Discovering Magic

"A current day setting, discovering magic for the first time"


Magic has always been a part of our lives. From a young age when something couldn’t be explained to our immature minds, those around us always told us, ‘it’s magic!’ and we believed them. It’s no surprise that the key to accessing magic came from a child’s mind. That was ten years ago now, it was meant to bring prosperity and unity to the world, all it has done is cause chaos and an even larger socioeconomic gap.

It was August the 30th, 2015 the day me and the scientists I worked with finally cracked the code. We had been close for years but couldn’t create a stable compound. I didn’t know what they were doing back then; I went to work in the lab and never saw any other part of the facility. I thought we were trying to save the world, not destroy it. Sometime I wish I had never taken the job, but I know it wouldn’t have made a difference, if not me than it would have been someone else. We spent months analysing the minds of children we thought had been volunteered by their parents. When it came to human trials, the same children were brought back in. It wasn’t until much later that I found out every single one of them was on the missing persons register.

The compound we developed enhanced the brain’s function, allowing for things that wouldn’t ordinarily be possible to be possible. It was small things at first, lift an object without touching it, levitate. As the human trials went on the abilities of the children increased until they reached what can only be called magic. Some were able to create something from nothing, others could fly, still others could move through solid objects. The government marked it as a success and began producing the compound. ‘Magic in a jar’ they called it.

It was sold to the highest bidder of course, before the military began producing it for their soldiers. It all went downhill from there. Before long mysterious deaths were occurring in the streets, people were disappearing. It didn’t take much time before people were too afraid to leave their homes. The economy began to collapse, the rich and powerful created their own safe-zone, guarded by enhanced soldiers. The less fortunate were sent to work in the fields, under threat of death or worse. Magic gave them the means to inflict so many different ways of suffering on others. We pursued it as a cure for the many diseases that were destroying us, a way to settle wars without violence. We wanted to make the world a better place, but we only did the opposite.