Mathilda, SuperWitch

by Kristen Ashley

  “What was that all about?”

  As am woman and women speak the same language, I knew what she was talking about without asking but she explained anyway.

  “One second your snogging Sexy Posh Sawyer, the next George Clooney-slash-Colin Firth is having a go…”

  I replied, “George Clooney-slash-Colin-Firth? Hardly! More like Russell Crowe-slash-Sean Connery as is arrogance on top of arrogance.”

  Then Lucy and I had very long, intense discussion about this when decided Sebastian was Clooney Ocean’s Eleven (for the dash, wardrobe and sexy glower), Crowe Gladiator (for the brood, deep voice and taciturn communication style) and Firth Pride and Prejudice (for the arrogance, height and, as Lucy put it, “Lanky-‘Piss-off-all-you-little-people’-walk”… mm).

  Back to Aidan who persevered regardless of bad mannered bodyguard. He put Auntie and I in a taxi and said he’d be back for an oatmeal cookie. (Yay!)

  Nearly floated home – may have new boyfriend, definitely have new girlfriend, proved Wesley wrong and The Witches Dozen is out there and we were soon gonna kick ass and take names.

  Arrived in rooms all blushing and happy…

  Only to see Sebastian sitting (more like lounging nonchalantly for all the world like he lived there!) on my couch.

  He stood up and announced, “I don’t trust the plumber.”

  And walked out of the room.

  The fucking cheek.

  Haven’t seen him since.

  May ask for different bodyguard as Sebastian is most provoking.

  4 January

  Boy is here! Boy is here!

  Oh wait, must go serve him…

  * * * * *

  Later:

  Boy came into The Witches Dozen with his Mom (she looked like hell, all shadows-under-eyes, gray skin and tousled clothes like she picked them up off the floor, bleh!).

  He ordered hot cocoa and one of my Giganto Chocolate Chip Cookies (excellent choice).

  I watched as he took a bite and his eyes got really round and happy (pleased with myself for that one), so I said from behind the counter as if just happened to notice his reaction,

  “You like that? You should taste my M&M cookies. Come back tomorrow and I’ll make you some.”

  His Mom smiled one of those mother thank-you-for-being-nice-to-my-offspring smiles and bent over and kissed his hair.

  Bitch.

  Lucy whispered, “M&M’s aren’t on the schedule for tomorrow.”

  I said, “They are now.”

  Must go to Tesco for M&M’s.

  Very Much Later - near 5 January!:

  Am in Tower Room trying to scry but it isn’t working. Having serious troubles with divination… no visions since my first came after finding out I was a witch.

  Very annoying.

  Very much want to look into boy’s house but can’t seem to focus.

  Am doing it on the sly as Mavis has been pretty clear I’m not allowed to try scrying until I’ve had more practice with her around. Last time accidentally hooked into the radio studio during airing of BBC4’s Today program and didn’t realize I’d beamed myself in. I think I scared the bejeezus out of John Humphries as he lost track during browbeating some poor Red Cross person when I said, “Let him finish, you pompous ass.” Sebastian heard it over the radio. I got in trouble. I didn’t mean to astral project myself. It really pissed off Sebastian as he said it was hard enough looking after my physical self but would be impossible to protect astral self if I went around astral travelling as an amateur. Amateur! Am I The Chosen One or not?

  5 January

  Boy came in.

  His name is Rory McShane and he likes M&M cookies.

  He likes them a lot.

  He has a dog named Cosmo (knew that already but pretended I didn’t).

  He is eight years old.

  He isn’t sure that he’ll like peanut butter cookies but he said he’d stop by and try them sometime (this after carefully glancing at even less together than yesterday Bitch-Mom-from-Hell).

  Tried while making a double espresso with room for cream to focus on him but got his Mom instead (!). She was on phone sounding very pleading while crying.

  She’s a total mess.

  Maybe should give up attempts at magical intervention and call Social Services.

  * * * * *

  On another subject:

  Aidan is MIA.

  No call, no show, no nothing.

