Present Day
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"Charity! You're going to be late for school! You have cheer tryouts today!" A mother's voice could be heard yelling from the kitchen. "Charity!"
The mother sighed and turned to her son, as she prepared his lunch. "Lucas, honey. Can you go wake up your sister, please?"
The boy, Lucas, smiled at his mother as he got up from his breakfast. He began to walk up the steps towards his sister's room. Charity's getting hell for being the reason I had to leave my bacon before I could even eat it. He opened the door to his sister's room and saw her curled up in a ball, hugging her pillow tightly, as she stirred in her sleep.
Not again, Lucas thought to himself as he saw the sweat dripping off her face. Lucas slowly walked to his sister's bed and sat down on the edge. She was shaking slightly. Lucas sighed as he put his hand on his sister's shoulder and shook her lightly. Charity let out a gasp and bolted up, breathing heavily as her eyes darted around the room. Her eyes finally settled on her brother as he gave her the most sincere expression.
"Nightmare." Charity stated, looking at her brother as she caught her breath.
He pulled out his phone and began texting. When he finished Charity's phone buzzed. She grabbed it and read the message.
Lucas: I figured. Saw you sweating and hugging your pillow, tightly, while you were curled up, when I walked in. But you better take a quick shower, we're going to be late again if we don't leave in half an hour. I'll get you an outfit ready. And you have cheer tryouts today, so I'll get those things ready too, as well as your books. Now hurry, we can't be late, it's barely been 2 weeks of school and we're almost never on time.
Charity smiled at her brother. She kissed him on the cheek as she got up from her bed and grabbed a towel. "You're the best brother ever. What would I do without you?"
Charity's phone buzzed again. Lucas: you'd be dead without me.
Charity rolled her eyes as she smiled and walked out of her room. Lucas got up and packed his sister's school bag. He then packed another, smaller bag, for her cheer gear. And then picked out blue jeans, a white crop top, that wasn't too short of course, and some black sneakers, for his sister to wear.
Looking at the way Lucas took care of his sister, no one would know he was the younger sibling. Other than the fact that he was slightly shorter than her, he was extremely caring and always helped her out, so many people had mistaken him to be her older brother.
Once he had everything set for her, he put his phone in his back pocket, and grabbed his bag from his room. As he headed down the stairs he heard the shower stop and smiled, we might actually be on time for once. He sat down and finished his breakfast as his mother put a plate down for Charity.
"Is she up yet?" Lucas' mom asked.
Lucas pulled out his phone and texted his mother. She smiled at her son as she saw him texting. Then her own phone buzzed. She pulled it out to read his text.
Lucas: yeah, she's up. I packed her stuff for her so she could take a quick shower. She should be coming down soon. I heard the water turn off as I headed down the stairs.
"Shower? Since when does Charity shower before school? She only showers in the morning w-"
"When I have nightmares." stated Charity, finishing the sentence for her mother as she stood at the foot of the stairs.
She put her cheer bag by the front door, and walked over to the counter. Her mother pushed a plate in front of her, signaling her to eat. Then she took Lucas' plate to wash it. He smiled in return, which was his way of saying thank you. The children's mother turned around and looked at Charity as she ate.
"So, are you going to tell me about this nightmare?"
Charity looked at her mother as she finished eating, "Why? It's nothing important." She then got up to wash her plate.
The mother sighed as she watched her daughter. Charity put the plate on the drying rack then grabbed her bag. Lucas got up with his bag and followed as Charity headed for the door. She grabbed her cheer bag then looked at the time.
"We better get going, if we leave now we might actually get there early." Charity said to Lucas with a smile.
Lucas waved his hand to his mother as he walked out the door. She smiled in response. Charity put her phone in her back pocket and grabbed her house key. She began to walk out the door when her mother spoke.
"Charity, wait."
"I'll be fine mom, I promise." She smiled then closed the door.
The mother sighed. She was left alone as her kids began walking to school. She watched from the window as her children walked down the street, once they were out of view she turned around. The mother walked to her room and kneeled on the floor beside her bed. She looked at a floorboard that was a little discolored compared to the rest. She grabbed it from the cracks and lifted it up, revealing a small hole in the floor.
In the hole was a box, a small box. She lifted the box out and opened it. The box was filled with pictures of a group of friends. Old pictures. Pictures from the time she went to boarding school, to a few years after she graduated. She reached for the pictures and began to look through them.
"Super squad." The mother chuckled to herself.
She looked through the pictures until she came to the last one. She smiled slightly as she stared at it. In the photo stood a group of friends, super squad, to be specific, a few years after they all graduated high school.
In the center of the photo she saw herself, standing next to Landon, who held their daughter, Charity. To their right stood Rafael with his girlfriend , holding their daughter, Abigail. Next to them stood Josie and her husband, who at the time was her boyfriend. Josie was holding her stomach, for she was pregnant with the twins. Next to Josie's boyfriend stood Kaleb. On the mother's left stood Lizzie, Josie's twin sister, holding her boyfriend's hand, and next to them Mg with his girlfriend. Dr. Saltzman, the mother's former headmaster, was also in the picture; he stood next to MG.
