Wiccan Laws - Chapter 6

Wiccan Laws (Work. T)
6.
Maybe it has something to do with the fact that Rob is the most amazing guy in the world, but after napping at his I felt so much better about things. Therapy became easier, I was able to receive a hug and not grimace, and I even caught up with everyone else in my course. Naturally, there are some things even wonderful boyfriends can’t fix – like two missing friends and one in a coma. But, Andy’s doctor is giving me hope; I can’t understand his charts and stuff, but I know that if a particular line is going up or a certain figure is getting smaller, it’s good news. I think Andy’s responding a little more, too. The last time I visited him, I took Scarlett and Laura, and I’m fairly sure that he knew they were there. Well, let’s face it: how could you not know when Scarlett was around?

“So this is Andy.”
         We finally made it to my friend’s bedside after ten minutes of walking and pushing. Scarlett and Laura had come to see me after therapy – a particularly good session, too – but there must have been an event going on at the hospital because the place was absolutely packed, and what is usually a five minute journey from the therapy floor to Andy’s floor took double that because the lift was broken. Perfect – as if my leg wasn’t already tired. Nevertheless, we were there, and I pushed aside feelings of ickyness and exhaustion for his sake.
         He looked the same as he always did, lying under the sheets, surrounded by tubes and monitors; only, I saw that one or two had been removed, and it looked like he wasn’t as dependant on machinery anymore. My spirits were lifted instantly. I spared a glance for the faithful heart monitor, beeping steadily away by the bed, and thought back to how that had annoyed me when I’d been hospitalised. I swallowed. That was in the past – this is here and now.
         “Hi Andy,” I said cheerfully, thinking that the beeping changed slightly. “I hope you don’t mind,” I continued, “but I’ve brought some friends along from university. Their names are Scarlett and Laura.”
         “Hello,” Laura said, a little quietly. I started to wonder if he’d heard her, but then Scarlett opened her mouth.
         “Wow, Jaimie, you never said he was such a cutie,” she exclaimed. “Good thing he’s not up and about right now because God knows what I’d do to get him –”
         “Scarlett!” Laura and I hissed. Yes – the heart monitor had definitely sped up a notch. Andy had heard every word, and no doubt the patients in the nearby booths had as well.
         Our rowdy friend looked at us innocently. “What?” she said, a smile twinkling in her eyes. “Just saying. If anything, it’s a massive compliment.”
         “You don’t know him,” Laura whispered. “You don’t even know if he can hear you!”
         “Oh I think he can,” I said. Secretly, I was hoping that Scarlett and Laura could help me get Andy to wake up. I wasn’t exactly sure how that would work, but Dr. Orwell had told me to try anything. If I couldn’t get his family, I would get my friends.
         Laura shot Scarlett an ‘I-told-you-so’ look, which was met with an eye roll, and I laughed at them both. We knew Scarlett was a flirt, but flirting with coma patients was a new low for her. Even so, it was funny, and I had no doubts that Andy would take it as a joke. I told them that, but Laura still looked uncomfortable. “It’s just that, well, it feels mean – us being able to see him and him not even knowing who we are.”
         “He does know who you are. Sort of. I’ve told him practically everything.”
         She paled. “Even the thing with the ice-cream?”
         Scarlett hooted with laughter. “Oh my god, that was the funniest thing I think I’ve ever seen!”
         “No,” I said, “I hadn’t told him. But now that you mention it, it seems unfair to keep him in the dark.” Laura groaned, and pleaded with me not to do it, but Scarlett ‘restrained’ her and I spilled the beans to Andy. “So we’re hanging out at Happy Gremlin, right, and Laura here decides she wants ice-cream for dessert. She’s the only one having it, so we all have to wait for her while she eats it, only something that Florence said made her laugh – we’re not even sure what she said – and she drops this huge dollop of ice-cream down the front of her top.”
