"Audrey! Axel! Ayla! Get up! You’ll be late for school!" My mother yelled from downstairs. I groggily rubbed my eyes and looked at my clock. It was 8:30! School starts in 20 minutes. I rushed down the hall and to the bathroom. I tried the door handle and it was locked.

"Hurry up Ayla!" I yelled banging on the door. I was the second child. The middle child. My older sister, Ayla was a pain. She finished school last year and was taking time off to get a job before starting college. Ayla’s 20 but she still lives here. She always takes her time in the washroom so she looked perfect. I can’t say that we get along well, because on the contrary, we don’t get along at all.I swear she always blames me if some of her things are missing. And she’s normally right because other then my mom, I’m the only other girl in the house. My younger brother, Axel, he is the quiet type. He likes to play video games and passes his classes really easily. He’s in 7th grade. We get along fairly well. But that just might be of the fact that I don’t talk much and I don’t share a room with him. The door opened and Ayla walked out making sure to shove me out of the way before turning and going into our room.I quickly started the shower and stripped my clothes off and stepped into it. I let the warm water roll down my body for a minute before washing my body and hair.  I combed and blow dried my hair before applying a bit of make-up then rushing to my room with the towel still wrapped around my body. I grabbed a thin blue tank top and tugged on black ripped jean shorts. We live in Fresnillo Mexico and it was always so hot even in other countries April just started to melt the snow. I looked at the clock and started panicking. It was 10 minutes ’till I was late for school I grabbed my bag and ran down the stairs. I wondered where Elsie was. She always picked me up before school even though I could drive. I snatched a banana from the counter and began peeling it when my phone beeped. It was a text from my dad.

Dad: Training 2day after school ;-)

Me: k

Dad: Outside, in the forest. 

Me: ya. k gtg late for school.

Dad: xoxo

Me and my dad have a good relationship. He understands me. That also might be partially be part of the fact that at the beginning of the new year I discovered that I also have the ability to control plants and nature life. My dad was also a Naturalist. We’re not your typical next door neighbour. We’re witches. And proud of it. We keep a low profile and everything but we still train and practice in case something bad happens and people needs us. Axel and I just learnt that we came from a long, long line of witches. Dad and me are Naturalists. Ayla and mom are Catoptromancy. They can see people through mirrors or flat surfaces that you can see your reflection in as long as they have something of theirs. It’ll be fun to see who Axel will take after. I stopped thinking and was brought back to the real world when I heard the familiar toot-toot of Elsie’s car’s horn. I slipped on shoes and grabbed my keys and got in the car with Elsie.

Elsie was one of the most beautiful girls I knew. She had gorgeous long, wavy, red hair and the sharpest most defined blue eyes ever. She never dressed to impress and always wore her thick rimmed glasses and a new book in her hand almost every day. We met back in 8th grade. I was having trouble in french so the teacher, Miss Quantates put me beside the quietest girl and smartest girl in our class. I thought then, that this was going to suck. But Elsie surprised me. We had a blast in the back. We normally finished our work pretty quickly and always had time to chat and giggle quietly before class ended. The more I talked to Elsie I liked her. She wasn’t as quiet as I thought. In fact, she was relatively loud at some times. Needless to say we became friends and spent nearly the whole time together in the summer before 9th grade.This was before I knew there were witches in the world. Good and bad. Before I knew I was a witch. I haven’t been spending as much with her as I should but all this witchy stuff keeps one very, very busy. I looked out the window and sighed quietly. Elsie looked over for a moment before turning her eyes back to the road. Which, was a good idea since I was positive that she was well over the speed limit. Her expression was not tense but less excited. Less happy.

"Are you okay?" I asked slightly concerned. Normally, on the ride to school she was babbling her head off with a homework assignment or about a book she had read recently. This wasn’t like her.

"Yeah. Why?" She said lifting the corners of her mouth into, what looked like, a failed attempt to look happy.

