Chapter Four: Resolutions

The family was crying and Amber didn’t know what to do about it. The mother was hysterical, holding tightly her screaming baby with her slightly older daughter clutching her dress. The woman barely spoke English and Amber was doing her best to calm the woman down while Mercedes and Grace showed up but it wasn’t working. Upstairs there was the banging of wildly flailing furniture and breaking glass. Amber fidgeted and sighed, crossing her arms as she sat in the living room and giving up on trying to calm the woman who just continued to cry and babble in Spanish.

“Wow, you definitely are good at this.” Mercedes said showing up. Grace and Damien walked quickly upstairs just as a huge thump caused the whole house to shake, paint rained down from the ceiling.

“Shut up, I was trying but she’s not listening.” Amber protested. “Can’t you do something? You’re the empath.”

“Don’t call me that.” Mercedes said. She looked at the woman and slowly she stopped crying, the baby fell asleep the younger daughter put her mouth complacently in her stomach. Mercedes became very solemn and her brow flattened out in disinterest. Amber watched the mood in the room settle into a balance. Mercedes, she knew, hated doing this. She called it ‘swallowing emotions’, another natural power she had next to reading energy and auras. She was able to adopt people’s feelings or maybe in the future, give them new ones.

“That’s better. Now can you make her speak English?” Amber asked.

“Shut up.” Mercedes said.

“Do you think Grace and Damien need help?” Amber continued as they listened to the screaming from above.

There was another thump. “I don’t know much about possession.” Mercedes said. “I would’ve sent you up and called it a day.”

“Why me?”

Guys! Grace called. We could use some help.

The girls nodded to each other and rushed up the stairs. Down the hall the room to the possessed boy’s bedroom was flung open. A horrible stench filled the walls before Mercedes and Amber even made it in. It smelled of vomit and fecal matter. The room was in complete disarray, the walls were smeared with blood and feces and not one piece of furniture was standing. Damien had the boy cornered and his back was to the girls but over his broad shoulders they could see the small boy-no older than ten-his grey skin lacerated, his nails yellowed and thickened. He hissed and his teeth were jagged and long. His eyes were completely black and he stood naked and feral, peeing on the soiled carpet.

“What the fuck?” Amber cursed.

“He’s possessed.” Mercedes said as if it should’ve made perfect sense.

“What’s the problem?”

“If we hurt him we’ll hurt the actual boy.” Grace said.

“How do you separate the demon from the body?”

“A demon,” Grace explained. “Is only a spirit and they are only in physical form when they take over the body of something else. We need to get the boy’s spirit from the body so that we do not kill it when we kill the demon.”

“But won’t you harm the body?”

“Yes, and then the demon will leave and when the boy renters his body it will return to normal.”

“What do you do with the demon when it escapes the body?” Mercedes asked.

“Well hopefully you can project with Amber and destroy it.” Grace said.

Meanwhile, the boy pounced and Damien brought up a foot to kick him in the chest. The demon went flying into the wall. “Can you speed this up?” Damien asked urgently, ready to kill the boy.

“Okay, so you want me to project, take the boy from his body…”

“Project with Mercedes so that when we kill the demon she can kill it.” Grace explained.

“Got it.” Amber grabbed Mercedes so they could sit outside and not mess up their clothes in the dirty room.

“We have to do this fast.” Amber explained. “It’s really hard to support two spirits with my powers. Mercedes nodded and relaxed her body. They did their best to drown out the noise of the battle in the next room and soon Mercedes felt Amber pulling her from her upward. Mercedes ‘opened her eyes’ and saw Amber hovering over her, their bodies lay still on the ground.

Ready? Amber asked. Mercedes nodded and they went back into the room where Damien had the boy pinned to the ground, his hands behind his back. The boy was hissing and spitting.

How are we supposed to get the spirit out?

I’m not sure… Amber admitted.

The demon looked right at them and picked up his struggle.

He can see us; he knows our plan…

Well…how are we supposed to get the little boy out of here? Remember when you tried to connect with Grace’s spirit? We don’t want to have another incident.

You’re right. GRACE! Amber yelled into her sister’s head.

Yes?

Can you try to connect with the little boy’s mind? Tell him he needs to leave his body and stop fighting the demon?

I can try. Grace promised and backed away from Damien who had lost the struggle for the moment. Juan, She called to the boy Juan, I need you to hear me, I need you to stop fighting the demon. Leave your body…come to me...come to me…you’ll be safe. She kept repeating this in her head, trying to find the boy, she grazed over the minds of everyone in her room until she hit his. Slowly, Amber and Mercedes saw the boy lift from his body. He was adorable, with dark brown hair and chubby cheeks; nothing like the gaunt inset features of his possessed body.

That’s it! Amber exclaimed and so Grace repeated until Amber indicated he had departed. The boy floated over to Amber and Mercedes and they reached out to hold his hand. Alright, Grace, get rid of the demon.

