A New Covenant - 2. Out with the Caleb; in with the David

The Story in this chapter will be through Caleb's POV.

A New Covenant

Chapter 2: Out with the Caleb in with the David

It was one of those days, you know, when you can feel it in your bones that there's something horrendously big about to happen. I could taste it in the air, it was almost like everything around me was screaming at me, like every breath I took, every step, every thought, brought me closer to this great thing that was going to happen.

I started my day as I do every day, hot, steaming shower; quick breakfast with my mom, and then a drive down to see my father, then off to the pub with the guys. I wasn't expecting anything big; it was just another day, one that brought us closer to the beginning of the fall term at Spenser Prep. But somehow everything felt different, it felt wrong, uncomfortable, like there was some big thing looming just outside my grasp, I just hoped it was nothing more than nerves, but as the day ebbed away things fell into place, and now I'm here, sitting around the Book of Damnation with my friends, trying to figure out why there's such a strain on the magical "waves" traveling around Spenser.

"Listen guys, we know it has to be one of us, I mean after all if there were more witches around here we would have felt them before, I say whoever overused all that magic yesterday just come forward, we let bygones be bygones and be done with it." Said Pogue; his back tensing as he scanned Tyler, Reid and I for some hint of guilt.

My anger exploded under Pogue’s stare and the words I had so wanted to say before simply cascaded out of my mouth with no heed to my brain, "That's where it hits the hitch ain't it Pogue? If we can't understand that these powers are addictive, then we're fucked!!! Look at my dad, he's only forty and he looks like he's a-hundred-and-sixty, do you wanna look like that when you're twenty? We HAVE to get control of these powers or they'll consume us, we can't just use them 'cause we have them!"

Reid’s face contorted in a way I had never before seen, I knew his anger and probably his guilt had reached the same boiling point as mine, "Caleb, take the stick outta your ass our powers are there, no we shouldn't abuse them, but what might happen if we ignore them?” his words dripped with disdain and frustration, his eyes burned with a fire that had nothing to do with the release of our powers “I vote that we use them as we see fit, if I wanna get old by the time I'm eighteen, then it'll be that, and if I just wanna stay how I am, then it’ll be that too!!!"

"THAT'S WHERE YOU'RE WRONG REID!!! IF YOU START AGING OUTTA THE BLUE, DON'T YOU THINK IT'LL BE TOO SUSPICIOUS? IT MIGHT UNDO THE COVENANT AS A WHOLE, THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT I'M PROTECTING, NOT US!!! THIS COVENANT IS AS OLD AS THIS STATE AND YOU WANT TO MUCK IT UP NOW?? THINK WITH YOUR FUCKING HEAD AT LEAST THIS ONCE!!!!!" I exploded not being able to hold my tongue any longer, unable to bear Reid’s incessant child-like attitude anymore, my stomach roiled and lurched with anger so hot and consuming I thought I might explode into billions of pieces in the next minute.

Tyler’s smooth voice emerged from the shadows where he always hung, half concealed, yet unforgettable. "Calm down Caleb all the shouting is unnecessary!!! We get that the Covenant is important, but we're young, and this load we’ve had to carry makes us old inside even if we don't over-use it, just keeping this damned secret tears me apart sometimes, I can barely stand talking to anyone outside this group because I'm afraid I'll say something and we'll have a second witch-hunt!!!!!"

"AHA!!!” Reid’s voice dripped with triumph and hard-won victory, like a child that finally savors a long desired candy. “I knew I wasn't the only one who felt that way!!” his eyes glinted with a sentiment that I had thought ‘simpleminded’ Reid incapable of, “You see Caleb; it's not that I'm being rebellious, or a troublemaker, I just think the inside should match the outside, if I feel forty inside I might as well look it outside."

"Look, I understand you guys as much as anyone else, but nothing we can do is going to change the fact that we are bound by magic…” Pogue’s face screwed up as he spit out the following words, clearly fixated on the meaning they took as he spoke them out-loud “and blood to guard this secret with our lives. Caleb doesn’t act this way just to annoy us, half the time he’s as scared and tired as any of us, and most of the time he’s twice tired and worn because we somehow fell into this groove where he’s our leader.” His gaze fell on me, and I knew instantly that Pogue regretted that such a weight had fallen on me, but was relieved that it had not fallen on him. “We gave Caleb an extra burden just because he’s the first-born among us and that wasn’t fair, but that’s what happened so now when he grits his teeth and snarls at us we respond by making his burden twice as heavy and making him sound like the ‘wet-blanket’ of the party.”

“I understand how this secret changes all of us, but I’ve seen it take hold and choke its charge.” I had no more words to express what I wanted to say, so I drove yet another hit on a worn out nail head “My father’s proof that overusing these powers is in its own way a curse, and the secret’s just another weight to simply placate or tempt us. I do what I do simply because I don’t want to see any one of you hurt, or Salem to suffer a second bout Witch-trials.”

“I know that you only do it because you want to help us cope, Caleb; but sometimes...I just feel like you might suffocate us.” Tyler said this with such sincerity, that I knew he’d thought it for such a long time, that it was now second hand to him. A thought mulled and explored, dissected and rebuilt all in a single second.

I couldn’t take more of this endless sparring, it would become too much in a while and someone would explode, it was always that way.

