Tag: weblit

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The thing about falling is that when you’re falling for long enough you stop noticing that it’s happening.

Elliot dreamed of falling again, her broom next to her, falling handle-down, slowly twisting. This had been the last few nights, just falling in the void, every night waiting for the ground to come up to hit her. Every night, she closed her eyes and let the inevitable happen. Tonight, though, she waited for an impact that didn’t happen.

“Damn, baby witch, you live like this?”

Elliot spun around to the source of the voice. Rory sat on Elliot’s broom, kicking their legs under them. They beamed at Elliot.

“How’d you get… in here?” Elliot asked. She looked around. This was a dream, right?

“How’s it going, baby witch?” Well, their mouth didn’t move, but Elliot could hear their voice all the same.

“Why are you here?”

“The walls go up quick, don’t they?” Rory said. “You’re defensive.”

“Can’t imagine why.” Elliot twisted her body, turning away from Rory. She tried to will the ground to come to her, hoping to end the dream.

“How’re you feeling?” Rory asked. “Do you still hurt?”

The sky around them started to change. It had always been dark, like night. But the sky began to glow, first red, then pink. Crows began to fly around them in distant clouds.

Elliot sighed. “…I’m better. I can move around some. Ardy’s been helping.”

“That’s kind of her.”

Elliot pulled her knees up to her chest and hugged them.

“Bones feel good?” Rory slowly began to move around to face Elliot. Elliot closed her eyes.

“The cuts on your arms are healing up. You’ll have scars, but that’s okay.”

“Scars are fine,” Elliot said softly.

“You have a few already,” Rory said. That was true, Elliot thought. She had a few. She also knew not to pick at them. Rory seemed to want to do just that.

“I think,” Rory said with satisfaction, “you will heal properly.”

“Okay,” Elliot said. She turned, her flopped-over mohawk sticking to her face. She brushed it away.

“Now,” Rory said. “Let’s talk about you.”

Elliot tried to make the ground come to her again.

Rory just laughed. “As long as I’m here, you’re going be in this dream.”

“Hey, so that’s fucked up,” Elliot said.

“You can stop this if you want to.”

Elliot stared. “This is really shitty.”

“Just trying to help you out, baby witch.”

The raccoon let a long sigh out her nose. “If you’re going to waste my time, at least let me not be in a coma. And also get me coffee.”

“I can make that happen,” Rory said. “But I want something from you in return.”

“What?”

“Honesty.”

“Like, I’m honestly mad that you’re in my dream right now?”

“Honesty,” Rory said. “Some introspection, too. Because I’m going to ask you a question, and to be honest to me, I think you’ll need to think about it.”

“Okay?”

“Are you happy with how things are going?”

Elliot froze. For so long, she had been avoiding that question. What was she trying to do? Was this it? Was she going to fall forever?

“No.”

Rory smiled broadly, kind and welcoming. They held out a hand. “Do you want to stop falling?”

“Yes.” Elliot took their hand. Below, the roof of Rory’s shop raced to meet them. A pinpoint of white light opened, and then grew to engulf them.

The world hit Elliot and knocked the wind out of her. She gasped for breath, unable to see, feeling for anything. She grabbed a solid surface and clung to it until she could breathe again. The world slowly came into focus.

She was in the cluttered back room of Rory’s shop, sitting at a well-used table. A trio of mismatched chairs surrounded the table. In front of her, Rory had already placed a mug, the Frasier logo printed on it, chipped and scuffed, a little faded. Rory appeared with a coffee pot and a plate of pastries. They poured Elliot some coffee, and some for themself, and then they sat.

“Why are you doing this?” Elliot asked.

“Introspection,” Rory said, Saxnōt speaking for them. They pushed the plate of pastries to Elliot. “You have some things to think about for that question to make sense. But I will say this. You’ve been so afraid of being found out, right?”

Elliot’s ears perked. “Uhm-”

“Honestly,” Rory said. They leaned forward a little.

“Yes,” Elliot said. “Ever since I learned that I could do magic. Ever since I found out I was strange and maybe dangerous? Like, every single day, I worried people would find out. And I honestly don’t know what will happen when people do.”

“You’ve run away before. What do you imagine will happen?”

Elliot drew her knees to her chest again, hugging them tight and staring down the pastries. “I’m not afraid of pain. I don’t think people will hurt me. But I am afraid that they’ll walk away from me. That they’ll just be done with me.”

“And your friends? Ardy? Do you think they worry too?”

“They seem like they know what they’re doing.”

“Elliot…”

“They must be terrified all of the time,” Elliot said. “Like I am.” She looked down at her coffee, and took a long drink. “Aren’t you scared?”

“Am I like you?” Rory laughed. “From Out of Town, like you say?”

“Shut up, you were in my fucking dream and you use a crow to talk,” Elliot said before she could stop herself. Rory laughed again.

“Baby witch, do you think the Sun is afraid of the Earth?”

Elliot nodded. “That’s a terrifying answer, thank you.”

Rory propped their head up with their hand, appraising Elliot. “Is this personality? Is this what Real Elliot is like?”

Elliot’s ears perked, and then folded back. She stared down at the pastries.

“That wasn’t a question that was meant to evoke this kind of response,” Rory said.

The raccoon nodded. “I’ll have to get back to you on that.”

“You have a few things to work on, then,” Rory said. They retrieved a phone from their pocket, which Elliot instant recognized as hers. “I let Right Determination know you’re here, bee tee double yew.” They set the phone down on the table and pushed it to Elliot. “Call the people that want to help you.”

Elliot took her phone, and held it in her hands. It felt impossibly heavy, and she wanted nothing more than to drop it.

“You’ve got to stop pushing people away when things get complicated. Otherwise, you’ll just crash land on someone else’s roof. And they might not be as nice as me.”

“I’ll call them when I get back to Ardy’s,” Elliot said softly. “I want…” She pulled her jaw tight, her ears falling back on her head.

“You want to feel safe,” Rory said. “Well, should it go wrong, which it won’t, you’re safe here.”

Elliot nodded. “Thanks. I mean that for real. I’m sorry I’m a jerk.”

“This is nothing you can say to me that will hurt,” Rory said. “Your words are weak and your fear brings me sustenance.”

“Hey, we need to have a talk about this eldritch god shit, because it’s unsettling.”

Rory tapped their nose and winked.

“Don’t like that…”

“Okay, baby witch. You have a demon to get back to. She’s worried about you.” Rory drew a door for Elliot. “Tell her to ring me up sometime. I’d love to have tea with her.”

Elliot let out a little laugh. “Yeah, can do.” Despite everything she had built up inside herself for years, Elliot gave Rory a hug.

“Oh, that was nice!” Rory said. “You’re good at that.”

Elliot pushed Rory away and stepped through the door.

Ardy’s apartment was bright and sunny, as bright and sunny as an October day in Seattle could be. Elliot looked around the bedroom from where Rory had taken her, if only to ground her reality. Then she went to go talk to Ardy.

“I’m back,” she called as she stepped into the living space of the apartment. It felt open and airy, and cheerful somehow. It was nice.

Ardy was on the couch, sipping a glass of wine, watching a particularly spirited episode of Rick Steve’s Europe.

Elliot squinted at the TV. “Are you watching the travel dweeb?”

“There she is,” Ardy said. “Do you feel better? How was Rory’s?”

“It was…” Elliot didn’t really know. She was still processing everything. “It was good, I think.”

Ardy gave her a soft smile. “Good.” She stood and hugged Elliot. “I’m glad to see you up and about.”

Elliot sank into the hug, closing her eyes and nuzzling into the curve of Ardy’s neck.

A phone on the wall rang. Elliot had wondered how she had missed that, but given that it was Ardy’s place, a wall phone wasn’t out of character at all. Ardy let Elliot go and answered the phone.

“Yes? Oh, good! Hang tight, I’ll open the door.” She held a button down on the phone, and then hung up.

“Did you get a call from 1993?” Elliot asked.

Ardy laughed. “Hush. I got some lunch for us. I think you’ll like it.” She went to the kitchen and began to get plates and silverware out.

A moment later, the delivery carrier knocked on the door. Ardy motioned to the door.

“Do you mind? Everything is paid for, tip included.”

“Yeah, I got it.” Elliot carefully descended the stairs down to Ardy’s apartment door. She opened it.

Meryl waited on the other side. When she saw Elliot, her face lit up. “Hey, buddy!”

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Pacific NorthWitch 24

October 26, 2020

grant

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Back to Part 23 — Chapter Index — Forward to Part 25

The only good thing about the morning was the smell of coffee from Gimble’s coffee pot. Gimble gathered the others at her house, including the ghosts. They sat around her kitchen table, except Ty, who was too tense to stay still. Gimble could tell she had been up all night, and she didn’t blame her at all. No one there would have.

Cassie showed up with last with a box of donuts. Food was important, even in situations like this. Gimble watched from the kitchen table, her back to the wall, her big ears twitching in thought. She had managed a shower since the night before, but even dressing to look presentable felt labored. She skipped it, dressing down for the first time since she could remember, wearing a simple pair of shorts and a t-shirt. Z filled Gimble’s coffee cup, and then bent down to kiss the top of her head.

“You look exhausted,” Cassie said.

“It has been a challenging night,” Gimble said.

“It sure sounds like it. Where do we even start?”

“Meryl is most important,” Ty said, leaning on the kitchen counter, her arms folded tight over her chest. Her ears pressed flat against her head.

“We can track her,” Gimble said. “We’ll need some ingredients for the spell, and the energy.”

“Which means you need to be sleeping,” Z said, looking at Ty pointedly. Ty looked past her.

“I can get some hair off one of her brushes,” Ty said. “What else do you need?”

“Moon Water, salt from the Sound, a few other things I know I have,” Gimble said.

“We can start after this,” Cassie said. “My kitchen is yours.”

“And you go home and take a nap,” Z said, jabbing her finger at Ty.

Ty looked away, narrowing her eyes. “What do we do when we find her?”

“We take her back,” Gimble said.

“There will be at least one wizard there,” Ty said.

“That nerd?” Z said. “I think the four of us can take him.”

“They’re dangerous,” Gimble said. “We should be careful. When we find Meryl, we will evaluate the situation.”

Ty exhaled sharply through her nose. She began to pace around the kitchen.

“So that brings us to Elliot,” Gimble said. “We don’t know where she is.”

Z sat back in her chair. “Well, we do know that she can’t fly all that far. There’s only so far she could have gone before she had to land.”

