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To his credit, he didn’t ask any questions, although I could see them bubbling behind his eyes. “Leave now, and call me when you have the boy in custody. I’ll provide you with further instructions once you have him secured. Do not let him get away. You have the full authority of the Council to do whatever it takes to bring him in. Make sure he isn’t hurt in any way; anyone else with him is expendable.”
    As he left my office, I sat back into my chair. I rested my head against the soft leather padding, enjoying the taste of the cigar as the room slowly filled with smoke, and my mind wandered into memories best left forgotten. The boy’s father had once been a friend, and I was thinking about betraying him a second time. I wasn’t sure if it would work out for better or worse, but the plan I had created was set in motion. If everything worked out well, I would hopefully find myself with a seat on the Council. It was worth the risk to have a chance to finally secure my legacy.

3
Jackson
    I don’t want you to think I grew up in some magical land, casting spells and killing dragons. I’m not even sure if there are dragons. There is so much for me left to learn. No, I simply grew up in your average American city. Granted, mine probably has a few degrees on yours in the summer. Tucson, Arizona is a jewel in the winter and blistering hot in the summer. There is literally an entire subset of residents who leave for the summer and return for the rest of the year.
    Just like your average family, both my parents had full-time jobs. They worked long hours to make sure I had everything I needed. Although we might not have spent as much time with each other, I grew up loved. I was your typical latchkey kid. I came home, did my homework, and waited for my parents to return from work. Maybe—just maybe—watched a little TV, and played a video game or two.
    Our house was nice and came with a backyard and a pool. You can’t beat a pool when you wake up at six a.m. and it’s already ninety degrees outside. There was always a home-cooked dinner on the table, but we ate later than most of my friends. Every year we went clothes shopping for school, and I managed to pick things out that didn’t make me look too foolish. Life was pretty normal. I had friends, rode my bike, went swimming in the summer, and played basketball at Udall. If you’re not from the area, think about Udall as a really fancy YMCA.
    The world was laid out before me just as you see it now. I was going to go to college; the future was bright with opportunity. Magic did not exist unless you were Harry Potter or, as my dad used to say, “If you ate some beans.” The things that went bump in the night stayed in your low budget creature features and certainly weren’t real.
    That all started to change during the summer before my senior year of high school. At first, I just wrote it off as too many late nights watching scary movies. Maybe I had watched Lord of the Rings one too many times on Blu-ray. It seemed to happen slowly at first, and by the end of summer, it was an everyday occurrence. I was seeing things that no one else could see. It had to be said, I was slowly losing my mind.
    I spent that entire summer ignoring my friends, hoping that as long as we didn’t hang out, they wouldn’t be able to see the cracks forming in my mind. I told myself little things to keep myself calm: “Most people who think they are crazy are probably ok,” followed by, “It’s the ones who think they are sane and everyone else is crazy that you have to watch out for.” Those two lines became my mantra for everyday life. From that point on, I was a rollercoaster of conflicting emotions and, really, who could blame me?
    The summer seemed endless, and the things I kept seeing made me worried about what would happen when school started again. That was when the other shoe finally dropped. Murphy’s Law decided to strike me down with all of its twisted glory. I remember it