“Doesn’t matter what we say or do, because in the end it doesn’t change the fact that someone’s using a lot of magic, and they’re not even being discreet about it, so long as its none of us, then I guess we can leave well enough alone…at least for now.”

“Hey, Caleb, how come you felt it last night though? I mean none of us have ever felt the others use it, so how come all of a sudden you now can?” Reid’s eyes searched me; they raked me across a bed of coals and bared my soul so that anything I said would be nothing but the truth.

“I don’t know, I’m as surprised as you are. I guess it’s because I’m so close to ascending, maybe it’s something else entirely, I don’t know, I just hope that whatever it is, it doesn’t bring something horrible in its path. Listen, I’ve to go to the airport, provost Higgins asked me to pick up some guys there, apparently this is the year for transfer students, and since my car’s so small, I was kinda hoping I could borrow your truck Tyler? I’d have it back in the afternoon, and you could of course have my car.”

“Sure, anyway I’m heading home, gotta catch a bit of sleep tonight or I might fall apart. See you guys later.” Tyler rose and began walking up the steps, at the bottom step he turned and tossed me his keys. “Oh, and by the way, that house up by Laura’s Lane has been taken, and it has all the furnishings in, I wonder who got that….it’s a manor isn’t it? Well let’s just hope it’s not a crazy person.”

He finished going up, we looked at each other and smiled, Tyler always knew things like that, and more than once it had helped us get out of some heavy-duty jams. We started up the steps, Reid in the lead, Pogue bringing up the rear, this too was almost rehearsed, but none of us minded it, not this part of the routine.

Once we left the ranch house I took the road east towards the airport, Pogue and Reid went south towards the school. The road towards the airport was eerily deserted; it seemed I was the only car en route there at this time.

I turned the radio on, hoping to gain some type of distraction, but Tyler’s CDs weren’t my style, so I flipped to radio.

“This is ‘Lover’s Hour’ here on WLYR 92.7FM Ipswich, remember this a request hour, you tell me what to do.”

I knew her voice so well, so many times I had dulled my aches in her, so many times I had called, only to hear her voice, Sasha Kenos was the best DJ any station had.

“All my loyal listeners out there, even if you’re not in love, the music is still supposed to play, and this one’s from Tanya to Jason, she says: “Sorry we couldn't work it out, hope you find someone who fulfills you, and has whatever it was I didn't ” and she dedicates ‘Hate that I Love You’ by Rihanna and Neyo, here on WLYR 92.7FM Ipswich”

The song began to play, and as I’m wont to do whenever a good song comes on, I started singing along as well.

“Its how much I love you; it’s how much I miss you

And I can’t stand you; must everything you do make wanna smile?

Can I not like you for a while?

But you won’t let me, you upset me girl, and then you kiss

My lips; all of a sudden I forget

That I was upset I can’t remember what you did…”

The song kept going but my mind slid off it, it was back in town, with the guys. I wanted so badly to know what they would think if they knew of my sexual orientation, or the fact that I’ve kept it from them for so long. I know they’re friends, I know we grew up together, I know we all keep the same secret, but I still have to wonder; will it all remain the same if they ever find out? Will I ever have the guts to come out?

I got to the airport and began looking for the folder Provost Higgins had given me. I was meant to pick up a trio of brothers, David Halliwell, Christopher Halliwell, and Wyatt Halliwell. I understood by their ages that Wyatt would be in my class, Chris a junior and their brother David a sophomore. Something about the names and pictures made my skin prickle, like a missed sign, but I just shrugged it off.

I walked into arrivals, looking for these very striking young men, Wyatt’s eyes were such a deep blue that I could drown in them just by looking at his picture. Chris’s face was so striking, that every feature seemed etched out, made to fit. David held my attention the most though, his face, an homage to the Greek of old, his eyes were windows that saw as much as they showed, his lips were so perfectly set, and so well constructed that he looked ready to be kissed every moment of the day. I felt a strange connection to his picture, even though I didn’t know him.

I kept looking around, hoping to catch a glimpse of the Halliwell Brothers, I went to the nearest flight screen, and looked for flight 374, San Francisco to Ipswich. It had arrived on time, meaning the brothers should be around here somewhere. I went to the food court, thinking they might have gotten hungry, but they weren’t there. I headed outside to the smokers corner, who knows one of them might smoke, but they weren’t there either, their flight had gotten here at 2:00 pm EST, it was now 3:30 pm EST, and I couldn’t find them anywhere, I took out my cell and dialed the school’s main line, the phone rang once…twice….

“Spenser Preparatory School, this is Ms. Daniels speaking, how may I direct your call?”

“Ms. Daniels, this is Caleb Danvers speaking, Provost Higgins asked me to pick up some new students at the airport, and I was just wondering-“

“Oh, Mr. Danvers…ummm there was an accident, the Halliwell brothers won’t be here today, it was my mistake, I meant to call you earlier, but we got tied up.”

“Oh, is everyone ok? Was it the flight or something else?”

“The youngest brother had a car accident, we don’t know much else. Do you want to speak to Provost Higgins?”

“No, that’s all right, I’ll just drive back home. Thank you Ms. Daniels; have a good day.”

I clicked the phone, and began walking out of the airport, as I got to the doors my throat caught, and my breathing became ragged, my head began to spin, and my eyesight blurred, I saw white lights, and then I hit the airport floor, and it all went black.