  Am not going to call him as I made first move anyway and is his turn.

  Lucinda says I should call him if I want to call him and fuck “turns”. World of Lucinda is better than World of Mathilda as everything seems quite clear and straightforward and she is not scared of anyone or of what anyone thinks of her.

  Want to be Lucinda when I grow up.

  9 January

  Last two days have been hell. As much as I love my Aspinal Book o’ Shadows, wish I had computer journal as will kill me to write all this down.

  Is important (or so Mavis says).

  First, didn’t see Rory for two days. Was worried and kept trying to see him, even going so far as breaking into Mavis’s Magic Room and trying Mavis’s crystal ball (very risky but I didn’t get caught, thank goddess).

  Aside: Mavis’s Magic Room is awesome, it’s where I have lots of my lessons and I love it in there. It’s all red and mauve and purple with tassels and globe, etched, dangly Victorian lights and toss pillows everywhere. It isn’t exactly my style, I prefer light, airy, uncluttered, feng shui, etcetera, etcetera but it is lovely to visit and very snug and comfy. Anyway.

  No visions of boy.

  Nothing. Nada. Zilch.

  Saw the Mom in visions, lots of crying, looking over shoulder and tearing of hair as she is clearly insane – but nothing of the boy.

  Then, yesterday, was standing in window, frosting a carrot cake when I felt something weird crawling up my back.

  Premonition (or Mavis told me later).

  Ack!

  Then saw Rory running but didn’t see him with my eyes, saw him in a vision!

  I left cake half-frosted and told Mavis to hold the fort and I took off out the door.

  Found Rory running toward café and crying very hard, slobbering on and on about his Mom and grabbing my hand and dragging me toward his house.

  Got in his house and was confronted with vision from About a Boy as Mom was on couch, unconscious with vomit on floor next to her.

  Ackity ack ack!!!

  I hate vomit; I hate the sight and smell of it. I started to gag immediately in automatic response but then heard Rory crying and Cosmo whining. Realized I was the adult in this situation and had to act.

  I walked up to the woman and put my hand on her forehead while telling Rory to call 999.

  I lifted her up as best I could and shook her a little. She was warm and breathing (thank goddess) but she was dead weight and I kept wracking my brain but in spite of superwitchdom and Chosen One Prophesy, in all honesty, I didn’t know what to do.

  Furthermore, didn’t have my wand.

  Furthermore, was uncertain about magic in front of Rory as didn’t want to screw up and levitate Mom only to drop her on the floor or something. I doubt SuperWitch is supposed to tinker with the undeveloped psyche of eight year olds.

  So, I thought about the black dragon.

  Then I took my cue from movies (don’t they spend a lot of time researching these things?) and continued shaking her and started slapping her gently around the face and talking loudly to her.

  When Rory got back, I said, “Rory honey, go get me a glass of water… hurry.”

  Then I thought about the black dragon again.

  (I know what you’re thinking but what else could I do?)

  Rory brought the water, I threw it in her face, she groaned, moaned and her head lolled around and then nothing.

  I thought of the black dragon again. (Bloody Sebastian was taking his time.)

  I got a big pan of water and threw it in her face and th
is time she began mumbling with more lolling. I asked Rory where the bathroom was and with a herculean effort (I thought) I dragged her off the couch and halfway across the room when Sebastian strolled in (yes, strolled, ack!). He took one look at me dragging the woman across the floor and asked, “What’s going on?”

  I wanted to say, “We’re dancing,” but instead I just bugged my eyes out at him and then gestured to Rory and thought, “Suicide,” in my head hoping he’d catch my drift and then…

  “Fuck,” he muttered.

  No kidding.

  “Did you call 999?” he asked as he pulled her out of my arms and picked her up like she weighed about five pounds.

  “Of course I did.” What does he think I am, a moron? (Don’t answer that.)

  He dumped her in the tub, turned on the shower and gently slapped her about the face. I could have told him that water and slappage were not really working but then she mumbled some more and opened her eyes (of course, Sebastian dousing and slapping her would work).

