ALL NOVEL 15. Sleeping Beauties
"Cass wait!" Marissa called out behind me. "It might be a trap!"
It was too late though, I put my hand into the faint magic glow as I touched Kaylee's shoulder.
A chill shot down my spine and all the little hairs on my arms stood up the moment my hand passed through that purple glow. At the same time it flickered, then disappeared completely.
I held my breath as I waited for something terrible to happen, but it never did.
Kaylee's eyes opened and she mumbled, "Cass? Issat you? What're you doin'ere?"
I let out a happy gasp and without thinking I bent down and wrapped my arms around her as I gave her a big hug.
"Are you ok?" I half-whispered. "What happened to you?!"
It took another couple minutes for Kaylee to fully wake up. She was groggy and confused at first, but once she realized we weren't in her bedroom at home that sort of shocked some adrenaline into her and after that she quickly got focused and alert.
"Do you know how you got here?" Marissa asked her.
Kaylee shook her head, "I don't even know where here is. Where are we?"
"It's a house in the older part of town," I told her. "It's Tuesday afternoon, me and Marissa uh broke in through the back door."
The cute redhead frowned, "How'd you two find me?"
I held out my hand and shook my wrist so her bracelet jiggled around, "Marissa taught me the scrying spell! I used your bracelet and found you!"
The blonde added, "She did pretty good, though I'm sure a lot of that had to do with her excellent teacher. Anyways, do you know who grabbed you? Do you remember anything about how they got you?"
Kaylee sighed and shook her head again, "I don't know what happened. I went to bed last night like normal, and... I guess I just never woke up? They must have grabbed me in my sleep."
She gave me an apologetic look as she added, "Cass I'm sorry I doubted you yesterday."
"It's ok," I shrugged as I tried not to blush. "I'm just glad we found you."
She smiled, but a moment later her eyes widened and she exclaimed, "Mom and dad! I have to make sure they're ok!"
"Calm down," Marissa stated. "We're still in the middle of this thing ok? We've got a couple more rooms to check here, hopefully we'll find everybody else. Then the six of us can sort this whole mess out together."
"Ok Marissa," Kaylee nodded. "You're right."
She glanced around the strange room and finally made a face, "I can't see my glasses anywhere. Or any clothes... I guess I'm stuck in my nightie."
I checked the closet and dresser, but there weren't any clothes in there either.
Kaylee got to her feet but she stayed behind me and Marissa as the three of us quietly emerged from the bedroom. We moved to the next door, and once again my heart was racing as we went through the whole process again of slowly opening it and taking a look.
"Bathroom," the short blonde witch said as she opened the door wider.
It was a standard family bathroom, and it was empty. That only left one last door, the one on the far left. We all sort of gathered in front of it as Marissa carefully carefully turned the knob. I was a step back and to the right, and Kaylee was a bit behind me on the left. I felt her take my hand in hers, and we held each other for support.
"Another bingo," Marissa announced as she swung the door all the way open.
It was another small bedroom, and inside were Brooke and Paige. They were both lying on the small bed together, but pointing in opposite directions. Like Brooke was laying the right way up with her head at the pillows, while Paige was laying the other way around so her head was at the foot of the bed.
Both of them were on top of the blankets like Kaylee had been, and I could see that faint purple glow over both their bodies. The tall blonde was in her bedclothes like Kaylee, she just had on a small tight t-shirt and panties. Paige was actually dressed, but in shorts, a short-sleeve t-shirt, and she had sneakers on her feet. Then I realized, she had to have been taken before or after gym class.
"I think they're in some kind of magic-induced sleep," Marissa said. "Probably something like a sleep spell, but a lot deeper and a lot longer-lasting."
I added, "There's that purple magic glow over them both, just like there was with Kaylee."
She glanced at me and asked, "So how'd you dispell it with Kaylee? What did you do to wake her up?"
"Um," I blushed, "I just touched her shoulder?"
"Alright," Marissa said. "The spell's probably broken when anyone disturbs the victim."
She reached out and poked Brooke's shoulder, but nothing happened. The purple magic glow was still there, it didn't seem to be disturbed by Marissa's contact. And she wasn't affected by the magic either.
Kaylee suggested, "Maybe Cass has to do it?"
"Why would that make a difference?" Marissa asked with a frown. "If all it takes is a touch to break the spell, then anyone should -"
While she was talking I reached out and touched Brooke's arm, and just like before I felt a chill shoot down my spine and the hairs stood up on my arm. And the purple glow was gone, as Brooke started to wake up.
I touched Paige's leg and it happened again, I got the chill and everything while the magic vanished. Then Paige started to wake as well.
"Ok someone's gonna hafta explain that to me," Marissa stated as she looked at me and Kaylee.
The cute redhead shrugged, "Cass breaks circles whenever she crosses them. Maybe she breaks more than just circles."
"Wha?" Brooke asked groggily. "Wha's goin' on?"
Paige groaned, "Where am I?"
Like with Kaylee, it took a few minutes for the two of them to fully wake up. Then all five of us ended up sitting together in the room as we got everyone up to speed on the situation. Kaylee, Brooke, and Page all sat on the bed together, while me and Marissa were crosslegged on the floor.
Neither Brooke or Paige knew what happened to them, but we figured out Brooke was taken in her sleep Sunday night, and Paige was nabbed right before gym started.
