The Witch Squad: A Witch Squad Cozy Mystery #1

by M. Z. Andrews

  Jax considered my words for a second and then threw her hands up. “Oh well. I want to make friends here.”

  At the end of the loop we wandered back outside to the courtyard and found the two girls from down the hall that had set off the explosion in their room. The brunette girl was cleaned up. The two of them were arguing as we approached them.

  “All I’m saying is you shouldn’t be doing spells in our room,” Alba snarled at the busty blonde angrily.

  “Well where else am I supposed to do my homework?” Holly asked petulantly.

  Alba sighed and leaned back against the marble picnic table they were standing next to. “I don’t know. The library?”

  “The library isn’t even open yet,” she whined.

  “That’s because we don’t have any homework yet. Classes don’t start until tomorrow, so what are you worrying about?”

  Holly shrugged and threw her hands on her hips. “I’m a slow learner, my parents said I needed to study hard.”

  “Studying hard doesn’t mean doing experiments in our dorm room.”

  I walked towards the girls, hoping to break up the fight between them. “Hey, I’m Mercy,” I said to Alba and stretched my hand out to shake hers. This wasn’t something I’d normally do, introduce myself like this, but I felt like someone needed to stop them from making fools of themselves in the middle of the quad and I’d had a sense earlier that Alba might be a good match for me.

  Alba took one look at my outstretched hand and lifted her nose at it. She crossed her thick arms and turned her back to me.

  Immediately I felt my blood simmering. It was such a rare thing for me to put myself out there like that and to get less than no response – to get a snobbish response, burned my butt.

  Holly turned to me. Her cheeks were flushed red, either from embarrassment or anger over the fight she was having with her roommate. “Hi Mercy, I’m Holly,” she said and tried to reach her hand out to mine. When I didn’t take it right away, Jax grabbed it instead.

  “It’s so nice to meet you Holly. I’m Jax,” she said excitedly.

  I took a moment to really look at the two girls from down the hall. For being so short, Holly was a voluptuous thing. She had enormous boobs that spilled out of her little v-neck t-shirt. She had a slim waist and a badonkadonk that I knew had to have taken quite a bit of magic to get stuffed in those skinny jeans. Her platinum blonde hair had been released from the ponytail she sported earlier and was light and curly around her shoulders. Her flawless makeup complimented her blue eyes perfectly. I quickly decided my hall neighbor was quite the Cosmopolitan girl.

  Alba seemed to be almost the complete opposite. She wore no makeup on her tanned face. Her dark hair and dark eyes gave her an ethnic look, though I couldn’t readily guess what nationality her ancestors might have originated from. She was a thicker girl, or sturdy, as my mother would call her and she was taller than me by about an inch or two and I was 5’10. Her hair was pretty short, cut just below her ears giving her quite the butch chick appearance. While I had originally thought I would enjoy a person like that, I didn’t particularly appreciate being snubbed by one.

  “Hi Jax,” Holly said, shooting me a nervous look while she shook Jax’s hand.

  “Where are you girls from?” Jax asked the two new girls.

  Holly looked up at her roommate. “Umm, I’m from California. Alba, here, is from New York.”

  Alba shot Holly a set of squinted eyes and curled her lip at the girl. “I’m from New Jersey. Get it right.”

  “Oh, sorry, Alba,” she apologized. Then she turned back to Jax and I. “She’s from New Jersey. Where are you girls from?”

  “I’m from all over,” Jax said, using her apparent standard answer. “Mercy’s from Illinois.”

  “Well, it’s nice to meet you both. I think I’m going to go work on cleaning up our room now. I sort of – made a mess in there earlier,” Holly said, but before she could walk away, Alba spun on her heel and walked past Jax and I and back towards our dormitory.

  When she was out of earshot I put a hand aside my mouth and whispered to Jax and Holly, “Well she’s certainly a delight.”

  Holly giggled. “She’s not that bad. She’s just mad because I covered our room with soot.”

  “Yeah, so, what’s up with that?” I asked curiously.

