Episode 5 of The Witch’s Key: Found You
The story is really heating up! I know I left you hanging yesterday, and I can’t wait to get started on Episode 5 today!
If you’re just starting The Witch’s Key, you can find the beginning of the story here.
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Episode 5: Found You
This couldnโt be happening.
โWe just saw her yesterday afternoon,โ I said. โShe dropped me off at my house last night. That was just a few hours ago. Itโs not possible that sheโs gone. Sheโs probably just late for school.โ
My entire body was shaking.
Peyton was the first real friend Iโd ever made, and even though Iโd only known her a few days, I was already growing close to her. She couldnโt be gone.
This whole thing had to be some kind of misunderstanding.
โItโs true,โ Brandy said. โHer mom called me early this morning asking if Peyton had decided to sleep over at our place. Sheโs done that a few times when her parents were out of town, but I havenโt seen Peyton since I left her house yesterday afternoon.โ
โMe, either,โ Olive said. โShe texted mom about the cupcake at like nine or so last night. That was apparently the last time anyone heard from her.โ
โLenny, you were probably the last person to see her before she disappeared,โ Brandy said. โDid she say anything about where she was going after she dropped you off?โ
It felt like someone had just dropped a massive weight on my chest.
โNo. She just said she was going home,โ I said. โMaybe she just went to visit someone else? Does she have a boyfriend?โ
I realized weโd never talked about any of them having a boyfriend. I hadnโt seen any guys hanging around any of them, though. At least not so far.
โNot anymore,โ Brandy said. โSheโd been dating Maddox Penn for two years, but they broke up over the summer.โ
โMaybe she went to his house,โ I said. There had to be a logical explanation.
โThereโs more to it than that,โ Brandy said, wiping her face with a tissue. โBelieve me, I want this not to be real more than you do. Iโve known Peyton my whole life, Lenny. Sheโs my best friend. But they know sheโs been taken. Sheโs not just visiting a friend or something. I canโt say anything else, because the police told me not to talk about it, but theyโre going to want to question you, too, Lenny. They might already be talking to your uncle.โ
My mouth went dry, and I had to sit down on the picnic tableโs bench for a second.
They police knew for sure Peyton had been taken?
My mind had already put it all together, but I just didnโt want to believe it. The four other missing girls, and now this. It couldnโt be a coincidence.
Whoever took those other girls had Peyton, too.
But why?
After the confrontation with Kai, I had seriously considered taking a step back from figuring out what happened to those girls. Besides, I knew my uncle Martin wouldnโt want me messing in this stuff. This was potentially Council business, and if not, it was human business.
I shouldnโt get involved.
But now, the only friend Iโd ever made was gone.
I had to find her.
I closed my eyes and let my head fall into my hands.
Find her? How the heck was I going to do that? I knew nothing about this town or most of the people in it. I didnโt know anything about the other girls who had gone missing or why the police knew for sure Peyton was gone, too.
I didnโt have the first clue about where to start.
A chill went through me, and I looked up slowly.
Except, I did have one clue.
I had an encounter with a supernatural mystery dude just yesterday who very forcefully told me to mind my own business. He practically threatened me if I didnโt stay out of it.
Which means he knew a lot more than I did.
I stood up and scanned the crowd of students gathered outside the main entrance to the school. He had to be here somewhere. Besides, he was super tall, so it should have been easy to find him.
โI donโt know how Iโm going to focus at school today,โ Brandy said. โI think Iโm just going to call my mom to come get me. Do you both want to come over to my place and wait for news?โ
โIโll call my mom, too,โ Olive said. โSheโs just as upset about this as I am. Peytonโs parents must be a wreck, too. They worshipped her. Theyโre never going to forgive themselves for being out of town.โ
โGeez, youโre talking about her like sheโs never coming back,โ I said. โSheโs been gone a few hours. Weโre going to find her.โ
Brandyโs lower lip quivered, and tears started falling down her cheeks again in a steady stream.
