I heard knocking on the door a few minutes later. I walked over to it and realized that Dr. Jeremiah must’ve somehow locked it. I opened it and a nurse walked in. She looked at me in surprise.

“Candace, you’re walking, how are you walking?”

“My leg must’ve healed overnight. I’m not very sure, but when I woke up it was all better. I realized that my wrap lay on my bed.

“Sit on the bed now.” I did what she said. She looked at my leg and looked at me in horror. “Candace, that’s not possible. Your stiches are gone. Did Dr. Mark take them out?” At first I was confused, but then I realized Magic must’ve used her influence. Now, as far as the workers and patients at the hospital were concerned, there had never been a Dr. Jeremiah that worked at the hospital.

“No, he said that they must’ve put dissolving stiches in by accident.” I could tell the nurse was not buying it.

“Even if they were dissolving stiches, there’s no way they’d be gone and your cut would not look that good. I don’t know what to say. Dr. Mark will just have to give you x-rays to see how the bone is, because that will really tell if this is magic, or if it is you faking your recovery. I’m going to grab Natalie, Brooke, and Brent to talk about this. I’m not sure if Brent is still here, I know he was just here a few minutes ago and he was talking to Brooke, but he probably did leave already. He never does stick around.” The nurse’s voice trailed off. “Anyways, we need to tell them about this, and then I’m going to take you in the wheel chair to the x-ray room, alright?”

“Okay, sounds good to me.” I stayed sitting on my bed for a few minutes, and was glad that I was starting to get more energy, and that my leg wasn’t hurting. The nurse finally came back and she was pushing a wheel chair. I saw Nat and Brooke walk in after her. Nat winked at me, and I figured the nurse had told her the news.

“Alright, so as I told you ladies Candace has healed a lot overnight and it makes no sense. I just wanted to show you the cut yet so you won’t think I’m talking nonsense.” She showed them my not-so-much-of-a-cut-anymore, cut.  They tried to look surprised, but they weren’t fooling me.

“Can we just get the x-rays done?” I asked. I was so impatient, and I wanted to get out of that room more than ever. “And Nat, can you pick me up the forms I need to sign for my release?” The nurse gave me a dirty look, but I was leaving. The x-rays were pointless, because I knew I was healed.

“Come along, Candace.” I sat in the wheelchair and the nurse wheeled me to the x-ray room. I got my   x-rays done and the nurse wrapped my not-so-much-of-a-cut-anymore cut again, which was pointless. She finally wheeled me back to my room and I went to sit on my bed. I didn’t have anything to pack, but I was going to ask Nat for some clean normal clothes, not a hospital gown, but she already brought my backpack in and she had clothes laid on my bed.  I walked over to the bathroom and got changed in there. When I came out I felt much better, and was ready to go.

While I was waiting for Nat to come back, hopefully with food, I decided to take my bandage off my shoulder. No one had checked that yet, and I wanted to see how it looked. I figured it would look almost fully healed too. I took it off, and it did look so much better. Even the scar that was left wasn’t as bad as it should’ve been.

Finally Nat and Brooke came back, and once again it seemed like Nat had read my mind. She had a tray of food and since I hadn’t had solid food for a long time, eating the hospital food tasted so good. When we were done eating Nat also handed me the release forms. “Thank you so much Nat!” I gave her a hug. I was so happy and so excited to get out. I almost wanted to hug Brooke too-almost.

“No problem. We’ll be out of here soon. We’ll just wait for your x-rays to come back. Brooke, could you do us a favour and go check on Candace’s x-rays? We just want to see if they’ll be done or not.” I also knew that Nat wanted to get Brooke out so we could figure out the rest of the details of how to get rid of her.

“Yeah I can do that. It’ll be nice to do some walking too. If they’re not done, I’m going to take a walk outside and get some fresh air.” I smiled. She would be gone longer than we thought, which meant even more time for planning. She walked out of the room and as soon as the door shut, I turned to Nat.

“So how do we get rid of her? We know that we’re going to freeze her, but how are we going to get her out of here? Drag her? Excuse me, just carrying a person who can’t move down the hall. That won’t work very well.”

