rian," Danielle pouted, pulling at my arm until I followed her. "You promised me!"

There were some times when I asked myself why I ever started dating Danielle. I love her. Well, I think I love her, but sometimes she acts so damn crazy that I can't really remember why I asked her out in the first place. It's always the same thing too; 'magick'. She's obsessed and convinced that magic rituals and that crap is real and it really works. I'm sorry I ever played along with the idea. That's what got me into this mess.

“This is stupid, why are we even doing this?" I shot back. Danielle had somehow gotten a key to a house that I always thought had been abandoned since before I moved here to Rutherford College. It sat on a plot of land right next to the main road, though it was easy to miss. It was the only property in the town that was really grown over.

Danielle was already on one of the steps up to the front path, but I was standing on the sidewalk looking up. There were six trees shading the entire property. I really didn't like the way it looked. All sorts of horror movie situations were running through my head. Everything was always set in a house like this. Danielle was still tugging my arm.

"Brian!" She looked down at me from her perch on the second and top step. "What's the matter with you?"

I let out a breath slowly. "Danie, are you sure we're not trespassing or somethin'?"

"I got the key to the house. I told the neighbors and the police that I'm looking at it for a school project on the history of the town. They even got Duke Power to turn on the electricity so I could turn on the lights and stuff. It's okay, will you please just come on."

I let her pull me up the steps and onto the path that led up to the front porch. Why had I agreed to do this? My stomach

felt all twisted up like it does on a roller coaster before the first big drop. I didn't like this place. I swear this was like a horror movie waiting to happen. Why, oh why, did I agree to do this?

Danielle bounced up the path and settled on the front porch, leaning against the door as I walked up. I know why I said yes. It's hard to say no when Danielle is doing the asking. She's like a little kid sometimes: you want to say 'no' to whatever it is, but you say 'yes' just because they're so damn cute. She flashed a mischievous smile at me as I climbed up the stairs onto the front porch. That smile always reminded me of some painting I'd seen; I think it was one of a faerie she had a poster of. It meant I was in for a wild ride, whatever she had in mind.

"So tell me what it is we're doin' exactly?" I asked again, slipping my hands around her waist and kissing her cheek. God, I love her, even if she is taking me to hell.

"I already know that I'm a witch. I've told you that. But I can't really find out what you are until we do this ritual," she said, sighing dramatically.

"I'm not a plain ol' boring human?" I hated even thinking what she was trying to get at. The back of my mind was screaming Witches aren't real and neither is any of this bull-crap. It was getting hard to ignore that part of me, even if it was for her.

Danielle smiled brightly. "Oh, I know you're not just a human."

I really didn't like the sound of that. What had I gotten myself into? Danielle wiggled out of my arms and walked to the door. She smiled back at me over her shoulder as she pulled the key out and turned it in the lock. Was I really doing this? She opened the door for me and waited. I guessed she was scared too.

I couldn't blame her, the house looked like it was a hundred years old. The wood was cracking under what must have been ten layers of white paint and the door barely fit into the jam properly. I walked inside, Danielle following behind me, her hand touching my shoulder.

"I set up in there," she whispered in my ear, her free hand pointing to a hallway on the right.

A big staircase was facing the door to the left of the hall. I could see into a few rooms from where I was standing, but one had a light on. I hoped that was from where Danielle set up, whatever that means. I took a step inside and Danielle let go of my shoulder to turn around and close the door. The hallway went dark aside from the light in that middle room. Hell, I should just get it over with.

Without waiting for Danielle to put her hands on me again, I walked into the room. It was surprisingly clean, probably thanks to Danielle. I could see a vacuum in the corner and some trash bags in the closet. Danielle walked further in and smiled at me, pointing to the milk-crate she was using as a table.

"This'll be the altar tonight," she says, almost as if I knew what the hell she was talking about.

What have I gotten myself into? I nodded and looked around. The walls had faded and peeling paper with what I guess were supposed to be roses on it. The light was coming from a single bulb plugged into a ceiling fixture. It made the room look yellow so I couldn't really tell the color of the faded and holey carpet. Danielle sat, kneeling at her altar.

I watched her for a bit. "Uh, what are you doing?"

"Oh, I'm just praying to the Goddess that this'll go well."

"Oh," I said. I couldn't really think of another way to respond to that. Who in their right mind prays to some Goddess about magic?

Danielle picked up a bunch of some dried plant, I think she told me that it was sage. Looking around she giggled and set it back down.

"Gods, Brian, you're making me so nervous just standin' there, I forgot to light the candle." She pointed to an air mattress by her and smiled sheepishly. "Sit down or somethin'."

"Sorry," I muttered and sat on the thing. It didn't have enough air in it so I could feel the floor beneath it as I sat down. "So how does this work?"

"I'm gonna cast the ritual, you just have to do what I tell you, alright?" She smiled at me. "Actually, uh, I need you to stand up again."

She pulled a lighter out of her back pocket, lighting a little blue candle that was sitting in the middle of her table with it. I crawled back onto my feet and watched as she picked up the sage again and lit the very tips of the leaves with the candle. Letting them burn for a little bit she blew out the flames before the entire bunch was gone. A steady stream of smoke curled up from the bundle of sticks and leaves.

She stood up a fair bit more gracefully than me and smiled, planting a kiss on my cheek before taking a step back. "Okay," she said, "I want you to watch what I do because you're going to have to do it to me, okay?"

