How to Date a Witch

by Rose Pressey

  Chapter 20

  How to Date a Witch Rule #20

  Don’t call her pentacle necklace ‘star jewelry’

  As I flipped through the pages, I confirmed that this was some sort of spell book. I also realized even without knowing the language that it was from the country where the witch who had cursed my family had lived. It was the small place where it had all started. There had to be a connection. The glowing-eyed witch had something to do with the curse that was originally placed on my family. In order to make it stop I had to know more. The curse was gone, so why would this be happening now? I didn’t know what to do with this book, but I’d try to figure out what exactly it meant and then go from there.

  I’d just closed the cover when the furniture started moving. It was as if the walls rattled and the whole house shook. Was this an earthquake? Things fell from the walls and off the shelves. As I tried to run for the door I fell to the floor. I wanted to get out of there before something fell on top of me, but it was too late. All of a sudden the bookcase toppled over and hit me on the back. I was stuck in the apartment with it still shaking. I tried to scoot my way out from under the bookcase, but it wouldn’t budge. I was sure that this thing was going to smother me to death. How long before Jennifer came home? I didn’t even have my cell phone. I could see it where it had landed on the floor, but I couldn’t reach it.

  As I reached for the phone a shooting pain ran through my shoulder. I must have twisted it somehow when I fell. Getting the phone now was impossible. I would have to wait here until someone discovered me. What if that never happened? The house was still shaking. I knew that this wasn’t normal. Did it have something to do with the witch? In the distance I thought I heard a cackling. It sounded just like the witch’s laugh. I had a feeling that she was doing this to me. This was probably when she was going to kill me.

  Finally, the shaking stopped. The door burst open.

  “What the hell is going on in here?”

  “Lily, is that you?” I asked.

  “Yes, it’s me, Rylie, what are you doing?” Lily reached down and shoved the book case off of my back.

  I told you she was strong. Lily helped me to a sitting position.

  “Thank goodness you came.” I brushed the hair from my eyes. “I was stuck under there. It must’ve been an earthquake. Did you feel it?”

  “There was no earthquake, numbnuts,” she snapped.

  “Then it had to be that witch. She’s after me. We should get out before she comes in here to get us.” I tried to stand but fell again.

  Lily shook her head. “You shouldn’t be afraid of her. That’s one of your problems. If she knows you’re fearful it only helps her.”

  “It’s kind of hard not to be scared, don’t you think? I mean, she is the most powerful witch around.”

  “Well, in my opinion she’s not so tough,” Lily said. “Come on, let me get you up.”

  Lily helped me to my feet. My arm still hurt, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought. It must have just been in my panicked state of mind that I figured it was permanently damaged. I grabbed my phone, and then the book.

  “This is the book that I found at the cemetery. It’s the witch’s.”

  Lily took it from me.

  “It’s like a spell book of some kind, but I can’t read the words.”

  “What difference does it make anyway?” She tossed it back at me.

  I managed to catch the book before it hit the ground. Just then Jennifer appeared in the doorway. Her eyes widened and her mouth dropped open.

  “Lily, what have you done?” She rushed over.

  Lily stomped over to Jennifer and waved her finger. “What makes you think I did this? You’d better apologize to me right now.”

  I stepped between the two of them before they started throwing punches and pulling hair. “Now is not the time to fight. I think the witch did this. It must’ve been a spell. If we don’t get out of here she’ll probably do it again.”

  “Where will we go?” Jennifer asked.

  “You can’t keep running from her,” Lily said. “She’ll just find you, no matter where you go.”

  Sadly, I knew that Lily was right. I had to find a way to stop the witch or else she would just continue to cast spells until it finally killed me.

  “What’s that?” Jennifer pointed.

  “I think it’s the witch’s spell book but I’m not sure because it’s in a different language. I need someone to tell me what it is.”

  Jennifer took the book. “Let’s take the book over to the witchcraft shop and see if the shop owner can give you any information about it.”

  “I can drive.” Lily held up her hand.

  “You don’t have a car,” I said.

  “I’ll drive Jennifer’s.”

  “Not a chance in hell,” Jennifer said.

  “Whatever, I guess I can still go with y’all,” Lily said.

  Of course I hadn’t invited her, but after she’d saved me, I pretty much owed her a lot. I just couldn’t let her know because she would never let me hear the end of it. I would have to do little things for her here and there secretly, so she wouldn’t know what I was up to.

  When we arrived at the shop we marched inside with the book tightly in my arms. I was on alert for the witch because I knew she probably realized I had her belongings. The woman looked a little disappointed that it was me again. I hurried over to her and set the book down on the counter. “Please, can you help me figure out what this book means?”

  She peered down at the cover. Her eyes widened. “I don’t know. I don’t think I can help you.” She waved her arms.

  “Just look at it,” I said, opening the cover and pointing to the pages. “I don’t understand what this says.”

  Reluctantly she looked down at the words. She paused for a moment, and then she said, “Yes, it is a spell book, and it’s for the powerful witch. These are very old spells and they can cause a lot of harm. I really don’t even want to look at this. I don’t want it in my shop. How did you get this?”

