Memory Magic

Immediately After:

The cursor blinked silently. I waved quietly to Mina and waited for her to read the message. “I’ll leave with my mother and father,” I finally said.

You will lie beside them while I zip a bodybag around you. The red text flashed across the screen. I will make sure you are not revived.

“I will have my victory first,” I smirked. Mina nudged me. Her eyes narrowed and she sighed. She let her wing wrap around my back.

I eagerly await your arrival. Like a beating heart, the screen flashed red then black with each letter. It will be one less annoyance for me to handle.

“Pride goeth before the fall,” Mina stood before the screen. A spell flickered on her fingertips, and a jolt of electricity whizzed toward the screen. It boomed like a jet engine on impact, sending shards of glass flashing across the room. The broken monitor hissed and popped. There was no wiring nor electronics inside of it.

I covered my face as the broken glass flew past me. Luckily it didn’t hit either of us. I took a deep breath, “Save your Dames. We might need them.”

“We won’t need that many,” Mina laughed to herself. Both of us flew together down the concrete hallways toward the staircase. It wasn’t the same we’d used to get down before, but it went as far down. Site 1 was as wide as it was deep.

I was almost relieved to see the red emergency lights again. They were dimmer than before, coating the room in a soft pink. At least, the harsh, sterile lamps and the lonely, flickering lightbulbs were behind us. We passed the tenth basement floor and the eleventh and the twelfth.

The thirteenth wasn’t the bottom. I couldn’t even see the bottom. We used the keycard to open a door on the landing. As it clicked open, we saw a pristine hardwood floor. Calm, blue wallpaper with a white sky hung up around us. There were ornate side tables beside white rocking chairs and a black leather sofa. Glass windows in the walls looked out at paintings of a grassy field with yellow pointillism daisies. “A house?” Mina muttered to herself.

“Mom is here,” I flew inward, “the terminal said she was being kept on the thirteenth floor. It said she’s alive.”

Mina caught up. Her head was on a swivel, her eyes darting back and forth. “Right, let’s find her and get out of here.”

The hallway led to four large bedrooms. The first had wallpaper of little, cartoon animals all playing together. A crib quietly rocked back and forth with a baby doll inside of it. Its blank, pearly eyes were so still that they felt dead. Its rosy, plastic cheeks were painted so warmly its face looked feverish. There was a long crack down its wide nose, and the horsehair on its head was unevenly cut. It was wearing a cutesy dress. A green DOO tie was wrapped around its neck as tight as a noose.

I turned and flew into the next room as I heard the sound of a low conversation. Different voices making smalltalk at each other about the weather and an uneventful day at work. A little screen against the back wall projected the image of a crackling fireplace. Yellow crash-test dummies were sitting in a circle around it, warming their hands. A small stereo grew louder as I approached, the voices rising from it and repeating the same stock dialogues like a conversation around dinner.

Another room had its hardwood floor replaced with a carpet of artificial grass. Pristine, marble tombstones rose out of the ground with dirt and plastic flowers sprinkled around them. There was a glittery night-sky painted on the ceiling. It had swirling stars and a wide, streaking moon like a Van Gogh. The graves had words haphazardly scrawled into them. Here lies memory. Here lies fate. Here lies time itself. Here lies defeat and challenge and all threats to our great nation.

I sat down in the dirt where it was placed below the first grave. “Memory…” I muttered. I needed that. Even if I forgot the worst days of my life, I wondered if the best would be the same. Fate, Time, Defeat…” I listed off the words. This was a mausoleum to the Veil itself.

The dirt was completely dry. It scratched against my feet like gravel as I picked myself up. I caught up to Mina one more room down the hall. She was frozen, barely hovering in the doorway. There in the corner sat our mother. She was hunched over on her knees. Her hands were pressed together in prayer, and she muttered something to the wall. She didn’t even turn to notice us.

Mina rushed to her side. She grabbed our mother by the shoulders. Her breaths were short and heavy, “You’re alive! You’re alive!” She embraced her.

My mother gasped, “M-Mina?” As she turned around, I saw gray cataracts covering her eyes. Her face was curled with wrinkles. “No, no, no… What are you doing here?” She couldn’t look either of us in the eyes.

I flew closer, “We’re here to rescue you,” I said quietly but firmly. “Come on!”

“N-no…” Her voice broke. She coughed, “You need to leave. Alice, Mina… Quickly!” I caught a glimpse of a wide, blistering wound on the back of her neck. The skin around it had turned charcoal black. It was swollen. It was the same shape as the scar I saw on President Dreammaker’s neck.

“Mom,” I reached toward it. She flinched before I could even touch it, “You’re wounded. We can get you somewhere to be healed.”

“No, Alice…” She coughed, “I’ve been sick for a long time. I never told you.” Her voice trailed off, “I had magical doctors look at it. The world punished us for destroying the Veil, that’s how I see it.”