Grace immediately attacked, throwing the boy into a wall with her mental waves and then sending another set to hurt his mind. He shrieked and screamed until his nose began to bleed. Damien then lifted his dagger; the girls immediately covered the boy’s eyes as Damien stabbed the knife into the body. The demon soared up from the ruined body, to keep from being destroyed. Meanwhile Grace lit a black candle and joined Amber and Mercedes in the chant.

“Earth, water, fire, air, I prohibit thee from coming near. By trees, magma, wind and rain, I banish thee from this plane.” As they spoke the room darkened and a wind picked up from seemingly nowhere. It swirled clockwise around the room and the demon was trapped. “By the goddess of moon and the god of sun, the power of three will work as one. With the sealing of this spell, get thee, demon, back to hell!” The wind picked up and the shadow was sucked towards the ceiling where it vanished.

Okay, we need to speed this up. Amber insisted, pulling the boy toward his body. He followed obediently and slipped back into his body. Immediately after Amber and Mercedes were sucked back into their bodies. They inhaled deeply and rolled over coughing, tired and dazed. Inside the boy did the same but immediately vomited and began to cry. His skin color slowly returned to normal and Grace wrapped him in a sheet so Damien could carry him down to his mother. Shortly after, Amber and Mercedes walked downstairs. The mother of the family thanked them all and they left.

“You should let me drive, since you’re a little drained.” Damien said on the way to the car.

“Nice try.” Amber said unlocking the doors. She slipped into the driver’s seat and turned the key in the ignition.

“So no one drives this car but you.” Damien said as if to reaffirm.

“No one.” Amber repeated.

“What’s the big deal?”

“It’s a gift from my brother.” She said.

Damien watched her face and assumed she didn’t want to say anymore. When they parked the car in front of the store he went ahead with the other two girls. “Is she all right?”

“Yeah, Amber just isn’t into giving out a lot of personal information.” Grace excused.

“Mmm.” He said thoughtfully. “Are you two really close?”

“Me and Amber?” Grace thought for a minute and her face turned red.

“I mean she seems to really like you.” Damien glanced at Grace through the corner of his eyes. “She has a mother daughter relationship with Mercedes.” He nodded to the girl who walked up ahead as they walked into the shop.

“We all kind of have that relationship with Mercedes.” Grace laughed. “I guess Amber and I are close.” She sighed and walked off to the bottom room. Damien watched the girls put their bags downstairs and get assignments from Claudia who quickly gave Damien something to do as she walked out to get lunch. Amber came in shortly after and walked downstairs. She was pulling money from her wallet when she looked at the door across the room. It was the room that Damien often disappeared into and she was particularly curious at the moment as to what was in it. She looked back at the entrance to make sure no one was there and then snuck towards the heavy iron door. There was no use turning the knob and she knew that so she slowed her breathing and phased through the door into the darkness on the other side.

Amber scribbled Kenaz on her hand for ‘torch’. Her hand lit up with light. She immediately gasped at the contents of the room. A huge black coffin rested on an iron stand. Candles, all melted to different heights, lined the walls along with books and a trunk filled with clothes. The coffin was open and lined with red silk cushion and pillows. She frowned and shook her head in complete awe of the room, which was obviously a closet; she felt claustrophobic just looking around at it. Without a moment’s hesitation she put the light out and phased through the door, barely making it because she was so worked up. She grabbed her wallet and rushed back upstairs, not telling anyone what she’d seen.

--

The store’s business had risen dramatically. Not only were more people coming in for help with paranormal activity, the kids in town now shopped there more seriously because the girls had taken jobs. It was a social position; everyone had questions for them.

“You would think they’d have seen city people before.” Grace said one day during break. “It doesn’t make any sense. We’re right next to Manhattan.”

“Everyone has everything they need here; school up until college, tons of job opportunities. The kids barely leave and the old people have to stay.” Mercedes offered. “What do you expect?”

Grace sighed. “I just think it’s sad. And kind of odd because we’ve become a sort of spectacle around here.”

“Well you know,” Amber said in a mock-southern voice, sauntering over to Grace. “They don’t see much folk like us ‘round these parts.”

The other girls rolled their eyes while Amber complacently placed her lollipop back in her mouth. Damien came in from a mission and waved to the girls.

“Everything all right?” he asked.

“Yep, today is much quieter than when that tour was here.” Mercedes smiled.

Damien nodded. “They were intense.” He walked behind the counter where Amber was seated eating chocolate and fruit. She held out the bowl to him.

“Want some?”

“No thanks” Damien shook his head. “I already ate.” He turned to the girls. “I’m going to take a quick nap then, if you need me I’ll be back in about an hour.”

Amber watched him close the door behind himself and she smugly stuffed another piece of chocolate into her mouth.

