The Accidental Witch

by Gemma Perfect

  “Ember just rang me. Griff is at the house.”

  “Griff?” Fletcher’s voice is a squeak and Ellis turns to him, concern etched on her face. “Who’s Griff? What’s happened?”

  Fletcher looks at her, worry evident in his eyes. “Griff is my uncle. My father’s brother. He’s a little bit...”

  “Horrible. Obnoxious. Awful. I know he’s family, Fletcher, but it’s true. He’s the exact opposite of your father in every way. Apparently, he missed us all at the ceremony last night, he’s sure something’s up and he’s not happy.”

  “Can we sort it?”

  “I don’t know. He’s always been angry that he didn’t get to take over after his brother died. He assumed the lineage would pass to him, but that would only happen if you died too.”

  “Well, that’s reassuring, mum.”

  “He’s your uncle, he’s not going to kill you. But we might have to tell him the truth.”

  “What will he do?”

  “I don’t know. He’s highly influential in our community, so if he wants to cause trouble, he could, but he also might know a way to fix this. Ember reckons trusts him”

  “Well that’s good – she doesn’t trust hardly anyone. Let’s go home. Let’s face him. He’s dad’s brother, surely he’ll help us?”

  The drive takes minutes and they are all silent. “You’ll be fine,” Fletcher says to Ellis. We’ll do all the talking.” He takes both her hands and she jumps down off the bus.

  Elodie goes first, and Fletcher next. Ellis shuffles along behind them.

  “Elly!” Griff jumps up when they walk in the house, making a horrible screeching noise with his chair. “Fletcher. Here he is! What happened last night? Couldn’t be bothered to take the time to have a drink with your favourite uncle? And who’s this? Girlfriend, eh?”

  Ellis shrinks back and Fletcher steps forward and hugs his uncle. “Griff, this is Ellis – just a friend.”

  “If you say so, boy, if you say so.” He’s laughing as he sits back down, scraping his chair again.

  They all wince at the noise. Thea and Talia are nowhere to be seen, but Ember is standing by Elodie. Strength in numbers.

  “So, what happened? Where did you all disappear to? I mean it was a hell of a party, all the same, but I was a bit miffed that you didn’t come and find me. I couldn’t even get a seat near the front, it was so bloody busy.”

  He looks from Elodie, to Ember, to Fletcher and they all take a deep breath in unison. But it’s Elodie that sits across from him. “Griff. Something happened last night. And we could use your help.”

  He frowns and sits back, peering at all of them with a suspicious look on his face. “Go on.”

  “When Lincoln was performing the ceremony, Ellis-” Griff turns sharply to look at her and she shrinks back. “Ran through the middle and she, well she, so she-”

  “Spit it out, woman!”

  “She got invested instead of Fletcher.”

  If it wasn’t so horrific, they would all laugh at the look on his face. His expression turns from disbelief, to confusion, to shock, to horror, and then he is open mouthed.

  “Griff?” Elodie pats his hand across the table, but he doesn’t notice.

  Ember shrugs and then makes a move, but Elodie stops her. “Don’t you dare slap him.” Ember folds her arms.

  Eventually he speaks, his voice decibels quieter than usual, his brow in need of mopping. “Tell me she’s a witch, at least?”

  “She is now,” Ember mutters, sarcasm dripping from her words. His head snaps around and he glares at her, taking in both Elodie and Fletcher shaking their heads that no she’s not a witch.

  “Human?” He asks the question that he doesn’t want to know the answer to. They all nod.

  He stands up, the noise from his chair making them all wince. They are all fraught enough. He’s pacing now, taking deep breaths. “Who knows?”

  “Only us, and Lincoln.”

  “The girl’s parents?”

  “No.”

  “Where do they think she is?”

  “On a college trip. For two weeks.”

  “Good, good.” He pauses. “So she knows everything?”

  Fletcher nods and steps forward. “It wasn’t her fault, Griff. Someone left a hole in the circle of protection – she was just chasing her dog.”

  “Just chasing her dog. Do you know how ridiculous that sounds, boy? The whole nature of our lives changed because she was just chasing her dog.”

