North looked down at the palm of his hand.

He breathed in deep, moving his index finger on his opposite hand through the air in a flowing motion. He could feel it. Something welling up inside him. He tensed his muscles. It was happening.

Water swirled into his palm, forming into a ball. He tensed up again, and it levitated slightly. He did it. He relaxed, letting himself lean backward against the wall.

“Oh, you made water,” Minerva said, poking her head over.

“You know, I should be overjoyed right now,” North let out a bitter laugh. “But it’s kind of hard when you’re around.”

“What do you mean?” Minerva asked. Almost a hundred water spheres floated in the air around her. Every few seconds, they would pulsate, changing from balls into daggers. Show off.

“Come on,” North sighed. “Look in a mirror. You’re amazing.”

Minerva waved her hands and all of her water disappeared. “You just need more time.”

“More time?” North asked. “It’s already been a whole month and I haven’t even been to the gate yet. It’s like you’re sprinting while I’m still trying to learn how to crawl.”

“Cyrus still hasn’t been yet either…”

“I don’t care if Cyrus has been or not,” North clenched his teeth. “Unlike him, I practice every day. It just… comes to you.”

Minerva frowned.

North lowered his hand and his magic faded away as well. “Sorry.”

They didn’t speak for a few moments.

For the last month, they had been practicing magic every chance they could, even if that meant doing it in a classroom during lunch. Of course, being in an unattended classroom was technically against the rules, but no one enforced it. Even if they did, North wasn’t afraid of getting in trouble.

Now, magic was everything. Really, school felt like an afterthought now. It just got in the way of what he really wanted to focus his energy on.

Getting to, and past the gate. Learning what real magic was.

“We… should probably get back,” Minerva glanced at her phone. “Lunch is almost over.”

“Yeah.”

“Besides, I brought Cornelius to school today,” Minerva stood back up.

North raised his eyebrow. “You… brought your cat with you?”

“He’s in my bag,” she struck a pose.

“Your bag?”

“He likes to sleep in there,” she said. “Besides, a magician must always travel with their familiar.”

North sighed. “You said it was just your cat.”

“He’s not an ‘it’,” Minerva said, placing her hands on her hips. “And so what if he’s not a real familiar? Every witch needs a black cat. It’s a given.”

“And so you left it alone?” he asked.

“I left him with Cyrus.”

“If you say so,” North got back up, walking over to the door of the classroom. “Let’s go.”

Minerva quickly walked up behind him. “Come get my bag with me?”

“Why? You just said Cyrus is watching it.”

“I know,” Minerva glanced down. “I just thought we could walk together.”

“My next class isn’t even on the third floor.”

“Just come with me,” Minerva said. “Please?”

His eyes met with hers, and he finally gave in.

“Fine,” he said. He had already snapped at her. He supposed the least he could do was walk her to her next class. “Let’s go before the bell rings then.” He opened the door and they left the room.

As they entered into the hallway, they saw Cyrus and Arlene walking their way from down the hall.

“Hey, wait a minute,” Minerva said. “Why aren’t you with Cornelius, you big jerk?”

Cyrus gave her a ‘you got me’ kind of smile. “I saw Arlene pull up in her car from the window,” he said. “I just thought I’d come meet her.”

“What are you doing here anyway?” Minerva asked.

Arlene looked like she was about to answer, but Cyrus spoke up for her. “She’s here to pick up Kaela.”

“Family emergency,” Arlene said with her usual blank expression. While it very well may have been for a family emergency, North couldn’t help but laugh under his breath. ‘Family emergency’ was the kind of excuse people used when they didn’t want people asking questions.

“Apparently, Kaela’s not answering her phone so we’re tracking her down,” Cyrus said.

“You could just have them use the intercom,” North said.

“Huh,” Cyrus put his hand on his chin. “You’re totally right, bro.”

“I’d like to see what my sister’s doing that’s so important she thinks she can ignore me,” Arlene said, giving him an icy glance.

“I… see.”

“Well you could have told me,” Minerva said, pointing at her brother. “You shouldn’t leave Cornelius alone like that.”

