The shadow glided across the floor. Not sure how to fight something that didn’t have a body, Merlin backed away. While he didn’t know how to fight the shadow, the shadow apparently knew it could do something to him.
Thinking furiously, Merlin tried to come up with something that could hurt a shadow. The only thing he could come up with however was light. Not having a better idea, he went with that until something better came along and chanted out one of his light spells.
“Let there be a bright white light,
To shine on this dark cold night!”
He was so nervous he shouted the first lines. Hoping that might make the spell more powerful, he did the same with the rest of the lines.
“Let there be a bright white light,
To shine on this dark cold night!
Let there be a bright white light,
To shine on this dark cold night!”
As soon as he finished the spell, a very bright light appeared in the room, hovering several feet in front of him. The shadow didn’t make a sound, but it did retreat a few feet, and no longer came towards him. Concentrating on not letting the spell go, he tried to corner the shadow.
Before he could push it back into a corner with the light, it slipped away and then tried to come up behind him. Not sure what would happen, Merlin continued to try to keep the light between them. Unfortunately, this meant that he couldn’t do anything about Ms. White, who had already started to finish packing the mirror for shipment.
That wasn’t good. He had to do something. He couldn’t think of another spell while holding the light spell. That meant he had to use one of his prepared spell items. Still concentrating on the light, he felt in his pockets for something to use. He couldn’t devote too much attention to it though since he might lose concentration and then lose the spell.
His hand ran across the small flashlight. It wasn’t much bigger than a laser light, but it was useful when he read at night under the bed covers.
Careful not to turn it on until it was out of his pocket, he pointed it at the shadow. Letting go of the light spell, he concentrated on the spell in the flashlight. Luckily, the light from the first spell didn’t fade away immediately. It did dim somewhat, but it was still bright enough to keep the shadow at bay for a few seconds more.
The flashlight, however, had a bigger effect that the light had. It slashed into the dark shadow. While there was no sound, it definitely looked like the shadow wanted to scream in pain the way it recoiled and dashed back away from him.
When he had first cast the spell, he had wanted to create a lightsaber-type weapon, something that could cut through anything. After thinking through how that might work since the light wouldn’t stop after just a few feet, he had changed the spell somewhat. Instead, he had cast the spell with the intention of making something hot enough to burn, sort of like a magnifying glass. He also wanted to be able to blind an enemy with it.
The spell seemed to work better than he had expected on the shadow. Concentrating, he kept swinging the light to follow the shadow, which skittered and scurried around the room.
Just when he was starting to feel like he might have the shadow on the run, it started throwing things at him from around the room. When the lamp almost smashed into his head, Merlin lost his train of concentration, and the flashlight became an ordinary and somewhat weak flashlight again.
Seconds later, the shadow surrounded him, enveloping him in darkness. Almost immediately, he noticed that he couldn’t breathe. Since he couldn’t breathe, he couldn’t cast a spell either. That left only the prepared spells in his pockets.
Desperately, he fumbled in his pockets, looking for anything that could help him. Everything he touched was yet another spell that wouldn’t help at all. Stumbling around, he bumped into Ms. White and the mirror. Just as he was about to lose consciousness, the light cleared.
Arthur stood in front of him, his sword shining brightly in the darkness. Apparently, his sword was more like Excalibur than he had thought. It had cut the shadow, which had retreated before the weapon.
While it might have saved his life, it also shattered the mirror. Perhaps Arthur hadn’t been able to see the mirror behind the shadow, or perhaps he had thought the sword wouldn’t go through the shadow so easily. Either way, the mirror shattered, as did their hopes of saving Angela.
While he wanted to shout at Arthur, he couldn’t. After all, Arthur had just saved his life. Bending down, he plucked the largest piece of the mirror off the ground. It was at that moment that Peter, Ruth, Lucas, and Belle ran into the room.
They must have been chasing Arthur or had just arrived. Either way, he and Arthur couldn’t stay. While the others looked at the pieces of the broken mirror, Merlin tugged Arthur out of the room. Together, they tore out of the house as if it was on fire.
Ruth, Lucas, and Peter didn’t lose more than a few seconds of surprise before they started chasing after them. Merlin was more scared of the shadow, but apparently, it was injured enough or had decided to stay behind with Ms. White and Belle.
Merlin shuddered as he remembered the look in her eyes as Ms. White had looked at the broken mirror. She had been so furious. Maybe the shadow wasn’t the scariest thing he had seen that day after all.
