by Kate A. Fox
I reached into my bra, relieved that my front door key hadn’t fallen out during my dip in the pool, and shoved it into the lock.
Surprisingly the door was unlocked. That could only mean one thing. Nicola had guests.
I thought of sitting on the top step and waiting for them to finish their visit. The last thing I wanted was for whoever was inside to see me in the state I was in.
But the fact was I was tired and upset and all I wanted to do was get a hot shower to wash away the embarrassment. It was all I needed right now. That and my bed.
Taking in a deep breath, I knocked softly on the door and paused for a moment before pushing the door open. The last thing I wanted to do was walk in on Nicola and Doctor McHottie going at it. Of course, if they were I’m sure Nicola would have had the good sense to at least lock the door but it was better to be safe than sorry.
“Nicola!” I called loudly to be sure that she was aware of my presence as I wandered down the hall.
I stopped dead in my tracks when I saw Nicola and the woman sitting on the sofa in the front room.
As if this night couldn’t get any worse?
“Brianna, there you are.” Nicola said.
This was serious. She only ever called me Brianna when I’d done something wrong. What could I possibly have done now?
“Brianna, this is Merrin Booth.” Nicola gestured at the all too beautiful woman who had been in the alleyway across from Frosty’s.
Who the hell was this woman?
First she’d appeared at the school like a shining saviour. Then she’d been watching me at Frosty’s. Now here she was, perched on the edge of the sofa, looking at me with an odd smile on her face.
“Hello, Brianna.” she said when I made no attempt to speak.
Her voice was perfect - not too harsh - sweet even.
“Hello.” It was all I could think to say.
“Is everything alright? Did something happen at the party?” Nicola looked at me with concern.
I know what you’re thinking. What teenager tells her guardian that she’s going to a party? I do. As I said before I don’t hide anything from Nicola.
“I think she’s had a bit of a rough night.” Merrin sighed, “I’m sorry I can’t do anything to make this more pleasant.”
A look passed between the two of them that made my skin crawl.
“It was nothing.” I said quickly.
I just wanted this night to end. The moment that Nicola spoke I knew it couldn’t be further from over.
“Brianna, Merrin has come to take you to the Winterwood Academy.”
What the hell was she talking about? Winterwood Academy? What the hell was that? It sounded like some kind of creepy cult.
I stared at them both with my eyebrows furrowed.
“I am aware that you have been going through a few...things.” Merrin stood and turned to look at me with a pointed expression that told me she knew far more than she was letting on, “I know that things have been happening to you over the last few days that you can’t really explain.”
“I’m not sure what you are talking about.” I shook my head.
A part of me thought that if I admitted that I knew what she was talking about they were going to think I was crazy and send me to some kind of lunatic asylum.
Maybe that’s what the Winterwood Academy was? Had Nicola noticed a change in me and called social services?
I couldn’t believe that of her. We had always faced our problems together no matter what they were. We’d always been that close.
“Miss Schwartz, perhaps you might allow me a moment alone with Brianna?” Merrin asked and I felt my heart skip a beat.
I did not want to be left alone with her. For God sake, Nicola, don’t leave me alone with her.
Even as I thought about it Nicola pushed herself up from the sofa and nodded, “Of course.”
What the hell was going on here? Had this strange woman hypnotized Nicola into doing anything she said?
After what I’d seen her do to my wrist I wasn’t at all sure I wouldn’t put it past her. There was something powerful about her, something supernatural even. I mean, who lays their hands on somebody and heals their broken bones?
Panic began to rise inside of me as Nicola gave me one last glance and disappeared down the hall to her bedroom.
How could she just up and leave me like that?
“Brianna, please come and sit so that we might talk?” Merrin suggested.
I hesitated.
“I’m wet.”
Nicola wouldn’t give a damn if I got the sofa wet but it seemed like a good excuse at the time.
“Please.” Merrin said almost sternly and she gestured towards the sofa, ignoring my silly excuse.
The power in her voice made me do what she asked and I stumbled into the room, throwing myself down onto the cushions.
Merrin settled back down into her seat beside me and for a moment she looked as though she was going to reach out and take my hand. Then she paused and seemed to think better of it.
“Brianna, I know that some scary things have been happening to you.” Merrin sighed.
I wouldn’t call them scary things. In fact, when I wasn’t drowning in the pool, they were pretty exhilarating.
“How do you know?”
“I have been watching you for the last week or so.” Merrin told me. Because that wasn’t creepy at all.
“A week?” I gasped. I had only seen her for the last couple of days. How much had she really seen?
“Brianna, what you don’t know is that when you use your power, it gives off a distinct...shall we say...beacon.”
My power? What was she talking about? Was that what I had when I flung Lola across the room? I had certainly felt powerful. I remembered looking in the mirror and seeing my eyes glowing with specks of lilac pigment. Was that power?
“Your beacon has been stronger than any I’ve ever felt before.” Merrin continued when I remained silent, “And that puts you in danger.”
I gulped. What kind of danger was she talking about?