“Well stop, like, bringing your cat to school,” Cyrus pointed his finger back. “Why should I have to babysit him?”

“Just forget it,” Minerva stormed off down the hall.

North sighed, exchanging a look with Cyrus and Arlene. Then, he followed after her.

Now that Minerva was in a bad mood, she didn’t seem like she wanted to talk. Every few seconds, he would glance back behind them and see Cyrus and Arlene following. He didn’t know if they were doing it on purpose, but it certainly wasn’t making Minerva any happier.

They started up the stairs that lead to the third floor and Minerva picked up her pace, taking two stairs at a time. North hurried to keep up.

They reached the top and walked down the hallway to where she left her bag. As they got closer, they heard a voice.

“Don’t you think that’s going a little too far?”

“Shut up, Kaela,” someone yelled.

“Careful,” another giggled. “Vi’s angry today.”

North and Minerva walked through the doorway. “What… are you doing?” Minerva asked.

Vi, Yune and Kaela were standing diagonally from them at the other end of the classroom. Vi gave them a big smile. She held a bag in her hand, and she was dangling it out of the window.

Yune motioned over at them. “There she is.”

“Wow, just in time,” Vi laughed. “It might be best if you hurry down to the first floor. If you start running, I might count to ten before I let go.”

A few students in the room laughed. A few others ignored what was going on. Of course, there wasn’t a teacher in sight.

“Give me that bag…” Minerva said, her voice shaking.

“You going to make me?” Vi asked.

“I’ll…”

“You’ll what?” Vi cut her off. “Let’s see some of that magic, huh? You’re a witch, right?”

“We’d better give her a round of applause,” Yune clapped. Kaela and a few other students joined in reluctantly.

“Vi, there’s a cat in there,” North took a few steps forward. “Just give her the bag, okay?”

Vi sneered at him. “What the fuck are you talking about, Shields?”

“I said there’s a cat in there. Open it up and look for yourself if you don’t believe me.”

Vi and Yune looked at each other and then laughed.

“Wow, out of all the things I thought you might say to stop me, I didn’t expect that,” Vi said. “Nice try though.”

“Stop,” North said. “Just give us the bag.”

He felt something blow past him. Minerva’s hair started to sway.

“Stop!” he yelled.

The bag left Vi’s hand.

It didn’t drop.

Minerva stood with her hand outstretched. The bag floated through the air and landed gently at her feet.

Everyone in the room was speechless.

“What…” Yune started to shake. “What just happened?”

Minerva didn’t answer. A ball of water formed in the air above her shoulder and then changed shape.

Vi’s eyes were wide. “What the fuck are you?”

A spike of ice shot through Vi’s eye, sending brain and pieces of skull all over the wall behind her.

Just as Yune turned to look over next to her, the spike looped back around, coming through her head. She toppled forward, smacking her face against a desk before collapsing on the floor.

“Hannah…” Cyrus stood in the doorway. “What did you just do?”

Everyone in the class suddenly panicked. The students far from the door screamed and backed up against the walls. The ones near it pushed passed Cyrus and Arlene, running out as fast as they could. Student in the hallway rushed in to see what was happening.

Vi and Yune were dead.

A ball of fire came flying past North’s face. His eyes followed it just in time to see it spark and fizzle out as it reached Minerva.

“Damn it!” Arlene yelled, another fireball forming in her hand. “Kaela! We need to get out of here.”

Kaela’s eyes were fixed on the two dead bodies in front of her. Even from the other side of the room, North could see there were tears streaming down her face.

Kaela looked up just as the spike shot through her neck. She stayed standing for a moment, seemingly unsure of what had happened. Then, she fell to the ground.

Arlene screamed, running over to her sister. She shook her shoulders and gently slapped her cheek. Then she burst into tears, burying her face into Kaela’s chest.

“Hannah, stop!” Cyrus moved toward her.

“Don’t call me that,” Minerva screamed. The icicle skewered Cyrus’s leg from behind, stopping him mid-step.

