“What the hell did you do?” Pietro grabbed the camera right from her hands as they walked down the sidewalk. “There’s a huge scratch on it.”

“Don’t remind me!” Anastasia cried, snatching it back from him. “I dropped it yesterday. My poor baby…”

“Huh.”

“Huh?” Anastasia asked. “You’re not even going to ask how it happened?”

“I already know how it happened,” he said. “The camera fell through the air and hit the ground.”

“Well yeah,” she rolled her eyes. She supposed it would be better to keep her meeting with Sadie a secret. Besides, knowing Pietro, he wouldn’t even know who she was. “Anyway, it still works just fine.”

“You wouldn’t be carrying it around if it wasn’t,” Pietro said.

“You jerk,” Anastasia said. “I’ll punish you.”

“I’d like to see you try.”

“Take this,” Anastasia lifted the camera’s viewfinder to her eye. “My special attack.” She fired off a series of flashes.

“What the hell are you doing?” Pietro groaned, covering his eyes halfway through them.

“Taking pictures with flash,” Anastasia said confidently. “They’re going to be super unflattering and I’m going to post them online.”

“Seriously, you better not put me on that clock thing.”

“How would you know if I did?” she waved her camera at him. “You don’t even know the name of it.”

“I’ll break your camera.”

“You wouldn’t dare!” she held it away from him.

“Try me.”

The two of them walked silently for a few minutes.

“I’m glad I could see you again today,” Anastasia said.

“I haven’t bowled in forever,” Pietro said, looking up at the sky. “I suck now.”

“Oh shut up,” Anastasia punched him in the arm. “You got over two hundred and fifty points. I didn’t even break a hundred.”

“I used to bowl perfect games.”

“Yeah, yeah,” she looked over across the street. “Oh, the theater. We should see a movie together.”

“Hmm, I did want to see the new Commander Stars and Stripes.”

“Hey, me too!”

“Really? I didn’t think you’d be interested in a movie like that.”

“What makes you say that?”

“Because I made it up,” he said monotonously. “There’s no movie called something that stupid.”

Anastasia’s face turned beat red. “You’re mean!”

“Classic Ana, always pretending like you know about things to try and fit in.”

She couldn’t argue with him. She had a bad habit of just going along with conversations despite not knowing what they were talking about.

“Anyway, maybe next time,” Pietro said. “It’s almost five. I promised I’d be home for dinner so I’m calling it a night.”

“Oh, okay,” Anastasia said. “Next time. Tell your family I said hi for me?”

“Yeah, let’s head to the station.”

Anastasia stopped walking. “I’m actually going to hang around here a little longer,” she said, avoiding eye contact. “You go on ahead without me.”

Pietro leaned in to try and get a good look at her face. He gave up when she wouldn’t look back at him. “See you around then.”

With that, he turned and left her in the middle of the sidewalk.

Stupid. All this time had passed since high school, and she was still making the same mistakes as before.

She thought back to the previous night. It all happened so fast. If it wasn’t for Sadie’s number in her phone, she would be convinced that it had all been a dream.

She started walking again.

If she was going to lie about wanting to hang around downtown for a little longer, she might as well do it. She turned to the first shop she saw, and went inside without even reading the sign.

She was immediately greeted by the fragrance of printed paper. It was a relatively small bookstore, and it seemed like the kind of place that was selling more niche series than the latest teen novels that would soon be adapted to film. Not that she didn’t read some of those.

The first display that caught her eye was for a book titled ‘The History Girls Series: Sexy 1776’, and it featured what appeared to be a rather busty George Washington. People are weird.

“These ones,” a girl nearby said. “These are my favorites. The Bookshop of Mysteries.”

“The man on the cover is quite handsome, isn’t he?” A soft feminine voice replied with a giggle.

“Oh, uh, well yes, he is,” the girl stammered.

Anastasia peeked her head around the corner of a row of shelves. There stood a girl with glasses, probably in high school. She was accompanied by a slender woman with long blue hair. By Portland standards, she wasn’t all that out of place.