“Whatcha thinking?” Grace teased.

“What do you mean?”

Mercedes walked over too, smiling. “Oh come on! We’ve totally noticed how much attention you’ve been paying to Damien. You like him, don’t you?”

“You went on the last three missions with him.”

“Because no one was here to watch the store and I haven’t been trained at the register yet.” Amber protested.

Grace and Mercedes exchanged skeptical looks.

“I am not into wonder boy, thank you.” Amber said. The truth of the matter was, the more she thought about it, the more Damien seemed like a vampire. He always refused any food he was offered, he was amazingly strong, he had a very keen sense of smell and sight (which she’d noticed from the missions) and, of course, he slept in a huge coffin. Amber hadn’t said anything yet because she didn’t want the girls to over react or under react, for that matter. Damien seemed harmless but so did Dracula for the first couple of chapters in the book. Would they even believe her? Amber knew she had a tendency towards paranoia and she wasn’t quite sure how seriously she would be taken. No, Amber would have to keep the secret and reveal Damien in the best way possible. Once she was sure he was a vampire she would out him. Until then…

“You can’t hide anything from us, Amber.” Grace insisted. “Why don’t you ask him out?”

Amber rolled her eyes and stuffed more chocolate into her mouth. Probably because dinner is a bigger risk than I’m willing to take.

--

The ladies sat and cooled their tea while Ethel gathered her notes. She’d printed out copies for each of them and now handed them out. A few minutes passed as they read over them.

“This is stalking, you know.” Diane said into the contemplative silence.

“Non sense.” Was all Ethel had to say.

“Why do you attend these meetings, Diane,” Rachel shifted on the rose printed couch “If you don’t approve of our meeting?”

“Because I want to try and talk some sense into you.” Diane spoke in a biting tone.

“Well let’s just discuss her reasoning.” Rachel said. “I think that’s the fair and sensible strategy.”

Diane smirked and sat back in her chair, not opening the pamphlet of notes. Ethel pretended not to notice as she opened the discussion.

“So this is an emergency meeting.” Ethel began. “It’s been established that these girls are witches and therefore a threat to the community.”

Diane muttered something.

“The floor will be open after the presentation.” Ethel said pointedly. “As I was saying, with this knowledge of voodoo right in our midst, I feel it is our right to do something to keep the people safe. My proposal is broken into several detailed parts throughout this packet I’ve handed out. I’ll summarize right now by saying I suggest we first inform the neighborhood of the danger by way of written word. We’ll distribute small flyers that get right to the point. We can collect ballots and opinions. With enough positive feedback we’ll take it to the town and they’ll take it to the councilman or, if that fails, we’ll take it into our own hands. Any questions?”

“No,” Maggie said after a while “but I like this plan. I think it’s well thought out. My grandson can distribute the pamphlets.”

“Your grandson plays in their lawn.” Diane pointed out.

“Well not anymore, and besides, he doesn’t have to know what he’s doing.”

“I have a comment.” Diane said trying to mask her frustration.

“Please make it.” Ethel encouraged.

“Since when was it agreed upon or decided that the girls were threatening?”

“They’re witches.”

“They’re Wiccan!” Diane insisted. “I explained that to you.”

“Does that mean you know everything?”

“I’ve done research.”

“I’ve done research too.”

“Yes, but did you research Wicca or witches?”

“Are they not witches?” Ethel asked.

Diane hesitated.

“Exactly.”

“They’re certain kind of witches and I’m personally afraid you’ve researched the Hollywood, green skinned, pointed hat version and you’re planning to show up at their house with torches ready to see if they float or sink in the river!” Diane insisted.

“Is anyone else afraid of my research?” Ethel asked. She didn’t even have to look at the congregated people to know they were on her side. Her blue eyes narrowed threateningly on Diane who didn’t back down.

“Ethel you could be about to hurt innocent young girls. That possibility doesn’t phase you at all?”

“I’m not hurting anyone innocent. I’m getting rid of the filth that has entered our community. I’m keeping this a safe place for the upstanding, Christian citizens who reside here.”

“Upstanding? Christian? Ethel, five out of twelve married men that we know are having affairs. One of them is the husband of a woman in this room! When the Springfields’ daughter got pregnant last year they hid her baby as if it were her little sister. When a boy is bad here he gets sent to boarding school and we all pretend we’re real proud of him when he gets home for the holidays. This neighborhood is just filled with pretentious, fake-“

“Diane, this behavior is very unlike you.” Ethel protested.

“No, Ethel; no it isn’t. Since we were kids in this horrible little town I’ve told you when you were acting like an idiot. I always tell you when you’re acting like an idiot.” Diane stood up as Ethel flushed red. “I love you very much.” She began calmly. “But I can’t stay here while you not only make a jackass of yourself in the presence of equally idiotic bored, middle aged women, but while you plot against three girls who haven’t done anything but good to the community.”