  “I found it,” I said.

  Which wasn’t a lie. I had found it. I’d just taken it knowing that it was the powerful witch’s. Maybe I should have just left it under the tree.

  “Can you tell me anything else about it?” I asked.

  She waved her hands again. “No, I don’t know anything else about it. I just know that I don’t want anything to do with it. Can you kindly take that out of my shop now?” She stared at me.

  “What is your problem?” Lily asked, placing her hands on her hips.

  I snatched up the book and grabbed Lily’s arm, taking her out of the shop. I didn’t want her causing any more trouble. The last thing I needed was for Lily to get in a fight with the witch. She would never help me again if Lily opened her mouth.

  “Kindly take your hands off me,” Lily said, yanking her arm away.

  “Lily, we can’t argue with that woman. I might need her to help me with this witchcraft stuff.”

  “Well, she shouldn’t be so rude and mean to the customers.”

  “Technically I wasn’t a customer. I wasn’t buying anything. I just wanted her to help me.”

  “Perhaps you should buy something and then maybe she would help,” Lily said.

  Jennifer nodded. “Lily does have a point.”

  “I bought that stuff to begin with,” I said.

  “Yeah, but maybe that’s not enough,” Jennifer said.

  We got into Jennifer’s car and sat there for a few moments. I didn’t know what to do next. I had the witch’s spell book, but beyond that, I didn’t know what I was holding in my arms. We pulled away from the curb and headed around the block. I really didn’t want to go home right now because I figured that witch was there looking for me. Maybe I should just take the book back to where I found it, although that wouldn’t make the witch leave me alone. She had been after me from the beginning. The fact that I had the spell book was just extra bubbles on top of the cauldron.
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br />   “I know what you should do,” Lily said as she leaned forward from the backseat.

  “Oh, yeah, what’s that?” I asked.

  “We should do some of these spells that are in the book. I bet you that would work to get rid of her.”

  “How can we even do the spells? We don’t know what they say.”

  “Oh, that’s just a minor detail.” Lily waved her hand. “We can figure it out. I bet I can decipher what the ingredients are.”

  “It doesn’t matter if you know what the ingredients are. How do we know that it’s not something we shouldn’t be doing? It could be something really bad and we could unleash some sort of demon or something for all I know. No, I think it’s better that we just leave the book alone.”

  “Where did you get this thing anyway?” Lily asked.

  “I found it under a tree,” I said.

  She looked at me skeptically.

  I held my hand up. “It’s the truth.”

  Chapter 21

  How to Date a Witch Rule #21

  Don’t break her crystal ball

  Jennifer, Lily, and I had gathered to cast a spell from the book. I wasn’t sure how I’d been convinced to go along with this plan, but Lily had an odd way of charming everyone. I knew that was hard to believe. She was like a snake charming a mouse. It was painful to watch, but somehow everyone ended up going along with her in the end. Anyway, we were gathered by the river. We figured maybe the energy from the water would help. I was pretty sure we had no clue what we were doing, and this would probably backfire on us. We would regret it, but nevertheless, we were doing it.

  “That’s not the way that you do the spell,” Lily barked.

  “How do you know, Lily?” I asked.

  “Because I just know these things. I’m smart,” she said, placing her hands on her hips.

  “About as smart as a garden tool,” I said.

  Lily narrowed her eyes and shook her fist.

  “Okay, enough of the bickering.” Jennifer waved her arms. “Let’s get this over with so.”

  “Don’t you be so bossy,” Lily warned.

  We gathered around the book. Lily motioned for us to stand next to her and we all held hands, forming a circle around the book. It felt like something we should do, but nowhere in the book did it say this was what we were supposed to do. In fact, we had no clue what it said. Lily had managed to figure out what some of the words were. I gave her credit for that. At least that was what she claimed. Should I really trust her?

  We picked out a spell that we thought would offer some sort of additional powers to us, but since we weren’t witches I wasn’t sure that that would even work. So now we were chanting the words to the spell. I was trying to concentrate, hoping that would make it stick better. Nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary, so there wasn’t any indication that this was actually working. Nevertheless, we kept it up. How long we would keep it up? I was already getting tired and ready to give up. I didn’t want to be the first one to give up though, so I continued to push through it.

  Finally, Lily was the first one to say, “Okay, that’s enough. I think we got this.”

  “How can you be sure?” Jennifer asked.

  “What? I just can, okay?” Lily said with her usual sassy tone. “Besides, I’m tired of holding your sweaty hands.”

  “My hands are not sweaty.” Jennifer wagged her finger in Lily’s face.

  Lily growled at Jennifer, which made her move her hand quickly, away thinking that Lily was going to bite it. I would never let that happen.

  “Lily, behave,” I said. “We have to have positive energy for this to work and all this bickering is definitely not positive.”

  “I hope it works,” Jennifer said.

  “How will we know?” I asked.

  “We just will,” Lily said.

  Just then, a popping and crackling noise caught our attention. When I looked down at the book, I realized that it was on fire. Actual flames were coming from the book. Jennifer screamed and surprisingly so did Lily. I’d never heard her make that kind of noise. So she was afraid of something after all. I screamed too. We jumped away from the flaming book.

