“So you guys really are magicians.” Brooke sounded like she was in shock. “I never would’ve guessed.”

“Neither would we have, but here we are I guess.”

Brooke reached out into the middle of the air and suddenly she was holding her wand. My eyes widened as I started at her. “How did you do that?”

“It’s a simple spell, after doing a few spells your wand just automatically goes away and floats by you. It never hits anyone and you can grab it whenever you want. It will always be there, even when you’re sleeping.”

“How do you get it there?” I asked. That spell was really cool, and was definitely one of the best spells there could possibly be.

“It’s really simple. All you say is virga evanescunt and then your wand will be like this. It’s really handy.”

“Virga Evanescunt,” Wand disappear I said, and sure enough my wand was gone. I grabbed into the air and sure enough I was holding my wand. I saw that Nat had done the same thing. “And how exactly do you put it back?”

“Just let go of it and it will go in the air again.” I did it and I must’ve looked really amazed, because Brooke laughed. “You’re in the magical world. It’s no big deal, that’s one of the easiest spells ever.”

“Well I’ve only known about magic for like an hour or two, so sorry about that, but I think that is the coolest thing ever!”

I looked at Brooke’s wand. Her wand was pure white, white as freshly fallen snow. It was a pretty plain wand. It was a bit wider at the bottom, where she held it and her tip was very thin. I saw the word Finis, End, on it.

I grabbed my wand out of the air again and compared it to Brooke’s. Nat decided to do the same, and suddenly the words on our wands lit up. Brooke looked really scared for a second, but then recovered.

“Wow, so you are the ones. You’re going to do it.”

I gave Brooke a confused look. “Do what?”

“Nothing, you can’t know yet. Once it’s time you will know.” I saw Brooke’s scared look again, but she once again recovered.

“Maybe we need a few more wands and then together our magic could create a spell that could kill all the monsters and sorcerers. We could be the most powerful magicians of our time.” Nat said. I was impressed, it definitely made sense. Brooke seemed to be pretty powerful and together the three of us could do some pretty powerful magic, and adding more magicians would just make our spells even more powerful.

“You already are.” I thought I heard Brooke mumble.

“What?”

“Nothing, Natalie that’s a good guess.”

“Maybe when Brent gets his wand, he’ll make us even more powerful.” I suggested as I remembered Brent was still there.

“He hasn’t gotten his wand yet?” Brooke sounded surprised. “How did you two get yours then?”

“No he hasn’t gotten his wand.” Brent broke in. “These two said they said some spell that they couldn’t remember and then they suddenly had wands.” Brooke glared at me as if she couldn’t believe I would trick my brother. She obviously had no siblings.

“Well the word is Baculum, which means wand. You’ll get your wand as soon as you say that. I’m not sure how Candace and Natalie forgot the word though, because magicians never forget spells. They’re always in your mind.”

“Oh really?” I asked pretending I hadn’t known the word. “The word must’ve just slipped my mind. That doesn’t sound familiar at all!”

“Could you do that for me?” Brent asked. I saw a look of hope on his face and I realized that he really wanted a wand, and must not have liked Nat and I having the entire spotlight.

“I could, but you could do it too. That’s the only spell you can do without actually having a wand.” She glanced nervously at me.

“Brent you’re not a little kid, just do it yourself!” I said as Brent was trying to make his decision.

“Fine, Baculum.” Wand, Brent said and suddenly he was holding a magical wand. I looked at it. His was black and it had white stripes on it like a candy cane. The word on his wand was Desperdere, Destroy. “Thanks for the help, Brooke!”

“No problem. Its cool knowing there is other magicians around here. I know of a few others of course, but still the more is better. I don’t feel so messed up when I meet new magicians.”

“You feel messed up?” Nat asked. “Magic is supposed to be a gift. I think it’s really cool how I’m a magician.”

