The Journal of Grayson Randall

My name is Grayson, this is my journal. I won’t be alive yet when you read this for I am from the future but I hope that whoever is reading this journal will be able to change the course of history and save America. At least that is my goal. I live in the present which for you is the future America, we are the least diverse country in the world. Only white Americans are here, not even a white Canadian could come down to the U.S. Half of America is flooded because the polar ice caps melted, the water level rose dramatically. Women have no rights anymore, no one has any real rights anymore. I am considered illegal because while I’m not of a different ethnicity or a woman, I study magic, magic has been discovered as real by the public, the only reason we haven’t found out about it sooner is that Mages has kept it a secret for centuries. Now that it’s out in the open, magic has been banned as unconstitutional, many of us still study it, me included as I have said above. This story must be told to protect our future. I don’t know how you’ll be able to help but just do it anyway you can. I’ve eaten breakfast with my family, who doesn’t know I’m a Mage, we were all watching the Saturday morning cartoons when suddenly a breaking news story comes on, apparently, Congress has made a vote in secret about banning all Mages, and it went through. This is very bad, I thought, I left the room saying I have to go to the bathroom, I don’t think they bought the excuse but it doesn't matter because I won’t be coming back here anyway. I went into my room and started to start packing my things, I have to meet with the other Mages and discuss what to do now. Even though I’m only a beginner Mage this still affects me and I feel like I should still be there to discuss. I went into my wardrobe and opened up the false backing to get my magical things, my cloak, spell books, alchemy book, which is just a basic chemistry book but it's made to sound more mystical and does involve some degree of magic but no matter. I also grabbed anything else I might have needed and headed on my way, I left through the window so my parents wouldn’t see me but I heard their gasps as I jumped down, they must have seen my cloak. I casted a spell of invisibility so they couldn’t see me any longer but also so no one else could see me. I went to downtown and darted towards the overpass there I found a stone door the same color as the cement, that is where the Mage’s meeting place is. I looked around to see if there is any kind of switch but there’s none I’m going to hide in the bushes and see if any more Mages come. I waited for about an hour before I saw the familiar sign of the invisibility spell I ducked down further to avoid being seen, the person stood next to me in front of the door I then heard a voice and to my surprise, it was a woman’s voice! “So, are you going to hid in those bushes all day or are you going to come out and introduce yourself?” I cast the invisibility spell again and stood up.

“How did you know I was here?”

“Mages can see other Mages, didn’t you recognize me?” She asked

“No, I only recognized the spell. Also, you’re a woman, how are you a Mage?”

“I’ll explain everything when we get inside we’re in danger by staying out here.”

She turned towards the door and did another spell that opened it, we both rushed inside.

“Okay, now can you answer my question?” “What can I say, I’m a rebel,” she said playfully, I probably should mention that I fell in love with her instantly.

“So what’s your name?” she asked, “My name is Grayson, what’s yours?”

“Rose.”

Rose… what a beautiful name. We scaled down the long spiraling staircase into a huge cave cavern full of people all Mages obviously, it looked amazing! The floor was made out of a white wood that gleamed in the light and it was just brimming with chatter. We walked into the room and saw a man walk up to the stage in the front of the room. All noise in the room has ceased and everyone was staring at the man on stage. He looks like a rather younger man while still showing some signs of age.

“Hello!” he said “I know you are all here because the government has decided to ban magic, now I know you’ll are wondering what the next course of action is. First, we must do the greeting game that I know you all love so much.” Everyone groaned after he said that. “Now, now, we have some new faces in the crowd and so we must get their names.”So, how does he know I’m new?” I asked the girl “Like I said, Mages recognize other Mages.”

“If that’s true then how come I’m not able to do that?”

“Because you’re a beginner Mage, as you start to build up your magic ability you will start to see it more.”

“How did you know I’m a beginner?”

“You have a backpack so that must mean you still have books, also I never saw you before.

I decided I should stop asking questions and join the circle. We started going around and saying our names and how skilled we are at magic. The man that was on stage started first “Hello! My name is Dax! I’m a- the cavern suddenly shook, and then we heard explosions coming from outside. All of us stood battle ready waiting for something to happen, the door burst opened and we heard U.S agents running down the stairs. All of us started to bring up our spells, ready for a battle.

“Are we going to die?” I asked Rose

“No, we’re not going to die as long as we fight back.”

