That stupid—mmmmm. The nerve! To come back after all this time and stand next to me as if she belonged in this coven. The fury bubbling from my gut up to my stiff jaw grew kinkier—feistier even, than our mother’s hair. All I wanted to do was scream, shout, and throw things. After I’d helped Patrick clean up the kitchen I’d stomped back to my cabin, pausing only to allow Biscuit to come running in from the woods, and then I proceeded to scream, shout, and throw things.
“Whore!” I screeched, kicking over a chair. Then grabbing my phone from where I’d left it on the counter, I continued to rage. “You stupid, beige wearing, piece of—piece of shit!”
The room was nearly spinning. After several heated moments, my temperature much higher than it should’ve been, my breath erratic, I plopped down on the bed. Biscuit followed my lead, resting her head on my lap. It was only after I’d calmed down that I noticed I had several missed calls from both Joe and Derek.
The snarl on my face curved into an evil grin. Joe had tried to go home.
I leaned back into my pillow and dialed Derek’s number. As I did I dug out the remote for the stereo from where I was lying, aiming it at the old CD player in the corner. Soon enough the sound of my own music poured out into the cabin as I fell back into the bed, instantly calming my anxiety.
Derek picked up after only three rings. “Ellie?”
“Hey.”
“What the fuck, dude?”
“What?” I asked innocently.
“Seriously? Salt. That’s such a juvenile move.”
I curled a piece of pink hair around my finger. “Oh whatever. She deserved it. Did she tell you about her little friend?”
“Yeah actually. Or at least what I could make out through her hysterics. Joe’s here.”
I sat up. “What?”
“She needed someone to talk to, Elle.”
“And she had to find you? She has tons of other friends, and there’s always Jody.”
“Yeah, Ellie, you need to let up on that.”
My face flushed as blood rushed back up into my cheeks. I truly believed that I could spew fire through the phone line if I tried hard enough. “Don’t speak to me like I’m the one in the wrong here. I’m the victim in all of this, Der.”
There was a pause on his end, and I could tell he was finding a private place to talk away from Jody’s girlfriend. “All I’m saying is that she isn’t the only one who has made mistakes, and maybe writing ‘Go fuck yourself’ on the floor in salt that won’t let her pass, is being a little harsh.”
I bit my tongue, waiting a full ten seconds to reply.
“But that stupid Jody left a message on the answering machine!”
“Ellie,” he lowered his voice so that it was no more than a whisper, “you and I had sex last night. Three times.”
Three times? Wow, no wonder my thighs were sore. I shook my head. “That doesn’t matter. What she did was—”
“Nothing,” he finished for me. “Listen, I don’t know the whole story about this woman, but Joe just got here and she’s a mess. From what I can make out it’s all a misunderstanding.”
He paused, then continued when I said nothing in return. “Listen, I need to go. She’s out there sobbing on my couch.”
“Derek!” I yelled. “You can’t be her friend more than mine right now!”
“Ellie, I love you, but you can be a real asshole sometimes. You hold grudges for far too long. And yeah, she fucked up, big time—but it’s been half a year. She’s trying to put it behind her. You mean more to me than the world, but that woman out there is alone and she needs someone to let her cry on their shoulder, too. You aren’t the only one who is hurting. If you want to talk, call me tomorrow. We can do lunch in the city or something.”
And then he hung up.
I just laid there with my mouth open, staring at the phone as if it was his face.
“The nerve.” My wolf grunted and dug her nose deeper in between my leg and the bed. Petting her furry head, I said to my familiar, “Why did today even happen?”
I was about to turn off the lights and go to bed early when I heard a rapping on my door.
“Dammit,” I cursed, stumbling back onto my feet and carelessly swinging the door open. “What?”
“Easy there, Wichahpi.”
I sighed. “What is it, Lana?” I asked, dropping my arm from the door frame. I grabbed the chair I’d thrown down just a few moments ago and set it back on its legs, flopping down onto it.
My aunt walked in and backed up against the wall, casually crossing her arms over her chest.
“Rough day?”
“You could say that.”
“You need to cleanse yourself. Anger is not a good quality for a witch to dwell upon. It turns us quickly.”
“I know. I’m sorry—it’s just—I mean V’s here. She’s here and I’m just supposed to go with it.”
“I know,” Lana said, letting down her guard briefly. “It isn’t fair, but it’s life. We must remind ourselves that she did what she did because it hurt so much to breathe that she couldn’t stand it. You can understand this, can’t you?”
I took a deep breath and turned my head away. “Who can’t?” Then cranking my neck back to look at Lana, I pointed a finger out my door. “But that person is not my sister. She walks around like she’s got a goddamn rod holding her up . . . I’ve never seen anyone so stiff.”
