February 2025 Short Story of the Month

“How did you know?” I asked, not sure I wanted the answer. I thought I had been careful. I thought she would assume I was up to normal teen things, like drugs and acting out.

“Seriously? That’s what you want to know? How do I know?” She was stomping while she spoke. “How did I find out? That’s what you’re asking me?”

It was never a good sign when my mom just kept asking questions. She was working up to grounding me, or worse.

I didn’t answer. There wasn’t anything that was going to help at this point, so I waited for her to finally say something and not ask rhetorical questions.

“What were you thinking? You have endangered us all. The council is going to be furious.” She was glaring at me.

“Why would they need to know?” I asked with all the bald face gall of a teenager.

My mother’s mouth opened, but she didn’t say anything. She snapped her mouth shut. She shook her head. Her face flushed. I didn’t know what she was thinking, but she was going through a range of emotions in quick succession. This wasn’t going to end well for me.

Instead of yelling, which was what I’d been expecting, she got really quiet. When she spoke again, it was barely above a whisper. “They already know,” she said. She looked up at me, and for the first time, I saw that she wasn’t yelling or upset because she was mad. I saw fear in her eyes – genuine fear.

“They know?” I asked. I audibly swallowed. Crap, crap, crap. I was in more than trouble. I could be sanctioned. I could be locked up. Or worse, they could take my powers away.

The council is the governing and policing body for all magic users in the world. They are overly bureaucratic, and overly heavy handed with punishments. Using my magic anywhere in the vicinity of a non-magic user, unless it was used to save someone, was strictly forbidden.

And that’s what I’d been doing. It was only in front of my best friend, but the council wouldn’t care about that. They would take my powers away. And to be fair, I knew better.

The first time it happened, I was just showing off, trying to prove how cool I was. Every time after that, I’d been with my friend just goofing off. I was really just using my powers because I never got to use them, and after getting away with it once, I couldn’t help myself after that.

My friend couldn’t believe it when I used magic to do anything. She kept goading me. She’d say, “I bet you can’t use magic to…” I couldn’t back down. I had to keep proving that magic could do whatever challenge she laid at my feet.

And now I was in trouble. The kind of trouble that could change the course of my life.

“Hello?” My mom asked. “Are you listening to me anymore?”

I wasn’t, but there was no way I was going to tell her that. “I’m sorry, but I don’t know what to say. Am I in trouble?” I asked, even though I already knew the answer.

She nodded. “They will be here tomorrow, first thing in the morning.”

I swallowed again. “What then?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. I guess we’ll find out.”

“But what if they take away my magic?” I started to tear up, but I didn’t want my mom to see me cry. I shoved myself away from the counter and stomped up the stairs.

“If they do, it’ll be your own fault,” my mom yelled at my back as I left.

She was right, but that didn’t make me feel any better. Also, she didn’t need to say it.

****

The next morning, I didn’t want to get out of bed. I was running the worst case scenario through my head, and no matter what, I knew I was in deep water.

When I finally got ready and headed downstairs, I resigned myself to the fact that I was going to be stripped of my magic. I shouldn’t be surprised. My mother had been telling me since I was little that this could happen, so I should have known there would be real consequences for defying the council.

My mom was sitting at the table with a cup of coffee in front of her, but she wasn’t drinking it. She was just staring off into space.

I didn’t feel like eating so I sat across from her.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

She didn’t react. She didn’t move. She didn’t blink. It was like she was frozen. I knew what I’d done was wrong, but she didn’t have to be so dramatic.

“Mom, seriously. You’re okay, right?” I folded my arms over my chest, expecting her to react to my attitude, but she still didn’t say anything.

I glared at her, still nothing. I looked at her more closely. She didn’t look like she was breathing. I moved over to her and waved my hand in her face. She didn’t move, blink, or respond in anyway. I put my hand on her. She finally moved.

“What are you doing?” She asked, looking at me with alarm.

“You weren’t moving. I don’t think you were breathing. Are you okay, Mom?” I asked, not wanting to look away from her for fear she would freeze again.

A strange look crossed her face. “What do you mean? What is going on?” She took a step away from me. “Are you doing this?”

“Doing what?” I asked. I put my hands out and walked towards her. She stepped away from me. “Mom, why are you moving away from me?”

“Are you doing this?” She asked again.

“Doing what?”

“Stopping time,” she whispered. “Are you doing this?” She looked freaked out.

I looked around, scared to move too much. “How do you know time is stopped?”

She shook her head. “I’ve been in one of these spells before.” She looked more and more panicked as time went on, or in this case, didn’t.

I didn’t want to move, and I had no idea what my mom was talking about. My mind was trying to decide how to react.

“You have to stop this,” she said.

“What? I’m not doing this,” I said gesturing all around me.

“If I was frozen until you touched me, that means its your spell.” She stared at me like I should understand what she was saying.

I shook my head. No. There was no way I was casting a spell without knowing it. Especially not a spell that was one hundred percent against all the rules of magic. The council was going to lock me away, take away my magic, and throw away the key.

“I’m not responsible for this,” I finally said.

My mom stepped forward and grabbed my hands. “Yes, you are. Look around. You are moving and nothing else is.”

I finally took a second to look more closely. The clocks weren’t changing. There were no sounds to be heard. I walked over to the window and looked around. Everything outside was still. The world was frozen.

“Holy crap,” I said. I stepped back and tripped over my own feet and fell flat on my butt. “How can this be happening?” I didn’t even get off the floor.

“What do you mean?” My mom’s voice was really high. “You aren’t meaning to do this?”

I shook my head and started crying. I was afraid and nervous. Today was the worst day of my life. First, I was in trouble, and now, I was going to be a wanted criminal. Time magic is forbidden, like the kind of forbidden that gets you locked away. The only worse type of magic you can cast is necromancy.

Time mages were considered too dangerous to be out among the general population. Once it was discovered that you could cast time magic, you disappeared. No one ever saw you again — ever.

“What do we do?” I asked my mom. My mind was racing. We had to do something — and fast. “When is the council supposed to be here?”

“No, whatever you’re thinking. Stop it right now. We are not running. The council was already coming over today. Now, they’re probably sending the dead squad.” My mom covered her mouth after she said the last part. I heard a small sob escape.

“Mom! You’re just going to let them take me?” I was crying, large tears streaming down my face. “I have to get out of here.”

My mom shook her head. “The second you cast this spell, it was too late for you.”

“Are you sure?” I asked.

“What?”

“I mean, how long has it been already? No one has showed up get me yet.” I wiped my tears with the sleeve of my sweatshirt. “I’m not going to just let them take me.” I turned and left. I didn’t say anything else.