  She took awhile to focus on Sebastian then looked at me and then said, “Help me.”

  Straight out, she said it.

  “Help me.”

  Yay!

  If that’s not permission to meddle then nothing is.

  Then she said, “They’re trying to kill me. You have to take care of Rory.”

  Sebastian looked at me, I looked at Sebastian and the Mom started sobbing.

  Then the ambulance people came and took her away.

  * * * * *

  Sebastian and I took Rory (in Sebastian’s lush platinum-colored Jaguar XJS) to hospital.

  * * * * *

  Her name is Josephine McShane (I grabbed her purse before getting in Lush Jag and I looked through her wallet) and hospital people told us she’d taken a whole load of pills.

  Stuffy person arrived and asked if we were family (while glancing indiscreetly at Rory).

  I pinched the back of Sebastian’s arm and said yes, we were his Auntie Mathilda and Uncle Ash (good nickname, eh? – took me awhile to come up with that one but one cannot keep saying (or writing) Sebastian all the time – too much) and we’d most certainly look after Rory.

  Sebastian did not appear too happy (but may have pinched pretty hard, er… accidentally).

  Hospital people came back out and told me Josephine wanted to talk to me.

  When I arrived in her room, she looked exhausted, pale and terrified.

  She waited until I sat by her bedside and leaned in. Her lips were all chapped and looked sore and I made a mental note to bring lip balm on my next visit.

  “I’ve been poisoned…” she started.

  Ack!

  “Hunh?” I asked.

  “Poisoned. I know it sounds crazy but please believe me. I know who you are, what you are… I, um, don’t believe in that stuff but I’m at my wit’s end.”

  I gathered she was talking about Magic.

  “That’s why I came to town, I’d heard about what happens here… that people could find help here. I’m so tired… scared for Rory. And he’s been so good. I got him that puppy and…” She trailed off, possibly remembering she’s a psycho then she asked, “What did I do to make them come after me?”

  I had no answer for that and thought maybe I should go tell Stuffy Social Services Person that Josephine had lost her mind then she said, “They said your name, ‘Mathilda’. They said it the first time they tried to get him. They said, ‘He’s on the Mathilda Register’. When Aidan told me…”

  Aidan! Ack!

  Mathilda Register?!? Ack! Ack!

  “He was working with a lady named Mathilda I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t know if it was good or bad. But I went in your café, The Witches Dozen, right? Witches. Yes. And you were so nice and Rory hasn’t talked to anyone like that in so long.”

  “When you say ‘they’ who do you mean?” I asked.

  She didn’t know, but “they” were always there… she has moved and moved, everywhere, to France, Amsterdam, Ireland, bladity, blah, blah and she can’t get away from “them”. She has no money, she’s working two jobs, taking in laundry (do people still take in laundry? – can’t believe that!), cleaning houses. She can’t let Rory out of her sight (except school and is even terrified of that, every day is a nightmare, she said) for fear they’ll get him.

  “I’m trying to protect him, be a good Mum and…”

  She was working herself up so I patted her hand and said, “He’s staying with Mavis and I tonight. Don’t worry, Josephine, he’s safe with us. You just rest. I’ll be back tomorrow.”

  It took awhile to get her calmed down but she finally slept. I watched her for a moment and then it came, lightheadedness and flashes in eyes and I was back at the window that night with BecBec, looking in, watching Josephine about to hit Rory and then she collapsed to her knees on the floor. She grabbed him to her and hugged him, sobbing sloppily and apologizing and then they walked together out of the room with little Rory trying hard to be a big man and take care of his Mama.

  Jeez.

  Thank goodness Sebastian stopped me from zapping her.

  I grabbed the phone in the room and called Mavis. Gave her a quick briefing and told her we needed to activate the coven and get a protection spell put on the hospital room.

  “Oh, my darling, your first Spellbound!”

  She’s very excited.

  Personally, I’m scared shitless.

  * * * * *

  Sebastian and I gathered up Rory, his stuff, his dog and headed to The Gables.

