NaNoWriMo Part 4

Kim was almost embarrassed to tell her parents what had happened. She stashed the staff beneath her bed, covering it with a blanket just in case. She had no idea what she'd do about it. They'd notice it missing by morning. She had no idea what to do about Mithra either. Freaking out was what she'd expected, but some tiny part of her had hoped she'd try to understand.

In the morning, she brought the staff down to show her mother. She had a panicked look in her eye but she took it, patting her on the head. They'd deal with it later, she promised. Kim was just happy there wasn't an interrogation. At school Mithra didn't show up that day or the next. She called her at home, but each time it went to voicemail. Dejected, she decided to go to the gallery after school, possibly to explain the full situation. She wasn't entirely sure yet. When she got there, Hortense was still at the desk, but she told her everyone else had gone home for the day.

"Why?" Kim asked.

Hortense shrugged. She was in the process of unwrapping another stick of gum. "Bossman doesn't tell me anything. All I know is, he had to rush off somewhere."

"So do you ever leave?"

She grinned sardonically, the half-chewed gum smashed in her back teeth. "I'm very devoted to my job."

Kim walked the rest of the way home and found her mother in the living room, looking over a stack of papers. She smiled as she walked in and apologized for not telling her.

"What happened?" Kim asked.

Her mother shrugged. "Some sort of emergency. I'll be in tomorrow, but as I understand it, Hortense is in charge."

They stayed for a moment in silence. Mrs. Zhi set her papers down and gestured for her to come sit beside her. When Kim did, she wrapped her in her arms.

"I told you before everything is going to be alright."

Kim smiled in her mother's comfort. "I know, mum."

"How have you been feeling?"

Kim told her, a little. She told her mostly that the staff had been lonely when it reached out to her, and it was a feeling she was beginning to share. Maybe they were meant to be together. Her mother was properly sympathetic, but there was little she could offer in help. After they talked a while, Kim went up to her room and was stopped by her father. She was pleased to see him out, but right now all she wanted to do was go up and nap. Still, she stopped. He pulled out from his pocket a small pendant with tiny radiant lines in its center. It was held on a thick string, and he tied it around her neck for her.

"Protection," he told her. "In case."

She hugged him and thanked him. If she wore it to school, they'd probably call home about devil worship, but she didn't care. Already she felt lighter, and when she got to her room, she threw down her bag, folded up in her bed, and sent an e-mail to her friends back home. After that she sent a text to Mithra and waited.

---

Her hands had been digging a way out for a long time, and suddenly, they hit air. Urged by this, she worked harder, using all of her strength to climb the last foot out of the ground. She gasped for breath, laying in the dirt and watching the moonlight for the first time in a thousand years. She'd felt moonlight, felt its stilted rays, and it used to suffocate her. Now she saw it in the open air with a cool wind and the open sky and it was the most beautiful thing she'd ever seen. Finally, she climbed to her feet, shaking away the dirt clumped in her hair and on her face and all over her clothes and she tsked. This certainly wouldn't do. She was going to have to make an entrance.

She sang and danced the whole way home and dreamed of finally getting what she wanted.

---

By Friday, Mithra no longer had an excuse to not be present at school. She did not sit beside Kim at school and at lunch completely disappeared. Kim tried to get to her before she disappeared into her parents' car, but she had no such luck.

Saturday, Kim could stand it no more. She went to Mithra's home, knocked on the door, and Mrs. Sinha told her she was upstairs, go right up. Mithra was laying on her bed, a book between her arms. She was surprised to see her but did not slam the door in her face or tell her to get out. It was already going better than Kim had anticipated.

"Hey," Mithra said.

"Hey," Kim replied.

She stood at the door nervously. Finally, Mithra rolled over and tossed her book to the floor, swinging her legs over the edge of the bed. She did not meet her eyes.

"Do you want to talk about what happened?" Kim asked.

"I sort of hoped I'd imagined it."

"That's fair."

Kim closed the door and sat down on the bed. Silence filled the space between them. There was no proper way to breach the subject.

"I didn't know you were gay," she said finally.

Mithra's eyes shot straight up to the door. "Shut up!"

"You told me."

"My mom's probably listening at the door!" She got up and pressed her ear to the door. After a moment, she breathed out. "That was mean."

"Sorry." Kim smiled at her. "I didn't mean to freak you out."