“Good” Ethel scoffed.

“Yes good! This place hasn’t been so united before. Look at you; they’ve even gathered you into planning a way to unite a large group of people. You’re just dumb enough to waste that energy and passion on something as stupid as this.” With that Diane stormed from the room. Everyone stared at the door as if she would come back in. They knew she wouldn’t.

“So, Rachel, do you think you could bake cookies to attach with the pamphlet?”

--

Amber and Grace sat beneath a tree waiting for Mercedes. Amber was taking in the scenery of the little spot they’d found away from the city and away from the small community in which Grace lived. Amber wanted to talk, to joke around like they used to but Grace, Grace hadn’t spoken more than five phrases a day on average for a month-since her Grandmother’s funeral. Amber knew that asking questions wouldn’t get her answers. The sun was setting, which was nice since it was time for a ritual but Amber thought it was beautiful particularly because of how the sun seemed to bleed into the clouds. She wanted to share it with Grace and found the nerve to speak into the silence.

“I know I can be abrasive sometimes, Grace, but being like this won’t bring Heather back. You know she loved when you were happy and when you hung out with friends.”

Grace stared straight ahead.

Amber kept talking. “We all care a lot about you and we’ve been babying you. Mourn, Grace, that’s what you need to do but mourning has to do with healing and you can’t heal if you deprive yourself of natural feelings. Grieve but don’t grieve more than you need to. Heather knows you love her.”

Grace’s eyes were tearing up. “Amber…” she started which was unexpected but Amber kept talking.

“I just don’t think the Goth-Emo look is really necessary. You’re all like ‘Ahh, I’m mourning, fuck my life, woe is me…’” she was expecting a laugh or a slap in the face however Grace gave a much more powerful response to show she was alive.

“Shut up!” she yelled, whipping her head around. “You don’t know what it’s like, Amber! You don’t know how I feel! My grandmother is the only family I had, the only one who loved me unconditionally. Even when my own mother didn’t want me my grandmother took me in and treated me like her own and she’s gone, Amber! She is gone and I’m only seventeen! I’m all alone now and I’m so fucking angry that she would do something like this! That she would leave me and she knew she was the only one I had! So don’t fucking patronize me, Amber, you don’t have a clue what this feels like!”

“I don’t?” Amber shot back with equally surprising rage. “Both my parents are gone! They just left me and my brother by choice! Heather did all she could to make sure you were going to be safe and secure and damn it, Grace, you barely spoke to her before she died, do you know what that must have felt like to her? Heather was a wonderful woman and she’s given you more god damned sense than most people gain in a lifetime and I’m sick of you acting like you don’t have none! And don’t fucking tell me that she was the only person who loved you and that you’re alone right now because that’s not true!”

“Really? Then where is my fucking family, Amber?”

“Right fucking here, Grace, I love you, I’ve loved you all this time and I always will!” Amber, in her burst of emotion suddenly grabbed Grace’s small, pale face and pressed her own full lips to the blondes. They held the kiss for nearly five seconds before Amber realized what she had done. She quickly removed herself and looked at Grace’s shocked, tear-filled face, which was burning bright red. Amber wasn’t sorry so she didn’t know what to say at that moment.

Grace raised a small hand to her own lips as if wondering whether or not she’d imagined it. She found the pressure of Amber’s lips completely gone and she found herself missing it. She crawled forward a bit and leaned her face towards Amber’s as if blindly searching for that same warmth and closeness. However Mercedes called to them, seeing Grace’s legs from behind the tree; the closeness of their face’s hidden by the trunk. The girls quickly separated and never spoke of it again.

--

I really shouldn’t have drank so much of that juice. Amber thought to herself that night as she rose to go to the bathroom. Mercedes had gone grocery shopping and purchased a fruit juice mix that had sounded as if it would have tasted disgusting but it was quite the opposite and Amber finished a whole bottle at dinner. She now, groggily made her way to the bathroom for the fourth time that night. She was lucky her room was right across from it; she realized it’d be great for the winter when she wouldn’t want to walk that far. The bathroom, however, was locked. She groaned and turned to take the stairs but then she picked up on the sound of rushing water.

Down the hall, Grace’s door was open and Mercedes’ door was locked.

“Grace?” she knocked on the bathroom door but got no answer. “Grace, are you in there?” she jiggled the lock. “Fuck.” She cursed and tried to calm her breathing. She pressed her palms and her knee against the wood and slowly phased through, working out of her panic. The lights were off and she quickly flipped the switch to see the water running in the tub and Grace covered in ice-cold water. Amber rushed forward and pulled Grace from the water. “GRACE” She screamed. She pulled Grace from the water and wrapped her in a towel that hung on the wall. She checked the girl’s wrist for a pulse and, after several attempts, she felt the blood running through her veins. Amber’s heart was beating near out of her chest and she was sobbing uncontrollably in her panic. “Come on, Grace…” she continued chiding with the girl and listening for a heartbeat.