The mother wiped tears from her eyes as she put the photos back into the box. It had been so long since that last photo had been taken. She then lifted a crystal prism out of the box as it began to glow, she hadn't touched this in years.
"Hey, Hope." Said a familiar, but old, voice from behind her.
Hope set the prism on the nightstand next to her bed before turning. She smiled as she stared at a man who looked very happy to see her. The man looked to be in his mid 20s, he had curly black hair, and green eyes. Her eyes became tearful yet again.
"Landon," the mother said with a small smile.
"What are you crying about, Hope?"
Hope chuckled, "you know you can stop pretending that you're not a prismatic hologram of my subconscious taking the form of my late lover."
"Yeah, I know. But I am your subconscious, and I also know that you'd rather I kept pretending, because it lets you feel like you're actually talking to the real Landon." Stated the man who stood in front of her, who really was just her subconscious.
"How are the kids?"
Hope gave another small smile, "Their growing up fast, Lucas started his freshman year 2 weeks ago, and Charity started her sophomore year. They're happy, like really happy, and living the best normal life I can give them." She wiped more oncoming tears from her cheek.
"If it's the best normal life, then why are you crying?" Landon asked.
Hope stared at the floor. She didn't want to answer the question. She couldn't, so Landon gave her the answer. The answer she already knew, deep in her mind.
"Because you know this isn't the normal life they should be living. They should know about the magic that runs through their veins, and their family's history. They should be able to rely on their magic to be able to protect themselves if they absolutely need to. Hope, they should know who they really are."
Hope looked up at the 23 year old Landon. He was about the same age in the picture she was staring at just a few moments earlier. He looked the same way he looked 15 years ago. The way he looked when she last saw him.
"Landon, I'm trying to protect them. I thought I was protecting them by keeping them away from it. But now I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do. It's been 15 years, they're whole lives. How do I just tell them? I don't know if telling them would do either of them any good." Hope said putting her head in her hands, "What if they hate me for keeping this from them? I can't lose them either."
"Hope- I," Landon took a deep breath and sighed heavily as he thought about what to say, "It's better to tell them, yourself, rather than continually waiting. One day they will discover your secret. You won't be able to keep it from them, not forever. They may be mad at you after you tell them, but I know they will forgive you eventually. I know that one day, they will understand why you did, everything that you did. They love you, and you telling them the truth won't change that." With that, the prismatic hologram glowed again and Landon disappeared.
Hope began to cry. She couldn't tell her kids, they would hate her for having kept such a big secret. And after everything Lucas and Charity have both been through, who knows if they'll ever forgive her. She put the prism back in the box and hid it under the floorboards once again. Hope could not stop thinking about her old friends. She hasn't seen them in years, but every two months she calls Josie, though the calls were fairly quick, just enough time to reestablish the emergency plan.
Hope looked at herself in the mirror, she touched Landon's necklace which she wore everyday. Just like Charity had never taken off her necklace from the day Landon gave it to her, which was nearly 15 years ago. And Lucas had worn his bracelet ever since he was born, because it belonged to Landon.
Hope remembered when the kids were much younger, they never wanted to take their jewelry off. They never took it off, not once in their lives, and this was what Hope counted on everyday. She counted on the fact that it belonged to their father, to be the reason the kids would never dream of taking it off. Just as Hope never took off her mother's necklace after she had passed. But, even though the children's jewelry once belonged to their father, this was not the only reason Hope wanted her children to always wear it. Like the bracelet Hope wore when she was younger, her children's jewelry had been enchanted.
A million questions raced through Hope's mind. How am I supposed to protect them from the world when the world is unpredictable? What is the best thing to do if they'll both be in danger with either decision I make? Hope began to leave her room, she looked back at the discolored floorboard once more before closing her door. I should really get a rug so that'll be more hidden, was her final thought before dismissing the topic in her mind.
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**buzz buzz**
Lucas: We're almost at school. You didn't tell mom about your nightmare, but can you at least tell me?
Charity looked up from her phone and looked at her brother. She thought for a moment and then spoke. "I get that you are concerned about me, and you're just trying to make sure I'm okay, but the nightmare isn't important. It's not like it's the first time I've had one."
Lucas: No, it's not the first time you've had a nightmare, but you haven't had them this frequently in years, now all of a sudden you're having a nightmare almost every night. And you won't tell me or mom what happens in them or what they're about?
Charity sighed, "I don't tell you what they're about because they are all just really stupid and not important. Now we're almost at school. Can we drop the topic?"
She's such a bad lair, and really infuriating when she won't tell me what's wrong, Lucas thought. Lucas sighed then nodded his head yes, agreeing to drop the topic. But deep down inside, he knew his sister was lying. He knew something wasn't right, and he knew the nightmares were more important than she claimed them to be.
They entered their school building and began to go their separate ways. They're lockers were in the same hallway and were fairly close to each other, but their lockers were on the opposite sides of the hallway, making it hard to communicate as students shuffled past each other, to get to class. So once Charity and Lucas got to school, they usually didn't converse much till the walk home.
But today was different. And it set off a chain reaction that ensured their days would never be the same normal they were always used too. That day was the day that started the domino effect that changed their lives.