  Holly’s broad smile lit up her blue eyes. “I was reading ahead in our book of incantations. I found one that was a Witch’s Good Luck spell. And well – I’m a little on the klutzy side, so I decided to try it and bless our room. The spell said I was supposed to have a four leaf clover with me, but I didn’t have one, I thought it might work without it. I guess I was wrong.”

  “Oops!” Jax giggled and looked at me with laughter in her eyes.

  “Sounds like the spell didn’t help with that klutzy thing,” I whispered to myself.

  {Chapter Four}

  I had to wear my extra thick Red Hot Chili Peppers hoodie to Intro to Witchcraft the next morning. For some reason I woke up with ripples of chills running up and down my spine and I couldn’t get warm to save my life. Maybe it was just the brisk autumn wind blowing through Aspen Falls or maybe it was ‘the gift’ that just kept giving – sending me a covert signal. I rolled my eyes. Being a witch had yet to be a fun type of gift. The type you’d actually sit on Santa’s lap as a kid and ask to be given. No, it really was more of a curse – and I had always wondered who I’d pissed off in my former life to have been cursed in such a way. Mom always told me that one day I’d appreciate my gift, but as I’d yet to come into all of my powers, I only saw myself as different and in a world where different was uncool, I hadn’t grown my sense of appreciation yet.

  The nice thing about the Paranormal Institute was that classes were small. No big college lecture halls for us. The school touted its small class size, individualized attention, and world class instructors. And to start things off in the right way, apparently, we were given Sorceress Stone as our first teacher of the day. She didn’t look much different than she had the day before, though her dress was grey, not white today, it looked like she’d ordered it from the same Witch Crew catalog, just in a different color.

  “Ladies, I want you to know just how very excited I am to get to be your mentor. The Institute is going to open up a whole new world to you. You’ll be able to do things you’ve never dreamed of doing before coming. Many of you are legacy’s – coming from a long line of witches and wizards before you. But there are a few of you who have received your powers from other sources. To each of you alike, I welcome you. Now, before we begin our first lesson, I thought we should probably get to know one another. So, let’s introduce ourselves and tell a little something about ourselves and if you have an idea of what your specialty might be, feel free to share it. For some, I realize you may not know your specialty yet, and that’s fine. That’s part of what you’ll be doing here at The Institute, we’ll declare major’s by the end of this year! So, let’s start with you,” she said and pointed towards a rather large girl in the front row. I immediately recognized her as the girl who had tried to smile at me when she was unloading her car the day before.

  The girl’s round face reddened, but she stood up and faced the class. “Hello, I’m Mildred Porter, but my friends and family call me Sweets,” she let a little giggle escape. “My specialty is matchmaking. I’ve matched a few people in high school, but I came to The Institute because I’d like to start my own matchmaking business someday. My parents said I needed to go to college first, so here I am!”

  “Ooh, it’s been years since I’ve had someone majoring in matchmaking wandering our halls, how deliciously fun!” Sorceress Stone said, punctuating her excitement by clapping her hands together as I’d seen her do the day before in the assembly. “Do you have a special matchmaking chant that’s been passed down in your family or what’s your ritual for your matchmaking, if you don’t mind me asking.”

  Sweets shook her head. “It’s actually more of a … recipe,
” she shared.

  “A recipe, I see, like a potion?” Sorceress Stone clarified, nodding her head at the class as if we were little children.

  “Mmm, no, more like cupcakes, truffles, ooh, chocolate cheesecake, that’s my favorite.” Sweets’ eyes lit up as she listed some of her favorite recipes.

  “Oh, I see, well that is deliciously fun then, isn’t it!”

  I couldn’t help but join the class in a little chuckle, no matter how much I thought getting to know one another was for the birds.

  “It’s very delicious,” Sweets admitted as she took her seat. “I bake a little love into every treat.”

  “Well, it’s so nice to meet you Sweets, welcome to The Institute. How about you next.”

