Into the Myst

Healing light,

Shine tonight,

The power I feel,

Be used to heal.

“Into the myst, into the unknown, on a broomstick we hop heading far from home.”

I remember those words, they used to swim around and around in my head for days after the big family gatherings we used to have. I never heard anyone speak them, but I remember thinking them. My name is Haven Winters, and what I’m about to tell you will make you rethink everything you thought you knew about the lines between reality and fairytales.

My story starts on a sticky hot summer day in the parking lot of Woolworths. I had just finished doing the weekly shopping for my mother and I was headed home, minding my own business when I saw him standing there. He was wearing jeans and a Metallica T-shirt leaning against the side of the building in the shade. I didn’t stop walking, but I could have sworn that I had seen him somewhere before. I brushed it off and continued walking, I told myself I had probably seen him at school or in town somewhere because strangers don’t come to Selzby, so he had to be from around here. I put it out of my mind and tuned into my music for the rest of the walk home. I got home in time for mum to start dinner, so I put the rest of the groceries away while she cooked and asked me if I was ready for school to start again in a week. “I’m not really all that excited. It’s going to be another year of boring material I already know, and awkward glances in the halls when people find out that Devon and I broke up this summer.”

Mum glanced over her shoulder at me, “How many times do I have to tell you, it doesn’t matter what other people think. It’s no big deal, sometimes people grow up and outgrow each other.” She shrugged and continued stirring the soup, “It’s perfectly normal, you don’t have to be in a rush, you’re only turning 16. You don’t have to plan your future right now.” I stared down at the table and started fiddling with the napkins nervously. “Yea, but I’m in year 11, if I don’t start planning my future NOW, what happens next year when I’m graduating?” Mum chuckled and shook her head. I glared at her back, so much for getting an answer. “Don’t you have a room you should be cleaning? Your father will be home soon and you know he will be disappointed if it’s not done by then.” I grumbled under my breath but got up and shuffled upstairs to start cleaning my room.

I couldn’t stop thinking about that boy I had seen, and cleaning wasn’t helping me. Not even when I put on my favorite song and blasted it through my headphones. I wondered what he was doing just standing there outside Woolworths like that, he didn’t look like he was from around here, but he had to be because Selzby doesn’t get visitors, not ever. I finished folding my washing and putting everything away and making my bed, but I still had an hour to kill before dinner. I decided to hop on the internet and do some research for a paper I had due in two weeks when School started again. Why teachers would give us homework to do over break I have no idea, but they do. Mine was on the History of Selzby’s founding families, and I hadn’t even started it yet. I booted up my laptop and opened Google Chrome to begin researching, when my phone went off letting me know I had a text. I got up and walked over to my dresser to check it and rolled my eyes. It was from Anastasia, my best friend since nappies.

‘So, bestie, guess what I just heard? Justin and Felecia broke up last week! That means he’s free for yours truly to ask to the Spring Formal!’ I rolled my eyes. It’s just like her to get excited about something like that.

‘Oh bestie, I wish you the best of luck, but neither of us is going to that formal if we don’t get started on those assignments that are due in two weeks!’ I could just imagine her face when she realized that her dream of a date with Justin Mullens rested on her doing actual school work. We both love to procrastinate on things, especially homework, and believe it or not, we do have good grades, just not the ones we would have if we actually focused and tried in school. I was hoping to change that this year, I have SOOO many plans and I don’t want them ruined because my grades aren’t good enough. I want to go away to Uni, maybe in another Country, I want to see places outside of Selzby. I don’t want to turn into someone that grows up here and never moves away. I have dreamed of getting out of here since as long as I can remember. Maybe go to Paris, or New York, but somewhere far away from Selzby Australia. I jolted out of my thoughts when I got another text message, ‘Hello, earth to Bestie! What did you get assigned for your paper? Have you finished already? Do you want to get together at the library tomorrow to study?’ I sighed, looks like I had no choice, I had to start this paper. At least I would have company while I died of boredom.

I sent back a reply, ‘No, I haven’t even started mine yet. We can meet up tomorrow at 9 am outside the library. I’ll see you then Bestie! <3’ I hung around in my room a while longer just surfing the net, not coming up with much of anything interesting for my paper, and so bored I thought my eyes would melt out of my skull.

After an hour of researching and dying of boredom, I finally came up with a link to a website that sounded promising, www.Ancestry.com.au/Selzby. I clicked the link and it brought up an information page explaining how the site worked and how to fill out the form to begin the search. I didn’t have time to do anything more than read the introduction because mum chose that moment to call me down for dinner, but I bookmarked the page and promised myself I would come back to it later.

I rushed down the stairs, my stomach growling just from the smell of it. I love Ham and pea soup, and I knew mum had made it because it was my favorite. As I was coming around the corner into the kitchen I heard the front door open and my dad calling, “I’m home! Something smells quite delicious. Where are my girls?” I did an about face and ran straight into the lounge room and jumped on my dad giving him a huge hug. “Welcome home dad, how was work today?” He laughed and hugged me back before patting me on the head and hanging his jumper in the closet. “I had an exceptional day at work today. The deal came through, we now officially have a new client.” I grinned from ear to ear while dad laughed and headed for the kitchen. This was great! My parents are lawyers and dad owns his own firm, but business had been kind of slow lately, so for him to have landed a new client was great news. It didn’t really surprise me with all the things that had been going on in Selzby lately, minor theft, some gang related activities, drug busts. The normal small town stuff that isn’t too serious, but something else must be going on too, because most of the time the kids just get a slap on the wrist and some community service. It’s not very often that something happens that requires my dad’s services. I shrugged and started towards the kitchen again, my mouth watering for some of that soup mum had been making.