         “As in, between her –”
         “Thank you, Scarlett! Anyway, so after we stop laughing at her, we tell her she should clean herself up before anyone else sees, but here’s the thing: a normal person would just ask for a tissue or something, right? Not this lady.” I flashed a grin at Laura, who had given up struggling against Scarlett. “No, what our crazy friend asks us instead is – ‘Can one of you guys lick it off or something?’” I had to pause as giggles overcame me, but when Laura started protesting again I felt obliged to finish the story. “And that’s not all!” I gasped between hysterics. “She asked us just as the music stopped playing, and the guys in the booth next to us heard what she said and offered to do it for her!” I wouldn’t have laughed so hard if Scarlett hadn’t snorted unattractively at that moment. Laura, the only one of us who wasn’t laughing, finally pulled herself free.
         “Oh, that’s really attractive, Scarl!” she said. “Andy’ll definitely take you out if you snort like that again.” Watching Miss Snort-a-lot collapse with laughter, I was happy to hear the beeping speed up again, and concluded that Scarlett was making Andy anxious – either that, or he was ‘laughing’ with us somehow. I’d like to think it was the latter, but how could I possibly have known for sure?
         “I bet Matt would have done it!” Scarlett near-shouted, still on the floor and now crying with laughter. “It’s – it’s a good thing he wasn’t there, but I so wish he had been!”
         “Matt’s course was extended on that day,” I quickly explained to Andy. “He’s the one who’s dating Laura.”
         “Thank god he wasn’t there!” Laura muttered. “I nearly died of embarrassment without him, but if he’d reacted to those guys –” She winced. “Nope – doesn’t bear thinking about.”
         I smiled understandingly at her. I’d be mortified if Rob played the heroic knight and jumped to my defence. Maybe a bit pleased that he was ready to do so, but mortified regardless. “Scarlett, get off the floor you stupid girl. It’ll be filthy.” Still laughter-dizzy, she did, grinning dopily and hiccupping loudly. Mercifully, they were gone fairly quickly (I didn’t want Andy to be irritated by hiccups as well as a heart monitor), and the rest of our visit passed in relative normality. Oh, except that Scarlett didn’t mention Sandra, Phil or Ellie, but maybe because she was hiccupping. We left Andy some twenty minutes or so later and headed back to our corridor.
         “Laura, did I leave my stuff in your room?” Scarlett asked as we stepped out of the lift.
         “Yeah. I haven’t touched it.”
         “Oh good – is it okay for me to do some work?” Scarlett was painting Laura’s windowsill. Sounds strange, I know, but after coming back from Miwauda, Laura had a lot of trinkets and souvenirs on it, along with more bric-a-brac from other places she’d been, and Scarlett had been enchanted by it all. If it was a sunny day, like today, she painted. I don’t know much about art, but I think it looked prettier when it was sunny.
         “Sure. Rebecca might be in, but if we stay in my room it shouldn’t bother her.”
         “Okay.” Scarlett turned to me. “That alright with you?”
         She wasn’t asking permission, rather making sure I’d be okay on my own. I smiled and nodded. “It’s fine. I think I’d like a rest after therapy anyway.”
         “If you’re sure.” We stopped outside our door, and Scarlett held her arms open. My friends had gotten used to asking for hugs – even Rob did it – and were understanding if I said no. This time though, I felt obliged to give her one by way of thanks for seeing Andy with me. It was brief, but I could tell it made her happy. The same went for Laura – brief, but it meant something to her. I watched them disappear into Laura’s room before fishing out my key. My hand stopped on the way to the door, though. It was already open. Frowning, I gently pushed it open wider, peering round in case someone – or something – was waiting. They were. I think.
         Lying on the floor in a semi-twisted heap were our friends Jess and Florence. Despite their strikingly different appearances, Jess and Florence could have been sisters, and acted accordingly. While Jess was dark skinned and had medium-length brown hair, Florence was milky-white toned with long and sleek almost-white hair, and had sparkling green eyes to match. After staring at them for a minute, I thought I’d best do something and crouched down, calling their names and gently shaking Florence’s shoulder. Finally, I got a response.