Cassie frowned. “There’s a lot of water in that radius, if we’re going from the Ave.”

“We can go look,” Morgan said, leaning forward.

“We literally don’t sleep,” Ethan said.

“We can be in the U District in an hour.”

“That’s not a bad idea,” Gimble said. “When we break here I’ll open a door for you to the Ave.”

Ty stopped, watching the witches at the table closely. She opened her mouth.

“You are tired and angry and hurting,” Gimble said. “What ever you are about to say, you should reconsider it. It was not Elliot’s fault and you know it.”

Ty closed her mouth, for the first time that morning looking surprised. She looked way. “Sorry.”

“It’s understandable.”

“I’ll keep an eye out at my place,” Cassie said. “And ask around too. Someone’s bound to have seen her.”

“I’ll talk to Vic,” Ty said. “I doubt she’s in SoDo but it wouldn’t hurt to have some extra eyes out there.”

Gimble nodded. “Good. This is a good direction to be moving in. I think this is all we need to discuss, but if there’s more it’ll be in the group chat.” She got up and made a door for the ghosts, and Ty and Cassie. After she saw them off, she returned to the table. Z waited there for her.

Gimble sat down quietly and considered her mug of coffee.

“You wanna talk about it?” Z asked.

Gimble let out a little laugh. “Well, this is a funny turn about.”

Z took a drink of her coffee. “It’s not even a secret how upset you are. You don’t need to be an empath to see it.”

Gimble thought a moment, her ears twitching. “I feel like we failed Elliot.”

“Hm. She’s a challenge, isn’t she?”

“There was never a situation wherein we did things right that she should have felt compelled to run away.”

“Trust is tricky,” Z said. “She trusts us enough, but she’s also used to things falling apart really quickly. She never really unpacked at my place.”

“And her waiting for the other shoe to drop tells me she hasn’t experienced kindness without strings attached.”

“That’s really sad,” Z said. “But that’s also why we wanted her to be in our group so badly. We all know what it feels like.” Z paused. “Huh.”

Gimble raised her eyebrows. “What is it?”

“Hang on, I’m feeling this out. What if our motivations here were well meaning but…”

Gimble nodded along. “But we weren’t doing it for the right reasons.”

Z let her head fall back. “We wanted to help. We wanted what was never given to us.”

“But we were doing what we would have wanted. We were not listening to her.”

“Well, shit,” Z said. “What do we do?”

“We’ll find her,” Gimble said. “Who knows, maybe she’ll respond to our texts.”

“Is that too direct? I’m going to bet she doesn’t want confrontation right now.”

“Agreed.” Gimble traced a finger around the rim of her coffee cup. “I would like to not leave it entirely up to her, though.”

“We’d never see her again.”

Gimble sat back in her chair. “I would like to make sure that doesn’t happen, either.”

Z watched her carefully. “I haven’t seen you like this in a while.”

Gimble let out a laugh. “I think I’m disappointed in myself.”

“Are you beating up on yourself? This is weird. I don’t know what to do.”

“Oh hush.”

“What would you tell me if our places were switched?” Z leaned forward, folding her arms on the table.

“I would tell that you were doing your best and that this issue is fixable. And that you are a good person, despite what your inner voice might be telling you.” Gimble sighed. “We should see if we can find Elliot.” She stood. “I have a few contacts I want to try.”

Z nodded. “I think there’s a few places I can check.” She stood. Gimble hugged her.

“Thank you for your council.”

Z pulled her close and kissed her cheek. “Any time. Now lets go find our precious goblin.”

[g]

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Pacific NorthWitch 23

October 16, 2020

grant

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Back to Rain City Paranormal — Chapter Index — Forward to Part 24

Everything hurt.

Elliot lay sprawled out under the moonlight. She was unsure how long she had been there, or even been conscious. So that was probably a concussion. She tried to sit up, and her body screamed at her, so the ground would do nicely for now. She stared up at the stars and tried to push the night out of her mind.

“Hello.”

Elliot rolled her head to the side. A crow stood just outside her reach, cocking its head at her. Her head hurt, and she thought about her concussion.

“Are you okay? Should I come up?” The crow said that.

Yep, definitely a concussion.

Elliot groaned and closed her eyes. She tried to figure out what to do. Laying there felt pretty right, so she planned on that for a while.

“I’m coming up.”

“Okay, cool,” Elliot croaked.

A moment later, footsteps clanged up a ladder, and Elliot began to reestablish her whereabouts. She was up somewhere. A head popped into view. They were bear, on the small side, a light dollop of brown fur on the top of their head.

“That’s better. It’s easier to see you this way.”

Elliot stared. The crow was still talking. The bear was not.

“You look like hell,” they said. The bear? Maybe?

“I feel… like hell,” Elliot said. It hurt to talk too much.

“Well,” the bear crawled over to Elliot and sat down next to her. “You did crash land on my roof. I expect you’re a little worse for wear.”

Elliot didn’t know what to say to this. That felt true. The last thing she remembered was rocketing into the sky to get away from the wizards and…

“I’m still not great at flying,” Elliot conceded.

“Aww, you’re still just a baby witch, huh?” The crow spread its wings and hopped up onto the bear’s shoulder.

“I’m From Out of Town,” Elliot corrected. She tried to raise her arm. Some of it raised up.

“That looks awfully broken.” The bear stretched their fingers. “Put it down, I’ll see if I can take care of it.”

Elliot put her arm down, giving the bear the best side eye she had. The bear lay their hands on Elliot’s arm, closing their eyes and taking a deep breath. Their hands glowed, and warmth poured over her arm. She could feel her bones shifting, crackling and fusing back together. It wasn’t comfortable, but it didn’t hurt.

A moment later, the bear lifted their hands. “How’s that?”

Elliot lifted her arm. It felt much more complete. “I’m sore but I think I’m good?”

“What else is broken?” The bear asked.

“Uhm…” Elliot tried to sit up again, and winced in pain.

“Oh, a whole bunch more. Okay, hang on.” The bear put their hands on Elliot again, and the universe fell away around them. Elliot squeezed her eyes closed, and she flopped on to a couch. She yowled in pain.

“Sorry, baby witch,” the bear said. They put their hand on Elliot head, and her body went numb. She tried to say something, but could barely move he mouth. The bear began to work, setting Elliot’s broken bones one at a time. Elliot lost track of time, falling in and out of consciousness until the bear put their hand on her head again.

“This is going to hurt a little,” the crow said. “I’m going to let your nerves come back little by little, and that pain is going to keep rising. I wish I could keep it away longer, but that pain belongs to you, and you’ll need to work around it for the moment.”

Elliot nodded the best she could. The bear released the pain, and for a moment it tingled, like she had pinched a nerve. And then it washed over her, and she was up on the roof, writhing in pain. The bear disappeared into another room, the crow stayed behind on a perch by some books, and a while later they came back with two cups of tea. They helped Elliot sit up and pressed a tea cup into her hand. Elliot shakily took a drink.

“That’s awful,” Elliot said. The tea was bitter, acrid, like what she imagined a cracked-open battery tasted like.

“It’ll help you feel better,” the bear said. “I have a friend who makes potions, and that will help the pain and the healing.”

Elliot considered this. She hurt too much to lay out any more snark. She had questions, but she stared at the wall. That was the only thing that felt good. Reluctantly, she finished the tea.

The bear took the tea cup away, and returned with a blanket. They put it around Elliot’s shoulder. “Rest. I’m going to go check up on the shop. I won’t be far.” The crow jumped back to the bear’s shoulder and they left the room.

Elliot sat back on the couch, still staring at the wall. The blanket could have weighed a hundred pounds, but it was some how comforting. Elliot succumbed to its weight, falling onto a doze. When they came back, the bear was sitting in a chair across from her, scrolling through a phone. Elliot squinted. That was her phone.

“Hey.”

“Sorry,” the bear said through the crow — Elliot was certain that’s how things were working. “I’m looking for someone to call. Your contacts are… sparse.”

Elliot let out a long breath through her nose.

“No mom and dad. No siblings that I can see?”

“No…” Elliot said.

“Your texts are blowing up, by the way. Someone named Z, Ty, Gimble, Cassie? Friends of yours.”

“I don’t want to talk to them,” Elliot said, her voice breaking.

The bear looked up at her, their ears dropping. “Baby witch, what happened?”

Elliot pulled her jaw tight, her ears pressing against her head. She looked away, pulling the blanket tighter around her shoulders.

“They’re really worried,” The bear said. “Elliot? That you?”

Elliot squinted.

“Sorry, it’s in their texts.” The bear put their hand on Elliot’s knee. Shocks ran up her leg, but it hurt less than before. “Can I call someone for you? You need someone who cares about you. I don’t mind if you stay here, I actually would enjoy the company. And I have a few friends who I think would like to meet you. But I’m not the right person to care for you.”

“Ardy,” Elliot said softly.

The bear scrolled. “R D. Found them.” Elliot could hear them clicking a text out. A second later the phone rang. The bear held it up to their ear. The crow repositioned itself to speak into the receiver.

“Yeah, she’s right here. She’s fine. Pretty beat up, but she’s fine. Yeah, do you know where the metaphysical library is? Five minutes? I’ll go unlock the front door.”

The bear put down the phone. “Be right back.”

Ardy arrived faster than Elliot suspected. Or rather, maybe she just couldn’t tell how time worked anymore. She sat down on the couch next to Elliot and put her arms around her.

“What happened?” She asked.

Elliot leaned into Ardy, closing her eyes. She sighed.

“Crash landed on my roof,” the bear said. They leaned in the doorway, watching the two of them carefully. “That’s about as much as I can figure out.”

“Can you walk? Let’s get you back to my place.”

Elliot struggled to stand. Ardy helped her to her feet. “There. Let’s see if we can get a door.”

The bear approached Elliot and pushed her phone into her jeans pocket. “Good luck, baby witch.”

“Thanks,” Elliot said softly. “What’s… uhm.”

“Rory.” The bear nodded to the crow, who carried the bear’s voice. “And that jerk over there is Saxnōt.”

The crow hissed. “HaIR BeaSt.” He said to Elliot.

“Hey.” Elliot couldn’t help but smile. She instantly understood him.

“Thank you again,” Ardy said. “We’ll chat later.”

“You bet!” Rory said. “Let’s get you a door.” The drew an outline of a door in the air, and one appeared. Rory pushed the door open. Ardy led Elliot through and the door closed behind them, popping out of existence.

