A JSE Fanfic
Chapter Seventeen: Dabbling in Magic
[This is the LATEST part of an INCOMPLETE SERIES that I wrote in about 2018-2019. For now, this is all there is. I don't know if I'll ever finish it, but I still think there's good stuff in it, and merit in reposting it here. Chase, Schneep, and JJ’s search for Marvin brings them to some magical places.]
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“Alright. So we think we’ve found one of these secret magic shops. Now…how do we get in?” Chase stood with his hands on his hips, looking over the shop window. It looked just like a closed-down clothing store, with dusty mannequins wearing outdated fashion. If JJ hadn’t identified one of the symbols on its awning as a rune, they probably would’ve walked right past it.

'Well, the door should be open,' JJ remarked.

Chase rolled his eyes, but tried pulling on the the shop’s door. Then he tried pushing. “No, it’s not open,” he said, stepping back.

“Maybe it is just because we are not magic,” Schneep speculated.

JJ tried the door as well, finding it just as stuck. He stepped back, puzzled. 'Maybe,' he said slowly. 'But I’ve never heard of one that’s not accessible to non-magicians.'

There was a sign hanging in the door, reading “CLOSED.” Shortly after JJ tried opening the door, it flipped over to the “OPEN” side. Something clicked in the door. The three looked at each other.

“Well. I suppose it was just delayed,” Schneep tried to shrug it off. He walked past the other two and pulled the door open. The three of them vanished inside, the door shutting behind them on its own. The sign flipped back to “CLOSED.”

The shop inside was much smaller than the outside of the building would have you believe. Or maybe that was just because of the clutter inside. Tables and shelves were dotted across the wooden floor at random, piled high with crystals, jewelry, and some strange, mechanical-looking devices. Bookshelves were overflowing with leather-bound spellbooks. There was a counter at the back of the shop, made of dark wood. It had a cash register and what looked like a chemistry set on top of it. Hanging lamps overhead cast the whole store in yellow light.

“I don’t know what I was expecting,” Chase commented, looking around.

“What is this even for?” Schneep muttered. He picked up a silver hand mirror from the nearest table, turning it over in his hands.

'It may be best to not touch anything,' JJ said, proceeding to take the mirror from Schneep and put it back. 'This place is hidden because it, for some reason, doesn’t follow the magician’s regulations.'

“Magicians have regulations?” Chase snorted. “What, is there a Ministry of Magic?”

“Actually, it’s called the ABIM,” said a strange voice.

Schneep suddenly yelped. Chase jumped, nearly knocking over a rack of necklaces, which JJ steadied. “Who said that?!” Schneep hissed.

“Hello!” There was now a woman standing behind the counter. How she got there so quickly wasn’t clear. Her hair was dyed blue and purple, cut in a style between an undercut and a mohawk. “Looking for something?” She flashed a smile.

“Um…” Chase was the only one to say anything. “Is…this your place?”

“Indeed it is.” The woman spread her arms wide. “Welcome! The name’s Yvonne. Come to buy something? I’m not quite picking up a magic signature from any of you, but I’m not one to poke at that. I sell a lot of witchcraft items as well as magic ones!”

JJ coughed awkwardly. 'We’re actually looking for someone. We were wondering if you’d seen him?'

“Hmm.” Yvonne leaned against the counter. “Sorry, I’m a bit rusty, am I getting this correct? You’re looking for someone, you think I’ve seen them?”

JJ nodded, surprise and relief flashing across his face.

“Well, obviously, I’d have to know more about this person in question.” Yvonne shrugged.

“He looks like us,” Schneep jumped in. “But he is a magician. He likes to wear a mask, white and shaped like a cat’s face?”

Yvonne’s eyes lit up. “Goes by the name of Marvin?”

“So you know him,” Chase said.

“Haven’t seen him in a while, but yeah, he’s come in once or twice.”

The three exchanged looks. 'Do you know where he might be?' JJ asked.

“Dunno where he is, but…” She grinned. “I can help you find him. It’ll cost you, though.”

Schneep narrowed his eyes. “Cost in what way?”

