"Trav, how's college been treating you?" I smiled and waited for my son to respond.
"It's good. Classes are tough but I enjoy them." He chuckled. "How are you? How's Uncle Henry?"
Best not to get into that. "That sounds great. How's Jacqueline?" He'd been dating her for a little bit now. She was a sweet girl.
He hummed before saying, "Wonderful. It's going really well. Mom, I haven't told her yet, but I think I might be falling."
I was so happy for him. "Oh, Pumpkin. That's so good to hear." It sure did feel nice being out here on the back deck and looking at the wonderful view of the water. "Well, my dear. I just wanted to check in on you. Do you need anything?"
"I may come in soon, bring Jackie and a bunch of laundry." He paused for a second. "You know we're planning to travel after graduation, but we've talked about it, and we were hoping you might have room for us in Mystic. At least until we find our own apartment."
My heart soared. "There's nothing I'd like more. You can have all the room you need, and Jacqueline, too."
We said our goodbyes, and I put the phone down with a smile on my face. My son wanted to come live with me after college. Not his father.
Big, fat score. As I considered Travis moving here, the reality of my situation settled in.
We had one day until the full moon and no more answers.
Despite that, it'd hit me when I woke up this morning. If I was going to either lose my powers or be punished for keeping them, I couldn’t obsess about it. I needed to find ways to still find some joy in my life. Otherwise, what was the point of all of this? I loved my powers because they'd led me to my new life, but if I stopped enjoying them, my powers didn’t really matter.
With that in mind, I did what I’d been wanting to do all week, I'd gotten up early, leaving Daniel to get more sleep, and slipped into my swimsuit. Outside, the air still had the chill of morning, but also the heat of summer. The waves crashed on the shore, beautiful, and calling to me like a siren. I dropped my towel on the chair on the porch, then ran out along the white sand until I reached the water.
It was cold, but I already knew it would be. This was the warmest the water got. It would get better as I got used to it. Knowing that, I waded deeper into the water, then dove into it, shivering as my head went under.
Resurfacing, I kicked out as far as I could, vigorously, only slowing when my legs began to burn. This was my life. This was Mystic Hollow. A place so beautiful that few people would ever experience living somewhere like it. Every day I got to look out the windows and see the water and the sand, but I also got to actually step into it. It was like living a dream. Pair that with my best friends and my sweet Daniel, and I was lucky, with or without my powers.
It was silly to worry about all of this too much. Even if it was time to give my powers away, I'd accept it, but only if I had to. I wasn’t about to give some awful woman my magic when she might make the world a worse place, not if I could help it.
When I'd rested enough, I was ready to head to shore. I could've stayed out here all day, but that wasn't an option. My swim had made me feel better, sure, but I still had a major fight ahead of me.
I started to swim when something grabbed my ankle. I wasn't alarmed, knowing not to panic in the waters, as my parents had taught me. I was perfectly fine until whatever had my leg yanked, pulling me under the water. I went under so fast my lungs weren't full. I wasn't sure I had enough air to last a few seconds. There wasn't enough oxygen in my lungs to be able to handle being under the water very long, but I tried to keep calm. Panicking would only make things so much worse.
It must have been seaweed, or a piece of debris tangled around my leg. I was prepared to try to free myself when whatever it was yanked me lower and lower, like someone had hooked me to an anchor.
My lungs burned, desperate to breathe in. Twisting to reach my ankle, I grabbed at it but found nothing there. No seaweed. No debris. It was like an invisible force had snatched hold of me and wouldn’t let go.
I struggled more and more, trying to escape something that wasn’t there. Bubbles slipped from my lips, and I looked above me. The surface of the water was so far away I wasn’t even sure it was actually there. Kicking and flailing around, I tried my best to escape something that I couldn’t see. I thrashed like an animal caught in a net until dots floated in my vision, and then my vision went black. My lungs burned so badly. There was nothing more I could do.
Opening my mouth, water came rushing in, and I felt like a piece of garbage sinking to the bottom of the ocean floor. There was nothing I could do. No way to save myself. It was too late.
When the sun burned overhead as I spat out water, I couldn't figure out what happened, or how I'd gotten here.
I was alive. I drifted on top of the water, gasping for breath and staring at the sky. How was I still alive?
I had no idea. I was just so glad that I was.
When I’d gathered myself enough, I turned and began the long swim to shore. Slowly. Painfully slowly. I wasn't sure I'd ever make it. Every stroke of my hand felt like the shore got another stroke farther away.
It wasn’t until my feet touched the sand that I felt like I was really okay. Gasping, I settled on the sand and looked out at the water that had tried to kill me seconds ago.
Looking around the water, I froze when I saw her. Alma.
She stood in the water several yards to my left in a black dress with long sleeves. It trailed behind her in the water. Her hair was loose, blowing in the wind as she walked toward me in the surf. “Emma, listen to me. You will meet me tomorrow. Right here. You will give me your powers. It will be so simple, simpler than you ever imagined. All you have to do is want to give me your powers, and they’ll be mine.”
My voice comes out in a croak. “What if I don’t want to give you my powers?”
She smiled, but there was nothing kind about it. It was pure evil. “If you don’t do the right thing, Karma will punish everyone you love. It will destroy their lives.”
“No,” I told her as I pushed my shaking, exhausted legs to lift me so I could stand proud in front of the old hag. “I don’t believe you’re a good person, and I don’t believe you deserve my powers.”
Her glare sharpened, and she spread her arms out. “Search me. Tell me if you believe I’m a good person, deserving of Karma’s powers.”
I did, hoping that the results would be different than last time, but they were exactly the same. My powers told me she deserved nothing but good things. At the same time, the band on my chest. her spell, tightening around me.
“You know the truth,” she said. “You can’t escape it.”
She disappeared. I crawled further up the shore and collapsed into the sand. This woman, deserving or not, was powerful. There wasn't the slightest doubt she was the reason I'd almost drowned. Her powers were strong, and if she didn’t get what she wanted, she’d turn them onto my friends.
I only had one choice, and I had to make it tonight.