As soon as she could, Ardy pulled Elliot into a hug. Shocks of pain bounced around Elliot’s body, but she leaned in, hugging back as best she couldn’t.

“I know you’re not talking right now,” Ardy said, “but I do hope you feel like it later. For now, you need to lie down.”

Ardy took Elliot into her bedroom. She pulled back the bedding and helped Elliot in. She took off her shoes and set them aside. Then she helped Elliot lay back.

“I admit, I have been wanting to get you into my bed for a while,” Ardy said. “But this is not what I had in mind.” She offered Elliot a smile. Elliot dropped her eyes away.

“Sorry,” Elliot said quietly.

Ardy stroked Elliot’s ears back.”It’s alright, it was a bad joke.” She took Elliot’s hand. “Get some rest. I’ll be right here.”

Elliot let herself drift off to sleep. In her dreams, she clutched her broom, and she was falling.

[g]

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Pacific NorthWitch Interlude: Rain City Paranormal

October 2, 2020

grant

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Back to Part 22 — Chapter Index — Forward to Part 23

Excerpt from Rain City Paranormal episode 49: Sasquatch’s Choice Coffee

[Music playing, begins to fade out]

Carter: So last week in our local segment we talked about the Oz Effect, and local trash monsters-

Kareem: I’m literally right here. I have a name.

Carter [amused]: -and apparently witches.

Ally: And again, if you know how I can find a coven of actual witches, please let me know, my DMs are open.

Carter: But we have a new one this week.

Ally: I’m not even joking, if there’s like a membership fee, I’m totally cool with that. If I need to steal a baby or something, we can talk about that.

Carter: Do witches need babies? Like, would they even want a baby?

Kareem: Sometimes you long for the experience of being a mother. To bring life into the world. Subjugated, but revered…

Carter: You look so dreamy, what the hell? [Laughs]

Ally: So new things-

Carter: New things! We have a first hand account from a listener, who calls themselves “The Wizard’s Baker.” They write:

Hello Seattle’s Best,

I do a lot of work in the Highway 99 tunnel.

Kareem: Oh, so it was your fault.

[Ally and Carter laugh]

Carter, continuing to read: I do a lot of work in the Highway 99 tunnel. For the most part, it’s boring routine work, and I’ve never seen anything strange in the tunnel, at least nothing that would cause anyone to think twice about it. That is, until this week.
Me and a few of my coworkers were called in for some urgent work (nothing you need to worry about, just some systems we needed to troubleshoot). Things were normal until about 2 or 3 in the morning, when I heard someone coming down the access tunnel. My co-workers thought I was joking, so I went to go investigate.

At first, I could see two people up the access corridor. And then it was as if one of them blinked out of existence. As I got closer-

Ally: Do you not watch horror movies, what are you doing??

Kareem: [away from the microphone]: GUYS, I’M GOING TO GO CHECK OUT THESE MYSTERY PEOPLE.

Carter [away from the microphone]: HEY IS ONE OF YOU A GHOST?

Ally [away from the microphone]: I’M COMPLETELY UNARMED, YOU WANNA CHAT?

Carter [continuing to read]: As I got closer, I could make out the other figure. She looked like a human, dressed in construction gear, but even the tunnel supervisors are never out this late unless a water main breaks, or something similar. I went to tell them that this was a closed site, and they shouldn’t be there. And next to her, very faintly, I could see the other person.

Kareem: Is this like a time slip?

Ally: They don’t sound like they’re wearing different clothes.

Carter [continuing to read]: When I approached, that’s when the transformation happened.

Ally: Uhm…

Carter [continuing to read]: The human started to speak a language I couldn’t understand, and it sounded like nothing I’ve ever heard before. I swear I could feel it in my chest. And in a blink she wasn’t human anymore. She had horns on her head, and her eyes glowed this deep red. Behind her, what I could only describe as a portal opened, into a dull red world, and she and the ghost jumped into it. The portal closed, and the only thing left was the smell of sulfur.

Before you say anything, I don’t do drugs, I don’t drink, I don’t work around noxious fumes. It wasn’t carbon monoxide poisoning, because between the four of us working, one of our detectors would have caught that. I know what I saw, and I truly believe I saw a demon in the tunnels that night.

As you can imagine, I’m shaken by this, but also incredibly curious. I’ve never believed in demons before, or angels, but I know what I saw.

Thank you for reading this. I wonder if anyone else in Rain City has seen anything like this.

No Umbrella Gang member,
The Wizard’s Baker

[Silence]

Ally [quietly]: …holy shit.

[Silence]

Ally: So this-

Kareem: A demon? Like a for real demon.

Carter: I have questions.

Ally: -Like, this opens up a lot of-

Carter: Do you think-

Ally: That Locke was abducted by a demon?

Kareem: Thank you for saying that, because I did not want to.

Carter: We’ve had people claim he was taken by inter-dimensional Sasquatch robots-

Kareem: Which is the correct answer, yes.

Ally: But demons.

Carter: But demons…

Kareem: But demons, though.

Carter: Is… Is the tunnel a Hellmouth?

[Silence]

Ally: There’s a small group that thinks that the tunnel construction was delayed because they found something down there…

Kareem: Does this lend, like, credibility to that theory?

Carter: What would that even look like? I’m imagining, like, hell dogs running out of the tunnel.

Ally: Ghosts just pouring out.

Kareem: I feel like we would have noticed.

Carter: Okay, but like, how much of the tunnel construction did we not see? They didn’t live stream it.

Ally: So they contained it?

Kareem: How? Wouldn’t we see, like, the entire FBI here?

Carter: How would we know? What would that look like?

[Silence]

Ally: I have to know if anyone else has seen a demon.

Kareem: Send us an email, tweet at us, we need to hear your stories.

Carter: And as always, we try to read everyone’s letters on the air…

Ally: We need another question bucket episode. How many letters do we have in the queue?

Carter: I don’t want to talk about it.

Kareem: Our next letter comes from…

[End of excerpt]

[g]

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Pacific NorthWitch 20

July 29, 2020

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Ardy presented the door to Elliot as if gifting her an exotic gem from a far off land. She stood next to the nondescript industrial door, her hands behind her back. They stood outside, south of the waterfront, out of the way of the meager foot traffic, whoever was out this late.

Elliot held a cup of coffee from Cassie’s. She stood in front of the door, where Ardy had positioned her. She bit her tongue. Ardy looked so proud, and the climax of all of this was so… not there. Her instinct was to mock, to say something sarcastic and defensive. Elliot didn’t want to spurn her new companion.

“I… I don’t get it?” Elliot said slowly, her ears dropping on her head. “It’s a door.”

“It’s a door!” Ardy said. “But you forget that doors go somewhere.”

“Generally, yeah…” Crap. Get it together, dude.

“So there is another part to this.” Ardy pulled a key card from her pocket. “Never mind how I got this. But this will open that door.”

Elliot took the key and held it in her hand. It said STP on one side in a boring corporate typeface. Where had she heard that before? She flipped it over, as if to reveal its secrets, but it taught her nothing.

“So… I just…?” Elliot asked.

“Are you not curious?” Ardy said. She tilted her head just a little. “Do you not want to know what’s inside?”

Elliot’s ears dropped on her head. “Like, if I go in, am I going to come out? Is it… is it a door to Hell?”

Ardy laughed. “I promise you will not be hurt.”

“Okay, but how do I know that?”

“Because I’m here,” Ardy said.

Elliot clenched her jaw. She reached out to the sensor next to the door and tapped the card on it. The light on the sensor flashed green, and the door clicked open. Ardy grabbed the handle and pushed it open, just a little, sensing Elliot’s hesitation. Elliot looked to Ardy, and then the door. She reached out and pushed the door open. Ardy ushered her in and the door closed behind them.

Beyond the door was a corridor, sparse and concrete. Utility pipes ran along the side, and lights were arranged in a line along the ceiling. On the wall, green exit signs pointed back towards the door. Ahead, the corridor began to slope downwards.

Ardy watched Elliot expectantly, her hands behind her back.

“We’re in the Exit Corridor,” Elliot said softly.

“We are in the Exit Corridor,” Ardy said, nearly beaming.

Elliot felt her face flushing. She looked down the corridor, taking a few steps forward. She had had dreams about this, about what Mitchell Locke had seen before he disappeared. As in any other dream, it was always so detailed, and when she woke up, always so formless and distant. And now, here she was. She pulled out her phone.

“It’s probably not the best idea to document your trespassing,” Ardy said.

“Yeah, but…” She turned back to the demon. Ardy kept her human disguise, but she was now dressed in proper work clothes. She wore a pair of tough looking pants, work boots, a flannel shirt, over which she wore a safety orange reflective vest, and a hardhat with STP on it. Seattle Tunnel Partners, Elliot thought. Of course.

“Should I have a disguise?” Elliot asked. “When did you change? What the hell?”

Ardy started forward. “You can make people not see you. I will have to make do with this.”

Elliot trotted to keep up with Ardy. She wanted to take everything in, but she knew every minute they were in the tunnel was a minute they were being watched, or discovered, or arrested. Again. Though, idly, Elliot wondered what that experience would be like with Ardy by her side.

As they went deeper into the tunnels, Elliot could hear road noise from the tunnel, just ten feet away, a wall between them and the road. Every so often, they passed an emergency door, but not THE door. They were marked, little signs next to the doors, and Elliot was counting, trying to remember the door number closest to Locke. 33? 32? They were still at 9.

“Are you still with me back there?” Ardy asked. She slowed so that Elliot could catch up, and when they were side by side, she looped her arm through Elliot’s. Elliot smiled a little.

“Sorry, I’m trying to take in everything.” She looked around. “I want to make sure I don’t miss anything, but I don’t know what I’m looking for.”

Ardy nodded. “When this has been picked over with a fine-tooth comb like you all have, what else is there?”

“Yeah,” Elliot said. “That’s the question, isn’t it?”

“But, there must be something.”

“I know there must be.” Elliot watched one of the exit doors as they passed, a lull in traffic bringing silence to the tunnel. It was well after midnight, and traffic was sparse at best. She sniffed the air. Just a hint of exhaust and… something else she couldn’t quite put her finger on. Sandalwood?

Down the tunnel, a metallic clank rang out. Elliot’s ears perked, her tail poofing out. A second later, she went unseen. Ardy squared her shoulders, focusing on the corridor ahead. She started forward again, Elliot following.

