Venus in Real Life

1. Of witches and antique stores

It was Tuesday afternoon. The bell at the entrance of the antique shop rang, announcing the arrival of visitors.

The twins, Ciel and Mei, and their friend Hugh came along like almost every afternoon.

Like every time they came in, they delighted their senses with the classical ambiance of the store.

The walls cladded with ebony wood that gave the store its rustic charm, the relaxing smells of sandalwood, and cedar incense floating in the air.

The sight of the wall-to-wall and floor-to-roof shelves filled with old books, candles of several colors, candle holders, boxes, and chests made of wood and metal, and so many different artifacts, placed along the walls of the store with the only exception of the shopfront.

The front window was a third part of the size of the whole facade and allowed more than a peek of the insides of the shop.

It was decorated from inside as a reading room, taking advantage of the shelves full of antique books that were right by its side.

There was an old mahogany reading chair and by its side, a fine oak tea table with a perfectly turned silver candle holder on top, finished with three white candles.

In the center of the store rested all the furniture for sale.

Tables, tea tables, and chairs were the most common, but you could also find special items, like old mirrors, and now and then, bookshelves and wardrobes.

The store was located on the ground floor of an old three-story building, in front of the main street downtown.

Its name was "Modern Vintage," and it was featured right on top of the door in a big, wood-carved sign.

The facade on the outside was skillfully painted with some parts in a very dark tone of blue, and some parts just lacquered, showing the natural color of the beautiful and rare, almost extinct, ebony wood that it was cladded with.

About a year before, Ciel was walking on her own, passing by for the first time in front of the big and well-decorated store window, when she felt a strong energy inside.

She stopped, turned, and glanced through the window, to find a woman about her age looking back at her.

When their eyes met, she smiled at her from inside the store. Ciel smiled back and decided to go in.

"Good morning, and welcome." She greeted Ciel, smiling widely.

"Good morning. Thank you," said Ciel smiling back.

She started walking around, checking the articles at the store, without touching them, avoiding the energies that the items could have attached.

The words scrambled in her head as she tried to form the right sentences to ask the girl and figure out what was the source of the energy she felt.

At first, she thought it could be an artifact, but then she started thinking that the woman who was looking at her from behind the counter could be the source of it.

Ciel, as her younger sister Mei, was an energy sorcerer.

They inherited their power from their parents and were taught by them on the proper way to use it. Ciel has known her magick her whole life.

She knows how to keep her energy levels hidden, so it doesn't reveal who she really is while she lives among regular people.

She also knew better than to follow an energy trace, as she was doing then, and yet, she did.

She knew she might be putting herself in danger, but the energy she followed all the way inside the store, although was powerful, it was also warm, inviting, and friendly.

"You have very nice things in here. Do you know where the owner gets them?" She ventured.

"Oh, the store is actually mine." She smiled.

"I've inherited some of the things. Some others, I've got them along the years, in auctions or garage sales."

"You look very young to be the owner of a store, especially-" She stopped mid-sentence, as the rest of it could be a little rude for someone she didn't even know.

"Especially because it's an antique store?" She smiled.

"I know most owners are usually older but-" She paused. "Maybe looks are deceiving."

Her eyes quickly flickered from their dark brown to purple in a second, and then, as fast as they changed, they were back to normal.

"I knew it," Ciel said to herself.

A regular human would think the color change was a light effect or a product of their imagination, but Ciel was trained to know the difference, more than that, she knew the difference and meaning in every energy color that different kinds of magick represented.

Purple was the kind of energy that sorcerers, like her, and witches had. Now she had to choose.

If she decided it was safe, she could reveal herself to her too, or dismiss it and try to make her think she was a non-magical being.

The pair of dark eyes who had just turned purple a minute ago were still fixed on Ciel, while she took her time to make a choice.

Finally, her eyes also changed, letting the store owner know what she was as well.

"That's what I thought," she said with a wider smile and a raised eyebrow.

"I'm Daire Thornton, by the way," she said while offering her hand, which Ciel shook. "I'm a Wiccan witch. Also, I am what is considered an Elder. Looks are deceiving, as I said."

"An Elder!? I'm impressed, that's why your energy is so strong. I'm Ciel Bossuet, and I'm an energy sorceress."

Right then and there, their friendship was born.

Ciel also found out with time that, besides the antiques, Daire sold all kinds of magical tools and supplies, even, if you happened to need something rare, she could order it for you.

As Ciel visited the store more often, Mei started to come along.

Ciel and Mei were fraternal twins, meaning they came from different eggs fertilized at the same time.

They were very different, not only on their looks.

