The next morning, when I woke up, I decided to try for another walk. My legs were stiff again and needed to move, and the only thing that could cure stiff legs was walking. So I threw my covers back, and decided to walk around. This time I hoped someone would come in and see me walking. They needed proof that I was better and that I could leave. I also hoped I would wake Nat up, because I wanted to talk to her about something. It was a topic that had been left alone for too long: what were we going to do with Brent?

After walking a few laps and no one waking up, I just sat down on my bed again and pulled the covers up again. I wondered when I would finally be able to do something. I forgot what sunshine looked like and what it felt to be outside. I was tempted to walk out the door and just go for a walk through the hospital, but decided against it.

Finally after what seemed like weeks, I heard Nat moving around in her chair. I looked over at her and she stood up. “Hey Nat.” I didn’t even care if we woke Brooke up, because she had slept long enough, and I still wasn’t a huge fan of her.

“Hi Candace, how’s your leg?”

“Great, want to see something?” She nodded, so I threw my covers back again and got up. I walked around the room.

“Oh man, Candace! That worked wonders didn’t it? Now we just need a nurse to come in and see you. When do they come? When’s Dr. Jeremiah coming to see how your leg is?”

“I’m not sure.” I glanced at the clock and gasped. It was eleven o’clock already. “I think the nurses already checked on me. I probably missed my appointment with Dr. Jeremiah. He’ll probably come and do my checkup this afternoon.”

Nat glanced at the clock. “Wow, we had a good sleep.” I heard movement from the other side of the room and I saw Brooke sit up in bed, which reminded me of the conversation Nat and I needed to have.

“Nat I need to talk to you about something.” I walked over to the corner opposite of Brooke’s bed, so we could be furthest away from her. I could feel her eyes following us as we walked to the corner.

“What is it?” Nat whispered.

“Well, I was just thinking about what to do with Brent. I know he’s supposed to come on the mission, but he never visited me once, and he and Brooke are in love. That will probably slow us down, and I don’t want to be slowed down. We need to go. This has already been a huge delay, and we really can’t afford another one!”

“I know Candace, but do you remember how your parents said he would play a huge part in your future? We can’t get rid of him. If he saves your life, it’s not worth getting rid of him no matter how annoying he is and no matter how much of a jerk he is.”

I heard footsteps and glanced over. I saw Brooke coming. “I thought we said no secrets, you two.” Brooke sounded offended.

“This is different. Maybe it has nothing to do with this mission; maybe it’s something from school, or something about our parents that doesn’t concern you.” I snapped. I know I had said that, but I didn’t care now. This was something different.

“Is it about the mission?”

“Yes, it is, but it doesn’t concern you. You don’t need to know about this.”

“Candace, Natalie, I’m part of this mission. If you two are making plans about it, I need to know. I need to know what’s coming.”

“We’re only figuring out what to do with Brent, okay? You are not part of this decision.” I decided to tell her, so that she would go away. Unfortunately that plan didn’t work. She didn’t go away.

“I know you’re mad at him for being a jerk, and I was too, but we need him. If you guys treated him better then you wouldn’t be in this mess.” I knew Brooke wanted Brent to come along. She was in love with him, so she needed him along. He was her only real connection to Nat and I.

“Says the girl who loves him, and who she loves.” Nat said. “He’s probably nice to you, because he likes you. He doesn’t like me or Candace, don’t you know? Can you not tell that? No matter how nice we are to him, he’s mean to us, so we might as well be mean back.” I agreed with that point one hundred percent.

“Natalie, we were talking and-”

“Of course you were talking, and I bet it was about Nat or I.” I snapped. I was beginning to feel like myself again. It was really nice.

I saw Brooke’s face fall and I knew I had been right. She was talking about us. “Well yeah, I guess we were. I can explain though. We were just saying how you guys can be really mean. He doesn’t feel wanted or appreciated. I know he doesn’t hate your guts either. He only thinks you two hate his!”  I rolled my eyes.

“Yeah, he says that so you’ll be on his side, but really the reason we’re mean to him is because he’s mean to us. If he’s going to be mean to me, then I’m going to be mean to him. I’m not that way. When someone’s mean to me I’m not going to shut down, I just am mean back.” I said.

“You two are mean to him. I’ve noticed that myself. Candace, you normally start the entire problem and then Natalie joins right in and it makes him feel even worse.”

“Alright, so you were pretty much taking like a couple about all your feelings and stuff like that.” Nat said.

“We do hate his guts too, just so you’re aware.” I added.

“This is exactly what I’m talking about. Candace, you start it and then Natalie, you join right in and continue it on. He can’t get a break with you two!”

