Seven months ago.
"Mako, you gonna come with us to get some hot dogs at the cafeteria?" Ji-Hoon yells from across the room.
I shake my head no. "Sorry, I got some things to do after class."
My group of friends tck their tongues. "Stop being the top student and have some fun every once and a while."
"Who said I was studying?" I respond sarcastically to them.
The bell rings and the horde of them race outside the classroom, not caring to respond to me. I laugh at their stupidity. They still act like we're in middle school. We graduate in two months, and by then, they're going to be in for a real surprise for the real world.
"Mr. Sato, it's good to see you again." I turn around to find the woman in the suit. Her appearance catches me off guard. She has been meeting me for the past few months, asking me weird questions.
She holds out her hand for me to shake. I grab it lightly, and she smiles. "It's nice to see you again too, but I thought you said we wouldn't see each other for another few months?" I question her.
She nods her head at me and chuckles. "You have a good memory. I did say that, but some business come up, so we have to meet a bit earlier." She pauses and looks at her watch. "Oh, I hope I'm not interrupting you. Do we need to meet at a different time?"
I was planning on speaking with my teacher about test scores. But, I suppose it can always wait. "No, I can talk now."
She widens her grin at me. "Wonderful! Follow me so that we can talk somewhere a bit more private."
I follow her down the hallway and into one of the empty rooms locked off to students. She waves her arm outward to the door to guide me into the room. Inside is a flickering light, a small table, and two chairs. The further I walk in, I notice a large briefcase next to the door.
"Please sit down in one of the chairs for me."
I follow her instructions and sit down in the chair closest to the door. She closes the door behind her, locking it with a silver key.
I feel my anxiety begin to rise inside me. She's being weird, but I know that she wouldn't do something out of the ordinary. I've met with her before, and she seems like a kind woman. She grabs the suitcase and drags it closer to the table. She then sits down and looks directly into my eyes.
"You have the same eye color as my daughter. Yours are a much more golden color than hers but still quite similar."
I hope she can't hear how fast my heart is beating. "Thank you."
"Mr. Sato. What can you tell me about magic?"
Magic? We've never talked about this before. It was always about what I wanted to do when I was older. What I thought my future looked like and stuff like that. I always thought that she was some guidance counselor that the school provided.
"You can call me Mako if you would like."
She looks up from the briefcase on the floor. "Thank you, Mako."
"Um, I don't know much about magic. No one in my family has magic abilities. My Dad told me that my great ancestors were powerful wizards, but that's more a myth than a fact."
"I see. What about the basics of magic?" She clicks open the case and rustles around with the things inside.
"I know that there is a magical council that keeps control of its users. I also know that magic users rule this world."
She burst out into a short laughter. "Most waists don't like to admit to that fact."
"Waists?"
She pulls up a notepad and a wand from the case and sets them on the table. "Have you ever heard of the scarlet eye?"
I shake my head.
"The scarlet eye is a long forgotten organization from ancient times. They were thought to be the first magical council and had the most powerful magic users on the planet."
I can feel the goosebumps on my arms. Something doesn't feel right.
"They were a great organization, providing many places and its people with food, shelter, and water. However, the magical council that we have today destroyed that peace." She picks up the wand. "Did you know that there is a little bit of magical energy inside all of us?" Her hand flicks the wand around in the air. I can hear the tone of her voice becoming more violent with every sentence.
I shake my head once again.
"I know I sound crazy, but it's true. The bridge between our two worlds could be fixed if it wasn't for the magical council we have today." She sighs, but in a sadistic sort of way. "Mako... You believe me, right?"
I look at the wand in her hand. Maybe she can use magic. Does she want something from me? Her eyes shoot over to the wand resting in her hand.
"Here, try to use this wand." She holds it out toward me.
"What? But it's illegal for a non-magic user to try and use magic."
Her hands fly upward. "That's exactly what I'm saying, Mako. How are you supposed to know you have magic energy inside you if you can't even use a wand?"
I suppose she's not wrong. "But I don't know any spells."
"That's fine. I can teach you one right now." She holds out the wand toward me again. I grab it from her. It feels as though it's alive.
"Is this some sort of test?"
She smiles at me. "Sort of, but don't worry, whatever happens, you won't get in trouble."
I grip the wand in my hand. It feels out of place and wrong to be holding. It even sounds as if it's crying out to me.
"You hold the wand like a natural." She grabs the notebook and opens it up to a page near the middle. I can see it's full of words, but she doesn't let me see what exactly it says.
"Here's a simple spell for you. Okay, first, how you want to use the wand." She gets up from the chair and makes her way over to my chair. She stands behind me, bending over and lacing her hand with mine on the wand. I hold my breath as it feels toxic to be so close to her. "Hold it just like this, and then flick it outwards like this when you say the words." Holding onto my hand, she flicks it as if I were throwing a frisbee.
She lefts go and walks over to the door. "Then, as you make that motion, say 'Desastro semte'." She looks at me eagerly.
I hold out the wand. 'Desastro semte', it doesn't feel right. In the furthest part of my heart, I can tell that I shouldn't do this.
I set the wand down on the table. "I'm sorry, Mrs. Estre. It doesn't feel right for me to do this."
I can feel her disappointment running down my spine. "It's okay, Mako. I know how hard it is to break laws that have been in place for hundreds of years." She walks over to me, her heels clacking against the floor's tiles.
Her fingers gracefully pick up the wand and hand it back to me. "However, Mako, I need you to realize that if you don't do this for me, bad things will happen." Her smile disappears from her face and the room goes cold.
I slide the chair back from the table and stand up. With her heels, she's still standing over me. "I still can't help you. My family hasn't had magical abilities for thousands of years, and that hasn't changed for me. I'm not going to put the status of my family or myself in danger because you want to test something." I push her aside and walk towards the door. "Please excuse me, and please leave me out of whatever experiments you're trying to run."
I try to open the door, only to remember it's locked. Once again, I hear the soft clicks of her heels hitting the floor's tiles. Her breath hits the back of my next. She reaches from behind me and inserts the key into the door. As she jiggles it around, I feel the gates of the lock opening.
"I will give you one last warning. Once you leave this room, there will be consequences to your actions." Her whisper is quiet and feels like it's inside my eardrum.
The door clicks, and she pulls the key out. I turn the knob and begin to open the door. "If I don't leave, there will still be consequences for me, so I suppose I have no choice." I walk outside into the hallway, refusing to look back at her.