The Cursed Witch

by Chandelle LaVaun

  I reached for them but my palms were raining golden glitter. It hit the frozen blanket and the ground hissed and groaned. The world rumbled under my knees and then the ice exploded right under us. The ice cracked under my hands, giant crevices shot across the ground in every direction like a shattered frozen lake. The ground opened up and the candles were dragged down into the dirt.

  “The candles!” Gigi hissed.

  “Theirs now, ma’am.” Savannah reached for her. “Abort mission! We gotta go.”

  Blue light flashed at my feet and then a spirit shot up out of the ground right between Gigi’s hands. She screamed and jumped back. Light flashed around her – and suddenly she turned into a penguin.

  I screamed and dove for her…to do what I had no idea. One second she was a human the next a penguin. What the hell, what the hell, what the hell…

  Savannah smacked her on top of her penguin-head with her notebook and shouted, “Switch back!”

  Gigi squawked and flapped her fins, her eyes wide and panicked.

  I screamed again. OH MY GOD. OH MY GOD. OH MY GOD.

  She’s a penguin!

  “WHAT IS HAPPENING?” I screeched.

  “We’ve been working on this, Gigi!” Savannah hollered and groaned. She shoved her notebook in her satchel then threw her hands in the air. “All our hard work gone, ma’am. GONE. We’ll have to start over. Were you working on your breathing?”

  “Breathing? What do you mean?” I glanced back and forth between the spirits closing in around us and my friend that was somehow now a freaking penguin. “SHE’S A PENGUIN! WHAT IS HAPPENING? WHY? What? How? Savannah!”

  Savannah grabbed Gigi’s penguin wings and shook her. “Change back!”

  Gigi-penguin squawked and thrashed around.

  Ohmygodohmygodohmygod. She’s a penguin. How is she a penguin? What is happening? This can’t be real. This can’t be happening. One second she was her normal human self the next she was a little three-foot-tall penguin. My stomach turned. My whole body rattled.

  Something sharp and hot brushed over my arm. I turned — and screamed. The spirits were upon us. The world wobbled and spun around us. I threw my hands out to catch my balance as my mind spun and more of that glitter shot out of my palms. What is this? What is this? What is this? A gust of wind rushed through the cemetery, carrying the glitter all the way across. Everywhere the glitter touched green grass sprouted up from the crevices in the ice. Pink and yellow flowers popped up everywhere. I gasped.

  What is happening?

  I tried to count out of order like Dr. Troy suggested but it wasn’t working. The spirits reached out with their blue glowing ghostly hands, clawing at my clothes. I screamed and swatted at them.

  Gigi screeched but she was still a penguin.

  “What do we do? How do we make them go away?”

  “I don’t know! This has never happened before!” Savannah screamed back. She dove into her satchel and pulled out a long, skinny object then held it up in the air and aimed it at the ghosts. “Come closer and you gon’ catch these hands, ma’am. Back up.”

  “They’re not backing up!” I huddled closer to them. We were surrounded. “What do we do?”

  Savannah flicked her stick in the air and little specks of glittery light poured out of it. The spirits hissed and jumped back. Savannah turned to me and pointed over my shoulder. “RUN! NOW!”

  Oh, shit. I spun and sprinted for the iron gate. With every step spirits lunged for me and each time I screamed. Their hands were so cold they burned. The glow of city lights were just ahead. We just had to get out of this cemetery. I glanced over my shoulder and my feet stumbled. Savannah was running a few feet behind me – carrying Gigi-penguin.

  “Don’t stop! Go, go, go!”

  I gasped and refocused on the gate ahead of me and ran. “Where do we go?”

  “My car, my car, my car!” Savannah screamed from a few feet behind me. “Go, go, go!”

  My legs burned in protest, but I pushed harder, I dug harder. The gate was just a few feet ahead, we were almost — a huge spirit shot up right in front of me and blue light flashed in my face. I tried to stop but I was moving too fast and my feet slid across the ice. I waved my arms to try and slow down. My toes hit an uneven ice crevice and then I was flying headfirst through the air.

