Pentonicles: A Tale of Magic and Mystery

By Michael Bandy-Pistory

Pentonicles is the story of Benjamin Banister, a 26 yr old man who has just recently moved into his very own place. Benjamin has struggled all his life with a sense of identity, who he is, who he loves, what he wants to do, and most importantly what he believes in. His mother raised him very strictly on her beliefs, but he can't help but think there’s more to life than meets the eye. All his life he has felt things, and sensed things he couldn't explain. His two closest friends understand his questions, because they are witches themselves. Although Benjamin struggles to accept his gifts, and knack of the craft; in the end he will have to decide whether to let go or to embrace them. There is a dark and tainted history to his new home, and the answer could be fatal for him and his friends; for a dark force with an even darker history has finally been unleashed. Together they must work together to hone their gifts, solve the secrets of the past while battling this a powerful dark force which seems to be hiding among every shadow.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Michael Bandy-Pistory
• Release date: Oct 22, 2012
• ISBN: 9781301902255

Michael Bandy-Pistory

I am 38, and a graduate of the University Of Delaware. I am a self pronounced nerd, who loves to geek out, is entirely far too optimistic, loves to sing, and a romantic at heart that cry's at the end of every film you can possibly name.. I am a Hospitality professional, and dream one day of running my own bed and breakfast with my partner and family, in a quiet beach town where I can spend my days in my loft listening to the waves as i write my next book. I live with my husband Brian and our adopted son Dakota in Newark, Delaware with our four furry companions. I am an avid pet lover, love sports, show tunes, theater, art, and of course writing. Music and Art are the greatest forms of self-expression, and if life could be a Broadway Play I would be a happy man. I believe in living life to the fullest and remaining optimistic even in the harshest forms of adversity. It only takes the slightest glimmer to pierce the darkness.

Book preview

Pentanonicles

A Journey of Magic, Mystery, and Madness

Written: Michael Bandy-Pistory

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2010 Michael Bandy-Pistory

Formatted by eBooksMade4You

Discover other Titles by Michael Bandy-Pistory

Never Die Love

The Amazing Adventures of AJ Snow

* * *

This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard word of this author.

* * *

Dedication

This book is written for the people in my life that have taught me the real meaning of being true to oneself. It is dedicated to the people, who have opened my mind to the world around me. These people not only influence my opinions in this story, but influence the characters as well. Borrowing the gifts, talents and values I have learned and inherited from my friends, and family. It is dedicated to Debbie Fornsworth, my most honest and loyal friend. She has proved to me that together any two people can overcome any obstacle, and that love is the strongest form of magic. It is dedicated to Chris Mercer, who has taught me how to find the inner strength in myself and use it. He has helped me see that kindness and generosity is still existent in this world. It is dedicated to Aaron Blankfield, who helped me begin to express myself not just through actions, but through words; through art. He has helped me realize it is important to take the gifts we are given, and use them to touch the world around us. We are simply a tool, a paintbrush, and the world is our canvas.

This book is also dedicated to my brother Joseph Pistory. May your youth always be your building blocks. Though life has been hard, and the roadblocks continue to come; you continue on with a fist of stone, a heart of gold, and the eyes of a child. Lastly this book is for John pooh Francis, who not only showed me that love is the greatest gift that can be given, but that even the most distant dream is attainable.

You can see Magic however you choose. You can see it as the ability to do extraordinary things unfathomable to the human mind. You can see it as the ability to touch another person with just a passing glance. Or you can see it as I see it. Magic is what you make it, and we are capable of doing whatever we believe in our minds is actually possible. However; our emotions are the strongest forms of Magic. It exists in all you do; you may not even notice it. We are not alone, and Love can never die.

