Where is he?

Chantel was sitting in a booth at Marble Cafe and drinking her tea, while waiting to meet Darren an hour before her shift. She worked at a dance studio in the evenings as a part-time administrative assistant. Chantel worked at the place since she was in high school and whenever she is not busy with the band. She would work as a dance teacher assistant when asked. The job is flexible enough, and the owner liked her enough to keep her on the payroll.

Her band touring season finished for now, unless her leader, Linda, suddenly found more gigs for them to do. Chantel sat back in her seat as she checked on the time, taking her phone out. She did not have to wait too long as she saw Darren rushing through the door. She put her phone on the table and watched her friend take a seat where she is at.

“You’re late.” Chantel commented as she observed Darren taking off his backpack.

“Only ten minutes, J-ia…” Darren said.

“Still late, Mr. Cross.” Chantel watched Darren take out something out of his backpack. Two books, one decorated in black and gold with the initials, “DC” and another is an old, green book untitled.

Chantel raised her eyes as she pointed to the black and gold book.

“What’s that book?” Chantel asked.

Darren looked around and lowered his voice, “This is my spell book.”

“Your spell book?!” Chantel raised her voice in shock and people in the cafe turned their attention to the table. Chantel’s face went red in embarrassment, then said, “Oh, that’s what your Halloween prop is! Cool design!”

People went back to their business as she took a breath of relief and brought her attention back to Darren. Darren tilted his head to let her know that they needed to go some place private. The two of them agreed as they grabbed their things and left Marble Cafe. They stopped by their manager, Robert’s music shop, where Darren worked. Darren told Chantel it was the best place for them to talk, considering Robert was closing up for the night soon.

Robert was about to close until Chantel and Darren arrived. Robert’s worn-out, rugged face gave the two young adults a smile. For all the years Chantel knew Robert, he never lost his smile, even when he is tired.

“Robert, I know you’re closed, but I need to use your shop to talk to Chantel about something important. It’s… that thing. You know what I mean...”

Chantel watched Robert and Darren’s brief exchange as Darren gave Robert a grave stare. Robert sighed, then threw Darren the keys of the shop as he was about to leave them alone. He told Darren, “Make sure you lock up after you’re done, okay?”

Darren nodded back in response to him. Darren used the keys to open the door to the music shop. Chantel followed Darren, making sure that she did not bump into other instrument stands or decor around the shop. Darren turned on the lights and directed Chantel to the backroom of the shop where a small office is located. The office had all the boring stuff like sales reports, shop budgets, even some schedules related to their band.

The room is a bit of a mess, but Chantel could tolerate that as she sits herself down in a chair. Darren just stood up as Chantel watched how Darren’s arms were trembling. She knew how her friend was nervous, since what he was about to tell her was going to be big.

“Well, the spell book?” Chantel stated to say.

“Yes, it’s mine. It’s obvious because of my initials written on there.” Darren answered.

“And you’re a wizard? Mage? Something coming out of a fantasy book, right?”

“Well, the correct term is Magic User most of the time. But most of the time us Magic Users don’t care about what term is being used, unless it’s something offensive.” Darren explained.

“So, what kind of Magic User are you? Are you a bad or good one?” Chantel shot Darren with a bunch of more questions to answer.

“It’s complicated. It has been told that my family has some bad magic users. It was told from my father’s side that he had relatives with no magic ability. My mom’s side. Well... they aren’t great people and I know little about them either.” Darren rubbed the back of his head as Chantel sees that Darren is easing up a bit.

“What kind of Magic User are you?”

“My powers are complicated. You see... Magic Users have a variety of powers at our disposal, but most of us have primary attributes from the day we were born. I am a Light Magic User, but I’m also a Shadow Magic User. It’s rare for a Magic User to be born with two magical primary attributes. However, I don’t use my Shadow Magic and I’m too unstable of a Magic User, anyway.” Darren talked more to Chantel.

“Why didn’t you tell me all this sooner?” Chantel’s tone sounded sad when she asked that question.

Darren stopped rubbing his head and brought his arm down to his side, “I wanted to tell you, Chantel. I really did. Ever since the day we first met, I wanted to as a kid, but your father, well... he wouldn’t let me. Heck, my aunt and mother even agreed with him it was for the best. I wanted to tell you, but…”

“So, my father forced you not to tell me...?” Chantel raised her voice sounding pissed.

“I didn't have a choice. He told me to keep my mouth shut about it. When I felt your aura, I was thrilled to meet someone like me when we were young, but your father clearly didn’t want me around you. When you got suspicious about why I avoided playing with you and Jesse. That's when your father came to my aunt and told me that I would only hang out with you under one condition: I wasn’t allowed to talk about Supernatural stuff to you. I was a kid… I just did what the adults said.” Darren finished explaining his side to Chantel.

Chantel stared down at the floor as she sank into the chair in disbelief, “So, am I a mage like you?”

“No. You’re something else. You kinda telekinesis…. well... not technically, since there are a bunch of different telekinetic races. Your race is called Bio-Kinesis.” Darren sounded tired, but Chantel knew that he tried his best to answer all her questions.

She looked at the green book that Darren had in his hand, and his spell book.

“And the other book?” Chantel asked one last question.

“This is an encyclopedia about Supernatural Towns of Crocecia and Supernatural races. My aunt gave it to me as a gift on one of my birthdays. I always kept it with me as it helped me learn about my roots. I think it would help you, so I’m letting you borrow it.” Darren handed her the green book.

When Chantel had the book in her hand, she flipped through the pages. Chantel wanted to ask Darren more things about all this: What is Bio-Kinesis? What happened eight years ago that night when they were at Summer Camp?

She flipped through the pages of the book to see pictures of vampires, werewolves, elves, and many other Supernatural races. This had to be some fantasy. This can’t be true at all! But after what she had seen at the Rise of Light meeting, it must be true. Chantel was not dreaming, and this was reality right in front of her.

She flipped to one chapter about Bio-Kinesis, then read through the section. However, Chantel didn’t like what she had found out about what race she is. Bio-Kinetics did not have a great reputation among the Supernatural races; not even people, who are telekinesis, wanted to acknowledge them. Bio-Kinetics did horrible things, such as using their minds to destroy people’s organs and manipulate their body’s temperature. They also had healing abilities and were sneaky enough to morph into the forms of other people by use of touch.

The chapter did not say much more about them, since it was short. Maybe there was more about her race that she didn’t know about. After much conversation, Chantel looked at the time to see it is almost time for her to head to work. There is still so much stuff to absorb that she will have to meet up again with Darren another time. The two friends walked outside the shop with Darren pulling the keys out to lock the doors.

Chantel looked at Darren, not knowing what to do about this information.

She let out an enormous sigh as Darren told her, “You can’t tell anyone about this. The fewer people who know, the safer we are. We can fill Leticia in when we see her again.”

Wait? She was the only person who didn’t know about all of this?

Before Chantel opened her mouth, both Darren and her phone rings at once. Both of them got their phone out and saw the message:

"We cordially invite you to our bake sale event at Tetbury Church of Gospel this Saturday at Rockwick. Don’t miss your chance to meet our leader and our high-ranking members! We hope to see you there!"

Chantel’s curiosity piqued more about the group. While Darren talked about how shady the Rise of The Light is, he could be wrong about them, since they did nothing harmful to people. Maybe this group will help Chantel or Leticia. All Chantel had to do is to go to this event to find the missing pieces of the puzzle in this mystery. Chantel couldn’t ask her father about this; not after she learned what Darren told her, what her father had done to keep the truth from her.

Maybe the Rise of Light are the ones to answer her questions about everything.