“You’re right. Maybe,” Nat paused and looked around the room. “Maybe, we could park the car outside the window and then move her out the window. You’ll probably leave first, so you could get the car and park it outside the window. We’ll figure out which window soon, and then I’ll move her out of the window and as soon as she’s out, you can move her quickly into the car and put her in the trunk.”

“That’ll work, but I won’t know what window it is, and Brooke won’t fit in the trunk.”

“I’m going to count the windows from the door, and you can look out of an open window. Once you see me, wave and I’ll count to that window. Once we’re there than we are good to go.” I had to admit that was good, and I was impressed with Nat’s planning.

“What about Brooke fitting in the trunk?” Nat’s plan sounded too good to be true. As much as I wanted it to work, I couldn’t help but believe something would go wrong.

“I’m not sure. If you have to shrink her, then you have to shrink her. Hopefully she’ll fit into the trunk, or her frozen self will somehow go in a position to fit the trunk.”

“Alright, I hope you’re right. Hopefully it’ll work.”

“It will, we have no choice but to believe it will if we want to get Brooke off the mission. Now, who do we want to take her place? Jules?”

“I would love to have Jules with us, but I don’t want her to get hurt. She’s such an innocent person. I couldn’t really see her on a mission this dangerous, and I would never forgive myself if she got hurt.” I admitted.

“I agree. I think we’ll need her though, one day, for one mission or one battle, Jules is going to need to help.”

“Well let’s hope that day doesn’t come too soon. Who else do you think? I don’t know Kelly, Ken, or Allie. I do know of Chad though.”

“I think Chad might be the good one to choose and then Brent can have another guy on the mission with him.” Nat said.

“If we were doing it for Brent’s sake, we’d choose Ken, because he’s on the football team right?”

“Yeah you’re right, but we’re not, and I think that we know Chad the best so he would be our best hope of coming on the mission.”

“I agree, we’ll just have to explain it to Brent, and then we’ll somehow get a hold of Chad.” I sighed in relief. We had a plan, and it didn’t seem like it would break easily.

“Well, I guess you should fill out those release papers so that you can go, but one more thing about the plan, as soon as Brooke tells us if the x-rays are ready or not, then we freeze her and hide her under the bed.”

“Okay, sounds good.” I took the release papers from Nat, but then realized I had no pen, so she got one for me. I signed my release forms and Nat had everything packed in the car, including Maddie the purse.

We sat and waited until finally Brooke came back. “Sorry for taking so long you guys. I went to see if they were ready and they told me they’d be ready in an hour. So I went for a walk and then came back and they weren’t quite ready yet. Dr. Mark will be up in five minutes to explain the x-rays for you.” I was surprised that Brooke didn’t remember Dr. Jeremiah either. I looked at Nat and from the confusion on her face; I realized that she had no idea who Dr. Mark was either.

“Okay, thanks Brooke. Nat, you ready?” I asked. She nodded and we both grabbed our wands from the air.

Brooke’s eyes widened in horror. “You guys, what are you doing? I thought we had everything figured out.”

“Just do what we say. Curl up in a ball.” I said. She did, and didn’t even try to fight back. Nat realized what I was doing.

As soon as she was in a ball, I heard Nat say “Duratus,” Freeze. Brooke’s body froze in place.

“Amoveo,” Shift, I moved Brooke’s body to under the bed.

Nat and I sat on my bed. “Candace, who is Dr. Mark?” Nat asked, as if she already forgot about what we had done to Brooke.

“Dr. Jeremiah was a monster in human form. I had to kill him. I think Magic used her powers to make everyone except you and me to think that Dr. Mark had always been the doctor that had been taking care of me.”

“He was a monster? What did he do? What did he look like?” I guess after being in a hospital for a while, Nat got really sick of not having any adventures, and even hearing of one would probably brighten her day, but I didn’t want to talk about Dr. Jeremiah the monster. His image flashed through my head again and I shuddered.

“I can’t describe him. I’m sorry, Nat. He was too awful.” Nat didn’t ask any more questions, because she knew me well enough to know when enough was said and done.

A few minutes later a new doctor I had never seen before walked in. “Alright, so Candace, I heard from Catherine that your leg was really healing up. Is that true? Then I saw the x-rays and I’m having a hard time believing this. It just does not make sense. Your plates and screws are gone now. I don’t know where they could go. It is just not possible, but it looks like your leg is almost fully healed.”