Distant voices seemed to be arguing, or at least chastising. Another clang, and more arguing. Elliot strained to hear what they were saying. Ardy pressed forward, like she was on the job. They walked until they could start making out individual voices. There were three or four. They spoke sharply, three voices against one.

As they moved forward, the air in the tunnel changed. It felt thicker, harder to breathe, almost like they could slice it up with a knife. That smell was there too: sandalwood for sure, but also a mix of spices Elliot couldn’t quite put her fingers on.

And out of the corner of her eye, she saw it. She stopped, turning her head a few times, making sure she had seen what she had seen. Ardy stopped too, turning to look back. She tilted her head quizzically.

“Lines,” Elliot said as quietly as she could. “They start back there,” she pointed to a spot ten feet behind them, “and the go all the way down.”

“Lines?” Ardy asked.

“I’ve seen them before. On the body Meryl showed me, on Locke’s car. I think…” She stopped because it felt silly. “I think it’s a deception spell.”

“To keep us from… what?” Ardy looked around.

Elliot pointed down the corridor, down to where the voices were coming from.

Ardy watched Elliot carefully. “Do you want to go back?”

Elliot bit her lip. She looked down the corridor. “Yes,” she said. “But when will we get to do this again?”

Ardy nodded. “As soon as you want to turn back, you tell me.”

They pressed further into the corridor, moving further down into the Earth. The voices had stopped. It sounded like someone was carefully working, but there was no more discussion. They must have settled their argument.

Where the corridor flattened out, a figure emerged. Elliot hesitated. Could they see her? They must have been able to see Ardy. Elliot grabbed Ardy’s arm and pulled her back. She could hear the figure talk, and another figure rushed forward. Was that…?

The figure at the end of the of the corridor waved their hand in the air, drawing a triangle out. It glowed bright, and one by one, the lights in the corridor went out, the darkness rushing at them.

“Shit,” Ardy said. She started back, pulling Elliot with her. Elliot held her hand low, feeling like Meryl had taught her, letting magic pool in her palm.

There was movement after them, rushing up the corridor. Elliot thought about what she wanted to magic in her hand to be, and she threw the ball roughly in the direction she thought was the most down the corridor. It bounced off a wall but toward their pursuer enough, throwing off sparks like an angry bottle rocket. The pursuer deflected the magic like swatting a fly away.

In the flash of light, Elliot caught a glimpse of the figure. Dog, glasses, wearing a coat, with a bandana around his neck. Of course, Elliot though. Of course it was. Who the fuck else would it be?

Suddenly, the Nerd was almost behind them, covering hundreds of feet in a second. Elliot cried out. The Nerd drew another figure in the air.

“You need to get out of here!” He pushed the spell forward, and Elliot and Ardy tumbled forward, thrown another hundred feet away. The Nerd slowed, drawing out another spell. Elliot caught his expression in the glow of his own magic, and she mentally stumbled. He watched them not with anger or malice, but with fear, concern.

“Hang on tight!” Ardy said. Elliot looked back. Ardy’s disguise was gone, and she stared hard at the Nerd, her eyes glowing red. She said something in an ancient, unknowable language, and suddenly Elliot was falling.

The world around her changed so quickly that for a moment, everything was just… red. They were still falling. Elliot slowly focused, and the red gave way to a horizon, a division of a field of dark maroon grain, a rust colored sky. There was a river of lava, and stone bridges that crossed it like it was any other river. She could see people, they must have been people, but they were so far away. They moved across the bridges, going about their day. The bridges carried roads, and the roads wandered to a walled city in the distance, surrounding stone towers and buildings, red and black and silver and white.

Ardy shifted her weight turning to fall head first. Elliot went with her, and suddenly they were slowing, until they plunged through another hole in the fabric of the universe. They rose up, the weight of gravity returning, and Ardy gracefully put her foot down on solid floor. She steadied Elliot on the floor, and the hole sealed itself, the sound of paper being torn back together.

Ardy looked Elliot over. “Are you-”

Elliot let out the scream she had been holding in.

[g]

Back to Part 19 — Chapter Index

Pacific NorthWitch 19

July 17, 2020

grant

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The bar was on Broadway, a few blocks north of the light rail station. Elliot made her way there alone, her bag slung over her shoulder. She had taken her time getting ready, and when Z went off to get her friend, Elliot began to wander vaguely in the direction of Capitol Hill.

Gimble texted her. Of course she had known. Witches, Elliot was learning, were nothing if not expert gossips. She offered a room immediately. Elliot politely told her she’d consider. Sleeping on Z’s couch was fine, but she missed having a real bed. But also, her mind kept drifting to waking up to find the ghosts standing by her bed, watching her sleep. So that was a no go.

The four of them were waiting when Elliot got there, Ty and Meryl on one side of the table, Z and her date on the other. Elliot knew she was fifth-wheeling it, but cheap bar food was very appealing. There was already a plate of nachos for picking at, and other shareable food on the way. Z hugged her when she got to the table, followed closely by Meryl, who nearly knocked her down.

“I’m glad you came!” Meryl said. She took Elliot’s hand and gave it an affectionate squeeze.

Z introduced her friend, Dan. He was cat, with ears that flopped at the tips. He was short like Z, and slim. Very non-threatening, Elliot noted. And he was pleasant too, interested in her, asking questions. Elliot felt put on the spot, frankly, and she was happy when the conversation turned to Portland. Elliot picked at her nachos and listened.

Elliot glanced down at her phone. It was getting close to 10:30, and she was getting antsy. At a lull in the conversation, she said, “I’m going to step outside for a bit.”

She was a step away from the table when she heard Ty say, “I’ll come with you.”

Crap.

Elliot found a spot under a light, away from the smokers, and slid her hands into her pockets. She had dressed up for the occasion, at least for meeting Ardy. She had put on a button-down shirt, and pulled a loose sweater over it, the pale and dark green one with the horizontal stripes she had come to love. Her jeans were even her nicest pair, which wasn’t much, but they didn’t have holes in them.
Ty joined her under the light, and for a moment neither one spoke, just watched the people and the traffic go by. Finally, Ty said, “How’re you doing?”

Elliot scanned her tone, her ears perking. A quick side eye revealed Ty mimicked her stance, and watched her, relaxed and interested. “Yeah, I’m… I’m okay. Everything is so much, and I would feel so lost without you all helping me.”

“They’re nice, aren’t they?” Ty said. Her ears moved to follow the conversation of a rowdy group that passed them by.

“It’s a lot to get used to. I’m not used to having to second guess people’s motivations.”

Ty nodded. “Yeah, when you’re From Out Of Town, you spend a lot of time trying to figure out what people want from you. I think that’s why we all want to help so much. We’ve played that game too and it sucks.”

Elliot thought about this. How much different would her life have been if she had met these people years ago?

“Have you been flying again?” Ty asked.

“Oh! No, I haven’t. I don’t really know when to practice?”

“Yeah it’s tricky isn’t it? Especially if you get up too high and get picked up on airport radar, and they start scrambling jets to figure out what you are.”

“What?”

Ty just smiled. “We should go sometime.”

Elliot almost gasped. She felt energy surge through her. “Yeah! But, uhm… Where?”

“I know a few places where no one would bother us, or at least they wouldn’t think twice about seeing two people floating around on sticks.”

“Again, this sounds like a date,” Elliot said.

Ty laughed. “Nah, but there’s a pickup line for you if you’re going after a witch, huh?”

Elliot smiled a little. She looked down the sidewalk, spotting the unmistakable confidence of Ardy’s walk. Her ears perked.

“That her?” Ty asked.

“Yeah…”

Ty gave Elliot a little punch on the shoulder. “Have fun.” She went back inside the bar.

Ardy caught sight of Elliot, and she brightened. Elliot did too. She could feel herself blushing, and if it hadn’t been night that would have been super clear. Elliot quietly praised the night.

“Hello!” Ardy said as she neared Elliot. She pulled her into a brief hug, which surprised Elliot.

“Hey,” Elliot said. She hugged herself and looked around, feeling elated and exposed at the same time.

Ardy was dressed nicely, a button-down shirt under an argyle sweater, and a pair of gray pants. She looked good, and Elliot did her best not to stare.

“So what are we doing tonight?” Ardy asked. “Did your friends run off?”

“No, they’re still inside. But we don’t have to go back.” Elliot looked away.

“We are so going inside,” Ardy said. She put her arm around Elliot shoulders and pushed back into the bar. Somehow, Ardy found the table amongst all the others. She pulled up a chair and sat down. Elliot reluctantly followed, sitting down.

“WHOA,” Z said. “You’re… the date?” She checked her words carefully, and she wondered if Dan knew or not.

Ardy smiled. “I am the date.” She held out her hand to Z. “Ardy Book. A pleasure. Are you Z?”

“Yes!” Z shook Ardy’s hand enthusiastically. “I’ve heard a lot about you, I’m so glad you came in.”

“Likewise,” Ardy said. She introduced herself to the rest of the table, while Elliot watched silently. When Ardy turned to talk to Meryl and Ty, Z pointed to the demon and mouthed, “Holy fuck, dude.” She gave Elliot a thumbs up. Elliot silently prayed for the ceiling to collapse right above her head, putting her out of her misery.

Ardy worked her way around the table, keeping up with every topic thrown out, with the exception of sitcom TV, which honestly was fine with Elliot. Meryl must have caught Elliot’s discomfort, because she took Elliot’s hand again and squeezed. And when Elliot looked at her, she gave the raccoon a sweet, reassuring smile. This was okay. Everything was going well.

“But Brunel wanted a seven foot gauge, which is probably what sank him,” Ardy said. Dan nodded along, as if this was a well worn path they traveled down before. “But he was planning for high speeds, not the standard fare British Railroad had been.”

“Okay,” Z said, “But we’re not talking about Supertrain here.”

“I missed why we’re talking about railroad gauges?” Elliot said.

“Supertrain, obviously,” Ty said.

Elliot frowned. Not knowing what else to do, she stood. Ardy didn’t miss a beat.

“We should get going,” she said to the table. “It was lovely meeting all of you.”

“Bye, Elliot!” Z said. “Please tell me everything!”

Elliot turned away, getting outside as quick as she could. She waited on the sidewalk, her ears against her head. Ardy came out a moment later.

“I embarrassed you,” she said.

“No.” Elliot said. “I don’t know.”

Ardy placed her hand gently on Elliot’s shoulder, and the touch felt amazing. Elliot sighed.

