The next day at school ended up much the same as the day before. Not one person from either group showed up to school. While he was tempted to go check on Arthur, he finally decided to check on Frank instead. Finding out where he lived had been harder than he expected. In fact, no one at school knew where Frank lived.
Finally, he had to resort to using a spell to sneak into the counselor’s office to find out where Frank lived. What he found in the file was eye-opening. It looked like Frank didn’t have a home but stayed with different relatives. None of them for long, however. Ouch, that had been awful. No wonder he was in a bad mood so often.
Unfortunately, finding out which house he was staying at would take a lot of trial and error. Instead, he considered something he had seen in a movie once. All he needed was something Frank had owned, and that was easy to get. He simply took the pencil that was tucked inside one of Frank’s writing journals from the English class.
As soon as the school day was over, he tied a string around the pencil and held it in front of him. Then he just needed a spell. Where to start…. Frank..bank, dank, flank, rank, sank, stank, tank...nope, that wouldn’t work. Home, chrome, dome, foam, gnome, roam..
“Hmm, that might work,” Merlin muttered to himself. “Wherever I roam, Point to his home…” Nodding, he prepared himself and began the spell.
“As I begin to roam,
Always point to Frank’s home.”
Feeling the pressure begin to build, Merlin breathed a little more easily. He had been afraid the spell might not recognize Frank as having a home at all. Continuing on with more confidence, he finished the spell.
“As I begin to roam,
Always point to Frank’s home.
As I begin to roam,
Always point to Frank’s home.”
Slowly, the pencil spun around until it suddenly stopped as if stuck in glue. Not allowing his attention to wander, Merlin began walking that direction, keeping in mind the fact that the pencil pointed to Frank’s home, and he would keep on walking until he got there.
It actually didn’t take as long as he thought to reach where he was going. The spell seemed to know to always follow the road instead of sending him through backyards and similar places. Until the end that is. It pointed him toward a tree-covered hill behind a broken fence. Cocking his head to the side, he looked around. Seeing no other option, he shrugged and slipped through a hole in the wire fence.
When he saw a broken shack made of what looked like pallets and other construction yard left-overs, he realized that was where Frank lived. The spell dissolved, and the pencil and string became ordinary again. Moving cautiously forward, he placed them back into his pocket.
Merlin was almost afraid of pushing the door open. He was afraid he might accidentally knock the whole house down. How it survived a thunderstorm or something similar was beyond him.
Inside, he found Frank laying on a couple of wooden pallets with a dirty blanket laid down as a sheet. Frank was shivering in the dark room. Of course, there were no windows and definitely no electricity.
Leaving the door open for the light, Merlin moved forward, afraid of what else he might discover. Frank was alive, but after placing a hand on his forehead, he noticed Frank had a fever. That wasn’t good. What was truly horrifying was Frank’s face. Actually, that was the part of Frank’s face he could see. Someone had tied a metal mask over part of his face as if to keep the swelling down. Gingerly, worried about what he might find, Merlin unhooked the mask and looked underneath.
His face was covered in splotches of black, blue, and yellow. It was swollen so much that one of his eyes was completely covered. Sheesh, why hadn’t Ruth or Lucas done anything for him? Why wasn’t Frank at a hospital?
He was their friend. Did they even know about this place? They had to, right? After all, they were his friends. How could they leave him like this?
Obviously, he hadn’t wanted to go to the hospital. Either that, or he had been afraid to go to the hospital. Maybe it was money; maybe it was something else. Either way, Merlin had to do something to help Frank. He had caused the injury, and he needed to do something to fix it.
He had come prepared for something like what he had found. He hadn’t wanted it to be real, but that was how things were. Nothing was ever free. There were always strings attached. People might not see the strings, but everything people did had a price.
He had friends who would want to play video games every second of the day, but the price they paid was often not studying and making a bad grade on a test then. If someone wanted to buy one thing, they might not have enough money to buy something else. There was always a trade-off. Merlin wondered what the trade-off would be for his powers. Was it what was already happening? Was losing his friends the price? Somehow, he doubted that would be the only price he paid.
Pushing such thoughts aside, he used one of the spells he had memorized the previous day.
“Erase the injury from Frank’s face,
As if it happened without a trace.”
Merlin continued the spell as he felt the pressure building. He could tell the spell would help, but with the amount of pressure building, he knew it wouldn’t be enough to heal Frank completely.
“Erase the injury from Frank’s face,
As if it happened without a trace.
Erase the injury from Frank’s face,
As if it happened without a trace.”
Merlin continued to concentrate on Frank’s face healing as the spell took hold. Slowly, the swelling went down as he watched. Just as he had guessed however, the spell faded before doing much else. There was still a nasty scar on his face. Also, while it might have reduced the bruising, Frank’s skin still looked unhealthy.
