I was walking to work keeping at a steady pace with my hands in my pockets. All while listening to the loud crashing music that I loved. The song repeated for the fifth time as I took the head phones out finally annoyed with the music.
I now noticed the world around me and the people that were walking up and down Main Street, going into different shops and eateries. Kids that were playing in the fountain at the center of the town. I could see Mrs. Yinghi yelling at her husband in her foreign language that was supposed to be Mandarin Chinese.
"Nicky, how you doing?" Mrs. Yinghi said to me as I walked by.
"I am good a little busy with school. How are you?" I replied, looking into her eyes.
"I good, very good." She answered, as she rearranged the fruit in one of the bins in front of her store.
"Well I will see you later Mrs. Yinghi, I got to get to work." I answered, as I continued to walk down the street.
I continued walking until I passed the Pharmacy that Mr. Callin owned, that is when I turned to the right and waited to cross the street. I waved at the people in the car whether I knew them or not, in this town that was called being polite. But as the red-light in the middle of town turned red, I quickly crossed the street and ducked inside the book store that my mother owned.
I stepped inside the large book store that my mother had created. It was a two floor, book emporium as she said. Shelves lined the floor and walls of the lower floor, the only wall they didn't cover was the font wall which held the large floor to ceiling window.
"Nicky, go get changed and come help me with this." My mother said, caring a large box of books.
I ran to the back room and I threw my back pack on the table. All while reaching over and grabbing my apron and walking back out front.
“What do you need me to do?” I asked as I walked into the front room.
“Take these upstairs and put them on there appropriate shelves.” She stated as she handed me the box and walked over to the counter.
I nodded and walked up the stairs in the back right corner. As soon as I reached the top of the stairs, I turned towards the three long shelves that lined the upstairs. I started organizing the books on there proper shelves, as my mom yelled up.
“So . . . What do you want for dinner tonight?” She asked, as she appeared at the bottom of the stairs.
“Take out or cooking?” I asked, looking down at her.
“Whatever,” She said, walking away from the stairs. Back to the checkout counter I guessed.
“Lets just get some take out chinese food.” I replied, as I moved over to the next shelf.
As I started to restock this shelf with the new books, the bell rang down stairs signalling that the door had opened. I continued stacking not thinking anything of it until, I heard quiet whispering.
“Your not taking him.” I heard my mother say.
“Yes, I am Esmeralda and there is nothing you can do about.” I heard a man’s voice reply, softly.
“You will not!” My mother yelled, as I heard her grunt and something fall. I turned and knelled down, I could see my mother standing over someone, I could see there face. It seemed so familiar but like I never had seen it before. I shook my head back and forth dispelling that from my thoughts, as the man stood. He took two long steps over to my mother, and picked her up by the collar of her shirt. No one hurts my mom, I stood and ran down the stairs, running towards the man. I stopped as the man turned around letting go of my mom. He looked at me devilishly as my mom yelled. “Ignis eget.” Fire erupted from her hand and burned the man on his back. I couldn’t believe what I just saw, fire had just erupted from my mother’s hand and burned the man’s back. But the man turned back around and looked dead at my mother. He started chanting something that I couldn’t seem to make out, but as he was chanting the earth began to shake and books started falling off there shelves. I didn’t know what to do my mother was standing there unmoving, I stepped closer to the man and raised my hand like to punch him. When everything froze, the room stopped shaking and the books that were in mid fall just stopped. My mother then started to move again, looking dead into my eyes. “Nicky, don’t think, and do not move.” She said, as she ran into the back. She came out with my backpack and her pocketbook, she walked over to me and got down on one knee. “Now Nicky what you need to do is keep the feeling you have right now, it’s keeping that man and everything else frozen. Okay?” I nodded and we slowly walked out the front door of the store. I could see everything outside was frozen as well, people were stopped in mid step and cars froze as they were driving down the road. My mom led me to our car that was parked at the back of the store. “Get in the passenger seat, hurry.” She said, with a look of concern on her face. I quickly climbed into the passenger side, trying to still keep this feeling my mother told me to hold onto. My mom started to the car and floored the gas pulling out until she reached the edge of the road. I started to feel something funny inside my mind, I couldn’t understand what it was until a sharp pain ripped through my head. My mother’s eyes widened and she floored the car, cutting off several people as she started down the road. Turning around I saw the man run out of the book store, and look both ways for us. I don’t think he saw us though, cause he didn’t seem to know which way we went.
