by Celeste Hall
Then all four girls screamed as Judy slammed on the brakes and yanked hard on the steering wheel to avoid hitting it.
The car fishtailed for a moment, threatening to abandon the road and send them crashing through the heavy underbrush that choked right up against the edge of the asphalt on either side. But Judy managed to regain control and pull them to a screeching halt.
For a moment, none of them could speak.
Liz had to pry white knuckled hands out of the leather seat to brush the bangs from her eyes and look around to assure that everyone was alive and safe.
“What was that?” Karen gasped, still trying to catch her breath.
“I don’t know,” Judy answered shakily. “It was small and moved really fast. I don’t think that we hit it, but maybe we should get out and look?”
Liz was struggling to catch her breath, she wasn’t sure if she trusted her legs to hold her. But the mental image of a small and wounded animal somewhere on the road behind them drove her to move.
“I’ll go check.”
Beth instantly reached out to grab her arm. Her face was ghastly pale, making her eyes look huge.
“Wait, I don’t think you should go out there alone.”
Liz frowned and looked out of the window. Despite the growing shadows of dusk, there was still enough light for her to see clearly in every direction. She couldn’t see anything that might look dangerous.
“Why not?”
Beth looked a little sheepish, but that didn't stop her from confessing.
"What if it wasn't an animal? It was so pale and it moved so fast, like it didn't even touch the ground."
"You think it was a ghost?" Judy suggested without her usual pessimism.
"You're all just spooked because we were talking about those poor men from the mill," Liz argued, but she felt a chill creeping along her spine.
"Maybe I should go with you," Beth suggested, but she was looking out the window the way someone might approach a haunted house.
"Stay in the car," Liz directed with her best attempt at a smile. "I'm sure that whatever it was, it's probably long gone already."
Before her friend could argue the need to search at all, Liz flipped the door handle and scooted out into the cold October evening.
Three wide-eyed faces watched her from the relative safety of the car, as she began to walk back down the road towards the place where they'd seen the creature emerge.
A wintery breeze rustled through the overgrown grass and shrubs that lined the street, making it seem as though a horde of tiny creatures might be sneaking along, following her progress.
At last she reached the spot where she thought the pale figure had appeared.
There was no fur or blood on the street. No sound of a creature thrashing around in the brush. But she looked a little closer just to be sure, then crossed to check the other side of the road as well.
Just as she was turning to walk back to the car, she heard it. A deep gravely sound that almost could have been a human moaning.
An icy blast of fear raced through her veins and temporarily froze her feet to the earth. Every horror show that Judy had ever dragged her to flashed through her mind, stirring up unwelcome visions of long teeth and razor-sharp claws.
Liz had to force herself to remember that Beth and the others were watching her from the car and would come running if anything terrible jumped out of the bushes to attack her. Although that hadn’t always helped the people in those horror shows.
She had just about talked herself into returning to the car and forgetting this madness. Then the sound came again and this time she recognized that it was a low and hesitant meow.
There wasn’t a monster hiding in the brush, only a frightened cat.
The realization brought a warm wash of relief.
“Here kitty, kitty…” she called softly, hoping that the poor feline wasn’t badly injured.
The cat meowed again, helping her pinpoint where the sound was coming from. Crouching, so as not to frighten the little animal, she moved in that direction, searching the shadows for where it might be hiding.
Then the grass parted and an unexpectedly large gray form peered out at her.
“Oh my, you’re a big little guy, aren’t you?” She offered in a soothing voice. “And what pretty blue eyes you have. Can I pet you, pretty boy? Here kitty, kitty…”
She continued to speak in a soft sing-song voice as she approached the cat. They were quite a distance from the nearest house, so he was likely someone’s pet that had gone feral or become lost.
As she drew close enough to touch him, the feline appeared to make up its mind and stepped boldly out onto the road to meet her. He held his tail tall and jaunty as he offered her a much friendlier meow.
“Good boy,” she praised in delight, gently stroking her hands over his body to check for any injuries. But the cat appeared to be very healthy and in beautiful shape.
“Can I pick you up?” She asked, carefully sliding her hands lower to support his surprisingly large figure. Feral cats often became nervous about getting picked up, but the big grey fellow just leaned into her arms and braced himself against her chest.
Blinking dark sapphire eyes up at her, he began a gravelly purr that delighted her.
“Such a sweet boy,” she smiled. “Would you like to come home with me?”
As if he understood and approved, the purring grew louder. She only hoped that her waiting friends didn’t mind.
A Circle of Thirteen
By the time the girls reached Mary’s house, they were once more in high spirits.
The big gray tomcat showed no fear for being enclosed in a moving vehicle. In fact, he almost made a nuisance out of himself, exploring each of the bags that Beth had prepared until she started to complain.
“He’s going to get cat hair all over my spell ingredients,” she moaned. “Don’t blame me if you end up growing whiskers on your chin or fur on your ears. You can blame your silly love affair with all things feline.”
Liz decided that was a pretty good threat and quickly pulled the cat up onto her lap.