Ciel had dark brown, long, straight hair and hazel eyes, and Mei had darker, almost black eyes, and shorter, wavy, dirty blond hair, and was an inch or two taller than her older sister, but they were also different on their personality and their power.

Mei was a little less keen to trust her power, and a little bit lazier to practice, while Ciel was the addicted-to-read, disciplined and mischievous one, always testing how far her abilities could reach.

The twins made a good friendship with Daire, and more often than not they stopped in at the store just to say hi, staying for a chat with the elder that didn't look like she was yet in her thirties.

Her tanned skin, long, wavy, white hair and slim figure, her way of talking to them like she was too young to manage a store, let alone to be the owner of one, convinced anyone who saw her that she was younger than the hundreds of years that she really had.

Hugh was a close friend of the twins since they all started middle school, and then he chose the same college and had some classes in common with them.

Mei knew him better than the others, as they've spent a lot of time together, becoming something close to best friends.

At some point, she had a secret crush on him, but that died out soon after. She saw he was emotionally unavailable and used to blame the girls he dated for the failure in his relationships.

He was familiar with Daire but didn't know about her magic, or that of the twins' either. He was a regular 21-year-old guy who thought nothing about magic because, he was sure that it didn't exist, as he said often.

"But I wouldn't mind if I could get a love potion that'd change my love life for the better," he stated more than once, making the ladies exchange bored looks and sighs.

"So much for someone who doesn't believe in magick," they answered him more than once.

The twins were renting an apartment that was a couple of blocks from the store, and five minutes walking to their college, so the store was always on the way back home.

Many of their friends knew that if they wanted to find them, they would probably be at the store, and for that reason, it became the meeting point for their group of friends.

That afternoon Ciel came with the gang looking for a protection stone since hers was mysteriously missing and probably hanging on someone else's neck.

She was ok with her sister's borrowing system when it was related to her stones, though not on her clothing, cellphone, or computer, with which she was quite possessive.

"Hey Daire, what's up?" Ciel said approaching the counter.

"Hey guys, how's it going?" Daire greeted them.

"Everything's good, except for my snowflake obsidian, that is currently missing. I think it was taken by someone, but I can't tell for sure."

Ciel said looking directly at her sister, who was intently looking away. "By any chance, you happen to have one around?"

"Let me check," Daire said walking to the back of the store, from where then she asked a little louder, "You want it as a pendant?"

"That would be perfect!" Ciel replied also a little louder so that she could be heard.

Meanwhile, Hugh and Mei were walking around the store, checking what new and amazing treasures Daire had around.

"I still don't know how she gets all of these amazing and rare objects if she's all day here,"

Hugh thought out loud as his eyes fell on a magnificently finished jewelry box with tinted glass on the cover and corners, so delicate that he could just barely touch it, afraid of breaking it, and his eyes sparkled at its beauty.

"You know something called "Internet," don't you?"

Daire said smirking as she came back from the back store.

Hugh smiled back, a little blush showing in his face, as he didn't expect to be heard.

Daire placed a beautiful hexagonal, well-polished stone, about one inch long in front of Ciel, whose eyes shone brightly as she carefully observed the beautiful stone.

"It's perfect," she exclaimed just over a whisper and extended her hand with money to Daire.

"So, what are you up to these days?" Daire asked.

"We're going to Paris this coming Friday," Mei said, still walking around.

"We have a visit planned for Art History class."

Ciel was studying ancient languages and cultures, while Mei studied art, and Hugh was on archaeology.

Besides some general signatures, they shared Art History and Appreciation class, so they were often together because of that too, on and off-campus.

"Paris huh? It's been a while since I was up there, one of my favorite cities"

A small cloud seemed to have found a home in her eyes, while the others looked at her, but she quickly brushed it off.

"It's been a while for us too, our parents used to take us to eat eclairs to a bakery near the Champs Elysees," Ciel said with a warm, small smile.

"Only you girls are going?" Daire asked.

"It's all of us, we have that class together," Hugh said while putting his phone back in his pocket.

His voice showed a hint of annoyance that the ladies knew well.

With that, they knew he was waiting for his cue to rant about any new girl he went out with a couple of times, and then left because she "Rejected him like all the others," he used to say.

The three girls looked at each other before turning to him."What happened to you now, Hugh?"

Mei took the lead and asked as they got comfortable to hear the story ahead.

"Oh not much, just the usual. I'm a nice guy, I don't understand why girls can't accept my true and honest feelings for them."

"Maybe your problem is that you try with many at the same time," Ciel said, "And don't care much if they get to know about the others."

"Or maybe you're hoping to get too much by giving too little?" Daire added.

