Jake Williams was just a normal 14 year old boy. He was living with his aunt and uncle. Even though they weren’t directly mean to him, they never really seem to care that much about him. The only reason he was there was because his parents had died in a car accident when he was just a kid. The only thing Jake had to remember his parents by was a picture and some memories; he could remember his mothers perfume, her smile and kindness. He could remember his father’s laugh, his smile whenever Jake did anything new, or funny.
But his aunt and uncle never really seemed that affected by their death. The only thing they cared about was their daughter, Jakes cousin Madeleine, which adored Jake. She was 10 years old; born right after Jake came to live there. She always followed him around and she couldn’t have been any nicer. The only reason Jake could even bear to live there; was his cousin. He couldn’t leave her and run away. So he stayed. He hated every minute of it, except from the parts he could spend with his cousin. He stayed for 10 years.
Then the nightmares came. That was the beginning of it all, the beginning of the end.
The beginning
Jake woke up with a scream; his head felt like it was going to burst. “Just a dream,” he thought, “it was just a dream”. Jake got out of bed and sat down at his desk. He opened a journal and started writing:
Dear journal,
I had that dream again. I wonder what it means; I’ve been having it for months now.
The same thing happens every time; I see this… thing… I think it’s a person but it doesn’t look like one. It looks like a person in shape, size and all that crap. But it I know it’s not human, it can’t be, one look at it and you know it is evil, or at least I know. I can’t tell anybody about this, they’ll think I’m crazy. I don’t know, maybe I am. Maybe I am going crazy or something. But I know am not, I know this isn’t just a normal dream, I know something‘s not right, I just know it. I don’t know how I know it though.
Then this “person” starts laughing this evil laugh. I don’t know why, but every time I hear that laugh I wake up, screaming, sweating, my head is aching and I can’t go back to sleep, afraid I’ll see it again. Then
Jake stopped writing and looked down on the journal. There was blood on the paper. Jake raised his hand and felt under his nose. There was something wet there. Jake looked at his finger, it was red. “What? My nose… it’s bleeding”, Jake rushed to the bathroom and got a towel. He looked at himself in the mirror. “What is happening? Why is it happening to me?” scared, Jake threw the towel away, and went back to his room. He couldn’t sleep, not after this. “I don’t understand what’s going on, what’s up with the dream and why is my head hurting this badly?” Jake’s head still hadn’t stopped aching. “That’s weird, it should have stopped by now… Shit! My nose is bleeding again!” Jake got up and ran to the bathroom. On his way he noticed their cat, just sitting there, watching him. “Huh?” Jake stopped for a second with his hand under his nose, trying to stop the blood from dripping. He had this weird feeling that something wasn’t quite right about the cat. “Weird” Jake mumbled to himself and continued towards the bathroom.
If he had looked into its eyes he would have seen eyes of a cat, sparkling in the dark, with more wisdom than a simple cat should have. The cat followed Jake whit its eyes, then it got up and went downstairs. If you listened closely you could hear it whisper “it’s time”.
Jake’s arm started feeling funny, like something was about to burst out. Then the arm flew out and a blue spark suddenly burst out of his hand. “Whoa! What just happened?” Jake screamed, while looking at his hand. “Aaaw… look at the mirror, it’s in peaces…“ Some guy Jake had never seen before was standing next to him. “The mirr… THE MIRROR’S IN PEACES?! A BLUE SPARK JUST CAME OUT OF MY HAND AND YOU ARE WORRIED ABOUT THE MIRROR?!” Jake shouted
“Jake…”
“WHAT JUST HAPPENED TO ME?”
“Jake”
“A BLUE… THINGY ... JUST…”
“JAKE!” the kid yelled.
“WHAT?”
“Calm down, you’re going to wake everyone up… it’s perfectly normal for people like us to…”
“What do you mean “normal”? And what do you mean by”people like us”? And who are you anyway, and what are you doing in my bathroom?!”
“Oh, right. How rude of me. I’m Alan. Alan Grey”.
“Okay… Grey… What are you doing in my bathroom, in my house, in the middle of the night?”
“First, my name is Alan, not Grey; I already told you that didn’t I? Second, it’s not your house. And last but not least, I’m here to pick you up.” Alan said with a grin on his face.
“Pick me up? What do you mean? Where are we going?” Jake asked
“We’re going to Wilsons Academy for Sorcery, Witchcraft and Wizardry.”
“That’s a long name…”
“Yeah, we just call it WA”
“WA?”
“Yeah. WA.”
Jake looked at Alan with a weird expression.
“What?”Alan looked at Jake.
“Sorcery, Witchcraft, Wizardry?” Jakes voice got higher and higher for each word.
“Oh… right… didn’t I tell you? You’re a wizard”
“A wizard?” Jake looked at Alan with huge eyes. “You’re kidding me right? Magic doesn’t exist.”
“Well…” Alan said, dragging out the word. “It does. How do you think I ended up here? And how else are you going to explain that blue spark of yours, Jake?”
“Wait… how come you know my name?”
“I just do. Now, stop asking questions and let’s go”
“But Ma…” Jake didn’t have time to finish the sentence. Everything started spinning and Jake blacked out.
“Jake? Are you okay?”
“What happened?”
“I think you fainted”
“I don’t faint” Jake said and tried to get up. But his legs wouldn’t keep him up. He stumbled forward and was about to fall down again, when Alan caught him.”Whoa, easy there”
“I’m okay” Jake pulled away from Alan and looked around. “Where are we anyway?” He swayed a little and Alan put his arm around Jake.
