WITCH

The air turned black all around me and I felt tingles around my skin. The chanting continued. I still couldn't understand the language, but I knew something was coming. The ground underneath my feet trembled and a putrid smell filled my nostrils.

"Come forth," I heard my mother's voice say. "Take this vessel." I could feel the blood rushing to my head.  It was coming. I was terrified. I didn't want to do this. Somewhere in my head, I could hear whispers. It was more than one voice-- hundreds, thousands maybe. They were calling me. They were coming to claim me.

The chanting continued.

"STOP!!"


They stopped chanting. The whispers ceased.  The darkness slowly dissipated. I could see the rest of the basement. My old bicycle by the window where I lost my first tooth. Then there was the window where I first saw Mathew; the boy I lost my virginity to. This was my home. I had so many good memories here, It was supposed to be safe. Why did it feel so terrifying.

My mother's enraged eyes regarded me under the black hood she was wearing. The hatred in them shocked me, but I held my ground, staring back . Her and the other five hooded figures weren't going to scare me.

I held my breath, feeling my nakedness for the first time. They still had their hands locked together forming a circle around me. The others had their heads bowed. My mothers eyes were on me. She abruptly let go off their hands, dropped her hood and came into the circle. Several gasps rang out but no one spoke. I fought back the urge to retreat as she approached. In two long strides, she was in front of me. A sharp blast of pain exploded across my face. I held my balance and continued holding her stare.
Only my mother could deliver a slap so severe.

"How dare you?" She said. Her eyes seeming almost feral in the dimly lit room. "Do you know how long the Coven has waited for a Seventh?"
"It...just feels...wrong,"I said. I wasn't scared of her. My mum was scary but not THAT scary. I wasn't scared of the rest of the coven either; most of them were aunts and cousins I barely knew. No. I was petrified of the presence I felt while they chanted. My whole being trembled at the very thought of it. It was evil.

"Being the Seventh is an honour," Mother said. "No family has had that honour for a thousand years and you want to----!"
"Maybe I don't want to be your demon's bride......maybe I don't want to be a witch!"


Long silence.
Several heads looked
 up. I caught Lucy's stare. She was a distant cousin, not much older than me. She had a dumbfounded expression on her face.

"WHAT?" Mother's voice boomed within the basement. "YOU DARE INSULT YOUR HERITAGE?"
"It's not MY heritage, its yours!"

Her hand flew at me again, but this time I caught it. The look of shock in her eyes was priceless. I flung the hand back as hard as I could. She staggered into  Aunt Marg and Sylvia. They steadied her.

I knew that was a terrible thing to do. But I knew it was my only play. I didn't want to be a witch-- at least not anymore. Whatever It was that was coming to "take me" wasn't going to be very pleased when it found out I wasn't a virgin. Personally, I didn't want to stick around for THAT conversation. My mum wouldn't have believed It in a million years if they'd told her I'd been having sex since I was eleven.

"Grab her!" She snarled.
In seconds the entire coven came at me. A woman I didn't know grabbed my arm I felt hands around my throat. I scratched a face, but wasn't sure who's it was. They wrestled me to the ground, pinning down my arms and legs.


"You will do this....you will submit to the darkness," Mother was saying. "His seed shall grow inside you."
Then suddenly, the hands holding me loosened their grips. I stopped struggled once I realised they were all staring at.

The whispers had started again.
I followed their eyes. The mirror on the far side of the basement had blackened, its surface rippled as if it were liquid.
The whispers grew louder.
"He's coming...," mother's voice said.
They let go of me and started chanting.
But something was wrong.

This wasn't the first summoning I'd been involved in. Mother had me summoning minor entities as soon as I learnt to talk.  Most spirits were mischievous and childish. Though there was this entity we summoned one time that was so horny, it 'humped' a rocking chair till it caught fire. But basically they were harmless. But whatever was coming through was different; there was a vile taste in my mouth as I were near a corpse. The air smelled of decay and my skin crawled.


 "We have to stop it!"
The chanting continued.
They didn't  seem to hear me.
Fog escaped from our mouths.
The mirror rippled again and a pair of green eyes appeared.
I lost the ability to breath.
The appearance of the eyes silenced the chanting.

"We have to get out of----," I never got a chance to finish the sentence. The mirror exploded, sending fragments of glass into the air. I heard someone scream as I covered my eyes. Then I heard my mother scream --- then the sound was drowned by other sounds I couldn't describe; they sounded like wails---then they sounded like howls, then laughter--- then more screams. I felt sprays of warm liquid against my skin. There were strong metalic smells in the air.

Then silence.
I don't know how long I remained on the ground. I couldn't sense  the coven any more. But I could feel a dark presence in the room with me. The sounds of my whimpers echoed in the room. The sticky substance on my body was dripped from my skin. I knew what it was, I just didn't want to accept it.

"RISE!" came a dark voice in my head. The sound sent tremors through me like minute electrical currents through my spine.
"I WILL NOT HARM YOU.....IF YOU OBEY," The voice said. With a lot of shaking, I opened my eyes and slowly stood.
There were blood splatters every where. Most of the bodies were torn up and mangled. I couldn't identify my mother inside the bloody mess of body parts. But I knew she was there.

Standing in front of the mirror was a boy no older than say Nine or Ten. He was quite adorable-looking, like something out of a toddler commercial. But the eyes that stared back at me were hollow, like a portrait painting of a phantom. They weren't angry, sad nor confused. They were empty, like black holes in space. I fought back the scream in my mouth. This demon would end me if I annoyed it.

"YOU WERE TO BE MY BRIDE,YES?" It said without moving its lips. Its expression didn't flicker. There was nothing in its face to tell me if I would live through this ordeal.
"...Yes,"

It continued staring at me as if I were an insect it were studying.  Then it looked at the bodies around us. The fact that I didn't scream wasn't because I was brave; it was because I was too terrified to make a sound.
My body was still shaking and blood trickled down my naked flesh.

"YOUR COVEN HAS FAILED ME," It said. "A NON-VIRGIN IS A SACRILEGE TO MY KIND."
I found talking to be difficult. The shivers hurt my bones and I could barely utter a sound. I was in the midst  of mutilated corpses ( one of which was my mother) and in front me was a strange being whom had the power to tear me to pieces.

I knew whom the entity was. Mother had shown me books that bore its name. Even speaking its name under the wrong circumstance was dangerous.

"Please....don't---."

"KILL YOU?" It chuckled. It was the first human emotion it had shown her. "ARE YOU RETARDED AS WELL AS PROMISCUOUS? I SAID YOU WILL NOT BE HARMED IF YOU OBEY ME."

I folded my arms across my breasts. The blood was like ice on my skin. 
"YOU ARE TO BRING ME A VIRGIN IN YOUR PLACE."

"...a...virgin?.....you mean like actual person?"

I knew I was talking to a hell spawn, but I couldn't help myself.
"YOU HAVE THREE DAYS." It said. " IF I DON'T GET WHAT I WANT, I WILL DRAG YOU TO A PLACE SO DARK, IT TERRIFIES DEMONS,"

I gulped.
Two days later, I was sitting at the school cafeteria. The stench  from the basement was overpowering. But the demon had promised to use its powers to keep the authorities away. I was so terrified. I knew I could never go through with it---- I could never willingly give another human being to that thing. How could I trust something that could kill its servants without thinking? There was no way it would let me live. And even if it did, what about the police? What was I going to tell them?

As I sit here now, watching the hours go by, I know my fate is sealed.






MY MIND IS MY WORKSTATION
#Opustjk