Brian quickly stood to his feet and went to throw a punch at Rob, but Rob caught his fist in mid swing and threw him over his shoulder, flying into the air high above the trees. Brian fell down through the branches screaming and cursing as he hit the ground. He lay there, badly beaten and then Rob went over to him like lion in the jungle and sunk his teeth deep into his throat, sucking out the remaining life in his body.

Rob stood up, and looked at Brian’s dead, lifeless body laying there in the middle of the brush. He covered his body with the fallen leaves and then walked away, immensely satisfied with his victory.

CHAPTER 14

After days of searching, Hunter, Penelope and Matilda were still no closer to finding the Waverly Mirror. They searched high and low, and tried to follow the clues, but they hadn’t yet found it. It seemed that each clue brought them only a little bit closer to finding the mirror. In fact, each clue took them to different islands.

The first day, they spent the entire day on the Isla de la Palma. They looked all over the island, but they were unsuccessful. Then, they flew to the Isla de El Hierro, where they thought they were getting close, but when they got to the bridge where they thought the mirror was hidden, it turned out that the bridge had collapsed decades ago and the only remaining structure were the beams that stood up out of the water. They searched around the beams, even diving underwater to look, but there was no sign of the mirror there.

They wished that Benji had come with them because they thought he might have a better sense of where the mirror was hidden. They knew that time was running out and they didn’t have time to be flying all over the islands looking for clues that didn’t exist anymore. It was a complete waste of their time and they knew it was only a matter of days before Violet and her coven would take over the world.

“We can’t do this anymore,” Penelope complained. “The mirror is nowhere to be found.”

“We haven’t finished searching everywhere yet,” Matilda said. “There is still one place left to look.”

“Where is that?” Hunter asked. “I thought we had covered everything.”

“No. We only covered the major places. But there is one more place, a minor place, that is mentioned in the scripture of our forefathers. Uncle Drew said that if we can’t find it anywhere else, we should look there.”

“Where?” Penelope asked.

“The Teide volcano,” Matilda said, “on Tenerife. It is the highest mountain in Spain. And an active volcano. Uncle Drew said that if we can’t find it anywhere else, it may be hidden deep inside the volcano.”

“So we should fly inside the volcano!” Penelope screamed. “What if it erupts?”

“We may have no other choice,” Hunter said.

The three looked at each other grimly, then finally nodded to each other in resolve. As one they set off into the air, resolved to do whatever they had to to find the mirror and save the world.

CHAPTER 15

Rachel lay there in bed after Dr. Goldman left, half awake and half asleep. She kept waking up from her dreams, her heart racing and out of breath. She didn’t know what was going on and was now scared to fall back asleep. She was having night terrors, which she’d never had before. As if things couldn’t get worse for Rachel, she was now being haunted in her sleep.

BUZZ BUZZ

The sound of her cell phone was going off under her pillow.

Dana: How are you? Are you coming to school today?

Rachel: No, staying home.

Dana: There was a big hoopla here this morning between Brian and some guy named Rob.

Rachel: Rob?

Dana: Yeah, says he’s from your old school. He said he’s your boyfriend.

Rachel: HUH? WTH?

Dana: I don’t know. Anyway, he was here looking for you but he’s gone now. Not sure where he went or if he knows where you live, but just a heads up.

Rachel: Um, thanks, I guess.

Dana: How was the rest of your night with Brian?

Rachel: Fine

Dana: We all heard what you did and I think it’s very big of you.

Rachel: What did I do?

Dana: You left him at the café because you didn’t want to be with him anymore.

Rachel: What?

Dana: Yeah, Sam told me you did it for her! She’s so grateful, too!

Rachel: Really?

Dana: Didn’t she text you? She said she was going to text you to thank you for doing that. She said she owes you big time!

Rachel: Um, no. She didn’t text me.

Dana: Well, I gotta go. Let’s chat later. Class is starting.

Rachel: K Bye

Rachel didn’t know what to make of that conversation. She knew that something had gone wrong and there was a complete miscommunication between her and Brian. She wondered if he was the one spreading the rumor that she left him or how Sam even found out in the first place. She was confused by the entire situation with Brian, not to mention this news about Rob. She didn’t even remember who Rob was, but figured he probably was her boyfriend. She hated not knowing these things or people and she just wanted it all to end.

She slunk under the covers again and tried to avoid the situation. Then, she heard another buzzing noise coming from her cell phone.

