December 20th 2022 9:20 P.M.

“Have you ever heard of Water Magyk?” I asked. “The most important of all the Magyks?” I looked at Finn’s eager face and it pained me that he might say no.  I also worried just because the last student I taught became the demon king and I can’t deal with that again.  Especially if it was Finn.  If he turned to the Darke of ChaosMagyk then there would be nothing that I could do to save him.

“Not as of recently, Miss Jenna.” Finn replied.

I asked him, “Would you like to learn the Magyk of water?  If you say yes, I will teach you.  If you say no, however, I will teach you the Magyk of visions like I was originally going to.  I believe that both will serve us well in the coming days.”

Maya looked at him and nodded, “I think you should say yes.  It would be good if someone else learned at least one Magyk,” she blushed as she added, “and I think it should be you.  You deserve it because you work so hard and are such an honest and innocent soul.  You would be perfect for that, Finn, I think you should say yes.  I think Water Magyk would serve you better than visions because you can actually defend yourself and attack with the Magyk of water.”

“Yes please then, Miss Jenna.” Finn said.

“Sit still.  Let the water encase you and try to breathe normally with the water covering you.  You will now be able to breathe underwater.  Understood?” I asked him.

“Understood, ma’am.” Finn said.

I smiled.

***

“Tarik.  We need to go.  Something feels different in the air.  The water.  The water feels different.  We need to go now!” Malachi said.  He turned to Tasha, “I don’t care what you have done but right now you WILL pick up your brother and help him out of this room.  Someone is learning water Magyk and I have a feeling that it is not going to go very well at all.”

“Whatever you say my friend.” Tasha said to him.

Malachi glanced at her but said nothing. “Can you walk with some support, Tarik?  Or do we have to carry you?”

“I can probably walk,” I said to him.

“Then try please,” Malachi responded.

I struggled to get up and he rushed over and helped me to stand up and walk.  He put my right arm around his shoulders and helped me to walk.

“Ahhhh,” I tried to speak, “Why?  Why would you do this to me?  Go with the enemy.  I don’t care.  Don’t come running to me whenever your boyfriend tortures you too, Tasha.” I looked over at her face expecting a look of rage but she just looked defeated.

“You can always trust a dishonest person to be dishonest, Tarik.” Tasha replied, “It’s just who I am at this point.  I’m not turning back.”

“I can definitely see that, Tasha.  No need to remind me.” I told her. “It is already out there.”

“Stop.  Just stop, both of you.  Just stop.” Malachi said. “We can’t be arguing right now.  I will not allow it.  It will tear us apart.  I will not allow that to happen under my watch.”

I looked down, hurt.  One of my best friends, my best friend actually, was yelling at me.  Why?  Why did this always happen to me?  All of my friends end up as horrible people.  How will I ever recover from all of this?  Was I ever going to get out of this situation or was I going to be stuck in it forever?

“We need to get to Maya.  Let’s get to Maya.” I said. “I need her advice.  I don’t know what to do right now so I really require her advice.”

“Fine.” Tasha said as she instantly made a left into another hallway. “We haven’t got all day.  Let’s go!  We need to hurry up!”

We walked through the hallway until we reached the last door on the left, the meeting room.  Tasha opened the door and we all walked in.

“Join us.” Jenna said as we walked in.  She pointed to a spot on the floor where three chairs waited for us.  Two seemed closer than the other one but who was I to be concerned about that.  One was close to Paige then as well.  Tasha sat down next to Paige and Malachi helped me into my chair before sitting down next to me and crossing his legs.

“Soo…” Andrew said, “I can feel that you guys have learned something new.” He said as he glanced towards Tasha.

“Be quiet!  I am trying to teach Finn!” Jenna exclaimed as she continued talking to Finn, “The Magyk of water is embedded in our very souls.  We are made mostly of water.  Water can provide life, but it can also be the death of everything in this world.  Water is what made us.  We are mostly made of water and in turn, water keeps us alive.  Without water, there would be no life.”

I glanced over at Paige, who was watching intently.  She looked up at me and I managed a small smile.  We both turned back to watch Jenna and Finn.  Jenna was speaking softly and Finn was staring at her intently.

“Miss Jenna, how am I supposed to channel the Magyk of water?” Finn asked before he said, “I have no idea how.  If I can’t channel it then I could cause major harm to the people around me and others.  I don’t want to do that.”

“Of course.  How could I forget?” Jenna said as she waved for Malachi to go up there with them, “Malachi will show you.  Won’t you, dear?  Malachi is very experienced within the Magyk of water and will be able to teach you whatever you need to know.  Just ask him and he will show you.”

