Fortunately for Jasmine’s sanity, it was only a few moments later when Sarah’s car honked in front of the apartment. She rushed out, frowning because she still hadn’t located her purse. She’d just not get anything to eat if Sarah was hungry, she didn’t feel comfortable enough to ask anyone but Tom to pay for her, even though she was good at paying people back.
“Hey.” She said, hopping into the passenger seat of Sarah’s car. She shot Sarah a brief, false smile, but refused to look her in the eye. She was sure Sarah would see right through her guilt, and ask her to confess.
“Hey.” Sarah said back, seeming to not notice that anything specific was wrong. Jasmine drew in a slight sigh of relief.
“What’s the plan?”
“I don’t know if we’d be better off at a magic shop, or a library. The scroll obviously has mystical roots, but we might get better information just by myth alone. What do you think?” Jasmine blinked, totally confused. This was totally not her territory.
“Um, you know more about this than I do, maybe, we should try a magic shop first.” Sarah nodded, putting her car into drive and heading away from the apartment.
“How far is it?” Jasmine asked casually. The faster the drive was the better. She didn’t really know what to converse with Sarah about, and she was a bit nervous.
“About fifteen minutes. We have to go into Belleview.” Sarah informed her. Jasmine chewed on her lower lip, but fortunately Sarah flicked on the radio, and music started blaring. Music was good. Loud music means no one can really talk.
A few songs later, Sarah pulled off the highway and drove along a side road, pulling up to a new age bookstore called “The Circle of the Moon.” Sarah parked the car and quickly climbed out, Jasmine following.
When Sarah opened the door, a little bell jingled from the doorframe, and an elderly man ambled slowly up to the counter. “Can I help you girls?” He asked with a scratch in his voice. Jasmine glanced at Sarah.
“Yeah. We’re looking for books that will give us information on a mystical scroll.” The man’s eyes widened slightly.
“What scroll is that, Missy?”
“It’s in reference to a Goddess called Shiniquah.” The man glanced around, his wrinkled fingers twitching.
“Well gosh, what do you want to get involved with her for?” Small butterflies welled up inside of Jasmine’s stomach as she shifted her weight uncomfortably, and Sarah glanced calmly at Jasmine with expressionless eyes.
“It’s important.” Sarah said to him, firmness etching in her voice. The man shifted his weight.
“If we have anything, it’d be over on that shelf.” He said, pointing his index finger to the back of the store. “Next to the binding spells.” This was all confusing to Jasmine, but Sarah bobbed her head in a short nod of appreciation and rushed towards them. Jasmine quickly skittered behind her, feeling out of place and definitely apprehensive. That man hadn’t reacted well at all when they mentioned Shiniquah, and that couldn’t be good.
“What, exactly are we looking for?” Jasmine asked, her eyes scanning the contents of the shelf with skepticism and a tinge of fear.
“Anything having to do with Shiniquah, or gods in general. Powerful ones.” Frowning, Jasmine reached forward and pulled a random book off the shelf, absentmindedly paging through it, trying to look helpful although unless there was a chapter titled “Shiniquah,” she doubted she’d be of much help. Sarah began to do the same, flipping through a book, putting it back, and grabbing another.
“I found something.” Sarah exclaimed five minutes later, her eyes widening. Jasmine closed the book she was paging through and placed it back on the shelf, tilting her head to get a glimpse of the title of the book Sarah was holding. ‘Dark Rituals.’ This couldn’t be good.
A moment later, Sarah slammed the book shut, raising her eyes towards Jasmine. “We got what we came for, let’s go.” She said, her voice short. Jasmine nodded, following Sarah up to the counter. She set the book down in front of the man, who glanced down at the book, then back up with the girls with concern in his eyes.
“Are you girls sure you know what you’re doing?” He finally said.
“We’re not here to gain from her.” Sarah responded. “Just to figure out what’s going on.” The man’s facial expression softened, his hand slowly bringing the scanner over the back of the book.
“That’ll be twelve dollars and fifty seven cents.” He said as Sarah handed him a twenty. He opened the register and handed her cash back, pausing for a moment. “Good luck to you girls.” Jasmine looked away, waiting impatiently for this transaction to end so she could get the heck out of this creepy place.
“Thank you.” Sarah said sincerely as she grasped the book and the receipt, turning and following Jasmine back out to the car.
“Where are we going?” Jasmine asked her as she fastened her seatbelt.
“To a coffee shop, we can sit and really look through this.”
“That guy back there, he made it sound like this thing was something awful.” Sarah avoided looking at Jasmine, turning the key in the ignition.