Amber began to try CPR, blowing breath into Grace’s lungs and pressing down hard on her chest. It made no sense because Grace’s heart was beating just fine and she was breathing but completely unconscious. Amber began to violently shake Grace, as hard as she could; screaming the girl’s name. Mercedes came banging on the door and Amber unlocked it.

“What’s happening?” she asked half awake. “I thought I was dreaming but the energy imbalance woke me up so violently.” She looked at Grace and noticed the girl wasn’t responding. “She’s still alive.” Mercedes observed.

“Her body is. But she’s not waking up at all. It’s like someone has her consciousness on lock.” Amber’s words made barely any sense in her panic.

“Come on.” Mercedes offered to help lift Grace but Amber, even though she was only a few inches taller than the blonde, found the necessary strength to pick her up and carry her back to her room. They laid her on the bed and Mercedes pulled a nightgown on her; all of Grace’s sleeping gowns were white which was ironic. Mercedes walked over to Amber and grabbed her hands. Soon Amber felt a little calmer, though still concerned. Mercedes covered Grace up and turned all the lights on. “Give her some time, she’ll snap out of it.”

“How can you leave her here?”

“Because she’s fine. I know she’s still there, her aura’s a little dim. It’s like she’s sleeping.”

“She just tried to kill herself.” She stressed each of her words.

“We need to think. I don’t know anything about psychics. They’re very tricky and it’s a very tricky power.” Mercedes spoke in an apologetic tone. “Have you seen her necklace?”

“What?”

“The crystal; she isn’t wearing it.”

They checked the room and soon Amber found it in the bathroom, tucked neatly behind the toilet. They tied it back around her neck and in a few minutes Grace woke up. She was shivering and very confused, having completely forgotten what had happened. Mercedes and Amber did their best not to look scared but while Grace slept they had tea and discussed her situation.

“What do we do about this? Maybe lock her room door?”

“No, then she might fly out the window.”

“Do you think she’s being possessed?”

“Not by a spirit.” Amber said. “Because I would’ve sensed it.”

Mercedes was silent for a while. “Then what about the witch hunter?”

“What about him?”

“He was very powerful. What if he didn’t reflect Grace’s power, what if he absorbed it?”

Amber frowned. “I’m not exactly following you.”

Mercedes motioned for Amber to follow as she rose and walked to their living room. She opened the drawer to the armoire and grabbed a key, which she used to open the cabinet and pulled out the book of shadows. “I looked through this the other day and there is so much in it. Sometimes it’s Bridget’s visions and other times it’s just information the original Trinity wrote down and assumed it’d be useful.” She leafed through the pages as she spoke and they kept marveling over how nicely the pages were decorated. “There was something here…right here. Witch hunters. There is a reference to the witch hunters in the sixteen, seventeen and eighteen hundreds; the village people chasing after spinsters or widows of many husbands. They would burn them; throw them in water to see if they sank and were therefore innocent, they took them to trial. Then there are hunters of supernatural powers, people with powers hunting people with powers. The latter, I think, is our problem.”

Amber nodded as she listened. “A witch hunter, right.”

“But a witch hunter with supernatural powers. So I feel like he, knowing who we are, went for Grace because she’s the strongest. I feel like her subconscious is trying to fight it by going into this sleeping state. However, she’s losing the battle if he manages to gain control of her enough to put her in the tub.” Mercedes said.

“What would we do then?”

Mercedes sighed and put the book back. “We need to hunt the hunter.”

--

Damien noticed Amber had been staring at him much more than usual. He didn’t know how to feel about it. Their relationship was the same, they’d have their battles; throwing snide remarks back and forth at each other. Lately, though, they seemed a bit more serious on her part. He knew he wasn’t imagining it because that would require him to care about Amber’s opinion of him. He was sure she was treating him with extra disdain and he couldn’t understand why. After a while he attempted to ignore her, like today he pretended he didn’t see her staring at him as she stocked the shelves.

Three girls entered the store dressed in long dark purple, red and blue cloaks. Their hoods were up even in the hot summer weather, which drew attention from the townspeople who stared through the windows of the shop in awe. Mercedes stood with Damien behind the counter and she was the only one who spoke. “Hi! Welcome to Ostara, how can I help you?”

The girls approached the counter and lowered their hoods. Mercedes was taken aback. They were the same girls who had exited Annie’s office about a week ago.

“Hi…” she said again.

“Hi.” The middle girls said. She had short brown hair, freckles and was a bit chubby. Two raven-haired girls were at either of her side. One was very tall and awkward with a tan she couldn’t get rid of and the other was deathly pale. “We’re from Bayville high. We saw you meet up with Ms. Reynolds the other day, right?”

