**AUTHOR'S NOTE**
Please read the previous parts of A Touch of Magic to understand what is going on in this book before proceeding.
Thank you all so much for waiting. I will admit that I got sidetracked with other stories these past few months, but I also wanted to make sure that I did Penelope justice with my story telling. She is a character near and dear to my heart and I wanted to keep what made Penelope who she is intact.
That said, this part of the story contains elements of the following: bullying, PTSD, dubious consent, group sex, and anal sex.
Enjoy the story! Big props to Todger65 for their editing assistance.
******
It had been two weeks since Penelope had busted David Anderson for taking control of his own mother, sister, and the dancers. News of his arrest and crimes were the talk of the town and even made national headlines. Numerous news reporters had been visiting the school to find out more about the deviant that David was with some degree of success.
"Yeah, he always kept to himself."
"Oh yeah, he was always very weird."
"The fact that he would do something like this is messed up, but not surprising."
"One time, I caught him looking up my skirt."
It was sensationalist journaling at its absolute finest and the public couldn't seem to get enough of it. Penelope made it so David's mother and sister, along with Harper, Brianna & Juliet, would tell authorities that David had forced them at gunpoint, but time would tell if the "discarded gun" excuse would hold up since no evidence of a gun could be located so far.
"During his second appearance in court yesterday, David stuck by his plea of guilty, telling the courts, quote, I am a monster who belongs in the furthest reaches of hell, end quote." The blonde reporter wearing a red blazer spoke into the microphone on TV.
"Jesus Christ. I know that Las Vegas is considered the City of Sin, but even this is something that wasn't on my bingo card when we moved here." Jason took a sip of his coffee as he watched the news.
Stephanie sat next to him at the as she ate a piece of toast. "Hey, it's livelier here than it ever was in Salt Lake. Plus, our nights out are a lot more entertaining than when we lived in Utah."
Just then, Penelope walked into the kitchen with her backpack. Today she opted for an open blue button up shirt with a white tank top and jeans. She grabbed a plate from the cabinet and helped herself to some eggs and toast. As Penelope sat down, she looked at the TV.
"David still telling everyone that's he's a sicko pervert?" Penelope asked.
Jason nodded his head. "Mmhmm, nothing new. Knowing how this story has been unfolding so far, that's probably for the best."
"I had David once in my biology class. He was a quiet kid, but you know what they always say about the quiet kids..." Penelope mused as she took a bite of toast.
Stephanie took issue with this statement. "You know, Nell, it wasn't that long ago that you were not too different from David."
"Mom, even then, I would never force my own family members and other students at my school to have sex with me. I have morals after all. David, from what I'm hearing, had no such thing. Big difference there." Penelope eyed her mom as she took slight offense to what Stephanie said.
"Hmm, you do have a point there." Stephanie nodded her head in agreement.
******
After breakfast, Penelope hopped into her Firebird and made her way to school. As her car sat idly at the stoplight, she decided to see if there were any new developments with his research.
"So Percival, did you find anything else out about what we found on the flash drive?"
In an instant, Percival materialized on the passenger seat next to her. He held a glass of whiskey in his right hand and took a sip from it.
"Well, as I mentioned before, that there gem you found belonged to the creator of the book. Records stated that, over millennia, the gems were all but destroyed. We, of course, know now that ain't the case."
"How about the remote? Any ideas where that came from or how the plans were made?" Penelope tapped the steering wheel as she waited for the light to turn green.
Percival rubbed his forehead with his hand. "Well, I know that whoever created the blueprints clearly had some knowledge about how the gem worked. Now as far as where the plans came from, I'm afraid I don't know much else."
"So there was nothing else on the thumb drive? No email or IP addresses?" Penelope's brow furrowed.
Percival cocked his head and looked at Penelope. "Beg ya pardon, but do what now?"
"You know... email addresses? It's how you send messages online? And IP addresses, that shows you were the message and other person using the computer is from?" Penelope hit the accelerator as the light turned green.
Percival chuckled. "I might be a magical being, but I don't know nothin' about how computers and the internet works."
"Okay... was there anything with numbers interspaced by periods in the files we moved over to the book? Can you find anything like that?" Penelope raised an eyebrow.