“I know.” They drove in silence for a few minutes before pulling up in front of a coffee shop. Getting out, they both headed inside and took a table in the back.
“Okay. Let’s see what we can find out.” Sarah said, setting the book on the table and starting to page through it.
“What’ll it be this morning?” The waitress asked, standing in front of them.
“Oh.” Sarah looked up. “Um, coffee with cream, and, do you have French toast?”
“Yep, we do.” She scribbled something on to her pad, looking back at Jasmine.
“Oh, nothing for me, thanks.” The waitress blinked at her strangely before turning around and heading back to the counter.
“You’re not getting anything?” Sarah asked, raising a brow.
“I couldn’t find my purse this morning.”
“Oh, well I can buy you something, it’s no biggy.”
“No, I wouldn’t ask you to do that.”
“You didn’t ask. I offered.” A moment later, the waitress brought Sarah her coffee. Sarah nudged Jasmine’s foot.
“Actually, I’m going to get something.” Jasmine said, her eyes glancing over the piece of paper that was supposedly the menu. “Um, toast and two eggs, over easy?” The waitress frowned slightly, pulling out her pad again and scribbling.
“Coming right up.” She huffed as she walked away. Sarah turned back to her book, taking a sip of her coffee.
“Oh!” Sarah said with excitement in her voice, though her facial expression showed fear. “There’s an account here from a hundred years back or so, a girl who claimed to have gained great power from Shiniquah.” Jasmine tilted her head, those nervous butterflies bouncing all around in her stomach.
“Like, what’s been happening with us?” Sarah’s facial expression soon turned from excitement and relief to fear.
“And, she died.” Jasmine’s nervous digits raised to fiddle with a lock of her hair.
“How?”
“It says that she, hung herself.” She hung herself? Why did that ring a strange, dreadful bell in Jasmine’s head? She paused, raising a suspicious brow.
“What else does it say?” She asked, her voice shaking slightly, her heart beginning to beat faster in her chest. For some unexplainable reason, she had a feeling she already knew what Sarah was going to tell her.
“It just says that she killed herself after committing murders.” Sarah responded softly, and Jasmine tilted her head. That wasn’t what she had expected to hear.
“Are you sure?” She asked, leaning forward against her elbows, her eyes narrowing with slight confusion.
“Yeah, why?”
“I don’t know. That just doesn’t seem right. I don’t think she killed anyone.” Sarah closed the book slightly, eyeing Jasmine with apprehension.
“How do you know that?”
“I- I don’t know. I just really don’t think she did. I think there’s things we still don’t understand. I think it’s some kind of conspiracy.”
“Jasmine, this isn’t X-files.” Sarah began softly. “Let me read some more.” She offered helpfully, flipping the book open once more.
“Here’s your food.” The waitress suddenly said, snapping Jasmine out of her traveling thoughts. She nearly leapt out of her chair, her eyes darting towards the waitress with temporary shock. The action startled the waitress and she stepped back, the food dishes teetering upon her not-so-firm hold. Jasmine shot her hands up and took hold of the plates, bringing them to the table and quite possibly avoiding a messy disaster. The waitress looked a bit shocked, and began to stammer, but she gave up and simply walked away. Sarah tilted her head.
“Sorry,” Jasmine began. “I was just, there’s something about that girl. Something familiar.”
“Tell me, Jas.” Sarah coaxed. Jasmine closed her eyes, hazy images flashing through her mind, but when she tried to focus on any of them, they seemed to all dissolve. She sighed in frustration.
“I don’t know! It’s just familiar is all.” She glanced down at her food, feeling slightly guilty that she ordered it off of Sarah’s dime when she didn’t even have an appetite.
“It’s okay. I’ll just keep reading.” Jasmine frowned slightly, picked up a fork and poked at her eggs, forcing herself to bring the oozing yolk to her mouth. This obviously wasn’t a four-star café, but she wasn’t about to be rude and complain.
Sarah blinked carefully, her index finger running over the page as she looked up at Jasmine. Jasmine stopped chewing, that look bestowed upon her forcing a slight uncomfortable shift in her seat. “W-what?” She finally mustered up the courage to ask, then forced herself to swallow the mixture of egg yolk sticking to her tongue.
“I don’t think we’re in Seattle any more, Jasmine.” Sarah said, her eyes wide with trembling fear. Jasmine’s mouth felt dry. This kind of stuff wasn’t real. She came here to find out what it felt like to be in love. She came here to start a new life, make new friends and put every horror of the past behind her. She didn’t come here to be sitting in a café, researching a scroll that has supernatural powers.
“Then, where are we?” She finally asked, digits curling into a fist, nails digging into her skin in a nervous and oblivious reaction.