Mercedes nodded.

“Well… we just wanted to tell you that she died…”

“Excuse me?” Mercedes pressed her palms against the counter for support.

“She committed suicide in her office. I’m sure it’ll be in the papers soon.” The girls said softly. They looked at each other. “We’re really just here to give you this message, there was writing all over her walls.”

“How do you know what was written on the walls?” Damien demanded.

“We have our ways.” The tall girl said.

“We’re not supposed to enter crime scenes but we figured it out eventually.” The brunette continued. “There were things written on the walls.”

“What things?” Amber asked, stepping up. Grace stayed behind, leaning against the wall.

The short girl with black hair spoke then, her eyes in complete focus straight ahead. “The age of innocence is over, the witches of old must walk the earth again to fight the enemy or die trying. Trinity Reborn is Trinity Re-dead. You cannot escape fate, witchlings; you cannot fight me forever. I will wash my hands in your blood and wipe my hands in your hair.”

“That’s creepy as fuck.” Amber muttered.

Grace slowly slid to the floor pressing her head in between her knees and holding it down with her hands. Mercedes rushed over to her. “Grace, honey, are you all right?”

The girl was sobbing and leaned into her. “Why? Why….why does everyone keep dying?” she stressed. Mercedes cradled her for a while.

“Thank you for letting us know about this.” Amber said slowly.

The brunette nodded.

“How did you know to tell us?”

The girls looked at each other and shrugged.

“Seriously. Why would you come to us with this information?”

“You were friends of Annie. We knew who you were, she told us.”

“Told you what?”

“That you were the Trinity.” The brunette answered reluctantly.

“But that was…”

“Supposed to be a secret.” The tall one nodded. “We know. She told us to protect us. We’re the most open Wiccan students at Bayville high. I think the most open means the most obvious and the most stereotypical.” She chuckled to herself. “Oddly, we weren’t killed that night and I don’t know why.”

Amber frowned. “Listen, my sisters are the ones who do thinking and I don’t know if I should be worried about you guys or not.” She admitted. Mercedes helped Grace to her feet and the girl walked downstairs.

“We aren’t going to tell the secret.” The brunette promised. “That would be bad and we don’t want to suffer the three fold rule.”

Mercedes and Amber exchanged glances. “We’ll believe you. But you’re in danger knowing this secret. The hunter is only letting you live to send this message. I really don’t want you guys to die.”

“We won’t die. We have powers too.” The brunette said defensively.

Amber sighed. “Yes, of course you do, you’re witches.”

“Don’t mock them.” Mercedes leaned over the counter. “All we’re saying, girls, is this is a very powerful person and this whole situation is filled with a lot more than you can handle. And we’re saying this from experience because it’s hard even for us.”

“Okay, that’s fine.” The brunette insisted. “But I still feel like your underestimating us.”

“Lizzie…” the tall girl said.

“No, I’m serious. We came down here to help you and I don’t want to be brushed off or demeaned.”

Mercedes pressed her lips together. Damien chuckled to himself and sat on the stool behind the counter.

“I’m not trying to offend you,” Mercedes rubbed her temples. “As Wiccan and as witches you have at your disposal all the power of the god and goddess and I understand that.”

“But you’re special because you’re the Trinity.” Lizzie continued.

“Well, yeah.” Amber snorted.

Mercedes pinched her. “No, we’re no more special than you are. But we’re older and we’ve been witches longer and because we are the Trinity we have different responsibilities.” She was sure this was the right way to go about it.

“We want to help.”

“You’ve helped a lot, actually.” She spoke sincerely because she was still in shock over Annie’s death but glad they knew before it hit the papers.

“I mean we want to help you in the fight.”

“The fight?”

“’To fight the enemy’” she spoke as if to say ‘duh’.

Mercedes nodded slowly.

“That, I’m afraid, is impossible.”

“What Amber means to say,” Mercedes pinched the girl again. “Is that we aren’t sure what’s supposed to happen and don’t want to make any promises. That line is from an ancient prophecy and we have to translate it, and soon, to realize what’s supposed to be going on.”

The brunette leaned into the counter too. “You still think we don’t have powers, don’t you?”

“No.”

“We’ve cast spells, you know, and they’ve worked. We’re powerful too.” Lizzie insisted.

The other girl, the smaller one grabbed her arm. “Lizzie, she’s being nice.”

“She’s insulting us and I know it.” She narrowed her eyes on Mercedes. “Do you need a demonstration of what I can do?”

Mercedes sighed, trying not to partake in the immature game but Amber played right into it.

“If you had any natural powers Mercedes would be able to tell because that’s her natural power.”