She stared at her a minute, hand still pressed against the door as if she may run. "Are you really magic?"

"Yeah. I'd do that thing again, but I'm really not supposed to."

"That's fine." She sat down beside her again. "I'm sorry I freaked out."

"Totally expected. I was being an idiot."

"Yeah, you were." She bunched her sheets in her fist. "You sounded really freaked out. What happened?"

Kim, not entirely sure how to explain it to an outsider, started at the beginning. She explained what the staff was and then told her when she was bonded to it. She told her everything that unfolded since. She told her of fighting the Medusa, of the sickening feeling when she saw her mother on the floor. She even had to explain her parents, her mother's association in western magic culture and her father's practice as a houngan. She explained what the Collection really was and told her all about Aremana and how creepy she found him. After that she couldn't stop. She told her how she felt the fire still prickling at her skin sometimes, the fear that the staff would call on her at any moment, the connection she still held with it, and how she was starting to understand it as if it were a different person, as if it spoke to her. Mithra listened, mostly with a disguised look of horror, but when Kim finished, she was still listening, her head propped in her hands as she lay across her bed, eyes filled with concern.

"My mum wants to help, I know," Kim continued, falling back onto the bed. "There's nothing to do though, and I guess Aremana's disappeared or something."

"And Hortense is...?"

"The secretary."

"Okay."

Kim looked to her friend. "Do you believe any of this?"

Mithra sucked in a breath. "Yeah. You showed me. You're dad's really into voodoo?"

"Vodou."

"That's not the same thing?"

"Not the way you're thinking of it."

"Oh." She rubbed her face in her hands, thinking. "Does anyone else know?" she asked. "Your friends at home?"

Kim shook her head. "They're both muggles."

"Oh god," she murmured. "This raises so many questions about Harry Potter."

"As far as I know, J.K.'s a muggle too."

"Well that's disappointing."

Kim rolled over to lay beside her. For the first time since everything had started, she felt like a weight had been relieved from her shoulders. She might've suffocated in all this, and here she was reaching out for a life raft.

"Does anyone know about you?" she asked.

Mithra shook her head. "I can't believe I told you that."

"I can't believe you thought I was gay."

She rolled her eyes. "You have a big ol' bisexual vibe."

"Do I?"

"Really."

"Ashley told me the same thing."

Mithra laughed. "Sexuality decided by democratic vote."

They fell into comfortable silence. Kim checked her phone for the time.

"It's already getting late," she said. "I should probably head back soon."

Mithra glanced as well. "My parents must've realized how shitty I've been feeling if they let you stay this long."

"Were you feeling shitty?"

"I skipped class for two days. The last time I did that I had pneumonia."

Kim called her mother to come pick her up, and they were able to hang out a while longer until she showed. Mithra's mother called her down, and they hugged goodbye. Mithra told her she'd text her tomorrow, and there was no getting rid of her now. It was the best thing Kim had heard all week.

---

It was right when Kim was feeling best that things took a turn for the worse.

First, Aremana returned. After a week of being gone, which her mother explained he'd gone to Britain to take care of something, which had only served to make her homesick once more, he stormed back into the Collection and made them redo everything they'd done in his absence, at least according to her mother. Mrs. Zhi was normally kind enough to call him out on his jerk tendencies, but for some reason she was allowing his rampage, which Kim did not understand. It would've been fine, if her mother had requested she come by one day after school. Kim had no intention of standing in his way, and she was well aware how much he didn't like her, but it must've been important. Maybe they figured out something about the staff.

Hortense was manning the reception area as usual, smacking her gum louder than strictly necessary. Today was a second presence in reception: a thin, lanky boy slumped into one of the chairs, his legs stretched out in front of him, fiddling with his phone. He wore huge coke bottle glasses over his bright blue eyes and even covered the tips of his sandy brown hair. He glanced up as she came in and offered a little wave, which she awkwardly returned.

"You can't go in," Hortense said as she passed.

"What?" Kim stopped. "Why?"

She shrugged. "Prof is completely reordering the place. Also he doesn't like you very much."

Kim narrowed her eyes at her. "Is my mum still here then?"

"Yeah, I think. She told me to tell you to wait for her."

"Hortense, what do you do all day?"

She rolled her big brown eyes and flipped her bangs back. "I practically run this place."

