“Candace, wait.” Brent called after me. “I’ll come.” I was almost upset. Now I didn’t want him to come.

“Then get your stuff right now, because I’m not waiting for more than five minutes. If you don’t hurry then I will leave.” I paused then added, “And if I ever hear one more thing about you making plans for this mission without Nat or I, then you will be gone before you can say gone.”

“Yeah I get it Candace. I’ll be back in a few.” I sat down in the hall and waited. I made sure that I could see the clock, because if Brent was so much as a second late, I would be long gone.

Finally after about four minutes Brent came out and we went to the front desk to check him out. The worker gave me a dirty look and I just smiled at him.

“Well are you leaving today, sir?” The guy at the front desk whose name tag said Tim.

“There’s a reason I’m checking out.” I smirked. Apparently Tim wasn’t very well liked around the hotel.

“Just trying to be friendly.” Tim muttered. Then he turned to me. “If you ever take off through my hotel again, I will call the police.”

“Are you threatening me? Because I don’t like to be threatened.” I threatened back. I wouldn’t leave letting Tim think that he had scared me.

“Yes ma’am I was.” At least he used ma’am. “Now good day, sir.” He ignored me, but that was fine with me. I didn’t mind being ignored. I was pretty used to it

The second we stepped out of the doors Brent dropped his stuff and pinned me to the wall. I looked around for Nat, but of course she was nowhere to be seen. “What do you want Brent?” I choked. It was hard to talk since Brent had his arm over my throat. He grabbed his wand and I reached up for mine, but his arm blocked me.

“Disputatio.” Talk, he said. “Where is Brooke?” I thought about my anger for him and I knew I wouldn’t answer the question, so I didn’t. He backed away from me. “How did you do that?” I grabbed my wand from the air and pointed it at him.

“If you as much as move a finger, I will kill you.” Now I could see Brent looking scared.

“Candace, don’t be unreasonable. Can we just talk about this for a second?”

“Now that you’re the one at risk you’re willing to talk, but if you want to talk go ahead, explain yourself.” I decided to give him a chance, which was more than he should’ve gotten.

“Well, I just know you so I never would’ve figured out what happened to Brooke and I wanted to know. Is that too much to ask? I just wanted to know where my….friend is.” I knew he was going to say girlfriend, but then thought better of it which was smart.

“You will never ever use magic on me again. This is your last warning. I gave you one before and next time you use magic on me, you will be dead. You cannot use magic on me ever again, do you understand.” My voice was very low and even and I added my warning tone to it. I could see the fear in Brent’s eyes, and even though I was smaller than him, I could be a lot more intimidating.

I lowered my wand and shoved Brent as hard as I could and since he was taken by surprise he fell. His eyes were full of fear now. “I thought you were going to kill me.” Brent said quieter. That’s when it hit me. Was I about to kill my brother over something as stupid as that? I felt ashamed, I was scared. What was I turning into? The way I was going it seemed like I would be the one to betray the mission. I felt like I should die, I deserved to die more than Brent, Nat, or Chad. I wished I could take the place of all three. “You weren’t going to were you?”

I shook my head, but I knew that it was different. I was going to kill him. I would never admit it to him, because I couldn’t face him ever again if I told him that.

“Candace, I’m sorry. I’ve been such a jerk. You lost your memory, you almost died and I only looked at you once. I’m so sorry. I’ll go on your mission, and I won’t go against you again.” I liked how he said your mission, as in my mission, but I couldn’t help but feel bad. Almost killing him was the way I had almost gone. That’s the only way I could gain control.

“It’s alright, and thank you, but if you don’t want to I understand.”

“No, I’m going. I’m not going to let you down again.” Brent knew that two of the four would die; he knew that one of us would betray the rest, but he chose to go anyways. He wanted to come just so he wouldn’t let me down, which made me feel even worse.

We walked around the parking lot and finally found Nat in Brooke’s car, and she happened to be in the back of the parking lot. “Nat, did you really have to park so far away?”

“Whatever Candace, what took you so long?”

“Well we had to find you. Was there no other parking spots available?” I asked sarcastically, because about four fifths of the parking lot was empty.

“Well I figured that since we weren’t staying here, I should park far away so that if someone was they could park closer. That’s only fair right?” Of course Nat would choose to be nice now. It hadn’t been overly hard to find her since the parking lot was so empty, but Nat had hidden the car well. “Anyways, if you don’t mind, I have a call to make. I’m going to call the airport so I can book flights.” Nat stepped into the car and closed the door. I was about to get in and sit there too, but at the exact moment I was reaching for the car, Nat decided to lock the doors.