“I have money,” Chase said, digging into his pocket.

“No, don’t worry about cash. Your friend in the glasses asked the right question.” Yvonne snapped her fingers, muttering something under her breath. Her eyes started to glow blue, and a wisp of smokey magic slithered away from her fingers, mostly blue with yellow at the end. “My specialty is soul magic. Unfortunately, it’s a magic that requires materials.”

“Okay, no, we’re leaving.” Chase turned around and started heading for the door. “This isn’t worth selling our souls. We can find another way.”

“Hey, I’m not asking you to give me your souls,” Yvonne hurried to say. “Honestly, I don’t think there are spells to do that.” She paused. “I mean, there are spells to send someone’s soul to a nightmare dimension, but it’s not like I get to keep them when I do that.”

“This is NOT encouraging,” Chase said. Nevertheless, he stopped walking and turned around.

“All I’m going to ask for is a little bit of soul essence from one of you.” Yvonne reached underneath the counter, withdrawing what looked like a test tube full of a clear liquid, blocked with a cork, and a needle the length of a pencil.

“And that is REALLY not encouraging.” Chase took a few steps backwards. Schneep and JJ didn’t move, but they didn’t exactly look excited about that needle.

“Okay, I understand how this looks.” Yvonne put the needle and glass tube down on the counter. “But it won’t hurt, other than a slight pinch, and I can’t use your essence for anything specific to you.”

Schneep started to laugh. “We would need more than your word for that! We do not know if you are lying!”

Yvonne paused. “Alright, that’s fair. But really, the most I can do is apply a tracking spell. And besides, even if I could do more, why would I want to?”

“I don’t know, this sounds like something that can be used to make some kind of voodoo doll,” Chase remarked.

“Don’t be ridiculous, I don’t practice that,” Yvonne said dismissively. “Look, if you want to find Marvin, I need something in exchange, and this seems fair to me.”

“Does not seem fair to us,” Schneep muttered.

“Well, I only need it from one of you.” Yvonne raised an eyebrow. “And your friend with the mustache has been pretty quiet about this whole thing.”

Chase and Schneep looked over at JJ. “You’re not actually considering this, are you?” Chase asked.

Jameson didn’t say anything. He folded his arms, shifting in place.

Schneep blinked. “No. You are NOT.”

Jameson sighed. 'Well…'

“Dude?!” Chase stared at him, mouth gaping. “This sounds shady as all hell!”

'We need to find Marvin fast,' Jameson explained. 'Before…anything happens to him. And with what’s been going on these past few days…there’s a chance that something bad could, indeed, happen. '

“You cannot seriously be—!” Schneep seemed to be at a lost for words.

'Well, it’s not your choice to make, is it?' Jameson walked up to the counter. He nodded at Yvonne. 'I’m willing to trade.'

Yvonne smiled. She picked up the needle, and took Jameson’s hand. “This’ll hurt just a bit more than a flu shot,” she said. And then she stuck the needle in Jameson’s wrist. He gasped. Yvonne made a shushing sound. The needle stayed there for a few seconds more before she withdrew it, holding it point-up. Red trickled down the length of the needle. She picked up the glass tube, pulling the cork out with her teeth, and dropped the needle inside. The blood inside mixed with the clear liquid, and then she withdrew the needle again. “See, not so hard,” she said, setting it down.

Jameson grasped his wrist, covering the spot where she’d stuck the needle. He seemed very stiff, eyes suddenly distant.

Yvonne didn’t notice. She recapped the glass tube, swirling around its contents. Her eyes turned blue again. “Entruvum le vériat dein alima,” she muttered. Wisps of blue and yellow magic spun around the outside of the tube, covering the inside from view. “Haz facorm i en réa.” The magic faded away. The substance inside had turned opaque, the color now a pale blue. She smiled. “Right. Now, I promised to find your friend.”

“…yes, you did.” Schneep walked up to JJ. He gently placed a hand on his shoulder and pushed him behind him. Jameson didn’t seem to notice.

