Jazmee27 
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Unbeknownst to him, Alonso was beginning to stir. Each and every breath, which felt like a lance in the ribs, focused his mind on his surroundings. The first thing he discovered was he was lying on some filthy sacks so as not to bleed all over the nice backseat. The second thing he realized was, no matter how hard he tried he **could *not move, even a little. The third thing he noticed was that there was next to know traffic on the road they were on—and he soon found out why, when Fergus said, “slow down, it’s getting steeper here!” His older brother’s reply didn’t comfort him in the least: without altering his speed, he said, “we’re quite safe, Fergus.”
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Reply #1161. Jun 26 12, 1:28 PM
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Jazmee27
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From the backseat, all Alonso could do was scrunch his eyes tight and make one last, desperate plea: actually, he made two last requests, that Ontario forgive him for their latest argument, and that the black car he was riding in swerve off the road or something that would ensure his enemies couldn’t hurt anyone ever again. “I may be dying,” he thought, “but at least I can go on my own terms.”
In the front seat, Fergus and Lachlainn both swore loudly before the vehicle lost traction and rose into the air. It spun around once, twice, three times—then plunged straight down, over the incline, to shatter on the rocks below.
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Reply #1162. Jun 26 12, 1:29 PM
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Jazmee27
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END OF THE ROAD 2
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Being on one’s best behavior can be tiresome after a while, but Fergus and Lachlainn Ferguson were agreed that it was necessary: they couldn’t afford to bring attention to themselves. After all, their father had been, according to the Administration, evil—and, therefore, deserving of execution. The boys didn’t know how that sentence had been carried out, nor did they care—they only wanted retribution, and would wait for years if necessary.
Infiltrating the School, getting around its “defenses,” had been a piece of cake. These people were of the opinion that anyone, including the children of demons, deserved first and second chances. Family relation didn’t determine how one would turn out—or so some believed. Others were far more cautious, but it didn’t matter as the former belief was held by the people on top.
And so the Ferguson brothers came to be enrolled at the School. They studied hard, kept their grades up, and in every way did nothing to bring attention to themselves. (More than once, Fergus wanted to feign illness, but Lachlainn talked him out of it every time. No use, he said, in taking such a risk.)
No matter what they were doing, the two burly boys were constantly aware of things going around them. They surveyed budding relationships between the students, and interactions between students and teachers. They kept waiting, and watching, until their dorm room—one of the closest to the administrative offices—was moved. In point of fact, they couldn’t have asked for a better arrangement, for they ended up rooming next to Alonso Gonzales, who they determined shortly after their first day would be the ideal victim.
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Reply #1163. Jun 26 12, 1:31 PM
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Jazmee27
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Alonso was a fairly skinny kid. Unlike his identical twin, he didn’t seem too comfortable in mixed company. In effect, he preferred to be alone, drawing or reflecting on this thing or that. He rarely ever looked around him, so intent was he on whatever he was doing.
All this, and more, was observed by the two children who were pretending to be good but were anything but. Eventually, they began conferring with each other in study hall; no one thought anything of it. Students often compared notes, and conversations ranged widely from the topic of the day to “real life application”.
Still, Fergus and Lachlainn knew they had to be careful. That twin brother of their victim, Ontario, was constantly keeping an eye out for possible danger.
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Reply #1164. Jun 26 12, 1:32 PM
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Jazmee27
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“What we need,” Lachlainn said softly, “is a strong spell that will prevent anyone from finding out what’s happening. Later, after the deed’s been done, if the spell wares off… well, then we’ll deal with that when it happens.” Fergus, being the far more skilled of the two in the ways of magic, was quick to suggest a few that might work. In the end, they settled on a combination, figuring that it would be stronger than any one on its own. As it turns out, this was a safe bet.
The day they chose to implement their plan seemed to drag on and on. They were forced to sit through long, boring lectures with attentive faces. Then, later, they had to wait while Ontario and Alonso had one of their “study sessions.”
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Reply #1165. Jun 26 12, 1:33 PM
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Jazmee27
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Finally, the nine-year-old was alone in his room, and the Ferguson brothers knew it was time to act. They crept next door, and very quickly knocked Alonso to the ground. Without glancing at what he’d been working on, Lachlainn and Fergus proceeded to punch and kick their victim senseless, then drag him to a nearby vehicle. Fergus wasn’t exactly pleased with this; the car was a birthday present from his grandmother, and he didn’t want it messed up. “Just lay some dirty sacks on the seat,” Lachlainn suggested exasperatedly, and this the younger boy did, though reluctantly.