         “What are you doing here?” I asked as they groaned and rubbed their eyes.
         Florence giggled. “We live here,” she mumbled slowly, words slightly slurred.
         “No you don’t.” I blinked. “Are you drunk?”
         “Nooo,” they said, stifling laughter as Jess tried to roll out from under Florence.
         “At four o’clock in the afternoon?” Not even Scarlett considered doing that. “Guys, this is my room – mine and Scarlett’s. Yours is across the hall.”
         “Oohh, is it?” Jess asked, now on her front and looking around. Florence laughed.
         “We know, but we’re here for... something.” She frowned. “Jeeeesss?”
         “Yeeeesss?”
         “What was that message?”
         Jess lurched up, sitting back on her heels. “Oh yeah, there was a message, wasn’t there?”
         “What message?” I asked. “Who gave you a message?”
         “It was...” Florence screwed her face up as she tried to remember, and Jess looked the same. “Shorts? Someone’s shorts were ruined?”
         “No, stupid, it wasn’t that!” Jess declared, lazily swatting her friend on the forehead. Florence laughed (slightly manically) as Jess finally told me: “Shortcut. It was something about the shortcut meeting.”
         I translated it myself. “Someone wants to meet me at the shortcut?”
         “I think so!”
         “Ooh, is Jaimie cheating on Rob?” Florence asked, also rolling onto her front.
         “No!” I said, horrified she’d think that. “You two need to get back now. Have some water and get some sleep. And maybe some painkillers,” I added as an afterthought. “Um… thanks for the message.”
         Once I’d half-pulled half-pushed them out and across the hall, Florence’s words began to make some sort of sense. There were, I theorised, very few people who knew that we used the path under the overhang as a shortcut. All my friends were either in courses or their rooms – except for two. And if Florence thought that I was cheating on Rob (which I most definitely was not!), then there was only one person who could have asked her to get me there: Kyler. My heart leapt excitedly. He was okay! Perhaps that’s what this meeting was about, to assure me that he was fine and that he hadn’t been acting in his right mind on ‘that day’. Hurriedly, I changed into some nicer clothes, making sure my arms were covered, and stuffed an un-eaten sausage roll into a bag for him. I left quickly, making sure that my door was properly locked this time (god knows how those two got in if they were that pissed), and returned to my old habit of pre-planning how our conversation would go.

I was nervous as I left the main university building, and for two reasons: I wanted to know what was wrong with Kyler, and now there were no wards to protect me. And, to make things worse, I began to doubt his motives when it dawned on me that he had quite recently been a Guide. Even so, I hurried to the alley where the bins were kept, straining to see against the shadows that may be hiding him.
         “Hello?” I said, my voice echoing slightly. There was a slight rustling and the sound of shoes on concrete, then a figure was silhouetted against the opposite side of the tunnel. I stared. “Breach?”
         So much for planning. My long-lost friend stepped tentatively closer, watching me anxiously. Her clothes were dirt-smeared and a little torn, her usually sleek hair now dull and knotted. She returned my stare with wide eyes, her look a mixture of horror and joy. “Jaimie?” she whispered. She broke out into a grin and rushed forward, arms spread. “Oh, thank god you’re okay –”
         I stepped back reflexively, stopping her in her tracks and wiping the smile from her face. “Sorry,” I muttered, and reached out for her again. The hug she gave me was crushing, though, and I ended up pushing her off of me after a few short seconds. “Where in the world have you been, Breach?”
         Her happiness vanished, once more leaving me with her worried, haunted gaze that wasn’t quite focused on me. “I had to... I went back to my village. That is, my Wiccan village,” she started. Her eyes kept flicking anxiously to me, and I wondered if she was completely okay. “There was... There’s something I have to –” Breach stopped, turning her head away mid-sentence.