Percival smiled gently. "Lemme go check. If I find anything, I'll be sure to let you know any list in that there book."
"Good, and while I'm in school, see if you can't find any books in the library to see how computers and the internet work. If we're going to get to the bottom of this, we need as much knowledge as possible." Penelope said as her car pulled into the school parking lot.
"Say no more! I won't let you down." With that, Percival vanished from the passenger seat of the vehicle as Penelope parked her car outside of the school.
******
Throughout most of the school day, life was uneventful; Today was the first day that the three girls had returned to class, and they kept mostly to themselves. In fact, since Penelope had obtained the book, it was probably the quietest week of school she had experience thus far.
During her last period study hall class in the library, Penelope was sitting at her usual table, going over homework from her physics class when Percival materialized on the chair to her right with a big smile on his face.
Penelope looked up from her homework and whispered. "And what are you so happy about?"
"Not only do I understand computers and the internet now, but I might've figured out who sent those blueprints to our boy, David!" Percival leaned back in the chair and folded his arms.
Placing her homework inside the folder of her trapper keeper, Penelope retrieved the spell book from inside of her backpack and opened it in front of her. "Put everything you found out in here and let me look it over."
The words on the pages in the spell book shifted and morphed before Penelope's eyes, it was apparent to her that Percival did, indeed, now understand how the internet, email and IP addresses worked.
"As you can see here, it looks like our boy, David, got the blueprints from someone based out of Limassol, Cyprus. Upon further investigation, I was able to zero in on the individual who this IP address belongs to: one Constantino Toufexis." Percival said proudly.
He continued. "Turns out our friend here is somewhat of an engineer. Real genius type, I reckon, if his resume is to believed. Apparently, he used to work with the Cypriot Government before starting his own private company. Nowadays, instead of working on things like government infrastructure security, he's now working as a freelance IT consultant of sorts and makin' a pretty penny doin' so, I might add."
Penelope was at a loss for words. She wasn't expecting this much information from Percival and had clearly underestimated his abilities.
"You are amazing, Percival!" She smiled brightly as she whispered. Then she was struck with another realization and her smile almost immediately vanished.
"Wait, he's halfway around the world and we need to get information from him. I also highly doubt he'd give up anything to us online..." Her voice trailed off.
Percival, however, planned for this. "And I know just a way to do so. I think you're proficient enough with the book that it's time for you to learn one of the most advanced spells the book has to offer."
"And what might that be?" Penelope raised an eyebrow.
Percival smirked. "It's a spell that allows you to go anywhere instantly."
"Oh, so like... teleportation?" She pursed her lips.
"Well, that's not what the book calls it, but what the hell, let's just refer to it as teleportation. Although you might want to eat a big meal before doing this spell. It's going to wear you out after a couple of uses." Percival chuckled.
"That sounds... complicated." Penelope said apprehensively.
Percival nodded. "Oh, it most certainly is. In fact, when you first try it out, you might find yourself in the middle of the ocean or, if you're not careful, inside of a volcano. Plus, we don't know what Constantino is capable of."
Penelope's face darkened. "Oh, that's not good. Maybe I should think about it."
"Of course, Miss Forrester. Let me know what you decide, and we'll take it from there. Percival gently smiled.
As Percival vanished, Liam Peterson emerged from the bookcases, much like he did a couple weeks ago and wearing a Bass Pro Shop t-shirt. This time, however, it wasn't because he saw a chair magically moving.
"Hey, uh... Penelope?" Liam asked her.
Penelope had a deer-in-the-headlights look and responded nervously. "Oh hey, Liam, right? What's up?"
"Is it cool if I talk to you for a couple of minutes? I just have some questions that have been kind of... bothering me." Liam scratched his arm as he looked away from her.
"Uh... sure, have a seat." Penelope extended her hand to the empty chair to her right. Liam proceeded to sit down and folded his hands in front of him.
"Thanks. Hey, so I've got some questions about Brianna and, well, I kind of wanted to hear you out." He stated plainly.
A cold feeling shot through Penelope. She began to wonder if Briana had said something to Liam about what had happened between the two.