“That’s good. I already signed my release forms, so I can go now?” I asked.

“I know you really want to go and you can, but I just have one question for you. I was wondering if the hospital could do some tests on you to see if your body has something in it that could heal you that fast or make plates, screws, and stiches disappear.”

“I’m sorry, I would love to help with your studies, but I need to get out of the hospital. I can’t stay another day; even a few more hours would kill me.” Dr. Mark’s face fell, and I almost felt bad for him.

“Well I guess if you’re leaving, then I just want to see one more thing. Can you walk around the room for me?” I did as he asked. He looked so blown away. “Candace Brown, whatever’s in you has made you very lucky.” He signed my release papers and left.

“Okay, Candace I’m going to run around the hospital now so we can see where you need to park, alright?”

“Okay sounds good. I’ll just hang out the window and wave to people who come in the parking lot.” I said sarcastically. Now that I was clear to go, I didn’t want to stay any longer. I wished Nat and I had taken care of this detail before, because now I would have to wait even longer to get out.

“I’ll try to go fast. Just be ready, because I think your room is pretty close to the entrance.”

“Yeah, whatever. Just go down those stairs really fast, or elevator.”

“Yeah, I’ll run as fast as I can, but you better be ready.” Nat took off out the door. I almost considered letting her run all the way around, but then decided against it. I didn’t want to wait to get out any longer than I had to.

I looked out the open window and hung my arms out. I considered waving to random people, but then I saw Nat and I waved my arms so she would see me.” She waved back to acknowledge that she’d seen me, and she turned and ran back the way she had come.

I walked around the room, impatiently waiting for Nat who seemed to be taking her jolly old time. Finally the door opened and Nat, who sounded like she had asthma walked in. “Man,” She said between breaths. “I really have to work out more!” She put her hands on her knees as she kept breathing.

“Nat, what window is it from the entrance and to the right or left?”

“Nineteen windows to the right.”

“How come it took you so long?” I asked. It shouldn’t have taken her that long if she had run the whole way.

“Because we are on the fifth floor, and all the elevators were taken.” That would probably do it.

“Okay, I’m going to give them my release papers. You keep your eye out the window. If you have the wrong window, you’re dead meat.” I threatened.

“I’ll be leaning on the window and if you find a body outside of it that would be mine.” Nat sighed. Of course she would make a big deal of barely running. My guess was, was that she hadn’t even used the stairs. She probably stopped and talked to some random person just to make me wait.

I decided I would take my time, even though I wanted to leave. It was my turn to prove a point. I took the elevator down and then waited at the front desk, until it was my turn in line. I handed the secretary my release papers and she looked them over and then filed them away.

“Alright, take car Miss Brown.” The secretary called after me.

“Thanks, you too.” I called back. I walked out the front doors and when the sun shone on my face, I felt ready to burst into tears. Being outside again was just fantastic and being in the sun was the best thing ever. I had never been so happy in my life. I would’ve stood there for ages, but I figured I would take long enough to find the car, because Nat had never told me where it was.

I walked up and down the rows of parking and finally after walking around for about ten minutes I found the car. I got in and started it up. I drove to the entrance and then slowly drove by to the right so I could count nineteen windows. I finally found it and looked up to the fifth floor, which I realized was the top floor. I grabbed my wand out of the air and saw Nat’s arm flying back and forth. It soon disappeared, but was quickly replaced by a head and then neck and then body. I saw Brooke slowly coming out, and I looked around to make sure no one was watching. I didn’t see anyone nearby and I quickly pointed my wand at Brooke. “Amoveo,” Shift, I said and Brooke began to come down towards me. I took her down as fast as possible and soon I had the body that was curled up in a ball in front of me. I lay her down on the parking lot and turned around once again to make sure no one was watching. I didn’t see anyone so I quickly opened the trunk and moved Brooke into it. I slammed it shut after making sure no limbs were hanging out, and then drove up to the entrance. I waited for Nat to come out the doors and several minutes later out she came.

“Alright Nat, where do we go?” I wanted to drive so I just figured I would make Nat tell me the directions.

“It’s the same hotel that we were in the night Maddie attacked you. Do you know how to get there?”

“Yeah I can somewhat get around don’t worry. That’s one of the few places I know how to get to, and speaking of Maddie, how is she doing?” I figured I should ask since she had been cramped up as a pig for a while.