Mercedes pulled paper and pen from under the counter. “I will take your contact info; I’m not into burning bridges and who knows, we may need some help. But also, I’ll give you our contact info in case you need our help.” She began to write and the tall girl wrote as well. They exchanged papers. Lizzie kept glaring at Mercedes the whole time.

Just as they traded papers Claudia walked in with several bags. She saw the younger girls and smiled cheerfully. “Hello!” She exclaimed. “New customers?”

“Actually, we were just leaving.” Lizzie said scornfully. She pulled her hood over her head, as did the other two girls and left.

“The power of three is getting trendy.” Claudia mused putting the bags on the counter. “What was that about?”

Mercedes briefly explained what happened. Claudia nodded in understanding.

“This is horrible.” She shook her head.

“It’s because Grace is resisting him, apparently.” Amber poked her nose into the bag but didn’t find anything that interested her. “He’s hurting people we know in order to get her to surrender to him.”

“We need someway to link our consciousness with Grace. That way when he invades her mind we’ll all be aware of it and her body can use us as a defense instead of going into sleep mode.” Mercedes began to unpack the bags filled with new jewels and charms and books and candles.

“I don’t know if that’s possible but we can try staying up with her at night. Take turns?” Amber suggested. “That way when she starts to sleep walk one of us can wake the other.”

Mercedes nodded, “If that’s what it takes.”

Amber walked downstairs to check on Grace who was still crying. She stood in the doorway for a while before she walked over and knelt beside the girl with a Kleenex.

Grace sniffled and took it, wiping her eyes and blowing her nose. She tossed it in the garbage bin and leaned back into the chair. Amber smoothed her curls, barely touching her. “It’s just going to keep going like this, isn’t it?”

“What do you mean?” Amber’s tone was mock oblivious and Grace knew it was solely to get her to be honest.

“You know what I mean?”

“Not when you ask vague emo questions like that.”

“Amber, this isn’t the time.” Grace turned to face Amber in her seat, looking up at the girl. “People are dying and it’s our fault.”

“No it isn’t. It’s the hunter’s fault.”

“I heard you guys upstairs. I’m fighting him and so he’s killing people. The more I fight…”

Amber got down on her knees and looked up at Grace. “Grace, it’s totally not your fault and the minute you start blaming yourself the minute your subconscious lets him in. If he gets where he can use your power then we’re all in trouble. So you have to fight him. We have to fight him.”

“How can we?”

“It’s simple. I’m going to tell you now so that it’s in your subconscious. Instead of going into sleep mode, try to go into sleep-walk mode, fight him in your body until you get to one of us.” She smiled. “Then we can help.”

“What could you possibly do?”

“We’ll figure that out later.” Amber laughed. There were footsteps behind them. Damien and everyone entered the room.

“Are we interrupting?” he grinned. Amber got to her feet and glared at him, sitting on the desk as she did so.

“No.”

“Good because we need to talk.” He marched in and at down, as did Clauda. Mercedes gave a hopeless look to the girls. “We want to know exactly what’s going on. What happened three years ago? Why is everything going to shits?”

The girls were silent.

Claudia spoke up. “We already know your secrets and trust me we can protect ourselves. So telling us more won’t do any real harm, now will it?”

“She’s right…” Grace said. “We might as well. You’ve been so nice to us so far.”

“Yeah. Grace…you should start since it kind of started with you.” Amber insisted.

Grace nodded and took a deep breath. “It was freshman year, right in the beginning, maybe after the first week of school. My best friend Madison had suddenly decided to try out for the cheerleading team. That totally went against everything we believed in but I supported her anyway because she was growing into herself. I went to tryouts with her and started hearing a voice. It was jumbled and spoke in broken words but I kept hearing it. Then, I started having visions. My visions used to be really intense and painful; I’d double over and fall on the floor.” She was silent while she thought of how to word it next. “I was freaking out and I remember Marie, one of the head cheerleaders, caught me when I ran to the bathroom to splash water on my face. I was in mid sentence of talking to the voice like ‘what do you want from me?’ and she and her friends walked in and heard me. I was having visions of dark figures, a knife and a clef note ring on the hand holding it.

“So Madison made the team and started hanging out with Marie. When I was absent from school due to my major freak-outs Madison invited me to a party one night. I went, I don’t know why, and Amber and her friend crashed the party. I left and she offered me a ride home. I decided I had to go back to look for Mercedes but when I did I couldn’t find her. Marie caught me instead and called me a dork or something…”

“This story is way too angsty.” Damien said.

“Wait for it, will you?” Grace insisted. “When I was leaving I saw the ring from my vision on Marie’s finger.” Claudia and Damien nodded, their interest returning.

“Then she came to me.” Amber jumped in. “Because she’d had visions of herself and two other girls. I was denying it at first but I had been seeing things, serious things and I didn’t know what to do. So then I confessed to her later that I was seeing ghosts and took her to see Mercedes who, at the time, was the only openly Wiccan person on campus.”

