Little Wizards

Chapter 1

"What are you doing?"

My little sister stood beside me, her lopsided pigtails in a tangled mess. The frilly pink dress was once my favourite outfit hung unfitting on her skinny body. She had gotten it covered in mud and muck. An outstretched index finger pointed stiffly at the triangle I had drawn in the ground, and her wrinkled nose told me that she wasn't much impressed by my artwork thus far.

"I'm drawing a star. It's to protect us from the evil spirits. I don't expect you would understand much about it."

She remained stood over me as I bent forward and continued the drawing. Her presence alone was enough to put me off doing it perfectly. I finished off decorating the picture with the collection of leaves and twigs I had spent most of the day gathering. Once it was complete I stood up to admire my handiwork.

“Personally, I don’t see how it’s going to do any good at all.”

Sarah shot a snooty glance up at me before turning on her heels and stomping back towards the house. I could feel the rage building inside. The little cow had stood there for all that time watching me, waiting for me to finish, just so she could ridicule my efforts. I watched her walk away, her grubby pigtails swinging side to side. How dare she be so cruel?!

The next thing I knew my feet lifted and started to charge forwards at a great speed. I let out a screaming roar as I ran towards her. The pigtails turned to the side briefly as she looked back at me and then the chase began.

Her stick thin legs might not have had much meat on them, but she was still quick as lightening. We cleared the edge of the forest and came up to the house in no time. Sarah had begun to let out her own high pitched scream, laced with the word “mummy” elongated beyond necessity.

Finally I caught up and brought her to the ground. I had never intended to hurt her badly, just a quick smack to teach her a lesson. I didn’t manage to get that far before I heard my mothers’ voice,

“Jenna Alison Barnes let go of your sister and come here at once!”

As I began to obey the command Sarah’s eye’s glistened with delight. I picked her up and whispered in her ear,

“I’ll get you later.”

My mother marched me swiftly to the bathroom and handed me a bar of soap.

“You are filthy dirty. I expect you to scrub yourself clean and when you are done you will come and help me in the kitchen, you and I are going to have a little talk.”

“Sarah is dirty as well you know.”

Mother ignored me and simply closed the door as she walked away. As usual I was being punished when really it was Sarah who deserved it.


Chapter 2

Peas… as if my distaste for the vegetable wasn’t bad enough, I had been made to sit in the pantry and shell peas. Worse still was the fact that I could clearly see through the door to the kitchen and out of the window, where Sarah was playing around happily in the last of the sunshine. She was probably getting even more dirt on my favourite dress.

I shifted my weight on the uncomfortable stool, trying to stop both of my legs from going completely numb. Eventually I turned around completely so at least I didn't have to watch her anymore. My mind turned to the picture I had drawn. The old man down the lane had given me a perfectly beautiful drawing and told me specific instructions of what I needed to do in order to drive out the evil spirits.

My fingers wiggled away nonchalantly, shelling the disgusting little green blobs as I tried to imagine my artwork absorbing ghosts and transporting them straight down to hell where they belonged.

"For goodness sake Jenna!"

I span around to see my mother standing in the doorway looking down at me despairingly. Suddenly I realised that I had been throwing the peas all over the floor.

"I'm sorry, I just..."

"You just weren't paying any attention to what you were doing."

She sighed and began picking up the mess I had made. Feeling guilty I jumped off the stool and joined in collecting the horrid green peas that had rolled all over the floor of the pantry.

"Things are hard enough around here at the moment Jenna. You will turn 16 soon enough, I think it’s time you grew up a little. Imagine if daddy were to come home and see the place in a mess and the two of you fighting..."

"Daddy has been gone for months. He's probably never going to come home."

I didn't get a chance to see her hand before it slapped me straight across the face. I fell backwards more in shock than in pain. I looked at her as she stood up and walked into the kitchen, trying to maintain her composure. Then I felt my breathing become oddly strained. I gritted my teeth trying to prevent myself from crying, but it was too late. The tears rolled out of my eyes and my face puffed up with redness. I wept for myself, and I wept for my father, but most of all, I wept because I had hurt her feelings.

"Go to your room."