Cyrus looked down to his leg, and then back up. “Hannah… why?”

Another spike impaled him through the chest. Then another through his back. Then another. Then another until they held him upright like some kind of marionette. His eyes were still open, but North knew he was already gone.

North’s legs finally gave out and he fell back, landing on his rear end. “Stop…” he whimpered. “Please stop.”

And then he noticed. All the other students in the room were completely still. No one was screaming anymore. They weren’t moving, they weren’t even blinking. It was like they were frozen in place.

There was something in the middle of the room. It looked like a tear in a piece of paper, just floating in midair. The tear got bigger, and light escaped from it. Then, it broke all at once. The flash was so bright that it blinded him.

He found himself sitting in a grass field looking up at a gray sky.

Arlene was still crying over Kaela’s body. North was still covered in blood, held up by icicles. Vi and Yune were still on the ground. All the other students from the classroom where there, completely still. It was just the background that had changed.

No. As he looked around, he realized that wasn’t right. There were hundreds of people around them. Everyone in the school was there, all frozen in place like an army of statues.

In front of him, there was a massive gate made of bronze, and walls that stretched out to infinity.

“We’re… we’re here,” Minerva said, bending down next to him. “This is the gate, North. This is it!”

“Get away…” North trembled. “Get away from me!”

“But… this is what you wanted, isn’t it?”

“Why the hell would I want this?”

“You’re at the gate,” her eyes were glassy. “We came here together. I don’t think that’s ever happened before. Aren’t… you excited?”

He didn’t answer.

Minerva’s eyes widened. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Do you…” he started. “Do you not realize what you just did?”

“Stop looking at me like that.”

“Hannah…” he looked at the lifeless bodies around them. “You killed them.”

“Stop calling me Hannah,” she said, her voice getting quiet.

North shut his mouth. For a few seconds, all he could hear was the sound of Arlene sobbing.

Tears escaped from Minerva’s eyes, and mixed with her makeup. They came down as black lines on her cheeks. “Why don’t you look at me like you used to?”

“What… are you talking about?”

“You know what I’m talking about!” she shouted. “When you looked at me, there were stars in your eyes. No one’s ever looked at me like that before. No one but you.”

North tried to move away. “You killed your brother.”

“I know.”

Her answer caught him off guard. All he could do was sit there dumbfounded.

“Don’t you get it? There’s no place left for us to go,” Minerva said, suddenly sounding much happier. “We can live here together… We’ll go past the gate and live in a mansion, just the two of us. It’ll be just like a fairytale.”

“What’s… wrong with you?”

She put her hands on his and leaned forward. “I… love you.”

“Love?”

“You made me feel like I was someone special,” she said. “For once, I thought that maybe, I was fine the way I was. That there was nothing wrong with me.”

“Minerva… I’m sorry,” he pulled his hands back and got up. “I don’t… feel that way about you.”

“What are you saying?” she looked up at him with disbelief.

“I don’t love you,” he said. “I’ve never felt that way about you.” He turned and took off running as fast as he could. He couldn’t see anything but trees in the distance, but maybe he could find a house. He needed to call the police.

Then he felt something hit him from behind.

What just happened? He looked down at his chest. Blood. She didn’t… She couldn’t have.

He staggered and fell forward into the grass. He felt a dull pain spreading through his body.

Something warm filled his mouth. His mind was going fuzzy. Where was he? He was outside somewhere. Was he in the courtyard at school? He needed to get to his next class.

He tried to lift himself up, but he couldn’t muster the strength. Was he really that tired? He managed to bring his hand up to his face. He tried to take a deep breath, but it hurt. A small ball of water formed in his hand. That’s right. He could make water now. He almost forgot.

“Bring her back!” he could hear Arlene screaming hysterically. “Bring K back! Bring her back!”

“I can bring everyone back,” it was Minerva’s voice this time. “I just need to… go past the gate.”

It was getting dark now. He was cold. Was this what it was like to die?

He felt the ball of water break apart. It rested in his palm before slipping through his fingers and disappearing altogether.

Then, he felt nothing.