“We’re in the middle of a God’s evil ploy.” Sarah responded, her hands shaking as she gripped the book tight within them. “She- she didn’t give us powers to gift us. She’s just baiting us.”
“Baiting us, for what?” Jasmine asked, her voice cracking a bit. This all still didn’t quite seem real. It was like watching a movie; scared of the outcome but not actually believing it was reality.
“Baiting us to manifest.” Jasmine’s expression didn’t change even after that, because those words were still foreign to her magically uneducated ears.
“To manifest, to become real, tangible. Flesh and blood.” Okay, now it was officially fairy tale time. Jasmine’s brain simply refused to accept the fact that something like this could be real, much less life-threateningly dangerous. Yes, they’ve changed, become different, and of coarse Jasmine was afraid, but there had to be a much simpler explanation.
“Sarah, this just isn’t-“
“Real?” Sarah interrupted her eyes no longer dreamy and insecure or even fearful, now they simply stared at Jasmine with a void, as if she were in shock. Jasmine leaned forward, her not-so-tasty breakfast now long forgotten.
“Well, yeah. I mean it’s probably placebo. They thought they’d get more powerful, so they did.” Just saying that made Jasmine cringed, desperate to hold on to some semblance of reality but obviously losing the fight.
“Jas, denying this isn’t going to make it better. This is dangerous. We played with fire and people are going to get hurt, and, and it’s my fault.” Sarah’s eyes left their resting place upon Jasmine once again, lowering as their lids closed over, a slight tremble of her chin.
Jasmine reached forward, attempting to put a soothing hand over Sarah’s arm. “Hey, it’s not your fault, okay? How could you have possibly known what would happen?”
“I- I’m magic girl, remember?” Sarah squeaked, her jaw still trembling. “I didn’t do this thinking it was a silly game. I really believe in all of this. I know it’s real. Don’t even try to tell me this isn’t my fault.”
“Even if you did think it was real from the beginning, you couldn’t have possibly known that it would turn out bad. And if me denying it isn’t helping, your blaming yourself isn’t helping either.” Jasmine sat back and blinked surprised at the intensity of her words.
Fortunately they paid off, in response to them Sarah blinked, wiped her eyes with the back of her hand and tightened her trembling jaw into an expression of determination. “You’re right. It’s not, and even though I still feel at fault, that’s all the more reason for me to fix it and not just dwell on it.” Jasmine frowned slightly, but figured it was probably the best response she was going to get from Sarah at the moment.
“Alright then. What were you saying about manifestation?” Sarah sighed, her eyes drifting back down towards the book.
“She dwells in a spirit world right now, a world where she feels trapped and is unable to use powers she has. She wants to be tangible, because this way she’ll have unlimited power and be able to use it however she wants.”
“Does it say what kind of powers she has, or what she wants to use them for?” Sarah paused again, her eyes skimming back and forth over the writing, and after another few moments she frowned and looked up once again.
“It’s very vague, which is a really bad sign. That usually means ..” Sarah trailed off as her eyes returned to the book, a moment later her hands lowering it to the counter. “Oh, god.”
Jasmine tilted her head. “Okay, now you’re the one being vague. Sar, what does it say?”
“There’s only one way she can manifest. It has to be done by a group of people, like us. The way she’s been giving us powers, it’s like she’s charging us, like batteries so she can use us. There’s more..” She paused again, obviously having to force herself to look back down at the book. Jasmine drummed her nails against the counter impatiently, butterflies welling up in her stomach. This was all just a bad dream. She’d wake up any minute now, in Tom’s arms and everything would be all right again.
“The only way she really can manifest is if someone has the power to make her real. One of us..” Sarah trailed off yet again, the color slowly draining from her face. “It has to be me. I’m the one who encouraged this. I’m the one who practices magic! Jasmine if she manifests, we’re all doomed. And it is my fault.”
“Would you girls care for anything else?” The waitress suddenly interrupted, forcing Jasmine out of her mind-swirl and back into the present moment. Her head jolted to the side, her eyes falling upon the waitress as if she were an invader. The waitress shrunk back and Jasmine’s face immediately softened apologetically.
“Oh- um, no thanks, just the bill.” The waitress nodded quickly and set it on the table, quickly scurrying away from the girls. Sarah closed the book carefully and set a twenty on the table, leaping up from her seat and tugging down on her shirt.
“Let’s go. We’ve got to tell the others, and I’ve got to find a way to reverse all of this. A spell or something.”
“You going to wait for change?”
Sarah grabbed her hand and dragged her out of the diner. “They can keep it.”