Our club leader frowned and rubbed her forehead, "This is bad. So May's still missing, you've searched the house and found all of us, and evidence of magic. We were obviously enspelled. That means we're dealing with another witch, and probably someone powerful."
"Why would another witch want to kidnap everyone?" I asked nervously.
Kaylee shook her head, "No idea. It wouldn't be anything good though, I can guarantee that. Rogue witches are bad news all around."
Paige grimaced, "It could also be a witch hunter. Someone who's learned enough magic to use our own tools and spells against us."
Marissa grinned, "Hot damn, either way this is exciting! If we could beat a witch hunter or a rogue witch, we'd -"
"Can it Marissa," Brooke stated. "This isn't one of your mangas or games ok? This is serious, and all five of us are still in danger."
The club leader looked at me and asked, "Cass what time is it? And tell me again, where are we?"
I gave her the address and the part of town we were in, and added "It's about two in the afternoon. And um, it's Tuesday."
The tall blonde thanked me then said, "It's a bit of a gamble but I'm going to assume whoever we're dealing with is either at the school, or watching it. It's one spot all five of us have in common, and that's where they got Paige. It's where all of us spend a lot of time, and it's where we have our club meetings."
"Maybe that creepy substitute teacher's involved?" I suggested. "Even his name's creepy, Mr. Graves..."
Kaylee looked thoughtful, "He made us all write with pencil and paper, which he supplied and collected again after. I wonder if that was some kind of test or trap? Maybe they were enchanted, or meant to detect magic or witches?"
"I don't remember seeing any magic in class," I said as I thought back. "I think I'd have noticed that."
Marissa added, "Cass is pretty damn good at spotting it by the way! She found a couple traps on the way in here."
Brooke sighed, "Ok we probably have another hour before they come back here so we should start moving. We need to search this house for clues, to try and figure out who or what we're dealing with. Then we want to be out of here by three. We definitely don't want to be caught in here when they get back."
"We can't just walk out the door and go home," Kaylee said. "You and me are barefoot, and we're not even dressed. And Paige is in shorts. It's the first of December outside, it's cold!"
"There might be clothes in the main bedroom," I suggested.
The closet and dresser in here were both empty like they were in the other bedroom, so the five of us went back to the main bedroom to do a better search there.
My friends all had me go first though, because I was the only one who could actually see magic traps. So they sort of hung back behind me while I gave the master bedroom and bathroom a closer look.
"I think it's clear," I told them. "I don't see any magic in here."
Brooke opened the closet door while Kaylee checked the dresser, and Paige went into the en-suite washroom to have look in there. Marissa checked the bed-side table, and I stood by the door.
"So I don't think we're dealing with Mr. Graves," Kaylee said as she pulled a plain white bra out of the dresser. She made a face and added, "At least I hope not!"
Marissa giggled while me and Brooke rolled our eyes. Then our club leader pulled a pair of pants out of the closet and stepped into them, "Obviously we're dealing with a woman, and she's not too far off from my size."
Kaylee added, "There's not much in the dresser. Like a half dozen sets of undergarments and socks?"
"Same in the closet," Brooke said as she pulled out a large sweater and tossed it to Kaylee. "There's two pairs of pants, a couple blouses and t-shirts, and one pair of sneakers."
The redhead caught the sweater and pulled it on over her nightie, while Brooke took a blouse and added that over her tight tee. Then she took the sneakers and put them on too.
Paige returned from checking the washroom, she got the other pair of pants out of the closet and got into them. They were a bit short and loose on her, but better than nothing. That left just Kaylee in bare legs and bare feet, but the sweater at least meant she wasn't completely exposed. It was large enough to go down to her hips, so if we had to make a break for it she'd mostly just have to worry about her feet.
Brooke added, "There's a suitcase in the closet. That and the fact that there's barely any clothes here suggests we're not dealing with a local. Which makes sense? Whether they're a witch hunter or a rogue witch, I think if they actually lived here we'd have probably run into them sooner."
Marissa sighed, "So we know who they're not but we're no closer to figuring this out. There's nothing here."
"What about the den?" I asked. "That looked recently used right?"
All five of us headed downstairs and into the den, and Brooke found something immediately. There was a map of the town on the coffee table, under the dirty dishes.
She moved the dishes aside and frowned, "This has all our homes marked on it. I think our mystery-witch has been doing some scrying here."
The club leader touched some fine grey powder on the coffee table then added, "I think this is iron and silver dust? Our culprit was probably searching the whole town for any signs of magic or anything supernatural."
I moved closer and had a look. The map had lots of pen marks and writing on it in both red and black ink. I felt a little shocked as I realized there was a red circle marked around my own house, but it also had a black X through it. Kaylee's house had a red circle too, but unlike mine there was a red checkmark.
"Let's keep searching," Brooke suggested. Maybe there's other clues around here.
I pulled my phone out and took a picture of the map, then I followed everyone else into the kitchen. That was the only other room of the house that looked like anyone used it.
"Woah," Brooke said when she saw the runes around the back door. "Anti-scrying runes."
Paige frowned, "Well that explains why I couldn't find you yesterday. I tried scrying for you a couple times at lunch, but I got nothing at all."
"Then how did..." Kaylee turned and gave me a quizzical look.
Before she could finish her question she was interrupted by the sound of the front door opening. A moment later we heard footsteps as someone entered the house.
My heart skipped a beat, as we all looked at each other with a 'what do we do?!' expression on our faces.