โYouโre right. We canโt give up hope,โ she said. โBut you donโt know what itโs been like this year. Every time a girl has gone missing, weโve put up posters all over town, started a Facebook page, searched the woods, held candlelight vigils. Weโve kept the hope alive. But then, six months goes by without a single clue or sign of them, and itโs hard to believe theyโre ever coming back. Weโve done this four times now, and none of those girls have ever come home.โ
โListen, itโs going to be different this time,โ I said, touching Brandyโs arm. โThis time itโs Peyton. We canโt let this happen. Weโll find her.โ
Brandy nodded, but I could tell she didnโt have much hope.
And she was right. I hadnโt been here when those other girls disappeared. I hadnโt been a part of those vigils and the search for them.
It couldnโt have been easy to go through that over and over again with no results. Eventually, it had to feel hopeless.
Which is why we all needed to do everything we could to help bring Peyton home.
Brandy and Olive both stepped aside to make phone calls. I still hadnโt gotten my phone in the mail, so I couldnโt call Martin, but I really hoped the cops werenโt headed to his house to ask if they could talk to me. Martin hated the human police. He wasnโt likely to be super cooperative.
At the same time, though, maybe hearing about my friendโs disappearance would make him want to get involved.
Maybe I should have asked him about the missing girls, already. Technically, Uncle Martin was a retired Keeper, but if the Council was planning to get involved in searching for the demon or vampire or whoever took those girls, they would have told Martin.
The Council wasnโt going to send a Slayer into his town without him knowing about it.
But it was totally possible Martin would keep me out of the loop.
Still, I found it hard to believe the Council would have sent me to this town and insisted I go to this school full time if they knew about these girls and had plans to get involved somehow. Maybe this particular situation just hadnโt made it onto their radar yet.
With the Council, it was all about balance. As long as members of the magical community didnโt go too far and tip the scales too noticeably in a negative direction, the Council mostly left them alone.
But something like this? Where did they draw the line?
That was part of the business my parents never really let me get involved in. I would go with them on some of their jobs when things were simple, but they didnโt let me in on any of their behind-the-scenes information like conversations with their Keeper or the research they did on their targets.
For example, I might know that a demon had crossed the line, and I would be allowed to go with them when they captured him or banished him, but I didnโt always know exactly what he had done to get their attention.
I had an idea, of course, but sometimes the details were kept private.
Still, whoever was taking girls in Newcastle had to be crossing a line here. Four missing girls was bad enough, but five in little more than six months?
That was serial killer mania. If the national news media got wind of this, it would be a PR nightmare for the entire community. Part of the entire reason the Council existed was to keep a balance between the supernatural community and the human community.
Too much activity, and humans would know we all exist.
There were certain divisions inside the Council that dealt with different aspects of trying to keep the magical community secret from humans. Slayers were the most severe. If a Keeper decided a Slayer needed to be called in, it was bad news for whoever had done something wrong.
At that point, it usually meant banishment, eternal imprisonment, or death. Period.
I would say five missing girls called for the attention of a Slayer.
Talking to Martin about it was the smart thing to do, but I wasnโt sure I could handle it if he told me to leave it alone. There was no way Iโd be able to sit back and wait for the police to find her. Obviously, they were getting nowhere with the other girls.
I had to do something, and right now, the only thing I could think of was finding Kai. He knew more than I did about this whole situation.
Yesterday, heโd said he wasnโt my enemy. Heโd even acted like he wanted to protect me from getting hurt. I didnโt want to believe he had anything to do with those girls going missing, but I was still convinced he knew a lot more about this situation than he was letting on.
And it couldnโt have just been a coincidence that he showed up in Newcastle right before the first girl went missing.
I needed to find him, and I needed to confront him.
Even if he didnโt do this, I was willing to bet money he knew something about the person, or creature, who did.
