My First Coven

Cool for Cats

It had been well over a fortnight now since my Aunt and I had cast that weird spell using all of those gross things from our towns resident serial killer. Nothing had happened at all and the police were still bumbling about trying to catch the guy. Meanwhile I still really just wanted to know how my Aunt; as powerful as she was, couldn't just teleport to the guy and stop him from committing any more murders. She kept telling me that "it doesn't work like that."

'We preferably need to be present when he's using magic so we can stop him and ultimately contain or stop whatever it is he's doing. It's all fair stopping the guy doing it, but Goddess knows what he's let out or done in the process.'

I understood as soon as she told me and to be honest, it made perfect sense. This guy committing all the murders was trying to let something out, in this case Baal who was particularly nasty. But apparently whatever he was doing to try and summon Baal in to this world was taking a lot of time... and a lot of blood.

It was also the first time I had been back to my after school Judo class, I hadn't been in a while to my current situation plus the instructor had to cancel once or twice. But really, I was thankful for the workout. I had felt quite sluggish and physically weak after all of my adventures, including all of the trips to the diner for absolutely enormous meals and the plethora of biscuits and cakes I was issued after every coven meeting. My Aunt told me if I was beginning to feel tired, then I needed to use my magic more. And then eat more. Which made no sense to me at all. But she also said that Judo would be helpful generally as you don't need magic to put someone down.

'Just use your magic, for like everything you feel like.' She told me. 'It takes a bit of time to find the balance between magic use and the amount of food you consume and how tired or energized you get. And sometimes you just feel a bit shit because you haven't done enough of either. I dunno it's weird, nobody really knows what it's all about.'

If there's one thing I had learned about being a witch over everything else; is the fact that everything is vague. Stupidly vague. It sort of mentioned it in my witches handbook, of course; vaguely.

"Magic is magic. Unlike science, it's not entirely exact and precise. For example; while you may have ingredient lists for spells and potions, not everything has to be measured in exact amounts in most cases. You may have also felt that some spells require more energy than others and vice versa, but the amount of energy used is different for each witch.'

'Wow I should read this more often.' I mumbled out aloud to myself knowing damn well I said that every time I actually read the damn thing. I was back in the schools laundry room by myself waiting for my washing to finish, reading through my handbook to pass the time.

'Hmm lets see what else is in here...' I flicked through the pages again, landing in the section entitled Curses. I continued reading as my Aunt told me I should be moving on to curses. She even had me write a few down that came from the family grimoire. The section on curses told me pretty much what my Aunt had done already; that curses were standard for witches and that we shouldn't worry too much about consequences. True, a lot of sources stated that magic aimed at causing harm came back to you threefold or whatever, but our vein of the craft itself deemed certain naughty magic to be necessary at times especially when used for the right reasons; which seemed like an oxymoron in itself. But the act of properly cursing someone was a bit more involved that just tripping someone over from a distance or making their bottle of pop explode, which equated to a sort of telekinesis. Curses were more adaptable and personal, always directed at specific group of people or person. Auntie Morrigan said, that if you got really good; you could choose exactly what would happen to them and not leave it up to fate to decide what their bad juju would be.

I haven't practised any of the curses yet. I mean I didn't have anyone to curse and I was told not to do it just for the sake of it. I could've cursed Francesca as practise as earlier on in the week she managed to get Sofia Walker booted out of our art class and sent to the head master. But, I figured I should probably try and commit some to memory at least; just in case.

I didn't have much longer for my washing to finish it's spin cycle. I had been lying on the long bench in the laundry room reading my handbook with Domino lying fast asleep on my belly, not a care in the world. As soon as my clothes were out of the machine, I'd shake them out, fold them up then take them back to my room to dry on our clothes airer instead of throwing them in the tumble dryer which I didn't like using. Domino would either catch a ride in my hoodie pocket or the hood itself then he'd scream at me to be fed before he had another snooze. I was stirred however from my reading when my phone buzzed in to life and played its little notification tone. I carefully took my phone out of my pocket trying not to disturb Domino and looked at the screen; it was a text from Duncan.

'Hey, you okay? What you up to?'

'I'm good ta, yourself? Not much, just doing my laundry.'

'Ah you just reminded me I've got a ton of laundry to do.'

I had a bit of my giggle to myself when I imagined Duncan, a hundreds of years old vampire separating his coloured from his whites and adding Summer Breeze fabric conditioner to his wash. Though I had to stop myself wondering if he'd hang it all outside on the line on a nice sunny day.

'I do mine once a week, not long enough to have a ton to do!'

'Fancy doing mine then seeing as you're on top of yours?'

'Haha, nope.'

'Yeah I wouldn't wish it on anyone. That's just mean. You at the coven meeting tonight?'

'Oh shit I nearly forgot. I'm bringing Domino tonight too.'

'Great, I'll see you there. There's a few of us coming down later.'

'Nice, see you then.'

I let out a little squeal and jiggled my feet about in glee. Unfortunately I woke Domino up in the process who just glared at me with one eye open.

'What?' I asked him. He just appeared to shake hiis head at me then try to go back to sleep.

'Not so fast buddy, washings done.'

I carefully picked him up from my belly where he had made himself comfortable and put him on the bench while I got my laundry out and neatly folded it up before placing it in my washing basket. As soon as I finished, I knelt down beside Domino for him to scramble in to my hood. I left for my dorm as soon as he made himself comfortable.

The walk back to my dorm was short but quiet, everyone else had either gone home after school or had their clubs to get to or were just back in their rooms. I took the scenic route back to the girls dorm and spotted my Aunt stood outside the teachers dorm in front of what looked like, a ginger cat. In fact it looked like she was talking to it. Domino had poked his head out of my hood and rested on my shoulder as he was watching too. I continued watching my Aunt have a full on conversation with this ginger cat who was sat looking up at her. Half a minute later, Auntie M crouched down to her knees and the cat bounded up to her shoulders. She got back up then walked over to the teachers dorm; the ginger cat hitching a ride.

'Looks like you might have a friend Dom.' I said my my own little hitch-hiker. 'We'll see Auntie M at dinner.'