“I should have said something, I guess. But I feel really exposed right now. My world is changing and I feel like I’m barely holding on sometimes.”

“I apologize,” Ardy said. “I was thoughtless. You clearly wanted to move on and I didn’t listen.”

Elliot nodded. “It’s okay.” She thought a moment. “I think they like you, though.”

“I like them,” Ardy said. “I wanted to meet the people you’ve spoken so highly of. They did not disappointed.”

“Yeah, they’re neat.”

“So, where to?” Ardy asked. She led Elliot away from the bar, her hand still on her shoulder. Elliot didn’t try to stop her.

“There’s a neat coffee place over by Madison. I guess it’s a bit of a walk?”

“I like a good walk,” Ardy said. “Especially a night walk.”

“Yeah, me too.” Elliot thought a moment. “Do you ever get scared?”

Ardy looked over at Elliot. She laughed, low and knowing. Elliot laughed too.

The walked for a moment in silence, just taking in the night.

“So…” Elliot said quietly. “This is a date?”

“I thought so,” Ardy said. “I’d like it to be.”

“I’m glad you would,” Elliot said. “I would like it to be, too.”

They waited at a crosswalk. A trolley bus went by, its poles sparking as wires crossed over each other. Elliot always liked that.

“So, tell me about a cryptid. What’s the monster of the week?”

“What?” Elliot asked. “They’re silly? We don’t have to talk about them.”

“You like talking about them,” Ardy said. “And I like listening to you talk about them.”

“Okay,” Elliot said. “But can I ask you a question first?”

“Always.”

The light changed and they crossed the street, and continued south down Broadway.

“Are there any other people like you here?”

The look on Ardy’s face changed. She considered her answer for far longer than Elliot really had wanted. Elliot felt her skeleton try to leave her body.

“There used to be a lot of us here,” Ardy said.

“Was that New Gehenna?”

Ardy looked over at Elliot, scanning her face, her intentions.

“I saw a map in your shop. It took me a while but Gehenna is-”

“One of the states in what you would call Hell,” Ardy said softly. “You’re paying attention.”

Elliot looked away. “I’m curious. You know so much about me and about this society and I barely know anything about you.”

They walked the rest of the block in silence. Elliot felt her ears drop on her head. Way to set the tone for the date, idiot. They waited in silence at another traffic light. Carefully, Ardy took Elliot’s hand in her own. Elliot nearly jumped out of her skin, but she appreciated the gesture.

“I’m glad you care,” Ardy said. “It means a lot to me.” She stood up a little straighter. “Anyway, I think talking about the old neighborhood is fourth date material.”

“What date are we on now?” Elliot asked.

“By my count, this is number two.”

“What about third date?”

Ardy smiled. “I have plenty of ideas of what we could do,” she said. “But I also think you’d better set the tone on that one.”

Elliot could feel her face starting to burn. “Oh, yeah, that’s probably a good idea.”

Ardy laughed. “I don’t know if I’ve said this yet, but you are very cute.”

Elliot let out a little cry. “Thanks, I don’t know how to handle all of this and I can feel myself starting to freeze up but I really appreciate it and also you’re really pretty, and like even more pretty when you’re not in your disguise.”

Ardy beamed, and they started back down the street, the both of them continued down the street, hand in hand.

“The Fresno Nightwalker,” Ardy said.

“The Fres-” Elliot said, her mind catching up with her. She shook away the haze she was in. “Like, is he real?”

“Are they real?” Ardy said. “I believe there’s at least three of them in one of the videos.”

“Okay, so like there’s people who claim there are Native American legends about the Nightwalkers. But, people like to claim that about anything that’s, like, remotely spooky. I think it’s a guy with some decent puppets trying to get famous.”

“What, no.” Ardy said. “You can’t burst my bubble like that. The Fresno Nightwalker is a good boy who likes to walk around down by the highway, and I will not be convinced otherwise.”

Elliot felt herself smiling. “Were you researching cryptids to ask me about?”

“No, who does that?”

Elliot laughed. They strode across an empty crosswalk, and Elliot froze.

“Oh, come on,” she said.

Ardy followed her gaze to a person across the street.

“It’s him,” Elliot said.

“You problem boy?”

“The Nerd,” Elliot said. “I don’t know how, but everywhere I go, he’s there.”

The Nerd stood outside a comic shop that was just starting to close. A group left the shop, and the Nerd watched as they all left, saying goodbye to a few of them. After they left, he got out his phone and started scrolling through, making his way towards the light rail stop.

“Do you think he knows?” Ardy asked.

“Like, is it on purpose? It has to be. Why else would he be everywhere I am?”

Ardy squeezed Elliot’s hand. “Because you are also a nerd and like the same things?”

Elliot frowned. “I feel like you’re not taking me seriously,” she said softly.

“Right,” Ardy said. “I apologize. Come on, let’s go ask him what his deal is.”

“What?” Elliot asked. “No, you can’t.”

Ardy started towards the Nerd, locking her eyes on him.

Elliot pulled back. “No no no, Gimble doesn’t want us to engage. You could get hurt.”

Ardy stepped back. “Do you think he scares me?”

“No? But he could still hurt you.”

Ardy watched the Nerd disappear into the light rail station, seemingly unaware he had been watched. She looked over at Elliot again and gave her a soft smile. “You’re right. So, you promised me coffee. You should show me your coffee shop, and then, since this is an all nighter, I have something to show you.”

Elliot felt herself blushing again. “Yeah, okay…”

They started down the street again, Ardy naming every cryptid she could think of, and Elliot talked expansively about each one.

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Pacific NorthWitch 18

July 6, 2020

grant

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Back to Part 17 — Chapter Index — Forward to Part 19

Z poured herself a cup of coffee. Her tail twitched behind her. She drummed her fingers on the counter of her kitchen idly, then retrieved another mug and poured coffee into it. She sipped her coffee, looking out at her living room. Elliot was gone. She had left her blankets folded neatly on the couch, which was a first, and her dirty clothes had found their way into a small laundry basket.

This was a change. Z wondered idly about it as she considered her front door, and set a bottle of creamer down on the counter.

A moment later, Elliot opened the front door and slinked into the apartment. She met Z’s gaze and jumped just a little.

“Look at you, all up and about this early.” Z smiled, and pushed the extra cup of coffee across the counter to Elliot.

Elliot blinked at the cup of coffee, and then carefully took it in her hands. “Ha ha, yeah…” She took a drink and looked at the front door. She blinked, and looked back to Z. “Did you know I was coming?”

“Intuition,” Z said. “I had a feeling you were coming back. As you’re becoming a witch, you’ll learn to listen to your intuition more.”

“I’m really bad at it now,” Elliot said.

“You’ll get better.” Z put her coffee down. “So where’d you run off to?”

Elliot dropped her eyes. “Uhm, so… Yesterday, Gimble showed me all of these slaps? Like, people were putting spells on them. And I wanted to try.” She dug into the pockets of her hoodie and pulled out a stack of postal service labels, and a sturdy-looking permanent marker.

“So, you’re going to make slaps,” Z said.

“Meryl said I needed a purpose.” Elliot looked down at the stack of labels. “I can do this. I can put up slap spells and change a neighborhood, or a block, or even that part of the street.”

Z tilted her head. “Yeah, that’s a good start. If you want, we can make a few and go put them up.”

“You know how to write them?”

“I’ve made a few,” Z said, picking up the marker and popping the cap off. “I like to keep a few anti-legatus up in the neighborhood.”

Elliot’s ears twitched, and she started to open her mouth.

“That’s magic-y bullshit talk for anti-cops,” Z said. She pulled a sticker off the stack and in a quick motion wrote out a collection of lines, thick and dark. She handed it to Elliot. “Put that in sunlight and keep the 12 away.”

Elliot studied the sticker. “I could use like eight more of these.”

Z handed her the marker. “Get writing.”

Elliot held the marker in her hand, staring down at the blank stickers. She knew what she had to write. In a quick motion, she wrote ‘E+’ on the sticker.

“What kind is that one?” Z asked.

“It’s a… anti-legume?”

“No peanuts allowed?”

“No, no, no, the cop thing. I figured it really didn’t matter what I wrote, just as long as I intended it to mean something.”

Z smiled. “You’ve been listening.”

Elliot looked away. “Heh…”

“So, what’s the E+ about?”

“Oh. So, I’ve noticed a lot of the slaps were from the same people. Like, they have signatures and everything. I wanted to have one too.”

“People will love them. When should we go put them up?”

Elliot examined her work. She wrote out another one. “I’m actually kind of embarrassed to put them up? Like, who am I?”

“You’re Elliot,” Z said. She took a drink of her coffee.

“Yeah, so, I really shouldn’t put them up.”

“No, you should put them up because you’re Elliot. You’re a witch. Putting those slaps up will help people. Also, ninety percent of those slaps were put up by mediocre men. The least you could do for yourself is to have that kind of confidence.”

Elliot’s ears twitched. She looked away. Z rounded the counter between them and patted Elliot on the shoulder. “This will all get easi-”

Elliot hugged Z, pulling her close. Z held her arms up in surprise, then carefully hugged Elliot.

“What is happening?” Z asked.

“What?” Elliot stepped back, her eyes flicking back and forth, watching Z closely.

“You just HUGGED me. Like, on purpose. And you haven’t been mean or snarky to me once.”

“I-” Elliot hugged herself. “I feel, like… good? It’s confusing to me too.”

“Things starting to make sense, huh?”

“Yeah,” Elliot said. “Things feel clearer now. I can see the ways that I can help, even if they’re really small.”

Z beamed at Elliot.

Elliot’s ears pressed themselves against her head. “What?”

“I like seeing you like this. You feel like a different person than when we met.”

“Okay, so we need to talk about that.” Elliot grabbed her coffee. “Why are we even friends? Why did you even put the effort in? I’m kind of a piece of shit sometimes.”

Z rolled her eyes. “Oh, I knew you were one of us the minute I saw you.”

“Okay, but HOW?”

“The same way you know The Nerd is a wizard. And that Gimble was a witch when you first saw her.”

Elliot raised her hand. “She flew in on a broom and scared a monster away with a jar of pennies.”

“Magic!” Z said. “You stood out. Magic sees magic. Also, you have this whole spooky tomboy thing going on, and that pushes a lot of buttons for me.”

“Ugh.”

“I also know what it’s like to feel completely alone, and I didn’t want you to feel that.”

