Luke

For the writing contest.. figured I would put it here even if unfinished just in case I accidentally blow up my google doc or something

 

Luke closed his eyes, concentrating. Sweat dotted his brow as he mentally struggled, softly murmuring an incantation he read off the open book in front of him. The air started to move around him, slowly at first and soon evolving into a whirlwind centered around Luke himself, the pages of his book now flipping to the atmosphere’s will. This did not deter Luke, as his eyes had now began to glow and their gaze began to drift off into nothingness. Without conscious thinking the words now naturally flowed through his tongue, unworldly alphabets meshing together into one seemingly never ending stream of sound. He rose into the air, leaves and debris circling around him as if in a dance.

All at once, the air stopped moving as the chant abruptly ended. Luke blinked and his eyes stopped glowing, going back to their normal light blue. Everything that had been held up by the wind now dropped.. including Luke, who attempted to not land face first by putting his arms out to somehow stop his falling(? He wasn’t thinking the most rationally at this moment) and ended up not breaking anything in his face but did end up breaking an arm. Crack.

“AAAAAAAAAUGH!!” Luke screamed after feeling the sharp burst of pain shoot through from his all the way to his shoulder, the cracking sound still embedded in his mind. His screaming drew the attention of his mother, who ran outside to the backyard to see what the commotion was.

“Are you alrigh- okayyyyyy that sure is, uh, an injury.” His mom took about a second to take in the scene and another one to process what his arm looked like. Luke had been avoiding looking at the damage but automatically followed where his mom’s eyes were looking-

“AhfaeuhfhjiUHFAUfjieuwniunEEQWUFJJAAAAAAAA BLOOD!!!” he yelped, jumping away from his arm but, surprise surprise, his arm followed him. If it hadn’t, I suppose it would have been more of a problem, he thought to himself in realisation, nodding. ''Y’know, I should just look on the bright side of things in situations like this. At least both my arms aren’t broken!''

Luke’s eyes widened. He hesitated a second before glancing at his other arm. It did not appear broken. He breathed a sigh of relief.

His mom sighed, but then smiled. “Come here,” she said, gesturing to a cheap table and pair of folding chairs that had been thrown outside since they weren’t wanted in the house. Luke walked over, though with his arm still throbbing with pain and his balance being a bit off. He plopped down in the chair.

She leaned forward and muttered something under her breath. Luke’s arm twisted and contorted, skin piecing itself together and muscles regenerating until the arm was good as new.

“Woahhhhh thanks mom!!” Luke chirped happily. His mother nodded and patted him on the head.

“How did this happen, exactly?” she asked. Luke opened his mouth to answer but realized he didn’t have one to tell her. He had gotten mostly caught up in the broken arm thing and forgot what exactly he had been doing to break it in the first place.

“Uhhh…” he said, thinking. He glanced over to the scene of the injury. A book was out on a table and there was trash and leaves scattered on the ground. Luke walked over to the book, which looked slightly beat up. He picked it up and looked at the cover. ''Oh, right.. this is my spellbook''. Luke made this observation based on the scribbled title on the front of the book, “Luke’s Spellbook :)”.

He shook his head a bit to try to clear his mind. Why couldn’t he remember what he was casting, which was probably what he had been doing? A moment passed and he ended up just shrugging. I’ll probably remember at some point, he reasoned. I’ve always had a bad memory.

His mother was still waiting for an answer as to what Luke had been doing and was watching him silently examine his book. He turned to her and said, “I dunno, I forget. Casting a spell, I think.”

His mother chuckled. “You and your spells.. try a safer one next time.” She stood up and ruffled his blonde, messy hair affectionately.

Luke smiled. His mom really was amazing.

He suddenly heard a sound and saw a bird flying towards him. It dropped a letter on the table and landed beside its now delivered goods, looking at Luke expectedly. Luke grinned and took some birdseed out of his pocket, then handed it to the bird. It gobbled it up, gave a chirp of thanks, and flew off to do the rest of its business.

He marveled at how fast birdmail was- a guarantee of under one minute delivery time for every package sent! How did that even work? From what he could see, they were just normal birds. Though.. magic is tricky, and maybe the fact that he sees normal birds almost proves the point something else is going on in of itself.

Luke remembered the reason the bird was here in the first place and opened up the letter.

GOD DANGIT LUKE DID YOU FORGET

I BET YOU DID DIDN’T YOU

THIS HAPPENS EVERY TIME I SWEAR

okay sorry I’m probably being too harsh but hurry up I’ve been waiting for like half an hour idk what you’re doing but stop and get over here

waiting for u at our spot

~Rose

 

Luke blinked. Was.. was he supposed to be doing something? He immediately thought of dismissing the note because who cares about whatever else when he was happy here with his mom? But for some reason he felt like he should go.. and that he wanted to go. Weird. So he figured he would at least check it out.

“Sorry mom, I gotta go do something. Be back soon!” he said, to try to reassure his mother.

“Okay! Have fun!” she replied with a smile. She waved as he took a running start, then leaped over their short fence and continued sprinting through the neighborhood.

''Wait.. where am I going again?'' Luke thought to himself. ''Oh, right.. Rose’s and my spot. Shoot, we were supposed to meet up! How could I forget?! Sorry, Rose…''

He was out of breath and panting by the time he got there.