“Well, after a while it gets a little old, but I’m going to go get packed now so I’ll see you in a few minutes.” She ran into her house and then a few minutes later she came out with a backpack and a pair of keys.

“I’ll get the car out, but before we leave, I would like to know if you are going on a mission.” I had forgotten that we hadn’t told Brooke about the mission part.

“Yeah we are.”

“Okay, do you guys have any idea where you’re going?”

“Yeah we need to go to the most recent Olympics in Canada, so the Vancouver games. We’re not exactly sure where or what courses, but that’s all we know.” I answered.

Brooke’s eyes widened. “I had a dream of the Olympic ski-cross course. I don’t remember what the dream was about, but I just remember being there. I knew it would be really important.” The next morning, I went to the course, but I didn’t find anything there. I thought Magic would be there, but he wasn’t.”

“She? Magic isn’t a person is it? I thought magic was a thing.” I said.

“No, Magic is the one who gives us our powers. He is like the….the president of magic. He guides magicians the best he can without breaking the ancient laws.”

“Oh, well that’s good to know.”

“Well now we know where we’re going.” Brent said happily and then he turned to me. “See Candace? I knew we should take her, if we hadn’t we’d be searching forever! We would’ve had to search all the stadiums, courses, arenas, and all that stuff.” Of course Brent said that loud enough so Brooke could hear, but Brooke didn’t seem to care.

“Whatever Brent.”

“Guys, we have a problem!” Nat said.

“What is it, Nat?”

“I see a jogger, and he’s wearing Steve’s jogging clothes. Steve is coming.”

“Brooke please start the car right now. We need to go! My dad can’t see us; if he does we’re done.”

“Your parents don’t know you’re gone?”

“We’ll explain once we’re out of here. Please can we just go?” I pleaded.

“Okay fine, but I want to know what’s going on.” Brooke said. I wasn’t too pleased that we’d have to tell her about our mission, but we really did need to go. She was being nosy, but I couldn’t let Dad see us.

“Go!” I said and we all ran over to the car. Brooke unlocked it and we stepped in. She stepped on the gas and away we went. I didn’t rest until we were out of the area Dad ran in. Nat began to explain everything to Brooke as soon as we were on the highway.

When Nat finished explaining I had to ask a question. “Brooke, if you don’t want to answer this you don’t have to, but won’t your parents worry that you’re gone, or did you tell them that you were leaving?”

“No I left them a note because they went out for dinner. They’ll understand. I also made a clone for our graduation and I still have some exams to write.”

“That makes sense. The clones are really cool, because now our parents won’t notice we’re gone, and we can still graduate.”

“That was a good idea. I’m surprised you thought of that, especially considering this is your first mission. You should know that after one month your clones disappear though, so you only have one month to finish your mission if you don’t want your parents to know you’re gone.” Then I saw Brooke frown through the mirror. “I’m really surprised your parents didn’t tell you about magic. At the age of sixteen, you’re supposed to know that you’re a magician.”

“Our parents are very protective. I think a lot of bad things have happened to our family because of magic. Well I know one bad thing did happen, but I think they think that magic is more a curse then a gift.”

“That does make sense. A lot of families break the magical law because they try to protect their children, but it never works. Sooner or later their children will know, and it makes things so much harder.”

“Yeah we know.” Nat said.

“So Brooke have you ever been on a mission before?” I asked. I figured it would be good to know if we would have some help on the mission or not. Besides it would be a bit of a drive, so we might as well have a good story told if she had one.

“Yes I have.”

“So?” I prompted her.

“So what?”

“So can you tell us about it?” I thought that if we would be working with Brooke we should probably know some things about her, and magic was a pretty huge deal, so we could learn some things from her mission. Besides, if I had to tell Brooke about my life, she needed to tell us about hers.

“No, I am not going to go over that again.” Brooke said angrily.

“Then we won’t tell you anything we figure out either.” I said.