“Right.” Yvonne picked up the glass tube and needle, then bent over, replacing it under the counter. When she straightened, she was holding a different tube. This one filled with a pale green liquid. “Alright, as I told you earlier, this essence can be used…for a tracking spell.”

“Wait…” Chase’s eyes widened. “Is that—is that Marvin’s?!”

She chuckled. “I told you I knew him.” She walked over to the chemistry set, which, upon further inspection, looked a bit…odd. For one, there was a crystal ball in the center, supported in a ring of silvery metal. The inside of the sphere was swirling with off-white mist. Yvonne uncapped the glass tube with Marvin’s soul essence, and poured a few drops on top of the sphere. The mist inside suddenly exploded into bright green sparks, a raging fire. “Little bit on the soul seeker,” Yvonne muttered, placing her hands on top of the sphere. “And…” she shuddered. Her eyes glazed over, turning all blue.

The sphere was engulfed in a tornado of blue mist. She fiddled with other parts of the chemistry set, adjusting some of the instruments, then reached down and pulled a thin wire contraption out from under the counter. She tapped one end of the contraption to the sphere. The blue mist was suddenly sucked off the sphere and swirled around the wire before sinking into the metal. Yvonne’s eyes faded to normal. “Here,” she said, handing the wire contraption to the boys. “This should function as a dowsing rod now.”

Schneep ended up taking the newly-formed dowsing rod. “How?” He asked, looking down at the wire dubiously.

Yvonne sighed. There were dark circles under her eyes that hadn’t been there before. “Just point it around, you’ll feel it pulling you when you get it facing the right direction.”

“Huh.” Schneep still looked skeptical, but he also looked like he wanted to get out of this shop. “Well, ah…thank you.”

“Pleasure doing business with you!” Yvonne wiggled her fingers, waving goodbye as the three of them left the shop.
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“So, I just hold these two bits and turn around?” Chase asked, looking the dowsing rod over.

“There has to be a better word for it than just ‘these two bits,’" Schneep muttered.

“Well, what else am I supposed to call it? It looks like a wishbone, what do you call the two bits on the wishbone? The feet or something?” Chase shook his head. “So I just spin in a circle?”

“Apparently.” Schneep shrugged.

While Chase proceeded to spin around in the middle of the sidewalk, Schneep went down to sit on the curb, next to Jameson. The other man was staring into the middle distance, looking at nothing. “Are you okay?” Schneep asked, voice soft.

Jameson jumped, and shook himself out of his trance-like state. 'Yes, I’m alright.'

“Are you sure?” Schneep persisted. “You…you went sort of…distant.”

Jameson hunched his shoulders. 'Yes, I tend to do that sometimes. You just haven’t seen it yet. '

“Ah.” Schneep fell silent. He mentally went over what had happened in the shop. The magician, Yvonne, had grabbed Jameson’s hand and stuck him with a needle. His left hand. The one covered in scars. It wasn’t hard to put the pieces together from there. “I am…sorry that upset you.”

'Thank you,' Jameson signed. He fell silent. Schneep didn’t say anything either. After a while, Jameson reached over and grabbed Schneep’s hand. He squeezed it. Schneep squeezed back.

“I think I got it,” Chase said. The other two looked over at him, seeing him holding the dowsing rod pointed in a direction down the street. “It kind of feels like a tug-of-war, except the other person isn’t trying too hard.” He chuckled.

“Ah, good.” Schneep stood up, Jameson following soon after. “Let’s head in that direction, then.”

Chase groaned. “I’m tired of walking. Can we just take the bus, or something? Or stop by my house so I can get my car?”

'You haven’t used that auto in months, I don’t trust it to start correctly,' JJ remarked.

“Alright, fine. But, bus? Please? We don’t know how far away this…this thing we’re looking for…” Confusion momentarily clouded his face. Then he blinked, and it was gone. “I mean, Marvin. We don’t know how far he’s gone.”

“He cannot have gone that far. He has only been gone a day or so.” Schneep looked up into the afternoon sky. “Not even that.”

