Jon cringed. Karyn cringed.
Nothing happened.
"Zoe, freeze," said Karyn.
Zoe did just that, although apparently only from the neck down. "Holy shit, that worked for you!" she exclaimed.
Jon, lifting the device out of Zoe's grasp, asked, "What worked?"
"She wiggled her nose like on 'Bewitched'!" answered Zoe.
Jon turned to Karyn. "You can do that?"
"One of my many talents," answered Karyn with a smile. "But it's never actually worked before. I just thought that I wanted Zoe to not be able to move, and, well, presto."
Jon was examining the screen on the device. "Okay, fortunately, Zoe, you hadn't flipped the switch to choose a nightmare or a fantasy. That meant --" The device suddenly disappeared out of his hands.
"It's gone," said Karyn.
"That's awesome!" exclaimed Zoe. "I gotta practice the nose thing. It's cooler than what I was doing, which was kind of a meditation-type scenario. Hey, maybe we could practice doing magic together, and --"
Jon interrupted, "Before you get too excited, maybe you should think about whether or not this is really what you want."
"Let me think for a second," said Zoe. "Uh, yes, absolutely."
"Okay, maybe I phrased that wrong," said Jon. "Let me put it this way. Karyn has the ability to keep you from moving, obviously."
"Oh, shoot, sorry," blurted Karyn, and wiggled her nose. Zoe experimentally threw her arms out and bounced up and down on her heels, able to move once again.
"How many other people in the world have that ability?" asked Jon rhetorically. "Or worse? And are there a few of them who would want to use an ability to harm you? To harm anyone? Is magic allowing people to get away with murder right now?"
Zoe shook her head. "There's the Rule of Three, so if someone uses magic to do something bad, then something three times as bad will happen to them."
"That's only Wiccan philosophy," said Jon, who recognized it from a book he'd read a while back in an attempt to try to understand his sister better. "We don't know if real magic works that way. It might not." He thought for a moment, and then said, "I think it's time to tell you that longer story. Have a seat."
Zoe sat on the edge of her bed. Karyn sat down next to her.
"Let me go get something from my room," said Jon. "Before I do, ask yourself -- has Karyn always been a busty blonde?" With that, he left the two girls alone.
Zoe turned to Karyn, confused. "Only since you hit puberty, right?" Zoe's eyes widened. "Wait -- did my brother do something to you?"
"I did something to myself," admitted Karyn, looking down at the unfamiliar -- to her -- bulges beneath her sweater.
Jon came back in, looking slightly panicked, and announced, "Karyn, the rock is gone. It's not where I left it."