  I settled Rory and Cosmo in the Trunk Room, gave him a little potion to help him sleep (don’t get excited, it was a child’s dose of Night Nurse), tried my hardest to tell him everything was going to be okay (I don’t think he believed me) and explained that I was just a moment away, he only had to call and I’d be there.

  Broke my heart the way he looked in that big bed. Scared and alone. Poor Rory.

  I found Sebastian in the library.

  “Don’t even start,” I warned before he could speak.

  But then this was Sebastian, he had no intention of speaking just scowling at me and making me feel like an idiot.

  I glared back at him for a second then muttered, “Right.”

  Then he asked, “Ash?” with an eyebrow raised and in a voice that pretty much said he didn’t like his nickname.

  I ignored that and said, “You ever heard of something called ‘The Mathilda Register’?”

  Then came the first shock of many that night.

  Sebastian reacted.

  I could see it in his eyes, the way his body tensed. One minute he was oh-so-nonchalantly leaning against the desk with legs stretched out and his arms crossed on his chest and then he was not-so-nonchalantly leaning.

  “Where did you hear that?” he asked.

  “Josephine.”

  “Who?”

  Of course, he didn’t know her name. In the World of Sebastian, she was unimportant (what is, I wonder?).

  “Rory’s mother.”

  He just looked at me.

  “Well?” I prompted.

  “Well what?”

  Ack! The nerve.

  “The Mathilda Register?”

  “Don’t worry about it.”

  Sebastian is most provoking.

  The library is huge and very Professor Higgins in My Fair Lady but bigger. There are two spiral staircases on either side of the room leading to wrought iron railed landings. Books piled upon books shoved here, there and everywhere (even, in some cases, stacked up in piles on the floors and tables). There is a huge fireplace a la Citizen Kane (okay, not that big) faced by a couple of worn, comfy couches and lazy, lovely velvet chairs with ottomans with tassels and in front of the window a big, heavy, carved wooden desk with some wing-backed leather chairs around it.

  In short, the library was like everything in The Gables, huge, preposterously imposing yet relaxed and welcoming.

  Freakish, I know.

  There was an eno
rmous book on a podium, handwritten (unbelievable) which held the list and location of every book in the library (including the ones stacked on the floors and tables and those that had been “checked out” – crazy – what’s crazier is that it rewrites itself every time you take a book or move a book, I’m not kidding).

  I walked to it and looked up my name (should have done this ages ago, maybe, but who has time?).

  There it was, The Mathilda Register, The Myth of by Hamish Wilding.

  And also, Mathilda Honeycutt, The Prophesies also by Hamish Wilding.

  Fuck!

  “Mathilda.” This was a warning from Sebastian.

  I ignored him and started for the M’s.

  He followed me.

  I speeded up.

  (Damn his long legs!)

  He caught me at the waist and swung me around (no mean feat) and, half carrying, half dragging me, started marching toward the door of the library.

  There was a little tussle, one, not surprisingly, that I didn’t win but did end up thrown on a couch with Sebastian standing over me, breathing kind of hard and staring down with this intense expression on his face.

  I stared back at him and was (humiliatingly) downright panting.

  Unfortunately, at this point, I kinda forgot about the books and got really turned on by Sebastian staring at me like that. So I licked my suddenly very dry lips and tried to think of something else.

  Anything else.

  But his lips.

  And the idea of his lips…

  On my lips.

  And on other parts of me.

  Yikes.

  Ended up staring at his mouth.

  He looked away, raked a hand through his (fabulous) dark hair and then muttered, “Fucking hell.”

  And.

  You… will not… believe this.

  He leaned down, grabbed hold of me and hauled me off the couch.

  I thought he was going to toss me over his shoulder and carry me out of the room to chain me up somewhere (mm) and then go tell Mavis on me or something.

  But instead he slammed me against his body and started to kiss me!

  Oh my.

  Oh my.

  Was not just whisper-soft kiss but was full on, open-mouthed, sexual onslaught.

  Oh my.