Then again, maybe that was part of the mirror’s magic because he had been wearing a Frankenstein Monster costume. While Merlin knew in the novel, the monster hadn’t been green, or had those things in his neck, he couldn’t remember much else.
Taking a breather, Merlin looked around the room. How did Frank live in such a place? He couldn’t imagine living like Frank did. Dang. No wonder he acted the way he did at school. School was probably one of the few bright places in his life. Even there, he had to see what everyone else had and he didn’t.
Not sure if he should try another spell, he decided to wait until the next day to try another healing spell. When he had healed Robert and Shirley, they had slept for a long time to recover from their wounds. Their wounds had also been fresh. While he didn’t know the rules for healing, he figured he should err on the side of caution.
That didn’t mean he couldn’t do other things, however. He had a habit of taking home food from school that the other students wouldn’t eat. Usually it was just a roll, an apple, or a carton of milk. Today was no exception. The exception would be that Frank would be eating the food instead.
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Holding up Frank’s head, Merlin poured the milk into his mouth. Frank swallowed the drink without waking up. After that, he slowly fed Frank the food he had brought from school. Frank ate every bite without waking up completely. He ate and drank like a sleepwalker. Once that was done, Merlin stood back up and looked around.
“Let’s see,” he muttered to himself. “What can I do about this place? Hmm, place...base, case, face, lace, mace, pace, race, vase. Maybe not...what else?” Merlin thought for a few seconds on how to describe the shack. “Hmm, that might work. Back, black, crack, pack, rack, sack, snack, stack.” Pausing, he thought about the possibilities.
Crack would be good because he was sure there were a lot of cracks in the shack. As bad off as the shack was, he needed to add a little more. To do something about the condition of the shack was going to take more than a couplet. “What else?”
He took a minute to think about another couplet to add to the first. Maybe something with watertight. That would be...bite, kite, fight, sight, right, height, light, might, night. “Maybe,” he said once again to himself. “Night and watertight. Make it watertight all through the night?” Nodding, he decided he could probably work with those lines. He checked the number of syllables just to be sure and made a few slight adjustments. Finally, he spoke the words for the spell.
“Remove every crack,
From this little shack.
Make it watertight
To stay warm at night.”
Merlin could feel the spell resisting him for some reason. The pressure built quickly. Maybe it was because there were a lot of cracks and it would be hard to keep it watertight and warm at night. Despite this, he concentrated and pushed through the spell.
“Remove every crack,
From this little shack.
Make it watertight
To stay warm at night.
Remove every crack,
From this little shack.
Make it watertight
To stay warm at night.”
By the end of the spell, sweat covered his body despite the cold weather outside. Wow, that had taken a lot out of him. He hadn’t expected that. Merlin felt like he had just run a marathon.
Not knowing what else to do after that, and already feeling the strain of casting the healing spell and the shack fixing spell, he decided to go home. He could come back the next day to check on Frank. He could worry about the others after he had taken care of Frank.
That was one thing his parents had taught him. If he let all the worries of life overwhelm him, he would never get anything done. They had told him to pick one of the problems, take care of it, and then move on to the next one until he had done everything he had to do. Hmm, maybe he needed to listen to them more often. Snorting out loud, he muttered, “Or not.”
Sitting down, he wondered what would happen to him if he ever tried to force a spell that was too powerful? Would it fail? Would it kill him? What would happen if he tried to do too much with a magic spell? Was that the price he would pay? Would he one day cast one too many spells and pay the price?
A crazy thought occurred to him. What if he could only cast a certain number of spells before he lost his power? Maybe the source of his magical power was his soul. What if for every spell he cast cost him days or weeks of his life? That was an unsettling thought. What really gave his spells their power? Thinking about how nothing in life was free, he wondered what price he would pay in the end.
The next day was the same as the one before. He thought about how things might turn out if they continued the way things were going. Shirley could easily take and pass the GED test to graduate early. Until then, she could always say she was home-schooling. Arthur was in the same boat. His father had enough money to hire a private tutor if he wanted.
Robert was another story, however. Merlin was more than a little worried about him. He really needed to go to school. At the moment, with his current temperament, that might not be the best idea, however. Hopefully, he would take a few days off before going back to school. At least until Merlin had a chance to fix things. He wouldn’t miss too much anyway as long as Merlin took care of it soon.
Ruth, Lucas, Belle, and Peter were probably all facing similar problems. Merlin didn’t know what to do about them though. Ruth probably needed the most help, if she needed help at all. After all, she might be enjoying the blood-drinking and only going out at night.
It was still a few weeks until the full moon, which meant he still had time to deal with Lucas and Robert until then. That left Peter and Belle the first ones he would need to do something about after helping Frank.