"Okay," I said back. What was I supposed to say? I wasn't in the best position being here.

She crouched by my feet and began waving the smoking leaves in front of me, slowly working her way up. I could smell the smoke pretty good already; it was horrible. Standing up, she came up my chest with the sage, the smoke was making my eyes sting now. It smelled like a combination of burnt hair and tire tracks.

"Spread your arms out," Danielle said. I don't know how she could talk while waving that smoke around. I wanted to puke it was so bad.

I spread out my arms wide so she could cover them with smoke. My ma would probably flip if she smelled this crap on my shirt, but I couldn't think of a way around it. I closed my eyes as she passed over my face. She made me get a huge whiff of it, though, 'cause I didn't have time to hold my breath. When I opened my eyes again she was behind me.

I had to stand that way until she finished waving the smoke around my body. She even made me lift my feet so she could get the bottoms of them. But when she was done, I had to do the same damn thing to her. When I was done, she took the sage back and put the smoking end into a bowl of water on her alter.

"Um, now all I want you to do is to lay down on your stomach and close your eyes," Danielle said as she kissed my lips quickly. She would do that now. "I want you to keep your mind blank while I do the ritual. Okay?"

"Sure," I said. That's easy for you to say is what I was thinking.

I laid down on the air mattress. This was so stupid, I couldn't even imagine what she was gonna do to me. I closed my mind and tried not to think. It's kinda hard to not think, though, when your girlfriend is moving around you on an air mattress muttering about earth, air, and fire. She was doing weird things too, like putting dirt on the back of my neck and then blowing on the same spot.

"By the waters of the North, guide us to the truth," Danielle said, splashing some water on my neck. It was cold and dripped down making me itch. I was about to get up when something happened. "It's working? Okay, just don't move, wait until it's done."

It started small at first. There were spider web thin lines of light crisscrossing in front of my eyes even though I knew my eyes were closed. They were filled with yellow light. Like cracks on a hard-boiled egg, they zigzagged like lightning running into one another. As I watched they got bigger and bigger. My eyes were hurting from all that light, but I couldn't not look at it. There was nothing in it. Just light. Danielle was saying something I couldn't and didn't want to hear. I ignored her and concentrated on the light. What was it? Everything went yellow-white for a second and then it was black again.

I was starting to feel hot all over, like I jumped through a fire. There was something in the dark now, though. Something that was blacker than all the other black. I couldn't tell what it was at first, just something small like a spec. Danielle was still talking. I tried to see the black thing. It was getting bigger. Like it was coming closer to me in a dream. It was starting to look like something. A spider, only, like you see them in a picture with four legs to the front and four legs back. It was on a web.

Color started to run over it. Gold and black like something you'd find in an old basement or flea market. The spider was sitting on a web. All of it was gold-black; tarnished. It looked like a bracelet now. Something like you'd see on a mummy in a school book about Egypt. Only now it was on an arm. My arm. It was like I was looking in a mirror, only not quite. I looked different. My skin looked like an old penny, still shiny but darker than a new one.

I was getting cold now. It was going black again. The last thing I saw was my eyes; they were completely yellow-white. They glowed like the light from the cracks and the flash. But now everything was back again. I could feel the mattress under me and hear Danielle.

"Brian?"

"Wow, um...is that it?" I said, sitting up to look at her. She looked worried. She looked like she was scared.

"No," she said. "I need you to look into this mirror." She held up a mirror in front of me and waited.

I looked. It seemed as pointless as trying to think of nothing. How long was I supposed to look at my reflection. I didn't say anything and I did look. Nothing. It seemed like a long time went by. Still nothing different. I looked the same as I always did. Danielle was biting her lip. The mirror was shaking and I could tell that her arm was tired of holding it up. I reached out to take it, but the second I touched it, something happened again.

It was like I'd just run a race or something; my heart was going fast in my chest and it hurt. But at the same time, it was like I was going in slow motion, I could feel a steady and slow beat in my arms and fingers and legs and feet. The hair on the back of my neck prickled and was standing up. I couldn't take my eyes off of the mirror. I looked like I did in that dream, or whatever it was. My skin was like an old penny and my eyes looked like they were little suns set in my face. My hair was gone now, though, and my eyebrows were actually little bumps like scales. I looked dangerous.

It was gone quick as lightning, but I was still breathing hard. My chest still hurt and my fingers and arms were tingling pretty bad. I looked up at Danielle and she stared at me. She looked afraid. Her smile didn't look right. I think she was scared. "What?" was all I could say.

"Drago. Demon. Sia andato da questo posto," she said, standing up. She knocked over her alter. The candle blew out just as it hit the carpet. I knew she took Italian, but I sure as hell didn't get what she was saying.

Dragon? Demon? Did she think that I was evil? I reached out to touch her. This was crazy. Why had I let her talk me into this? "Danie?"

"Get away from me!" She was screaming now, backing away into the corner.

What was going on? I had enough of the shit she was dishing out. "Whatever, I'm out of here."

I got up and stormed out of the room. The hallway was dark, but I made my way back to the front door and slammed it shut as I walked out. I didn't need some psychotic girl to tell me I was some demon or whatever she thought. Funny thing is that I still felt that pounding in my chest. It was powerful, like energy was burning through me and I couldn't use it fast enough.

It almost makes me believe in magick.