“Yeah, and your point?”

“You two are impossible!” Brooke sounded frustrated and I almost laughed. I loved making Brooke uncomfortable and life difficult. If she hadn’t stepped in we could’ve made the decision right away.

“Yeah, we know. So what’s your point?” Nat asked. I was glad she was trying to finish the conversation.

“I’m just saying, can you please take him along and give him another chance? He just wants to be accepted by you two. He feels so judged.”

“He is such a girl!” I said.

“Just because he’s a guy doesn’t mean he can’t have feelings too!” Brooke argued.

“Well, he’s a football player and they’re supposed to be tough. They don’t take time to talk about their feelings. I’ve lived with Brent for all my life and I have never heard him talk about his feelings.” I shot back. I wouldn’t lose this fight against her. This was my fight to loose and no one else’s.

“It’s because you guys are so mean to him. He’s scared to talk to you guys.”

“Whatever. You’re just sticking up for him because you guys are dating! You want him to come along.”

“Well….” Brooke’s voice trailed off. I looked at Nat and I saw her eyebrows shoot up to the sky.

“So you guys are dating?” Nat sounded so blown away. She sounded like she had just been told the end of the world was coming. I couldn’t really blame her. The idea of Brent having a girlfriend, especially a pretty one, as much as I hated to admit that Brooke was pretty, was mind blowing.

“Well not yet. We both just admitted to liking each other, but we don’t want to make any commitments yet. Especially if we have to go on this mission. If we dated, and someone died…well that would be too hard for us. I didn’t even realize how much I liked Brent though, like I’ve never been so happy.” I was surprised she had said that. She must’ve been dumber than I thought. She knew we were already mad at her and Brent, but I guess that didn’t cross her mind.

“Why do you bother waiting? You may die anyways, and then you’ll never get to date him.” I said dryly.

“Well there is the Land of the Dead, so when we die we both go there. If we both stay with the good side that is, which I know won’t change.” She might as well have said that Nat or I would be the one to betray the mission. She didn’t even know that two would die and one would betray us, or did she? Brooke seemed to know a lot, and I wasn’t sure how she really did know that much.

“I’m a little confused as to what you’re saying. Are you saying that if Brent dies you’ll kill yourself to be with him, and are you saying that Nat or I would betray this mission, because we definitely wouldn’t?” I never liked being accused of anything, especially if it was all a lie.

“No I would never kill myself. There’s no need.” She smiled to herself as if she’d just made a joke. “As to you two betraying this mission, well I’m not overly sure. I don’t think you would, but I wasn’t accusing you of anything. I’m just saying that when I die, I’ll die a magician and not a sorcerer.”

“Candace, can I talk to you for one minute….alone?” I was glad she added the alone part. We walked over to the other side of the room, and I was glad that my leg wasn’t hurting very bad.

“Candace, what do you want to do? Brooke just admitted to pretty much loving Brent, and we can’t have two people who like each other with us. If one of them dies or betrays us, which is guaranteed, I don’t think that the other one could go on, and we need someone reliable. I’m not going to put my life in someone’s hands that would leave us in a heartbeat, or just stop the mission. I think we should actually keep Brent, but get rid of Brooke. She’s mean to us, and she tries to make everything harder than it needs to be.” Nat said carefully.

I thought about it. Did I trust Brent or Brooke more? Whose hands would I rather put my life in? Who would have a better chance of going on without the other? I immediately got the answer and knew that Nat was right. There was something really strange about Brooke, something that wasn’t quite right. She would be one of the last people I trusted with my life. “You’re right. We need to get rid of her, but how are we going to do that? If we tell her she can’t come anymore, then she’ll probably go back and tell Mom and Dad. You know she would do that. She’s so used to getting her own way.” Nat didn’t look convinced. “Nat, we can’t take the risk. If Mom and Dad figure out what we’re up to, they’re going to find some way to stop us and you know it.” That seemed to push Nat over the edge. She knew how mad Mom and Dad would be if they found out.

“You’re right. What can we do with her though? Freeze her and leave her in the trunk of the car?” Nat’s eyes widened and I knew she’d taken my idea seriously. “Nat, you’re actually going for this?” Not long ago she had said that we couldn’t use magic on people, unless we needed to.

“Well people don’t get hungry or thirsty while they’re frozen right?” I could almost see Nat’s brain spinning. “You’ve been frozen, do you?”

“Nat, I’ve only been frozen for like ten seconds. I have no idea if I would get hungry from being frozen for ten seconds!”

“Never mind, Brooke said you don’t. You don’t feel anything, besides your mind being awake. It would just be boring, but Candace this could really work.”