“So. Bus, then. Look, there’s a stop right there, let’s go.” Chase headed towards the bus stop on the side of the street. Jameson and Schneep looked at each other, shrugged, then followed.
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They did have to eventually get off of the bus, as the dowsing rod started pulling them in a different direction. They also had to backtrack a couple times, as Chase lost track of where the pull was coming from. Apparently Marvin was wandering around. But eventually, they came across a small courtyard, barely the size of a house and fenced-off. There were a few trees and bushes and not much else. It didn’t look remarkable at first, until—

“That bush is burning,” Schneep noticed. It wasn’t actually too big a blaze, though it did look like it once might have been, given the state of some of the nearby vegetation.

“And the fire is…green?” Chase added.

'Well, I suppose Marvin is definitely here, then,' JJ commented. 'Chase, is it still pulling?'

“Yeah, right into here.” Chase opened the courtyard’s gate, stepping inside. “Let’s go.”

The courtyard was oddly quiet. And empty of any people, which was odd. The dowsing rod guided them to the back, where a pair of aspen trees stood side by side.

“That looks like a gate to the fairy world,” Schneep said. “Look, you can fit a door in between the trunks.”

“Do fairies exist?” Chase wondered.

'I haven’t seen one,' JJ said.

“Well, anyway. Maybe it’s magic. Because this can’t have led us to a wrong place.” Chase shook the dowsing rod.

“Unless she lied about what it does,” Schneep muttered.

“A possibility. But who knows?” Chase walked forward, looking over the two trees. And then he stepped in between them. And disappeared.

Schneep made a strangled, choking sound. He looked at JJ, who stared back, baffled. And the two of them also stepped between the trees.

Suddenly, they were surrounded by trees, trees much taller than the ones in the courtyard. And some of the trees were burning, green fire eating at their branches. Others were covered in blue ice, and the forest floor was dotted with crystal stalagmites. Chase was already through. He waved at Schneep and JJ when they appeared, and pointed through the trees.

There were four people standing there. Marvin was one of them. He was facing a group of three, all of whom were dressed in rather nice clothes. One of them was talking, an older woman with dark hair and eyes.

“—if you drop by there, it’ll all be good,” she was saying. “I’m there all the time.”

Marvin didn’t say anything. He looked down and kicked at the ground. There was a strange book clutched in his arms.

“Do you got that?” The woman emphasized.

“Yeah,” Marvin muttered. “I fucking got it.”

The woman didn’t seem too happy with Marvin’s attitude, but she let it slide. “Remember, my name is Delyth. Delyth Mae. Tell them I sent you.”

“I got it!” Marvin snapped. “I got it the first time you said it!”

Delyth’s eyes flashed. “Watch it, elemental, you’re being let off the hook because you’ve been ignorant for so long. It won’t be the same next time you meet some of us.”

“I guess they’re right, then, ignorance is bliss,” Marvin said, chuckling.

Delyth sighed irritably. She looked around the forest, probably looking at the damage done to the trees, but then she spotted Chase, Schneep and JJ. She looked back at Marvin. “Friends of yours?”

Marvin glanced over to where she was looking. When he saw who was there, he stiffened like a deer in the headlights. He didn’t say anything.

“Um…hi?” Chase waved awkwardly. “Hi, Marv. Found you.”

Marvin still didn’t say anything. He clutched the book tighter.

“Well,” Delyth sighed again. “All of you, back through the gate. We’ll send someone to fix this mess.”

The entire group retreated back through the “gate,” which was another pair of close trees on this end. Once back in the courtyard, the group of three strangers disappeared down the street, leaving Marvin with the other three.

'Well…'JJ said, shifting awkwardly. 'That was—'

“What the fuck were you thinking?!” Schneep shouted. “You leave?! Just when we’d lost another?! What the fuck?! Do you even realize what you’ve done?!”

“I left you a note,” Marvin mumbled.

“That note was bullshit!” Schneep yelled. “You said we would be safer without you! What would even cause you to think that?! Have you not heard safety in numbers?!”

“So how’d you guys find me, anyway?” Marvin asked in an obvious attempt to change the subject.

Schneep looked like he kept wanting to yell, but Chase started talking first. “We went to this crazy magic store and this lady with blue and purple hair said she could help us find you, if we gave her our souls.”