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Reply #1166. Jun 26 12, 1:34 PM
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Jazmee27
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In the magical community, one is able to obtain a license to handle a vehicle at age ten or so. Fergus, at eleven years, was a careful driver; much more so than Lachlainn, who was seventeen. Besides, Fergus knew where to go, having picked the location for the last stage of their plan. He called it “the end of the road” because it was so narrow. Only the most able-bodied of persons could stand at the top of that piece of ground without falling to their death on the rocks below. And maintaining one’s footing became very hard indeed when one was forced to battle for one’s life.
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Reply #1167. Jun 26 12, 1:35 PM
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Jazmee27
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As Fergus drove, Lachlainn kept an eye on the injured boy in the backseat. Some of his wounds were bleeding heavily, and the older boy could see that the filthy rags he was lying on weren’t keeping the seats from being stained. Cursing under his breath, he did the only thing he could think to do: he called upon his magic to “clean up” the area. He heard a strangled cry from the backseat, then silence once more.
Finally, Fergus addressed his brother: “we’re almost there. When we arrive, help me take him from the back. Don’t do anything that might interfere with my concentration.” The older boy didn’t say anything, just glared out the window, thinking how nice it would be to remove them both from the face of the Universe.
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Reply #1168. Jun 26 12, 1:36 PM
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Jazmee27
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By now, the injured boy’s wounds were completely closed up—still tender, but no longer gushing blood. He lay on the sacks, his crystalline blue eyes closed, his teeth gritted against the excruciating agony that pulsed through him with every breath. He knew he didn’t have any resources that would miraculously preserve his life. “It’s over,” he thought, and felt a wash of sadness that his life would end so abruptly. Just nine years old, the life stomped out of him because he was helpless to do anything about it.
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Reply #1169. Jun 26 12, 1:37 PM
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Jazmee27
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What the “bully boys” didn’t realize was that, while Fergus’s “blocking” or “confusion” spell kept everyone else unaware of the situation, this didn’t apply to Alonso’s twin. Ontario had, in fact, left his twin earlier than he might have otherwise, complaining of a headache. Once in his room, he’d taken a “painblocker,” one of those magical remedies for pain they have in the magical community, and used the Twin Connection to find out what was going on—all day, the nine-year-old had felt uneasy, a feeling that only intensified as the day went along. He’d sensed the Ferguson boys before they began beating Alonso into the ground and, although he desperately wanted to help **right *then, he knew he’d have to wait. “Timing is everything” after all.
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Reply #1170. Jun 26 12, 1:38 PM
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Jazmee27
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Suddenly, from the front seat, there came a profusion of curses from two throats as Fergus was forced to slam on the brakes. “I can’t see,” he howled at Lachlainn. “Neither can I,” he roared back.
Meanwhile, Ontario nudged his twin to wakefulness. “Now, while they’re distracted—you’ve got to get out of here.” Alonso, blinking back tears, pointed out the obvious—that he was too weak to be going anywhere. In reply, Ontario reminded his twin that, first of all, he wasn’t alone, and second, “my Powers have activated sufficiently to get you out of here”
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Reply #1171. Jun 26 12, 1:40 PM
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Jazmee27
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Taking a deep breath, and biting back a scream, Alonso managed to right himself. It was then he found that his attackers, so confident in their victory, had failed to lock him in. Ontario, seeing this, couldn’t help laughing out loud—which didn’t really matter since he was behind a locked door in his dorm back at the School.
Panting and scared half out of his wits that one or two of the Fergusons would turn around, Alonso’s fingers wrapped around the door handle and pulled. Knowing someone would turn around now, as a gust of wind had come in the moment the door opened, the nine-year-old summoned the last of his strength into a jump that would send him sailing down the incline at a pace fast enough to break the whole of his fragile body. Before his twin’s magic could do anything to prevent it, Alonso’s head slammed into the pointy rocks down below.
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Reply #1172. Jun 26 12, 1:41 PM
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Jazmee27
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As soon as the wind came screaming into the vehicle, the Visibility Spell Ontario had placed on the car dissapated, and Lachlainn was able to see everything as it happened. “I told you we should have locked the door,” he cried furiously at Fergus, his face twisted with rage. “He was too badly hurt to have got out of there himself,” Fergus shot back, “and besides there’s no way he survived a fall like that!” Forcing himself to be calm, the sixteen-year-old asked, “why don’t we go down and make sure?”
