A Whole Lotta Witchin Goin On

by Constance Barker

  We all met at the diner in the kitchen. We decided to perform the spell in the last place we saw Hazel. It could be performed anywhere technically, but it was much stronger if done in the last place that the person or thing was seen. The spell wasn’t exactly specific about whether it was to find a missing object or person. An object was easy to find, but a person took a lot more effort.

  “Did you get everything?” Fern asked.

  “Four candles, and I found a silver goblet,” Becky said holding up a comically large goblet with four equally large candles. The goblet seemed to be nearly the size of her head and the candles barely fit inside of it.

  “I have the pendant and the stupid creek water,” I said with a groan. My shoes were still muddy from the trek into the woods to get there.

  “Brook water,” Fern corrected me, even though it wasn’t necessary. “I have the map and the jasmine.” She also lifted her items up. It seemed like maybe when the three of us came together we could almost make one competent witch. “Let’s get set up,” Fern said. She took the candles from the goblet and set them at North, East, South and West. Then she set the map down in the center and took the goblet from Becky.

  “Do you want any help with all that?” She asked as Fern set the goblet down.

  “Light the candles and the incense,” Fern ordered handing Becky matches from her pocket. She lit them dutifully as I poured the water into the goblet. I pulled the amber pendant from my pocket and let it hang over the partially full goblet. The energy in the room began to change as well and we focused all of it on the goblet and the map. The pendant swung in clockwise circles over the goblet. The basic idea was to try and visualize where Hazel was and it should reveal itself in the water. I had to hold the pendant which activated the energy in the water because it belonged to me. I had hoped that either Fern or Becky would have had something like it in their jewelry boxes. I knew that Fern had a necklace just like mine at one point, but she claimed to have lost it. The necklace being in my possession meant that the magic had to work through me and Becky and Fern acted as beacons guiding the power towards me.

  Becky and Fern situated themselves on either side of the goblet, creating a triangle between the three of us. It would have been better if we had a fourth person with us, that way one of us could be at each point of direction. Or if two of us were powerful enough to do it without the third. It would be more balanced that way. At the end of the day magic was all about balance - both creating it and maintaining it. Witches were born out of a need for balance, and maintaining that balance had been our purpose. Or at least it was for a long time...once we had to start living in secret, it wasn’t so easy. Our strength came from working with each other, but now no one knew who was or wasn’t a witch. I’d be willing to bet that a lot of them were like me, using magic to do chores or a simple healing spell now and again or like Fern, too frightened and stubborn to use them at all, or maybe like Becky hunted and pursued.

  The three of us stood in a triangle. I could feel their power begin to flourish, along with my own. I shared a look with each of my companions and tried to keep any form of doubt out of my mind. If you thought it wasn’t going to work, then it wouldn’t.

  “What was lost can now be found,” We chanted in unison. It started out quiet and unsure, none of us had done a spell like this before. I certainly had never had to chant a spell out loud. Most of the magic I had preformed was internal, I could just feel it within me and it would manifest. “We can see the sights and heard the sounds. What was lost can now be found,” We continued the chant.

  “What was lost can now be found. We see the sights and hear the sounds. What was lost can now be found.” We repeated this over and over again. It felt as though hours passed, my throat was dry from the effort. The pendant spun aimlessly around and the water in the goblet remained murky and still. We didn’t choose to stop the spell, it chose to stop us. All the flames in the candles extinguished one by one as if someone was going around blowing them out in order from North to East to South to West. Becky, Fern and I fell silent all of us exhausted and frustrated. We knew that this meant it wasn’t going to work for us today.

  “Nothing,” Fern said sounding defeated. “Not a thing.” Becky looked solemn, and weary. Perhaps we had in fact been in there for hours, time moved differently when you did something like this. Or at least it felt like it moved differently.

  “We can try it again,” I said. I had let the pendant fall into the goblet, a splash of water went all over the maps. “In two days when the comet goes by we’ll try again.”

  Chapter Twelve

  Fern barely said a word after failing to find Hazel with the location spell. She seemed so downtrodden that I could barely stand it. Fern was the bubbly one of the two of us, the one with a fire in her belly to get things done. She was the optimist, but it seemed like right now, she needed that from me. We very unceremoniously cleaned up our mess in the kitchen of the diner, and tossed it all into the back of my car. I dropped Becky off at her house, letting her know that I would be back in a few short hours to drive to work. It seemed impossible that an entire day hadn’t passed in that kitchen, but it had only been an hour. Even Becky seemed like she was giving up, or at least on the verge of it.

  Being the positive one wasn’t exactly my strong suit, but I tried to give it a go. “I promise you it’ll work next time,” I said to her as we drove towards the house. “I can already feel the comet’s effects and once its passed we will all be stronger, more powerful.”

  “We don’t know that it’ll make us powerful enough to do the spell,” Fern said with a sigh. “We don’t even know if the comet is actually having any effect on us at all. It could be all placebo effect, just in our minds.”

  “Fern, you saw the ghosts. They are not placebo effect. They are very clearly close to becoming corporeal again,” I reminded her. It didn’t seem to convince her of anything.

