Witchling (Chronicles of Witchood)

by Genevieve Heart

  I sat back down on my bed and tried not to feel strange about the events that occurred, but it could not be helped.

  I stared at the locked window and wondered what I should do about the situation. Surely, it was one of them, if not both, that came during the night to plant lavender candles and return just before I woke up to take it away. Why anyone would have such dedication or motivation remained unanswered for the time being.

  An idea then occurred to me and I decided to stay awake until one the brothers made an appearance. It was a stupid idea but it was better than nothing. I went over to the window and unlocked it, turned off the lights and waited. But the plan was not a very good one as I instantly fell asleep as soon as I laid my head on my pillow. I didn’t realise how much I craved for sleep. As I drifted off, I thought about Jess’ diagnosis of me. She said I was anaemic, but I didn’t show any signs of it, or did I? Was having recurrent nightmares and seeing things that are borderline supernatural counted as symptoms?

  I drifted off to sleep before I could bring myself to answer the question. Deep down, I already knew the answer, except, I just didn’t want to believe it.

  ~

  Mom forced me to stay home until she felt satisfied that I was ready to return to school, which after three days of not going to classes meant a pile of homework and assignments. Luckily, I had Karen to thank for bringing me the homework and Mr Grimms, despite my initial bad impression, who was lenient enough to give me an extension for the history essay.

  I went back to school on Wednesday. Lydia was still at Karen’s place because her wounds were still healing and she didn’t want to deal with the eyes that will definitely stare at her. Word of the attack had already circled around the school, along with rumors of bears and various other theories. Lydia didn’t remember where she was when the attack happened, which didn’t help in the matter.

  “So are you going to tell me?” Karen asked during lunch. We sat outside on the benches. Some of the boys were on the field practising their throws, but none of them could match up to Ethan or his brothers when it came to looks.

  Karen held a pout on her lips as she demanded I tell her with her sharp blue eyes. I sighed and thought that it was unfair to keep it from her any longer.

  “You know that dream I’ve been having?”

  “Yeah, the one with the blonde man and the ring of salt?”

  “Yeah, the one and only, the man is real. I saw him in the forest. He said his name was Ethan and his brother, well, he wouldn’t tell me his name.”

  “So you’re telling me that you’ve been going into the forest alone to talk to strangers from your dream?”

  “No, it’s not like that.”

  Karen gave me a look that made my thoughts stumble over itself. It was exactly as she said.

  “Alright,” I said, “maybe just once or twice, alright, it was twice. Karen, I’m telling you the truth. His brother, I walked into him on the first day of school, in the hallway after history when we were going to our different second period classes. I think they have something to do with Lydia’s attack, if not, then they must know something about it.”

  “Are you sure those iron pills are working?” Karen asked with uncertainty in her voice.

  “Would I lie to you? Look, we’ve known each other since grade school. You have to trust me that what I tell you is real.”

  “That you’re having dream premonitions? What’s next? You’re going to me skinned alive in the forest on the full moon? This is insane, Amy.”

  “What did you say?” I asked.

  “I said that what you’re saying is insane.”

  “No. Before that, you said something else.”

  “Skinned alive. Premonitions. I don’t know. You’re not the type to believe in the occult stuff anyway, but it’s still fun to read about. You should know this, you’re the one that used to tell me stories about witches and stuff like that.”

  “Witches,” I repeated under my breath. It seemed impossible and yet, the things I have seen and experienced, the possibility of it all did not seem so farfetched as I initially thought it might be. Even my gut feeling didn’t go against the thought and the only retaliation I felt was in my brain trying to fit it in with the knowledge of the world I have.

  Karen bit into her apple and frowned at my entranced expression.

  “Come on, Amy, you can’t possibly believe that it’s true. Look, maybe it’s just the side effects of the anaemia. You know what you need? You know what we all need? A girl’s day out. We haven’t had one of those in a while and maybe it will help Lydia get out of the house again. The attack’s really left her terrified.”

  I didn’t reply.

  “This Saturday,” Karen continued. “We’re going shopping, no matter what, to try on dresses for the Winter Dance.”

  “But that’s ages away.”

  Karen lifted her chin defiantly. “It doesn’t matter. You need to get your mind away from your weird dreams and Lydia needs to get out of the house. You’re not allowed to say no to this, Amelia Ryans.”

  I sighed and agreed. There was no point fighting with Karen when she starts using my full name to speak to me.

  ~

  I headed straight for my laptop when I returned home. I wanted search up stuff about premonitions and dreams. I didn’t know much about it, except through what I’ve read in novels and seen in movies. However, when I went to connect to the internet, the Wi-Fi refused to work.

  “Luke!” I called through the wall. My brother’s sanity depended on his ability to stay connected to the internet and I figure that he might be able to help me.

  “I know!” he called back through the walls. “I’m fixing it now.”