         “You have to what?” I encouraged. “Breach, if something’s wrong you can tell me. Is it the argument we had before you disappeared? Because I wanted to apologise for that –”
         “No,” she said quickly. “Just... how have you been? I mean, you’re really, totally okay? What’s been happening since I left?”
         I frowned. “Um, lots of things. I guess the main thing is that I...” I hesitated; Breach was a half-Wiccan who was fond of her Spirits, and I wasn’t sure that her hearing about my attack would make her feel very good. Yet she looked expectant, so I told her anyway. “I was attacked. By Spirits. They ate my flesh,” I said with a shudder. I don’t think I’d ever be able to talk about that without reacting so. “Just on my arms and a leg, but it’s left some marks.”
         “Like what?” she asked in a hushed tone.
         “Well, I have a lot of scars physically, and mentally I’m still getting used to having people touch me again. Except for Rob, he seems to be able to –”
         “Oh god!” Breach suddenly moaned, covering her face with her hands and backing away, shaking her head.
         “What is it?” I glanced behind us, thinking the Spirits had returned. There was nothing there. “Breach?”
         “I’m so sorry!” she gushed, sounding close to tears. “I’m so sorry – I had no idea!”
         I was touched by her concern. “Breach it’s fine, really –”
         “I couldn’t stop them! I didn’t even mean to call them, but it just got out of control!”
         I froze. “What...”
         Breach wasn’t looking at me, but I could see her body shaking slightly as she tried to hold on to her self-control. “It was me,” she whispered, so softly I wouldn’t have heard if it weren’t for the echo. “I summoned those Spirits. They attacked you because of me.” Her voice cracked at the end, and she collapsed in tears.
         At first, I didn’t believe her. If she had known that Spirits had attacked me, she wouldn’t have asked in the first place; and yet, watching her sob in front of me, remembering how she’d been absent after our fight, before and during my attack, I had to concede she may be telling the truth. In all honesty, I had never thought about where the Spirits who attacked me had come from – I always assumed that they were just restless and had found a way over to our world by themselves. It had never occurred to me that a half-Wiccan would need to be involved. In which case – “Why?”
         “Because I was mad,” she sniffed, “and because I couldn’t find Denise.” She wiped her nose on her dirty wrist. “I was searching for her, but every Spirit I pulled out wasn’t her, and by the time I realised what I was doing, I had already summoned five of them.” She stopped herself from breaking down again before continuing. “They just sat there staring at me until I told them to go, and I didn’t see where they went until later.”
         We stood in silence while I processed this information. “I don’t understand – it took them three days to find me when I live next door?”
         “I, um, didn’t tell them who to... Vengeance Spirits normally need explicit instruction about who their target is,” she explained robotically. “Because I didn’t tell them, they didn’t know where you’d be.”
         So they found someone who did. A ball of anger rose up inside me, something I wasn’t used to. “Do you have any idea what those Spirits have done to my life?” I shouted. “And not just mine, but my friend’s life too – they made him a Guide, Breach! I haven’t seen him since the attack and have no idea what state he’s in! I can only pray he’s better off than me, because now I struggle with things that should be perfectly easy for an ordinary person, and I hate being touched by anyone except my boyfriend! Yes I’m lucky to have survived, but tell me this: you’re one of my best friends; why would you send them to kill me?” She didn’t respond. “Well? Isn’t that what Vengeance Spirits do?”
         “Yes, but I didn’t know!” she cried. “Jaimie, I am so, so sorry, and I know saying that won’t make things better.” Breach sagged a little, visibly exhausted. “I did everything I could to stop them. After they – got you, that’s I went to Opel, to see my mother and ask her for help. I was so worried about you all the time, even with Dal’Ekka watching you. I came back a few days ago but I was so scared that... I don’t know, that you’d hate me, or that everyone else would hate me too.” Her face crumpled. “And now you do hate me.”