  “Nothing has changed, Griff. We need help to figure out what to do next. We thought you might...” Elodie trails off; he’s glaring at her and she can’t help but shrink away from him. “Have we considered killing her?”

  Ellis yelps and stumbles away and Fletcher is quickly at her side. “Ellis – you’re safe. Griff – we’re not going to kill Ellis. We’re going to fix this, change, it, sort it out.”

  “We can’t kill her,” Ember says, regret evident in her voice. “We did ask.”

  Ellis is shaking, red sparks shooting out of her fingertips. “You asked?”

  Ember shakes her head. “Don’t fret – we can’t. It won’t work. The only ones who could kill her are one of the other species and then they’d take the leadership.”

  “Oh, we can’t have that.” Griff shakes his head.

  “Excuse me!” Ellis’s voice is so loud, her tone so furious, the magic shooting out of her hands so colourful that they all stop and stare. “Can you stop talking about killing me! Stop talking about me like I’m not here. Stop talking about me. Talk to me – this has changed my life too. I’m a witch when I never even knew witches existed. I have magic which I don’t know how to use, and you guys don’t know what to do. Stop excluding me from this. It’s about me, after all!” Fletcher touches her arm, and the sparks die down.

  “Ellis don’t get angry. Ember did ask Lincoln, but we would never have let her kill you, or hurt you. We want to help you – and us.”

  Griff sits down, scratching at his beard, deep in thought. “Is Lincoln bonded in blood not to say anything?”

  They all nod.

  “Good. But we can’t kill her-” He holds up a placatory hand. “Even if we wanted to?”

  They all shake their heads, no.

  “But nobody knows yet? Except us? And the twins?”

  They nod.

  “And Lincoln says we can’t undo it?”

  They nod.

  “Makes sense I suppose.” He scrapes his chair back and starts pacing again. “If the other species find out, she’ll be in huge danger. They’ll want to kill her, to take the power for themselves.”

  “They might not know about that, though. We didn’t.”

  “True – but they’ll know that if she dies, her authority dies with her. She has no heir, I assume?”

  They all shake their heads, no.

  “And the rest of the witches won’t be happy. She’s a threat to national security, really.”

  “Griff, we know all this. It’s why we haven’t told anyone. It’s why we pretended all was well last night. It’s why we’re keeping her here, safe with us, while we figure out what to do next.”

  “There’s only one thing I can think of...”

  They all lean in, expectantly.

  “The old crone.”

  Elodie jumps back as though she’s had an electric shock, Ember turns pale and Fletcher shudders. “No. No way. No.”

  Griff sits back and observes the four of them. “Elodie – do you understand what a shit storm you’re in the middle of?”

  “Griff! Language!”

  “Oh, they hear worse than that in the TV shows they watch.”

  “True.” Fletcher nods.

  Elodie shakes her head. “I don’t care. Your brother didn’t like vulgar language and neither do I.”

  Griff rolls his eyes. “If the witches find out – you’re toast. They trusted you to keep the secret of our existence and you haven’t. If the other species find out, it’ll be even worse.
They barely put up with your authority over them as it is. Once they find out about her-”

  “If!”

  “If they find out about her, it’s over.”

  Elodie puts her head in her hands. “The crone?” There’s an evident tremble in her voice.

  “If there’s a way out of this, she’s the only person who would know.”

  “But she hates us.”

  Griff nods, trying to look sombre, but he cannot help but smile. “True.”

  Elodie takes a deep breath, sighs loudly and then stands up. She shakes her body and stretches, like she’s limbering up for a fight.

  “Okay, okay, we can do this. Will you come Griff? She likes you.”

  “Oh, I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

  Ember glares at him, and while her glacial stares usually have Griff quaking, he cannot hide the glee he is feeling.

  Ellis

  I’M SCARED. AND SAD. And scared.

  I want to go home – I miss my mum and my dad, and my brother, and the dead people.

  I’m sitting here listening to them talk about crones, and different species and how much danger I’m going to be in if anyone finds out about me, and I’m actually shaking.

