Magic I Never Expected.

I was halfway off the bed and halfway on the floor dying of boredom. I groaned and slid further off the bed wondering what on Earth there was to do.

"Hello, dearie." Nana smiled, peaking in through the door. "I'm going to the store, you want something while I'm out?"

"Unless the store holds the key to beating boredom on sale, then there's nothing." I groaned.

"I'll look but there's no guarantee, would a candy bar be a good replacement?"

I grinned at her, "Yeah that will do. Love you, Nana."

She turned around and headed out before turning back to me, "If you're so bored, do you think you could go downstairs and see if you can find some of my old baby clothes? You're Aunt Margaret has been asking if I have any spare baby clothes for little Jude. I know I still have some but I can't seem to find them."

"Yeah, I'll look, in the basement right?"

She nodded and went out the door and I was thrown into the mind-numbingly boring afternoon all over again. I groaned sinking lower to the floor and laid like that for a good minute before I finally sat up and decided to go see if I could find those clothes. I grabbed my iPod and headphones and spent another twenty minutes deciding what to listen to. I didn't exactly want to go through Nana's dusty old boxes and not have some tunes to jam out to.

Nothing tickled my fancy, so I voted with some high energy show tunes, because if these songs could inspire people to dance all of the sudden then my lord they would inspire me to find some nappies.

I was essentially a genius because it worked. Bless the musical industry, I would never get anything done without them. I spent a lot of time sliding around in my socks belting out of tune parodies to some of my favorite songs when I made my way downstairs.

I sifted through boxes of junk and tried to come up with reasonable reasons that Grandma had kept all sorts of junk in her house. There was a really curly stick that seemed to be splintering off in many places, a lot of straw hats that were breaking off in clumps, and too many foggy, glass spheres that were as big as my head. In one box was a broken mirror that was missing the other half of the mirror and the weirdest part was the fact that I couldn't see my face when I looked into it. When I looked into the mirror I saw the angry reflection of a man with inky black eyes and black veins. It looked like a toddler had scribbled the man's eyes with a sharpie and hadn't bothered to stay within the lines.

Now many people that lived on my nana's block called her the local witch in a joking manner, but after looking through her things, I was almost convinced that she was an actual witch.

I dropped the mirror and heard the all too clear sound of glass shattering. I swore and ran off to get a broom from Nana's supplies closet. When I got back, the shattered glass was gone, and in its place was a smoky doorway that led to an inky room. I walked over to it, being careful not to fall through the pathway, but as soon as I was close enough, a hand reached out and grabbed me.

I screamed as it pulled me through the portal and was quickly silenced by the feeling of glacial water entering my lungs and freezing my brain. As quickly as the cold water came, unbearable heat took its place. I sputtered for a moment and took a deep breath before the heat burned up all the air in my lungs. Then the heat was blown away with huge gales of wind that picked me up and swept me off my feet, buffetting me against the floors and walls. When the wind disappeared the ground swallowed me up and the room collapsed around me. I curled up into a ball and hid my head, my train of thought was jumping between seven tracks all of which had loop-de-loops and downward spirals that made thinking a laborious task that I was in no way capable to do.

It took me way too long to realize that I was fine and that the Earth had stopped shaking.

"Get up," a brisk voice ordered.

I slowly looked up and saw the man from the mirror. I was stunned and the reasonable part of my brain was downright terrified.

"I will not ask again." He growled.

When I didn't respond he grabbed my arm and pulled me up.

"How are you still alive?" He hissed.

I couldn't respond. My throat was closed up and my stomach was tied up in knots. Then, cutting through the silence, music started playing. I recognized the song from Waitress. I realized that when he pulled me up he ripped my headphones free from my iPod. As the music played multiple people appeared and pulled me free from the man.

"What is this?" he howled.

I had no idea myself. The song stopped playing and then a song from Newsies played. The people that had held him back disappeared and he lunged for me.

I ran out of reach and suddenly I was on the other side of the room. I had become faster all of a sudden. I was shocked. The next song was from Phantom of the Opera, and I cautiously hoped that whatever happened would help me get home. At first, nothing happened, then, when the man attacked me, I screamed. It was a supersonic blast that tore apart the room and brought the man to his knees clutching his ears. I brought the room down around me and when the song ended, we were in a completely new area. It was a cave with so many stalagmites and stalactites that I felt I was in a mouth. The next song was from Jekyll and Hyde and I felt a sudden pain splitting my skull in two. When it subsided I was face to face with myself, except the other me was smiling coldly.

"What are you?" I whispered.

It tilted its head, its smile never wavered, "I am you, what else would I be." It growled.

The man got up and groaned, clutching his head. We turned to him, I was terrified, It was smiling wider. Before I could do anything it pounced at the man in a vicious attack.

I watched in horror as it pounced and a part of me was impressed. It said that it was me, then was I really that strong? I couldn't believe it so I decided to look for a way out. I knew at this point that it could only keep him busy until the song stopped and that wouldn't leave me a lot of time. I stumbled around the cave looking for the way out when I say a familiar face.

"Now what are you doing all the way out here?" Nana asked.

"Nana? Where am I?" I whimpered.

She pulled me close and stroked my head, "A place you really shouldn't be."

"Who is that man?" I asked pointing into the cave.

"A wizard who has tried to escape his bonds too many times. I'll admit that, as grateful as I am, I'm surprised you're even alive if you met him."

"It took a lot of effort and what I presume to be magic," I joked, grateful to be with Nana, "Why is he trying to kill me?"

"Oh darling, he draws his magic from other people's life. If he took your life, then he would have had enough power to escape." She explained. "Which reminds me, you are going to have to help me trap him again."

I frowned, "Nana, you may not know this, but I have absolutely no idea how to do that."

"You must not sell yourself short, you at least have half an idea." She grinned as if she had just let me in on one of her secrets, and as far as I knew, she just did.

"What do you mean?"

She pointed to my iPod.

I thought about it, maybe one of my songs would trap him in a makeshift prison, I had an idea which one would be the closest.

"You're right, I have half an idea, but it won't work without something else." I frowned and looked to Nana. "I can trap him I think but it won't be permanent."

She shook her head, "It just has to hold him until he can be dealt with and I will take care of that."

I nodded and led Nana inside the cave. I spent most of the hike searching for the song that I hadn't realized the music had stopped altogether. When I was halfway through my music library the man found us. He looked like he had gotten run over by a bull and I remembered It. I was shocked that it caused him this much damage before the song ended.

I hid behind my nana and she calmly smiled at the man.

"Hello, Braxwun." She smiled.

"Naria." Braxwun snarled. "I see you have brought your kin into your circles, I can't wait to see the look on your face when I tear her from your life."

Nana's smile never wavered but she did tense up when she heard his threat.

"I'm afraid you won't get the chance, Alice darling." She squeezed my hand signaling the time to trap the man.

I played Waving Through a Window and watched as Braxwun panicked and paced the length of some imaginary cage. I smiled. He was trapped in a way that we could reach him because he was trapped in his own head. I watched as Nana took a stone from the ground, whispered into it, and through it at him.

The stone became shiny and reflective that swallowed him up as soon as it hit him.

He howled with rage and panic as he became trapped again.

"Now," Nana declared, turning to me, "We are going to go home, and tomorrow you are going to forget that any of this happened."

And that's exactly what happened, well, except for the fact that I remembered all of it, but we're going to pretend that I did for my nana's sake.