Elliot dropped her eyes to the floor and bit her lip in thought. “Well, thanks… for putting up with me.”

“Nonsense. You are worth the effort. Don’t forget that.”

“Heh…” Elliot rubbed the back of her neck. “You keep this up I might just be obliged to that make out sesh you want.”

“Hey,” Z said. “I flirt because I like you, but I never, ever want you to feel pressured into anything. I fully know you’re not interested. I push your buttons because I like you, and sometimes I’m kind of shitty about the way I show affection.” She held Elliot by her shoulders. “I am saying nice things about you because you should hear them. There’s no price tag attached to that, and this conversation is not transactional.”

“Thanks,” Elliot said, giving Z an embarrassed smile. “It’s been a weird adjustment for me, but I appreciate the way you all have been kind to me.”

Z patted Elliot’s shoulder again. “Man, that makes me feel really crappy for what I’m about to say.”

“Uhm?”

“I’m kicking you out.”

“What??” Elliot took a step back.

“Oops, finished that sentence too early. I’m kicking you out for the evening.”

Elliot’s ears twitched. “Okay, but…?”

“I have a date tonight and I fully expect to come back here with him.”

“Ohh,” Elliot said. “Yeah, I see why that might be an issue.”

“I know it’s short notice, and I’m sorry. Gimble has plenty of room and she’d totally be happy to take you in.”

Elliot froze. “With the…” She looked around, like she was being heard beyond the walls of the apartment. “With the ghosts?”

“They’re so nice!” Z said. “You have to give them a chance.”

“No, I’m good.”

“Okay, well…” She drummed her fingers on the counter again. “Ty and Meryl will be there tonight. Maybe you could come along and ask them if you can couch surf for the night?”

Elliot stayed still.

“There’s no ghosts there,” Z said.

“Yeah, but…” Elliot fidgeted. “Like, Ty’s really intimidating?”

“Whaaat? Ty? She’s like my best friend. She’s also super loyal.”

“I feel like she’d punch me in the throat if I looked at Meryl weird.”

“Hmm…” Z said. “Maybe not you, but she would punch a bitch in the throat if they looked at Meryl weird. Yeah, that checks out. We’re starting to run out of options. I guess just chill at Cassie’s?”

Elliot’s eyes widened. She pulled out her phone and started typing. “I just got an idea.”

“Was it Cassie’s?”

“I’m going to see if Ardy wants to hang out.”

Z brightened. “Oh! That’s a good idea! So does that mean things are going well?”

“I think we went on a date a few days ago?” Elliot said sheepishly.

“WHAT. You weren’t even going to tell me?”

“I’m processing a lot right now,” Elliot said. “And it just kind of happened?”

“So are you, like, officially dating?” Z took Elliot by the hand.

“I don’t know? I guess I should ask.”

“You could go get coffee and then go back to her place and snuggle!”

Elliot could feel herself blushing. “I regret saying anything.”

“I’m just excited for you,” Z said.

Elliot nodded. She looked down at her phone, at the text message that just came in. “She said yes. We’re going to meet on Capitol Hill at 10:30 by Vivaci.”

“Oh!” Z said. “You should come to happy hour with all of us then. Meet Dan, he’s really nice. And have Ardy come in and say hi. I want to meet her. And smell her.”

“Okay, she is for sure not going to come in to meet you.” Elliot went over to her bag on the couch and took out a change of clothes. “I’m going to take a shower and figure out my day.”

“I appreciate you being flexible about the apartment,” Z said.

Elliot nodded and started towards the bathroom.

“And who knows? If Ardy doesn’t work out, maybe you could come back here and join us…”

Elliot raised her hand above her head and flipped Z the bird.

Z cackled as Elliot slammed the door behind her.

Back to Part 17 — Chapter Index — Forward to Part 19

Pacific NorthWitch 17

June 16, 2020

grant

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“What is magic?”

Elliot’s ears twitched. She looked around the street. “I thought… I thought you knew?”

Gimble kept her focus ahead, moving up the street with confidence. Elliot kept pace, holding her coffee in both hands. It was a gray Sunday, the sun still low in the sky behind the clouds. Still, the streets in Pioneer Square rattled and popped with activity. Gimble cracked a smile.

Ahead, a gaggle of soccer fans pre-gamed outside a bar, blocking the sidewalk. Gimble flicked her wrist, slow and deliberate. The soccer fans, without seeing the two of them approach, stepped away from the sidewalk, carving a path down the middle. “Sometimes, magic is a suggestion.” Gimble said. As she passed through, she turned back to the crowd and shouted, “SE-ATT-LE!” Elliot nearly dropped her coffee.

“SOUND-ERS!” The soccer fans responded. Satisfied, Gimble turned back around, meeting a startled, confused Elliot’s gaze.

“Was that magic too?” Elliot asked, looking over her shoulder.

“No, but it was fun,” Gimble said. “Magic can be used for influence, of course. They don’t know why they got out of our way. They were compelled, and they did not think of it.”

“You intended them to get out of the way,” Elliot said, her ears twitching in thought.

“Yes,” Gimble said. “Exactly. I also intended for them to shout back at me, but no magic was needed for that. Because sometimes magic is simply a matter of knowing how to get what you want.”

“No ectoplasm required,” Elliot said. She thought a moment, taking a drink of her coffee to give her the break in conversation. “How do you do it, though?” She asked. “Shouting is easy, how do you part a sea of people? And don’t-”

“Practice.”

“-Say practi- aw dammit.”

Gimble let out a laugh. “How do you push someone downstairs from behind a closed door?”

Elliot could feel her tail bouncing behind her. Or, how do you know a jimmy bar away from a locked door? Or open a fridge a floor above you? How do you go unseen?

There was something to all of this. She couldn’t quite put her finger on it.

“Have you been looking for magic?”

“I mean, no?” Elliot ears dropped on her head. “I don’t know what to look for.”

“The trick,” Gimble start, “is that magic is everywhere, and that most people don’t realize they’re doing magic. Have you ever seen someone catch a ball one handed? A one in a million miracle catch?”

“That’s magic?”

“They bent the universe to their will, though a small, small part of it. Their brain sees the ball, and thinks, ‘not today, I’m catching that ball.’ And their intention is set.”

“But how does the magic know?”

Gimble looked over at her. “That’s a good question! How do you do your disappearing trick?”

Elliot’s ears perked. “Ah! I don’t really think about it?”

Gimble said nothing to this. Elliot frowned, but that was as good an answer as anything.

They continued on down the street.

“I’d like to see your magic,” Gimble said.

“It’s not that special,” Elliot said, looking away.

“But it is yours. You have honed it for your entire life, that’s not nothing.” Gimble pointed to a bottle left on a bench. “There. You said you can move things. Move that.”

Elliot studied the bottle. This shouldn’t be that hard. She took a deep breath, focused on the bottle, and with a flick of her finger, the bottle on the bench ten feet away from them fell over.

“Not bad,” Gimble said.

Elliot gave her a sidelong glance. Then, flicking her wrist again, she lifted the bottle into the air and deposited it in a recycling bin.

“That is very useful,” Gimble said. “How far can you do that?”

“Not much more than that?” Elliot said. “It’s easier if I can just knock it over. But something like a bottle isn’t too bad.”

“Now…” Gimble said. “Your unseen trick.”

Elliot thought a moment. Chances were, she thought, Gimble could detect her magic. She’d need a way to prove she was going unseen. She looked across the street to the convenience store and motioned with her head to Gimble. She trotted across the street, willed herself unseen, and stepped inside the store. Carefully, she selected a conspicuous pack of cookies off the shelf in front of the check stand, turned and waved to the bored looking cashier, and waited for someone else to come through the automatic doors to step out.

Elliot held the cookies up in front of Gimble.

“Well done,” Gimble said. “You make it look so effortless.”

“Once I got the hang of it…” Elliot said. She looked down at the package of cookies. “…I’m going to go put these back…”

Gimble smiled and waited for Elliot to return.

“Okay, now,” Gimble said. She pointed across the street to a pedestrian. “Set them on fire.”

“WHAT? NO!” Elliot said.

Gimble let out a laugh. “I’m kidding. Your skills are more advanced than I had thought.”

“Oh…” Elliot said. “I don’t know what to say…”

Gimble patted her arm. “You don’t need to say anything. I’m just trying to gauge how comfortable you are with magic. It tells me how we need to train you.”

Elliot nodded like she understood. She didn’t. She didn’t quite get it. Magic didn’t feel like something you could learn completely. But then again, she had always just stumbled into it.

“Have you spotted the spells yet?” Gimble asked.

Elliot’s ears dropped. “I don’t really know what to look for.”

“Luckily, you’re in an excellent place to start.” Gimble nodded to a street sign. “Here, for example.”

“No parking from 7am until 6pm?” Elliot asked.

Gimble steered her around to look at the back of the sign. A dozen stickers had been placed on the sign, from name tags and postal labels, to custom made pieces.

“Slaps?” Elliot asked.

“Not all, but a few,” Gimble said. “Often the easiest to pick out are post office stickers. They’re less permanent.”

“Those usually are destroyed in a few days, why would-” Elliot stopped herself. The wheels in her head were turning.

“Why indeed,” Gimble said.

“Okay, so if you’re telling me that you can put spells on slaps, and you don’t want a spell to last, it’s because…”

“Magic is opportunist,” Gimble said. “Give it an inch and it’ll take a mile. A spell like that that will stay forever will start to work beyond its intended effects.” Gimble leaned forward to look at the slap. “This one appears to be protection from opposing forces. That could be a lot of things here in Pioneer Square: cops, other people, tourists, the baristas. Maybe someone set up in a tent close by only wants to be left alone. But that grows and grows and people start dropping dead for seemingly no reason.”

“Ah,” Elliot said, her eyes wide.

“You put up slaps, they have to go away.” She studied the sign. “We are convinced there’s one on Capitol Hill SOMEWHERE that was meant to attract renters to a property. It must be permanent.”

“Because of the bros?” Elliot asked.

“Because of the bros.”

Gimble continued to lead her down the street, into the park. It was a large brick plaza, surrounded by tall trees and metal tables and chairs. A guitarist was finishing up a set just as another gaggle of soccer fans, dressed in green and blue, began to congregate. Elliot made a mental note to get out of the ID before the game let out.

Elliot looked up, feeling her intuition tug at the back of her brain. Off at the periphery of the park, trying to blend in with the soccer fans, was The Nerd. He tried to look inconspicuous, but the bandana over his mouth really did the opposite. C’mon, guy.