Kim collapsed on the chair beside the boy, nodding to him in acknowledgement. He smiled at her, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose.

"You're stuck waiting too?" he asked.

She was surprised to find he had a North accent, something she wasn't expecting to hear in the States. She sat up. "Looks like it. Can I ask--"

"Tiny town," he said. "Wester. No one's ever heard of it."

She grinned. "Leeds."

"So I'm not the only one trapped in this place."

"What brings you all the way out here?"

He shrugged. "Sort of on my own at home, you know? Uncle Anselm decided to bring me back with him."

She hoped her eyes didn't open to widely. "Uncle Anselm?"

"Yeah." He pointed towards the warehouse door. "Everyone here calls him Professor Aremana I guess."

"No--yeah, Anselm. Sorry, I just didn't know he had family."

"I only kind of knew I had an uncle. I think the last time I saw him was..." He counted on his fingers briefly and then shook his head. "I don't even remember. Had to be when I was a babe."

"I know how that is. All of my dad's family is in Haiti, and then my mum's is split between China or London. We get to choose one for Christmas."

"I'm Geoffy, by the way," he said, sticking out his hand.

"Kim." She shook it.

"Oh, good," Mrs. Zhi spoke up. She was entering through the metal door, her purse in hand, ready to go. "You two are already chatting. Geoffy, your uncle's going to be working late tonight. Would you like to come eat dinner with us?"

"Sure, yeah," he said.

"Alright then. Good night, Hortense."

Hortense only rolled her eyes and went back to filing her nails.

The car ride home was pleasant enough. Geoffy spoke little, and he was always pushing up those glasses. Kim didn't even know they made them that big anymore. His face reflected abject misery as he stared at the picturesque town, and Kim could remember when she shared the same expression. There house didn't help either, her father's skulls still waiting on the mantle and the strange things he was starting to keep in the fridge. At least his family was steeped in a similar magical background as hers, so he wasn't too weirded out. He was at least deeply interested in the pendant she wore, and she let him play with it a bit. She learned he knew way more about magic than she ever really would. His parents had been practitioners of old country magic, the sort that only got passed family to family like an old heirloom. He was looking for a bit more schooling, which was why he was actually pleased to stay with his uncle, who appeared to know a lot. Apparently he'd been talking with her mother as well, because he had more than a few kind words to say in her direction, but that may also be because she was making them both dinner. Somehow she coaxed Mr. Zhi down from his study to join them, but Kim recognized the fatigue written on his face. His eyes were sunken, worry lines etched around his mouth where he pressed his lips into a straight line. He said nothing the entire time he spent with them and then stalked back to his room. If Geoffy noticed, he said nothing, but he also helped them clean the dishes, so perhaps he was just polite. Kim took him up to her room after that (her mother propped the door open) and she showed him some of the letters her friend had sent and told him how much she missed home. He admitted the same, but whenever she asked him anything about where he was from, he got quiet and started tearing things up with his hands.

"Really though," she asked finally. "Why'd you get dragged all the way down here?"

He pushed up his glasses and looked at her. "Well, honestly? My parents died in a mysterious car crash, so I was left on my own with my mean uncle. All I've got left now is this weird lightning scar, but I'm told I'll finally start my magical training."

She glared at him. "How much of that was the plot to Harry Potter?"

"Almost all of it."

"Really though."

He sighed loudly. "My mum really did die in a car accident. I was probably five at the time. I don't remember it very clearly. My dad, he got sick recently, and then he just kept getting sicker."

"Oh. I'm sorry."

He shrugged. "Uncle Anselm's taking me in, I guess, until he gets better."

They looked at pictures of their respective homes online until finally Kim's mum told him she was taking him back. They exchanged numbers, and Kim told him whenever he got homesick to just text her. Before going to bed that night, she sent a long e-mail to Ashley and Thomas, promising to see them again soon.

---

Kim was urged by her mother to invite Geoffy out with her and Mithra, and since there appeared to be no headway into her problems, she was forced to agree. Mithra had scowled a little at inviting him along, but she'd relented when Kim explained his situation. That Saturday they took the tram to the next town over, where apparently their mall was so large that it was packed every day. Neither Kim nor Geoffy completely understood the appeal of malls, but there was little else for three teenagers to do on their own.