“Of course.” Malachi said as he walked forward. “I can’t wait to show you what I know.  It will be nice for someone else to know.”

I would never forget the look on Malachi’s face as he realized that he might not live through the demonstration.  Most demonstrations end up with the demonstrator being killed.  In this case, that was Malachi.  He had a look of absolute fear alongside kindness.  He was ready to die for Finn  to become all powerful in the art of Water Magyk.

“No,” I struggled to get up, “Let me do it.  I can be Replaced; you cannot.”

Malachi stared at me in horror at what I had just offered to do and said to Finn, “I will be able to show you everything whenever he is done.”  To be Replaced by something else was a truly horrible thing.  That would leave a spirit from the Void in my place and I would then be in the Void.  He got up, moved back to his spot, and put his head in his hands and watched through his fingers as I was about to quite possibly sacrifice myself so that Finn could learn the Magyk of water.  I was ready to do so but I don’t think anyone else was.  They all watched with varying degrees of admiration as I got up to teach Finn the basics of the Magyk of water.

A Few Minutes Before

“You know just how much I loved this school, Rufus?” Mrs. Hunt asked him.  “It was like my home and I loved the students so much.  I feel like I should have done more.  I feel like it was all my fault and I needed to be there for everyone.”

“Of course, Cecelia, students and all,” Rufus said, “We all loved it.  There was nothing that you could have done to change what happened.  I can promise you that.  We both did everything that we possibly could to help.  We may have failed to help some people but just think of all those people we did save.  We did nothing wrong.  We helped as best we could, there was nothing else that we could have done.”

“I will miss all of the dead so much, they were all the sweetest ones too.” Cecelia said, “Rufus, what will we tell the parents?”

“The only thing that we can,” Rufus responded, “The truth.”

“Sometimes the truth hurts though.  What are we supposed to tell them?” Cecelia asked again. “We can’t just say what happened.  It would ruin everyone.”

“The truth is always the best way to go but I have no idea as to how we will tell them.  Poor things.  Everyone will be so very upset.” Rufus said.

“The truth won’t get through to their heads,” a hooded figure said as she stepped out of the shadows, “We need to make an elaborate story that is so unbelievable that they will actually believe it.  It is so easy to make people believe something whenever they have nothing else to believe instead of that.  It is way too easy.”

“I don’t know how though.” Cecelia said without turning around. “We have no evidence for an elaborate story and none for the truth either.  The only thing we have is this dump.” She said as she kicked a stone.

“It doesn’t take much.” The hooded figures said softly, “With a little evidence they can be quickly persuaded to believe something.  The school should be enough to convince them all that some huge tragedy happened, and if not then I will make some evidence.”

“So we shall.” Rufus and Cecelia said at the same time.

“How exactly do we come up with that though?” Rufus asked. “We have nothing.  Unless you create something soon we have nothing at all!  No evidence!”

“Leave that,” the hooded figure paused, “to me!”

Present Time

I managed to get up but quickly fell to the ground and crawled to Finn before sitting up and saying, “You really want to do this?  It will forever change your life.  You may or may not change for the worse after this.  The last person I helped with this changed.  They are with us now and it isn’t Andrew.  I don’t want this to happen to you.” I paused as I reached out towards him, “Do you still want to go through with this?” I asked as I put my hand on his shoulder.

“Yes.  I really do.  I don’t want you to hurt yourself though.  Just let Malachi do it.” Finn said. “He is so much healthier than you are right now.  Just let him do it.”

I shook my head sadly, “I can’t.  I will not let him do it.  Now, stand up and focus on your new Magyk.  Feel it flowing through you.  If you start to let your emotions take over then you may leave the light and enter the Darke so be very careful.”

Finn stood up and focused on his Magyk.  He showed that he really could focus if he tried.  His gaze was directed at me but I could tell that he could not actually see me.

“What do you see?” Jenna asked.

“I see a Tsunami.  And all of you….” He said as everyone watched him closely.  His normally dark brown almost black eyes changed to a bright ice blue. “The Tsunami is over all of you.” His eyes abruptly changed back to dark brown. “You all drowned.”

We all stared at him in horror before Jenna said, “It’s okay.  Just listen to Tarik, my dear.”

Finn nodded quickly.

“Now, feel the Magyk flow through you.  Grab hold of it and throw a stream of water at me.” I said. “Let it wrap around my whole body and then try to suffocate me.  It is the only way to learn the Magyk of water and I am ready to push it away.”