Before, Iโd looked at this as a potential project or a diversion, but now, it was personal. I was going to find Peyton, and I was going to bring her home. I dared anyoneโeven Kaiโto try and stop me.
**
I had to sit through homeroom, because they werenโt dismissing anyone without parental permission today. It made sense. The last thing they needed was more missing teenagers in this town.
I listened to what everyone was saying, trying to take in as many conversations around me as I could.
Mostly, though, it was just a regurgitation of the newspaper articles Iโd read, but every once in a while, I caught a snippet of something I hadnโt heard before.
For example, all of the missing girls were home alone when they went missing. Some people were also saying that every girl had been a regular at Sir Bean during the weekdays after school. Several people thought the owner, Melvin, might have something to do with it.
โI heard he has some kind of police record from before he moved to town,โ the guy behind me said. โI was going to ask Kai about it, since he works there, but heโs not here today.โ
My ears perked up at that little tidbit.
Kai was absent today? I wanted to know why.
When they called Oliveโs name over the loudspeaker to go home, I slipped into the hallway with her.
โDid you get ahold of your uncle?โ she asked.
โNo, but I really canโt stay here,โ I said. โDo you think your mom could vouch for me?โ
Olive looked nervous. โI donโt know if thatโs such a great idea. Theyโre being really strict about who goes home with who, and if mom checks you out and you disappear, tooโโ
โIโm not going to disappear, Olive. I just need to get home, and Martin wasnโt answering the phone. Heโs old. Heโs probably taking a nap or maybe he has his phone turned off,โ I said. โIโll be fine. I promise I wonโt go anywhere else. Iโll walk straight home.โ
She sighed and bit her fingernail. โIโll ask, but I canโt promise sheโll say yes.โ
We walked together to the office, and Oliveโs mom pulled her daughter into a big hug. โIโm so glad youโre safe,โ she said. Sheโd obviously been crying. โThis is such a tragedy. I donโt know what weโre going to do. If anything happens to our sweet Peyton, I justโฆโ
Her voice trailed off, and she held her daughter tighter.
โAre you ready to go, sweetheart?โ
Ms. Julie held her daughterโs hands in her face, then hugged her again.
This was getting awkward with me just standing here watching. I cleared my throat.
Olive seemed to take the hint.
โMom, you remember Lenny from yesterday, right?โ
โOf course,โ she said.
She pulled me into a hug, too, and I stiffened. I wasnโt used to this kind of affection. Not even from my own mom. I pulled away as quickly as I could.
โHow are you holding up, Lenny?โ she asked. โYou couldnโt have known Peyton very long, but she gets into your heart fast, doesnโt she? Plus, I canโt imagine how difficult it must be to start a brand new school, make a new friend, and then have her disappear like this. I promise you, Newcastle wasnโt always like this. Itโs always been a very safe place to live, until recently.โ
She shook her head, and I thought she was about to cry again, but she managed to get it under control.
โIโm not handling it well at all,โ I said, laying it on thick. โI donโt see how I can stay here all day and listen to everyone talk about this. Do you think you could sign me out, too? I donโt live far from here, and I just want to go home and lay down for a while.โ
โOh, honey, I donโt know,โ she said. โHave you talked to your parents?โ
I swallowed. I hadnโt realized how often people assumed you had parents to talk to.
โNo, I live with my uncle,โ I said, leaving it at that for now. โI couldnโt reach him, but I know he wonโt mind if I come home. Heโs there now, actually. I just couldnโt get him to answer the phone. I promise, Iโll just walk straight home from here.โ
โNonsense,โ she said. โI couldnโt have you walking home by yourself, even if itโs close. Iโll check you out and drive you there myself.โ
My shoulders relaxed in relief. โThank you.โ
I needed to learn to forge some documents from my uncle to get me out of situations like this in the future, but for now, this would do. Thank goodness for new friends and their overly nice mothers.
A few minutes later, we all loaded into Ms. Julieโs Ford Explorer. It smelled like cupcakes.