“You saved my life…” I muttered.

“And it will always have been worth it,” she turned slightly toward my voice. She reached out and pressed her hands against my cheeks. They were frail, “you’re still so little…”

“We need to go,” Mina said, “come on, we’ll show you the way.”

“Oh, Mina…” She croaked, “What amazing thing have you done now? Go with your sister. I can’t fly anymore.”

“We’ll get you out,” I pleaded, “We will, with magic, with anything. Where’s Dad? We’ll have him carry you?”

“Your father…” Her voice raised in pitch like she hadn’t seen him in years, “Your father? I haven’t seen him.”

A man’s voice carried in from the hallway. It was thick and gravelly, “He is no longer with us,” loud footsteps echoed throughout this strange place, “and there would be no place for him in a quarantine like this.”

“Who’s there?” I turned to face the door as a silver-scaled reptilian walked through it. A lizard-tail scratched along the floor after him. A black suit pressed against his chest and a bright green tie hung around his neck. He had a long, toothy mouth, wrinkled with age. I knew him at a glance, this was Director Archstar, the head of the FBI. Nominally, he didn’t belong to the DOO at all. Functionally, he was one of their highest ranking members.

“I am the last archangel,” he adjusted his collar with his long, flashing claw, “confronted with fussy little bugs. Worry not, the media cannot be told that I sought to kill you. And, your mother will have the comfort of your bones for a long time to come.”

“You’re going to kill us?” Mina pondered, “And then what? Our friends will know we haven’t returned, and they’ll have us resurrected.”

“Such a thing can be forbidden. Cases of impracticality come to mind. You’re making your own preservation rather tedious,” he went on, “and now, you would reveal what has happened here? This is worth more to me than any mere resolution of regulation. There’s not even a dilemma.”

My mother crawled forward, “Nothing… No-no nothing… Director, they’ll say nothing!” She sputtered.

“Hush, hush,” he whispered, “there will be nothing but warmth and peace from now till eternity.”

“Indeed…” Mina sharply raised her arm. A flaming dart materialized in her palm and launched toward the director. He held his scaly hand up quietly, and the dart slowly spun into his claws, vanishing harmlessly.

“My, my… That almost tickled.”

Mina watched him. She pressed her lips together, “C-come on? Your hand isn’t even burned?” She exhaled.

“Such a cute little spell,” he walked forward, “now why would it be?” His claws creaked against the wood as he waltzed across the room. He held his hands down to his sides, his claws facing outward. “Come, face your destiny with a smile. You may as well enjoy it.”

I pressed my wrists together creating a blast of freezing air. Snow and sleet stuck to his scales, but melted within a moment. He brushed the frost off his horns, “This is assault on an employee of the federal government. What a terrible crime.”

“You said you’re going to kill us,” Mina gritted her teeth.

“I did say that,” he held his hand up. His claws made the shape of a gun and he weakly pointed it at Mina, “now, awake inside the darkest recesses of your mind. Relieve your worst moments. Marry those nastiest memories, if you will, till death do you part. I wonder just how long your heart will hold out.”

Mina tried to move away from his memory spell. But her wings slowed in the air. She quietly glided to the ground, her legs collapsing under her. Her eyes were shut, but she curled in a ball around herself. She screamed. Her wings spread out behind her, twitching wildly.

I rushed beside her and put my hand on her back, “Mina! Mina, it’s not real!”

Director Archstar knelt down beside us, “Her mind can’t tell the difference. The fear will grow and grow. The heart speeds up with the growing terror, faster! Faster! Put your ear to her chest, she won’t even notice. And once it’s too fast… An awful fate.”

I shook her, “Come on… Mina, get up!”

“She won’t,” he placed his fingers against my temple, “now, you will suffer the same fate, Alice.” The carefully decorated walls melted into a white and brown ooze. The sky hissed. I opened my eyes again and again without shutting them. Pain rushed up my arms and legs. The tips of my wings were hissing, burning.

I breathed through my teeth. Memory magic, I laughed to myself. It was my favorite kind of spell, and now, it was going to be the end of me. I’d relived this memory dozens of times. It was the night I died. Every time I had cast this memory into my head, it hurt slightly less. My vision was blurrier, and the sound, the horrible squelching sound, became duller. The noise of my own screams, begging, became incoherent. Now, my senses were back as they once were. My heart thundered. I was going to die here, again.

“This isn’t real…” I sputtered. It felt real. I couldn’t think, it was like my mind had stopped. The sweat on my forehead bubbled and hissed, burning at my skin. The heat radiated around me, growing. It was trying to destroy me.

My arm twitched. For a moment, I managed to force my eyes open, the dream fighting to pull me back. My arms and legs tingled as I tried to force them to move. My back was glued to the ground, my very spine writhing within me. The wings on my back were open, flat across the floor. The nightmare reappeared around me. I kept barely feeling my left arm.