She whispered quietly without glancing at me. I wanted so much to say I was sorry, to run over and hug her and beg forgiveness. But pride got the better of me. Instead I simply did as I was told.

I tucked myself underneath my patchwork quilt on the bed and cried softly for a while. Then the sound of an elephant herd tromping up the stairs forced me to wipe my eyes and come out of hiding. Sarah had finally come indoors. She flung open the door to our room and stared at me quizzically for a moment.

“Have you been crying?”

She asked, knowing full well the answer as my face was still puffed up and red.

“What does it matter to you?”

Her shoulders shrugged in a flippant manner. It was her standard response when she couldn’t think up a decent reply. Sarah stomped over to the bay window that stuck out of the wall between our beds and knelt on the sill.

“Do you think the wizards will come again tonight?”

I rolled my eyes at her. No matter how many times I told her that the spirits weren’t called wizards, that wizards were something else completely, she still referred to them as such. I crawled to the end of my bed and looked out with her, over to the patch where I had drawn my picture. I felt a shiver run down my back, as though icicles were growing on my spine.

“I hope not.”



Chapter 3

As Sarah and I changed into our nightdresses for bed the darkness from outside began to engulf our room. We had both become rather adept at sensing the moment when the dark magic began to work. Mother opened the door briefly and whispered her usual instruction to us,

“Get to bed girls. Make sure you don’t come out until morning.”

There had been uncomfortable silence at dinner and I had wondered if she would never talk to me again. But it was comforting to hear her voice, even if it was to issue a warning. As the door closed the pair of candles that lit the room snuffed out and we were immediately plunged into darkness. I scrambled into bed and listened to Sarah as she did the same.

Now came the waiting. When I was younger I would fall asleep first only to be awoken later on when it started. But lately it had begun earlier each evening and lasted longer. It was as if they were more determined and desperate to do whatever it was that they were trying to do. I closed my eyes tightly and focused on the star. I tried to picture it sucking the spirits down, but instead my mind changed the image to show them rising up from it.

It was as though I had created a doorway for them, but in the wrong direction. No matter how hard I tried I couldn’t force my own mind to picture it in the right direction. They rose up like ghosts from the dark earth, swirling around kicking up dust and dirt as they flew up into the night sky. Pretty soon the vision had blocked out the light from the stars and all I could see was grey smoke swirling against a black wall.

My mind transported me outside and I was left to stand in my nightdress in the freezing cold to stare in horror at the spirits as they surrounded me. The howling, screaming voices of a thousand dead people rung in my ears and I began to scream.

“Jenna STOP!”

I threw the covers back to find Sarah stood at my bedside shaking me.

“What are you doing?”

“You were screaming and crying. You’ll upset mummy and you’ll wake the wizards. Please stop.”

Sarah seemed frightened and I was a little shaken up myself by the nightmare. I pulled her up into my bed and wrapped the covers around her. She was shivering and sobbing softly. After a while we both began to calm down. But just as I started to think that maybe my star had worked after all, it began.

It always began the same way, a gentle breeze leaking past the window, filling the room with ice cold air. Then the wind picked up and began to howl. I felt Sarah grip onto me and she wrapped her legs around mine. As though the wind had the force of a solid object it pounded at the side of the house. Again and again it hit, like a giants fist knocking on a door. With each thump Sarah let out a little squeak and I held my breath as tears began to run down my face.

Suddenly it stopped. The spirits started to travel around the house, circling it again and again creating a deep howling noise. One of them broke free from the rest, I could feel it’s presence at the window, but I kept my eyes shut tight. The spirit reared back its head and spoke with the voice of the wind, one word, one name,

“Jenna”

The others crashed into the individual, scooping it up. Then finally it went quiet. After a while Sarah started to relax her grip on me, she tilted her head upwards and whispered,

“Did you hear it?”

“Yes I did.”

An odd high pitched whistling noise like a kettle boiling started outside the window but before we had a chance to get back under the covers it propelled forwards at great speed. The windows that had been sealed shut ever since I was a baby crashed open inwards and finally I saw what had been attacking us at night for so many years. Through the misty mass I saw the face of a man battered and scarred. Beside him were other faces, mutilated and merged into one massive horrible creature.