I didn’t want to stand outside alone with Brent. I felt too bad. I had almost killed him not even ten minutes ago. We definitely weren’t as close as ever. I just leaned against the car and stared at the ground. I didn’t want to look at Brent. I would never look at him the same. I had already lost one brother, and I didn’t want to lose the other. I looked up for a second and saw that Brent was staring at me. I looked at the ground again, but I could feel his eyes trained one me. After a few minutes I couldn’t take it anymore.

“Would you stop?” I snapped.

“Please, Candace, just tell me about Brooke. I just want to know.” I sighed. Of course Brent would chose to do it the hard and annoying way.

“Could you not have just asked me instead of staring at me? That’s just creepy!”

“No, because I know you and you wouldn’t have even considered telling me. I know you.”

“Brent, you may have gotten scholarships flying out of your ears, and you may have way higher grades than I do, but honestly! That was the dumbest thing to say. Now I’m not going to tell you since you asked in some staring way. Either way you’re not going to know.”

“Wow, Candace. Why can’t you just tell me? I just-” Brent was cut off by Nat who stepped out of the car at the perfect time.

“So?” I asked. I could feel Brent’s eyes on me, but I chose to ignore him. I knew he didn’t have the willpower to go on forever, and I could hold up a lot longer than you.

“I got cheap flights.” Nat said nervously. Of course, there was a catch. Nat was such a Dutchman. She only cared about pricing and nothing else. Not convenience, comfort, or anything else.

“Well what’s the catch?” I asked.

“Well we have a private flight. It’s just going to be me, you, Brent, Chad, the pilot, and co-pilot.

“Nat, what is the catch?” I asked again. Nat was a really cheap person. She didn’t like to spend money unless she had to, and even when she did spend money, she always bought cheap stuff. For example when she buys clothes, she only get things that are under fifteen dollars, or are on sale for a really good price. “Nat, what is the condition of this plane?”

“Well I guess it’s in decent condition.”

“Nat, really?” I demanded. Now we’d have to have a really long, uncomfortable flight all the way to Cairo, in a plane that would probably fall apart on the way there.

“I’m sorry, but I tried! If you’re so unhappy with it then you try!”

“Whatever Nat!” Nat and I weren’t the ones to argue over huge things and then not talk to each other for weeks like most girls did. We mostly argued over little things that didn’t even matter. We were best friends and all, but that didn’t mean we never fought. We fought more than I would like to admit, but once again they were always little things that didn’t matter. Besides, Nat was my adopted sister and she might as well have been my twin sister, and sisters are allowed to fight.

Unfortunately Nat took it a little too seriously. She stepped back into the car and locked the doors. I didn’t even have time to look to see if she was trying to arrange another flight, because Brent instantly turned to me. “Can you please just tell me what happened to Brooke?” He begged. He sounded so desperate.

“She’s not here anymore and is not part of this mission anymore, and that is all you need to know!” I was sick of him asking.

“Then how did you get to keep her car? How come she’s not here? How come she gave you the names of all the other magicians?”

“We didn’t steal it if that’s what you mean.”

“You never know with you, Candace.” My temper once again flared.

“Shut up, Brent! Just shut up!” I was so mad. I wanted to push him over and then jump on him. I wanted him to leave. I would not be accused of stealing. That was something that I would never do.

“I’m sorry.” He knew he had said the wrong thing. Please Candace, can you at least tell me how you got the car?”

“No, you accused me of stealing something. You have known me for your entire life, Brent! Do you really think that I would steal something?”

“Look, Candace I’m sorry. I didn’t mean that. I wasn’t thinking.”

“No, you weren’t. You were only thinking of ways to benefit you and get your way. That is something you’re definitely not going to get.”

“Candace!” Brent was getting angry. I grabbed my wand out of the air.

“Don’t even think about it Brent, don’t even think about it. One step and you’re going to get blown to the moon.”

Brent took a step back. “Candace, will you please just tell me? I’ll never ask you for anything again!” He begged.

“You really think that I will believe that.”

“I don’t know why you can’t just tell me! You’re acting like a three year old again!” That did it for me. He had insulted me way to many times.

“Brent you know what? Just go! Go away and don’t come back! Go home and I don’t care what you tell Mom and Dad! I can’t bare to even look at your ugly face ever again!”

“Definitely a three year old.” Brent said. He had known me for all my life, and he knew that I had a temper. He knew how to aggravate me and get me upset, and he was trying to do that now.