“Until you can get a handle on your power and learn to ward yourself from those who might wish to do you harm, I’m afraid you must come with me to the Winterwood Academy.” still she continued to speak but I barely heard her now.
What she was saying didn’t make any sense. Then again neither did seeing a glowing woman in a pool who disappeared the moment my best friend jumped in to save me.
“Did you hear me? Brianna?” Merrin sounded worried. How could she be? She didn’t know me. She had no reason to be worried for me.
“I heard you.” I nodded.
“You understand that this is for your own protection?” Merrin asked although it didn’t really sound like much of a question. I nodded again anyway.
“I have already explained everything to Nicola and she seemed to take the news fairly well so I shall try to explain it to you as best I can.” Still she talked although it kind of felt to me like all she was saying was, ‘blah, blah, blah’.
“Brianna Winters, you are chosen by the Goddess, Selene.”
Those words caught my attention and my head whipped up to look at her. She knew about the Goddess, the one from my dream who had told me she had chosen me.
Could she see into my dreams?
“What do you mean I am chosen?” I asked.
“You were born with a gift.” Merrin explained, “One that the Goddess bestowed upon you when you were born but like most of us nowadays, it didn’t become apparent until you came of age.”
“Came of age?” I scowled at her.
“You are sixteen, are you not?”
So she didn’t know absolutely everything.
“I’m fifteen.” I replied.
Merrin paused at that and observed me closely. She pondered my answer for what felt like an age before finally taking a deep breath.
“Then it’s a good job I found you when I did.” she sighed, “Those who come to us early usually show gr
eat promise.”
Her words were just as confusing as everything else that she’d said but I didn’t question her anymore. I was too exhausted and still all I wanted was that shower. One that I probably wasn’t going to get.
“What am I?” the words came, unbidden, from my lips and I wasn’t at all sure that I wanted to know the answer.
“Brianna Winters, you are a witch.”
CHAPTER 9
WITH THAT BOMBSHELL DROPPED MERRIN FINALLY ALLOWED NICOLA BACK in to see me.
“I do believe we have everything settled here.” Merrin said with a smile.
I wasn’t so sure. I hadn’t said yes to going with her. By the sounds of it I didn’t have a choice. If what she said was true then I probably needed her just as much as she wanted me to go with her. If not, then she was as insane as I was beginning to believe that I was.
Merrin removed herself from the sofa and Nicola quickly took her place.
“I will leave you two to say your goodbyes.” Merrin offered with a sweet yet guarded smile. I was relieved the moment she stepped out of the room.
“Nicola, what the hell is happening?” I blurted out the moment we were alone.
Nicola reached out just as Merrin had but this time her hands gripped hold of mine. She was warm and comforting but I couldn’t seem to feel it. I was so cold that my hands and feet were like blocks of ice.
Tears were beginning to bubble into the corners of my eyes again and I held my breath in order to stop them from falling down my face.
“I know you are scared.” Nicola sighed and seemed to think for a moment, “Do you remember the story I once told you about the young girl who turned out to be special and she was taken to a school for the gifted?”
Of course I remembered. She’d told me that story so many times that it was seared into my mind.
I nodded.
“Well that story was about you, Brianna.” she squeezed my hands as she spoke as if she was trying to make the blow less painful.
Nicola knew this was coming! She had known all along. How could she have kept something like that from me?
“You knew!” I jumped up from the sofa as though my butt was on fire.
Nicola sighed and I saw her throat convulse almost as though she was fighting back tears too.
I was too angry to care. Nicola and I had never kept any secrets from each other. Or so I thought.
“Brianna there are things I could never tell you.” Nicola sighed, “Things I wish I could have told you but couldn’t. Your mother made me promise that I wouldn’t tell you until the right time came.”
“And you didn’t think that last week was the right time? Or last month? Or even last year?” I yelled, unable to keep my voice down. No doubt Merrin could hear me now but I didn’t care.
“Please, Brianna. Sit back down. There are things I have to tell you.” Nicola insisted but I was much too upset to sit down. I simply stood and glared at her.
She sighed again as though she knew I wasn’t going to just sit down and take it.
“Brianna, your mother told me that this would happen. She told me that it was for your own good but she also told me to warn you.” her eyes were pleading with me to sit down but she didn’t make the request again.
I stayed right where I was.
“Your mother left you with me because it wasn’t safe for you to be with her.” Nicola continued and I noticed that her hands were trembling. It must have been so hard for her to finally admit all of this. Not.
“Why wouldn’t I be safe with her?”
“Because there were people who would want to take you from her if they found you.” Nicola said. She stared at me as though she was willing me to realise that what had been done had been so for my own good.
“She said you were safer with me, safer having a normal childhood.” she continued, “She wanted you to live a normal life for as long as she could before they found you.”
“So these people are dangerous?” I quivered as I spoke.
“Some of them. Not all.” Nicola replied, “But you need to know that you can’t trust anyone. You must never allow them to see what you wear around your neck.”
My hand instinctively moved to the gemstone pendant.
“Why not?”
