I opened my eyes only to come face to face with a worried Sean. I tried sitting up and Sean stacked a couple of pillows behind me.

   "Are you alright?" He asked placing his palm on my forehead. I smacked his hand lightly and nodded.

   "I'm fine" I replied, my vision was clearer now and my head was no longer feeling wobbly so I guess i'm fine.

  "Scarlett is downstairs. She's casting a protection spell around the house so Derek won't get in again" Sean explained and I sighed taking off the blanket laid on my legs. I looked around the room and realized it was not mine but the one I saw the first time I arrived, the one with the potrait of a middle aged woman.

   "Why am I here?" I asked Sean.

   " Well, your room looked like it had a trash avalanche so I carried you to the next one that happens to be this one" he explained, "you need to exercise more though" he added jokingly and I glared at him.

   "Shut up" I whispered walking towards the potrait. I traced a couple of words written in black on the potrait before reading them out, " only if a few twigs are broken, one can make light. Only if weaknesses are avoided, one can then fight. Only if the day ends, can we have night."

   "What does that mean?" Sean asked and I shrugged.

   "No idea" I replied, the door opened and Scarlett came in balancing a tray on her hand. Sean helped her bring it down and he placed it on a table at the foot of the bed.

  "I made a couple of sandwiches. You haven't eaten anything since yesterday" Scarlett said sitting on a wooden stool beside the table.

  "Yesterday?" I asked surprised, was I knocked out for that long?. I took a seat on the bed looking at the plate in front of me containing neatly cut sandwiches.

  "Sean didn't tell you?" Scarlett asked confusedly looking at Sean. Sean had a look of realization before smiling sheepishly at me.

  "Slipped my mind" he said taking a sandwich before dropping it back. "Damn" he said under his breath.

   "What's wrong?" Scarlett asked looking at him worriedly.

  "Nothing, it's just that i'm allergic to onions." He replied frowning a little. Scarlett face changed to that of an apology before she smiled brightly. She said something under her breath looking at the sandwich and another piece appeared. How the heck did she do that? Right, she's a mage. How could I forget?.

   "Try it now" she said holding up the new piece to his mouth. Sean had a tempted look on his face before moving backwards. I took a big bite of the sandwich I was holding while watching the drama unfold.

   "I.. I can't. I can't breathe properly when I eat onions" he said looking sadly but Scarlett moved the sandwich closer to his mouth.

   "Take a bite first" she said and Sean gave in. Things they do for love.., i thought sighing. Sean's face changed from that of fear to surprise.

  "I can't taste a thing, why?" Sean asked with a mouthful looking at Scarlett.

   "What are you saying?" I asked him and he took the sandwich from Scarlett's hand. "Here, taste it" Sean said and I took a bite of it.

   "Me neither!" I exclaimed, "what did you do to it?, I think my mom does the same to her special spaghetti" I said shuddering at the thought of my mum's Saturday spag.

  "I made a replica of the sandwich so Sean can't taste the onions" Scarlett explained and an idea popped into my head.

  "Wait a minute, why don't you do the same to the machine?. We can give the replicated one to Derek, save my uncle and at the same time keep the original machine" I said and Scarlett nodded in understanding.

   "But the replica won't be able to make clones" Sean said and I rolled my eyes.

   "That's the point." I said and he nodded.

   "Do you think he'd be fooled?. I mean, he's a powerful wizard, do you think he'd buy it?" Scarlett asked and I gave her a small smile.

   "We can only hope he does" I replied. I heard the phone downstairs ring and I bolted out of the room, it might be uncle Russell calling to tell is he has been in a heavy traffic ever since. It may seem like I'm bluffing but i really hope this is all a dream, that uncle Russell isn't held captive by an evil wizard.

   "Hello?!" I answered immediately.

   "This is Vincent, Russell's friend" the caller said and i sunk in disappointment.

   "Oh" I simply said, not in the mood to listen to what he has to say.

   "I just called to be sure Russell is alright. He wasn't at the golf course yesterday and his phone's switched off" Vincent said and I bit my lip to stop tears from rolling down my cheeks.

  "He's- he's fine. He just lost his phone recently. I'll tell him you called" I said before hanging up the phone. I felt a hand on my shoulder and I recognized it as Scarlett's.

  "I'll go get the machine" Sean said and I nodded wiping the drops of tears that managed to escape. I looked around only to realize that Azura's missing.

   "Where is Azura?, I haven't seen her since yesterday" I asked Scarlett.

   "Yesterday, she went to the mall. She said the clothes you bought were.. not suitable for her" I'm sure what Azura said was worse, "but I haven't seen her today. It's not like she'd tell us where she's going"

   "Typical Azura" I said, "I better take a shower" I said going upstairs. Hang in there uncle Russell.

*******
   "This was not what I expected" Sean said parking his car in front of a family sized bungalow. I was sitting in the backseat which is now where i decided ever since that day at the bookstore.

  "Let's go" I said opening the back door. I walked into the compound followed by Scarlett and Sean who was carrying the replicated machine. I knocked on the front door and the door opened revealing Derek in a plain black shirt and matching pants.

   "That was fast" Derek said taking the machine from Sean.

   "Where is my uncle?" I asked him and he opened the door motioning us to come in. I looked at Sean and Scarlett uneasily. Sean entered the house and I followed after him. The house had poor lightening and the furniture had dark eery colours. We entered the living room and i saw uncle Russell sitting on one of the black couches.

   "Uncle!" I called running towards him but he looked strange and was shifting awkwardly. "Are you ok?" I asked reaching out but he moved out of my reach and stood up.

   "You kids are so foolish, aren't you?" Derek asked and I turned towards him. He smirked and looked at uncle Russell, "Get her" he said and I felt someone drag me backwards.

   "Instantis teleportatio" I heard Scarlett say and the last thing I saw was uncle Russell throwing a pocket knife at us, specifically Scarlett. I couldn't see anybody again and in a split second I was back in uncle Russell's house. I felt a piercing pain on my thigh and I knew what the cause was, uncle Russell missed his target.

   "What just happened?" Sean asked looking terrified.

   "I don't understand. I learned that spell from the book of a thousand witches. I wasn't sure it was going to work." Scarlett responded before looking at me, I was still frozen from what just happened. The image of uncle Russell throwing the pocket knife was still vivid in my mind. " Camilla, what's wrong?. Oh my God!, Look at your thigh!" She yelled guiding me to the couch. She slowly removed the knife from my thigh and Sean rushed in with a first aid box. " Sana haec injuriam nunc" she whispered, "it should heal soon".

   "Thanks" I said absentmindedly looking at my thigh, "so it turns out my uncle is working with Derek. I just can't believe it" I muttered. Who would've thought my uncle who we are trying to save is working with the one man we are trying to save him from?

*********
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Thanks for reading.

-Korisa