Gimble turned to her, tugging gently on Elliot’s arm. “What is it?” She looked past Elliot into the crowd.

“I just saw someone. Just got a weird vibe is all.”

“You should listen to that vibe,” Gimble said. “Perhaps it is time that we start to head back home.”

“Can we go get more coffee?” Elliot asked. “I’m dying.”

“Actually dying,” Gimble said. She turned both of them and started towards the stadium, and towards the Link station, and that meant toward coffee.

“Literally dying,” Elliot said. “I am dead.”

They fell into a flow of people heading to the game, and Gimble continued to point out spells people had slapped up. Prosperity, safety, to ward off hunger, to win a game. There were magic users all around her filling the world with spells to help each other keep going. Except for that one on the trash can. “I’m pretty sure they just don’t want people peeing on it,” Gimble said.

Elliot caught a flash of a face in her vision, and she canned the crowd. Agent Lebeau skirted the edge of the crowd too. Was it that day? Elliot thought. Was it creep on Elliot day? Elliot sank down, getting behind some taller soccer fans.

“Another one?” Gimble asked.

“Yeah.”

“Let’s not do that,” Gimble said. “We need to get to coffee quicker.”

“Yeah yeah,” Elliot said. They broke away from the crowd, pushing against the flow coming from the International District, up the bridge and over the train tracks, darting across to the ID.

“How does bubble tea sound instead?” Gimble asked. “I know someone that will let us lay low for a while.”

“I can make it work,” Elliot said.

Gimble lead her into the ID, past the florists and Pink Godzilla, past import stores and travel agencies, and so many amazing smelling restaurants, until they ducked into a little place that sold take out dim sum and bubble tea. Gimble greeted the woman behind the counter in Cantonese, and pointed to the back. The woman smiled at her and waved her on. In the back, just off the kitchen, was a little seating area. Gimble took her seat, and the woman from up front brought them a plate of steamed hom bao and a pot of tea. They chatted in Cantonese. Elliot pulled out her notebook and wrote as quickly as she could about slaps, about suggestion, about intention. The tea would keep her up that night, but it was okay. She liked the night.

Back to Part 16 — Chapter Index — Forward to Part 18

Pacific NorthWitch 16

April 30, 2020

grant

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Back to Part 15 — Chapter Index — Forward to Part 17

To her credit, Meryl did bring Elliot coffee. She was dressed for the late October morning, a nice coat that would have looked at home in a modest sci-fi movie, gray and stylish, with a symbol on the left breast pocket she didn’t recognize, and some reliable looking jeans. She grinned at Elliot, who had barely managed into her jeans and hoodie, and her hoodie slumped off one of her shoulders. Meryl handed her the coffee.

“Oh thank god,” Elliot said.

“I didn’t know if you liked cream or-”

Elliot took a long, desperate drink.

“Okay, cool,” Meryl said. She waited for Elliot to collect herself, and said, “Are you ready to learn how to fuck shit up?”

Elliot nodded.

Meryl explained her plan as they went. A couple of bus rides later, they boarded a ferry to Vashon. They’d be able to have space there to do whatever they wanted, and they’d swing by Gimble’s for lunch. And while they went, Meryl showed Elliot pictures of the costumes she had made for various comic conventions.

“I wanted to do a couple’s costume with Ty but she’s so not into it,” Meryl said. “She puts up a wall sometimes, but I think she’s actually shy about it. Like she doesn’t want the attention.”

“I get it,” Elliot said.

“Yeah, your whole thing is not being seen, huh?”

Elliot hesitated. “So what costume did you want to do?” She asked, deflecting.

“Oh, Mulder and Scully for sure,” Meryl said. “I’d be the hot red head, and she could be the FBI agent.”

“That seems easy.” Elliot said.

“Yeah,” Meryl said. “And she’d look so hot in a suit too. But that’s okay.”

They caught a bus at the ferry terminal on Vashon and got off at a stop on the edge of a forest. Elliot looked around, her ears perked. She tried to reckon where they were compared to Gimble’s. Meryl started forward into the woods. Elliot trotted to keep up.

The path Meryl followed wound up a hill, the trees around them growing thicker and darker. Elliot stuck close, hoping that she didn’t catch anything in the corners of her vision. Meryl kept moving forward, as sunny and bright as ever.

Elliot stopped cold. In the distance, just above her head height, was a figure made out of sticks and vines. It was vaguely shaped like a person, and it twisted gently in the breeze. There was another a stone’s throw away, just up the path, and in a quick sweep of their surrounding Elliot spotted half a dozen more.

“Uhm…” She said. She felt her tail slip between her legs. She didn’t dare move forward. Meryl spun around?

“You okay?” She returned to Elliot.

Elliot pointed a shaky finger at the figures in the trees.

“Oh! Those,” Meryl said. “I made those.”

“Why??” Elliot asked, her voice cracking.

“Keeps the kids away,” Meryl said. She turned and walked into a clearing. “Come on! I’ll show you my practice tree.”

Meryl pointed to a tree that was stripped of bark, pocked with impacts, scars that glowed faintly when Elliot really looked at them.

“What’d this tree do to you?” Elliot asked.

“Fuck that tree in particular!” Meryl said, and laughed. “What if I told you sometimes thing have evil spirits inside them?”

“Is that tree possessed?” Elliot asked, taking a step back. Her tail poofed out a little.

“Oh, I don’t know,” Meryl said. “It’s just something I’ve wondered. Anyway, this tree is good for target practice.”

Elliot nodded. She set her bag down against a tree. “So how… how does this work?”

Meryl took of her jacket. She stretched, loosening her shoulders and arms. “So everything is about intention, right?”

“Like flying,” Elliot said. She wondered if she should be stretching too. She tried to mimic Meryl, but felt silly.

“Yeah! Just like that.” Meryl wiggled her fingers. “Except not? I guess. Instead of intending to fly, you’re intending to do damage. So what I do is I feel for magic.”

“You feel for it?” Elliot squinted, and then her ears perked. “Oh…”

“It’s there,” Meryl said. “Like there’s a thaumic layer around everything if you know what to feel for. So I feel for it…” she held out her hand. Slowly, a little bead formed in her palm, like an iridescent pearl. Before Elliot’s eyes, the pearl grew until it was the size of a billiard ball. “And when I feel like I have enough…” She drew her arm back and flung it underhanded like a softball pitcher. It hit the tree, sending an echoing crack through the forest.

Elliot watched, her eyes wide. There was a fresh pock mark on the tree, and it smoked slightly.

“Ah,” Elliot said. She looked down at her hands. Could she do that? She thought about all the times she snuck into her room, flicking the jimmy bar away from the door. “Uhm… So I just…?”

Meryl turned to her. “Yeah! So just hold your hand out…” She took Elliot’s hand and positioned it at the level of her chest. “Here is a good place to start. Hold it like this and feel for the layer.”

Elliot felt for the layer. She thought about slamming the door on her old roommate, about flipping the fridge door open from a floor away. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

Her fingers brushed against magic, and like the broom she flew with, she felt her fingers tingle. She pushed, pushed against the thaumic layer, and magic flowed into her hand. She opened her eyes, wide, her breath growing ragged. The little pearl collected in her palm, growing slowly. Unlike Meryl’s ball, it wobbled and fluctuated.

“Okay okay okay,” Meryl said, her eyes bright. “Now throw it!”

Elliot flung the ball of magic at the tree. It arced too high and broke apart, little pebbles hitting the wood. They fell to the ground and disappeared with an ethereal hiss.

Elliot fell backwards, collapsing to the ground, catching her breath. She touched magic.

“That’s a good start!” Meryl said. She held her hand out for Elliot.

“I didn’t do it though…” Elliot said. She thought about getting up for a good hard moment and decided against it. She sat up, content to sit on the dead leaves of the forest floor.

Meryl sat down next to her. “Practice,” she said. She punched Elliot in the arm.

Elliot nodded. She looked at the wisps of magic rising from the forest floor, barely visible now. In the place of the little pebbles of collected magic, little white mushrooms grew from the forest floor. Elliot’s ears twitched in thought.

“You doing okay, buddy?” Meryl asked.

“Uhm…” Elliot hadn’t expected that. She thought about what to say, and Meryl didn’t say anything, watching tree branches sway in the wind. “I don’t know?”

“You seem… I dunno, detached, I guess.”

Elliot dropped her eyes away, her ears flattening against her head. “I’m having trouble feeling anything. Like, everything is so different and my world is different and the life I had a month ago is now just so strange and alien and like… it doesn’t feel like anything now.” She bit her lip in thought. “I feel like I’m floating.”

“It’s all new still,” Meryl said. “I think you’re in shock. When I started doing magic seriously, I felt like I was floating too.”

Elliot hugged her knees. “Did you get better?”

Meryl didn’t speak right away. She grew distant, staring off at the clouds as the rolled through the sky. And then her eyes brightened. “I got a purpose. I think that helps. Gimble has her practice, Cassie has the shop, Ty gets to be a mechanic.”

“And you have the whole medical examiner thing.”

“Oh yeah,” Meryl said. “I guess there’s that too.” She idly summoned a little ball of leaves. It swirled in her hands, and then she waved it away and the leaves fluttered to the ground. “I bet if you find a purpose it’ll help.”

Elliot considered this. She held out her hand, feeling again for the magic she felt before, and watched it collect in her palm. She threw it, and it hit the tree with a splash. Her ears perked. Better.

“So you use this to defend yourself?” She asked.

Meryl nodded. “I have before.” She stood and brushed herself off.

“I’m not really good at throwing stuff…” Elliot said.

Meryl turned back to Elliot, beaming. “Once you can summon them, I’ll teach you how to put them on target like Megan Rapinoe.” She offered Elliot her hand. Elliot accepted.

“But can these like… Can this actually hurt someone?”

Meryl summoned another energy ball. “It’s all about intention, right?” She whipped the ball at the tree. A chunk broke off the tree and fell to the ground. She turned back to Elliot, as if to say, now you try.

Elliot held out her hand again, pushing against the thaumic layer and she felt it again, like she had before. She pushed, and magic pushed back. It caressed her hand, spreading into her veins, opened her eyes. Magic pushed back, and it was intoxicating. She thought about the bully, the one that harassed her every day of her short college career. She thought about pushing him down the stairs from behind her dorm room door. She thought about setting him on fire.

Elliot threw the ball of magic.