I saw it only briefly before something sucked the spirits outside, slamming the window shut behind them. I couldn’t bare it any longer. I jumped out of the bed, practically throwing Sarah on the floor and ran out of the room, down the hall to mothers’ room. She had always insisted on us staying put and never once came to protect us. We weren’t even allowed to talk about our nightly visitations in front of mother. She had always just blamed it on the weather. But now I had seen it with my own eyes, now I needed her comfort.

I flung open the door expecting to find her engulfed in darkness and tucked up in bed like Sarah and I had been. Instead the room was filled with light and warmth and I saw my mother, naked and entangled with a man. I watched briefly as he kissed her neck and ran his hands across her stomach and up to her breast. Whatever he was doing she seemed to be enjoying it. In her hand she held a pendant shaped like my star.

I was about to say something when the man turned his head to look at me, his deep blue eyes looked right through me, restricting me from speaking. He smiled gently and turned back around as the door slammed in my face.

I stared at the wood grain on the door for a moment, not knowing what to do next. A small hand grabbed onto my wrist making me jump out of my skin. Sarah had come to get me.

“We have to stay in our room.”

I followed her back to bed. Everything made even less sense than before. The man with mother was certainly not daddy. I wasn’t even sure if he was a man at all. As we went back to our room Sarah spoke again whilst tucking herself back into her own bed.

“I don’t think the wizards are coming back tonight.”


Chapter 4

The next morning we went down to breakfast. Mother had left a note on the table to say she had gone to town to run some errands. Sarah and I fed ourselves with fruit and bread.

“What game shall we play today?”

She asked expecting me to spend all day giving her my attention.

“I’ve got things I have to do today. You’ll have to play by yourself.”

“What things? Can I do them with you?”

“I’m going to see the old man. He promised me the star would work and it didn’t so now I need to speak to him.”

“He’s an idiot. Everybody else knows that he’s just a silly old man. I’m surprised you believed him seeing as how you’re so clever.”

I knew she was trying to pick a fight with me, but I didn’t care. I had more important things to worry about.

“If you hate him so much then don’t come with me.”

With that I stood up and left. It was cold outside. Autumn was setting in quickly and most of the leaves on the trees had turned to lovely yellowish red colours. As I got halfway down the lane I thought about turning back to put a bigger coat on, but then I imagined Sarah making some stupid comment about me being too afraid or something, so I continued on.

The old man lived in a small cottage. It was really just one big room barely large enough for a person to live in. I knocked on the green wood door. After a moment it was opened, to my surprise I was greeted by a tall handsome man with dark blonde hair and deep blue eyes. He looked at me and smiled and I knew instantly that he was the man I had seen the night before in my mothers’ room. My mouth dropped open and I tried to speak, I wanted so badly to say something, anything, but my voice seized up. The man smiled oddly and called back into the cottage,

“I’ll see you later Jeremiah.”

The man pushed past me and marched off down the lane towards town.

“You’re here a little early Jenna.”

I spun around to find old man Jeremiah leaning over me oddly, he seemed even creepier than usual. I sucked in a deep breath. No matter what I was going to find out what was going on.

“Who was that man?”

Jeremiah ushered me inside and closed the door behind me. It was lovely and warm in his little room. In the middle of the far wall a kettle was steaming gently over the coal fire. The entire room was filled with things, hanging from the ceiling, piled up on the floor or nailed to the walls. It had fascinated me from the first time I had gathered the courage to enter the house. He perched himself on the large dark red sofa that presumably doubled up as his bed, opposite the fire.

“That isn’t what you came here to talk about.”

“Well not exactly. The star didn’t work. I drew it exactly as you showed me, but it made it worse and then I saw… I saw that man with my mother afterwards you see and…”

He waved his hand at me as if to shut me up.

“Slow down girl, you aren’t making much sense.”

He poked the kettle as it began to whistle, moving it out of the fire. I was grateful as the whistling sound reminded me of last night and frightened me a little to hear it again.

“So the star didn’t work hmm? It made it worse you say…”

He lowered his head and began clicking his tongue. I watched as his long gangly fingers poking out of the fingerless brown wool gloves tapped over each other again and again. He was obviously deep in thought, but my patience was wearing thin.