“Nat, you are feeling okay right?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. I know I said no magic on people unless you had to, but after dealing with Brooke for the last few days I’ve learned how annoying she is. I want to throw her out the window.” Nat exclaimed. I almost laughed, but Brooke was looking at us and if I laughed she would assume the conversation was over.

“Fine, I’ll do it without complaining. We just need her to sign out and we need to ask her if she knows any other magicians. Dad said we needed four magicians for the mission, and if Brooke’s gone, we’ll need a replacement.”

We walked over to Brooke and I put on a fake smile. “We figured everything out.” I wanted to get everything done, but I didn’t want to ask her about the magicians right away, because she would probably put the two and two together.

“That’s good. If you guys don’t mind, I’m just going to sign out now. I don’t want to have to worry about that later when we’re all in a rush to go.”

“Brooke, just a question, do you know any other magicians?” I knew it was too early, but I didn’t want to lose my chance to ask her. Who knew when the nurses and Dr. Jeremiah would be back.

“Yeah and why do you need to know?” Brooke sounded suspicious.

“We were just wondering, because we didn’t know if any of our friends were actually magicians.” I lied.

“I only know of a few, but I’m sure there’s more around the school. They probably just don’t want to reveal themselves. The first on is Chad King-”

“I always knew he was different!” Nat exclaimed and I sent her my death glare. We had just got Brooke talking, and her interrupting would not help.

“All magicians are different. If you look close enough, sometimes you can tell who the magicians are. That’s how I figured out most of them. They weren’t very good at covering it up. Anyways the only other magicians that I know of are Kelly Stoneburner, Ken Clay, Allie Azarah, and Julianna Bocled.”

“Do you know Kelly Stoneburner, Ken Clay, Allie Azarah, or Julianna Bocled, Nat?” None of the names sounded awfully familiar to me, but I recognized the name Julianna Bocled.”

“Candace, that’s Julianna...Jules!”

“Oh, Jules!” I felt kind of embarrassed. Jules was our friend from school. I would love to have her with us, but I didn’t want her to get hurt. She was such an innocent and sweet girl, and I didn’t want her to have to go through that danger. I also felt bad for forgetting her name.

“And then Kelly Stoneburner is on the cheerleading team too. You know who Chad is right?” I nodded. “Allie always watches our practices, because she’s best friend with another girl on the team. Ken is on the football team.” I felt bad, because Nat knew who all the people were and I didn’t even remember Jules! I really did wish we could take her along, but just the thought of putting her in danger was too much.

“Why do you guys care so much?” Brooke sounded really suspicious now.

“Nat and I were thinking about taking one more person with us; just so we could speed it up a bit. Five people wouldn’t hurt right? That’s what we were talking about over there.”

“Oh alright, that makes sense. I don’t think that would be a good idea though. Not many missions have five magicians on it, and I don’t’ think having another magician would make it go faster. That’s just one more person’s life to have in your hands. I’m not sure about you, but I don’t think it’s worth the risk.”

“You’re probably right. We’ll see once we get out of here.” I pretended to think about it.

“Okay, just remember what I said. I’m going to go sign out now.” She said and she left the room.

A few minutes after we left, and after Nat and I talked a little bit about home, Dr. Jeremiah came in. His eyes widened when he saw me standing and ran over to me. “Candace, why are you standing? What are you doing? You’re going to hurt your leg! I’m surprised you can still stand.” He tried to pick him up, but I quickly backed away.

“I am fine. I got better overnight.” I paused, and then added. “And never try to pick me up again!”

“I’m sorry, but you can’t be on your leg. Get to your bed right now.”

“Take x-rays of my leg. I bet it’s healed. It doesn’t hurt at all. I can get signed out now.” I wanted to get out so bad, but the look on Dr. Jeremiah’s face said otherwise.

“Candace, you shouldn’t be able to stand. Physically speaking, your leg shouldn’t even be able to stand that much pressure for ten seconds. You need to sit down and I will check out your leg. Natalie, I’m going to have to ask you to leave so I can do my checkup.” Nat nodded and she walked out of the room.

“Are you going to check my leg now, or not?” I demanded. “If you won’t do a checkup on me, then I’m going to sign myself out of the hospital and I will go down however many floors I need to. I will walk down as many flights of stairs as I need to.”

Dr. Jeremiah sighed. “Okay Candace. Go over to your bed. We’ll look at your leg.”

I walked over to my bed and sat down. Dr. Jeremiah took off the wrap around my leg and I couldn’t believe my eyes. The stiches had come out by themselves and the cut was gone. “Candace, this makes no sense. There is no way the stiches could disappear, unless someone put dissolving stiches in.”