“So, how was your day girls?” Dad asked while he shoved a spoonful of soup in his mouth. I laughed, watching mum roll her eyes at his over-exaggerated enthusiasm.

“Haven went to the shops for me today to pick up a few things I needed to finish making dinner, and I got a call from Mr. Stone.” I noticed dad’s shoulders seemed to tense when mum mentioned this, but he continued to eat like normal. “What did he want?” Mum glanced at me before answering, “He just wanted to meet for a consultation about something to do with a custodial agreement for a relative.” Dad looked thoughtful, “Did he say when he wanted to meet?” Mum grabbed her glass of wine and said, “He said 10 tomorrow would be convenient for him if you have the time.” I sat there and watched the exchange between my parents knowing something was going on that they weren’t telling me, but too scared to ask what. I didn’t want to get told to mind my own business. Besides, I needed to hurry up and eat my food so I could go back to researching for my paper. I picked up my glass of cordial and swished it around for a few moments before breaking the awkward silence, “I have to work on a paper that I put off, so I’m meeting Anastasia at the library tomorrow at 9, so we can work on it together. Is that alright?” Mum and dad both looked at me before Dad cleared his throat, “Sure honey, as long as you are only going to the library and then straight home. You know tomorrow is your birthday, we always celebrate as a family.” I rolled my eyes, “I know dad, don’t worry I’ll be home right after.”

My parents always make such a big deal about my birthday. I’m an only child so I guess it’s no surprise that they seem to spoil me a bit, but the closer to 18 I get, the more embarrassing it is. Ever since I was little we’ve always had a small party at home, just the three of us, and then on the weekend we have a huge blowout bash with all my friends and classmates and their parents in attendance. I used to love my birthday, but now that I’m getting older, I’m kind of put off by the idea. I love my parents to death, but I wish they wouldn’t make quite such a fuss about it. This year is pretty huge I guess, since I’m turning 16, but still.

I hurried back upstairs as soon as my dinner was finished and loaded up my laptop again. I quickly opened Chrome and navigated to the website I had bookmarked. I scrolled through the instructions again to make sure I didn’t make any mistakes and then I typed my parents’ names into the search index. A whole list of things came up, Marriage records, birth records, death records, family history, even long dead relatives I’d never heard of. I scrolled through the information hoping to find something useful, but so far nothing caught my eye. I found my parents birth records and their marriage record and even found mum and dad’s first child’s death certificate. This was news to me, mum and dad had never told me that I had an older sibling, but I thought maybe it was just too painful to talk about so I moved on. The next piece of information I found was a newspaper article about an adoption. I read through it and noticed something strange; my name.

‘Baby girl adopted by Jonathan and Melody Winters on October 6th 1999 given the name Haven Lynn Winters. Birth parents unknown, child was found abandoned in a church where Mr. and Mrs. Winters had just finished attending a late night bible study.’

This was strange, my parents didn’t go to church, and I had seen my birth certificate, mum and dad’s names were on it. This must be some kind of mistake, somebody must have gotten the details wrong. I immediately closed out the website and slammed the lid of my laptop down. This was a prank, a rotten prank, and it wasn’t funny. Angrily, I shoved my chair away from my desk and stood up to start pacing my room. If I were adopted mum and dad would have told me, we don’t keep secrets like that. I threw myself down on my bed and tried to go to sleep, I could deal with everything in the morning.

She saw him, he knew it. He felt her stares, but he refused to look up. His job was to shadow and protect her, that’s all. That was all he had promised his mother after she died. Protect her and fulfill her oath to David and Samantha. Nothing more than that, once he knew she was safe, job done, he could go back to his own life. Everything seemed to be normal to him, nothing out of the ordinary was happening, but maybe he needed to talk to Jonathan and Melody and see if they had noticed anything. He remembered the deal his mother had made with the family, they were a small Wiccan family who respected the beliefs of the old world and kept under the radar. Nobody knew or suspected anything about them. Jasmine had trusted them and told them that if she or Brock ever came calling, it would be close to the time when Haven would be leaving home. He might be a little early, but he could feel the energy in the air that meant a storm was coming, and not the type that comes with rain...

Brock pulled out his phone and dialed, on the third ring a quiet feminine voice came on the line, “Winter’s household, this is Melody speaking.”

He relaxed once he realized it wasn’t the girl. “Hi Mrs. Winters, this is Brock Stone, Jasmine’s son. I believe it’s time your husband and I met and talked...”

The line buzzed silently for a moment, “I understand Mr. Stone, would tomorrow be good? Say you come by around 10 am? That should give us time to talk in private.”

He thought for a moment and replied, “That sounds good. I’ll see you both then.” As soon as the line disconnected he felt marginally better. Finally he was going to be able to enlist help in watching the girl, he wouldn’t be alone. Now might be the right time to start looking into other things. He needed to get in touch with some old friends...