Wicca Ch. 1

Chapter 1: Zachary

Nothing hurts more than losing someone you truly love. Up until now, I had it all. I came from an extremely powerful and wealthy family. I'm a triple Varsity Athlete in my High School and also constantly on Honor Roll. I do volunteer work in my community as well as do small modeling gigs for charities. You can pretty much say I have it all; Money, fame, but most of all, power. I was born into a long line of Witches. Magic and Witchcraft is nothing new in the town of Salem, but oh has it evolved from the old Colonial days of the 1600's.

My Grams always said to me, "Witches, we protect our own". I always took that very literal. There weren't many Witches in our town anymore, not since The Purge, but there were still some, none too powerful, mostly Wiccan practitioners. My family was among the few that were still an influential force in the magical community. McHale Witches have and always will be respected and feared.

I was born a Witch, I grew up a Witch, and I will die a Witch. Never before had I ever resented my gift, until today. Magic is not a common family secret. It's one I kept with great discretion. Few Community leaders know the truth about my family and they keep our secret only because they have secrets just as great as ours.

"Please…wake up…" I sobbed while trying to hush myself as squeezed the small body in my arms tighter. The girl I held, I've known her my whole life and just like that her life was gone. Phoebe Rosenthal laid cold and lifeless in my arms.

The Rosenthal's were among the Community Leaders in Salem. They were never particularly close to my family until Phoebe and I were born. We lived next door to each other. Our parents went to school together in this small town and kept each other's secrets, but until Phoebe and I came along they were just neighbors.

Phoebe and I played together and we fought together, created mischief and learned together. From the time we were born up until now we were close. She was my best friend and my sister. She was my confidant and probably the girl I was going to marry if I was still single by the time I was forty. Even knowing full well that she was gone I couldn't accept it.

"No!" I declared, "You don't get to die like this!"

I shot up and grabbed my back pack. I held it upside down and emptied it out onto the ground. We were in Stevenson Park and it was the middle of night. No one would be able to see us here, no one would know. I grabbed my iPad and turned in on and quickly began searching through my spells.

Most Witches, almost all of the ones I know keep an actual Book of Shadows, or Spell Book. However my family's magic is as old as history, so that'd be a really big book. Over the course of my life, I began digitalizing my family's spell books until I was done. Now they were all organized so I could easily find what I needed, spell or potion.

"Antiquis spiritus, exaudi placitum…Reple me tuis impetus…"I began chanting. Already I felt the cold wind blowing. Witchcraft is connected to Nature and the Spirits of the past. I act as a mystical conduit and channel power. However sometimes the spirits don't help, especially for spells like this. "Rescindere hoc morti… Rescindere hoc morti…" the wind stopped once I finished chanting. There was no help from nature.

"Antiquis spiritus, exaudi placitum…" I began again, being too stubborn and distraught to give up. I called upon the spirits again to listen to me. They were going to do this for me. They were going to bring Phoebe back to life. "Rescindere hoc morti!" I shouted. "Rescindere hoc morti!"

"Zachary…" I heard my Grams say behind me. I dropped my shoulders and turned halfway to see her standing over me. There was so much worry in her eyes. Grams knew. She knew how much I loved Phoebe, how close we were and to see her dead broke her heart. It's almost as though she lost her own Granddaughter.

"What happened, Baby?" she asked and she knelt down and stroked Phoebe's curly blonde hair. "What were you two doing here?" she asked and then looked around the empty park. My mind went blank. Trying to find the words I just grew deeper into sorrow. I dropped my head on my Grams' shoulder and sobbed. She held me in her arms while I still held Phoebe and patted the back of my head gently.

"Hush, Baby… we don't have time for tears…" she said as she always did. She reached over and grabbed my iPad and gazed with her elder green eyes. She pursed her lips and exhaled deeply knowing full well what I was trying to do with my powers.

"Your magic won't bring her back, Zachary…" she stated and I nodded in defeat. "You're powerful for your age, more powerful than most. But your magic can't bring the dead back to life, Sweetheart…."

"But yours can!" I realized. Grams might've looked forty three to the average person, but I knew better. Grams is so powerful she slowed down her own aging process. In reality, she was three hundred and eighty two years old. With age comes power, and you don't get more powerful than that!

"Grams you can save her, please!" I begged. Grams put the iPad down and looked at Phoebe and then to me. "Grams, please!"

"Zachary…"

"No!" I demanded. "Don't say anything about the spirits and consequences because I'm tired of playing by the rules and watching the people I care about die!" I grabbed my iPad and shoved it into my Grams' hold. "Help me! Or I'll do it alone!"

We were alone in the cover of darkness. No one ever walked Stevenson Park at night, unless it was Phoebe and I. every now and then we would take a walk through the park and if I had enough energy I took Phoebe in my arms and levitated over the lake. I couldn't fly just yet, but I was getting better at it and eventually I know I could do it. That's what we were doing here in the park before things got bad.

"Zachary…what happened?" Grams asked me again. I stumbled for words. Grams didn't like me practicing my magic out in public, let alone around Phoebe. Grams knew that Phoebe knew my secret, but she still didn't want her sitting in on me practicing.

"I was working on levitating again…this time a little longer than normal" I explain. Grams licked her lips and looked away from me. She didn't want to say 'I told you so' not now. "And all of a sudden we were attacked… I said with my head shaking. I still couldn't believe it and it happened to me.

"What was it, Baby?" she asked me. "What attacked you?" she questioned with such worry. I grew angrier.

"A Vampire..."