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An Equal and Opposite Magikal Reaction

School was out, and the girls were again walking home. The sky
was a bit overcast, but the air was warm. Sandy and April were
looking forward to a rare night without homework.

“You’ll never believe what I saw the other day, Sandy.”

“What?” Sandy was having problems concentrating on April’s words.
Instead, she was thinking about what they could do on their free night.

“Mandy asked Vaughn to the
dance!” April piped up brightly.

“Oh, really? Shouldn’t Vaughn have
asked Mandy?”

“This is the Twenty First Century.
So when did you become so old
fashioned?” April retorted.

“Whatcha got there?” Sandy pointed to April’s arm.

“Got bored during lunch. Got a little vine and this flower from the school gardener. I wove it into a bracelet,” April said matter-of-factly.

She looked down at her wrist to where the beach rose flower dangled from her crude bracelet.

Good thing he gave me a vine from a different plant, April thought. The beach rose stems were thorny and too inflexible for a bracelet. April hadn’t made the bracelet loop small enough, and it kept slipping down her forearm toward her elbow or off of her wrist, depending on how she held her arm.

Both girls heard someone running behind them. They turned to see Mandy trying to catch up to them. When Mandy finally caught up, she was totally out of breath.

“Mandy, what happened?” Sandy asked.

“Missed the bus,” Mandy puffed between breaths. “Thought I’d walk home with you.”

“Sure, but you’re like a mile beyond my house,” April answered.

“No problem. My mom will give you a ride,” Sandy volunteered. The girls walked on in silence for a couple of minutes.

“Speaking of rides, I’ve got my driver’s permit. If I can get my older sister to come along, do you want to catch a movie tonight?” Mandy asked.

April and Sandy suddenly look up and stop dead in their tracks. Mandy isn’t able to react as quickly and collides with the two girls.

“What the heck’s wrong with you two?” a flustered Mandy blurts.

Sandy and April ignore her. They’re staring at a weird pulsating glow coming from a patch of grass near the tree line.

“Do you see what I see?” Sandy asks.

April rubs her eyes. The glow seems so surreal. Both girls slowly approach the glow with Mandy in tow. Mandy’s expression is extremely quizzical.

“What are you looking at? You guys aren’t weirding out on me, are you?” Mandy asks. She’s starting to get worried.

Sandy and April kneel down around the glowing mass in the lump of grass. Poor Mandy can only hunch over them with no clue as to what they’re doing. April rubs her eyes again. She is the first to identify what they are looking at and how they see it.

“It’s a black crystal,” April says. “And I think I know why we can see it.” April looks at Sandy knowingly. All of a sudden Sandy catches on.

“Seventh Sight,” Sandy blurts.

“What are you guys babbling about?” Mandy looks from one girl to the other.

“Aunt Penny said to use our ‘Seventh Sight’ to see the ‘Seeds of Evil,’” Sandy says. She tries hard to remember what Aunt Penny had said about the outcomes of the Seeds of Evil. Aunt Penny had also said that she and April needed to do something, but Sandy can’t remember. She slowly looks up into the trees above, where sounds of chirping birds are coming from.

That looks like the mother bird from the time April and I saved the baby bird, she thinks. It sounds like mother bird is shrilling a warning.

“Aunt Penny said?… What do you mean? She passed away.” April is unaware of Sandy’s dream visit with Penny. April’s attention is diverted back to the clump of grass. She stares at the crystal and appears to be mesmerized. A hypnotic cobra couldn’t have done a better job of luring April into a trance than the glowing black crystal is doing. Her hand slowly reaches out toward the Evil beauty.

Sandy is mumbling to herself. “Seeds… outcome… Seeds… outcome,” she keeps chanting. Then it hits her all at once. “Rule #2: For every good Magikal Spell there is an equal but opposite Evil potential!” Sandy shouts. Mandy jumps back in surprise from this outburst.

The Seed of Evil is the result of cheating death. Sandy is trying to think fast. If she can’t remember Aunt Penny’s words, maybe she can think through this. Something is very important. She has to remember.

Her train of thought is broken when she catches sight of April’s hand extending toward the dark crystal.

“No!” Sandy screams, but it’s too late. April touches the crystal, and the dark glow immediately shoots up her arm, almost to her shoulder.

She recoils in agony, too stunned to cry out. Her bracelet breaks, and the beach rose flower disintegrates, showering the air with red petals. April collapses.