A shower of splinters exploded from the tree. Elliot and Meryl shield themselves, shouting, drowned out by the crack of the tree trunk shattering. The tree hung in the air a moment, as if it didn’t believe what had just happened. And when reality set back in the tree fell, slamming into its own stump, and falling towards Meryl and Elliot. Meryl shrieked, and she pushed Elliot out of the way. The tree fell between them, barely missing Meryl.

Elliot gasped on the ground. She looked back at Meryl, who stood wide eyed, the tree laying at her feet. She looked at Elliot.

Elliot scrambled to her feet. “Meryl-!”

“OH MY GOD, THAT WAS GREAT!” Meryl said. She jumped over the tree and hugged Elliot, nearly knocking her over again.

“Erk!” Elliot said. “Ah! Wait, are you okay?!”

Meryl laughed. “You’re a quick study!”

“I almost killed you though!”

“Yeah, but you missed.” She reached up to her face, and drew her hand back, a splotch of blood on her fingers. “Okay, so you mostly missed.”

Elliot staggered backwards. She reached up to her face too, feeling the blood that flowed from her nose. “I think… I think we should be done? We should be done.”

“Oh, right right right,” Meryl said. “Yeah, I think lesson learned, right? We’ll do more later.”

“Uhm…” Elliot said. “Okay.” She looked at the tree. The end of it was still smoking. It didn’t smell like any smoke Elliot had had smelled before. It made her want to hide under her covers and never come out.

Meryl looped her arm around Elliot’s. “Come on, I bet Gimble has pizza left over.”

“Oh shit,” Elliot said. And like that, the clouds around her went away.

“Yeah, dude,” Meryl said. They left the forest behind.

Back to Part 15 — Chapter Index — Forward to Part 17

Pacific NorthWitch 15

April 25, 2020

grant

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Back to Part 14 — Chapter Index — Forward to Part 16

That Friday, Gimble assembled everyone in her home. Again, the warmth of baking cookies floated through the house, as well as pizza. The pizza wasn’t freshly made, but it was plentiful, coming in a stack of boxes from the local big box wholesaler. Ty carried them in, a door created just so she could transport them without having to use the ferry, and Elliot watched hungrily, idly entertaining the idea of getting to take a whole box home.

They gathered in Gimble’s living room, sitting on overstuffed couches and cushions on the floor, eating and talking about the week. Meryl arrived with Ty, bringing barbecue from a place in the International District, a Chinese restaurant that had long become part of the fabric of “Seattle.” Cassie arrived soon after, whom Elliot was surprised to see, but happy all the same. She set a bottle of wine down on Gimble counter, and she and Gimble gossiped about the other covens in the area. Z came last, carrying a pack of local craft beer in one hand, and a case of diet cola in the other. She hugged Elliot as soon as she could.

“I’m glad you came,” Z said. “These are nice. After a week of work, it’s nice to be social for a while.”

Elliot nodded absently. She was watching the edges for the ghosts. Despite her anxiety, they kept visible the entire time, socializing with people as they arrived. Meryl even happily hugged them, somehow, like they were old friends.

Elliot found a spot on a couch, not too far removed from the socializing, pulling her legs to her chest. She quietly ate her pizza, entertaining the idea of one of the beers Z brought, except that she hated hipster beer — if she could describe the beer as being ‘beardy’, she would. It’s a beardy beer — and anyways, she didn’t want to feel tipsy right then.

Meryl flopped down on the couch with her, and Elliot’s ears dropped to the side of her head. The whole point of sitting over there was to be out of the action, and yet…

Meryl gave her a crooked smile and offered her some of her Chinese. “How have you been?” She asked. “I feel like it’s been forever.”

“Uhm…” Elliot said. “Fine? I’m still processing a lot.”

“Yeah…” Meryl said. “You opened the floodgates huh? But you’ll get there, and we’ll help you.”

Elliot looked down at her pizza. “Thanks.” She thought a moment. “I don’t get why you guys are nice to me, but I appreciate it.”

Meryl smiled and let her eyes drift to the ceiling. “Yeah, we’ve all be there. Some day you won’t have to guess why we care. We care because we’ve all been baby witches and we all needed support. Things can go really badly if you don’t have the right support.”

Elliot’s ear twitched in thought. “How do I know you’re the right support?”

Meryl looked over at her, locking eyes, and for a moment, she felt as though Meryl was trying to grab her soul from her. And then she gave Elliot a broad, wild smile. “Because we’ve been on the wrong side of bad support.”

“Wha-?”

“You wanna see a really cool scar??” Meryl grabbed the rim of her shirt and started to lift it up.

“Meryl!” Ty called from the kitchen. “Cassie wants to know about your costume for Emerald City ComicCon.”

“Oh!” Meryl said. And she was gone, like she had never been there to begin with.

Elliot sat stunned for a moment, and then finished her slice of pizza.

“I’m glad you made it,” Gimble said. She sat down next to Elliot, holding a glass of red wine.

“Thanks,” Elliot said softly.

“Have you had enough to eat?” She asked. “There’s plenty more in the kitchen. Please take all you need.”

“I’m fine,” Elliot said. “Thank you. This is…” Elliot thought a moment. “I didn’t really had a lot to eat for a long time, so sometimes my body doesn’t want me to stop eating and I have to be careful.”

Gimble nodded thoughtfully. “That’s really good to know. I’m glad you told me. My family saw starvation in its recent history, so feeding those we care about is incredibly important. I will, however, trust that you have what you need.”

“You guys are all so nice.”

Gimble patted her arm. “So, are you ready to learn more?”

Elliot looked up at Gimble. “Yeah, totally. I’m ready to learn. What…” She looked around, feeling silly. “Are there, like, spells? Do I get a wand? Are there wands?”

“Oh, absolutely,” Gimble said. “We’ll work on spells and divination too. All the things you need to know to get started. We can talk all about that this weekend. But first, I have homework for you.”

“What? What am I, 12?”

“I want you to be looking for magic around you.”

“Oh, okay.” Elliot said. “I’ll just look for magic.”

“It’s there, if you know what to look for.”

“But I don’t-”

Gimble smiled. “I want to see if you pick up on it first. After that, we’ll talk all about it.”

Elliot nodded. “Okay. I think I can do that.”

“Good. Do you have a grimoire yet? That’s the perfect place to write it all down.”

“Yeah, it’s just a notebook but…” She wandered if she should tell Gimble about Right Determination.”

“A notebook will do,” Gimble said. “As long as you can write in it. But I do think you should take Right Determination up on her offer.”

“Did you just…” Elliot leaned closer. “Did you just read my mind, because I’m not okay with that.”

Gimble took a thoughtful sip of her wine. “Z mentioned a demon had offered you a book. I made an educated guess that it was her.”

“You know her?” Elliot’s ears perked. Gimble let out a low laugh.

“She’s somewhat known among the covens. And it sounds like she’s happy to help you out.”

“Yeah…” Elliot didn’t know what to say. She looked around. Everyone else had made it into the living room, and they were talking about what movie to watch. Meryl sat down in between Elliot and Gimble and fixed her eyes on Ty.

“But it’s almost Halloween!” She said. “We have to watch a scary movie!”

“We’re not watching Dead Alive,” Ty said.

Meryl turned to Elliot. “You’ll love it, it’s so gross!”

“Yeah, that’s why we’re not watching it. I would like to sleep tonight.”

“I’ll help you sleep!” Z said.

“You wish,” Ty said. “The current leader is Alien.”

“I’m just saying, Sigourney Weaver,” Cassie said. “Just like, all of that on the screen.”

Elliot leaned over to Gimble. “Can I learn how to defend myself? Like, is there a spell for that?” She asked, her voice just above a whisper.

“Is this about the boy that’s been following you?” Gimble asked.

Elliot hesitated. “…Yes?”

“It might be best for now to avoid confrontation. At least until we can figure out what’s happening.”

Elliot nodded. “Okay.” She sank back to her spot and listened to the argument. God, it couldn’t be that hard to pick a movie.

She sighed and remembered the beverages in the kitchen. She quietly excused herself and wandered away. In the kitchen, she leaned against the counter, folding her arms over her chest, and let the noise of the other room fade. She thought about more pizza, and even the beer. It’d be nice to calm down for a bit. And didn’t have to drive anywhere…

“Hey.”

Elliot looked up. Meryl stood just inside the kitchen, like she was making sure she was keeping an appropriate distance. She watched Elliot carefully.

“Sorry, I was just…” Elliot started.

“No worries,” Meryl said. “It was getting loud in there, wasn’t it? If I had, like, anxiety issues, I would have hidden an hour ago.”

“Ha,” Elliot said. “Yeah…”

“I heard what you asked Gimble,” Meryl said, taking a step closer. “Is a guy harassing you?”

“Yeah,” Elliot said. “He’s this nerd who saw me on the train once, and now he keeps appearing where ever I go.”

“Creepy,” Meryl said. She took another step closer, until the tiled island stood between them. Meryl put her hands on the counter. “I can teach you how to defend yourself.”

“Yeah?” Elliot asked. “What about what Gimble said?”

“Just some basic things,” Meryl continued, “but it’s important and I think you shouldn’t have to feel worried and afraid when you’re out in public.”

Elliot nodded slowly. “Yeah. Yeah, thanks.”

“Let’s hang out tomorrow. We’ll get some coffee and then go out into the woods and wreck shit.” She stepped around the island and took Elliot’s hand in hers, looking up at her, her eyes almost sparkling.

Elliot pulled her hand away. “It always feels like you guys are hitting on me.”

Meryl laughed. “I think you’re not used to affection from friends,” she said.

“I’m not used to friends,” Elliot said.

“But also, that does sound like a rad date, huh?”

Elliot pulled her arms over her chest tighter.

Meryl laughed again and hit Elliot on the arm. “You have nothing to worry about. Just a friend teaching another friend how to use magic to fuck someone up. Normal friend stuff.”

Elliot let out a little laugh. “Okay. Tomorrow.”

“Be at Z’s at seven!” Meryl said, and flitted out of the room.

“What, in the morning?” Elliot asked back. “Hey! Come back! In the morning??”

When she got back to the living room, Meryl had snuggled up next to Ty, like nothing had ever happened. Z caught her eye, and patted a spot next to her. Elliot’s shoulders dropped. It was as good a spot as any, and when she sat down she wasn’t at all surprised that Z put her around around her.

Affection. Huh.

Elliot decided she could get used to it.

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