  “Just because it has an effect on them, doesn’t mean that it will on us. Besides, weren’t you warned of terrible things coming?” Fern asked. I could hear panic start to rise in her voice. “Little Timmy was right, maybe it’s not worth it.”

  “What’s not worth it? It’s not as though we can put a stop to it or reverse the way things are,” I said. It wasn’t like the ghosts made a deal to come back to life, it just started happening to them. The original witches of Stillwater didn’t make a deal as far as we knew, it was simply the way of the world. It was balance being struck. The comet made the paranormal and magical more powerful, it made sense that there would have to be trouble of some kind to counteract it - to regain balance in the system. At least I hoped that they didn’t strike a deal. Something like that would have required dark magic and a heavy sacrifice.

  “Perhaps we can,” Fern said sounding stubborn. Almost sounding like me. “We might just not know how to yet.”

  “Maybe we’ll find a way, but first we need to know what the trouble is that's coming. And before that we need to get Hazel back. I know I can feel it in my gut that she is okay, but I don’t know how long that will be true for,” I said gravely. I didn’t mention that I couldn’t be certain that anything my ‘gut’ was telling me.

  “I just hate feeling like I can’t do anything about, well anything!” Fern groaned in frustration. She was a fixer by nature and nature wasn’t allowing her to fix anything. “Every move I make at work is getting blocked. That’s why I wanted to try the spell so badly.”

  “I know,” I said, but I still wasn’t convinced that the campaign for the Sheriff job wasn’t a factor in her desire to do the spell. Especially since she hadn’t wanted to wait for the moment when our likelihood of being successful would be far greater than today’s. “I don’t understand how the Sheriff can put the race ahead of a human being.”

  “Well, he is and he isn’t,” Fern replied. She had now lowered her seat in the passenger side to the point where she was essentially just laying down and had her arm draped over her face. It was a relatively
dramatic pose.

  “What do you mean he is and he isn’t?” I asked. It didn’t make sense, it was clear that the Sheriff had been selfish about finding Hazel.

  “He is more so putting the campaign ahead of my investigation,” Fern turned to look at me even though she left her arm covering her eyes, so she couldn’t see me. “He is still conducting an investigation into her disappearance, and he is exhausting all possibilities. He’s using all of the resources he has at his disposal to find her and he probably will. What he is doing is making me look bad, like I can’t do my job and it’s especially bad because the whole town knows how close Hazel was to us. He’s making me look incompetent,” She finished.

  “So you thought that maybe if we did the spell and found Hazel first, then you might not look unable to do your job?” I asked, even though I already knew the answer.

  “Yes,” I could see her cheeks redden with embarrassment under her arm. “I shouldn’t have done it, or even suggested it. I don’t know how I would have explained it if we had found where Hazel was.” That was something I hadn’t really thought of. If the goblet and creek water had shown us where Hazel was, we would need to figure out an excuse as to why we knew where she was. Fern might have even had to falsify evidence to make it look like we found her the old fashioned way. The last thing Stillwater needed was a witch hunt, especially with whatever kind of trouble was coming with the comet’s passing.

  I was about to respond, but was distracted as soon as we got to our driveway. A police car was already parked in it and an officer was leaning against the bumper with some kind of folder in his hands. I recognized him from the station. He seemed like he was a real pet of the Sheriff whenever I saw him around there. He was always a step or two behind the Sheriff, ready to jump at the opportunity to get on his good side. I wondered what errand the Sheriff had sent him on that brought him here.

  “Officer Mulberry,” Fern said. She had quickly lifted her seat up and composed herself the moment she saw the police car in the driveway. I don’t think that it stopped him from seeing her laying back or with her arm over her eyes, but at least she had noticed it soon enough to pull herself back together a little bit. If there was one thing that Fern emphasized to me about her job it was that she always felt the need to be put together. “To what do I owe the pleasure?” She asked in what was clearly a sarcastic manner.

  “I’ve got some information for you,” The officer replied. He held up the folder as if it was a white flag signifying a truce. I got out of the car but stood back by the door. It wasn’t my place to be a part of this conversation directly. This was Fern’s territory completely, but I wasn’t about to leave her alone in it.

  “What kind of information?” Fern asked. She was taken aback by the offer of information. It could only be about Hazel, or possibly the election, maybe the two were one in the same at this point. “And why would I trust it?”

  “It’s about your friend, Hazel, the one that went missing,” The officer said. He took a step forward, and held the folder out to Fern. Fern stepped back as soon as he stepped forward but didn’t take the folder. She wanted to gauge why the information was coming to her, before she even looked at it, let alone trusted it. At this point, we couldn’t put it past the Sheriff to give Fern false evidence to send her searching in the wrong direction just to ensure that he found Hazel before her.

  “I guessed as much,” Fern said as she crossed her arms. I felt like I was watching some kind of old spaghetti western film, a classic standoff unfolding before my very eyes. “That doesn’t answer my question though.”