  I stood up and went to his room. I didn’t know what went through his head when he decorated his room with dark posters and kept his curtains closed during daylight hours. It was as if he would rather live in a cave than go anywhere else. Perhaps it was one of those phases. Plastered on his right wall hung a large canvas, its background painted black with acrylic and a white pentagram plastered on top. I remembered reading about the symbol when I was younger. It was used for protection, when drawn in a certain way with certain points pointed in the right direction. An upside down pentagram is supposed to be a symbol for evil, the reverse of all that’s good and orderly.

  “What?” Luke asked as he lifted his face from beneath his computer desk. He was on his knees, amongst a tangle of wires as he tried to figure out what went wrong. “The router’s busted, over heated most likely, because it’s old. The plastic is all melted and twisted, which is weird because they’re not supposed to do that.”

  “So what does that mean?”

  “It means the router is busted,” Luke repeated as if I didn’t understand the first time. “It means we don’t have internet.”

  “Don’t we have an older, not broken one somewhere?”

  “Yeah, we do. It’s probably in the basement.”

  I went with Luke to search for it. Dirty old boxes sat neatly stacked against the wall. Luke puffed out air from his lungs and bit his tongue. I shared the same thoughts with him. It might be easier to just wait until either mom or dads gets home, then go out and buy a new one. The old router could be in any of the boxes and there was at least twenty.

  “Well?” I said and allowed Luke to make the decision. He would be the one to set up everything again and it only seemed fair. My brother chewed his tongue.

  “What if we went and bought a new one ourselves?” he said.

  “And who’s going pay for it?”

  “Claim the money back when mom gets home. If you have enough money to buy new clothes, I’m sure you have enough to get us a new router.”

  “Alright,” I said after some thought. There was no guarantee when mom would come home. She did say she was going to one of friend’s book club meeting and it would be a while before she would be back. As for dad, Wednesday meant drinks night at the pub. While Luke was out, I could always start on dinner
and not waste any time. “Can you take the bike and go by yourself? I’ll give you the money for it.”

  “Sure.”

  We both knew it was faster that way and I didn’t feel like going all the way down to the mall with my brother.

  Luke was quick to leave. From what I guessed, someone on the other side of the country probably relied on him to send war ships or whatever it is he was playing.

  I sighed and opened the fridge. Mom stocked up on chicken and the vegetables compartment filled to the brim. But I felt like something simple and easy, like pasta. The decision did not take long to make and within moments, a pot placed on the stove, along with a good amount of salt in the water. I moved to take out the ingredients from the fridge but stopped with I thought I heard something upstairs.

  I froze and listened. Silence filled the house and the only other sound was the gentle heat against the metallic pot of water. Instincts made me grab the rolling pin. There was something upstairs, except I didn’t know what. It dragged its feet across the carpeted floor. A loud knocking came at the front door. I jumped at the noise and whatever was upstairs fled through an opened window.

  I went and answered the knock, the rolling pin still in my hand, but when I threw open the door, there was no one there. Confused, I took a step outside and looked up and down the street. It was empty, except for the stray sparrow that flew overhead. I didn’t know what to think everything that just happened.

  Upon closing the door, I ran upstairs and found that whatever was inside the house was now gone. It left drag marks on the carpet and nothing else. My window was wide open and I quickly went and pulled it shut. I had left it unlocked to let the air in and for Ethan and his brother, not monsters. I was certain that what was just inside wasn’t one of them, but something else, something sinister and bad. I felt it in my stomach and all thoughts of dinner disappeared as I lost my appetite.

  I turned off the stove, closed every window and waited in the living room for Luke to return. Maybe the creature that was just inside had something to do with the broken router. I wasn’t sure what to think. Perhaps it was trying to lure us out of the house to get inside. My mind instantly drifted towards the boxes in the basement. Perhaps there was something there, something important, hidden away. I sat in the living room and thought about the possibilities that my parents would have some important magical treasure hidden away in their basement. I knew that a chunk of the boxes stored old books – cookbooks, crochet patterns, ancient magazines and old school books from my mom’s teenage years. It wasn’t those boxes the monster wanted, it was something in the others that I didn’t know what was inside.

  I got up and went downstairs again. I walked into the basement and stood in the middle. I closed my eyes and breathed in the dusty air, which only made me sneezed. I tried to sense what was in the boxes, as mad as it seemed, and yet, I knew I could do it. But before I was allowed to fully embrace my weird beliefs, someone pounded his fists against the door again.

  “Coming!” I called.

  It turned out to be Luke. I hadn’t expected him back so quickly but he was. In his hand was a large plastic bag that contained the necessary portal to the internet. I followed him upstairs and to his room, where he proceeded to reconnect the house to the rest of the web. He threw up his hands when it was done.

  I went back downstairs and lingered just outside the basement’s door. Luke came out of his room and passed me on his way to the kitchen.

  “What are you starring at?” he asked.

  “Nothing,” I lied. “What do you think are in all those boxes? Apart from book.”

  “Old stuff no one uses anymore.”

  “Yeah, but what sort of old stuff?”

  Luke shrugged. He knew as much as I did, which was not much help. “Ask dad. He packed it.”