Actually, she was the kind of person that Anastasia would love to do a photoshoot with. Real alternative model material. As she contemplated whether or not to approach them, the quiet ambience of the bookstore was suddenly shattered by a blaring car horn outside.

“It’s happening! It’s seriously happening!” she heard someone in the store yell.

“No fucking way. Look at those people outside!” said someone else.

The girl and the woman looked over in her direction, but they seemed much more concerned with what was going on outside than the fact that she was standing there with a camera in her hands.

Anastasia followed the other customers, hurrying out of the bookstore. A huge crowded had formed in the street with a sea of cellphone displays floating above them. From where she was, she could hardly see anything, but she could hear what people were saying. Time had stopped again. Just down the street, everything had come to a complete standstill.

The air around her felt like it was charged with something. It made her skin tingle and her hair frizz. What the hell was happening?

She could hear sirens in the distance. She thought back to what Sadie told her, but if there was no magic that could do something like this, what was it?

Sadie. She had to call Sadie. She pulled her phone and selected Sadie from her contact list. It didn’t even finish ringing once before Sadie answered.

“Ana?”

“It’s happening again,” Anastasia’s legs quaked. “The time freeze. Whatever it is! It’s happening downtown right now!”

“Ana, are you okay?”

“I’m fine, I’m fine! But you need to tell Gregory!”

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

Sadie paused for a moment. “Okay, I’m going to his room.”

Anastasia anxiously hopped up and down in place. Looking around, she could see that a wall of curious pedestrians had already formed behind her. Too many people. Too much going on. She started to wade her way out of the crowd, heading away from what was happening down the street.

She could hear what sounded like Sadie talking, but it was away from the receiver and she couldn’t really pick out the words. She managed to reach the back of the crowd. The street behind them was already packed with cars stuck in the developing traffic jam.

Finally, Sadie was speaking to her again. “Gregory says that you should get over here as quickly as possible.”

“Okay,” Anastasia said. “But what about person from the… uh, Magic Association?”

“Don’t worry about that,” Sadie snapped. “Anyway, we can’t talk about this over the phone so just get to somewhere else as quick as you can. I’ll come with Walter to pick you up in the limo.”

She didn’t particularly want to see the stone faced butler again, but she agreed. She hurried away from the ever growing mass of spectators.

About thirty minutes later, the limo arrived. By then, people on Clock Link were saying that the time stop was long over. It lasted around 5 minutes in total, although it had felt much longer to Anastasia.

“Just give me all the details when we’re back home,” Sadie said. “Gregory’s going to want to hear all this too.”

Anastasia stared into her lap. Like yesterday, things were so sudden that it didn’t feel real. “What are we going to tell the person from the association?” she asked. “They came today, didn’t they?”

“They never showed up,” Anastasia said, putting her hand over her eyes. “I have no idea what’s going on, but the whole community is going crazy right now.”

“It’s that bad?”

“Ana, you didn’t really grow up as a magician,” Sadie said. “I’m not saying you aren’t one. It’s just that you don’t really know what it’s like.”

“Can… you tell me?”

Sadie looked over at her. She looked vulnerable. Nothing like the usual confident way she carried herself.

“I think you probably have the idea that being able to do magic makes us free or above other people or something, but it really doesn’t,” she said. “Being a registered magician means you belong to the government.”

“What do you mean by ‘belong’?” Anastasia’s voice came out quiet and hoarse.

“When a magician dies,” Sadie quivered as she took a deep breath. “We don’t get a burial, or a cremation, or whatever. We’re sent to be tested on. Dissected like animals.”

Anastasia wasn’t sure how to respond.

“They want to know about how we do magic. Like, how we visit the gate to bring things into the world,” she continued. “My parents, Gregory, Celeste… we’re all just guinea pigs to them.”

The realization hit her like a bus. In that one moment, any fairytale thoughts she had about magic died. Sadie and Gregory were people that had spent their whole lives learning about something that would turn them into test subjects.

“The restrictions are just going to get worse now,” Sadie said, tears starting to fall on her lap. “If it gets bad enough, it wouldn’t surprise me if they told me I couldn’t tour anymore.”