  “How did that happen?” Lily asked, almost tumbling to the ground.

  I didn’t know how it had happened. All I knew was I had to put out the fire. This was definitely not good. Not only had I stolen the witch’s book, but now I had set it on fire. There was no way I could explain that one away. Now I couldn’t even take the book back if I wanted to.

  “You’ve got to put out the fire,” Lily screamed.

  I was still panicking, not knowing what to do next. All I did was stand there and stare at the flaming book. Lily ran over and jumped on top of the book, putting out the flames with her sneaker-covered feet.

  “There,” she said when the flames were out.

  The thing was still smoking.

  “Thanks,” I said.

  “I guess I have to do everything around here,” Lily clapped her hands together as if getting rid of dirt.

  Apparently this was one time when she was right about having to do everything because I’d had no idea what to do to put it out. It was like I’d freaked out and couldn’t think straight. All I could worry about was that I would never be able to take the book back to the witch and now she would be furious.

  Jennifer stared at the charred tome. She was speechless.

  “Wow, you’re really in trouble now,” Lily said with a click of her tongue.

  “Thanks for reminding me,” I said.

  She pushed the hair out of her eyes. “No problem. I don’t know what you’re going to do now.”

  “I don’t either, but don’t make me feel even worse.”

  “How did it even happen?” Jennifer asked, regaining her ability to talk.

  “Must’ve been something you did wrong.” Lily smirked.

  “Me? Why does it have to be me?” I asked. “Maybe it was something you did wrong. You’re the one who broke the spell first. You stopped chanting the words before we did.”

  Lily glared at us. I knew she was fuming and plotting which insults to hurl my way.

  “Now what do I do with the book?” I peered down at it. “I can’t take it back, and if that witch sees this, I don’t know what she’ll do.”

  Lily reached down and picked up what remained of the book. She walked over to the water, pulled her arm back, and then tossed the book into the water. It landed with a splash.

  “Why did you do that?” I yelled as I ran over to the railing and peered down.

  “We had to get rid of the thing so that the witch won’t find it. If she sees it burnt up like that she’ll be mad.”

  “Yes, but now it’s gone, and I can never get it back.” The book floated away.

  “So you were going to give it back to her in that condition?” Lily asked.

  I sighed. “No, I suppose not.”

  “Then you’re welcome,” Lily said. “The least you could do was to say you appreciate what I did.”

  How could I do that? I ended up just staring at her.

  “Oh, I see how it is. I help you and then I don’t even get credit for the good things I do.”

  I released a deep breath and then said, “Fine, thank you, Lily.”

  Having her come along was way more stress than it was worth.

  “You need to leave my best friend alone,” Jennifer said, pointing at Lily.

  Oh, no. This was not good. Maybe I should get them away from the water before Lily tried to push Jennifer in. I wouldn’t put it past Lily at all to try something like that. I stepped between the women. I tried to break up their fighting as they pointed at each other and yelled.

  “What seems to be the problem here?” A police officer walked over to us.

  I could easily see Lily being dragged away to jail at any moment. She wouldn’t know how to bite her tongue and keep her mouth shut around the police. She would probably insult him too.

  Lily slowly turned and faced the o
fficer. All of a sudden she smiled. “Everything’s just fine, Officer. Thank you.”

  He gave her a confused look and then turned to Jennifer.

  “Yes, everything’s fine, Officer,” Jennifer said in the same sweet tone.

  I supposed since they apologized I had to as well. I repeated after Jennifer and Lily with my saccharine voice. He didn’t look as if he believed any of us.

  Chapter 22

  How to Date a Witch Rule #22

  Don’t break her magic wand.

  The next day I decided to go back to the building where the motorcycle guy lived. Well, at least, where he had lived until he’d just decided to take off. Jack was due home this evening and I was looking forward to seeing him again. Things had been so chaotic since he’d left. Maybe he would be a good-luck charm and things would be back to normal with him around.

  After reaching the building, I walked up the steps and into the lobby area. A woman had been leaving as I approached the door. She let me in with no questions asked. Good for me, but potentially bad for the building residents. The place was quiet as I went over to the mailboxes to see if I could identify perhaps a manager who lived on site. I pushed the button marked ‘info.’

  Somebody answered, “Yeah, what can I do for you?”

  “Could I talk to you about one of your apartments?”

  “Come on up,” the man said.

  Would he think I wanted to rent a place? Regardless, I had to do something to get more information.

  “I’m on the third floor,” he said.

  I headed up the staircase. A woman was walking down at the same time. Her brown hair had been overly teased and hair-sprayed eighties-style. Ripped jeans and an off-the-shoulder white blouse completed the look. Was she headed to a costume party? She glared at me as if I shouldn’t be there. I stepped to the side close to the wall, trying to avoid her, but she moved closer. She looked me up and down.

  “Are you moving in here?” Her words came out as a growl.

  “I’m just here to speak with the manager about an apartment.”

  “Oh, great, so you are moving in.” She glared at me with black-lined eyes.