  A dozen glowing blue translucent hands appeared out of thin air and grabbed me. I screamed as the spirits plucked me out of the sky — and gently lowered me to the ground. I felt several hands grip my shoulders and then I was on my feet. For a moment, I was as frozen as the ground beneath me.

  Savannah sprinted by me with Gigi-penguin wrapped in her arms. But I didn’t know how she was running so fast carrying something almost as tall as her. She waddled with alarming speed. “I can’t stop, keep moving!”

  I shook myself then raced after her. Ohmygodohmygodohmygod.

  Savannah stopped at the gate and started to sit Gigi-penguin down. “SHIT! THE GATE! We gotta go over!”

  Over? HOW? I dove for the gate and yanked on it but it didn’t budge, which made sense since we climbed over to get in. I screamed in frustration and rattled the gate. OPEN, OPEN, OPEN— gold glitter erupted out of my hands. The iron gate shrieked and the lock dissolved into dust. The door swung outward, dragging me along with it.

  What the hell, what the hell, what the hell—

  “Saffer—” Savannah screamed and slid to a stop beside me.

  I looked up and my heart dropped. There was a line of spirits standing in the street, blocking our only path to her car. “Where do we go?”

  Gigi-penguin squawked and thrashed in Savannah’s arms.

  “Night Haven!” Savannah’s blue eyes were wide with fear. She turned to the right and took off running. “Night Haven! Night Haven!”

  Oh right! My house was just around the corner. We could get there quickly on foot. I spun and hurried after them but the spirits were closing in fast. They swarmed us from every direction. My neck hurt from whipping my head around to look. A wall of blue light flashed up ahead as the spirits stretched all the way across the street.

  Savannah cursed and took a sharp right turn around the dark wood house. “THIS WAY!”

  “I’m coming,” I tried to shout back, but it came out in a whisper.

  "Saraphina?”

  I glanced over my shoulder just as spirits charged after us. My toe caught on something and I stumbled a few feet before catching my balance. I should have been able to keep up with a girl carrying a penguin but I couldn’t stop looking back at the spirits. They were everywhere.

  Savannah slowed and half turned, her face was sheet white. “Saffie! Where are you?”

  “DON’T STOP,” I yelled up to Savannah. “I’m coming, just keep going!”

  “Saraphina?” A woman shouted. “Saraphina is that you?”

  I stopped and spun around. I knew I needed to keep running. I saw Savannah getting further away in my peripheral vision, but this spirit said my name. My real name. Saraphina. I frowned and scanned their ghostly faces. Is that you? One of them knew me.

  “Saraphina?” She yelled again, from off to my left.

  I spun and then spotted her standing just outside the memorial, glowing that same translucent blue but her eyes were sharper. Clearer. She wore a long-sleeved flowing dress and her dark hair fell in loose waves past her shoulders.

  Her eyes widened and she gasped. “It IS you!”

  I froze. She knew me. They were strange words to say if they weren’t true. My heart was beating out of my chest and my fingers trembled. The other spirits closed in around us. I wanted to run, I needed to run and catch up with Savannah and Gigi but something in her voice made me stop.

  “Y-y-you k-k-know me?”

  “Of course I do,” she cheered with a wide grin. “It’s me, Bridget Bishop.”

  I shook my head and tugged on my hair. “I-I-I-I…don’t remember—

  “How are you alive still?”

  “What? How — what do you —�
�� My whole body was trembling now. I felt cold deep down into my bones. “How do you know me?”

  She frowned and cocked her head to the side. “We were neighbors, before the trials.”

  And then it clicked. Bridget Bishop. “Wait, I’ve heard your name. You were…you were…wait, that was 1692. You can’t know me.”

  “We were friends. Your dog Olli used to play in my yard. Oh, I’ve missed you two.” Bridget grinned and put her hand on my arm. “Saraphina, how are you alive? It’s been so long.”

  How am I alive? What’s been so long? She had to be confused. I must have looked like someone else – but she knows my name – no. No, can’t be. “Sorry, you must be mistaken —”

  “RUN!” Bridget gasped and grabbed my wrists, her ghostly fingers tingled against my skin. “Run!”

  “What? Why? How do you know m —”

  “Demons!” Bridget screamed and pointed over my shoulder. “Run, Saffie, RUN!”