“Yeah Brooke, you should know that a team needs to know each other to be able to work well together. That’s how we do so well, we communicate and we may not want to tell each other some things, but we need to so we can know the person and we can trust each other.” Nat said. I had no idea that the cheerleading team shared stories, but it was a good point to me.

“Fine, I’ll tell you.” Brooke sighed.

“Thank you.”

Brooke took a deep breath and her face seemed to be paler then before, it was either that or the little light that was remaining in the sky.

“Well a few years ago I went on a mission.  My mission was to capture the ghosts and return them to the Land of the Dead. At the time the monster side had been growing quickly and we didn’t know why. Then one day, one of our leaders went on a mission and discovered ghosts were coming back from the dead. They were rising and they were turning into monsters to fight with them and try to keep their advantage a secret. We had known the ghosts were trying to decide what side to fight for.  They would tip the scales. Our side was the magicians and the other side was monsters and sorcerers. Ghosts fighting had been unheard of, because up to a few years ago, once someone was dead, no one knew how to bring them back to life, they stayed dead. So the ghosts coming back was something no one knew of.”

“So how did they tip the scales then?” I asked. I was confused. How could the dead change the sides? That made no sense to me.

“The dead knew everything. Now that has changed, but the dead used to know everything. They used to be one group. Whether you were good or bad you would go to the Land of the Dead. You would become good and you would live in peace. You knew everything if you lived there, but that made no difference to you. Unfortunately a war had started and somehow the other side was getting into the Land of the Dead. They were pressuring them into making a choice. They had to join a side, or else all their hard work and their houses would be destroyed. All they had built would be gone. So they joined the side of the sorcerers and monsters, at least most of the ghosts. Some chose not to join. They joined our side instead, but that was a bit later. Anyways do you guys remember when the economy was struggling in North America?” We all nodded. “Well magicians were trying to take over the banks in North America. The other side couldn’t have the money. If they had control over the banks, then they would have the funds and they would have even more of an advantage, so we needed to get control of that, but the ghosts weren’t helping. They made our lives miserable and much more difficult.”

“Wait, you guys needed funds? Why do you need real money?”

“You think that just because we can do our magic it’s free? Yes the magic is free and so are the wands, but you needed training. You need to be fit so you can fight for a long time and run if you need to. We have large buildings that we can train in, where you practice your magic and then you can train there to get better. Believe me; it will make you so much better. Those buildings helped me a lot. They needed loans to buy the buildings and they needed places to stay. Just because they’re monsters doesn’t mean they don’t need shelter. The sorcerers needed food, and money was the only way to get that. Once the magicians got control of the banks, the monsters couldn’t’ get loans and their money supply downgraded so they couldn’t make money and they couldn’t get loans to put all their new monsters in.”

“How do they get money to start?”

“Well the sorcerers give their money to their side and they put that money into the main account. Then the sorcerers also have jobs sometimes just to keep getting money. That side steals quite a bit too though so they got a lot of funds through stealing.”

“Oh I see.” I replied and tried not to interrupt again.

“Anyways the ghosts, who had never fought before or taken sides, sided with the sorcerers and monsters as I said, except for about a quarter of them. That quarter sided with us, but there were so many ghosts that that quarter didn’t really do much for us. That divided the Land of the Dead. There is now a good side for all the magicians and ghosts on our side, and there is the bad side for the monsters, sorcerers, and ghosts. Besides, monsters are just dead sorcerers who chose to live on instead of going to the Land of the Dead. Our side definitely didn’t have the numbers and the sorcerers were slowly bringing the ghosts back to life. So I needed to capture the ghosts and send them back to the Land of the Dead. I needed to stop them from coming back. There is a specific entrance that the ghosts were coming out of that the sorcerer’s had opened and I needed to seal that back off.” I saw Brooke shudder. “The Land of the Dead used to be beautiful, or so the legends say, but what I saw was the most awful thing I’d ever seen. I will never be able to go back there. Just thinking of it. That place was the entrance to the bad part of the Land of the Dead. That place brings out your worst fears and it makes you so upset.”