Carefully, the Fergusons exited the vehicle and picked their way down the steep slope. “See,” Fergus crowed triumphantly, pointing at a crumpled heap of torn flesh and bone, “I told you he couldn’t possibly have survived!”
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Reply #1173. Jun 26 12, 1:42 PM
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Jazmee27
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Hearing a loud, rumbling noise, the brothers gazed to their right in time to see Fergus’s birthday present hurtling straight at them. “What the—“ Lachlainn began, before he was bowled off his feet. A split second later, Fergus himself was flattened by his own car.
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Reply #1174. Jun 26 12, 1:42 PM
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Jazmee27
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A quiet peace settled over the landscape as the rogue vehicle came to a stop over its driver and passenger. The boys lay where they had fallen, never to move again. A few feet away, Alonso’s surface wounds were beginning to knit neatly together again. “Oh, what magic can do,” Ontario thought to himself with a smile before slumping tiredly to the floor of his room.
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Reply #1175. Jun 26 12, 1:43 PM
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Jazmee27
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END OF THE ROAD 3
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OK, I’ll admit it: it wasn’t the wisest thing I’ve ever done. In my defense, I only drank to get the failures of the past few years out of my mind. I mean, who wants to remember that stuff day in and day out? Still, it impaired my reactions, and before I knew it I was receiving yet another beating the likes of which I’d never seen.
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Reply #1176. Jun 26 12, 1:45 PM
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Jazmee27
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I thought I’d known sheer agony, but it turned out I hadn’t a clue. First, those Cehrvanakavreyda operatives—for the most part, that is—used the fast approach. That is to say, the blows I sustained were in quick succession, and most designed to produce the most damage possible. I was unconscious before even ten well-placed punches had met my flesh. Even the kicks they aimed at my skull or elsewhere were designed to induce near to instantaneous blackness. In contrast, these two boys knew enough to draw out my suffering, taking their time. They each knew the areas that, when hit, would produce the most agony while leaving the least outward signs. They were also more skilled with magic than the Sccenorian gang had been. Whereas, back then, I’d been scorched with raw Power, now I was being pelted with tiny sticks or needles of malevolent energy. I lay there, on that floor, vainly attempting to stifle my cries of pain and fear, for about half an hour before I finally passed out. Theree, too, was another difference. Years earlier, the gang continued pounding my face into the ground long after I’d been knocked out, with the sole intention that I’d never wake up. But those two boys stopped what they were doing, bundled up my inert form between them, and carried me to a waiting vehicle. I don’t know the make or model, and honestly I don’t care.
I was tossed, carelessly, on the back seat, where a number of sacks big enough to cover the seats had been placed so that I wouldn’t bleed all over the clean seats.
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Reply #1177. Jun 26 12, 1:46 PM
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Jazmee27
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When I regained consciousness, my head was pounding in time with my heart, and every part of me ached. Plus, some of the wounds—the deepest ones—were becoming infected by contact with all the dirt. It’s amazing to me I woke at all!
What I didn’t realize at the time was, even though I’d knocked out my own Powers with my drinking, the same certainly wasn’t true of others. And the one person who was connected to me to a deep level was my identical twin, Ontario. Over the years, he’s seen me through scrapes that would have killed anyone else three or four times over. I’d do almost anything for him, though I’ve found it too awkward to say aloud. “Still, I think he understands, and he’s demonstrated loads of time how he feels the same.
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Reply #1178. Jun 26 12, 1:47 PM
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Jazmee27
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Anyway, I’m lying there on that mass of filthy rags, conscious of the fact that every breath seems to rock my entire battered frame, wen I hear this quiet but insistent voice I know to be Ontario’s telling me that it’s going to work out, and I should try to relax if possible. And I notice, when I’m not focusing on how much everything hurts, but concentrate on staying calm, that I feel better. But then I wonder where my attackers are taking me, and the anguish I feel returns worse than before.
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Reply #1179. Jun 26 12, 1:48 PM
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Jazmee27
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One of the boys, the younger of the two, must have heard me, because he turned around and smirked, telling me matter-of-factly I wouldn’t be “in the land of the living” too much longer, because “we’re nearly at the end of the road.” At those words, my heart seemed to stop and my blood froze, and Fergus—that’ was the younger boy’s name—he smiles at me in that way that shows all his teeth, and then he mutters something I can’t quite hear.
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Reply #1180. Jun 26 12, 1:50 PM
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