"You’re normally happy and talking up a storm by now." I said shrugging.

"I-I just, We need to get to school fast or we’ll be late." She muttered. Focusing solely on the road. A little hurt that she wouldn’t tell me what was wrong I got out of the car and muttered a quick thanks when we arrived at Blakenwogth High School. I made it to my Biology class just as the bell rang and was not, surprisingly, the last one to class. Penelope Gardon was. She is what people would say the one who was the most "liked" and "Popular" and couldn’t care less about her grade seeing that her parents could buy her a degree to pass. I sighed and opened my notebook and took notes on the lesson.

~~~

The school week was long and boring. We had a couple of presentations throughout the week in history class but other then that it was the same boring old day. Elsie still hadn’t told me what was wrong  but she seemed more happy on Thursday. She was talking and smiling at least. I hadn’t seen Jackson at all that week though. Jackson was Elsie’s boyfriend. 

Maybe this is why she is all upset. I thought. They must’ve had a fight or worse, broken up.

I got up off my bed. The sun was shining through my curtains and it finally looked and felt like the beginning of May. I fumbled with my phone before finding her contact. I pressed call and waited for her to pick up.

"Hello Audrey." Her normal melodic voice was replaced with a blank voice that did not belong to her.

"Hi El." I said grimacing. "Are you and...Are still--Did Jackson...You two didn’t..." I couldn’t find the right words to ask her my question but I guess she understood because she sighed a long heavy sad sigh and then spoke.

"Yeah...I had to." She whispered. I had to strain myself to hear what she said next. "We’re moving. Back to Switzerland." She started to whimper in the background.

"WHAT!?!" I exclaimed. "WHEN!?!"

"The Wednesday next week." 

"AND YOU DIDN’T TELL ME!?!?!??!?!" I was angry. Really angry. My bestest friend in the whole wide world was moving across the world back to Switzerland, her ’hometown’ and she didn’t tell me..

"I didn’t want you to freak out and be mad at me the rest of the month." She said quietly.

"You knew since last MONTH!!!" I roared into the phone. "WE’LL I’M MAD. WE COULD HAVE SPENT A LOT MORE TIME TOGETHER!!! ALL THAT TIME YOU JUST LIED! TO ME! DID YOU NOT WANT TO SPEND TIME WITH ME OR WHAT?" I said bitterly.

"Please stop yelling. Your on speaker phone and it’s really loud and my mom is looking weirdly at me." she said.

"DO YOU REALLY THINK I CARE THAT YOUR MOM IS LOOKING AT YOU WEIRDLY!!!??? Sorry Mrs.Dwaten" I muttered before continuing. "YOU KNEW YOU WOULD BE LEAVING THE COUNTRY AND NEVER COMING BACK AND YOU DIDN’T FREAKING TELL ME!" I seethed. I was done. I didn’t want to hear her excuses. I was mad. She lied. She’s moving. Away. Far away. I’ll forget her eventually. "Bye!" I said deflated. I hung up and threw my phone at the door in frustration and slumped into bed and shut my eyes for a moment.

It was late afternoon when I awoke. My clock read 3:18 pm. I still had 45 minutes until training with dad. I stalked downstairs recalling my fight with Elsie on the phone.

"Stop stomping!" My mom called from the kitchen. She and Ayla were on dinner duty today. We set up and accurate dinner schedule fitting in all of our studying, training and extracurricular activities on it then assigning chores and jobs. I opened the fridge and found some yogurt. Grabbing a spoon from the drawer and sitting at the table.

"What’s for dinner?" I asked surveying their food choices spread out all over the counter.

"Vegetable stir fry." Ayla replied promptly. "It’ll probably be better then the one you made too." She muttered under her breath. Mom might not have heard her but I did I scowled then thought. I did burn the vegetables and the rice was drenched in wayyyyy too much soy sauce. Still she didn’t have to be snarky. I bumped her elbow by accident when I was putting away my spoon and the milk her was pouring splashed all over her, mom and the floor. She turned around with rage in her eyes and lunged at me. Ayla, you could say was short tempered. When her clothes got dirty it was a tragedy since they were all designer. We were both well trained fighters. Our whole family was. I held out my hands for combat but instead thin, but strong vines wrapped around her midsection and pulled her firmly, but gently backwards. I looked up and saw my dad. His normally dark blue eyes were green. His hand twisted and the vines uncurled and found their way back to their rightful planter.