I decided to just walk away from the car and away from Brent. I walked a lap around the hotel and then came back feeling much more calm.

“Candace, please.” Brent said quietly. I wasn’t sure if I should punch him or not, but I kept my cool.

“You promise to leave me alone and not talk to me?” I knew that if I kept saying no, then Brent would keep bugging me, and I knew that the longer he bugged me the more my temper would grow, which would make me do something that I would regret.

“I promise!”

“Okay fine. Brooke decided that she couldn’t leave her parents just like that. We told her the risks of her dying and she wanted to say goodbye to them. She wanted to help us though so she gave us names of some magicians that she knew and she said we could keep the car for now. She felt bad for leaving, but we understood. So now we asked Chad King and we’re going to meet him at the airport!”

“Thank you!” Brent said. He sounded relieved and I knew he had thought that I had done something to Brooke, which I of course did, but I couldn’t say that to him. “Can I ask why that was so hard for you to say?”

“Because, you just think that you need to know everything, but you don’t!” I couldn’t help but say that. I had told Brent but all he could do was complain, and I was sick of his bad attitude.

“Well, I’m sorry. I just wanted to know if she had abandoned me or not okay!” Brent suddenly looked really hurt and I almost felt bad. The look on his face said how badly he wanted to say goodbye to her, but I couldn’t do anything about that. I actually could, but if I wanted to run the mission safely and efficiently then she couldn’t come with us.

Suddenly Nat came out of the car again just as I was about to get mad at Brent for being such a baby. “Okay, I cancelled the flight so now when we get to the airport we can just get another flight, okay? We really have to go, because Chad will be waiting.” I heard a car pull into the parking lot and I turned to look who it was. I saw a familiar face at the wheel.

“Then why is he here, Nat?” I asked.

“Wait, what?” She looked over at the car and sighed. “I told him to meet us at the airport!”

“You should not have told him where we were.”

“I didn’t.” That made me surprised. How in the world had Chad found us if Nat hadn’t told him where we were? Was he some kind of stalker?

Chad parked the car and then walked over to us. “Hey guys!” He sounded happy.

“Chad how in the world did you know we were here?” Nat demanded. She sounded angry.

“Back off, I just tracked the GPS on your phone and went here hoping you would be here. I figured I’d just ditch my car here instead of paying for airport parking.” He stepped out of his car and shut the door.

“You could’ve gotten a taxi.” I muttered, but he didn’t seem to hear me. “So you are the Chad King that can do magic?” I asked. He sure didn’t look like much. Not overly strong, not very handsome, and he definitely seemed annoying, but I guess the great thing about magic was it didn’t matter who you were or what you looked like. If Magic chose your family to be magical, then you got the gift no matter how weak or annoying you were.

I looked Chad over. He had messy sand coloured hair that looked like it needed to be combed. His plain white shirt had an old looking stain on it, and his tan face had a smudge of dirt beneath his right blue eye. His shirt fit loosely on him, and to me it looked like he hadn’t eaten for a few days.

“Yeah, I am Chad King, and yes I do magic. You must be Candace Brown.” He looked at me and went up and down like I had done. I probably didn’t look any better than he did. My brown hair was probably a mess in my quick messy bun I had done, and my normally tan face was probably pale with bags under my eyes. So to sum it up, I probably looked like a dying zombie. No wonder the worker at the front desk had asked me to leave.

Just then Brent walked up and Chad looked him over too.  “So you must be Brent.” He stuck out his hand and Brent shook it. I didn’t really like this guy so far. He was too peppy and too formal. He was definitely sly and he was not someone I wanted to get in a fight with. He may have been small, but he was definitely a mastermind.

Then he turned to Nat. “I’m sorry for the late hello. Hi my darling Natalie. Looking beautiful as always.” He bowed to her, grabbed her hand, and then kissed it. The smile that had been on Nat’s face before was quickly gone the second he kissed her hand. She pulled back her hand as fast as she could and looked ready to slap him. She gave him a murderous look and backed away. “O-oh uh uh sorry!” He stuttered and backed away.

“Can we talk later please; let’s just go to the airport now please!” I asked.

We all walked over and Nat sat in the driver’s seat and I sat in the passenger’s seat. I didn’t want to sit beside Chad or Brent so I pretty much had run to the car, as if I was a ten year old trying to get shotgun in a car.

“So, since we don’t really know each other, I might as well tell you a little bit about myself. My name is Chad King and I will be graduating high school soon.”

