Chapter 23: The witch

“I knew Nicole, the real her not that thing what look like her but it not her”. He responded.

“What do you mean?”.

“Nicole is my friend...no she was my friend at least the real her. Because the one posing as her is not the Nicole I knew”. He responded sadly.

“She said to me that she was a witch you knew that?”. I asked him.

“She is different from the other but not bad”. Jason seemed to me desperate, his friend has changed to a person he couldn’t recognize anymore, I have never had a close friend so I don’t know what it feel to be in his place.

“I don’t know what to say. She addressed me like an old evil witch, maybe if the person posing as Nicole is not the real her you need to find her and make her comeback”. I said.

“I thought about that me too but I don’t even know where to begin in getting everything back to normal”. Jason explained. “She was so sweet and beautiful a real sunshine”. He added melancholy.

“You love her, you are in love with her, don’t you?”. I asked him and his face blushed like a tomato.

“It’s not...it’s not that she is just a friend, just a good friend”. He rummaging into the drawer.

“We are friends don’t we? So you don’t have to be ashamed in front of me about your true feelings about her”. I said.

“It’s not that, the one I like is other Nicole is more like a sister to me”. He stopped rummaging and came close to me with a wooden box and gave it to me. “Happy birthday princess, I hope you will like it”.

I took and opened it, inside was a silvery necklace and the pendant was a bird with big gem eyes in different color, one was clear blue and the other crystal clear.

“How did you know it was by birthday I don’t even remember it myself”. I asked him, and sincerely I totally forgot that this day was my birthday.

“It’s a secret so I can’t tell you or else I would have to kill you”. He said with a gruff voice. “Do you like it?”. Jason added quickly.

“Yes, tank you. But where did you find it?”. I asked him feeling a bit suspicious that pendant resembled strangely to the bird in my dream, and I found it weirder after she asked me not to take off the necklace and now Jason is offering me one, I didn’t believe it was possible such coincidence.

“I bought it when I was in DC last month”. He responded but I didn’t believe it.

“Really?”. I asked skeptical.

“Yes, why don’t you believe me?”.

“It’s not that I don’t believe you. The point is that I recently a bird exactly like this one you will think I’m crazy but the one I saw could talk and was real at least in the dream I had it seemed like a real one and now you offering me this necklace I feel a bit suspicious. You get what I mean”. I said.

He didn’t look at me or say anything else, he just stayed there looking at nothing in concrete.

“It’s just a gift if you don’t like you don’t have to use it”. Jason said, then stoop up and opened the closet and came back with my backpack in his hands.

“Here you go, your notebook was ruined by the river water but the rest of the things you had there are just fine”. He said handing me the bag.

I opened it and the first thing I saw was the journal that I snatched away from Nicole at the library that night, it didn’t seem to have suffered any damage because of the water. I opened it just to find the same incomprehensible scribbling and wondered how she could understand it, as she said she was able to understand every humans languages known and unknown.

“She said...I mean Nicole said to me that she was a witch”. I said.

“She has said the same thing to me too but I didn’t believe it, this is the real world things such as witches, magic or any others things related aren’t true just fiction. But after everything that had happened lately I don’t know if I think the same anymore”. He responded taking a seat in the chair by the window.

“What are you going to do about her? she is your friend after all. Maybe there is something you can do to help her?”.

“I don’t know what to do, I don’t even know where to begin in order to figure anything out, she had changed so suddenly that I didn’t know”. Jason said.

“Maybe this could be a good start”. I said handing him the journal. “She had used to do things that I wouldn’t have believed it someone else told me about them. She had used it to bond me to a chair and the inverse, she also magically or I don’t know what term to use sealed the library we were in and I was only able to escape with the journal in my hand”.

“I don’t know if in her case it would be useful”. He said dubiously.

“I know but we won’t lose anything in trying. And one more thing I think the one posing as her is not her, maybe it is her body but the one in charge in other. When we were at the library Nicole eyes at sometime were all black before going back to normal, the first time I thought it was just an illusion but after everything that happened that night it seemed to me like the exorcist with demons possessing human”. I said.

“Are you sure about that”. He asked with a serious face.

“About what?”. I was lost.

“About the color of her eyes, they were all black?”. Jason asked.

“Totally sure, they were scary to look at”.

“She did it?”. He said more to himself than to me.

“What did she do?”.

“You don’t need to worry about it it’s not your problem anymore, for now you just have to go back home and take care of your ankle”. He said as he stood up and started rummaging into the drawers.

“It’s my problem too because she had tried to force me to make a deal with her when I denied she bonded to a chair, then chased me through the woods, threw me into the air the reason I bruised my ankle and the last part I almost drowned into that river and all of because of that witch, so to resume everything it’s also my problem because she had made me part of it”. I said trying appear courageous but I was completely frightened by the simple idea of meeting Nicole again.

“She wanted to make a deal with you? What was the deal?”. He asked anxiously, he had stopped rummaging and came next to the bed waiting for my answer.

“She asked for a few drops of my tears in exchange she said she would make it possible for me to understand all mankind languages”. I said making a quote sign at the end.

“Did you accept the deal?”.

“I wouldn’t be in this state if I had accepted the deal, don’t you think so?”. I responded.

He let out a sigh of relief.

“Never no matter what happen accept to make a deal with her”. Said Jason as he came closer and made me look at him directly into the eyes. “You have to remember it ok, never let her fool you in doing so promise me that”.

There were so much into his eyes I wondered what caused him to feel this way.

“Yes I promise”. I said.

“Prepare yourself your father would be here soon to pick you up”. He said.

“But what are we going to do next?”. I asked instead.

“You need to stay away from this, if what I suspect now is true I can’t possibly let you get expose to danger”. He said.

“But you will be expose the danger too, isn’t it better if you have help?”.

“You can’t possibly help me in your current state, so just good home and take care of yourself”. Jason responded I knew he was trying to make me let it go but I wasn’t going to do so.

“What if she comes after me again?”. I asked him to see how he would again make me abandon the idea of getting involved into the problem.

“She won’t?”. He said but I rebate him.

“How can you assure that? That night she seemed pretty serious in her attempt to get my tears, what will stop her in the future?”.

“I will...I”. I raised my right hand to stop whatever he was about to say.

“That witch is too dangerous for you to take care of her on your own, let me help there must be something I could do to help you figure everything out”. I said.

“You don’t need to worry about anything, and I won’t be alone in this”. I was about to ask else would help him but he quickly added. “You don’t know her, she would be here soon, we both we take care of her. But I need you to trust me with this problem princess, I need you to stay safe that how you will help me to solve this problem”. He said.

I didn’t know what to stay at the moment to convince him to let me participate in the plan he had but I wasn’t going to do what he had asked me either, but just to reassure him I promised that I wouldn’t intervene.

“What did you tell my father about what happened that night?”. I asked him.

“That you’re an heroine, that day you saw a abandon puppy into the river you tried to saved him but fell into the river yourself and almost drowned. But I came just in time to save the day like always and took you back to my house and my mother took cake of you”. He said smiling mischievously.

“So this is your room?”. I asked.

The smile on his face disappear.

“It’s not my room”. Outside we hear the car engine pulling in. “I think you father is here”. He went to the window to check. “Yes it’s him, remember princess you have to stay away of this, promise me”. He said.

I promised but I didn’t mean it, I knew it was bad but I couldn’t possibly let him face that witch by himself.