Mirai

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I turned my head around. The room had only walls up to halfway, the rest were windows, and through that, I could see the Priestess, Mom, and a couple of other witches from the coven. They looked around, hadn't noticed me yet.

I turned back so they wouldn't see my face.

They stood in my way of the exit. So that wasn't an option. I looked out of the windows, towards the other end of the library. My eyes landed on a green exit sign.

I took a deep breath and turned back to the door out of that room. As naturally as I could muster, I walked out and towards the exit sign. I had no idea how natural it looked though, likely not at all. My heart was in my throat and I had to fight to keep breathing calm breaths through my nose. I could barely feel my legs move. But they did. In slow steps, closer and closer to the exit sign. Each step felt like it took a minute.

I wanted to run, but if I did, they'd definitely see me. It was better if I got as close to the exit as possible before they saw me. As close to a place to teleport from.

"There!" I heard a shout, and that was my cue to run. I had gotten half the distance and if every step had felt like it had taken a minute before, it felt like it took a blink of an eye to reach the exit. I plunged myself out, but it wasn't into an empty alley as I had hoped. Instead it was a bustling street of people moving in different directions and cars driving on the road. Far too many people around for any magic. So I kept running.

I heard as the door crashed open again and knew they were close on my tail. There were hordes of people walking on the sidewalks, likely in the middle of their lunch breaks, but I had no time to care. I ended up shoving people out of the way, made them fall and yell at me in anger. An alley came up, and I went into it. Hoped it would be empty.

It was, but there was nothing in there to stand behind so someone peering in wouldn't see me disappear if I teleported. What was worse, there wasn't another end. No street to run out into. Just a brick wall.

I turned back, but the entrance into the alley was already blocked off by the Priestess and her entourage.

"How dare you!" she shouted and started saying a spell, but Mom placed herself before the Priestess, blocked me from her.

"Please! Let me talk to her first," Mom begged.

I could see the Priestess' eyes burn and I was certain she would deny Mom's request. So my jaw dropped slightly when she nodded.

Mom then turned to me. Her eyes were red and I could see the tears that were about to fall.

"Please, sweetheart. You have to come back with us. We'll solve this, I promise. But... nothing good will come from this. You don't even know where to start looking. So please, just come home." The tears had fallen. Her lips trembled, just like her voice had. I knew Mom wanted what was best for me. That she had to have good reasons for wanting me to return, and if I had trusted that she was honest, I would have followed. We could have sat down and talked more about it. Solved it together. But she knew something about the woman, or at least about the serpent-pomegranate mark, and the fact that she hadn't told me what, sealed the deal.

"You've always told me to trust my instincts," I told her. "That it is my gift guiding me. I do not see why I should suddenly stop listening to that advice."

Before anyone could say or do anything else, I twisted my upper body. They blocked me from view of the street, so I knew it was safe to do so.

Once again, I landed in the first place that had popped up in my mind. It was such a ridiculous place.

Forks, Washington. The city of Twilight. I had been obsessed with the books a few years back, though I really didn't get why it had come to me at that moment.

I ended up slightly outside of the city, at the edge of a forest, and I started walking through it. Thought of the development of the past few minutes and especially about one question.

How had they found me?

No sooner had I formulated the question than the answer came to me. Scrying. They had to have scried for me. That meant they probably were doing it again. They would find me once more in just a matter of minutes.

Hopefully, it would take them a bit of time, but that all depended on what type of maps they had, since the crystal needed to land on a map to show the location of the one being scried for. So they would need to scry for the city first and when they knew I was in Forks, they would have to scry for the specific location. But it gave me maybe ten minutes at most before I would have to leave again.

Just as I had reached that conclusion, I heard the unmistakable popping sound of witch-teleportation. It reminded me of when you popped a chewing gum, only much, much louder.

I didn't even turn to face them before I twisted my body and teleported myself away again.

I looked out at the water from a beach in Jacksonville. Considering the weather, the beach was, thankfully, deserted. But that was only a small consolation as I knew I would have to teleport away from there far too soon. I couldn't keep on doing that indefinitely though. The day had already been taxing enough, and I felt slightly faint. My body was slowly getting overworked by the use of magic. Sooner or later my energy would run out and I wouldn't be able to run anymore.

I needed a place to lie low. Somewhere they couldn't find me. A place that was protected against scrying.

The popping noise sounded again, and I disappeared into a nasty-smelling alley in Seattle.

The Library was an option. The main Library which housed all knowledge of magic. It was far to get there, but there was a portal in Salem I could use. However... It wasn't a good option.

Mom obviously knew my goal was to find the woman, and, considering everything, she must have told the Priestess. If they suddenly couldn't find me through scrying, it wouldn't be odd if they assumed I had gone to the Library.

So it had to be some other place. Another coven perhaps. It wasn't like ours were unique in protecting ourselves from unwanted guests by making it impossible to teleport there, as well as making the area unscryable. It could be an option.

A pop came and the next second I leaned against the walls of the witch trial museum in Salem.

The problem with going to another coven, though, was that they would ask questions. That in turn could lead to them telling my coven I was there. So no, it was best to stay away from other witches. But where to?

My mind was blank. I had no idea, and I was exhausted. My legs trembled underneath me and a thin layer of sweat had formed. I wanted to close my eyes to sleep, but I forced them open. I knew I wouldn't be able to resist it forever though. Eventually, the tiredness would become too much and I would faint.

There was a magical portal in Salem. I could use that one to move on to another place. But... I had no idea where in Salem it stood. Or I knew I knew, but I couldn't remember.

I heard the noise again and teleported without having made a conscious decision about where to go. I ended up on the edge of the forest, which marked the coven's area.

A shaky laugh escaped me. I really was exhausted. So exhausted my body had taken me as close as possible to home and bed. But I definitely couldn't stay there. For all I knew, some waited for me to reappear here.

Before I even heard the sound of company, I teleported myself to Toronto again. It was the same alley I had teleported myself away from before. I leaned against the wall. My body slid down some and my head hung, eyes almost closed.

I shook my head and straightened myself. I couldn't fall asleep.

My eyes landed on the opposite wall, on a poster that hung there, and I frowned. I didn't remember there having been anything on the walls before. But then again, I hadn't exactly paid attention to that. There had been a bit too much else going on.

I couldn't clearly see the poster's content. It was blurry and melted into the red of the wall. But there was a landscape image as the background and with big, bold letters that were impossible to miss, it said: Colorado.

Well, that seemed like as good a place as any for the next place to teleport to.

I landed in some woods. Since I hadn't concentrated on any particular place in Colorado, I could literary be anywhere there. But I knew immediately I wouldn't find out more about my exact location.

I leaned against a tree, slid down all the way to the ground. I fought and fought, but I knew I was about to lose. It was like a hundred arms pulled at me, and my struggles only made it take momentarily longer.

"Who are you?" I heard a low voice. I twisted my head in the direction of the speaker. I saw the shape of a person, but nothing more. My vision was too blurry, my mind too far into unconsciousness to be able to even tell if the person was a friend or a foe. 

Anyone remember what is in Colorado? 👀