As soon as we saw an agent's foot we open fired shoot every spell we had, the agents were cornered on the stairs not being able to come down. The front row started to run towards the stairs, then the second row, they ran to the stairs, shot the agents and worked their way up. The rest of us stayed below discussing what should happen next.

“First of all, I think we need to teach this kid how to use magic.” Rose mentioned

“You don’t know how to use magic?” someone asked.

“I know how to do about a dozen spells.”

“Wow, okay, yeah you really need to know magic if you’re wanting to be with us.” Dax said,

“Hey Rose, you wanna teach him?”

“Fine I’ll teach him, but I’m not going to save his ass if we get into another fight. Got it!”

“Yeah, that’s fine by me, encourages me to learn faster.” I told Rose.

“Great! Rose, you’re starting now, figure out what he knows, look at what books he has and teach him some battle spells he doesn’t know.” said Dax

“Fine, I’ll teach him” Rose said, she then pulled me aside so she could give me a quick lesson. “Alright! What do you want to learn?” Rose asked me

“Well, whatever you think will be helpful for me.” I replied back

“Alright, give me your grimoires.”

“Grimoires?” I ask “Your spell books! God, if you’re really this dunce about magic than you need to step up your game.”

She said as I handed her the books, “okay, alright,” she kept saying as she flipped through the books. “Okay, so you don’t really need to learn a lot of battle spells. Good. The first thing you should know is spell blocking. Here, make this handshape.”

I followed her and somewhat got it right.

“Okay, let me help you. It’s really simple.”

She took my fingers and started to make the shape.

“All you have to do is take your middle finger and your thumb. Bend your middle finger down and have your thumb go over it. Leave the rest of the fingers up. Do that with both hands.” When I did it nothing happened.

“Why isn’t anything happening?”

“What else do you have to do to make a spell work?” Rose ask.

“That’s right, I have to visualize myself doing the spell!”

“If you really are this dumb then I don’t even think you have a chance. Yes, you need to visualize yourself doing the spell. I will do the spell and you visualize what you would look like doing the spell. Okay?”

“Okay,” I replied, she did the handshape and all of the sudden a circle of purple light radiated from her hands. “Okay, you got it?”

“Yeah!” I did the handshape and to my luck, purple light shined from my hands. “I did it! I did it!”

“Nice work,” Rose said.

“Hey, guys! Zadok is back!” A man sitting at the computer monitors says.

“Okay! Initiate the battle plan! Sorry to cut the learning early but this man is the worst thing you could ever think of.” says Dax.

Everyone was scattering toward secret hiding places that are coated with magic I hid in the corner between the wall and a hiding chute. Suddenly a cloud of black appears and a man replaces it. He wore all black battle armor and a haunting mask.

“You really think your hiding places are going to stop me.” He lifts up his hand and blows one of the lids off and shoot a ball of ice into it, freezing the man inside.

“Go!” someone shouts.

Everyone bursts out of their hiding places and start attacking him; he surrounds himself in a dome of black magic. Every single shot they fired at him ricocheted off the dome. Then the dome turns into a wall and the spells ricocheted off the wall towards the people. I decided that this is my chance to shine so I crawled around the back wall using miscellaneous things to shield me; when I got a clear shot at his back I fired the most powerful spell I know and caught him off guard.

He turns and growls kind of like a dog, I motioned to the others that they should shoot him from behind while still staring at him, eventually, they caught on and fired right at his back. He let out a long painful groan and disappeared into a cloud of black once again.

“Alright! I’m sick and tired of this! We’re going to war right now! I don’t care if y’all aren't ready; we’re going to war and we’re going to end this! Get into your battle gear, and meet up in the Battle Room. Grayson?”

“Yes, sir!” I replied.

“I want you to follow me, I think I might have some left over gear for you to use.”

“You want me to join you in the Mage War?” I asked.

“Yes, I want you to fight; you’re a Mage and you came here in a time of distress so it’s only fair that we include you as well.”

He started walking away from me, I followed him into a room filled with lockers along the walls and a table in the middle. The room is a lot more futuristic looking then the main room. Dax opens one of the locker and pulls out some gear, “here; try these on.” He throws the gear at me, he then walks and turn a corner, when I know he’s gone I start replacing my clothes with the battle gear. It looks so advanced. Like it’s from the future.

