Chapter 3

I woke up this morning, no dreams; last night was the most peaceful I have slept in a long time. I ran to the bathroom to get ready for school; mom was downstairs going crazy, she was making coffee and making sure she had everything; once I was ready, I went down to see her pouring coffee into her cup for the day, "Morning mom," she looked up for a moment and smiled,

"Good morning, Claire, how did you sleep?" I smiled, grabbing me a cup,

"Surprisingly well, no nightmares or anything." mom was surprised but smiled,

"That's good, well, I'll be home late tonight. Don't wait up, and remember to text me when you get home." I nodded as she kissed my head as I sat down at the bar with my cup of coffee, "I love you." 

"Love you too." she ran out the door as I smiled; I drank the rest of my coffee and then went to get something to eat; it was only six, forty-five, so I fixed eggs, sausage, and toast. Mom probably went shopping while I was asleep last night; I set my food back at my seat when I noticed something on the counter, an envelope. I opened it to find a note and two hundred dollars. I looked at the letter and began to read it:

Claire, here's some money for your shopping this afternoon. I hope you find something you like, and I put some extra money just in case you need it for something else, food or something for your room. I love you, sweetheart, and I hope you have a great day! Love, mom.

I smiled at the note, "Thanks, mom." I ate my breakfast and then grabbed my school bag when I heard a knock on the door, I opened it to see Allis, "Hey Allis, how did you know where I live?" 

"Harry told me, he also told me that he asked you out for tomorrow night." I smiled, blushing a bit, "Anyways, I was wondering if you wanted a ride to school? Vickie is lending me her car while she and Marlin are in California for regionals." 

"Sure, just let me lock up." I grabbed my key, and when I did, I saw someone in the house, staring at me, I walked back in looking around, but I didn't see anything,

"Claire, everything alright?" I went back to the door and locked it before heading outside to meet up with Allis, "Claire, did you see something?" Honestly, I didn't know if I did or not.

"I'm not sure; it may have been my imagination. I haven't been getting much sleep." Allis started the car and turned on the radio. We were halfway to the school when Allis turned the radio down,

"Okay, I have a dance club after school until four-thirty, so we'll head to the mall after, cool?" I was a bit stunned, which she noticed, "I need new dance shoes, plus I figured you'd want to find something for your date." I smiled,

"Yeah, that's fine. Mrs. Jackson wanted me to check out the art club anyways." We laughed the whole way to school.

The day went by rather quickly, Harry joined us for lunch, and then he walked me to class; it wasn't necessary, but it was still charming. After school, I met Allis by the car while she was grabbing her bag, "Okay, remember, four, thirty, then it's time for the mall." I giggled at her enthusiasm for the mall. Allis walked me to the art room for the club, and I went inside. The woman at the front was slender and relatively young, she had long curly hair and crystal blue eyes, she saw me and smiled,

"Hello, may I help you?" everyone turned to face me,

"I'm Claire Nightingale, Mrs. Jackson told me to check out the club. Would it be alright for me to observe today?" the woman nodded, 

"Yes, please, come sit." I went to an empty seat and set my bag on the floor; I felt someone poke my arm and looked over to see Harry. He passed me a note that I read:

You must be following me or something because it seems that we are always running into each other without knowing it.

I smiled and continued reading:

Mom has been excited to meet you, guess after the meeting would be the best time to do introductions. Can't wait for tomorrow night, and don't worry, I will be a gentleman.

I looked over at him, smiled, and winked before turning my attention back to the teacher.

We ended early, and Harry took me up to the teacher, "Hey mom, this is Claire, the girl I've been telling you about." I was a bit shocked; I didn't know that she was his mother! She turned to face us and smiled,

"It's nice to meet you, Claire; I've heard about you from both my son and my sister. Tell me, are you interested in joining the club?" I was still in shock but did my best to answer her,

"Yes, and not because of Harry. I want to be an artist." she smiled at my answer,

"Good, that's good. Oh, I'm so rude, my name is Tiffany Nyx." she shook my hand,

"It's nice to meet you, Mrs. Nyx. If you'll excuse me, I have to meet up with Allis. I look forward to the club tomorrow." 

"Oh, no meetings on Fridays, school rules for everyone, but the football team and the band."