“I think she’s been alright. We’ll tell her it’s ok to come out of purse form soon. I guess she can just do it by herself to.” Nat muttered.

“Wait, what?” I was confused. What did she mean by she could just do it by herself?

“Maddie is a pig now. She’s sitting in the back seat.” I looked in my mirror and sure enough there was Maddie, sitting like a princess in the back seat.

“Well then, someone thinks highly of themselves.” We drove in silence for a bit.

“Nat, how are we supposed to get a hold of Chad King? I don’t have his number, and I’m not really sure how we can ask him without a number.” Apparently we had overlooked another small detail like we did with every plan. We had worked so hard to get rid of Brooke, and now we had no way of contacting Chad. I figured if worst came to worst we could ask Jules though.

“About that…” Nat’s voice trailed off.

“What is it Nat?” I sighed as I asked. Nat was obviously hiding something.

“Well, I kind of have his number?” Well that was a shocker to me. I didn’t even know Nat had really talked to Chad besides the odd time here and there, which wasn’t enough to have his number.

“What? How do you have his number? Why do you have his number? Why was I not aware of this?” I fired the questions at Nat.

“Slow down. I only have his number because we were partners in history in grade eleven and we needed to figure anything out, well texting’s the easiest way to do that, and I don’t have Facebook so we couldn’t get a hold of each other.” That’s one of the many things I loved about Nat, she didn’t have any of those social networks so and she didn’t even like them, but that didn’t mean I believed her. To me, it seemed like a little more than just ‘having’ to get each other’s numbers.

“Alright Nat, I suppose I will believe you.” I said in a joking tone.

“I’m serious, Candace. There was nothing ever there. I find him really annoying.” That’s when I knew she was lying.

“Then why do you want to take him on the mission?” I demanded.

“Okay, fine. I used to like him, but that was only for a day. He is really conceited and the reason I thought he would be the best for him to come is because, well this sounds awful, but because if any of those people deserve to die it’s him.” I didn’t know whether to laugh or just stand there and try to believe that Nat had said such a thing.

“Nat, let’s face it. There must be another reason why. You’re probably right, but there must be something else.”

“Why did you want to take him along?”

“I don’t know, because I didn’t want to see our friend hurt and I know him the best out of the people that Brooke said.”

“Sometimes you have to be willing to make sacrifices, right? Well, I think that Chad would be willing to make that sacrifice. All I know is that he has no real family, and is in a lot of trouble. I think that Chad would be willing to sacrifice his life so we could life ours.”

“I think you might be right.” And the sad part was that she was right. Chad probably would be willing to let him die, because he had nothing. What Nat had just said kind of contradicted about him being the most deserving to die, so I decided to ask her about it. “Nat, you said he was the most deserving to die, so why would he be the most deserving if he would die to save us?”

“Well, not many people would be affected by his death, and he is mean. He doesn’t have many friends and it might be better for him to be dead. I don’t think he likes living that much. I think that he would just be the most willing to die out of all of them, and I don’t want someone who’s scared to die come along.”

“Your right Nat.” We drove the rest of the way and we soon arrived at a dumpy hotel. I couldn’t believe I had chosen to stay there, because in the daylight, the hotel looked a lot worse than it had earlier. I wish I had chosen a better hotel, but I guess it also made me happy, because since Brent hadn’t come to visit me he had to stay in a trashy hotel, and he had to pay for it.

“Alright Nat, I’m going in. You call Chad and get him to come here. I’m going in. Wish me luck; I’m going to need it.”

“Okay, good luck Candace. I don’t know how you’ll find him or how you’ll convince him to come, but whatever.”

“I’ll pretty much have to make him come. I don’t want him to, but Mom and Dad said he would play a huge part in our future, so we need him to come.”

“Candace, what if the future is past this mission?”

“It can’t be, because one of us is guaranteed not to return home again.” I bluntly said, and the truth suddenly hit me hard. I would either not return home from the mission, or return alone. I was definitely glad we hadn’t asked Jules to come. I didn’t want her to die, and I didn’t want the guilt of her dying.

“Well, see you soon.” I walked into the hotel and went to the front desk, and there wasn’t any one waiting in line, which wasn’t a surprise to me.

“Hi, I’m looking for my brother.”