โWhere do you live, Lenny?โ she asked.
I directed her toward the house, and she frowned. โ100 Moonlight Drive? But thatโsโฆโ
She didnโt complete her thought, but I already knew what she was going to say.
Thatโs the abandoned house. Or thatโs the house with the creepy dude.
โYeah, I know it looks dark, but my uncleโs just elderly,โ I said.
Martin would probably kill me if he heard me say that.
The truth was, he was well over a hundred years old, so elderly was in fact an understatement. Slayers and Keepers, once initiated, had expanded life expectancy. We werenโt exactly immortal, but we lived a lot longer than your average human.
I hadnโt been initiated yet, though. I couldnโt make that move and get my next key until Iโd taken the Councilโs initiation test at eighteen. I still had eight months to decide if I was going to take it or not.
โI didnโt realize anyone still lived there,โ she said, clearing her throat and glancing at Olive in the passenger seat. They shared a look that sent a wave of warm embarrassment up the back of my neck.
We didnโt talk the rest of the way to the house, but in a car, it only took about three minutes to get there. Ms. Julie parked on the street in front of the house, right where Peyton had stopped the night before.
โI canโt believe she was just dropping me off right here a few hours ago,โ I said. โWhoever took her must have done it late last night. What time did she text you?โ
โWhat?โ Ms. Julie asked. She obviously hadnโt been listening to me.
โPeyton. What time did she text you about the cupcake last night? What did she think of the new flavor?โ
Ms. Julie nodded, tears in her eyes again.
โIt was about nine-thirty when she finally texted me,โ she said. โShe said it was my best recipe yet. I just canโt believe sheโs gone.โ
โMe, either,โ I said, glad to at least have an idea of the timeline we were dealing with here. โThanks again for dropping me off.โ
Olive handed me a slip of paper with a number on it. โText me if you want to come over later,โ she said. โI think we might hang out at Brandyโs for a while this afternoon and wait for news.โ
โThank you. Iโll message you later if I get a chance.โ
I got out of the car and headed inside as quietly as I could. To be honest, I was relieved there hadnโt been a police car outside the house when we pulled up.
It was probably only a matter of time before the police found out I was possibly the last person to see Peyton before she disappeared. That meant it was also only a matter of time before I had to talk to Uncle Martin about what was going on.
But there was something I wanted to do first.
I silenced the soles of my boots again as I entered the house and ran up to my bedroom. At this time of day, Martin really was likely to be napping or working in his study on the other side of the house.
I shut the door of my room and took a second to catch my breath before walking over to the small cauldron Iโd left on my desk the other night. I lifted up the piece of straw Iโd used in my spell and shook my head.
There wasnโt a lot left of the top quarter, and it hadnโt even worked right in the first place, but this was my best shot at getting information today.
I quickly gathered all the herbs and components I needed for the location tracking spell, including my fatherโs magical compass, cleaned out the cauldron, and tried, for the second time, to cast a spell using Kaiโs stolen straw.
I mixed everything together and took a deep breath before dropping the tip of the straw into the spell mixture.
โInvenio,โ I said as I held the compass in my other hand and waited.
I needed this to work. I needed something to prove that I could do this without my parents here to help. That I could still make a difference in the world.
I needed this to work so that I could help find Peyton before it was too late.
โPlease,โ I whispered, tapping my toes inside my boot.
I stared at the needle on the compass, silently begging it to move.
Come on.
It jerked a couple of times, went still, and then started spinning around in circles so fast, I couldnโt follow it with my eyes.
My stomach knotted as I watched. Was it supposed to do this? I couldnโt remember.
I held my breath, waiting and praying.
Then, finally, the needle stopped with an abrupt click. It was clearly pointing east, and a smile slowly crossed my face.
โFound you,โ I whispered before grabbing my bag and heading back out to begin my official investigation into the disappearance of my first real friend.