'That’s not what she said,' JJ added. 'She wanted soul essence.'

“Yeah, well.” Chase rolled his eyes. “You didn’t have to agree to it. But anyway, she gave us this thing—” He waved the dowsing rod. “—and it led us to you.”

“Oh. Yeah, I know who you’re talking about,” Marvin said. “JJ did you…did you actually give her some soul essence?”

JJ nodded. 'It seemed the quickest way to get to you. Though I don’t think any of us were expecting to find you…here. He waved at the tree gate.'

“Yeah, uh.” Marvin bit his lip. “Apparently there are other magicians out there. I…I wasn’t expecting that.”

“You really thought you were the only one with magic in the world?” Schneep drawled. “Where do you think all the spells come from?”

“I don’t know! I guess it just didn’t occur to me!” Marvin said defensively. He shook his head. “Anyway, the magic police tracked me down, and I maaaay have responded…aggressively.”

“Dude,” Chase said.

“Shut up, I know!” Marvin snapped. “Anyway, we all got teleported to this forest through this gate thing, and I mean, I eventually um. Realized they didn’t want to arrest me. So there’s that. They’re still kind of pricks, though. They want me to write a book or something.” Marvin took a step back from the other three. “Well, it was fun to see you. I gotta go now.”

“Wait, what?! No!” Schneep snapped. “We took all morning to find you, we did not do that just for you to leave again!”

“Look, I just have stuff to do.” Marvin wasn’t looking at any of them. Well, he didn’t usually make eye contact, but this was clear avoidance. “Gotta fucking…study these dimensional spells, you know?”

“You were doing fine with that back in the apartment,” Schneep said.

“Yeah, dude, you are not disappearing again, that’s a dick move,” Chase added.

“Well, maybe I’m a dick, then!” Marvin snapped.

'No you’re not,' JJ signed. 'You shouldn’t say things like that.'

Marvin softened a bit at that. “Alright. I’m not a dick. But I stand by wh-what I said.”

'You mean that we’d be safer without you? How could you say that?' JJ shook his head. 'We’d be so worried.'

“Well…I can take care of myself,” Marvin said.

'We know you can, but that’s not going to stop us from being worried anyway,' JJ said. 'You’re our friend, Marvin. We don’t want anything to happen to you.'

“Exactly!” Schneep nodded in agreement. “And how can we know nothing happens to you if you leave and do not tell us where you are going?!”

“Yeah, dude,” Chase piped up.

Marvin took a step back from the group. His mouth opened and closed, like he was trying to get the words together in his head. “I—I just—I was with Jackie when he took him, so maybe if I left—”

'Maybe if you left, he’d leave us alone?' JJ finished. 'Marvin, it was a coincidence that you were there. Nothing there was your fault. You just believe it is, I believe it’s called survivor’s guilt. His face darkened. And besides, even if you did have something to do with it, Anti is not the type of person to leave someone alone.'

Everyone flinched when JJ signed the same.

“Besides, w-we…” Schneep took a deep breath, steadying himself. “We saw him even after you left.”

Marvin paled. “…what?”

Schneep nodded. “So you see…you see it will happen anyway. I—we would hate for him to find you when you are along.”

“Safety in numbers, as they say,” Chase said, smiling.

Marvin fell silent. He looked down at the ground, kicking at the grass. He blinked furiously. Taking a deep breath, he looked back up at the others. “I don’t exactly have a place to stay, you know. I can’t stay with Chase, that’s gonna look suspicious since, you know, the police are still after me.”

'You can stay with me,' JJ said. 'They don’t even know I’m there!'

Marvin laughed. “We do need to get you some public records some time.”

'But not today!'

Another laugh, which quickly faded. “Alright,” Marvin said quietly. “I…I guess I won’t leave.”

“Woohoo!” Chase threw his hands in the air. Schneep smiled. JJ whistled, and went in for a hug before pausing, checking to see if it was alright. Marvin rolled his eyes, and leaned up against JJ.

'Let’s go home, then.'

“You said it.”