“I don’t give out personal information. I’m sorry.” The desk man said.

“Please, I’m looking for Brent Brown. I’m his sister, Candace Brown.”

“I don’t give out personal information.” He said again.

“Please, I have an ID.”

“No, I will not tell you. I have not seen anyone who looks like you. I would like you to leave now, and if you do not leave I will have to call security.”

“Fine, if you won’t help me then I will find him myself.” I walked over to the halls and took off running. The desk worker tried to run after me, but he was a little pudgy and the hours of sitting behind the desk seemed to be adding up. I quickly lost him, and then I went to the room beside the one that Nat, Brooke, and I had stayed in the night we had stayed here.

I had to choose whether to go to the right or left and I chose the right first. I knocked on the door and said in a high pitched voice, “Cleaning service.” I hoped one of the cleaners sounded like that.

“I told you not to come.” A muffled voice said. I wasn’t sure if it was Brent or not because it was too distant.

“It has been too many days for no cleaning to have been done. Sorry, but hotel policy.”

“Okay, fine come in.” I heard the door knob twisting and out came a very large man opened the door. I was a fairly tall person, but this guy made me feel very small.

“I’m sorry, wrong room. I was thinking of someone else.” I quickly walked away as I heard the door shut. I decided to try the door to the left next. “Cleaning service.” I said in the same high pitched voice. I could only hope that Brent had returned to the hotel after he had been at the hospital.

“One minute.” I heard footsteps and then Brent opened the door. His eyes widened and I saw anger flash through them.

“What are you doing here? Are you working here now or something?” I thought I heard footsteps down the hall so I quickly slipped into Brent’s room and shut the door behind me.

“No, I don’t work here. I came to get you. We need you for the mission, and I have come to get you to come with us.”

“I’m not going anywhere with you. Now get out of my room and go away.”

“Brent, you know that if you hadn’t wanted to continue this mission, you would’ve gone home and told Mom and Dad. I know you want to come, and we need you to come. Besides you said that you would come, and I know you don’t like going back on your word. You would be quitting before you even started.”

“Candace, I stayed here so I could think and so that I could visit Brooke. I could’ve gone home whenever I wanted.”

“I know you could’ve, but the point is you didn’t. The hospital is the same distance as it is from home, and here you have no car so you would have to take a taxi, which would be that much more expensive. You wanted me to come back; you wanted me to get you so we could go on the mission.”

“No, I didn’t. I stayed here for my own reasons that I don’t need to share with you.”

“Why you stayed here doesn’t matter. Are you coming or not? If you’re not coming, I’m going to find some other magicians right now and you can stay here. I don’t care if you go home and tell Mom and Dad. I’ll be gone before then.” I lied. I didn’t want him to tell Mom and Dad, but if I told him I didn’t want him to do that, that’s exactly what he would do.

“Fine, I guess I’ll come... but you owe me an apology.”

“I don’t owe you anything. Just grab your stuff, because we’re leaving. We need to get going.”

“No, you made me waste my money. We could’ve split the cost of one room, but you had to go with Natalie and Brooke.”

“I told you, you could’ve slept in the bathtub. You could’ve paid nothing. You could’ve slept in the car and once again paid nothing. You didn’t have to go in the room, so don’t blame me.”

“I’m not going.”

“Well that won’t happen again, because now you have another guy on the mission.”

“Wait, there are five people now?” I could tell I had caught him off guard.

“Nope, there are four people.” I corrected.

“So you, me, and?”

“You, me, Nat, and Chad King.”

“What about Brooke? She said she was coming. We made all these plans! She wouldn’t just leave.” Brent sounded worried.

“You did what? You made plans without Nat or I?” Now I was angry with him. I almost didn’t want him to come on the mission.

“No, well yes, but that doesn’t matter! Why isn’t Brooke coming?”

“That is what doesn’t matter. This is your last chance, are you coming or not?”

“I want to go, but-” My patience was gone, and Brent was in for an angry Candace.

“Of course there’s a but! You can’t do anything without your little girlfriend at your side! You can’t do anything without her, and you planned on taking over the mission! You’re lucky you’re still allowed to come, but that is not going to last much longer. I am leaving now.” I spun around and opened the door. I began to walk down the hall, upset with Brent and I had never walked so fast in my life.