“Because if they see it they will know that you weren’t completely in the dark.”
But I was completely in the dark. I had been for my entire life.
“If they know that they may come to realise that you were one of them from the beginning and that is dangerous.” Nicola stood up then and walked over to me. She stood so close that I cringed away. I actually cringed away from the one woman I thought I could trust.
“You can’t trust anyone, Bri.” she said softly.
Ha! That was hilarious coming from her. She’d made it abundantly clear. I couldn’t trust anyone and that included her. Suddenly I was happy at the thought of Merrin dragging me away from all I knew. Or all I thought I knew.
I felt hurt...angry...betrayed. on top of that I felt hella confused.
The Winterwood Academy. Goddess. Power. Witches. None of it made any sense.
Nicola placed her hands on my shoulders and said, "Bri. You are special and you have always been special."
For just a moment I forgot how mad at her I was and I felt the urge to wrap my arms around her.
Then the sound of footsteps in the hallway alerted me to Merrin coming back and I realised my world had turned to crap.
"We really should get going." Merrin said and I could have sworn that I saw sympathy in her eyes.
"Can I at least shower?" I asked. Wherever I was going, I didn't want to turn up looking like a state. What kind of first impression would that make?
"I'm afraid there isn't time for that." Merrin shook her head and my hopes were dashed to the wind.
"Will you at least let me get changed?" I asked.
Merrin seemed reluctant but glancing down at the skimpy dress I was wearing, she nodded.
"Be quick about it."
I slipped past her and began to head down the hall to my room.
Should I pack a bag or something? What kind of clothes does someone pack for a stay at the Winterwood Academy?
"Don't worry about your things." Merrin said as she appeared in the hallway behind me, "Men will come to collect what you need."
I cringed. The thought of anyone coming in here and putting their greasy hands all over my stuff made me feel sick.
***
By the time that I’d changed into a pair of skinny jeans, a vest top and my favourite purple hoodie with ‘New York’ written in yellow on the chest, both Merrin and Nicola were waiting by the front door for me.
“I thought you could use a couple of these.” Nicole said and she handed me a packet of what I at first thought were tissues.
Was she expecting me to cry? I kind of felt like I was going to but a part of me thought it was better not to show any weakness in front of this strange, powerful warrior of a woman. I could feel Merrin’s eyes watching me as though she was judging every single move I made.
Upon closer examination I realised that the pack was in fact a packet of wipes.
“Thanks.” I said almost begrudgingly. I was still angry with Nicola and the last thing I wanted was for her to be nice to me. But I did need to wipe my face. I could still feel the smudges of mixed makeup and tears hardening on my cheeks. I probably looked like a panda by now and not a very cute one.
“You can use the mirror in the car.” Merrin said.
Car? That was a surprise. I don’t know what I was thinking but a car seemed just so mundane for a witch. I was surprised that she didn’t say broomstick.
Then again, where would a mirror fit on a broomstick?
“Remember, I’m just a phone call away if you need anything.” Nicola said.
I wanted to snap at her and tell her that I didn’t need anything from her. But at the thought all I felt was guilt. This woman had raised me for the last fifteen yea
rs. Could one lie really wash all that away? Even if it was a humongous lie that made me feel as though everything I knew was wrong.
“I guess this is goodbye.” I shrugged instead.
“For now.” Nicola gave me a sad smile.
“Don’t worry. You’ll be able to come back and visit once we have assessed you.” Merrin smiled and I felt a fresh wave of astonishment. Was she seriously in my head or something?
“Can I have a hug?” I said, my cheeks flaring at how childish I must sound.
Nicola simply smiled and opened her arms for me. I allowed myself to forget all that had happened for just a few seconds as I stepped into her embrace and breathed in the warm, familiar scent of her. She smelled like rose water, the only fragrance she ever wore because she said that she didn’t like wearing overpowering perfumes for work.
I committed it to memory, unsure as to when I would get the opportunity to smell it again.
Then I stepped away from her and turned to Merrin.
“I’m ready.”
The woman simply nodded and gave Nicola a respectful bow of her head before she made her way out of the door.
“Good luck.” Nicola called after me as though I was simply heading off for my first day of high school.
It reminded me of four years ago when she’d decided that going into high school meant I was finally able to take the bus to school on my own, that was if I went with Peter. She’d packed my bag and my lunch and sent me on my way. Only this time I knew I wouldn’t be coming home at the end of the day.
Following Merrin from the only place I’d ever called home almost felt as though I was taking the long walk down to my place of execution. I know what you’re thinking. What does a fifteen year old know about stuff like that?
Well we have been learning about the witch executions in Salem in history class. We’d even watched clips from famous movies of hangings, drowning and being burned at the stake. I’d cringed at every one of them. Some of the other girls had even run from the class crying their eyes out but I’d stayed and watched the whole terrible ordeal.
I felt sorry for those women, sorry for the people they left behind. I felt sympathy for the fact that none of them were even witches. Now looking back I realised that wasn’t true. Unless I really was insane and this was all just some horrible nightmare.