While he was tempted to go see how Frank was doing immediately, he decided to wait until after seeing what had happened to Peter and Belle. Hopefully, the shadow wouldn’t be with Peter. That thing had been scary.
By the time he reached Peter and Belle’s house after school, he imagined every scenario of what might happen in his mind. With his luck, something completely unexpected would happen. As it was, however, things went fairly smoothly.
“Hey there Merlin,” Peter said, pulling him into a big bear hug.
Merlin was floored. Peter was acting as if nothing had happened. In fact, he was acting as if they had been lifelong best friends. “Uh, hi there. How are you doing?”
Peter smiled, and spun in a circle, floating slowly up, “Everything is great. Life is such an adventure. Don’t you think so?”
“It certainly has been lately, hasn’t it?” Merlin agreed. “How is Belle doing?”
Peter floated back to the ground and gave Merlin a confused look as if he didn’t know anyone named Belle. Suddenly, he looked a little sad. “Oh, yea. She’s not doing so well. Come on, follow me and I’ll show you.”
Leading Merlin down the hall, Peter added more information, “Dad is off on an assignment again. He should be back in a few weeks. Maybe a month or two. Mom’s gone to...hmm, where did she go? Where’s Shirley or Ruth? One of them can be the mother of the house until Mom returns.”
Merlin followed behind Peter, his eyes wide. Goodness gracious, he thought. Peter had lost his mind. Now, Peter Pan had done some crazy things, such as changing sides and fighting for the pirates in the original book, but...oh boy. Either way, Merlin was more worried than ever about everyone else. If the ones he had met were this badly off, what about the others?
Belle didn’t seem quite as normal as she had been just a few days before. She was fluttering around the room. She actually looked like she was glowing a little, and little drops of dust were floating down from her as she flew around. The oddest part was that she was shorter than she had been the previous time they had met. In fact, she was much shorter.
“Hi there Merlin,” she said, fluttering up to him. “It’s so nice to see you again. Do you want to play any games?”
Merlin was about to respond when Belle went from nice and sweet to glaring at him, her hands resting against her hips. “What are you doing here? You aren’t going to do something to Peter are you?” She held up a tiny fist in front of Merlin’s face.
“Uh, no, never. I just wanted to say I was sorry about how things had happened and wanted to let you know I still wanted to be friends,” Merlin said.
“Oh, that’s so sweet,” Belle said, her expression changing abruptly once more. She rushed forward and gave him a quick hug. “I do so like friends. It is great to have the boys back together again. Do you think Robert and Arthur will join us?”
“I’ll ask when I see them,” Merlin said, his mind racing, wondering how Belle didn’t have emotional whiplash. She seemed to change moods quicker than he could keep up with. “I just wanted to make sure everything is fine. Hasn’t your mother said anything about…” Merlin paused there, not knowing what to say. Then he continued, “You know, with all the changes?”
“Not anymore she won’t,” Belle said with a wicked grin. She’s having some mechanical problems which are keeping her away from here. If she comes by, I’m sure something else will happen to her.”
Merlin had to admit to himself, the shiver that went down his spine was all about fear. Belle sounded so sweet and innocent, and yet he didn’t doubt for a moment that her mother was much better off avoiding the house for the foreseeable future.
“Well, I have to go check on the others. Maybe we can get together once I have seen everyone,” Merlin said. He wasn’t eager to stay around. Who knew when Belle’s mood would change again and what might happen to him if she got angry?
“Okay,” Belle said.
Merlin turned to say something to Peter only to find that he had wandered off without even staying to hear the conversation as if he were already trying to decide what adventure he would have next. Feeling distinctly ill at ease, Merlin showed himself out.
“Oh, my goodness,” he muttered to himself as soon as he was outside. While he knew in the book, Tinkerbell had only been able to feel one emotion at a time due to her size, seeing someone switch personalities that quickly had been unnerving. How could anyone work in the mental health industry? If he didn’t do something soon about those two, a mental facility would be the least of their problems.
He definitely needed to break the curse on them as well. Who knew when their mother would return? It sounded like he didn’t have the opportunity to tackle each problem one by one anymore. He needed to do something soon, however. What, he had no idea. Maybe he could use the mirror piece again as he had with Angela. Maybe he could convince them to abandon their powers. How though? They certainly weren’t going to make it easy though. In fact, he realized that he had been dragged into another adventure. Or as Shirley would say, the game was afoot.
He finally decided that it was time to visit Arthur and get the mirror piece. He didn’t really have a choice. That was the only way he knew how to break the curse, and it appeared that the powers of his friends and once friends had turned from blessings into curses. When would his own powers turn into a curse as well?