"No fighting in the house." Mom and dad said simultaneously. "Unless you have the OK to do so." Dad added smiling.

"She spilt milk alllll over meeee though." Ayla whined wrinkling her perfect tiny nose.

"Ayla, honey, she bumped into your elbow by accident and then you spilt milk over both of us." Mom corrected smiling a little. Mom and Ayla continued to argue as Dad pulled me by the wrist outside to practice. We walked out into the wooded area and he told me to weed out all the dead flowers and put them in the trash. I glared at him.

"But I don’t wanna garden. I wanna do actual stuff with my ability." I whined.

"Oh! But you will be using your ability to pull out all of them." He said smiling and sitting on the rock/chair.

After what felt like hours and was probably only 30 minutes. I was completely exhausted from my constant use of my ability and sat down next to my dad. I had succeeded in weeding about half of what I needed to do. I looked at my dad. His normally rosy face with lively eyes were drooping and his face was pale. His smiley face was replaced with a grimace. 

"Are you feeling okay dad?" I asked very concerned. I placed a hand on his shoulder and he flinched at the contact.

"I-I’m fine..." He shuddered and fell forward.

"HELP!" I called. I’m not sure why though. We were alone. There was no way I could carry him all the way home. I starting to feel a bit less exhausted from the amount of time I used my power. I threw my hands out and curled my fingers in calling the plants and vines to help me. Then wrapped themselves around him and lifted him off the ground. I ran forward calling the vines and plants to follow me. I had a headache and My strength was wavering. I saw my house in the distance. I told the nature life to release my father gently. I felt his pulse. A very faint thump of his heart was beating. He needed a doctor. In all the chaos back in the woods I hadn’t thought to use CPR. I knelt lower and Pressed my hands to his chest pumping. Nothing. I placed my lips on his and breathed into them. Nothing. I repeated this action 5 times. I was losing hope fast. I gasped when I saw his eyes flutter open. His eyes were sorrowful. 

"Audrey. Listen." He said holding up a weak hand to stop me from hugging him. "I am dying. You can’t stop this. But you can save your little brother. He is left alone with psychopaths." His breaths were short and shallow. It looked like it was taking him a great effort to say this. I lifted him into a sitting position. I was shocked and confused and scared.

"W-What do you m-mean?" I asked, my voice wavering.

"Your sister....and Lillian, your *cough* mother...t-they practice *cough* bad magic..." He continued coughing. "Save your brother. In my dresser...false bottom...get bag...." He shuddered once more coughing up more blood. This didn’t make sense he was all healthy and lively a couple hours ago. Why was he dying. He wasn’t dying. His blood covered my shirt. I hugged him tightly.

"No...No you can’t go...I need you..I’m confused...I don’t understand" I whispered, crying.

"You don’t have to my dear. I--I love...yo--" He fell limp against my body. Blood still falling from his nose and mouth. I laid him down and shook him.

"Dad! DAD!!! DADDY!!! WAKE UP!!! THIS ISN’T FUNNY!" I yelled at nothing I was angry. But i’m not sure whom. I took a deep breath. Dad would’ve wanted me to be strong to leave his body and save my brother. I searched him for any valuables. I ran toward my home crying. I thought about what he said... 

My mother and sister are evil. My brother is in danger. What’s in the bag. How am I going to save him. Why was he dead?

Next Chapter: ~Flames~