         As my anger subsided, I wasn’t so sure about that last bit. “What did you mean when you said Dal-something was watching me?”
         “The Wiccan Ronin that everyone’s been seeing. His name’s Dal’Ekka. He’s from my village. He took you to the hospital and then told me what had happened. I spent ages trying to convince him to look out for you.” A slither of hope crept into her eyes. “Has he?”
         “I think he has.” It made sense: the increased sightings of the Ronin, reports that one brought me in, people seeing him near the university... “Why didn’t you think you’d convinced him?”
         “Ronin don’t like being hired,” she explained meekly. She gave a small smile, a typically Breach thing to do when she was nervous. “I think I’ll be indebted to him for a while.”
         “So, let me get this straight.” I rubbed the bridge of my nose, mentally running through what she’d told me. “You accidentally summoned five Vengeance Spirits and somehow sent them after me. This Wiccan Ronin that everyone’s been seeing then finds me being eaten alive” – we cringed – “and takes pity on me, bringing me to a hospital and working out that I knew you. He then confronts you, you convince him to protect me, then run off to Opel to find a way to stop these assassins?” She nodded. I paused for a minute, taking it all in. “Did you find a way?” I asked hopefully.
         “Yes, yes I did! But it’s not easy –”
         “Will it help my friend?”
         She chewed her lip. “I think it will.”
         It was getting cooler now. The light was starting to fade a bit, and a breeze had picked up under the walkway. In her thin, battered clothing, I could see my friend shivering and struggling to stay warm – she had wrapped her arms around her, but it wasn’t doing her much good. She looked miserable. Part of me wanted to slap her for ruining my life the way she had, accident or not, but another side of me realised that she had gone out of her way to make sure I would be safe again, hiring an unwilling Ronin and travelling on her own to Opel and back, missing her classes and evidently suffering along the way. Who was I to hold a grudge against someone who would do all that for me?
         I walked forwards. Breach cowered and ducked her head, still holding herself in a frail manner. I stopped in front of her, slowly lifted my arms, and gently pulled her to me. I felt her tense, and wondered how tense I felt to her. “You should come inside,” I said. “It’s too cold out here.” She agreed, but only after I assured her that no-one would see her (for some reason, that idea terrified her). Soon, though, I had her wrapped up in my duvet with a mug of hot chocolate in her hands.
         “Willard’s gone,” she told me. “I think Denise has, too.”
         “That’s a shame,” I said. As much as I hated him, Willard had made her happy, and I truly was sad about Denise. I think it’s obvious why.
         “You really forgive me?” she asked again. “Even after all I’ve done?”
         I smiled warmly at her. “If I hadn’t forgiven you, do you really think you’d be sat on my bed drinking hot chocolate?”
         She didn’t smile back like I’d hoped, but sighed and nodded faintly. “I messed up.”
         “Hey – let’s not dwell on the past, ‘kay?” That was something Rob had taught me: that one of the only ways to get better was to move on. “Although, there is a lot you’ve missed.”
         Breach groaned. “Coursework…”
         “Oh. Yeah, that too, but I was on about other things.”
         “Right.” She straightened up, even managing a small smile. “Like what?”
         I quickly filled her in on the important things, such as my therapy, finding Andy again, Laura’s trip to Miwauda, and the Sandra, Phil and Ellie Saga. I wasn’t talking for long, but poor Breach didn’t say a word the entire time, and when I finished, her eyelids were drooping and she looked ready to drop off. “Why don’t you head back to yours?” I suggested. “Get some sleep.”
         Suddenly, she looked wide awake and very worried. “I can’t… what if someone sees me? What will I tell Abigail?”
         I blinked, startled by the panic in her voice. “Breach, I’m sure –”
         “Can I stay here? Please? I know I shouldn’t ask after what I put you through, but I can’t go out just yet – I feel like a murderer!”