“Make sure you keep your underwear on! I remember one person doing that and it pissed me off!” Dax shouts I chuckled and finished putting on the gear, Dax came back out from the corner holding more gear. “Does the suit fit?” He asked,

“Yeah, almost perfectly.”

“Great! Now I gotta put these back, but first try on the helmet and see if that fits.”

I put the helmet on and shouted “yes, it fits.” Dax turned around and walked back to the lockers he got the other uniforms from. I walked to the locker that held the uniform I currently wear and looked at the name my mouth dropped.

“This was my dad’s uniform!” I shout.

“I thought you would never find out” Dax said from behind me, “Yes, your dad was a Mage, yes, that’s the reason the suit fits you perfectly, and yes, I knew that the whole time, I just grabbed the other uniforms so you wouldn’t think anything of it.

Anyways that is for another time right now all I want you to worry about is The Mage War. Let’s head into the meeting room, we’re late.” Dax started to walk out of the door and I followed.

“Alright!” Dax said as we entered the meeting room “The president and his little group of “Elitist” have voted to kill all Mages so we’re fighting back and our revolution is being titled “The Mage War”. Now because we’re fighting the government this fight won’t be too hard but that doesn’t mean that you guys shouldn’t be cautious, we have no idea what they have up their sleeves. They know where our hideouts are so we are not safe anywhere now. He sighed. Look we’re at our necks in problems so I’m going to be blunt with you I need each of you to give your all and be prepared to sacrifice your life for this war. I can’t tell you everything is going to be alright because this is a war. You might see your fellow Mages die in battle; you will see death and destruction on both sides of this fight. I have contacted other group leaders and they are on the same page as we are. Every Mage in these United States will be fighting by our side. Every single Mage is going to attack military bases near them and then after that, we’re going to the U.S capital and destroy them as well.”

“Woah, wait, why are you being so violent about this?” I ask, “Why can’t we just go to the capital and demand that they stop their termination project? I’m sure if they see our numbers they will realize that they have bitten more than they can chew and stop it.”

“Don’t you see: they shot first; they’re not going to stop if we bring every Mage to the capital they can mow us down and wipe us off the map in an instant. Now you’re thinking about what I said before and I will explain: the difference between mine and yours is that we would have already crippled them and so they won’t be as strong as they could be. See my logic with this?”

“Yes,” I replied softly.

“Good! Now, does everyone know what to do?”

“Sir, yes, sir!” all the Mages replied.

I followed the rest of the Battle Mages to the Main Hall. The whole world was pressing against my chest, everything: the fact that my Dad was a Battle Mage, this war that is going on, everything. I just gotta push it away, I need to focus on the situation at hand. We’re fighting a war against the government. I followed the group out of the Battle Room, into the Main Hall, then up the stairs towards the entrance.

“Everyone, conjure an invisibility spell.” Dax said.

I could hear the simultaneous buzz of spells being used, it sent chills down my spine. I’ve never heard such unity before. I looked up and saw sunlight, the U.S soldiers blasted the door/wall open. I ran with the group, into the light. We all lined up against the wall of the overpass, waiting for further instructions, “Alright,” Dax said in a hushed whisper,

“I’m inputting the location of a National Guard base. Not much but it’s a start.” I heard the ping of an incoming message, a holographic image appeared, it was like a GPS map.

The rest of the Mages started to move so I followed. We stayed in the grass, away from any and all non-Mages. We arrived at the National Guard outpost. The Battle Mages started to create a spell that was unknown to me. I stood there, watching, waiting to see what would happen. All the Mages launched their spells, and they exploded. Huge hole started to appear when the smoke cleared.

I stared in shock at what was happening. I can’t believe we’re actually doing this! Is this right? Should we really be doing this? I thought to myself, I still stood there, not knowing what’s right anymore. The Battle Mages started to create another set of explosive spell bombs. I look behind me, there were people running, screaming, yelling; I could hear sirens growing ever louder.

This is not right, I thought, I looked at the line, seeing if anyone’s paying attention, seeing no one looking I snuck off.

I’m going back home. I wanna talk to my dad see what he thinks of all of this. I then felt a familiar touch on my shoulder. “Wait.” she said, it was Rose. “Where are going?”

“I’m going home, this isn’t right. We are destroying innocent lives.”

“I know but this is for the greater good. Don’t you see, we’ll finally be able to make a name out of ourselves now.”

