Enchanted High Book I

‘Speechless?’

Hubert smirked victoriously.

′You,′ June spat at him.

‘Hubert!’ cried Nicole. ‘You’re the mastermind? You’re Xavier –’

‘KING XAVIER!’ He thundered towards her and seized her by her hair.

‘Leave her alone,’ June mustered together her energy and twisted her wrists.

He breathed down Nicole’s neck, almost hungrily, maniacally, the veins all around his face stuck out. He let go and laughed out into the room, arms outstretched.

‘What do you want with us?’

He was still laughing, his voice bounced off the walls and covered their ears. ‘Don’t worry,’ he said through hysterical giggles, ’I’ll explain everything. You see I was the one who possessed that boy to make the tree ‘disappear’. You already know that.′

He paced around the room. ‘But really, the tree didn’t just vanish – it came to me, just as I had called it ... but you know that as well. Clever children,’ he shook his head.

’You figured out most of my plan. Searched for the spell. Found out that someone had planned it. Researched possible locations. A, B, C, D, basically.

‘But I had to take action. You were getting me annoyed, like little pests who just refused to let the villain go on with their business ... do you know what I do with pests?’ he waited as if he would get a reply. ‘I didn’t expected you to know. Why don’t I just show you?’

A man walked into the room as if on cue.

Salvatore.

‘Getting your Headmaster on my side was probably the best thing I’ve ever done.’

‘You told him to expel us,’ June burst out. ‘He killed Gilda.’

Salvatore laughed mockingly.

June gritted her teeth. ‘Why do you want the tree?’

Hubert raised an eyebrow at her. ‘Now from a clever girl like you, I wouldn’t have expected such a stupid question.’

‘The tree, June,’ said Salvatore, ‘grants wishes.’

‘Indeed,’ said Hubert, ’And I want my Linasia back – alive – at the time when I first met her ... I want to smell her hair, I want her clothes, her body – and without that pathetic father of hers, there is no one to stop me.′

June’s mind was blanketed with every possible consequence. If Xavier went back in time, met Linasia – changing the series of events that was meant to be and got his way, he would be changing history. And therefore changing the future. That would topple over everything. He would be ruling the enchanted world today. Aunt Audrey wouldn’t have been alive, not been born in the first place ... the school wouldn’t be here ... June wouldn’t be alive.

It was the perfect plan. And the tree was what would lead him to his goal. But another thought struck her; he had to make two wishes. One, to go back in time. And two, for Linasia to love him. Because if he didn’t make the second wish, then she would just reject him again, and surely he must have thought of that.

She looked at him. ‘You only get one wish.’

Hubert nodded as if he was thinking about it. ’I know, sweetheart, and I also know that I need somebody else to wish me to back in time – then when I reach the correct destination, I would use my wish to get my red-headed bride.′

June turned to Salvatore’s grinning face. He’s going to use him.

‘Oh no, no, no, no – you’re getting it all utterly wrong now,’ said Hubert. ‘Salvatore here has already used his wish; he brought me back to life, gave me this body. Useless body, might I add.’

Salvatore lowered his head, ashamed.

’I could use one of my servants here,′ said Hubert, ‘I’ve got loads of them ready to do my bidding. But it wouldn’t be as fun as using one of the heroes of the story now would it?’

June’s throat felt dry. ‘We will never help you.’

Hubert pressed his lips against her cheek; then she could feel his teeth dig into her earlobes as he whispered with an ice cold breath; ‘I’m not asking you.’

Within a moment, he clicked his fingers in James’s face; the sound erupted all around them. June watched in horror as James’s eyes flashed red, his pupils spread throughout the white of his eyes, so that they looked just like Salvatore’s.

‘James?’

But he was lost, staring at a pinpoint in the distance. June wasn’t even sure whether he was breathing anymore. The clutches binding him melted into a pile of ashes, and he stood, unblinkingly. Hubert, Xavier, paced around him.

‘Your wish,’ said Hubert into James’s face, ‘is for me to travel three thousand years into the past, on the day of my arrival at the village.’

That village was a beautiful place. Until Xavier pummeled with his red lightning. No, I haven’t met him - but I think my boss did. She’s had so many lives, I’m sure in one of them she lived during the same time as him.

Love from all the fur on my back,

--THUG.