I turned back around and looked out the window of the car. I could see trees flashing pass as we headed the direction out of town.
“Where are we going?” I asked. Our house was in the opposite direction, why would we be going this way.
“We’re going somewhere safe.” She replied, as she pulled off the highway.
“Mom, cut the crap and tell me what’s going on. I’m not a kid anymore!” I yelled, looking at her. She frowned at me still looking in front of her. I looked out the window giving up, she wasn’t going to tell me anything, she never did.
“It’s long story.” I heard my mom say. “It started a long time ago a good ways before you were born. World War One basically was just a war between humans, but everyone was affected. Witches were affected to the point that Orders started fighting and eventually everyone started fighting again, causing World War Two our first mistake. So after a couple years of fighting the witches grew tired of it and agreed that one Order for each country wasn’t going to work. Instead they changed to four orders under a monarchy system. Each one of these orders had a Royal family, which controlled a certain area. My family took the North and South America basically, leaving the other three orders to fight for the rest.” She stopped speaking as a man cut her off, but quickly started back again. “My family is the Royal family of the Order of the Red Rose.” My eyes widened, my mom was royalty. “Now skipping a few years to a more relivent date, I was eighteen and was looking for a husband so I could take the crown, and just so happens your father rolls along to deliver a message to my father. After a little chattering, one thing led to another and you came along.” She said, trying not to laugh at my facial expression. “Now their was a slight problem with that, see your father was the prince of the order of the Black Knights. So everything exploded, wars were about to start again, until I stepped in. I agreed to marry your father and a truce was set up between our families, but like everything else It just didn’t work out. Three weeks later we got a divorce, but you were still in the equation. Heir to both thrones, Prince Nicolas Apollo Crimson Knight.” She stopped and looked at me, seeing absolute confusion on my face. “Your witch name is Apollo.” She stated simply. “Now do you have any questions?” she asked. I nodded and asked. “So that man back there was my father and your a Queen and I’m prince.” She nodded as she continued to drive down the road while I was completely dumbstruck. “Okay, so wait I’m a witch?” She nodded. “And your a witch?” She nodded again, while saying mmm hmm. “And my dad’s a witch?” I asked. “Yes.” She answered.
“Why haven’t you cared to tell me this till now? I mean I have these cool witch powers and I haven’t know about them till now.” I said, crossing my arms like the defiant teenager I am. “Nicolas, stop acting like a baby.” She said, as she pulled off the highway and onto some rural road. “Now, in a few weeks you going to have to go to a school for witches. I went to the school, your father the school, my parents went the school so you have to okay.” I nodded, “Now this is a school for magic so your going to learn brilliant spells and tricks, you’ll have tons of fun.” I nodded again, not believing that school could be fun.
“Mom” I said. “Why did my dad want me?” I asked. She exhaled deeply, I could tell this was the question she didn’t want me to ask. “Cause he wants you to merge the Orders and make the Black Knights more powerful, another one of his stupid ideas.” She said, as we pulled into a driveway of a huge house that was at least twice the size of ours.
“What’s this place?” I asked, my eyes in awe at the beauty of the house.
“This is one of my families many houses.” She replied, I looked closer at the house noticing at the floor to ceiling windows, wrap around porch, Victorian architecture and the large wooden door. I noticed the multicolor brick and how it seemed to tie everything together. Nicolas looked over at his mother and asked.
“Are we going to stay here.” His mother looked over at him with a worried expression in her eyes.
“Yes, you will be.” She finally replied, turning her head back to look out the window, not wanting to see his expression.
“What do you mean only I’ll be staying here! Where will you be?” He yelled loudly.
“Nicky, I’m going to England to talk to the council, and you can not come.” She said, ending it in a very commanding tone that I had never heard before. “Now Nicky you know I love you, but you can’t come with me. Be happy, I’m leaving you here with my head advisor Piper, you’ll love her.” She said, as she stopped the car in front of the house and got out of the car. “Stay here.” She said, as she shut the car door and walked to the front of the house. A lady walked outside and greeted her