  “This is not from the Sheriff,” He said pointedly. “This is from me and a lot of the other officers.” I was momentarily surprised by this, and proud that some people still might care about actual, real justice. I stopped myself from being too impressed though, in case it was all some kind of lie. “Even some of us who weren’t behind you and thought you were pulling a slippery move by trying to oust the Sheriff, are with you now.”

  “Why?” Fern asked.

  “What the Sheriff is doing isn’t right, and it’s as simple as that.” Fern looked at Officer Mulberry incredulously. “We’ve been working to find Hazel, of course, but we all know the outcome of who finds her is going to win the election.”

  “You know where she is?” Fern asked, taking a sharp breath in. The deputy shook his head sadly. He could have chose his wording a bit more carefully. It had sounded as though he knew where Hazel was. We were all keenly feeling her absence, the one time we had all come together, it felt strange. Our group no longer felt cohesive, we were splintered. Somehow we didn’t fit together anymore. It was like Hazel was the glue that brought us and kept us all together. She was the one who had introduced us all.

  “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to give you that impression,” The officer said, he did look like he felt guilty. Fern’s face was crestfallen. “We do have some information about her disappearance. We got an anonymous tip, and someone saw Hazel.”

  “They saw her?” I asked, not being able to keep out of the conversation any longer. The officer nodded.

  “Where?” Fern asked. I could see that the fire was reignited within her. She would never admit it, but I could tell that she was close to giving up when we were talking about it in the car. She was going to let the Sheriff win, especially if it meant that we would get Hazel back. Fern knew what was really important.

  “On the way to the countryside,” The officer said. “A call came in that said they saw her in a car driving south.”

  “How do we know this is true?” Fern said sounding cautiously optimistic. “Especially if it was an anonymous tip.”

  “We followed up. The car they saw her in was ditched off the highway, it’s not really clear what happened after that. She could have continued on foot, but we don’t even know where she was going,” The officer said. He looked a little chagrined as he began to speak again. “I mean, it looks like she isn’t really missing.”

  “What do you mean not missing?” Fern almost shouted. “She’s not here, and no one seems to know where she is.”

  “Well, you all were there when she vanished. You said it yourself, that no one could have gotten in there and taken her. She wasn’t with anyone when she was seen in the car, and then she ditched it shortly after she was spotted.” I knew exactly where he was going with this and he did have a valid point. The thing was, we knew Hazel well enough to know that she would never willingly leave us all out of the blue. Or at least we thought we did. “By all accounts, it looks like she’s trying her best to disappear. I think if you want to find her, you’re going to need to figure out what’s making her want to disappear in the first place.”

  “All that’s in the file?” Fern asked, finally taking the folder from Officer Mulberry’s hands. “Thank you.”

  “No problem,” The officer said. They exchanged a couple more pleasantries before he drove off. I wished that I could have more time with Fern, but it felt like only a blink of the eye before I needed to get back to work with Becky.

  Chapter Thirteen

  It was the day of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the founding of Stillwater, and that meant it was also the day that the comet would pass. Every fiber of my being was vibrating with excess energy. I could feel the power growing within me, and I couldn’t pretend that it didn’t feel good. I understood exactly what the ghosts were talking about, and why they were so excited, despite the trouble that would be coming as well. The prospect of the comet coming had given the ghosts power for the last few days. Fern, Becky and I only felt a slight uptick in our powers until today. Despite Hazel being missing, the stress of making sure that the celebration went off without a hitch, and the fear of what was coming, I was practically jubilant. I felt guilty about it, but I couldn’t stop myself. I felt ever so slightly better about myself when I got to the museum and Becky was in much the same mood as I was.

  “I can’t explain it. I feel,” Becky paused. “New?”

/>   “I feel the same way,” I replied. “I’m still worried about everything, but none of it feels as serious in a way, no that’s not the right way to put it,” I corrected myself quickly. “I mean it feels like we can find solutions.”

  “I know what you mean,” Becky said. “I have to admit though, I can’t stop thinking about trying to find my family. It feels more important than it did before, and I don’t know how that is even possible.”

  “I will help you look for them, I promise.” Becky shook her head.

  “Thank you, but I think this is something that I need to do on my own.” As soon as she said it, I knew that it was true. I didn’t even question it, and knew that I would never have to. Something in my gut told me that she would find her family, and she needed to do it on her own, without my or anyone else's help.

  “I understand,” I said, with a smile. We were mostly just doing busy work at this point. The entire event was out of our hands now. The caterers and waiters were going to do their own things and all we had to do was make sure everything was still in order and clean. Which wasn’t a hard task considering that the museum had been closed to the public for a while.

  “Fern is looking into that new information we got from Officer Mulberry,” I said. I had told her all about it as soon as I had picked her up for work, but I hadn’t updated her on what Fern was working on today yet.

  “Has she found anything new?” Becky asked.

  “She thinks so,” I said. I didn’t didn’t want to get her hopes up anymore than I already had. She had been so trusting when I told her I thought that Hazel was okay even though she was missing. If Fern wasn’t sure about her next lead, I didn’t want Becky to put too much faith into it. As soon as I said that though, I could already see her face lighting up. “Don’t get too excited, it’s flimsy at best.”