“Chad,” I interrupted. “Did you create a clone for graduation?”

“No, anyways I was trying to tell you a life learning story.” He snapped. My temper flared, but I didn’t say anything. I wasn’t going to let him get to me. “I once had a girlfriend named Madison Gibbons.” I already didn’t like the way the story started. “She was a beautiful young girl, and I had known her for years on end. We had lived in Waterford, Ontario for some time. You probably haven’t heard of such a small town like Waterford. Well one year we had a dance at our school and Madison was my date. There was another girl there that had liked me for quite some time, and I had dated her in the past, but she was pretty much Madison’s sworn enemy so that made her my sworn enemy right?” Chad didn’t even wait for an answer before he continued on. “Well, this girl, she was ignoring me and I decided to help Madison out, so I stepped on the girls toe and broke it. I figured that would keep her out of commission for a little while and would definitely send her home. Madison decided that she would suddenly become friends with her sworn enemy so she decided to freak out at me. I of course had just tried to do her a favour so she left angry as ever. Later that night, I was getting punch and another girl asked me to dance. I didn’t want to be rude, so I said yes.” I looked over at Nat and rolled my eyes. I didn’t know what the point of that story was supposed to be, but it was kind of entertaining. He wasn’t very good at telling stories either. I didn’t believe the story was real, but I had to give Chad credit. He had quite an imagination. “So once again Madison freaked out at me for dancing with another girl and she decided to break up with me. Then both our families decided to move to Orlando, Florida and I got in a huge argument with my parents. I was kicked out of my house and I had nowhere to go. I lost my girlfriend, my parents, and even my own twin brother turned his back on me. I decided to run away and took a plane back to Canada. I moved out west and now here I am. I haven’t been able to talk to my family since I got in the argument with them.” I didn’t know why he had included the part about his girlfriend, but I could only assume it was so he could impress Nat and say without saying that he was single.

“I discovered magic a little while after I moved to Vancouver. I learned about magic from a dream I was sent. I had been given the gift, even though it didn’t run in my family. Anyways to cut to the end of this, the moral of the story is this: never get a girlfriend or boyfriend unless,” I heard him lean forward and I saw him staring at Nat. “its true love.” I almost burst out laughing, because the idea of Chad and Nat dating didn’t seem very realistic at all, and his moral was terrible.

“Thanks for sharing I guess, Chad. Great getting to know you.” I said sarcastically, but of course Chad didn’t pick up on the sarcasm.

“No problem. Now it’s your turn to tell a story.” I shook my head and once again rolled my eyes.

“Chad, we’re not in grade three. I’m not going to tell you a story about my life.”

“I’m just trying to make conversation.”

“None of us want to talk.” That sounded a little mean, but it was true. None of us, well at least I didn’t want to hear another one of Chad’s dumb boring stories.

“Oh, I was just trying to get to know you guys.” Chad definitely didn’t know me, because if he did he would’ve known that guilt didn’t work on me.

“If you’re really trying to make conversation then fine, make it about something useful. For example, an important thing is, did you bring any money?” I know it was random, but that thought had just popped into my head.

“No, why would I have brought any money? I thought that this was expense free. I’m helping you out for free, and you would pay me for my services by paying for hotels and flights.”

“That defeats the purpose of an expense free person.” I sighed and I figured out that Chad was used to getting his way. I was not going to pay for him, because the mission would probably be expensive enough taking taxis everywhere and flying places. There was no way I would pay for two people. I was really regretting choosing Chad instead of Kelly, Jules, or Ken. They would’ve been smart enough to bring money and they wouldn’t have been spoiled brats.

“I’m sorry, but this is a high risk mission is it not? I’m not going to pay for my travels and stays.” Chad sounded offended. He seemed to be offended by the fact that we weren’t going to pay for him.

I was about to get mad at him, but thankfully Nat stepped in. “Chad, we appreciate you coming with us and all, but we really can’t afford to pay for another person. It’s already going to be hard just paying for ourselves, because we don’t know where we’re going and flights are very expensive.”

“Look, I’m sorry about the money situation. I wish I could do something about it, but I can’t really go back to my other home, and I don’t have much money anyways. If you don’t pay for me than I can’t come.” He was now trying to bribe us, but I wasn’t going to fall for it.

“Why can’t you go back home?” I demanded.

“Because-because I stole something alright?” If I had been driving I would’ve slammed on the brakes and if I had been in the backseat with Chad I would’ve punched him in the gut.

“Natalie stop the car right now and let this criminal out!” Brent said.