“I helped them speak to the spirit, Jean, who Amber saw and who was speaking the prophecy to Grace but I wouldn’t agree to join them even though Grace saw me in her vision. They seemed so unorganized at the time. Their arguing nearly got us killed when we spoke to Jean.”

“In our defense.” Amber pointed with her lollipop. “We didn’t know a thing about ‘not corrupting the circle energy’.”

“Regardless. Jean told them they needed to convert to Wicca and join a coven but I wasn’t ready for that. When I left them I couldn’t actually leave them. I was immediately attacked by demons and stayed home for a few days.”

“Which was when we got worried and then went to visit her. That night we were inducted into a coven.” Amber provided. Grace continued the story.

“I confronted Marie and found out that she’d joined a dark coven too and they planned to bring back Abbadon, the evil and most feared demon lord, far ahead of time. Meanwhile we were finally evaluating out powers. I had the natural power of premonition and telepathy. The Crystal, or the rock would give me the power of psychic wave. Mercedes had the natural power of aura reading; she could tell people’s powers and intentions and also swallow emotions. With the word, she cast spells with incantations or uses power words for quick effect. Amber became the witch of the rune using symbols in the norse rune set to work spells. Her natural powers were astral; to see spirits, travel on that plane and now to phase through solid objects.”

“We found out Marie had the power of psychic command and Madison could summon animals at will.” Amber chimed in. “After that things got really messy. We kept fighting them and trying to beat them to the job. Because at this point strange things had been happening.”

“All the deaths with the smiles?” Damien nodded.

They nodded as well. Amber continued. “With all the deaths plus demons popping up here and there; more than we could handle, we knew they were just a distraction for the Mother; the one who was stealing the souls of people and leaving smiling dead bodies. We tried to focus on finding the key first, which we did or rather it’s guardian because the key didn’t exist yet. It would be born like Abbadon had to be born. We met its protector and helped her to combat the witches and the mother and keep everyone safe.”

“Sergeant Maxwell had been on our tail for a good month, but no one believed him until it started raining blood. Now he’s dead.”

“Annie is the reason he never caught up with us.” Grace said. “And now she’s dead.”

“Subconsciously,” Amber said softly. “We all tried to pretend it was over but this is blatant evidence that it isn’t.”

Damien and Claudia nodded.

“What about the last three years?” Damien asked.

“Nothing that’s relevant.” Amber said sharply.

“Amber!” Mercedes chided.

“Well he doesn’t need to hear our whole life story.” She retorted. She looked at Damien and then at the back room. “Why don’t you answer some questions, Damien.”

“Sure.” He said coolly.

“Why don’t you ever eat lunch with us?”

“What?”

Grace frowned. “Amber…”

“I’m serious. You never eat with us at all.”

“Why does it matter?”

“It’s a little suspicious. You don’t even take a snack when we offer.”

“I’m very particular about what I put into my body.” He said in a calm tone of voice.

“I bet you are.” She snorted. “Well, how come you can fight a demon with your bare hands?”

Damien grinned. “Because I’m a manly man.” He laughed. “I’m a martial artist, Amber.”

“Well that doesn’t account for your uncanny sense of smell, or sight, or hearing.”

“I’m very healthy?”

“Amber, leave him alone.” Grace tugged at the girl’s arm. “Why are you doing this?”

“Because, Grace, because look!” She lifted up a silver platter from the table and angled it behind Damien’s head.

“He has nice dread locks?”

Amber glanced into the platter and saw what they saw; the back and side of Damien’s head.

He turned to her, focusing his eyes on hers. “I don’t understand…” Amber could hear the faint teasing tone in his voice.

“Open your mouth.” Amber demanded, reaching towards his face. He skillfully dodged out of the way.

“Amber!” Mercedes grabbed the girl by the shoulders. “Stop that.”

“Seriously, ask him to open his mouth! Open it!”

Claudia cleared her throat. “Maybe this was too stressing? Bringing up the old memories? You girls can go home early today. I have an auction to attend tonight.” She smiled.

Grace grabbed Amber’s wrist and tugged her towards the stairs. Mercedes followed, saying goodbye and apologizing.

“This is getting dangerous.” Claudia laughed, nudging Damien in his side. He grabbed her hand and returned it roughly to her. “Oh, what’s the matter, Damien?”

“You know what’s the matter.” He growled.

“I do and I don’t see why this is such a big deal. I know you’ve told me but seriously, Damien you can’t be ashamed of who you are.”

He exhaled deeply and shook his head. “Why shouldn’t I, Claudia? I’ve come this far with everyone being ashamed.”

“I’m not ashamed.” She wrapped her arm around him and cupped the side of his face in her hand. “I’m the only one who isn’t.” She stroked his cheek for a moment and slowly, his arms rose around her waist.