  I don’t let them see – they’re all ignoring me anyway – but I hold up my hand and I’m actually shaking. Like jelly.

  How come I’ve got all the power, but I feel like I’m nothing.

  Fletcher keeps glancing at me, smiling in what I assume he thinks is a reassuring way, but is actually just a bit creepy.

  And I want to cry.

  I won’t. Not in front of Ember. She’s so scary. She’s beautiful and haughty and I know that she wants to kill me.

  Fun!

  And so does this one: Griff. He’s odd looking – dressed like he’s from Dickensian times, a beard so straggly I bet there’s food caught in it from last week, and there’s a twinkle in his eye – but not a nice one. I wonder how many people he’s killed – I just know it’s more than one, I just –

  Oh!

  This is weird. He has killed someone, more than one, more than a few, and I am watching him doing it – like a daydream, or a flashback to something I haven’t seen in real life.

  I feel sick, in fact, yup!

  I rush over to the sink, it’s the only place I can think of, and I throw up, loudly, more than once.

  Fletcher is at my side in an instant and Elodie is the other side. He’s patting my back and she’s passing me tissues, so I can wipe my mouth.

  I turn around and Ember is looking at me like I’m the vilest thing she has ever seen, and Griff is – well, he’s a murderer who wants to kill me – and he’s imaginative in how he does it.

  Oh, I can see it again – it’s a vision, or a memory? His memory. Fletcher is looking at me with concern, but I can’t see him: I can see a man drowning in ice cream – Griff is just holding his head in the bowl until, oh he’s dead. Why would you use ice cream? It’s so mean.

  And this woman now, he’s impaled her with an umbrella. Nice chap.

  “Ellis!” Fletcher’s voice is loud and, thankfully, pulls me out of a disgustingly murderous reverie.

  “Yes?” I try to look normal and I know I’ve failed because he looks really worried now.

  Griff comes to stand by Fletcher, and I shrink back – I can’t help it. This man is awful.

  He reaches out a hand and I scream. “Don’t touch me – don’t you dare!” Sparks are shooting out of my fingertips again and Ember laughs.

  “Elodie – you need to control the accident.”

  I whip around and point at her and a flame actually shoots out of my hand and I can smell the singe of burnt hair.

  Furious she stomps over to me, hand up, but Elodie stands between us.

  “Ladies. We don’t have time for this.”

  I cannot help it – I’m rattled from all the murderous memories I’ve just been privy to, thanks to Griff’s insatiable appetite for cadavers, and I’m fed up of Ember smirking and rolling her eyes at me – I shoot a spark past Elodie and it hits Ember. She screams and launches herself at her sister, trying to get at me.

  “Enough!” This from Fletcher. Both Ember and I are panting as though we’ve been for a run. For once she doesn’t look so icy and in control. She looks dishevelled, furious, and I reckon – but I could be imagining it – a little bit impressed.

  “She burnt my hair. Look, you can see the singe marks.”

  One streak of her white hair is indeed black, and I smile, on the inside. I’m not completely stupid.

  She scowls at me and mutters something, touching her hair. It changes colour, from ice white, to jet black. It looks awesome.

  “I’m sick of you calling me an accident. It wasn’t my fault – it was one of your lousy witches who did their magic wrong. I’m sick of you talking about me like I’m not here. I’m sick of you rolling your eyes and being a haughty bitch!”

  Elodie bites her lip and I know she wants to tell me off for my bad language, but she doesn’t. I never swear. We don’t swear at home, because my dad thinks it’s not respectful to the dead, and so I’m not in the habit of doing it at all.

  But it’s the right word for her.

  And she knows it. She refuses to look at me. “I’m going to tell the girls where we’re going. Call me when it’s time to leave.” Her voice is even more icy, and I know she’s trying desperately to control her temper. Which means I’ve rattled her.

  Good.

  I turn to Fletcher and Elodie. “I’m sorry. I just saw how many people Griff has killed, and I couldn’t help but throw up.”