“You promised me it would work and it didn’t. Your stupid star is useless. I don’t care about it any more. I just want to know who that man was. Please tell me and then I’ll go away and not come back.”

I felt my teeth gripping against each other as I tried to hold back the anger. Mother had always told us to speak nicely to adults, but I didn’t care about being nice. He stood up and walked over to the other side of the room. He picked something off the wall and came back to me.

“It’s worse than I thought. They will come for you soon and we have to try and stop them. You are not one of them. You are special and they will want to hurt you. You must be strong. Hold onto this, it’s all I have left to help you.”

He stretched out his arm and opened his fingers to reveal a white star pendant. It looked exactly like the one I had seen my mother holding, except hers had been black. I took it from him, not really knowing if it was a good idea or not to take it. I was ushered to the door, as it swung open the rush of cold air made my teeth hurt and pinched at my cheeks. I stepped through but turned back for one last chance at getting an answer,

“Please tell me who that man was?”

“That man… was a wizard.”

The door slammed shut. My thoughts turned to Sarah, she must have known something about it. As fast as my legs could carry me I sprinted along the lane back to the house. The bitter cold whipped around my legs. I almost fell into the house through the front door, I screamed for Sarah at the top of my voice as I started to check the rooms to find her. Finally I burst into the kitchen but to my surprise I saw mother. As she turned to look at me, the blood drained from her face. I was about to speak when I heard Sarah’s voice from the corner of the room.

“Jenna! Look daddy’s home!”

Slowly I twisted around to see my father sat in his favourite chair with Sarah on his lap. Suddenly nothing else mattered.


Chapter 5

Daddy coming home hadn’t been quite as wonderful as I’d imagined it. When I hugged him he resisted me. In fact he didn’t seem very pleased to see me at all. Mother barely said a word to anybody. At lunchtime we all gathered around the table for our first family meal together for months. Sarah talked non-stop at daddy. He seemed mildly entertained by her pointless drivel, but I couldn’t help noticing the odd sideways glance he and mother kept giving me. It made me feel uneasy. When Sarah paused for breath, I took the opportunity to speak,

“Where did you go daddy?”

An uncomfortable silence descended upon the room. Sarah tried to cheer the moment up a little by chiming in musically,

“Yes were did you go?”

“I went to see a priest.”

He glared at mother who looked down at her plate.

“Finish your food girls.”

Luckily Sarah was the one to push the matter. I was grateful to her as I was sure I’d get in trouble if I had continued to talk.

“What did you go to see a priest for?”

Mother slammed her fork on the plate making a sharp noise.

“Get upstairs… both of you.”

I climbed down from my chair and pulled Sarah off of hers before dragging her upstairs with me. We marched to our bedroom and slammed the door shut, but only as a trick. Gently we tiptoed together back to the stairway and crouched down pushing our faces against the banister to listen.

“We don’t have a choice Alice. Father Critchner was there with me, he’s expecting it to happen right away.”

“But she is my daughter George, I can’t believe you are asking me to do this. She belongs here with me.”

“They are trying to take her and we both know what will happen if they do. We have to do this for the sake of everyone.”

Sarah rushed back to the bedroom, but I stayed put. My father came out of the kitchen to the bottom of the stairs and looked up at me. He instantly knew I had been listening.

“Don’t make a fuss Jenna, just come with me please.”

He reached out his arm to me. I didn’t know where I was going but if Jeremiah’s warning was anything to go by I knew that being far away from home might prevent me from being taken. As we opened the front door there were a group of men outside. They all looked like priests with dark grey cloaks and white collars. I turned around to look at my mother who was crying hysterically. I was pushed sharply forwards and then bundled quickly into a carriage. My father and the rest of the men piled in around me and suddenly I felt frightened, there was something about the way they were looking at me that didn't seem right. I looked up at my father and spoke softly,

"Daddy..."

"Don't call me that..."

I felt a knot in my stomach and my lower lip began to quiver. I looked over to the man sat opposite me, his pale blue eyes glared at me menacingly. The grey streaks of hair that made up his messy eyebrows moved as he furrowed his brow.

"It's much easier this way George."