The corners of Lana’s lips twitched slightly as though she was struggling not to smile. “People change, Wichahpi.”
“I get that, but she didn’t change, she just covered up who she was. Who she is.”
“I’m not asking you to like her right now, but we need to try and be civil. She didn’t come back because she had a change of heart. I can sense it, something dark has entered her life, and because we are all connected, it will soon infiltrate all our worlds if we do not stop it.”
I glanced down at my fingernails, the black nail polish I’d applied a week ago needed to be touched up badly. “You know something you’re not telling me. I know V is back here because of my mom. Spill it, what’s this got to do with her?”
“Everything.” She pointed to the necklace around my neck. “Your keys are meant to unlock something other than your mother’s heart. It was never a protection spell, that much I can tell you.”
I furrowed my brows, grasping the charm around my neck. “What do you mean? Of course it was a protection spell. If it hadn’t been for this necklace, then Joe” –-or whoever that was— “well, she would have suffocated me to death.”
“The necklace saved your life, but that was because your mother knew the time would come when you would need her help. Those keys aren't finished, not yet.”
I shook my head. “I don’t understand.”
“There is an order to all things magic.”
I sat up a little straighter in my chair. “I’m not following you.”
Lana moved away from the wall and sat in the chair across from me.
“Your mother continually told me how she’d seen us all living the same lives over and over again. How terrible it was to have to see the ones she loved constantly battling the same struggles, making the same mistakes. She said we were slaves to a curse.”
“I know, death follows us. But she never alluded to—”
“She knew more than she was letting on. She told me a long time ago; that she wasn’t going to watch the same things happen all over again, not in this life.” She stared at my necklace. “She placed a spell over those charms—and I don't know how or why, but it was because she was trying to end a curse that she was afraid to mention out loud.”
“Lana,” I started, then stopped myself, trying to navigate through my thoughts. “If she knew the reason we were all cursed, then why wouldn’t she have warned us?”
“I don’t know, but I have a feeling your sister knows something that maybe we don’t. You and Olivia need to bury your grievances, at least for now, because every night for the past week I’ve dreamt of a showering of lights from far up above, and under those lights stands your mother’s spirit—as it slips away into darkness.”
My heart skipped a beat. “A showering of lights. You mean like the Enrapture?”
The Enrapture was a meteor shower that happened every thirty years.
“Yes.” A simple word with a complicated foundation.
“Lana, the Enrapture is scheduled for the first week of August.”
“I know. The dream is a message. We have one month to figure out how to use these keys around your necks, and if we don’t succeed in time, your mother’s heart will lock us out and she will die.”
My mother’s voice echoed in my head. You must help her see . . . I still didn’t know what it meant, but somehow, I knew my mother’s message had everything to do with what Lana was saying.
“And not only will she die,” I said, “but the curse will live on.”
“Yes, Wichaphi. Now you see the urgency of the situation.”
“Shit. Why wouldn’t she have told us about this while she was awake? We could’ve prepared.”
Lana leaned to the side and pulled a small flask from her pocket. She took a swig from it, then wiped at her mouth. “Some things are best left unknown until the time is right. If my intuition is correct, the struggle doesn’t lie outside of our circle, but within it. To take down darkness we must encircle it with light. A circle inside of a circle.”
I strained to understand my aunt’s words, and I was still skimming over them when she stood a few minutes later and prepared to leave.
“We will go see Arianna first thing tomorrow. When you wake come to my house. You know the rules.”
I nodded. “If I arrive before you’re downstairs, start the coffee.”
“Good little witch,” she said, patting my head.
“Good night, Lana,” I said, but she was already out the door.
I sat there for a few more minutes, shuffling mental cards around in my head. I’d already been living each day feeling like a less solid version of myself, and now that my head was even more cluttered, my world had become even more discombobulated. I really wished this day hadn’t ever happened.
Before I knew it, I’d jumped to my feet, because I couldn’t just sit there any longer—in that cramped and musty cabin.
“Come on, kid,” I said to Biscuit. “Let’s go for a run.”
She jumped off the bed as soon as she heard the word run, and I kicked off my shoes and changed into my running gear. I grabbed my wand and handed it to my familiar, who held it in her mouth like a bone.
With Biscuit’s tail wagging like a machine, the two of us exited the cabin and took off for our usual trail. It was dark, but the moon was still bright enough that I didn’t need to illuminate our tracks.
We didn’t run that far because there was still a dull ache in my head from my waning hangover, but we still flew through the trees long enough to shake off some of our thoughts . . . our worries. When we came back into the clearing Biscuit spit out my wand and dropped it at my feet, running towards my parent’s house to the dock that led out into the lake. I’d barely even leaned down to retrieve my wand when I heard the splash, looking up to find that my silly girl had jumped into the cool water.