Mary came running out of the house the moment they pulled into her driveway.
"You're late," she complained as Beth and Liz scooted over to make room for her on the back seat. "What took you so long?"
"Liz had to stop and pick up a stray cat," Judy replied with a smirk.
"Only after you nearly hit him with your car," Liz returned without any malice.
If nothing else came of this evening, she was glad that she'd found the feline. He was quite friendly and responsive, for a cat. Whenever she spoke to him, he would look right at her with those incredible blue eyes and blink or meow, as if he were fascinated by what she had to say.
"Typical Liz," Mary teased. "You better hurry, Judy. The rest of the girls will be waiting for us."
Sure enough, when they finally made it to the meadow beyond the lumber mill, they were met by some very anxious friends.
"You're late!" Bev pointed out, and Judy was again quick to blame it on Liz's need to rescue everything and anything that purred.
This time, Liz just made a face at the other girl.
"Do you think I should lock him in the car?"
"Heavens no!" Judy yelped in answer. "If he makes a mess in there, my parents will never loan it to me again. You'll just have to hold him."
"Or you could just let him go," Bev recommended. "I mean, he's only a stray, right?"
Liz frowned.
"Not anymore," she declared. "He belongs to me now."
The big tom offered one of his gravely meows, as if to emphasis her claim.
"And we all hope that you're very happy together," Mary teased, "but I'm going to need something more than a cat to warm my bed. So can we please get on with the ritual?"
"Yes!" Beth eagerly agreed. "Everyone not holding a cat, please help carry bags and start gathering wood for the fire."
As if sensing the excitement in the air, the cat
began to squirm, putting up such a fuss Liz was forced to let him go. But instead of dashing away into the trees, as she’d expected him to do, the feline stayed close to her side.
“There you go,” Bev gestured towards the cat and then the car. “Now you have free hands to help out.”
It didn't take long before the girls had a roaring bonfire built within a large pit in the center of the meadow.
Liz could see from the layers of ash in the pit that the girls had done this many times before.
What she hadn't expected was the enormous cauldron that was unloaded from the trunk of Betty's car, along with an old wooden chest that had strange symbols carved all over its surface.
"It's an altar," Beth explained when she saw Liz studying it. "Each of us have a small personal one that we use at home and store all of our tools in, but we use this larger one for group rituals."
"What sorts of tools?" Liz asked, imagining Ouija boards and voodoo dolls. There was a lot that she didn't know about witchcraft.
“Wands, bells, feathers, we use all sorts of things. It just depends on what sort of spell or ritual we might be performing,” Beth offered a huge smile. “You’ll see a few of them tonight. Then, if you decide you want to join us more permanently, I’ll help you make your own.”
She pulled a small stack of index cards from her pocket, each of them covered in carefully written directions. At the top of each card was a girl’s name and several included one of the four elements; air, fire, water and earth.
“Could you pass these out for me while I set up the candles?”
“Of course,” Liz assured her. Yet as she handed out the cards, she found herself entranced by the preparations going on around her.
The thick white candles that Beth was setting up at strategic points around the bonfire smelled amazing and looked as if they’d been handmade. Each was inscribed, but Liz was too far away to see what they said.
“Come over here, Liz,” Karen instructed. “We need to cast the circle.”
She did as her friend instructed, walking to join the girls that were standing just outside of the large ring that Beth had created with the candles.
Beth picked up an intricately carved staff that had been placed beside the altar near the center of her circle, beside the bonfire. She carried it out to where the other girls were standing.
“The circle is now to be cast. Let all those who enter here do so in perfect love and in perfect trust,” the blonde intoned in a warm voice. She then lowered one end of the staff and began to drag it in a large circle that spanned all of the tools and candles they’d carefully laid out.
Then she returned the staff to its place beside the altar and collected a smaller candle from among those placed on and around the altar. She lit the candle with a burning twig from the fire and carried it to the eastern edge of the circle, where the first of the large inscribed candles was seated.
As she lit the candle, Beth solemnly chanted, “Guardians of the East, I call upon you to watch over the rites of our coven. Powers of knowledge and wisdom, guided by Air, we ask that you keep watch over us tonight within this circle. Let all who enter the circle under your guidance do so in perfect love and perfect trust.”
Then she circled around to the southern candle and lit it while saying, “Guardians of the South, I call upon you to watch over the rites of this secret coven. Powers of energy and will, guided by Fire, we ask that you keep watch over us tonight within this circle. Let all who enter the circle under your guidance do so in perfect love and perfect trust.”
She then circled to the west.
“Guardians of the West, I call upon you to watch over the rites of this secret coven. Powers of passion and emotion, guided by Water, we ask that you keep watch over us tonight within this circle. Let all who enter the circle under your guidance do so in perfect love and perfect trust.”
And finally to the north.
“Guardians of the North, I call upon you to watch over the rites of this secret coven. Powers of endurance and strength, guided by Earth, we ask that you keep watch over us tonight within this circle. Let all who enter the circle under your guidance do so in perfect love and perfect trust.”