“Sure you’re okay? It doesn’t look like it the way you’re swaying.” Alan had a worried look on his face.
“Yeah, I’m sure. My feet just don’t seem to work properly.” Jake answered
“Sure. Oh, and you asked where we are; home. I can’t take you straight to the school myself. And just a warning; mom and dad got back together a couple of months ago, and things are kind of awkward. Mom’s overdoing it, dad is under doing it. Or something like that. Here, sit down. I’m going to get you some water. Everyone feels dizzy after their first teleportation. Haven’t seen anyone faint though.”
“I didn’t faint!”
“Yes, you did”
“No, I didn’t”
“Yes, you did. You can’t deny it, I saw it with my own two eyes.”
“Alan! Stop bullying the poor kid” a middle aged woman had just walked into the room.
“Mom, I wasn’t bullying him; I was just... stating facts.”
“Whatever you were doing, stop it. Now, let’s get some food into you, you look like you haven’t eaten in days” now talking to Jake she rushed towards the fridge. “Is a Ham and Cheese sandwich ok?”
She didn’t wait for an answer and started cutting the bread.
“I’m not really hungry...” Jake tried.
“Rubbish. Of course you are”
Jake figured he wouldn’t win this and gave up.
“And by the way, I’m Alan’s mother, Debbie”.
“Nice to meet you, Mrs Grey, I’m Jake. Jake Williams”.
“Oh I already know your name. And it’s actually Debbie Adams. And please, call me Debbie”.
After eating the best sandwich he’d ever had, Jake followed Alan up to his bedroom. “So this is my room, you can just go to bed and I’ll come wake you up for lunch, okay?”
“Sure, but what about you? Aren’t you going to sleep?
“No, I have stuff to do and you’re going to need the sleep if you want to make it through the day”
“What do you mean?”
“Meeting my family...” Alan looked over at Jake, “and then there’s that spark of yours, magic, etc.”
“Oh right, I’d forgotten about all that” Jake walked over to the bed and fell into it. “Soft” he mumbled, and then he was asleep.
Alan looked at Jake whit a smile on his lips. “What a kid,” Alan thought, “doesn’t know anything of this world. He’s going to have a rough couple of days.” Then he walked out and left Jake to his dreams.
Someone jumped into the bed. “Wake up, sleepyhead! It’s time for lunch!”
“Ugh...” Jake replied “would you please get of off me? You’re heavy.”
Jake was still under the blanket and suddenly someone tore it off him. “No, I’m not. You’re lying.” There, on top of him sat a kid with big blue eyes, blond hair and a huge grin on his face. “Whoa. You look just like Alan, only younger. And yeah you are heavy.” Jake looked at him with surprise, the kid really did look like Alan.
“Hey. Two insults and I haven’t even introduced myself yet. But you’re cute so I’ll forgive you.”
Jake looked at the kid for a couple of seconds, lifted his eyebrow and said, “Cute?”
The kid was still grinning. He didn’t respond to Jakes question but stretched out his hand instead and said, “I’m Aaron, nice to meet you Jake”
Jake looked at the hand, got up on one elbow and shook Aaron’s hand with the free hand.
Jake was so close to Aaron that their noses almost touched. Ba-thump.
“What was that?”Jake thought, “Why did my heart just skip a beat?” Out loud he said,
“Nice to meet you too, Aaron. Now could you please get off of me?”
“Sure”, Aaron got up and jumped out of bed, “Now, mum is waiting for us. She’s overdoing it with the food again. If you don’t eat voluntary, she’s going to stuff it down your throat.”
Jake smiled.
“I’m not kidding. You’re so skinny she’s probably going to do it anyway. Don’t you ever eat?”
Jake got out of bed as he replied, “I’m not that skinny, and yes I eat. My body just seem to stay the same no matter how much I eat.”
Aaron looked at Jake, “If you say so”
Jake looked back at Aaron, “Yes, I do. Now stop bothering me.”
Aaron looked at Jake with big, blue eyes, “I’m not. Come on I’ll raise you down the stairs.” Then he playfully pushed Jake behind him and started running towards the stairs.
“Hey! That’s cheating!” Jake yelled, and ran after him.
On their way down the stairs, they pushed each other, trying to get the lead.
Jake finally got the lead almost at the bottom of the stairs. Jake tripped and lost his balance. He fell down the last couple of steps and landed on something soft. “Ugh!” the soft thing said. Jake looked down at it and saw that it was Alan. “Alan! Oh my god, I’m so sorry.” Jake got off Alan and held out a hand towards him. Alan grabbed the hand and pulled himself up. “It’s not your fault, Aaron should know better than to race you down the stairs. Especially when you don’t know these stairs, they tend to make you trip if you aren’t careful.”
Aaron came down the last steps. “Oh my god, Jake, are you okay?” Aaron looked at Jake. “Yeah, I’m ok. I landed on Alan” Jake looked over at Alan, “are you okay?”
Aaron interrupted, “Don’t worry about him, he’ll be fine. Since you’re ok; that was an awesome fall.”
Jake lifted an eyebrow. “Err... Thanks?”
Suddenly someone grabbed Jakes arm and pulled him towards the kitchen. “Whoa” Jake looked over at the person who was dragging him, “Oh. Hi Debbie! ”
Aaron came after them, “Whoa, mom. Don’t kidnap Jake like that.”
Debbie looked at Jake with a smile “Now, you’re going to sit down and eat.” To Aaron she said “You, shut up. You know you’re not supposed to run down those stairs. You’re going to get yourself killed one of these days.”