared of the dark."

"No need for a pyromancer to get scared of the dark." Jason reassured. "You can create fire, which emits light. You can fend off the dark with ease, just try not to burn anything in the process. About the zombies though? Just burn them." Charlene smiled. She stood up, walked over to the television, and turned it on. She kneeled down on the ground and booted up her X-Box 360. Holding two controllers, she faced Jason with a wide grin.

"Mortal Kombat?" Charlene offered. Jason laughed. "I'll beat you to a pulp."

"We'll see."

After managing three wins and suffering five losses, Jason returned to his room to sleep. He lay down on his mattress and sighed.

"Scared of zombies, huh?" Jason muttered. "Of all fears, why kinemortophobia?"

"Fighting off Liliana is going to be no walk in the park…"

Author's Note: To make things easier, kinemortophobia is the fear of zombies