The Firewheel Mall was indeed very large and not entirely indoors. It took up three blocks, and each corner held a huge, two-story department store or similar shop, and while a few candle stores or jewelry stores or earth stores lined some of the streets, it was mostly big brand names that Kim didn't recognize. They ended up in the Barnes & Noble at the Starbucks inside, sipping chai lattes and feeling unimpressed. Eventually they decided a movie was the best way to pass the time, but the theater there played mostly indie films. They picked at random, and ended up seeing something with Zooey Deschanel and a skinny boy. They both cuted at each other for two hours, the whole time they spent in a nearly empty theater. Kim and Mithra devolved into yelling at the screen every time anything happened, while Geoffy watched either the screen or them, depending on which was more entertaining. Afterwards they got burgers and sat outside in front of a man made pond, tearing up the grass and laughing at the people they saw pass by. Mithra bummed a cigarette off of someone and proved she was an excellent smoker when her parents weren't around. Daylight was beginning to run low, the dark purple blush of night bruising the sky. It was probably time for them to head back, and they sat at the tram stop on the wire green benches, except Mithra stood on them, trying to see how close it was to arriving.

"You're going to know when it comes," Kim said, grabbing the hem of her skirt to pull her down.

Mithra stretched her limbs out and pouted. Kim had never seen her so wired.

"Geoffy," she asked, turning to him, "is having a stick up your ass a British thing?"

"Yes," he said, expression nothing but dead serious. "Absolutely."

Kim reached over to slap him, but Mithra shrugged her aside and continued her line of questioning.

"You're magic too, right? Like her."

"Not like me," Kim said. "He's got an education. I'm more homeschooled."

"That's pretty much how it's all taught though," he said. "We haven't got schools lined up to teach us. Well, actually..."

"You've got schools?" Mithra asked excitedly.

"If you're lucky, there are these groups of people who do all magic all the time. It's sort of like university, but probably more like camp."

"I've met some of those people," Kim said. "Basically you live in the forest with a guy who doesn't bathe and whose beard is longer than you and then he teaches you extra special magic."

"That's dumb," Mithra said.

"Pretty much."

They did in fact know when the tram arrived, because it approached with a dull roar and then slowed to a screeching halt. The doors groaned open, and they climbed inside, choosing from the available plastic yellow seats. They sat at the back of the train and read the graffiti someone had left in Sharpie. Mostly people drew dicks, and Mithra had to stop Kim from giving them smiley faces. They arrived back just as night had set in completely and had to call Kim's mother to come pick them up.

Mithra was dropped off first, and then Geoffy would be returned to the Gallery. Professor Aremana had a house, Kim was assured when she asked, but he lived outside of town, so they went there instead. Mrs. Zhi had to get some things from her office anyway, so it worked out. Kim walked inside with them and was surprised to see Hortense still behind the desk.

"You can't just sit here and file your nails all day," Kim said to her as they passed.

"Don't be ridiculous," Hortense responded with a sigh. "I can't file my nails every day."

She might've responded, but that was when the door opened and someone new walked through. Kim couldn't remember ever seeing her. She was tall yet curvaceous with thick, curly black hair and went all the way to the floor. The clothes looked ancient, the dark green fabric falling off her shoulder and split down her legs, and she wasn't wearing any shoes, just a small band around her ankle. Her eyes were intense and dark, and her lips curled back into a smile as she looked around the room. She stood as though she had just busted in on a party, and she was going to make it hers.

Hortense stood quickly, trying to look nonchalant about it, but there was something gripped in her fist that Kim couldn't see, and her expression was hard set. Her mother as well stepped forward, putting her body between the woman and the children. Geoffy and Kim exchanged glances, but she couldn't tell if he felt the same as she did. The woman's gaze caused her skin to prickle and she couldn't hold it with her own, and deep inside her chest a fire began to light.

"'Ello then," the woman said, flipping her hair back. Her accent was distinctly Welsh and thick, her language garbled enough that it seemed English was a recent development. "I'll be speaking with the proprietor of this establishment."

"We're closed," Hortense said sharply. "Please return next Monday between the hours of 8 to 5."

"You haven't got a sorcerer about?"

"If you'd like to speak with Professory Aremana, you'll have to wait until next--"

"It's fine," Mrs. Zhi said suddenly. "I'll go grab him, shall I?"