It slowly lifted, and I could see it in the dream. My joints moved like they were frozen, pins and needles running up and down my nerves. The real arm didn’t hurt at all as the dream was trying to tell me it was somewhere else. I forced my hand into the shape of a pistol and placed it against my temple. I jolted upward as the spell left my fingertips and breath re-entered my lungs. Director Archstar watched as I picked myself up, “What a chore… How did you survive that?”

“I specialize in memory magic,” I admitted.

“Impressive,” he raised his hands before him, “I will merely incinerate you.” A flaming dart careened across the room.

I raced past it, the flames barely not scorching my hair. I stopped beside Mina, and I placed my fingers against her head to cast another memory spell. Director Archstar blew me backward with a gust of wind, “You will not free her,” he insisted.

I struggled to my feet, “You’re going to make it difficult, aren’t you?” I met his gaze with mine. I darted back toward Mina, placing my hand on the back of her head. I raised my other hand and pointed it at him, “Let’s try this then.” I didn’t know if my spell would affect him, but as the magic consumed me, I simply hoped it would. The ground turned into quicksand and I sunk through it.

Mina was at home. She was sitting quietly on the couch, hiding her face in her knees. Edward slammed a door across the room. Mom and Dad were staring at each other across a table silently. None of the lights were on and the clouds were dark gray out the window. Director Archstar appeared beside me, “You’ve brought me into somebody else’s memory?” He laughed to himself, “How pitiful, I will just kill you here.”

Mina forced her eyes up. She saw me, “A-Alice…” Her voice trailed off. Her arm shook as she feebly reached toward me, “You… you’re not real. You’re dead…”

I shook my head, “This was real once, but it’s not anymore.”

Director Archstar lurked behind me, “Do take your time. Enjoy what conversation you both can make, Alice. She will die in a few minutes all the same.”

I tried to spin around toward him, but the world slowed after me. My head spun. I caught my balance between my legs. I didn’t fully realize how many Dames I’d spent today. I launched an electric jolt at him anyway. It sparked between his scales harmlessly.

Director Archstar filled the room with an icy wind. I collapsed under it as the maelstrom continued to surround me. My fingers and wrists started turning blue, they wouldn’t move. A toothy smile slowly curled between his teeth as he maintained the storm. My legs shook under me. I breathed heavily. “Mina!” I yelled with what breath I had.

She looked between me and Director Archstar. She gasped. “Alice…” She slowly lifted her hand. A wide, hissing flame emerged from her fingertips. It roared across the room, spreading across Director Archstar’s side. His suit was immolated, revealing a silver-scaled chest covered in bubbling, black lesions.

His spell shattered like a dropped glass, snowflakes dropping at random across the floor. Director Archstar screamed, “Demon!” He turned to Mina, “You should be dead, already!”

She stepped in front of me as my teeth chattered. I was so cold that I felt warm. Mina’s wings spread out widely, “Do you know what this memory is, Director?”

“I made the spell afflict your worst memory. I don’t care about the identity of that memory.”

“It’s the day I found out Alice had died,” she gritted her teeth, “I thought it was real for a second. You’ll die here, inside of this memory, Director.” She sent another hose of fire toward him. This one, he held his hand out to. It faded away into nothing.

“You won’t use the same trick, twice,” Director Archstar barked. He scratched his opposite palm with his claw, “I am more powerful than any meek spell you can throw at me.” He clapped and the floor of our home splintered. The couch was thrown back against the wall. Thunder left his claws. Mina was thrown to the ground beside me.

My hands barely responded as I tried to pick myself up. My eyes shut slightly until I forced them back open. Director Archstar walked closer, blurring in my vision as he neared. “You will die,” he said coldly.

Director Archstar forced my chin up with his claw. A spell bubbled in his palm, just in front of my neck. It grew, buzzing in his scales. I tried to look away, but he used his other hand to force my head in place. Mina launched a flame at him that flashed off his scales harmlessly. His hand shook with the spell. He was going to cast it directly into my head.

My eyes narrowed on the growing spell. His smile grew with each second he forced the spell slightly closer to my face. He could have loosed it already, and it would have killed me. Instead, he let it continue expanding. His wrist twitched, barely able to hold such a thing anymore. A flash of light expanded widely behind him. It launched toward him, the spell squealing as it caught his side with a tremendous bang. He screamed and dropped me.

I ducked as he lost control of his growing spell. It exploded in his claws. Director Archstar collapsed. His tail flicked behind him, then it twitched, then it stopped. I crawled over to Mina. I put my fingers to her head and mine, and I eliminated the nightmare. My head was spinning as the real world reappeared. I trudged across the room to my mother. “What happened?” I looked down at Director Archstar’s body. The spell that destroyed him was created in the real world.

