MAGE ; benny weir [1]

fourty-one

Rushing up to Ethan's house, Ellie and Sarah found Jane colouring on the front porch.
"Jane, is Ethan upstairs?" Ellie asked the nine-year-old.

"Yeah, but he's acting kind of insane," she commented. "Let's go look."

The three girls reached Ethan's room to find the seer scavenging through his mother's jewelry.
"Silver, rubies, diamonds? Worthless junk! Lucia demands gold!" he exclaimed.

"What's a 'Lucia'?" Jane whispered to the girls.

"Gold for my queen!"

Ethan ran out of his room and into the next, still looking for jewelry and acting even more desperate than usual.

"Ellie, help us out here," Sarah begged to the witch. "Is this a kind of spell or something?"

"Even if it is, I couldn't do anything about it," Ellie admitted. "This could be elder-level magic, maybe even a curse! Benny carries our spellbook, so I can't even look up anything."

"Looks like it's up to the girls to save the day," Sarah said.
"Count me in!" Jane shouted.

"She means me, her, and Erica. Sorry, Jane," Ellie told the nine-year-old.
"Ugh."

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"Sarah! Erica!"
The vampires heard Ellie's yells from the top of the entrance stairs, watching her book it down to explain her status.
"I just took our spellbook from Benny's backpack, so now we can look for a way to fix the spell," Ellie informed.

"Uh, I think the spell's more powerful than we thought," Erica said as she pointed to the top of the stairwell.
An Egyptian chant rang throughout the entrance hall as the girls watched the group of manipulated guys march down the stairs. Ethan, Benny, and Rory were conjoined in the gaggle, shirtless with sun symbols painted on their torsos. 

"Definitely more powerful than we thought," Sarah said.
She glanced down to Ellie putting away the spellbook, spotting purple sparks fly out of her fingertips along with the book. Ellie was angry.

"I am totally praising the Sun King," Benny announced.
"I praise him twice as hard as you do!" Ethan argued.

"Ellie, stop doing that," Erica whispered.
"Stop doing what?" she seethed.
Erica grabbed Ellie's hand to stop her from the subconscious clicking she was making with her fingers, a magic flame sparking like flint with every snap. "S-Sorry, I didn't know I was—!"

"The Sun King is pleased. He will soon return to us soon!" Lucia announced to the boys. "You may cheer."

"Hooray! Hooray! Hooray!"

"Soon, the final ceremony will need the ultimate sacrifice," Lucia continued. "Who among you is worthy to be my chosen one?"

As the dozens of boys began to yell overtop of one another and argue, Sarah and Erica could hear Ellie's heartrate racing. The vampires shared a glance, unable to understand what was happening to the witch as they watched Ellie's shoulders lift up and down with her huffs.

Ellie's vision flashed a quick magenta, which scared the witch back into reality. She tried to grab ahold her surroundings, smelling the air and counting her toes... until she couldn't hold herself down any longer.

"EVERYONE SHUT UP!" the witch yelled at the top of her lungs.
A ray of lights above the students' heads exploded down the line as Ellie's eyes flickered between green and purple.
She snapped out of her panic and followed the students' lines of sight, staring at the now destroyed lights above them. 

Benny blinked harshly at the sight of the magenta colour that flashed throughout the lights above him. That colour only meant one thing to him: Ellie.

"Ellie?" Benny shouted, looking through the crowd of guys to see her heaving beside Sarah and Erica. "Ellie!"
He shoved the group of guys out of his way, making his way to his girlfriend before he was swiftly stopped by Lucia. Ellie spotted that flash of orange return into his irises as he sheepishly turned back around into Lucia's formation.