“So the ghosts escaped from the Land of the Dead and then became alive?”

“Yes the exit from the Land of the Dead was magical. The sorcerer’s put a spell that made any ghost who got out of there become alive. See when ghosts come back they can appear in human form and can be in ghost form. You should know that just because anyone you talk to could be a ghost. The only thing is it’s dangerous for ghosts to be in human form unless they’re really powerful, because they can flicker and then they are reveled.”

“Thanks, good to know.” I was beginning how Brooke knew so much about the other side, she seemed to know a lot, but I figured it was just because she had gone on a mission that had to do with ghosts.

“Well anyways, more and more ghosts just kept coming. They didn’t seem to stop coming. My mission got harder every second that entrance was open. So I needed to move as fast as I could. I already had a hard time catching the alive ones, but there were half-dead ones too. They were the ones who were so close to exiting, but couldn’t quite because they weren’t powerful enough. I had to move, because every minute they would become more powerful and if the half dead ones were gone too, then I had no chance.”

“Did you go on the mission by yourself?”

“Yeah, we couldn’t spare anyone else. We had all our magicians fighting the monsters and keeping them off. Even sparing me was a bit of a stretch.”

“What was the Land of the Dead like though?” I had to ask. Brooke had said it was the place of your worst fears and I wanted to go. I wanted to see what the Land of the Dead was like for those who weren’t on our side.

“I can’t explain. I’m sorry but I’m not going to try and remember that awful place. If you had gone, you wouldn’t try to remember it either. I’m the only alive person to have seen it. Most people don’t even want to go near that place even though the entrance is closed. Anyways as I was saying, I didn’t have much time and I really had no idea how to stop any more ghosts from coming out. I didn’t know how to stop the ghosts from becoming alive again. I had the exception of teleporting, because during that time there was way too many magicians leaving on missions and we needed them back as quickly as possible. So Magic made an exception, we were allowed to teleport. So I went to the graveyard that I knew the entrance was at. That was the only thing I knew for sure, where the location of the entrance was. Then I had to find the exact location so I could seal it and stop the ghosts from rising once and for all. So I looked around and in the center was a huge grave. It was one that had a monument on top as if it was the grave of a really important person. I didn’t look there though first, because the biggest grave that is in the center, in plain view is way too obvious. As I looked around the graveyard and after a while and no success I decided to go near the big grave.”

“How come you didn’t see the ghosts rising?” I asked.

“Because they could sense my presence, whenever there was a magical presence, the ghosts could tell and they would stop coming out and onto the earth. So I went and realized all along the big grave had been the entrance. It was a trap.”

“How was it a trap?” Brent interrupted.

“Well the entrance was well chosen because who would think to put the main entrance at a huge grave that everyone could see? Think about it, if you saw a big grave and you had to find the entrance would you think that you needed to go there, or look for some smaller grave?”

“Okay, but how did that affect you?” I asked. It made sense but it didn’t seem to make a difference for her mission.

“I lost time. As the ghosts waited they got more and more powerful. Every minute I wasted looking, the ghosts became more powerful and eventually they would break through and overwhelm me and then I would stand no chance.”

“Well how could you kill any ghosts anyways? Ghosts are like misty are they not?”

“No when they are alive, then they can appear to be misty, but they are as solid as a regular human.”

“How did you know that the grave was the right place?” Nat asked. Brooke’s facial expression hinted that she was getting a little annoyed with us interrupting, but I didn’t really care because I just wanted to know the details of the story and Brooke left out too many details.

“I could see a small opening. The ghosts were slowing opening the grave because they were powerful enough to escape. I knew that if I could seal it on time no more ghosts would rise, but then I couldn’t put any other ghosts that escaped back in. I could feel a presence around me, there was a ghost and it was ready to kill me.”