  I shook my head and frowned. “What? Run? No, wait —”

  Bridget dragged me a few feet down the pathway. “Run, Saffie!”

  I spun around and screamed. My heart lodged in my throat. Standing in the road behind me was that same huge wolf I’d seen by the wharf my first night. It stood blocking my path to Savannah and Gigi. What do I do? Its big red eyes glowed like lava…and were focused right on me. It snarled and snapped those long fangs, drool hissed and smoked when it hit the ground. It growled and its black fur stood tall. The bricks trembled under my feet.

  “Saffie…time to go,” Bridget whispered and tugged on my sleeve.

  Go? Go where? I looked up ahead in time to see Gigi’s penguin head over Savannah’s shoulder as they turned the corner. “I…I have to…my friends…I have to get around—”

  Two more black wolves with red eyes jumped out and my breath left me in a rush.

  Bridget tugged on my sleeve. “Saffie…”

  There was no getting around them. There was no catching up to my friends. The wolf in front threw its head back and growled. The others howled. I gasped and their red eyes snapped to me. Oh no. OH NO. No, no. I took a step backward and all three wolves charged toward me.

  “RUN!” Bridget pushed me and screamed, “run, Saffie! GO! NOW!”

  I spun on my toes and sprinted back toward the main road. The spirits all screamed and waved me on, pointing to my left like that was the way they wanted me to go. The wolves growled and snarled, their long nails scraping across the ground as they chased me down.

  Go, Saffie. Go. Run. Faster. Faster. Faster. As I sped around the corner, I peeked behind me and choked on a scream. The wolves were almost on me. I dug my heels into the ground and dug deeper, harder. My poor little legs weren’t big but they pushed as hard as they could. I just had to get – where? Where can I go?

  A gust of wind ripped up the street, slamming into my back and carrying that sweet maple syrup smell. I glanced back. They were gaining on me. My stomach turned. I wasn’t going to make it to Savannah’s truck, it was parked several streets over. My only hope was – what? I have nothing. No ideas. No plan.

  A sleek, shiny black car slammed on its brakes in front of me. I gasped and slid to a stop. Spirits swarmed from every angle. My heart was lodged in my throat, pounding like a hammer. The car door flew open.

  “GET IN,” a dark, familiar voice yelled through the dark car.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Saffie

  Relief like I’d never experienced rushed through me. I knew that voice in an instant. Riah. I dove inside the darkness of his car without a second thought. His burning ember scent filled the air around me like it was trying to hug me. The car leapt into motion before I even had the door shut, and my back slammed into the seat. Heat radiated from the soft leather on my back and under my legs, taking the edge off the icy chill in my bones but doing nothing against the fear shaking through me.

  The air blowing out of the vents was warm yet I still felt frozen, like I’d never thaw out. Riah sped down the street without speaking, his sharp gaze narrowed on the road ahead of us. The orange glow of street lights shined through the windows in little bursts as we passed them.

  I wrapped my arms around myself and rocked back and forth. My whole body trembled. My teeth rattled together. Gold glitter lined the floor of his car under my feet and the air shimmered with it. That’s not from me, that’s not from me, that’s not from me.

  I glanced over to Riah but he just clutched the steering wheel with his left hand, his knuckles white from how hard he gripped. His amethyst ring sparkled in the moonlight streaming through the windshield. I tried to focus on that. On something concrete and real. Something that made sense. Something that was possible.

  Blue lights flashed over Riah’s hand, I looked up — and choked on a scream.

  The spirits. They were everywhere. I glanced left and right and back again. Their translucent, shimmering bodies glowed that eerie, unnatural blue. They popped up everywhere I looked – on the corners, in the middle of the street, up in the trees, hanging from windows in the buildings. They ran alongside the car, ducking down to try and talk to us. A strangled cry escaped my lips and tears stung the backs of my eyes. A warm tingly sensation shot down my spine and into my hands. I looked down — crystals appeared in my lap out of thin air. I shook harder and more crystals in different colors stacked on top of the others like I was catching rain drops.

  No, no, no, no.