“No! Mages were never meant to be in the public eye like that. Mages were always shrouded in mystery. We especially never killed people.”

I walked away in a huff. I looked back to see Rose standing there, head drawn down. I feel ashamed for leaving it like this but I can’t do this anymore, this has to stop. I ran, desperately trying to get away from my thoughts. I can’t do this anymore. I stopped halfway home; thinking, and thinking. What do I want! I thought to myself, I kept walking, thinking.

I arrived to the street my home was on, I stood in front of it. Wondering what was going on in my life. In just a few short days my life has completely changed. I can’t believe it. I walked up the steps, lowered the invisibility spell, and knocked on the door. My father answered it. “Grayson! Come in, come in. Can’t have anyone see you.” I walked inside and sat on the couch. I noticed that mom wasn’t anywhere; she must be at work. “What are you doing here!?” he said, “I just saw what was happening on T.V, what are they doing!?”

“They’re going to war against the government. They plan on destroying all the military bases, then going to the capital for the final step: requiring them to stop the termination program. If they don’t they’re going to destroy the capitol building and take over D.C”

“What! That’s insane! Mages were never supposed to be killing innocent lives! What the hell are these current Mages doing! Wait, did you know I was a Mage?”

“Yes. This is actually your battle suit–”

“Yeah, I knew that already. I can see the lines that made my suit special. They’re faint but they’re still there. That’s beside the point, what are we going to do! We can’t just sit here and let them do this! We gotta put them in their place! We need them to remember our roots.”

“I agree. Let’s go.”

“What, you and me?”

“Yeah, you’re an experienced Mage, you’ll be able to persuade them better because you know how Mages were originally.”

“Alright fine. But I don’t know the spells anymore. I’m inexperienced.”

“That’s alright, I can handle any fighting, you just follow me.” We left the house, and started down the street. “Wouldn’t it be faster if we just took the car?” “Yeah, you’re right.” We both got in the car, me in the driver’s seat I drove to the overpass where the Mage hideout was. We got out, went through the hole, and down the stairs, there we found the group. “You!” my father said pointing to Dax onstage, “Well, well, well. How you doing old man?” Dax said, “Still trying to snuff me out?

My father growled, soon black smoke surrounded him. “You’re dead! You’ve all forgotten the true nature of Mages!” My father turned into Zadok, the man we’re just fighting a few days ago. “Come on son, we must show these Mages how we should really be acting.”

“No.” I said, “You’re evil. We can’t just solve all of our differences using violence. It’s not right.” “Son, I thought this was what you wanted. You said they’re not following the rules set by the Ancients, and you’re right.”

“Yes, but I don’t want to kill them. I just wanted to show them that they’re doing things wrong. I… I can’t do this anymore. I quit. I’m done with magic, I’m done being a Mage, I quit.” I threw my gear off, and walked out. I can’t believe my dad was Zadok, he was going to just kill them all. This world is insane. That was when I saw it. A sleek black truck, rolling down the street. I continued walking, smiling as the truck approached. I formed the fire spell in my hands. I shot at the truck, the ball just disintegrated. Soon dozens of soldiers came rushing out, and shot at me. I just stood there, taking every last bullet into my body. Before I died, I saw my dad, he created a shield in front of me, protecting me from the bullets. He then formed a large wall around the truck, trapping the men inside.

“Son,” he whispered, “what happened?” I could see tears forming in his eye. I mustered the last of my strength to hand him my tablet, which contained my journal entries saying: “read this, and share my story. Let them know what has happened. Please.”

That’s when I died, right there in my father’s arm. Now you might be wondering how I was able to write my death, and transfer my futuristic journal entries into a paper journal. Well that’s because my son is not the one who finished it, his father did. I have read my son’s journal, and I completed his final wish. Actually I did one step better, he meant show the people living in our world, so they can try and stop it but I tossed the journal into the past. I want whoever reading this to keep track of the current news and try to prevent it from happening. I know it’ll be hard but do whatever you can to keep this from happening, for the sake of all Mages, and to save my son’s life. His death was a suicide,

“his life was a living hell.” he said, everything in his life has gone wrong, and I don’t want that for him. Please, try to prevent magic from being discovered. I’ll be ending my life after I’ve finished writing this, I can’t go on living either. I’ve lost my son, my wife has been arrested for harboring two Mages, and I have lost the will to live.

Thank you