Sam: Hey there!

Rachel: Hi

Sam: I want to say thank you.

Rachel: For what?

Sam: You know!

Rachel: ?

Sam: For everything with Brian.

Rachel: Um…

Sam: I heard what you did and I can’t thank you enough. I mean, I honestly felt bad about last night and how we treated you. I really didn’t think you were going to leave him so I was upset.

Rachel: Oh

Sam: I hope you’re not mad at me or at us. It was all my fault. I turned them against you and I want to apologize for that. You didn’t deserve it.

Rachel: Yeah, thanks.

Sam: So will I see you today?

Rachel: No, taking the day off to rest. This has all been a whirlwind for me.

Sam: Well, I’ll come by after school today to see you then. Can I bring you anything?

Rachel: Nah, I’m cool.

Sam: Well, see you later then.

Rachel: Later

Rachel couldn’t believe that Sam really thought she left Brian so that she could have a turn with him. She was flabbergasted by the idea, but part of her was glad that she was misinformed, because now all her friends don’t hate her. She felt a little bit of a relief from that. It was hard enough not remembering the past two years of her life and was even harder to have all her best friends mad at her.

Feeling a little bit better about things she felt able to get out of bed. She looked in the mirror at her wild bed head and her smudged make up from last night, but didn’t care. She didn’t care how she looked and didn’t have the energy or the drive to do anything about it. She threw on her Gap hooded sweatshirt over her Walmart Christmas tree PJ set, and headed downstairs. She walked down the hall and as she got to the top of the steps she heard men’s voices whispering downstairs. She stopped and listened for a minute and could hear the voice of Dr. Goldman, talking to her father. She couldn’t make out what he was saying, but she assumed she was talking to her father about their session. Part of her was mad that he was still there talking to her father, because she’d thought their session was confidential. She felt a little bit betrayed by Dr. Goldman, but on the other hand, she was kind of glad he was sharing some things with her dad, because it had been hard for her to express herself recently, and she wanted her dad to know what was going on. She desperately needed help, and without her families support, she wouldn’t get the help she needed.

Rachel started walking down the stairs and then heard her dad stop talking and say, “I think she’s coming now.” She continued walking down and then saw her dad, standing there at the bottom of the stairs, and then look back towards the kitchen and make a gesture. She didn’t know what he was doing, but continued down anyway.

“Hi, Dad,” Rachel said.

“Good morning,” her dad said.

Within seconds of her going into the kitchen, two strong men wearing white lab coats quickly grabbed her. They put a blindfold on her eyes and said, “You’re coming with us.”

“DAD! DAD!” Rachel shrieked.

“Rachel, it’s for your own good,” Dr. Goldman said. “You are a very troubled girl, you need to go to a special home for a while to figure out what’s been going on with you.”

“NO! I WANT MY DAD!” Rachel screamed.

“Rachel, I’m right here. I have arranged for this. I knew you wouldn’t take it well, so we have to do it this way. You will be fine,” her dad said.

Rachel felt the men start dragging her out. Her body grew limp as he heels skidded across the floor. She couldn’t believe this was happening to her and didn’t quite understand why.

“BUT WHY!?” she yelled out, as she was being carried outside.

“You are a very rare case,” Dr. Goldman yelled out after her. “They will help you.”

Her body stopped moving as the sliding door to what sounded like a big UHAUL van opened. She could hear it sliding on its hinges and then heard other kids voices in the truck. She couldn’t understand what was happening to her and she knew she couldn’t let this go on. She had to get out of it.

Then, all of a sudden, she felt a bolt of energy surge through her body and she started to flail around. She felt the strong, firm grip of one of the men grab her even tighter, causing her skin to burn. She then ducked down and got out of his grip, ripped off her blindfold and stood there, staring them right in the eyes. One man reached into his pocked and pulled out a stun gun and quickly shot her in the leg.

Rachel looked down at her leg and realized that the bullet had stopped right before it hit her, turned around and then hit the man who shot it right between his eyes. He started screaming in pain as the other guy pulled it off of his face.

“How’d that happen? The man asked.

“What’s going on here?” the other man said, looking back at Rachel in sudden fear and terror.

She then, walked over to the man who had shot her and grabbed him by the throat and lifted him high up into the air. She didn’t know how she was doing this, but her body was surging at an uncontrollable rate and she couldn’t stop her motions. She was fearless and unstoppable, and she was going to do everything in her power to put an end to this.