Short Story - Hex (2/9)

Title: Hex

Genre: Paranormal

Rating: PG-13 (for language)

Story Type: Short story
Warnings: mild violence

Word count: (total) 18,373 - (chapter) 1,962

Summary: Nora used her powers for revenge, and even though it was just a little revenge, she's still in trouble with The Powers That Be.  To atone, she helps as many people as she can.  Now, she's helping Tyler, and his problem is just so big that it might be the one that gets her out of the doghouse for good.

             

“Mirror, mirror in the corner, show me the guy that’s gonna let me start over.”

            

 Nana never really did care for my way of using the mirror, but again, it wasn’t my fault.  I was obsessed with Disney movies as a kid.  Okay, so I’m still obsessed with Disney.  Point is, Nana decided to teach me how to use the mirror when I was like, six, and my only point of reference was Snow White.  So, that’s what stuck. 

              

It could be worse.  When she was teaching me transformations, I kept turning everything into flowers.  And then a weird frost always showed up to freeze it.  They didn’t know if I was channelling the three good faeries or Maleficent.  Better the former than the latter.

             

“That’s really not necessary, Nora.  You can just say his name and he’ll come up.”

             

“Nana, don’t make me explain the Disney thing again, please.”  I sighed and looked at the mirror.  So what if I used a cartoon’s incantation to pull up what I needed.  It worked, didn’t it?  And I didn’t have to deal with a smarmy green face inside my mirror.  It just did it.

            

 For a few seconds, I only saw myself.  The room was dark and my blonde hair stood out.. and so did the split ends.  I was going to have to get a haircut, soon.  It was late, but I was already dressed for action.  I was only five foot four, so I had made an art out of fighting evil in boots with three inch heels.  Nana thought my jeans were a little too tight, and the glittery flowers that twisted up my right leg were more for fashion than function.  My white printed tee was a little tight, too, and for me to actually think that any of it was too tight meant that Nana had been messing with my mirror, again.  Every once in a while, she liked to show me what she thought of my clothes. 

             

“Nana, stop it,” I said, turning towards her.  Ghosts didn’t have enough substance to cast a reflection, no matter how solid she looked when I stared at her dead on, so I couldn’t just tell her in the mirror.

             

Nana shrugged.  Great.  She wasn’t taking credit for the mirror.  Of course, I really didn’t expect her to take credit for it.  She never admitted anything that made me upset.

            

 I turned back to the mirror and my reflection was gone.  A swirling white mist covered Nana’s version of me, and out of it came a sleeping man.  Billy Madison had it right.  So hot.  Want to touch the hiney.

             

I shook my head.  Naughty girl.  I wasn’t in this to bed him.  I was in it to save his soul from eternal damnation.  I closed my eyes for a second, took in a deep breath, and when I reopened my eyes, I could get a clear vision of him.

             

Tyler Grey was sleeping and thankfully, the mirror actually showed me his face.  Sometimes, it decided to show me the back of a sleeping person and I had to tell it that a mark’s back did absolutely nothing for me in way of identification.

             

The first thing I noticed was that he had to have had the world’s deepest widow’s peak ever created.  The curve of his hairline dipped down into a perfect V, complete with dotted point.  The second thing I noticed was that his skin was fair, a shade somewhere along the lines of tan.  He had a few small moles on either cheekbone, but other than that, nothing marred perfection.

             

After the initial stark points, I took in the rest of him.  Or at least, what I could see of him.  The covers were pulled up to his neck, and while that didn’t let me get an idea of his height, it did force me to focus on his features.  His nose was wide at the bottom and it reminded me of a smaller version of the flasks we’d used in high school chemistry.  His cheekbones were smooth.  Not massive from what I could see, but prominent enough that his face didn’t slide completely flat from eyes to chin.  The one ear that I could see was a little pointy and, though it was a little on the big side, it wasn’t flapping completely in the wind.  Plus in his favor.

             

That was about all I could get, considering that he was sleeping.  I would have liked to see his eyes, not just because they had to be gorgeous in a face like that.  Were he awake, I could have seen if any of the darkness had actually gotten inside of him or if it was still attacking his aura.  An aura, by the way, that I couldn’t see in a magic mirror.  For that, I’d just have to find him, stand in front of him, and thank you to the all powerful keepers and takers away of my powers, touch him.

             

“Well, this does me no good, whatsoever.”  With my hands gripping my hips, I stared at the mirror and pouted.  “There’s nothing I can do now.  He’s sleeping.”

             

“There’s always something you can do, Nora.”

             

My eyes narrowed.  I love my Nana, really I do, but… Sometimes, she can be the biggest pain in my ass.  “I’m not going over there, Nana.”

             

“Why not?”

             

“Um, ‘cause I don’t want him to call the cops on the psycho?”  I rolled my eyes.  “Let’s see, I show up and go… what do I say?  Sorry to wake you but, even though you probably don’t believe in magic, there’s a hex on you and I need to fondle you so I can trace it back?”

