Fallen leaves

By the time I stepped outside the leaves were on fire. A vast array of reds and oranges lined our streets stretching for a few blocks as far as the eye could see. This was a strange sight in our small town as it had never occurred before. I had doing my assignments when I noticed that the trees outside our house looked bare, which was odd because they weren't the type to shed especially at this time of the year. On a normal day I wouldn't be bothered about it because with all the climate change I thought things were bound to work differently. I believed we had safely got to that point. It wasn't until a friend sent me a photo of his driveway that I went out to investigate. Apparently it was happening all over the country. I bent down to pick up a leaf out of sheer curiosity. I tried rubbing off the color but it was stuck on there fast. This was definitely not a well thought out prank. It was happening right before our eyes.

"What the hell is going on?" I asked myself.

"Strange isn't it." a neighbor said coming to stand next to me. "it's almost as if a spell has been cast on this place." It was Chris, our very weird neighbor who rarely left the house and had so many rumors about him no one knew the actual truth anymore.

"Yeah." I said eyeing him. Why would he immediately think that? I wondered. Did he know something?

"Do you think a lot of people have seen this?" I asked

"Kid, it's currently trending on Twitter and there's a special segment for it on the news too."

"Whoa!"

"Whoa is right. It's almost as if we've been transported into another time zone all together. Can you imagine what the prayer meetings will be like today?" he said. Chris had an oddly satisfying smile on his face. Almost as if the whole thing was amusing to him.

"I don't suppose they'll see it as a good thing?"

"No, but you know what? It'll be nice for people to have something else to talk about other than my life for a change." He said this while looking at me. I felt accused by his gaze even though I hadn't played a part in spreading any rumours about him. I cleared my throat and looked away.

We stood in the same position for a while taking in the commotion that was the rest of the neighborhood taking photos and others holding their bibles to their chests, already praying for whatever evil it was to flee back to the darkness. Then he shrugged and left to go back to his house.

I walked away as calmly as I could being careful not to draw any attention to myself though I doubted that anyone knew that I existed in that moment, and went back to my room slightly freaked out. Chris wasn't wrong. Someone had cast a spell on us. It was a stupid spell but all the same it worked. I know because I was the culprit. I was the darkness that had fallen upon our neighborhood. This was what I got for fooling around with magic spells from the internet. In my defense however I had no clue it would work. People wrote all sorts of things on the internet, a huge percentage of them always turn out to be junk anyway. Who knew that asking for a season change would actually make it happen? Maybe I should've asked for snow instead. Not many African countries received snow anyway. That would've been better, a much better spectacle because who doesn't love snow especially after seeing it in all those Christmas movies on the TV.

My mind went back to what Chris had said about attention shifting from him and how he had a knowing look on his face. He wasn't smiling because he was amused, he smiled because he knew my secret. Or pretended to know and neither was comforting to know. Bad news had a way of traveling fast but maybe I could stop it by making sure Chris didn't say a word.

I peered down at my laptop as my fingers hovered over the keyboard. I knew well enough that two wrongs never made a right but perhaps this would be an exception. It would be a quick spell and very temporary. No one would get hurt. I pulled my hands away from the keyboard and brushed the thought away. I was being rash, after all Chris never showed any intention of telling anyone but I also knew the temptation to shift any kind of attention from him would be great. If I were in his shoes I would do the same thing, right? So with my mind made up I pulled up my search history from the night before and typed out a silencing spell. Then I thought that it wouldn't be enough to keep him quiet. He could always text someone that is if he hadn't done it already. I needed a paralysis spell too. Yes, that was the best way to go.

The noise outside was growing louder as more and more people gathered to see the fallen leaves. At least I knew I didn't have to worry about being interrupted while I cast the spell. A part of me was excited when the spell popped up on my screen. I quickly read through it feeling my heart rate pick up a few beats. Was I really going to put a spell on my neighbor? Was I that afraid of what people would say? Maybe I was. Nothing good ever came out of a rumor, especially one that involved magic. "It's only going to be for a few hours anyway." I said out loud. The room had turned dark as the sun set which made me both excited and scared at the same time. I was sure in a few moments a strong breeze would be blowing through my windows.

I had finally memorized the words and had settled down into a comfortable position, ready to do some magic when my phone buzzed with a message from an unknown number.

"Relax kid. Your secret is safe with me." It read and immediately I knew who it was from. "I won't tell if you won't cast your spell."