  They turn to Griff, shock and confusion on their faces, and he does a good play of clutching his chest, mouth open, me?

  And then he sinks into a chair and nods.

  Elodie cries out and almost faints. Fletcher grabs her and helps her into a chair.

  “Griff?”

  He runs his hand through his curly hair and scratches at the appalling beard. He looks conflicted and I stay right where I am, next to Fletcher. He looks angry.

  “Elodie, Elodie, Elodie. I don’t know what to say.” He looks at me. “Did you just see inside my head?”

  I nod. “I think so.” How the hell do I know? This is all new to me.

  Elodie glances at me. “What were you thinking about when the visions came into your head.”

  I have the grace to look a little bit embarrassed – just a bit, mind, because I was obviously right. I look at him and he looks a bit ashamed. Maybe. “I was just thinking that you look like you kill people.”

  He actually laughs then. A massive guffaw, which is so out of place in the tension of the room, that Elodie actually slaps him.

  The sound is stark, and he touches his cheek, and then laughs even more. He holds up a placatory hand – so she won’t hit him again, or worse – and then he laughs for a long time. Longer than is necessary or polite.

  By the time he stops, and he’s wiping actual tears of mirth off his hairy face, Elodie and Fletcher are stony faced.

  “Griff – you’ve got a minute to explain, and then I want you to leave my house. You’re not welcome anymore, if what Ellis saw is true.”

  He’s still wiping his eyes. “Oh, get off your high horse, woman. I suppose I’ll have to tell you now. Get Ember.”

  “Why?”

  “Because she knows all about it too.”

  “About what? You murdering people?”

  He nods and weirdly looks pleased with himself. He looks like he’s suddenly enjoying this.

  Elodie calls for her sister and Ember struts into the room, highest of heels on, ready to go. “Ready?”

  “Not yet. Griff wants to tell us something horrific, and apparently you know all about it.”

  She pales, only slightly but I see it. She knows that he’s a murdering so-and-so, probably because she is too-

  Oh – here we go again.

  It’s another vision, and this time Griff and Ember are together.

&
nbsp; In a carpark, but an empty carpark. I can see the white lines painted on the floor.

  And a man, writhing in pain.

  Ember is cackling – actually cackling – and although it’s only a memory, his or hers, I don’t know, I feel the hairs on my arm lift. I think I might be sick again.

  Yes. I make it to the sink and throw up, more violently this time. Louder.

  I know Ember will be shrinking back in disgust, but I also know stuff about her now.

  I turn around and the look on my face must say it all because she covers her mouth and cries.

  Elodie rushes to her side. “What, Ember? What am I missing here?”

  Ember shakes her head and points at Griff.

  Griff nods and gestures for us all to sit.

  They do. And I do, but between Elodie and Fletcher. I don’t want to be near Griff or Ember.

  “Griff, what’s going on? I don’t like this.”

  Neither do I, but I feel so sorry for Fletcher. He looks distraught and I want to reach out and touch him, offer him some comfort.

  I don’t.

  It would be awkward and highly inappropriate, considering the seriousness of whatever it is that’s going on here, and the fact that I’ve got his mum sitting the other side of me.

  But it definitely crosses my mind.

  10

  EMBER HAS COVERED HER face with her hands and refuses to move.

  “Elodie – get the girls.”

  “No!” Ember looks imploringly at Griff, but he shakes his head.

  “It’s time.”

  She covers her face again and he calls out for the girls. They come down into the kitchen, taking in the seriousness of the situation straightaway. They silently sit down, and Griff begins his tale.

  “So, Ellis has just had a few visions. It’s not how I wanted this to come out. I didn’t want this to come out at all. Neither of us did.”

  Ember sobs and the girls look to their mother with concern. “What’s Ellis done now?”

  “Nothing.” Fletcher is quick to defend her.

  “Ellis has had some disturbing visions, which we didn’t know she could have, but Griff is about to explain it all to us.” Elodie is looking between her sister and her brother-in-law with fear and hope mingled in her eyes. She has a feeling of pure foreboding and she desperately wants this to be a fuss over nothing.