             

“It’s the truth.”

             

“Truth doesn’t always work, Nana.  Sometimes, truth just gets you locked away in a little white padded room.  At least, truth in the middle of the night will.”

             

I sighed and looked in the mirror.  He really was too pretty to have an eternity of torture.  I pursed my lips.  For a second, my arms folded, then broke as I lifted a finger to my mouth and tapped my lips.  There had to be something.
             

“Mirror, mirror…”

             

“Nora!”

             

“Fine!”  My eyes were so squinted shut that they hurt.  Damn you, Nana.  “Address, please.”

             

I was sad to see Tyler’s face go away.  From the background, a building was pulled forward.  It looked like an apartment building downtown, brownish-red brick with chipping gray mortar holding it together.  “I said address, not picture.”  The building moved in closer, shifted, and finally pulled in on the building.  “Street, please?”  Another direct and I could see the green street sign.  I got my information so much quicker when I did this my way.

             

“Can’t do it, Nana.”  I knew what she wanted.  She didn’t have to say it for me to know.  Probably because I’d done  it before.  But, then again, that was a house in the middle of nowhere, not an apartment building in the middle of downtown.

             

“Yes, you can.”

             

“Nana!  It’s too open.  And you know I hate levitation.  I only did it that once because the guy was a pain and that was the only way I could prove everything to him.  I can’t do it, Nana.”  I turned to her and sighed.  “I just can’t.”

             

If she gave me that look before, I could only call the new one this look.  Her face went slack, but her eyes lit up.  She had all the faith in the world in my abilities and she put them all into her eyes.  She wasn’t going to let up, and it was my own damn fault for being dressed for bear.  I was all set to go out, and she wasn’t going to let me leave it to the morning.

             

So, I was levitating.  I hate levitation.  Why?  Because I’m afraid of heights.  I’m also afraid of spiders and the dark (weird, huh?) but those are entirely different stories.  Levitation left me too open, and it took too much concentration.  To levitate in public meant that I had to also conceal myself from view, which took even more concentration.  One bad distraction and I was crashing to the ground.  It would have been so much easier if she’d just let me conjure a magic carpet.

             

Nana said to levitate, so I levitated.  I stood outside of a six story, old brick building and made myself invisible.  That’s actually easier to do than you’d think, and you don’t have to be a witch to figure it out.  Most of the missing kids in the world aren’t really missing.  They’ve just convinced themselves they’re invisible because no one paid them any attention.  A lot of ghosts aren’t ghosts, either.  Again, invisibility reigns supreme.

             

I covered myself with a big ball of “you can’t see me” and that part was taken care of.  Next was the harder part.  I closed my eyes and concentrated.  Light as a feather stiff as a board wasn’t entirely accurate.  Light as a feather, yes, but if you went stiff as a board, you couldn’t manuever.  More like Light as a feather, bendy as a wire.

             

I put all my concentration on floating from the ground, yet not floating out into the sky.  I did that before when I was eight, and Momma had to pull me down with a rope like I was a lost helium balloon.

             

Luckily, most of the lights were out in the building.  If my concentration slipped, the invisibility would be the first thing to go.  Secure that no one could see me hovering at their windows, I floated around the building.  The ground level had been pretty clean all around, and was a lot more clean after I warded it, but everything that wanted you didn’t always come in from the bottom.

             

I found a gap near the top, a little circle of darkness that led into the building.  Of course, being the lazy bad guys, they took the easy way in.  They went through the smoke stack.  I would have gone through the side of the building, but that’s just me.  I like to be difficult.

            

 Closing the hole wasn’t that big of a deal, but it took a little extra work to bond it from another entry.  I couldn’t get to Tyler tonight, so the best I could do was hopefully stop anyone else from getting in there, either.  It didn’t do anything to stop whatever had already gotten in, but I couldn’t do anything about that until tomorrow when I figured out how to get inside.

             

With the hole at the top sealed as tightly as possible, I found his window.  Tyler’s apartment was on the fourth floor, and it was too dark for me to really see inside.  All I could manage was a peek in his windows.  Everything was neat and in place.  No big messes.  No signs of temper outbreaks and random tantrums.  That was a good thing.  Loss of soul usually coincides with major destruction, and the few examples I’ve seen always started with their own belongings before they started to destroy evrything else.

             

What wasn’t a good thing, though, was the big black shadow that jumped at me from inside the living room window.   Goddammit!  I knew something had already gotten in.  So, I did the only thing I could do.  I flashed a ball of light, and got rid of the shadow.  As the light ate away at it, the shadow screeched and squealed in a high pitch tone that only dogs and witches could hear.

             

And what did I do?

            

 It’s a horrible noise.  It broke my concentration.  What do you think I did?  I fell.