“I can’t do that!  It will kill you!” Finn said. “We all still need you.  We always need you.  We can’t lose you because of my magic!” He said as his eyes narrowed in worry.

“And oh well too bad if it does then!” I said, “You need to learn, I am not needed anymore, it is a win for the both of us.”

“Tarik, you can’t though!  I need you, you're my best friend.” Paige said.

“You will be okay.” I said, “Now, Finn, try it.”

Finn stood there, debating on whether he should or not, before he decided to listen to me.  He used the power and threw a ball that encased me and started to suffocate me.  I tried to get out of the ball, I really did, but every single time that I got close, it pulled me back in.  I couldn’t hold my breath any longer.  I let it all out and accidentally breathed in.  I realized that I could actually breathe!  I was so happy that I could breathe but kind of sad because now I still had to live with all of this.  I had to live with the fact of teaching Finn.  I had to live with failing to properly teach Malachi at first and so he changed.  I had to live with the fact that everyone would hate me if another demon king was created…..I had to deal with it all.

I saw Paige trying to pull Finn away and break his concentration but I waved my arms around and slowly shook my head.  She quickly took the hint.  I pulled on the Magyk deep inside of me and slowly pushed the water away from me until I was standing in a little air pocket with the water still surrounding me.  I was pushing at the water before it enveloped me again.  I was breathing under the water again while still trying to push it back.

I could see someone pulling at Finn again and I lost my concentration trying to tell them to stop.  The water crashed over me again.  I used all of my strength to absorb all of the water inside of my body.  The water slowly absorbed into my body as I crashed back to the ground and lay still.  I said, “He is ready to use his Magyk.”

“I will use it well.” Finn responded as he turned to look at Jenna.

I looked around the room and looked at everyone except for five people:  Malachi, Andrew, Paige, Tasha, and Maya.

“I want everyone to leave the room now.” I said.  Everyone started to leave and then I said as I pointed at them, “Except you five.”

They all looked at me and then Andrew said, “Why us?”

“Because I said so!” I screamed, “Now you will stay here whether you like it or not!”

They all stared at me, surprised as I started to drag a chair so I could sit in front of them.  Malachi got up, got my chair, and moved it in front of them before he came and helped me into it.  I nodded my thanks as he sat back down.  Soon, the six of us were the only ones left in the room.

“So,” I said as I smiled and leaned forward, my elbows on the armrests, “Who is ready to have this well needed chat?”

They all looked at me but said nothing so I said again, angrier this time, “I said, who is ready?”

Malachi was the one who responded, “None of us.” He stared at me as if he was looking straight into my soul, I knew he was serious.

“The rest of you feel this way as well?” I asked as my head started to throb.

The rest of them nodded.

I looked at the floor in disgust, “Tell me, friends, would it maybe be because you all are working against me?  Is it all because you can’t just find a way to stay with me?”

“It isn’t that at all, Tarik!  I would never do that to you!” Paige said.

“Neither would I.” Maya said.

“Neither would I.” Malachi said.

The two people that I had hoped would say something did not.  I kept looking back and forth between Tasha and Andrew but neither of them spoke up until, 

“Neither would I.” Tasha said.  She stared at the floor before raising her head and looking at each of us in turn before saying again, “Neither would I.”

I looked at Tasha, startled to say the least.  I was almost certain that she had been a part of being against me.  I looked down at the floor, unable to see anything else.  I still believed that she was working alongside Andrew but now I wasn’t so sure.

“You may not believe it but it is the truth.” Tasha said to me.

I looked up at Malachi and searched his face for the truth.  He nodded.

“I will believe you for now.” I said as I turned to look at her again. “Should I ever hear anything again,” I said, “I will end you myself.  I can’t go on like this forever and will get rid of anyone who gets in the way.”

“Don’t, Tarik.  You can’t say that; Tasha is your sister.  For goodness sake, act like it!” Paige said. She had a look of outrage on her face that I would even think to talk to Tasha like that made her angry.

I couldn’t look at anyone.  I tried so hard but I couldn’t bring myself to do it.  The only people I felt I couldn’t trust were both Andrew, and now Tasha as well.  I couldn’t believe it, my sister was trying to physically and mentally kill me.  There was only one solution.

“Tasha.” I said as she looked towards me, “Take my hand.” I said as I stretched my hand out towards her. “Please, sister.  Take my hand.”

Tasha looked at me super confusedly.  She couldn’t see what I was trying to do as she reached out and grabbed my hand.  I quickly brought my other hand around and grabbed it so that my hands encased hers.  I stared into her eyes as a beam formed from them. I looked up at her forehead as the beam penetrated her skin and…..