         “You’re not a murderer.”
         “But I could have been.” Wringing her hands together, she chewed her bottom lip, looking round anxiously as if there were spies in the room. “I can’t face anyone knowing what I did, Jaimie. You understand, don’t you?”
         In a way, I did. I had been nervous about Rob seeing me all bandaged-up and hospitalised, but eventually I’d adjusted, and the same thing was happening with touching. Breach was plainly in a fragile state. Given a few days, she’d be back to normal. “Okay, you can stay here.”
         Relief washed through her, making her look sleepy once more. “Thank you, Jaimie. You are such a good person.” She yawned at the end, prompting me to take her mug from her and lead her over to our shower for a quick clean, before I found my spare set of pyjamas and leant them to her. “Are you sure?”
         “Absolutely. You can’t sleep in those clothes. They’re filthy, and I bet –” I was cut off by the sound of a key in the door, and Scarlett stepped in.
         “Hi, sorry I’m a little late. I got talking to Rebecca. You know, she’s studying Ancient Art, and she said that modern –” Scarlett turned to face me and stopped dead in her tracks. All three of us could have been part of a still-life piece right then, but I’d learnt that with Scarlett, moments of silence and inactivity never last long. “Did you know,” she whispered, “that Breach is stood right behind you wearing your pyjamas?”
         “Yes,” I said slowly, barely moving. “Don’t get –”
         “Oh my god Breach is back!” Scarlett squealed, jumping up and down and launching herself at the sleepy girl.
         “– excited,” I finished belatedly, helpless to watch as Breach was nearly strangled by my roommate. It took a lot of protesting on Breach’s behalf and some reluctant pulling from me to finally prise her off, and then I gave her a shortened explanation of why Breach was there. Scarlett was unusually quiet once I’d finished, and kept glancing back and forth between me and Breach.
         “And you’re okay with all that?” she asked me.
         “Yeah,” I said. “I’ve forgiven her. She’s already suffered enough.”
         “But this Dal-what’s-his-face –”
         “Dal’Ekka.”
         “– how long’s he going to be around for?”
         “Until the Spirits are gone,” Breach answered, sounding like she’d been taken in for questioning. Scarlett folded her arms, and for a moment I thought she wouldn’t accept it all. Thankfully, she grinned and placed her hands on Breach’s shoulders.
         “You take my bed,” she said, silencing her before a protest could be uttered. “No buts. You need a good night’s sleep, and Little Miss Cripple over there needs comfort. Therefore, I am the only one fit to sleep on the couch. Understand?” We both nodded, and Scarlett practically pushed Breach into bed. Seeing that it was getting late anyway, we also decided to turn in, but before I turned out the light Scarlett stopped me. “You’re really okay about her being here? I mean, what if she tries again?”
         “She won’t,” I said. “I believe her.”
         “But will the others?”
         “We’re not telling the others.”
         “What? Why not?”
         “Think how they’d react,” I whispered, glancing at Breach in case we’d woken her. “God knows what Rob would do, whether I’ve forgiven her or not. How bad would that be if we’d forgiven her and they didn’t?”
         Scarlett scowled. “So what do we tell them tomorrow?”
         I shrugged. “Breach doesn’t really want to socialise. I don’t think we should say anything until she’s ready.”
         “Seriously? Earth to Jaimie, can you hear yourself?”
         I nodded. “I understand why she’s asked that, Scarl. You know how long it’s taken me to get back to normal, and I’m still not even one hundred per cent. Breach hasn’t been through as much, but she’s got guilt on her back too. She has to learn to move on, but until then, we help her out by keeping her here. No-one needs to know until she’s ready.”
         Thankfully, my argument won her over. “But I’m not happy about this.”
         “Don’t worry,” I said quietly as we parted. “You can help the Ronin beat some Spirits up if things do go wrong.” I said it lightly, but I was desperately praying that it wouldn’t come to that. Ever.