  I looked up and found the Sorceress’ bony little finger pointed directly at me. Ugh, I hated this part of class. Uneasily, I stood up and adjusted my glasses to sit higher on my nose and pulled my thick zip up sweatshirt tighter around my body as I felt another shiver zip down my spine. “I’m Mercy. I’m from Illinois. My mom is a witch and I am a witch,” I said and then plopped back down in my seat.

  “Whoa whoa whoa, stand back up, Mercy dear,” she drawled. “We’d like to know more about you than that. Heavens we are all witches, dear. How long have you known you were a witch?”

  I took a deep breath and then stood back up again. “I’ve known I was a witch since I was about three. My mom says for awhile she thought I was just talking to imaginary friends, but then when I began to know things I shouldn’t or say certain things, she knew I had to be talking to ghosts. So, yeah. I’ve actually run across other things I can do naturally, you know just here and there over the years, but being able to talk to ghosts was really my first real skill. I have no ability to summon them yet, though. I have no idea what I’ll major in. Talking to ghosts for the rest of my life isn’t exactly on my list of career goals.”

  “That’s a great story, Mercy. I’m so pleased you decided to join us.”

  I sat back down in a huff. I hadn’t decided to join them, the courts had ordered me to join them, but I didn’t intend on sharing that information with these people. I peered hatefully around the room, I detested all those sets of eyes on me. Another shiver ran down my spine and I wondered if maybe I just wasn’t coming down with something. Both my arms and legs were pebbled with goosebumps that wouldn’t go away.

  The Sorceress moved on to the rest of the girls’ introductions.

  I learned that Alba was telekinetic. She came from a long line of telekinetic practitioners and her family ran a furniture moving business in Jersey, where their skills came in handy. She had also recently discovered that she had a touch of mind reading ability, though it only came in and out in spurts, and she hadn’t learned to control it yet.

  Holly, whose natural assets were front and center again this morning, had premonitions. Whether they were through dreams, through touching specific objects, or sometimes she’d even just be struck with a random premonition during the day. She was unable to control most of those premonitions and she wanted to learn to summon those powers at her will. I wanted to add that I suspected she had a few skills as an enchantress as well, but I thought better of it.

  “How about you?” Sorceress Stone’s ice blue eyes rested curiously on Jax.

  Jax sank slightly under the Sorceress’ intent gaze, but stood to face the class as well. She’d toned down the witch look by removing the black hat, but still she wore green striped tights and her pointy black toed boots under a black and green striped dress. “I’m Jax. Umm, I’ve done some conjuring and some potion making. I do just a little bit of everything.”

  Sorceress Stone regarded her for a few seconds longer and then clucked her tongue before moving on to the last few girls in the class. Jax visibly shuddered as the Sorceress walked past her and I immediately got the sensation that Jax was hiding something.

  Before I could give it any thought, the door to our classroom was thrown open and Hobbs, the woman who had greeted my mother and I when we’d checked in the day before walked in and strode directly over to Sorceress Stone. They spoke in hushed whispers for a few brief moments and then the woman left the room. Sorceress Stone moved back to the center of the class and clapped her hands.

  The chills that I’d been having hit even harder and I found myself seated in my desk shaking. Jax turned and looked at me. “Are you alright? You don’t look so good.”

  With my arms wrapped around myself, I rubbed both arms with my hands and nodded, my head shook involuntarily. “I-I-I’m j-j-just c-c-cold,” I stuttered.

  “You’re getting sick, I’m sure of it,” Jax whispered back. “Maybe I should take you to the infirmary.”

  Before I could respond, Sorceress Stone turned to the class again. “Students. We have an emergency situation. Something has happened in town.”

  Whispers broke out across the room.

  “Ladies, please. This is a serious situation. The body of a girl from the local high school has been found dead.”

  Gasps filled the room as I continued to shake. I realized that my shaking likely had something to do with the discovery of a body. My body often times served as a warning shot, telling me when I would be approaching an emergent situation.

