The school bell rang telling everyone to go home.
"....and don't forget your essay on The Peculiarites of English Language Teaching and....." Mr. Johnson the seniors' AP English teacher was telling his class, but before he could finish, they'd all rushed out of the class.
".... Standard English vs. Singlish" he finished to the empty class and sighed both sadly and frustratedly. He was actually considering retiring soon.
Meanwhile in the front of the school, Raphael marched hurriedly to his mother's car. Now, he was going to bombard her with questions about 'Amber Donnovan' and the fact that she told him that he's a witch. Once he entered the car, his mother greeted him.
"Well, how was school today my little wizard?" She greeted her son happily. She was still wearing her hospital scrubs which means she came here directly from the hospital, Mercy Healings Clinics and Hospitals, where she worked. He scoffed at his mother's greeting.
"Well that is what I am, isn't it?" He murmured angrily, but she still heard him. She frowned at his statement.
"What do you mean by that?"
"Nothing, just drive." He could have asked her then, but he was so pissed, he knew that if he talked to her, it would have just been frustrated sounds that would come out of him.
She frowned at him for a while longer, then she turned on the engine and drove away. They stayed silent in the car, Jessica thought and felt that something was terribly wrong, they were never this silent on their way home, Raphael was just as talkative as his father, 'his father' Jessica thought of him sadly frowned, she missed Xavier badly all the time, but no, something was definitely wrong with her son, and she needed to deal with it ASAP. She'd asked Ralph when they got home, but he was way ahead of her.
"Mom, what am I?"
Oh, no the question she dreaded the most, but as usual she kept her cool and asked him in her sweet voice.
"What do you mean by that honey?"
"Mom, please don't play dumb with me and just tell me." He said angrily and in frustration.
"Ralph, you're gonna have to be more specific than that." she said in an almost angry tone, Jessica had a short fuse, just like her son.
"Alright," Raphael said finally facing his mother, "today at school, a woman with thick brown hair and green eyes came to me and told me that I was a witch. So, is it true, am I a witch?" Jessica's eyes widened in horror and realization
"Wait brown hair? Green eyes? Amber." She said as she started breathing heavily. "If she found you, that means others can too. Oh my god,baby we're gonna have to get outta town for a few days?"
"Mom no, we're not going anywhere,not unless you tell me the truth."
"Okay, alright baby I will tell you everything, but for now all you need to know is that you are a witch and bad people are gonna come after us so we have to we have to leave the country now." She said looking so worried that Raphael didn't bother her any longer, he just sat in his seat staring blankly at the road ahead.
"Wait, did she say anything about the spell?"
"Yes" Raphael replied his mother in a voice devoid of emotion, "She said it was fading and it's leading her to me like a beacon to me, but it's faint and only powerful creatures can see it."
"Oh, that's both good and bad" she said as she stared at her son. She'd heard that voice before in her husband when the war was starting and that made her sad and fearful. Sad, because she'd lost her husband because of that war. Fearful, because she could lose her son very soon as well. But she kept this thought to herself.
They finally reached the front of their house after she cut the twenty minute ride down to fifteen, but she parked in front of the house, this troubled Raphael so much because she usually parked in the garage or in the driveway, she only parked in front of the house when she was in serious hurry. They came down from the car and rushed into the house. Once in the house she said,
"Raphael, baby, go to your room, get changed and pack an emergency suitcase. We'll eat at the airport." she said to him as she chartered a flight to Paris for them, she was so thankful that she'd made a passport for him about a year ago, because she knew this day would come sooner rather than later. When she was done she went into her room to change.
Once they were done, they headed to the car. She put their suitcases in the trunk and went to the driver's seat and they went to the airport, and after about 7 hours, they were on their way to Paris.
On the flight, Raphael was the first to break the silence.
"Mom?"
"Yes, my baby?"
"Will you explain things to me now?"
"No, my angel, I will show it to you once we get to Paris."
"Why? You promised to tell me everything." He said frustratedly, almost yelling at her.
"Because it's easier if I just show you, but the item is in Paris, baby."
Raphael grimaced at the sound of this one of many nicknames his mother gave him.
"Oh Raphael," she continued, "I am so sorry that you had to find out about everything like this. I would have loved to tell you the truth."
He didn't say anything to her, he just folded his arms across his chest, turned as much as he could to face the other direction in an effort to ignore her.
"I know baby; and I'm sorry for that. Thank you for understanding."
After two hours of flying, Raphael got tired and dozed off. When his mother was sure he was asleep, she brought out a pendant, and slipped it over his head. It was a cloaking pendant and as long as he wore it, it'd cloak his energy as best as it could.
***********************************************
When they'd reach Paris, they had to spend an additional 3 hours there due to Immigration before they finally got through, then they had to spend another five hours traveling from the airport to a small town where they rented a very specific room in a hotel that was quite cheap.
'This motel is WAYYYYY below Mom's pay grade. We can easily afford a better one. So why the hell are we here? I really hope she's still not stalling' Raphael thought with a frown on his face.
Fortunately, it wasn't the holiday season so the hotel owners didn't have to chase anyone out of room 168 to make it available to Jessica and her son.
"So," Raphael began, "where's this thing that's gonna explain things to me?"
Jessica smiled grimly at her son and said
"Patience is a virtue darling, but don't worry, it's in the room."
She went to the small cupboard at the other side of the room and moved it aside, then she brought a small knife from the back of the cupboard and wanted to cut her hand but Raphael stopped her,
"Whoa mom, what're you doing? You can't just cut yourself like that."
Jessica just smiled at her son's concern before saying,
"The door won't open just like that, it needs either my blood or yours, and like you said, I can't just cut your hand like that, so my blood will just have to do."
"Okay, Mom, this is kinda freaking me out. Do you have to do this?"
"Yes, baby, I do. We have a long road ahead of us. You are very powerful. More powerful than you even realize, and this journey we're about to go on, is gonna be long and hard, and if I can protect you at any point, I will. And this is one of those times I'M gonna be able to protect you. So, yes, I have to do this. But thank you so much for your concern, it really means a lot to me."
Jessica knew how stubborn her son was, and she knew arguing with him wasn't gonna help, so she spoke to him as softly as she could, to calm him down enough for him to listen to her.
"Alright, you can go ahead Mom." Raphael said, listening to his mother.
Jessica sliced her palm diagonally, as Raphael looked away. She winced a bit at the pain as she pressed her hand into a fist to draw more blood. Then she opened her palm and rubbed all the blood on one specific 2x2 inch panel on the wall.
It forward with a hiss, exposing a drawer-like opening. Jessica picked up what was in the wall when she was done bandaging her hand with tools she'd prepared beforehand, and to his surprise, it was ring.
"A ring? How is that supposed to tell me anything?"
Jessica gave her son a sweet laugh,
"With magic baby, anything is possible, I thought you already knew that."
She said with a playful frown on her face, but then she turned her frown upside down as she said,
"Come, you need to lie on the bed, so that when you fall, you won't hurt yourself. Come." she said tapping the bed softly. Raphael looked at his mother for a while before he walked towards the bed and lay on it.
"Give me your right hand." she said as she removed the red glass-like covering from the top of the ring and exposed the sharp pin under it, she then pierced her son's fore-finger but the blood was just sucked into the ring instead of rushing out, Raphael grimaced slightly in pain, then she slipped the ring into his finger. For a while nothing happened and he wanted to start questioning his mother but then he started shaking uncontrollably. He shook for about forty five seconds but stopped and his brown pupils disappeared and his eyes became white.