I laughed at her as she splashed around like a pup, wiping the sweat away from my brow. It was hot, nauseatingly hot, and more humid than it usually was in this part of the country. I didn’t stand there long before following in Biscuit’s example.
As soon as my skin hit the water my aura was cleansed. My mind and body surrendered as the moonlight filtered into the reflections of the night. It was like Diana was holding me, whispering into my ears, “Relax daughter, let it go. Remember love, forever and always.”
“In perfect love and perfect trust, blessed be,” I chanted, as my head emerged from the lake.
I was still wearing my necklace—I never took it off. And as soon as the moon hit it under the water it warmed against my chest. Immediately my skin prickled as illuminating purple rays shot out in all different directions.
“Whoa.” I wiped away the excess water from around my eyes and looked down. The charm had turned purple after my mother’s accident, but it hadn’t ever glowed.
“It is here that you can help her to open her eyes,” a female voice whispered.
I spun around in the water, searching for the source of the voice, but there was no one.
“You must be together . . . to help her see. To fall into the fold.”
“Hello?” I called out quietly.
Nothing. Just the sound of the water bugs buzzing around the lake, and the giggles belonging to the fey from where they were fluttering around in the forest.
Dunking my head under the water one more time, I calmly, but swiftly swam back towards the dock.
“Come on, B,” I said, checking over my shoulders, “time to go.”
I grabbed my shoes and wand, feeling a set of invisible eyes caressing my glistening skin. It was still bright enough that our surroundings were visible, but I didn’t hesitate to send a wave of illumination out from where I stood. Holding out my wand, I sent my light inside it and watched as it poured out from the other end, traveling into the woods. I hastily scanned the trees and shadows between the cabins, but I couldn’t see a thing out of the ordinary.
“Losing my mind,” I muttered, pulling down my wand and retrieving the light. “Let’s go,” I repeated to Biscuit. But when I started to move, she didn’t. It was then I noticed that she was staring up at my parent’s house, a low growl growing deep inside her throat.
My hand gripped tighter around my wand, and I walked back over to her.
“What is it?” I asked, but she refused to remove her gaze. Her growl was still so low I could barely hear it, but deep enough that I could feel it in my bones.
Laying my free hand over her wet head, I stood in line with her, cranking my neck to look up at the side of the house. Instantly my heart fell.
“V?”
Biscuit’s growl turned into a small bark.
“Shhh,” I shushed her, not wanting to wake the guests in their cabins.
I held my wand up, shining a yellow light at the window. V was standing there, staring down at the spot where I’d been swimming in the lake. But there was something wrong with her eyes; it was like she was hypnotized.
“Ah shit,” I said, as my shoulders relaxed. “She’s just sleepwalking.”
I forgot she did that. It used to creep me out when I was little, waking up to see my sister at the end of my bed, holding my feet. I used to call it walking with the ghosts, since she could see them and all.
I pulled my wand down again and patted Biscuit’s head. “Come on, she’ll find her way back to her bed.” I started back for my cabin, but I had only walked about ten steps when I realized my wolf had still not moved. Turning back around, I shouted softly to her, “Come on, B.” But she was stubborn, her low growl turning into a small yelp. “What the hell?” I muttered, starting to walk back over so I could lead her away, but once more I found myself coming to a halt.
On my way back to Biscuit I’d looked up one more time, but the person standing at the window was no longer my sister. I froze under the moonlight, the pendant around my neck not just warming, but beginning to get uncomfortably hot.
I tried to back away; but suddenly forgot how to move my feet. The woman—a pale-faced ghost with ratty black hair and eyes to match, wearing a long black dress soaked to the bone, cloaking her thin shoulders—continued to stare down at me. Her mouth began to move and the voice I’d heard while in the lake echoed into my ears.
“They are in the pines, Ellie. The answers are there where they have always been . . . inside the fold. You must take her back to the beginning . . .”
A chill ran down my spine and I reached for my wolf. “B-Biscuit. Time to go—for real now,” I stammered. This time my familiar listened.
Holding my wand in the air as though it was a sword, Biscuit and I turned away from the window and made our way briskly back towards our cabin. As soon as we got back inside and locked the door, I looked at my guardian. “And that is why we are glad we can’t see ghosts.”
I jumped into my bed and pulled the covers over my head like a little girl, wishing so badly that either Joe or Derek was with me so I wouldn’t have to be alone. But I didn’t have to look over to see that Biscuit wasn’t lying down. I knew she wouldn’t sleep that night; she was already perched by the door, her neck erect and her muscles tensed. If that ghost tried to come in here, she would have to pass through my familiar first.