Hortense glared at her. "There's no one on the schedule."

"Good. That means he's free. Why don't you two follow me?"

She pressed against the shoulders of the two children, leading them to the back room. Kim's heart thudded in her chest, and she felt the woman turn her gaze directly to her. She knew. The fire was burning her inside and she knew. The staff was telling her this isn't safe we've got to leave we've got to destroy her take me use me let's end this now. The woman held up a dirt stained finger and pointed directly to her.

"That one," she said, "has got my staff."

The whole room paused, and Kim thought her mother was going to force them through that door no matter the cost, but it opened all on its own, and Professor Aremana stepped through. He surveyed the entire room, his withering glare penetrating each and every soul.

"What is going on?" he asked, and then Mrs. Zhi pushed the children through the door and shut it behind them.

---

"What the hell," Geoffy asked as they stood in the dark on the other side, "was that?"

Kim was still shaking, and she hoped desperately that he didn't notice. She pressed her back against the wall and tried breathing slowly to keep her heart rate slow. She flinched when he found the light switch, and he turned to her with concern.

"You alright?" he asked.

She nodded. "A little freaked out."

"Who the hell was that woman? What staff? Why did she point at you?"

The last of the tension unknotted itself from her chest. She breathed out cleanly and stood straight.

"There is a--" She paused, unsure if she should show him now. It still called to her now, and she was worried with the slightest provocation it would appear, and somehow that woman would know. "I have got a staff. It's not technically mine, but it's, well, I suppose I'm its."

"That makes no bloody sense," he told her.

"No, I suppose not. I'm not very good at explaining it."

He sighed and jammed his hands into his pocket. The place was not made for comfort, and who knows how long they would be stuck there.

"Well," he said, "even if it is her staff, she didn't have to barge in here. I'm gonna guess you felt that. She's all bad mojo."

She was relieved that it had affected everyone. "Maybe it really is her staff. Maybe she can take it away. Maybe it'll leave me alone."

He stared at her and then jumped out of the way as the door opened again. Professor Aremana came through, Mrs. Zhi right behind him.

"Darling," she said, gesturing to the two of them, "we're just going to go back to our place. Geoffy, do you mind staying the night?"

He glanced to his uncle, who was busying himself elsewhere and did not look back, and shrugged. "That's alright. I haven't got anything."

"We'll find some things for you. Come on."

"Wait," Kim said. "What's--"

"Later, dear. We're leaving now."

There was enough urgency in her voice that they did not argue. They had to pass the woman on the way out, and she smiled at Kim with all her teeth. She ducked her head and tried not to shudder.

They waited until the car was a few blocks away before asking their questions, which came pouring out at once. Who that woman was, what she really wanted, why she gave off that vibe, where she had come from, all were mysteries.

"Anselm is going to let her inspect the staff," Mrs. Zhi said. "He wants to see how it reacts to her. She claims it was stolen."

"Do you think it's really hers?" Kim asked.

"If it is, she has every right to request it back. She may be able to help you."

This was good news to Kim, even if being in the same room with her gave her a panic attack. Maybe the staff would be out of her life by tomorrow. Or maybe it liked its new wielder better and would refuse to give her up. The latter possibility seemed more in tune with her actual life.

They arrived back at the house fairly late. Kim wanted to call Mithra with the news, but she was surprised at how tired she suddenly felt. Instead she helped her mother unfold the bed from the couch and laid out pillows for Geoffy. They gave him an old shirt and some sweatpants, and Kim sat with him a while before heading off to bed.

"So the staff," he said after she'd explained a little, "is connected to you. So what if it's not really her staff?"

"Then I guess I'm stuck with it," she replied.

"No, I mean, it obviously chooses its wielder. Lots of objects develop their own consciousness after being infused with magic. Maybe it was hers once, but it moved on. Maybe that's why she thinks it was stolen from her."

"So your theory is it moved on on its own, and now she wants it back."

"She must've recognized it in you. She already knows it has a new wielder."

"I just." She rubbed her eyes. "I'd like it to be over. If she wants it back, I say let her take it."

"That may not solve your problem though."

"I don't want to think about that."

Eventually, Mrs. Zhi turned all the lights out and ushered her daughter up to bed, telling her to get some rest, it'd be a big day tomorrow. Kim hoped she was right.