He said in a low gristly tone to my father.

"Where are we going?"

My plea for information was ignored. The steely glare from the man opposite was joined by the eyes of the man beside him and suddenly I realised that in a carriage full of people, I was all alone.



Chapter 6

The bumpy carriage ride was fairly short. I was bundled about the place, feeling several hands grabbing me as we exited the carriage and then walked along a pathway. I had no idea where we were as I was surrounded by a wall of grey cloaks. I didn’t even see where my father had gone. Finally we reached some kind of courtyard.

A large pair of gates crashed to a close behind us and the men moved to one side. In front of me stood a large pole that was jutting out from the ground, beneath it was a pile of logs and hay. A man began to walk towards me carrying a length of rope. I felt my feet begin stepping backwards, but there was nowhere to go. I knew this was the place that they brought the witches, this was how they died. I felt my heart thumping wildly in my chest as the man with the rope stepped forwards.

“But I’m not a witch!”

I screamed at them. No-one listened. No-one even cared. As I stepped back I bumped into a man stood behind me who grabbed onto my arms. I kicked and thumped but it made no difference. They picked me up and carried me over to the post. As I turned my head I saw a faint glimmer of the man with blue eyes dressed as a priest. I clutched onto the pendant that Jeremiah had given me and started to scream at the top of my lungs, hoping that someone would hear me and come to help.

They tied the ropes tight around my body. I could feel it cutting deep into my skin. As I looked out I saw a figure approaching with a torch. It was my father. I had longed for him to come home, to return and make us a happy family again. I had trusted him and now he was going to kill me and I didn't even know why. As he touched the torch to the pile beneath my feet setting it alight I began to sob uncontrollably.

"Forgive me."

He whispered before turning away.

I was so frightened. I watched the flames spread across the hay and wood. The fear I had experienced from the spirits was nothing compared to this. I felt the heat build up quickly and the flames began to burn the soles of my feet. Before long the smoke almost blocked out my view of the crowd of priests who were stood watching me. I thought of my sister, and my mother. Nothing made any sense and I was so afraid.

Suddenly I heard a low rumbling come from beneath and felt the ground begin to shake. I still gripped onto the pendant, squashing it so tightly in my palm that it broke my skin and made me bleed. The heat became too much and I found myself unable to breath. I closed my eyes and preyed that it wouldn't hurt too much.



Chapter 7

I felt my eyes try to open. I felt my body rocking from side to side. I breathed in deeply wondering if I was dead and floating around in heaven... or hell. Eventually my vision returned and I realised I was lying down in a carriage. Sat opposite me was a tall man in a grey cloak. He was removing his white collar. I sat up, suddenly feeling the pain in the bottom of my feet. I looked over to see the man opposite was the man with blonde hair and blue eyes. The same man who I'd seen with my mother and the man whom Jeremiah had called a 'wizard'.

He smiled softly at me before unclipping his cloak.

"That was a very close call."

His smile spread into a grin showing off all of his bright white teeth. I tried to speak, but yet again no words came out.

"My name is Shaun. I'm sure you have a lot of questions. The first of which is, who am I? Am I right?"

I nodded at him, suddenly feeling stupid for my apparent inability to speak. He sighed and removed his gloves one by one before leaning forwards in a very formal manner.

"I am your father."

I continued to stare at him in disbelief. Not knowing what else to do. He sat back and continued explaining,

"I am also a wizard. You see Jenna it's quite complicated. Long ago the wizards were banished. Those who were left alive continued to live, hidden from the rest of the world. For many generations we have had children, but all of them have been boys, who in turn have grown into wizards. But you... you are quite different."

The carriage shifted, throwing me to the side. My feet hurt and I felt cold and so very confused. He came to sit next to me and wrapped the cloak around my shoulders before picking up my feet and laying them across his lap. Slowly he began to rub them, his hands somehow soothing the pain.

"Some of us believe that you may be the answer, that you are the key to release the souls of our ancestors from darkness into light. We weren't sure how powerful you were until your father... your mother’s husband, made the long journey to see the high priest. He was so afraid of you that he ordered you to be sacrificed immediately. We have been trying to get to you, trying to rescue you every night, but we weren't strong enough. The star Jeremiah had you draw was our best hope of ending this without bloodshed. But unfortunately it wasn't enough."