My mother coughed, “A-anyone can cast a spell once…” She smiled, “J-just once.”

Mina grabbed her, “No, no you didn’t!”

“That was me,” she breathed heavily, “Is this what overexertion feels like? It’s almost… euphoric. I’m so dizzy, now.” She struggled to sit up, her knees shaking under her. My mother finally fell on her side, her eyes barely open.

“You made the magic drug, you didn’t use it yourself?” I begged, “You had to…”

“No,” her head tilted slowly, “it only works on infants. The magic gene can only be changed early. Without out, nobody can survive more than one spell. Go now, find Principal Gray. He is one of my oldest friends.”

Mina grabbed her, she held her up, “We’ll find a way.”

“Mina… Alice…” She shook her head more forcibly, “No. Where’s your brother. I want to hear him again.”

“He didn’t come,” I said sadly.

“My last curse…” My mother sputtered, “that I’ll never meet him again…”

I stumbled over to her, the world shaking around me. I was close to my limit, also. I shook as her breath faltered. I placed my fingers against her temple and let a spell escape them. Her eyes glazed over and she collapsed. Her breathing quieted, still barely there. She said nothing more.

Mina grabbed her and shook her, “Alice! Alice, what have you done?”

“Memory magic,” my head hurt. My knees buckled under me, “I sent her back… sometime we all were there. Dad was there too. A happy time, not here. Not now.”

Mina fell to her knees. Her wings sunk around her back, and she screamed. There were no words in her breaking voice. She was shaking, and I calmly put my arm around her. We came all the way here for this. My heart sunk.

I could hardly fly against the weight of exertion. Mina and I forced ourselves back up the stairs to leave Site 1. The first floor had been evacuated except for Ms. Snowfox, who waited calmly for us. “Bruno and Pippa are on a flight home,” she explained. She looked past us, “where is your mother?” My face contorted as I shook my head. It was an answer enough.

We waited in the airport for four hours to catch the next flight. I fell asleep in the terminal, and Mina curled her wings around me. Bianca woke us when it was time to board, and we slept more on the plane. A bus in San Francisco took us back to Maple. I barely woke up in time to see us passing Site 91 at noon. It looked no different.

Edward took the news badly. He’d always pretended to be so certain that she was dead. He thought when he actually got the news that it’d lessen the blow. All it did for him was make it so he wouldn’t be there to have seen her. He locked himself in his room. I heard him crying.

October 12
The Morning:

Mina woke me up early. Nurse Var’s office was white and blank. Terrance shook on her bed as she injected his newly created body with magic. He gasped and she wiped her brow. Nurse Var was always dressed like a nun. “I hear you kids all got in a good deal of trouble. Don’t do that again.”

I thought Terrance was moving to salute as soon as he woke up. Instead, he was just shielding his eyes from the blaring lights. He coughed, “I’m back.” Bruno wrapped his wings around him just long enough for Terrance to fall back asleep.

First Period:

Ms. Snowfox jumped up onto her desk. She looked over the class, “Alice, Pippa, welcome back.” She hummed.

“Bianca!” Pippa’s tail swished wildly behind her, “Do we get extra credit?”

Ms. Snowfox hopped down, then back up in front of Pippa, “No. Not a bit. In fact, you all missed a couple unit assessments. Your grades are in real trouble, right now.”

“I’ll just cheat on a test and fix it, ya know!” Pippa laughed wildly. Ms. Snowfox flicked her tail against Pippa’s face.

“Why would you admit that to me, now?”

Bruno raised his wing. He didn’t wait to be called on, “Terrance is coming back to school tomorrow, too.”

“Good,” Ms. Snowfox said. She looked out across the room, “I’d warn you kids not to try and be heroes. Even when it works, it’s rather challenging. Heroes seem to have it harder than everyone else.”

The door quietly opened. Principal Gray quietly walked in, his hair was swept back. He was wearing a dark vest. “Ah, Bianca,” he reached out for Ms. Snowfox, “is this a bad time?” I caught a glimpse of some black object he was hiding behind his back.

Ms. Snowfox shook her head. He stepped behind her desk and smiled to the room, “I’ve received information that the president intends to visit the school tomorrow afternoon. Now, I have no idea what would cause something like that,” his eyes narrowed on me, “I want to make sure everybody is prepared for her arrival.”

“Is that all?” Ms. Snowfox turned to face him.

“It is not,” he pulled the black, top hat out from behind him. He set it down over Ms. Snowfox’s ears, “I believe, I owe you this.”

Mr. Archstar didn’t show up to his own class. A note was posted on his classroom door that he would be out for a week to mourn the death of his father. I wondered if he knew what had really happened. I took the time to visit Terrance again in Nurse Var’s office. He was still asleep, and I didn’t bother him. Everyone knew that going through resurrection was an awful ordeal. I knew.