  “Why does this keep happening? What is this?” I shrieked and swatted the crystals onto the floor. “Make it stop. Make it stop. Make it —"

  Riah’s hand landed on top of mine in my lap. I gasped and looked over to him, but he still kept his eyes on the road. His fingers scorched a fiery path over my skin as he took both my hands in one of his. My heart fluttered for a moment before it went right back to pounding out of control.

  “Don’t worry about that. It won’t hurt you,” he said softly. “Just close your eyes.”

  Close my eyes. Don’t look. Don’t SEE. I squeezed my eyes shut then interlaced my fingers with his. I focused on the heat in his skin and the softness of his fingers. The car lurched and turned and sped down the road. This isn’t happening. This isn’t happening. This can’t be happening.

  My body slammed forward as Riah hit on the brakes. My eyes flew open and my breath left me in a rush. We were home – my home. This was Landreia’s store on Essex Street. He brought me home. I leaned forward and looked out the windshield.I didn’t see any spirits floating around. Then I looked to my right and spotted Savannah and Gigi standing together by the front door, slamming their fists against it.

  Everything was happening so fast yet in slow motion at the same time.

  Riah dropped my hands and then leaned over and opened my door for me. It swung wide and snowflakes fell across my lap. Snow? When did it start snowing?

  “Saffie?” Savannah shouted.

  “Oh my god, it IS her!” Gigi screamed, human Gigi. “SAFFIE!”

  I started to get out but Riah grabbed my forearm and pulled me back. I gasped and spun to face him. His eyes held a blazing fire. In the dim moonlight streaming through the windshield the angles of his face seemed sharp enough to cut.

  He reached out and pressed his finger under my chin. “Stay inside tonight,” he growled. When I nodded he dropped his hand again. “Go.”

  There was something in his voice that made me do as he asked without thinking. I jumped out and slammed the door shut behind me. I took two steps before Savannah and Gigi tackled me in a vicious hug.

  “What happened?”

  “Where’d you go?”

  “You were right behind us!”

  “You told us not to stop!”

  “We didn’t mean to lose you!”

  “What happened?”

  I shook my head as their questions came in rapid fire. I didn’t know how to explain what had just happened.

  Savannah grabbed my arm and started dragging me toward the house. Her voice was high-pitched
and shaky. “You were right behind us…you were there and then just gone.”

  Gigi took my other arm as we rushed up the front steps. Her fingers were ice-cold but her palms were sweaty. “We thought you beat us back here. We were about to go back to find you.”

  “I-I-I-I don’t k-k-know.” I shook my head and clung to them. “I was – then spirits – said demon – I ran….then….then…R-r-r-riah picked me up.”

  Savannah reached into my jacket and pulled out the gold chain I kept the house key on. “Come on, let’s get inside.”

  The door creaked open and the girls rushed in. I paused on the threshold and glanced over my shoulder to the car. The window was rolled halfway down and Riah’s golden gaze watched me like a hawk. I nodded. That was far from sufficient but I was at a loss for words. It must’ve been enough though, because he nodded back then sped off down the street and around the corner. He was gone.

  “Saffie!” Gigi shouted and yanked me all the way inside by the wrist.

  The door slammed behind me.

  “LANDREIA!” Savannah screamed up the stairs as we passed it. “Landreia!”

  We turned the corner after the stairs – and screamed.

  Three spirits stood in the middle of the hallway, blocking our path to the kitchen. They glowed that inhuman blue…and just stood there unmoving. Their ghostly gazes locked on me.

  “Girls? Girls? What’s wrong—” Landreia gasped and threw her hands out to grab the doorframe so she wouldn’t fall. Her blue eyes widened and her jaw dropped. “What—”

  “We did a séance!” Savannah screamed in a rush.

  Landreia’s eyebrows rose, her cheeks flushing. “You WHAT?”

  “They’re everywhere, this is not normal!”

  Landreia cursed and reached into the pocket of her long black dress. She pulled her hand out and flung something white and powdery at the spirits. As soon as it hit them they burst into glittery dust and vanished.

  “Come. Now,” Landreia grabbed Savannah’s hand and dragged all three of us after her. “Tell me everything.”