“Don’t ask me, I barely passed science. I have no idea what happened, or how it happened so don’t ask me.” Dr. Jeremiah looked really confused at first, but then an evil grin slowly spread across his face.

“Why are you smiling like that?” I know that sounded rude, but it was so creepy. I kind of wanted to punch him or something to take it off of his face.

“I took the measures I thought were necessary. I wasn’t sure if you were a magician, so I did weaken you. I made sure that your process of healing would be slowed down, that way I’d have more time to discover your true identity. Now I know the real reason why you healed so fast. You really think pulling a healing spell would slip past us? Our side is stronger than you think, Candace. We’re everywhere.”

I quickly grabbed my wand out of the air. “What are you and what do you want? What have you been doing to me?”

“What I am is what you will see shortly.” I raised my wand. “Oh, put your wand down. You all think you’re so threatening with it, but you’re not. As for what I have been doing to you, just think.” I did, and that’s when I knew. That night that I had woken up after being attacked by the monster in my dream and I had felt weaker. That thing in the dark had been approaching me, and I didn’t know what it was, but now I did. It was Dr. Jeremiah. He had tried to weaken me enough so I would either die, or slow my healing process down so he could figure out if I was a magician for sure and then he was planning on killing me. No wonder I had felt so weak and helpless!

“You were that thing?” I looked at Dr. Jeremiah and my mouth opened to scream, but no sound came out. I had never seen a worse monster; he had changed into his monster form. I didn’t know he could be human form, but I could barely remember what he looked like. He reminded me of death. I almost felt like dying. I began to feel weaker and I could feel him draining me, taking my energy away so I would die. I had my wand ready and got ready to cast a spell.

“There’s no need, Candace. I am invulnerable in my true form. It takes a lot of life to get here, but here I am.” The old Dr. Jeremiah said, but his voice had changed. It had risen and had become raspy for a high voice. He sounded short on breath, but he wasn’t. His voice had so much hate in it, and so much desire for death, he wanted to see suffering.

I began to back away from him. When I was about three to four feet away I suddenly felt stronger again. I didn’t feel drained and my energy was slowly coming back. The monster bared its teeth, and I saw his lack of teeth. The teeth were as thin as needles, but they looked as sharp as swords. They could easily break flesh and tear it from me. I looked at his face again and if I thought I had seen his true form, I was wrong. Now I saw his actual form and it was ten times worse than the time before.

He had eyes that were pure white and had no pupils. His skin was so pale; it didn’t even look like skin anymore. It looked slimy and a grayish white. He had a normal nose, but there was blood beneath it, as if he had just had a bloody nose, and his mouth had blood coming out the sides as if he had just eaten a kill. He was wearing a black cloak over and he had a hood on it, so I couldn’t see the back of his head or the rest of his body, except for his hands. His hands were as pale as his face, and he had a hand, but no fingers. What replaced the fingers were razor sharp black claws with fresh blood on them, probably sharp enough to cut a piece of wood an inch thick. I looked at his cloak and saw that it was blowing and the front and back were touching, as if the monster had no body. It seemed to be blowing, but there was no wind. I suddenly felt myself getting pulled towards him, and I realized that his power was bringing me towards him.

I pulled myself back again and I no longer felt a pull. He bared his teeth again and fresh blood dripped down his face, from his mouth. He advanced and was soon within four feet of me again, so I backed away. I once again felt stronger. “Your power doesn’t affect me when I’m four feet away.” I said to him.

“That is a minor detail. You can’t kill me, and I can just wait for you. I have all day, and you will grow tired. My power will influence you eventually.”

I looked around the room for something, anything that could help me. I realized that the curtains were over the outside windows and that the lights were off. I realized that it was only still bright because of daylight. It was like he had never been in the sun; I remember thinking that and ran over to the curtains. I pulled them open and the sunlight shone right in it. The room brightened that much more. Then I ran over to the light switch and turned that on too, followed by the lamps.

Dr. Jeremiah’s monster was lying on the ground and he was wailing in pain. He was turning red and I could see that his skin was burning. I realized that the only way to defeat him was light. When he was in his true form, he must never have been in light. Now any light affected him, especially the sun light. I looked over at him again and saw that he had tears streaming down his face. He seemed to be getting smaller, he was…melting.

I looked away to make sure that no nurses or hospital patients could see in and the next time I looked back at Dr. Jeremiah, he was gone, cloak and all. I put my wand back in the air and sat down on my bed. That had been scary. I never wanted to see him again.