They were out of the house and running down the street when Merlin remembered a prepared spell that might be useful.
He almost dropped it as they ran but managed to clutch hold of it at the last second. As they took a corner, he cracked it and concentrated on the effect he desired, remembering the words he had spoken when he made the enchanted item, a birthday candle.
“If the candle is broke,
It will create a cloak
Of a concealing smoke.”
While it hadn’t been his best bit of work, he hoped it would be enough to do the job. If only he had time to create a spell with broken instead of broke. Maybe token.
He berated himself when he almost forgot to continue concentrating on the smoke. It wouldn’t help much if it was immediately blown away. Then again, the others probably knew where they were going. Maybe he had just wasted a spell for nothing. At the very least, it might stop them for a few seconds and buy them more time to reach the motel.
Extra time was needed. A couple of years ago his baseball coach had told him that he was the only one the coach knew who could hit a home run and still get thrown out at first. Now, considering if you hit a home run, it is impossible to get thrown out at first, that was kind of savage. Then again, who was he kidding? He had never hit a home run in his life.
Luckily, they didn’t have to run far. Apparently, the others had woken up and noticed he and Arthur were missing and must have driven to come to find them. As soon as the car stopped, Arthur and Merlin jumped into the car.
Just as he was getting into the car, something hit Merlin in the back of the head. Instead of getting into the car, he fell into the car. Groggily, he felt hands tugging him so they could shut the door. Someone held something to his head as he stared up at the roof of the car, his vision blurry. Slowly, his eyes closed, and he fell unconscious.
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When Merlin woke up, he didn’t know where he was at first. It took him a few moments to realize he was in the car, staring up at the ceiling. With bleary eyes, he slowly looked around, his head throbbing.
With relief, he noticed that Shirley and Robert were awake. They both looked much better than they had before. Apparently, both had recovered enough that he wasn’t worried about either one anymore. Now all he had to do was figure out what to do about Angela.
With the mirror broken, who knew what they could do to wake her up? Maybe with the piece he had taken, he could do something. At least he hoped he would be able to do something.
Maybe first he needed to do something about his head. It was killing him. He reached back and tentatively touched the back of his head. It had already started to swell up. He was going to have quite the bump. He winced when he touched it just a shade too hard.
Grimacing, he decided to see if he could do something about his own injury now. Whatever had hit him had hurt. At least it hadn’t been in the face. Tired and finding it hard to concentrate, he pushed aside everything but the thought of completing the spell, using another one of the spells he had come up with before everything started, began the spell.
“Heal me now I beseech thee,
Let me have no injury.
Heal me now I beseech thee,
Let me have no injury.
Heal me now I beseech thee,
Let me have no injury.”
Merlin focused his thoughts on the bump on his head, willing it to get smaller. He imagined the injury shrinking, fading away as if it had never happened. Slowly, the pain subsided into a dull ache. Feeling overwhelmingly weary, his concentration unraveled, and the spell slipped away.
Suddenly, he was tired, very tired. Odd, he thought. After he had healed the others, they had fallen asleep as well. Maybe the body needed to rest after being healed. Weird he thought as he descended into slumber.
When he woke up the next time, he was being shaken lightly awake by Arthur. “We’re at Angela’s house,” Arthur said.
Merlin thought about nodding but then decided that might hurt if he tried. Instead, he simply got out of the car and walked with the others to the door. The sun had come up, and they wouldn’t be too awkward asking to see her.
Shirley seemed almost back to normal and did all the talking. Robert and Arthur simply looked worried, like they didn’t know what to say so they thought it best to say nothing. Maybe he was projecting, Merlin thought. Maybe that was just what he was thinking.
Angela’s parents let them in, obviously hoping some miracle would occur. They didn’t even bother to go up with the group. Angela’s mother was making a phone call to a doctor, while her husband was leafing through the yellow pages in search of more doctors to call.
Stepping into Angela’s room, he looked at how she was still asleep. While they still had their powers even though the mirror had been broken, he had hoped somehow the curse would have been broken anyway.
Merlin shook her slightly, just to make sure. After getting no response, he took out the mirror. Somehow it had survived his injury, Handing it to Shirley, he said, “Please hold this so that if she opens her eyes, she will see it.”
Shirley nodded. “Okay,” she said.
