HER DRAWINGS

At midnight, Amari woke up with a gasp. She got out of bed and switched on her light. She moved to where her drawing board was and picked up a brush. Dipping it in one color, and then another, she started to draw something on the paper in front of her.

***

*THE NEXT MORNING*

Jake conat could feel a headache coming. It suddenly seemed like it was World's Crime Day. Or probably, World Burglary day. He still wasn't sure which tag to give it.

The telephone wouldn't stop ringing and there had already been over fifty Burglary reports, literally.

Picking up the telephone himself, since there was no one else in the Sheriff county station besides him, Jake heaved in a deep breath - he had to send literally all his deputies and the other support personnels, to the houses of those who had reported this burglary, batch by batch.

"Hello, Sheriff county station, how may I help you?" he spoke into the telephone in a husky voice.

He listened to the other line for a few seconds, creasing the lines on his forehead.

"Alright we would be right there," he muttered, his voice quieter, and then he hung up.

Just then one of his deputy stepped in.

"Another burglary report just came in. And this time, it's from the local bank," Jake said and the deputy, a dark skinned young man who seemed to be in his late twenties, sighed.

"The reports they are giving is unbelievable but surprisingly the same," the deputy said.

"How so Collins?" Jake asked.

"Well, we did check, there was no sign of a break-in or entry, in any of the houses. Yet the reported items were indeed stolen. It's almost as if the items vanished."

Jake hummed in response as he pondered on Collins words.

"None of the houses had CCTV cameras?" he asked and Collins shook his head in the negation.

"Get some men from the dispatch center and go check out the local bank!" Jake instructed after a while.

"Yes sir!" Collins responded and started to make his way out of the office.

"Wait!" Jake muttered when Collins was halfway to the door, and Collins halted, and then turned.

"I will go, you stay here," he said, grabbing his keys and sunglasses.

******

Amari couldn't stop caressing the Amulet necklace she wore around her neck. She didn't know why but she felt this connection to it.

It had been her mother's gift to her. Her father had said, right after he gave it to her the previous night, that her mother always wore that amulet before she had died.

The Amulet had this carved drawing on its pendant. The pendant had a circle shape and in the circle was a carving like the drawing of some sort of star. But each of the five pointed part of the stars had lines at the far end, making it look more like a symbol than a shape.

Even though Amari's father had gotten her a car as her birthday gift, she still considered the amulet she was wearing around her neck more precious. And it wasn't even because she didn't exactly fancy the color of the Audi her father had gotten her.

Catching sight of Claire from a corner of her eyes, Amari moved from her locker to hers.

"Hey bestie," Amari greeted with a smile.

Claire scoffed, and then rolled her eyes but didn't say anything. She had her hair held up to a messy bun and was putting on a floral gown.

Unlocking her locker, she started to take off the jacket she had worn on top of her gown.

"I am so sorry I screamed at you yesterday bestie, I didn't know what came over me," Amari spoke again, leaning on the locker next to Claire's. Claire finally turned to look at her.

"It's fine. I am not really mad. It just feels good to be apologized to, you know," Claire ended with a wink and Amari chuckled.

Claire shut her locker and signalled Amari to walk with her.

"By the way, I saw your new car in the driveway, it is very pink," Claire said and both girls giggled.

"I know right! My dad can be something else sometimes. He probably feels that since I am a girl, pink it is. He forgets that I am not even girly to begin with…" Amari whined and Claire chuckled, shaking her head as if she was feeling sorry for her friend but her and Amari knew that she was just being dramatic as usual.

"We could switch cars. I am girly and my car is red. You love red," Claire offered.

"Don't even think about it," Amari said and they both burst out laughing.

"Seen Nathan yet?" Claire asked as they walked out of the locker room.

"Umm, he was actually at my place last night," Amari blurted out without thinking and Claire gasped, turning to look at her.

"I take it that you two talked things out. So, you two dating now?" Claire asked with a teasing smile just as they started walking through the passageway, heading for the stairway.

Amari didn't get the chance to give her best friend a reply. A smile subconsciously lit up her face as she saw Nathan and Nick walking down the stairs.

Claire followed Amari's line of sight when she caught her smiling expression, and a sharp breath escaped her lips.

The boys reached the girls, halfway up the stairs and halted.

"Hey," Nathan greeted.

"Hey," Amari responded.

Claire on the other hand couldn't seem to meet Nick's gaze. She was usually so confident but the guy in front of her seemed to leave her not so confident. Every damn time.

"Hey Claire," Nathan greeted her and she responded with a nod.

"That's a beautiful necklace," Nathan complimented, turning to Amari and her hand moved to caress it.

"Thanks," she muttered.

"So, umm, see you after school?" Nathan said and Amari nodded, still wearing a smile.

Nathan returned her smile, and then continued his journey down the stairs with Nick.

Amari turned to Claire just in time to find her stunned expression. She furrowed her eyebrows at her.

"Are you okay?" she asked and Claire blinked, and then nodded.

Managing a smile, Nathan's last words registered in Claire's head. "You two are meeting after school? Oh my God! Finally! My bestie is going to get laid!" Claire's voice was loud enough to earn them some stares as they proceeded walking up the stairs.

"Keep it down drama queen. We are just going to hang out…" Amari countered but her eyebrows twitched, compelling a satisfied smile to spread across Claire's face. Amari's eyebrows would usually twitch when she lied.

"Yeah right…" Claire said and Amari rolled her eyes. Of course she was lying but it wasn't the lie Claire thought it was. Her and Nathan weren't going to be hanging out. Well, not alone at least. She would be hanging out with the rest of her circle.

Amari turned to Claire as she wondered what her best friend would think about her being a witch, she sighed, and then averted her gaze from Claire.

"That's right, I forgot to say that your necklace looks really good on you. Your mother's?" Claire asked. They had gotten to the end of the stairway, and were now walking through a quite spacious passageway.

"Yup," was Amari's reply.

"Hey girls, wait up!"

The girls heard Lucas' voice and the next minute he joined them.

******

"They met in the woods last night, Amari's powers are slowly starting to manifest. Her circle already told her who she is," Kara muttered as she brewed herself a cup of coffee in her kitchen.

"It will happen in no time now, they would bind their circle and then we would lose our chance to kill her, you know?" Lydia said.

"Relax Lydia. The kids can only bind the circle on a full moon. We still have three days before the next full moon. We have a plan remember?" Kara countered as she took her cup of coffee and started heading for the sitting room. Lydia trailed behind her.

"I know that we have a plan but with every day that passes, Amari grows more powerful," Lydia reminded in a pained voice.

"It will be fine. Come on, we are not amateurs and if we don't act according to the plan, we would only ruin everything."

Kara slowly brought the coffee to her lips and took a sip from the mug.

"Maybe we should tell the kids. They will hate us if they learnt about all of this from someone else," Lydia suggested.

"You think telling them anything will make any difference? It won't. We stick to the plan," Kara countered.

***

"I woke up in the middle of the night, and then drew this," Amari said, taking out a piece of paper from her bag and spreading it on the table for the rest to see.

School had ended for the day but Amari, Nathan and the others had not gone home yet. They were in one of the science labs in the school.

"You drew this?" Stephen asked, observing the drawing closely. Amari nodded.

The drawing on the piece of paper were sketches of lines, both thick lines and thin lines meshed together. It had a total of three colors; blue, red and green. It seemed to be following a particular pattern.

"These are ley lines," Stephen declared, averting his gaze to the paper.