A light caught my eye from the corner of the carriage. There lay a sword covered in blood, glimmering with glory. I tried not to think of the group of priests piled up in a mountain of dead bodies. They had tried to kill me after all. They deserved it.

"Where are you taking me now?"

Finally words flowed forth from my mouth! I was a little shocked that I had spoken, but thankful that my dumbstruck phase had passed.

"We're going to try and release them. Not much further now."

Eventually the carriage stopped moving. When the door opened it was dark outside. We were greeted by Jeremiah and several other men. As I stepped out barefoot onto the cold ground I noticed we were in a forest. A group of men with varying ages stood in a circle. I was gently walked over towards them, in the middle there was a large picture of the same star I had drawn the night before.

Shaun walked me into the centre of the star and bent down to kiss my cheek gently.

"Don't be afraid, it will all be over soon."

I watched and listened carefully as the men began to chant. I wasn't at all frightened when I saw the spirits begin to rise up from the ground. They began to swirl above my head circling magically. I could feel the energy coming from within and I marvelled at my own importance.

As I looked over to Shaun, my real father, I felt a strange sensation in my toes. It was as though I were back in the courtyard, tied to the stake with flames burning my skin. The longer it went on the more the pain increased and travelled up my legs, into my arms. I could smell my hair burning, but when I looked it seemed fine.

Suddenly I was terrified, the faces of the men around me changed, but something else was wrong. Something else was different. I thought of my mother and tried to reach out to her and then of my sister... A high pitched scream rang through the air, pushing past the leaves of the trees as though it were carried on the wind. It was Sarah.


Chapter 8

The swirling spirits suddenly shifted and were pulled downwards. I felt the full force of the power as it dragged them screaming back into the earth, back to the darkness. No matter how hard I tried I could do nothing more to help them and eventually it was over.

The ground beneath my feet rumbled softly and the skies above opened up instantly drenching us with the downpour. Shaun came running up to me and dragged me back to the carriage. I sat staring at him in disbelief as Jeremiah joined us. The plan hadn’t worked and they knew why, but no-one wanted to say it out loud. As I felt my body start to shake from the cold of the rain seeping into my skin I could feel my heart sinking. I looked at Shaun, deep into his eyes hoping for him to speak then finally I couldn’t wait any longer,

“Sarah… I know I heard her, what happened?”

Neither man answered me, so I resigned to simply sobbing quietly whilst the carriage move on.

Eventually we reached my home again, my mother lay in a heap outside, she was screaming and crying. I followed them inside as Shaun picked her up and took her in. It turned out that no-one had even thought about poor little Sarah. Shaun didn't even know that he was her father as well. The priests, however, did know. Father Critchner who had travelled with my mothers’ husband to the high priest had taken Sarah to a different site after me. He had ripped her from my mothers’ arms and burned her at the stake.

She had always been the target for the ancestors. They hadn't called my name the night before, they had called hers. She was the strongest. That's how she knew they were wizards.

After a long night of feeling utterly alone I awoke in my mothers arms on the sofa. Shaun was still there, but he was putting on his cloak and boots. Mother spoke softly to him, “Please don’t leave us now.”
“I must deal with those who are responsible.”
She jumped up and grabbed onto him, pleading for him to stay, but it was no use. His heart was set on finding Father Critchner and the others.

As he went to leave he turned his big blue eyes downwards to look at me. I couldn’t help but feel I had let him down. He smiled sweetly at me and ran his fingers through my hair. “Don’t worry princess, we will train you up and try again when you are older. Then the ancestors… and your sister… will rise into the light.”

I watched as he disappeared down the lane, his sword dangling by his side. Mother held onto me tightly as though I were the most precious thing in the world. After he was gone I returned to the forest behind our house. The star I had drawn was still there, I could see Sarah’s face in the centre of it looking up at me with mischievous eyes. It was obvious to me now that it wasn’t enough and so I began the task of drawing hundreds of stars in the ground, as big as I could make them.

One day they will come again, and I will be ready this time.

The end



Word count: 5,758