Anastasia unbuckled her seatbelt, reaching over to Sadie and wrapping her arms around her.

“I’m sorry. I’m useless. I can’t do anything,” Anastasia said, her eyes burning. “But I’m here for you.”

The two of them stayed completely silent that way until they reached the house. Before Walter could open the door, Sadie quickly regained her composure. It was clear she didn’t want her family to see her that way.

“It’s a pleasure to see you again, Ms… Harrow,” Walter paused a little too obviously on her fake name. There was no reason why he should know, but maybe magic familiars had some kind of sixth sense humans didn’t. “I will need to take your belongings for you once again.”

She complied, placing her phone, camera, and coat into his hands. He disappeared into another room, and she and Sadie headed upstairs.

Gregory’s room was even more cluttered than before. He had a laptop in front of him and was sorting through a large stack of papers when they entered.

“Anastasia, I’m glad to see that you’re safe,” he said. He motioned to Sadie, who was already picking up the chairs in the corner of the room for them to sit on.

“Would you like anything to drink?” he asked.

“No, that’s alright,” she said.

“As I’m sure you know, both the media and social networking are in complete chaos right now,” he looked at her intently. “If I may cut to the chase, what did you see?”

It dawned on Anastasia that she was exhausted. Her adrenaline had been pumping so hard earlier that she was just now realizing it. “Actually, can I get some water?”

“Get her some,” Sadie said.

“Of course,” Gregory flicked his hand and a glass levitated off of a shelf next to his desk. It moved over to his sink, which turned on automatically. When it was full, he moved it into her hands.

“Thank you,” she downed the whole glass in one long gulp. “I was in a bookstore when I heard people start to yell.”

“What were they saying?” Gregory asked.

“I don’t really remember very well,” she said. “I think everyone was confused about what was happening at first.”

“I understand. Please go on.”

“I went outside and there was already a huge crowd of people,” she said. “I couldn’t really see the frozen area or anything, but I could… feel it.”

“Feel it?” Gregory raised an eyebrow.

“It was like electricity in the air or something,” she put her fingers in the air and wiggled them around. “Like something was prickling me all over my body.”

Gregory and Sadie exchanged a look.

“I can’t really explain it any other way than that,” she continued. “I’ve never really felt anything like it.”

“Anastasia,” Gregory stopped her. “What you’re describing sounds very similar to the sensation we get when we visit the gate. The gate we pull magic from.”

“You’re totally sure that’s what you felt?” Sadie asked.

It felt like they were almost asking her to take it back. She paused for a moment before answering. “I’m sure.”

“If this really does have something to do with magic, then I can only imagine what’s going to happen here,” Gregory said. “Nothing of this magnitude has ever occurred in the history of the association.”

“What about the… government?” Anastasia asked. She doubted Gregory would care that Sadie had talked with her about it, but she didn’t want to bring up the details.

“The association, the government, normal magicians like you and I,” Gregory said. “And we have no idea who or what we’re dealing with. This city could become a warzone.”

It took a minute for that to sink in. A war zone. People would die.

“You have to teach me,” Anastasia stood up.

“Ana, what are you saying?” Sadie asked.

“Please. I’m weak, I can’t do anything right, but I want to help,” Anastasia clenched her fists. “I want to be able to do something.”

“I won’t argue with you,” Gregory rose from his chair to meet her. “But I’ll have you know that I’m not a kind teacher.”

“You don’t have to do this,” Sadie whispered.

“Ever since I learned magic, I’ve just been doing stupid things like picking up drinks and closing doors. I’ve been practicing it without a purpose,” Anastasia turned to her. “I’ve never thought of magic beyond what it could do for me.”

“Ana…”

“Today I realized how disrespectful that was. To you, to Gregory, to your family, to magicians all over the world,” her voice cracked. “I’ll do whatever training I need to make it up to you.”

“Very well,” Gregory grabbed her hand, shaking it with a firm grip. “From this day forward, you are a true magician.”

He let go, staring at her unblinking.

“We start tomorrow.”