* * *

Table of Contents

Prologue

Chapter 1 The whispers in the wind

Chapter 2 The seer

Chapter 3 Dancing Light

Chapter 4 Opening Doors

Chapter 5 The Guide

Chapter 6 Hollow

Chapter 7 Whispers

Chapter 8 Bleeding Hearts

Chapter 9 Three’s a Crowd

Chapter 10 Awakening

Chapter 11 Locks

Chapter 12 Reflections

Chapter 13 The Girl Without a Picture

Chapter 14 One Space One Time

Chapter 15 Lost

Chapter 16 Tick Tock

Chapter 17 Sophia

Chapter 18 Fading

Chapter 19 Beginnings

Chapter 20 Open House

Chapter 21 Shadow Eyes

Chapter 22 Visitor Without a Past

Chapter 23 Broken Homes and Broken Hearts

Chapter 24 The Witching Hour

Chapter 25 Looking Inward

Chapter 26 Three Witches a Charm

Chapter 27 Shattered Memories

Chapter 28 The Greatest Power

Chapter 29 Dawn

Epilogue

About the Author

* * *

Prologue

To whom it may concern,

Have you ever felt a connection to something you just couldn’t completely understand? Have you ever had the feeling that you were being watched, but when you turned around there wasn’t anything there, and you were just staring down a dark alley. Have you ever felt that you were different? Felt that though you didn’t technically fit in; you were still needed for some particular reason. Have strange things ever happened that you couldn’t explain? Things you saw; you couldn’t just put into words? Don’t worry I’ve been there; and no I’m not just full of questions that are pointless and unanswerable. Actually you already know the answers, if you weren’t afraid to open your mind to the possibilities. I know it’s difficult; I was there, but once you accept it, and realize there is more to this world than meets the eye; it becomes a much more beautiful, more magical place to live. It can be a dangerous one as well. Choose your paths wisely, and never doubt your heart. True power exists in love; never stray from it. One last thing I want to leave you with before you turn the page, and begin my story, Only after the darkest hour will the sun begin to rise.

Yours Truly,

Benjamin Bannister

* * *

Chapter 1

Whispers in the Wind

"Dear Diary,

I can hear them talking to me. The voices in the wind; so soft, so hollow …. Are they really there, these voices; these spirits….. It’s been a long time, why whisper to me tonight … Or is it not a whisper, but a passing gasp.. I do not know, if only I could hear them, if only I could make them out… these silent whispers that call my name… beckoning me into the night … It’s cold.

B.B."

The city lay still as the clock’s bells chime in the distance giving notice to another passing hour. The cold darkness suddenly pierced by a steady flame’s distant glow. The silhouette of a gentleman grows creeping itself along the walls of the distant porch. Slowly he guides the match to the cigarette hanging limply from the corner of his mouth. Nestled gently between his lips he cups his hand around the flame; his face now lit by its eerie glimmer. The gentleman takes a long hard drag of his cigarette, while fanning the match in his other hand until the flame dies out. He inhales the smoke as if it were a nightly ritual. Enjoying it; holding it in his lungs until it almost certainly asks to be released. He exhales, the weight of his thoughts taken away by the clouds of smoke that now encircle him; drifting away on the still but silent breeze, almost certain to return again.

Benjamin Bannister finds himself here again; leaning over the porch looking out over the city, while the breeze sweeps across his face. As always it’s close to midnight now, as if he were waiting for the witching hour to ring true. Standing here; alone, as if the world continued going on around him, passing him by, and he were just some bystander watching the motions. The breeze dies down slightly, and Benjamin takes another drag of his cigarette. Silence, he mutters to himself, The calming of the storm, or do I just need to listen harder. He takes another drag of his cigarette, which has found itself burnt now to the filter leaving almost nothing left but smoldering ash. Benjamin turns to go inside; flicking the cigarette to his left over the balcony. Suddenly; just as his hand grips itself around the door knob, the winds kicks up again stronger than before.

Turning around as if he had just been motioned to by some unseen force, Benjamin listens; yearning to desperately make out the message he knows that’s being given to him. You see; Benjamin has been listening to the winds for more then a few short days. He has listened to them all his life. Benjamin has always seen things differently than everyone else, interpreted things in a different light. The wind wasn’t just gusts of air moving at different rates, but the voices of unseen spirits shouting us warnings, secrets or just a passing hello. Of course Benjamin has never really made out what the voices had to say, but he has had glimpses, believes and always has.

Across the alleyway a woman passes under the streetlight wrapped in her shall and overcoat walking slowly so that her pup can keep up. As Benjamin looks out the pup stops in its tracks; raising its head to look in Ben’s direction. Maxie!, beckons the lady impatiently ready to finish the walk and return to the comfortable confines of her home. Its head turns, and looks her in the eye for just a moment before returning its attention toward Benjamin. The wind brushes across Ben’s face as the ladies hat is swept off her head, and begins to roll down the street. With a silent laugh Ben smiles, imagining invisible ghosts dragging her hat, or little gremlins or perhaps even gnomes keeping it turning with sticks and string. The pup returns its attention to its owner; with Benjamin turning his attention to the golden moon that’s now begun to peak its head behind the clouds that for awhile this evening had covered the sky.

Benjamin sighs; another night, another feeling of emptiness echoing from the inside of his stomach. I know there’s something there. He whispers to himself. Staring out across the alleyway as the moonlight illuminates the streets, and the shadows fall back into the deepest cracks and corners. To Benjamin these aren’t really shadows, but demons waiting to latch onto whoever is hopeless enough to cross their path. Simple shadows whose reflections pit us into darkness. Ben thinks to himself for a moment; trying to remember if he had lit the candles he had placed around the house. For he believes in light there can be no darkness, and in vain; attempts to hide himself from the shadows.

Again the breeze begins to build as Benjamin thinks coldly about these spirits as their too commonly named. As the