“Guys, we have to give him a chance. I know it seems bad, but we should at least give him a chance before we drop him off in the middle of nowhere. Remember he came with no notice either and was extremely helpful with the mission! Chad, what did you steal?” Nat asked.  I had to give her credit for being so patient and willing to work with Chad. If I had been driving I would’ve dropped him off right then and there with no money and no chance.

“Well, I didn’t really steal it. I borrowed it and then I wrecked it, and my family was so mad at me. They charged me for stealing it even though I didn’t. So I had to run away from my own family.” Chad sounded so sad and upset. He almost sounded ready to cry, but I wasn’t buying it. I did feel a little bad for him, because he had been charged with stealing by his own family, but then I remembered something. Chad had run away from his family.

“Chad, how do you have a family when you ran away from them?” I didn’t even care about the stealing part at the time. I was more concerned about how much lying he had done to us.

“Yes, I ran away, but another family took me in. I knew them from when I had lived in Waterford. They took me in, adopted me, and treated me as one of their own until lately that is. Lately they’ve been treating me as if I was full of germs and they were scared of germs.”

“The thing that you borrowed, did you get permission to borrow this thing?” Brent asked.

“Well not exactly.” Chad said quietly.

“Borrowing is taking something with permission, stealing is taking something without permission! You stole whatever you stole.”

“I thought it would be okay with them!”

“Tell me one person you know that is okay with stealing?”

Chad thought long and hard. “I don’t know, Candace!” He sounded like a hurt little puppy.

“Chad, I don’t care how upset you are right now. What-did-you-steal?” I asked slowly, pausing between each word.

“A car.” He said quietly.

My eyes popped out of my head, my jaw dropped, and my temper flared.

“A car? What were you thinking stealing a car?” I had to keep my cool so I wouldn’t scream.

“I wasn’t thinking!”

“Well I wonder who could’ve guessed that!” I loudly said. I wanted to yell at him, I really did. I focused on not yelling so hard. I couldn’t even think his name without getting the urge to yell and scream at him.

“Why do you care anyways?” Chad demanded.

“Because I will not deal with a criminal!”

“I bet you’ve stolen something!” That was the wrong this. I grabbed my wand out of the air and turned around in my seat as fast as I could. I had never given such a good death glare.

“AS SOON AS WE GET TO THE AIRPORT YOU WILL LEAVE AND I WILL NEVER SEE YOU AGAIN. YOU ARE NO LONGER A PART OF THIS MISSION, AND I DON’T WANT YOU TO SAY ONE WORD ABOUT IT UNTIL WE GET TO THE AIRPORT. IF YOU DO I WILL KICK YOU OUT RIGHT NOW! YOU DO NOT WANT TO TEST MY PATIENCE RIGHT NOW!” I screamed. I didn’t know what I would do. I had the urge to punch him, I had so much anger I could feel myself shaking.

“Candace,” Nat tried to say, but I shot her a dirty look and she stopped talking. She knew my temper very well, because she had witnessed me get angry at someone many times.

“CANDACE!” Chad yelled back and I clenched my hands into fists. “You invited me to come on this mission and I did. I came without question and I came as quickly as I could. I came to help you-”

I cut Chad off. “You came with no money and no explanation. You are a criminal and I’m not taking someone who is a criminal or accuses me of being one on this mission. Do you understand?” I didn’t take being accused for stealing lightly. I had never stolen anything. I didn’t listen to my teachers, I didn’t do my homework, and I did have a temper problem, but that didn’t make me a thief. I didn’t like being falsely accused for anything.

“You know what Candace? You’re just a brat! I’m not going to help you with your mission even if you want me to. I don’t want to ever see your face again. I’m leaving as soon as we get to the airport.”

“Don’t call me a brat, Chad. I’m warning you. I will severely injure you if you don’t shut your mouth right now.” I turned around in my seat again and pointed my wand at me.

“Don’t threaten me, Candace. You know what? You’re the biggest bully and brat I’ve ever met. You know what? I hope that you die on this mission.” Just then Nat pulled into the airport parking lot.

I didn’t care who saw what was going on. I unbuckled my seatbelt and launched myself into the back. I was not going to let someone who told me to go die walk away from me unharmed and feeling like they had won. I won ever fight I had and I would not let someone tell me to die. That was probably one of the most sensitive parts to me. I wouldn’t let someone think they could say that to anyone again. It didn’t hurt me, I couldn’t care less what he said about me, but just the fact that he said that brought the worst of memories back.