Busy as a Beaver

Chapter 18

“What the…you’re witches too?” Chuck called out. Great. This would have been a lot easier if Chuck hadn’t had magical powers.

“He’s a wizard too?” Sophie gasped as we ran along, darting into an alley between two buildings.

“I guess so,” I said, the two of us ducking behind an empty dumpster. “I had no idea.”

“Aren’t you supposed to have some sort of sixth sense about this sort of thing?”

“What? No, that’s just in the movies.”

“Well, it would have come in pretty handy right about now.”

I shushed her as Chuck began making his way towards us. The fact that he had his finger held out in front of him wasn’t good; I imagined he was using a honing spell to try and find us.

“I’m going to attack him with a spell, and I need you to run. Get out of here,” I said to Sophie.

“Not a chance. I’m not leaving you to take on this psycho on your own.”

“You’re at a huge disadvantage. I can’t fight him and keep you safe,” I hissed. Sophie looked like she wanted to argue, then nodded as she thought it through and realized the words I was saying made sense.

“Fine. I’ll go,” she said, just as Chuck turned and made his way down the alley towards us.

“Now,” I whispered to her as I stepped out from behind the dumpster. “Sopioroa,” I shouted as I pointed at Chuck, but my spell simply bounced off of him. Apparently, he had put up a protective spell. Shoot. I should have thought of that.

He laughed. “I didn’t realize you two were witches. It’s been quite a while since I met someone else with magical powers. Of course, it’s not been so long that I don’t remember the spell to protect myself from magic.”

I gritted my teeth as I tried to figure out what to do. Even if he was protected from my magic, that didn’t mean I couldn’t still stop him; it just meant I was going to have to be a bit more creative about it.

“Aquaroa,” I said, spinning a circle with my finger towards Chuck. Sure enough, a second later a moat formed itself around him, marooning him on a newly formed island.

“Do you really think that’s going to stop me?”

No, I knew it wasn’t. The water was deep, but it wasn’t very wide, and I knew with a simple spell Chuck could make the whole thing disappear. But at least it gave me a few seconds to think, because right now, I had absolutely no idea what to do.

“Ad conteram incantatores,” I tried, pointing straight at Chuck, who just laughed, pointed at the water, and with a quick spell of his own made it disappear as he stepped towards me. I wondered if my spell to break his protection spell had worked.

“Ignisoroa,” I yelled, pointing at him once more. It was an aggressive spell to use, but to be honest, I was scared, and panicking just a little bit. A stream of flames burst forth from my fingers and encompassed Chuck completely, but when they dissipated a moment later, he was still standing there.

“That spell to break mine didn’t work too well for you, did it?” he asked, raising a finger and pointing it towards me.

He called out a spell, but I didn’t hear what it was; I was too busy casting one of my own. “Protectoroa!” Six large knives appeared out of nowhere and began careening towards me, but as soon as they got about two feet away they all stopped and began vibrating, like they’d gotten caught in an invisible board.

At least my protection spell had worked as well. It didn’t take me long to realize that running was probably my best bet here, too. If I could just get back to the coffee shop, there would be people around, and then neither one of us would be allowed to use our magic, since it was forbidden to cast spells where humans could see. I imagined Chuck wasn’t going to risk the wrath of the magical council to stop me.

I just hoped Sophie had gotten far enough away. I cast a quick spell that sent sparks shooting towards Chuck and took the couple of seconds that earned me to run down the alley as fast as I could. I figured if I could make it out of the alley and back onto the street, that would get me a little bit more time.

Unfortunately, just as I was about to make my way out, it felt like something grabbed me by the ankle, and I was yanked upside down. I squirmed to see Chuck making his way towards me, then looked upwards. An invisible force had grabbed me and was holding me in place. I tried another spell, but again, it just bounced off Chuck like it was nothing.

As he got closer and closer to me, I knew the end was coming. I wasn’t going to be able to get away, and my magic wasn’t powerful enough to stop him. I only hoped that Sophie had gotten far enough away that she’d be able to get help and have him arrested before he was able to get to her.

Still, so long as I wasn’t dead, there were still things I could do. I launched another protective spell just as Chuck attacked me again. Once again, his spell was absorbed by the protective spell I had put up, and I could tell he was getting frustrated as he came closer and closer.

For a little while, the two of us basically played a game of cat and mouse. I was stuck, held in place by his spell which left me upside down, but I could still use my magic. A floating spell allowed me to rise up above one of his spells, and the protective spell helped me a few more times.

The problem was, with every spell that I used, I was becoming weaker and weaker. Magic wasn’t this infinite source of energy, and the more I used it, the more tiring it became. I hadn’t used this much magic in quite a long time, but Chuck seemed to be completely fine.

It was just about over for me. I could definitely tell that much.

As Chuck approached me, I closed my eyes. I didn’t want to see what was about to happen. All of a sudden, though, I heard a voice say something I absolutely wasn’t expecting.

“Get the hell away from her, you dumb creep,” Sophie said, and my eyes burst open just in time to see her whack Chuck across the head with a two-by-four. A disgusting thud resonated through the alley and Chuck’s eyes rolled into the back of his head for a second before he fell down, collapsing into a heap, no longer a threat.

Unfortunately for me, the instant Chuck found himself unconscious, the spell he had used to keep me hanging upside down was broken. I let out a yelp as my ankle was let go and I dropped to the ground, hitting the cement with a thud. Luckily, I thought to cover my head with my hands, and while a searing pain coursed through my left arm, my head was fine.

“Are you ok?” Sophie asked, rushing over to me. “He didn’t hurt you, did he?”

“My arm hurts,” I whined. “I thought I told you to get out of here.”

“I know, but then I realized I couldn’t just leave you here. Then, when I saw that your spells weren’t doing anything against him, I figured he had put up some sort of magical barrier. So I thought I would see if he had protected himself against all attacks, or just magical ones.”

“I guess he thought we were both witches, and that we would only use magical attacks against him,” I mused.

“Joke was on him. The closest I ever came to magic was that one time when I was the best player on our soccer team growing up,” Sophie said, looking down at him.

“We need to call 9-1-1,” I said as I got up and scraped the gravel off of my knees.

Sophie nodded and pulled out her phone while I made my way over to Chuck and looked for a pulse. It was there, but it was weak. Sophie had evidently done quite a number on him.

The important thing was he was going to go to jail for a very long time. He was never going to get to enjoy the fruits of his robbery all those years ago.