  “Girls, I have been summoned to the scene of the crime. Often times the local police will call me to consult on a case of high priority. There have been numerous cases where our paranormal abilities here at The Institute have assisted the Aspen Falls Police Department in finding the culprit in a variety of cases.”

  “What do you want us to do?” I heard Jax’s voice call out to the front of the room.

  The Sorceress took a moment to consider her options silently. Then she looked up at the small class and made up her mind immediately. “You’ll come along.”

  I looked at Jax as my chills began to immediately subside. It was as if a switch had flipped inside of me, my body temperature returned to normal. The goosebumps I hadn’t been able to shake since breakfast began to flatten into my usual smooth flesh.

  “You feeling better?” she asked me in surprise.

  I nodded and whispered back, “Yeah, I feel almost all better, that’s so weird.”

  “Ladies! Did you hear what I said?” Sorceress Stone asked me and Jax pointedly.

  “I’m sorry Sorceress, Mercy wasn’t feeling well, I thought I was going to have to take her to the infirmary for a moment, but she’s suddenly looking better.”

  Our teacher looked down her long thin nose at me for just a moment. “Yes, well, she looks fine to me. Alright, get your things together. We’re taking an impromptu field trip.”

  By the noise from around the room, it was obvious the rest of the students were excited to go.

  “This is a very serious field trip, however. This isn’t pumpkin picking at the local farmer’s patch. This is a serious police investigation. Anyone not treating it as such will be reprimanded and not allowed to go again. You will be there with your eyes and ears only. Your mouths will stay shut – there will be no talking. There will be no asking questions. There will simply be you there, learning about the best way that you, as a paranormal individual, may assist law enforcement in the successful apprehension of a criminal. Are there any questions?”

  Without my knowledge, my hand rose.

  “Yes, Mercy?”

  “What if we see a clue or our abilities perk up in some way that can help?”

  Sorceress Stone’s thin lips curled into a small smile. “Mercy, dear. I’m sure that anything you or the rest of the class picks up on, I will pick up on it as well. If for some reason, I miss something, then you may report back to me when we return to the confines of The Institute. But under no circumstances will you impede a police investigation as a student of my institution. Is that clear?”

  I didn’t know what to say. I hadn’t wanted to ask that question. Something inside of me asked that question without my consent and now she was looking at me as if I were going to be a pain in her bony l
ittle butt.

  “Yes, ma’am,” I finally conceded, as heat filled my cheeks.

  { Chapter Five}

  I felt like a clown in a clown car as the whole class piled out of the school’s old white van on the side of the heavily wooded road. The trees were an amazing assortment of reds, oranges and yellows, but we didn’t get the opportunity to enjoy the colors as we approached the flashing lights on the squad car. The hairs on my arms immediately stood on end as we neared the figure on the ground, draped in a dark colored tarp. It felt as if a force were pulling me closer to her. As if she wanted me to save her. I looked at the other girls and wondered if they felt the same energy drawing us in.

  An officer was standing over her body with a little notepad in his hands. Several other officers were directing the traffic and the one in charge immediately greeted us as we approached the scene.

  “Miss Stone, thank you for coming down here so quickly,” the police officer said, shaking her hand. He eyed the group of us curiously.

  “Detective Whitman, I appreciate you calling us. You know we are willing to help in whatever way we can. I hope you don’t mind, I’ve brought my new group of students. We were in the middle of class when I got word of what had happened. These types of gruesome occurrences don’t happen every day, and I decided I may as well get as many teachable moments out of them as possible.”

  He nodded seriously. “Indeed. Ladies, I will ask you to hang back for now, beyond the tape. Please don’t touch anything at all,” he advised us. “If you’ll follow me, Miss Stone, right this way.”

  Sorceress Stone looked back at us as she followed him quickly over the police tape and into the thick of the investigation. Her eyes spoke volumes and we knew to stay put and stay out of their way.

  “My goodness, this would be a scary place to be killed, I can’t even imagine!” Sweets said with a little drawl apparent in her voice.