“Are you nervous?” Devin asks once we get to the past. I rip my hand from him as if it were currently on fire due to his touch.

“N-No, The time traveling is just having its toll on me,” I say, looking away from his questioning eyes. Eventually, he shrugs and he turns to look around.

“So the second gym hasn’t been built yet?” He asks, almost if he thought I knew the answer.

“I guess, I don’t really know when it was built,” I reply, and Owen catches my eye. It’s the same scene from before, Owen getting off the bus, yelling ‘Bye’ to Devin and Devin replying with the same gesture, almost falling out of the window. I look over at Devin who is smiling at the scene.

“How well did you know Owen?” I ask him.

“He lived in the apartment building beside of my mom and me, I’m a year younger than he is, so I didn’t go to the same school as him, but we always rode the same bus, and we would always hang out on the weekends. He would always play this game, I can’t remember what it is. It was on the Xbox.” He trails off, lost in thought.

“Fable?” I ask, remembering how he would always ask me to play the game with him. Fable was Owen’s all-time favorite game, and he had beat it so much to the point where I stopped counting.

“Yes! Fable, he played it for hours, it was ridiculous.” We laugh at the memories, and for a moment, it’s like things are okay again, but then I hear someone laugh and I realize we are in the past.

“Devin, how are we going to save him?” I ask confusion and worry lacing through the tone of my voice.

“Well, let’s see first what actually killed him, we all know it wasn’t the fire at his apartment like everyone claimed.” I nod in response.

“So should we go in?” I question, and he nods.

We end up sneaking into the school, with a bunch of late bus kids, and I see Owen eating breakfast.

“Look, he’s over there,” I say, pointing at him. We end up sitting two tables down that are both filled with kids scarfing down the school’s breakfast, a breakfast muffin and a small yogurt cup, with some plates, joined by a single serving of cereal.

“Should we just follow him?” Devin asks as Owen stands up to throw away his scraps of food.

“Yeah, let’s just follow him and if anyone asks we are new kids, okay?” Nodding, he agrees, and once the bell rings we follow him.

Throughout the day he talks to kids in the same class, working and laughing, without the least bit of suspicious behavior; at least until the last bell rang, and he headed to the gym instead of the school bus.

“What do you think he is going to do in there?” I wonder if my face shows a look that indicates I’m as worried as I actually am.

“We can’t go in there, it would be too obvious.”

“For me.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, you can go in, he doesn’t know what you look like. You’re short, so you could pass for just hitting a growth spurt while he was gone. He just saw ‘me’ this morning, and I know I look different.” My hands are shaking as he speaks, after I agree to the terms and conditions, I rush to the girl’s bathroom that is across the gym.

I began to wash off the makeup that I had put on this morning, the foundation, and eye shadow, and everything that I put on my face to make me look older, and once it’s all gone all I can see is a girl that looked like a twelve year old in a fourteen year old body.

“Stupid baby face,” I mutter under my breath, and then I walk out of the bathroom, ready to see my brother.

“Okay, Devin, if anything goes amiss I will… twirl my hair, okay, like this.” I twirl a piece of my hair as a demonstration.

“Okay, just be careful. I don’t want you to get hurt or die because it would mess everything up. So be careful.” I laugh a bit.

“I will be careful, mom.” He laughs and so do I.

I take a deep breath and I walk into the gym, the minute I enter, all eyes are on me.

“Who are you?” A girl asks. She has black hair with streaks of green in it.

“U-uh I’m-”

“Alexandria?” Owen asks, he stands up and runs to where I am. “What are you doing here?”

“I-I came to visit, I missed you.” I look away from him, it’s always been hard to lie to him, now more than ever, even though, it’s kinda true.

“I missed you too, Alex, but what are you doing,” He gestures to the gym. “Here?”

“I was told to come here, by a friend.”

“What friend?” The girl with green streaks in her hair asks.

“A teacher.”

“Which one?”

“Him.” I point to Mr. Blackford and I’m really hoping this version of him goes along with it.

“Ah, yes, Alexandria, welcome, To After School ‘Role playing.’” I look at Owen, he isn’t the type of person to do role playing.

“It’s for witches and warlocks,” Owen whispers in my ear.

“But you aren’t a-”

“Yes I am,” He cups his hands and closes his eyes, and for a moment, I seriously thought he was going to poop his pants. Then, his hand caught on fire. My eyes widened in surprise and my first instinct is to run for the fire extinguisher on the wall, but then he puts it out with a snap of his fingers. “You are too, we all are.” He points to the big group of kids sitting in the circle around Mr. Blackford, they are all still staring at me.

Something was off, though, the way Owen looked, his eyes glossed over, just like the rest of the kids, it wasn’t natural, and Owen was speaking in a monotone voice. I force my suspicions aside and join the group, with Owen, and that’s all I remember.

I walk out of the gym and everything comes rushing back, the spells, the candles, torture, so many bad things happened. I feel the need to go back.

Once everyone leaves Devin comes out of the boy’s bathroom.

“So what happened?” He asks

“So much bad stuff, Devin. They tortured a girl, and then they burned a boys arm.” I whisper.

“Are you okay?”

“I think there is a spell over the gym.”

“What do you mean?”

“You know how you felt drowsy in the gym?”

“Yea.”

“I think it is a spell caused by one of those witches or warlocks.”

“You can’t know that.”

“Well, what else would it be? A poisonous fog in the gym makes you drown out everyone in the gym, and it makes you feel sick, what would that be?”

“I-I don’t know.”

“Exactly.”

“And who might you be?” I turn around and see the witches and warlock from the meeting, and they are all looking at Devin. My blood turns cold and I look over at Devin. “Don’t even think about running, this is your war now, you said you wouldn’t tell anyone, and you lied.” The girl with the green says.

Mr. Blackford appears and whispers something in her ear, then she begins to attack. Spells are thrown left and right, Devin and I dodging them with difficulty. Then one comes at us from an unexpected angle, and I scream, preparing for the blow, closing my eyes and waiting, but nothing happens. Lifting my eyes I see a periwinkle-colored shield surrounding Devin and me.

“Tell the others it’s time,” Mr. Blackford paused. “Tell them the war has begun.” Then in a quick flash of light, everyone in the room vanishes.