"Oh, well, then on Monday." She smiled as I ran to the parking lot where Allis stood waiting by the car.

"There you are, I started thinking that you went home." I laughed as I put my stuff in the trunk,

"Not even." 

"What took so long?" Allis asked me as she started the car,

"I just met Harrys' mother." her eyes went wide for a minute before she drove off to the mall.

We have been to four different stores and have seen nothing for me to wear; Allis already got her shoes, and the other three stores have been for me. I was finally about to give up when Allis pulled me into another store that wasn't ninety-nine percent pink. "If we don't find anything in here, then we are going to my place to find something." I laughed and began looking. I felt a chill go down my spine, turning around, I saw a dress; it was a spaghetti strap with black lace and lilac undertone. 

"Hey Allis, what do you think of this?" she looked up and smiled, 

"Go try it on!" she squeals, nearly pushing me into the fitting room; when I managed to get the dress on, I looked in the mirror before showing Allis. The dress was beautiful; it showed off my curves but not enough to be deemed sexy or inappropriate. I had shoes to go with the dress so that would be money saved. With the understanding that I liked the dress, I went to show Allis.

"Allis?" she looked up from her phone as I stepped outside of the room; the look on her face was priceless! She snapped a picture,

"Claire, it's like this dress was made for you. It's perfect." I smiled. I changed back into my clothes and went to pay for the dress until a group of girls pushed Allis out of the way.

"Hey!" Allis looked at me like I was crazy, but I didn't care, the girl that pushed Allis, clearly the leader stepped up,

"What?" she snapped, Allis got up and was trying to get me to go, but I wasn't about to stand there while my friend was being bullied.

"You need to apologize to Allis for pushing her." she scoffed,

"Don't you know who I am," I cut her off,

"No, and I don't care who you are. You pushed my friend, and you need to apologize." 

"Whatever loser, I'm not going to." she came closer and pushed me, "So back off." Allis helped me up,

"Are you okay?" nodding; I glared at the girl, "Come on, let's pay for the dress and go."

"Okay." We paid for the dress, then went to the food court to get ice cream.

Allis came back to the table with the ice cream, and we ate, "Thanks for standing up for me, Claire, I appreciate it." I smiled at her and grabbed her hand,

"You are my best friend here, and no one messes with my friends." we laughed, 

"Okay, so tell me more about you, what's your family like?" she's going to think I'm crazy,

"It's a bit far fetch if I'm honest." 

"Claire, it can't be any worse than my family." I smiled, I feel like I can trust her, but there is something about her, but I can't put my finger on it. 

"Okay, my great-grandmother, Olivia Claire Nightingale, was raised in Virginia along with her parents, etc. Well, the Nightingale family has a secret. Apparently, all the Nightingale women are witches." she didn't seem surprised, so I continued. "My father was different though, he was the first warlock of the family, so Granny said." Allis sat there for a minute, processing everything. Finally, she leaned forward and spoke softly,

"That is nowhere near as bad as my family." now I'm curious, but before I could ask Allis got up and motioned for me to follow, "I have a friend that has a shop, maybe he can help you." We continued walking until we made it to the end of the mall to a little shop. We walked in; there was a man at the counter, which is where Allis went directly. "Hey Sam!" the man jumped,

"Allis, don't scare me like that." he looked at me and jumped, "Don't kill me!" I was confused,

"Relax, Sam. This is Claire; she is not going to kill you." still confused, "He's terrified of people, took forever to pry him out from under there when I first came in here with my sisters." Allis went behind the counter and managed to get him out. He stood up cautiously, "Okay, Sam, Claire needs a book. Do you have one?" he thought for a moment and then looked at me, 

"What's your last name?" 

"Nightingale." he nodded and began looking at the mountain of books behind him,

"Here we go, the Nightingale family spellbook." Sam set the text on the counter; I looked at it,

"This can't be it; my Aunt Grace said that it was destroyed in a fire after dad died." my head felt like it was going to explode. Picking it up, I see the leather of the book was worn out. I opened to the first page; Granny always said that each owner of the book signed their name on the very first page; scanning over each signature, I came across both Grannys' and my dad's. "Impossible..." I fought back the tears, "How much do you want?" Sam smiled slightly, 

"No charge, it belongs to your family, it belongs to you." I went around the counter and hugged him,

"Thank you." I went back to Allis and hugged her, not being able to hold back my tears anymore. Once I calmed down, we began looking around more,

"Now, you know where this shop is if you need anything for your spells." Allis squeals, I smiled,

"Yeah, this is awesome." I smiled at her then turned to Sam, "Hey Sam, is it alright for me to do a spell in here?" 