Merlin turned to Robert, “Robert, I might need you to do something in a moment. Please don’t ask questions, and just do whatever I ask. Do you understand?”
Robert nodded, “I understand. What do you want me to do?”
“In the story, she needed a kiss, so that’s what I want you to do,” Merlin said.
“Uh,” Robert said, not sure what to say. His face turned bright red.
Arthur cleared his throat, “What do I do?”
“Right now, nothing,” Merlin said. You already saved my life. In a moment though, I want everyone to start talking to Angela, telling her how she looks like she has had a great nap. Maybe mention she looks like she is ready and awake for a new day to begin. You know, that type of stuff.”
“Sleeping Beauty was her name,
That she slept was a great shame.
We do not want her to sleep,
But wake from her slumber deep.
Open your eyes, we now ask,
We wish you to do this task.
Listen to the words we say,
Rise up from where you now lay.
Then look at your reflection,
And feel his true affection,
As he kisses you upon your cheek,
Listen to us as we speak.”
Merlin motioned for Richard to lean over and kiss her. He stared at everyone in surprise and embarrassment for a moment, but then hurriedly kissed her cheek. Merlin continued, concentrating on the spell, willing her to wake and listen to their words.
“No longer are you asleep
And your parents will not weep,
You are really now awake,
Because it is now daybreak!”
Merlin felt the pressure building. Twice more he chanted the words, and twice more Richard kissed her cheek. When the last word was spoken, Merlin continued to concentrate on his words, willing Angela’s eyes to open.
After a few seconds, Angela’s eyes fluttered open, and saw her reflection. Everyone immediately started telling her how rested and awake she looked.
Slowly, she began to stretch, looking away from the mirror at everyone surrounding her. Angela seemed very confused, and then more than a little annoyed to find everyone around her bed, staring at her.
“Okay guys, get out,” she muttered, giving each one of them an evil eye. Seeing no immediate reaction other than smiles, she took her pillows and began throwing them at everyone.
Seeing that she was awake, everyone scrambled out of the room. Angela had always been a grouch in the mornings, and waking up to everyone surrounding her wasn’t likely to put her in a good mood.
After they had retreated to the hallway, they grinned wildly at each other.
“Good job!” Richard said, hugging Merlin. Richard and Shirley didn’t say anything. All they did was get into the group hug.
Together, they hopped up and down, giggling with relief that everything was over, and they had done it. Angela’s mother glanced up the stairs to see what was going on. Seeing their reaction, she bolted up the stairs and flew into Angela’s room. A loud scream of joy was heard by pretty much everyone in the neighborhood seconds later.
Still grinning, they all started laughing. Despite the hurdles and hardships, they had succeeded. They had broken the curse on their friend and still had their powers.
Merlin finally had to bring the group back down with something they hadn’t had time to consider. “You know guys, we still have our powers, but they might eventually fade away. If that happens, it happens.”
Everyone looked a little upset by this, but Merlin still had something to add. “On the plus side, maybe we will be able to keep the powers. The problem is that Peter, Lucas, Frank, Belle, and Ruth would still have their powers as well.”
Everyone stopped breathing for a second, apparently realizing what that meant. They all went to the same school. They shared many of the same classes. Frank definitely wasn’t going to be happy with them. While Angela might be healed, that didn’t mean anything was over.
Shirley was the first to speak, “We do have one secret weapon. We have a big piece of the mirror.”
“They might have big pieces as well,” Merlin reminded everyone.
“That’s true,” Richard said.
“Let’s worry about that later,” Arthur said. “We have a mirror, and they might have a mirror. Either way, we got what we wanted.”
“What do we do with our piece?” Shirley asked.
“Give it to Merlin,” Richard suggested. “He can hide it with a spell.”
“Why not me?” Arthur asked. “My house has a security system.”
Shirley thought for a moment, clearly considering the options. “I can see both sides. For now, why don’t we have Arthur keep the mirror.”
Arthur smiled, then took the mirror as Shirley handed it to him. “I’ll take good care of it,” he said.
With that, everyone headed back to the car. Soon, Merlin was once more at his house. Surprisingly, his parents were none the wiser. They hadn’t even noticed he was gone.
In two more days, it would be Monday, and time to see everyone, even the Monster Mob and their new recruits, at school. For now, however, he was safe and sound at home. Even better, he had everything he had always dreamed of having. What could possibly go wrong?