Beth then returned to the east, standing just inside the circle and facing her friends.
“The circle has been cast, enter now embraced by the light and love of the Goddess.”
Liz hesitated, because only Bev stepped towards the edge of the circle to meet Beth.
“How do you enter the circle?” Beth asked the girl.
“In perfect love and perfect trust,” Bev answered.
When Beth gave a slight nod, Bev stepped over the ring drawn into the ground and went to stand on the other side of the bonfire. Almost immediately the next girl stepped up to present herself and each of them walked to a different place within the circle after they’d been accepted.
This continued until only Karen and Liz stood outside of the ring.
“When you enter, just walk over to stand beside the altar,” Karen guided with a gentle smile. “Once you’ve been initiated, we’ll assign you a role in the ritual. For now you can just stand by Beth and watch how everything is done.”
As her turn came to enter, Liz hesitated, glancing down at the cat near her feet. Yet before she could decide what must be done with him, the grey tom turned and walked several feet away. Tail lashing, he seated himself and peered back at her with slightly narrowed eyes.
Could he sense the magic in that ring drawn into the ground? Liz had always heard that cats were particularly sensitive to paranormal energy.
Whatever his reasons, she was relieved as she stepped forward to present herself as the others had done.
A Twist of Fate
"Mary is riding home with Donna," Beth told Liz as they collected half melted candles and scattered herb pouches. "They're having a slumber party at her house tonight, if you'd like to go."
"I think I'd rather go home and get some sleep," Liz told her, checking to make sure that her feline shadow was staying close by. "Plus, I want to settle this big guy into his new home."
Beth rolled her eyes at the cat, then stole a curious glance at her friend.
"What did you think of the ritual?"
"It was so beautiful," Liz answered with an honest smile. "But I wasn't sure if I understood the part about power and magic filling the town of Aspire and creating an invisible beacon to summon strangers?"
"To summon the good hearted and handsome strangers, like he who offered this token." Beth corrected and finished for her. "Now you can see why I was so eager to swipe his napkin from the trash."
"Not really," Liz admitted.
"Basically, we cast a big spell to bring us some real men," Bev piped up from nearby. "You may not have noticed, but its slim pickings around here. Most eligible bachelors are in a hurry to move away. What is a good witch to do?"
"Really? You can do that?"
"We just did," Bev laughed.
"So will you join us? We could do so much more with a full coven of thirteen."
"I'd love to," Liz assured her. "But I feel like there is so much for me to learn."
"Don't worry," Beth assured her. "We'll teach you. I'll come pick you up tomorrow and we can get started making some of the basic tools you'll need."
Once their circle was cleared and everything was packed back into the cars, the girls headed home.
It was late when they reached Liz's house, long past her usual midnight curfew, but her parents were already in bed.
Carrying the big tomcat with her, she crept quietly down the hall and into her bedroom. There she place her new pet on the bed and quickly changed into her night gown.
It made her chuckle when the cat looked away as she began to undress.
"Such a gentleman," she cooed, giving him an affectionate rub behind one ear.
To her surprise, he slipped out from beneath her hand and jumped to the floor. There he began to pace back and forth making a strange mumbling sound
that wasn't really a meow and miles from being a purr.
He reminded her of her father when her came home from work with a problem that he couldn't quite work out in his head.
"What's the matter pretty boy? Are you hungry?" He'd probably been hunting in those woods when they'd found him. There was no way for her to guess when the last time he might have had a good meal. "Wait here, I'll go see what I can find in the kitchen for you."
The cat flashed sapphire eyes at her with almost an air of desperation. Then he made a very unhappy yowl and darted for the partially open door of her closet.
"Oh no!" She gasped, realizing it might be another problem entirely. She didn't really want him using any of her favorite shoes as a toilet.
Throwing the door wide, she started to reach for him. Then jerked her hands back to stifle the horrified gasp that emptied her lungs and left her no air to scream with. His lithe little body was stretching and growing, as if something very large was attempting to escape.
Thick muscles coiled and flexed as bones shifted and relocated themselves beneath his glossy coat. Then the fur began to fade, as if it had only been an illusion, exposing smooth human skin underneath.
He straightened onto hind legs that now resembled very human feet, and she realized that he'd grown to stand a full head and shoulders taller than her.
The whole impossible event must have taken only a few seconds, but to Liz it felt as if the entire world stood still. She was trapped within a surreal place. Perhaps a nightmare inspired by the magic ritual that she and her friends had performed earlier, although she couldn't remember falling asleep.
As she watched, he grabbed one of her dresses from a nearby hanger and wrapped it around his waist. Then he turned and she received her second shock of the evening.
"Johnny?" She gaped, looking up into the dark blue eyes of the stranger from the drive-in.
"Hi," he answered with a wolfish grin that made her feel as if she were the one standing in the closet holding nothing but a rumpled handful of dress over her naughty bits.
Her cheeks turned pink as she took a hesitant step backwards. But he followed, catching her fingertips in his free hand to prevent her from escaping.