  I continued to stare at the door as Luke went in search for his dinner. I half expected to feel some sort of connection, or pull, or anything that would urge me to believe that there might be something magical in my basement, but what I wanted to feel never materialised. Instead, I felt pulled towards my room, towards my laptop, where the reconnection to the internet now provided a portal to unanswered questions about witches and premonitions.

  “You haven’t made anything,” Luke complained. I snapped out of my thoughts. He stood at the end of the hallway.

  “No. I haven’t.”

  “I’m hungry.” It was obvious that Luke thought we had an understanding that upon his return, there will be something he could take up to his room. He wanted to eat in front of his computer again. I wanted to go upstairs and do my research.

  “Alright,” I said after half a second’s thought. “But I have things to do so you’re going to help me.”

  Luke exhaled and rolled his eyes. He glanced at the clock and judged that I would let him starve if he didn’t help out. I’ve done it before and Luke didn’t want to risk hunger pangs halfway through his game.

  “Fine. What do you want me to do?”

  ~

  When dinner was cooked and ready, Luke and I each took a bowl of pasta and disappeared into our rooms. I sat at my dresser, the laptop in front of me, and my dinner on my left. I surf the net as I ate. I typed premonitions into the search bar.

  A soft tap sounded on my window and when I turned, my heart missed a beat at the sight of the knocker. It was Ethan. He was at my window, outside, on the second storey with nothing to stand on but air. I quickly went and unlocked the bolts. Ethan didn’t wait for an invitation. He climbed inside and stood in my room, tall, proud and handsome. He grinned at me. It was then that I realised I just allowed a stranger into my room.

  “Hello,” he said. His sly eyes danced.

  “How did you do that?” I asked.

  “Do what?” His eyes darted to the computer screen. “Wikipedia? Is that the best you can come up with?” Ethan sauntered over and scrolled through the page. “Well, I guess it’s not all that bad. What do they teach you in school nowadays? Why don’t you hit the library and take out some books? You know, books are much more reliable than the internet, they’re written by humans.”

  “And you’re saying stuff on Wikipedia isn’t written by humans?” I asked. Although he was still a stranger to me, I didn’t feel threatened by his presence. There was something about him, despite his the mischievous light that danced across his face every time he flashed one of his dashing smiles, that he would not hurt me. It was one of those gut feelings that urged me to trust him.

  Ethan must have read my mind. “You know, you trust too easily. You shouldn’t have let me in. For all you know, I can murder you, chew up your flesh and feed it to the sparrow.”

  A mixture of horror and amusement mingled inside me. I didn’t know what to think of his absurd threat.

  “You won’t hurt me,” I said.

  “Still too trusting. And what if you’re wrong?”

  “Oh, I don’t know, I’ll throw salt on you.”

  Ethan rolled his eyes and snorted. “So primitive.” He took up my bowl of pasta and began eating it. “Not bad. Did you make this?”

  “That’s mine.”

  “I’m hungry, and I believe I deserve some sort of payment for keeping you alive since my little brother refuses to even acknowledge my good deeds.”

  “Keep me alive? Good deeds? What are you?”

  “That’s something you don’t want to know.”

  “Well, I’m asking you.”

  Ethan rolled his eyes again. He took my bowl of pasta and sat down on my bed. “Comfy,” he said and grinned. I didn’t want to think what thoughts went through his mind. His expression messed with the rhythm of my heart. To dream of him was one matter, to see him in real life, on my bed and eating pasta was another.

  “So are you going to answer me?” I pressed.

  “Answer you about what? Oh? What am I? I am what I am.”

  “That doesn’t answer anything.”

  “Of course not,” he replied. “That was the whole poi
nt. But come on, it wouldn’t be much fun if I told you. Besides, my little brother wouldn’t like that. He like to appear, you know, hot and mysterious. Isn’t that what you girls are into nowadays? Dark handsome lads from faraway lands who have deep dark secrets and somehow magically falls in love with you at first sight. I can see it, you and my brother. You in some sort of terrible danger and he, coming out of nowhere to save you. How terribly cliché this is starting to sound.”

  Blood rushed to my cheeks with embarrassment. He seemed to have struck a cord and snapped it with his words. Ethan smirked again.

  “Stop it,” I snapped.

  “Stop what?”

  “That eye thing you’re doing.”

  “What eye thing?”

  Ethan lowered his face and his eyes smouldered in the light. The left corner of his lips lifted up into an alluring half smile. The man was temptation dressed as a human. I didn’t know what to do.

  “Stop it,” I told him and turned around. I broke the eye contact but I could still see him in my dressing table mirror. He finished the rest of his pasta and placed it down on my bedside table. Before the awkwardness started to set in, I turned around and continued with my questions. Here was my chance. Ethan was right here in front of me, he was the answer to all my questions and there was no need to go to the forest to search him out. “What are you doing here?” I asked.

  “Keep you safe. Keep you alive. You know, the usual damsel in distress stuff.”

  “What are you talking about? I’m not a damsel in distress.”