"As long as you don't break anything." I smiled and opened the book to the first spell,

"How about this one? It's a levitation spell." 

"I volunteer! Make me fly!" Allis beamed which made me laugh; I looked at the spell carefully,

"Are you ready?" Allis nodded, "Take my hand and chant this with me," we both took a breath and began to chant, "Skies and birds, above my head. Worth it most, worth it least. The gravity within me is now released. Let me fly into the sky. Where I shall be relaxed and calm,

Put this gravity into my palm. Never falling, never fear. Over the pier, in which I fly, take this body, into the sky.`` After a minute, I didn't feel the ground looking under me to see that we were floating! We were so excited, but soon we were back on the ground.

"That was awesome!" we laughed. It was getting late, so Allis and I left to go back to my house. 

I texted mom as soon as we got to the house, and we went to my room. "Okay, do you want me to bring my tools tomorrow, and I can come to help you get ready?" I laughed, 

"Yeah, that would be great! I don't know how to do anything with my hair other than pull it up and braids." we laughed as we jumped on the bed and turned on the TV just turning to a channel, and we started doing my nails. "Why are we doing my nails tonight when my date isn't until tomorrow night?"

"Because, if we do them tonight, all we have to do is touch them up before the date." I nodded, acting as I understood, but honestly, I didn't. We decided on a dark purple color as we watched one of my favorite movies from when I was a kid, Twitches. We laugh, but I felt another chill go down my spine, Allis noticed "Are you okay?" the feeling passes, and I nod, 

"Yeah, I'm okay. Let's pick out my shoes then do my toes." she smiled but knew I wasn't okay. We went over to my closet and started looking through my shoes. 

"These! These would be perfect!" Allis held up a pair of my heels, and I immediately shake my head,

"I don't feel like dying trying to get downstairs before the date even happens." We laughed at my remark and continued the search. Finally deciding on a pair of shoes I went to order some dinner for us.

It wasn't long after dinner Allis went home. I was happy for the company. I started cleaning up and got to work on my homework before heading to my room to take a shower; it was ten-thirty when mom called me, "Hey mom, what's up?" 

"Hey, Claire, just wanted to check in and see if you were alright." I smiled,

"Yes, mom, I'm fine. I'm finishing up with my homework then heading to take a shower before bed." I could hear the noise on the other end, sounded like an emergency, "Mom, get back to work; I'm okay." I could tell she was hesitant, but they started calling for her.

"Okay, but I'll be home tomorrow night to hear all about your date." I smiled and nodded,

"Okay, mom, love you." 

"Love you too, sweetie," we said our goodbyes then hung up.

After my shower, I went to my room and got ready for bed, just before I went to bed I sprayed my room with lavender. I took a deep breath and immediately felt myself relax, "Tomorrow is going to be a great day. You're going out with Harry, you're going to look amazing, and you are not going to worry about anything." I told myself while looking in the mirror. I climbed into bed and started drifting asleep.

I could feel the chills crawling up my spine as I walked around the room; it was the attic again. I saw a man with a little girl come up to the mirror, and I remembered something... "daddy took me up here, and I never came down," it was the ghost girl! But she was alive; I watched the two of them playing together. They were talking about different things and playing with some of the old stuff that was up here. The girl ran across the room, and her father followed, but he stopped in front of the mirror. I stood close enough to see the look in his eyes change from a vibrant green to blood red within a matter of seconds. The man had an evil glare; he turned to me and grinned as he went after the girl. She was so innocent that she looked up at her father with adoring eyes, she spoke questioningly. "Daddy," before any more words were able to escape her lips, he grabbed her head and broke her neck. He turned back to me and smiled, 

"I'm waiting for you." he said, but it wasn't his voice. This voice was raspy and evil; before I could think, he made his way towards me... I woke up screaming, someone held me in their arms; I didn't know who but I felt safe, protected.