She'd got to know him very well since he came along with the twins. Besides, this was not the first story of its kind she'd heard from him.

"You went too strong, too quickly and she didn't like it?" Ciel said, side-eyeing the guy.

"No. Well, maybe. But it was just because I felt so close to her. I couldn't handle not having her as close to me," he added dramatically.

"I think you're going too fast. How many times have you seen this one? like, twice?" Mei asked distractedly, knowing her friend as well as she did.

Hugh was handsome, tall, tanned, and had dark, short hair and very dark eyes.

He also used to work out, so his body was nicely marked. It wasn't that he was not attractive, girls usually found him interesting and followed him around, being also easier for him to make acquaintance with ladies more often than with guys.

He knew how to talk a girl out of her clothes, but he didn't want the challenge or the investment, but that was something he was not completely conscious about.

In his mind, if the girl wanted him to work a little harder, he considered it a rejection.

"It's not how many times we saw each other, it was the chemistry I thought we had, but apparently, that was not what she felt. I'm tired. I think I'm done with girls. I-"

"Won't ask any other girl out for what is left of the year. I'll have some me-time."

The girls followed his speech in a monotonic voice, as he made his usual statement, and profusely blushed for the joke.

"You make it sound like I say that all the time," he said still a little red.

"Well, you do say it all the time," Ciel said giggling.

"You know what? Since you're out of town this weekend,

I'm gonna make a present for you," Daire told the sad, flushed guy, to cheer him up.

"Just give me a second, I'll be right back."

The witch disappeared behind a door and to the back store again, coming out a little later with a small red bag, which she put in Hugh's hand. The bag felt funny as he examined it.

He felt something hard, and something grassy inside.

It smelled like lavender and orange, which explained to him the impression of dry herbs.

"What does this do, or more like, how does it work?" He asked smelling deep into the pleasant aroma coming out of the small bag.

"That will help you to be less anxious about finding a girl. Keep the bag in your pocket, or hang it on your neck, but have it as close to you as possible.

At night you can put it under your pillow too if you want. And, for once," she added, "Give it time, you'll feel when you meet the right girl, instead of going after all the girls you see."

"Thank you, Daire, you're awesome. I'll keep it with me all the time."

"Isn't it good that he doesn't believe in magick?" Ciel murmured to the others without him hearing, to what they all giggled.

It was Friday morning already. The train station was filled with the students that had enrolled for the Art history visit.

Ciel sat on a bench on the train gate hugging her luggage and was almost falling asleep, while Mei left and came back a few minutes later with a steaming hot black tea for Ciel, and a hazelnut coffee for herself.

"Are you sure you don't want some coffee?"

"Do you want me to wake up, or to run all the way to Paris?"

"Ok, understood. Chill a little, I know you don't like coffee, or mornings, for that matter, but I mean, maybe just a sip to wake up?"

"Nah. Thanks though."

Hugh was just arriving at the gate where his classmates were, found the twins, and went to wait with them.

"Morning Hugh. What's with the long face?" Ciel greeted him.

"I couldn't sleep much last night," he said yawning,

"The mojo bag that Daire gave me, I think it made me have weird dreams the whole night."

"Are you still carrying it?" Ciel asked curiously.

"Here." He extended the small bag to the older twin.

Mei was looking at her sister. She knew her very well. She was curious.

Too curious, to tell the truth. She enjoyed putting her powers to the test every opportunity she had.

That was how Ciel acquired much more power and knowledge than her, but, what was she doing with the bag that was worked with a different kind of magic, and knowing you can share your energy with a stone just by barely touching it?

Ciel was not wondering what was on the bag, Mei was sure of it.

She knew the intentions of her sister and looked at her in the eye mouthing a no, even though she knew her sister would not pay attention to her.

Ciel opened and inspected the contents of the little bag.

She knew some basics on Wiccan magick, and she thought she recognized the stone that was inside and the herbs that accompanied it.

Her sister was telling her not to do whatever she was planning to do, but she didn't pay attention to her.

"Maybe if I give it just a little push," she thought, closing her eyes and feeling the small orbs of energy shining out of her fingers and entering what Ciel was sure, was a small rose quartz stone inside the bag.

"There it is," she smiled, still talking to herself.

"I know the stone. It's not supposed to give you nightmares.

Maybe you were too excited about the trip today?" Ciel said to him, still holding the bag.

"She can't say I didn't tell her," Mei thought shifting her eyes from her mischievous sister.

Ciel gave the little red bag back to Hugh, and when he touched it, he felt a little tingle in his fingertips, immediately looking down at it.

"What?" Mei asked him.

"Nothing, I just thought I felt something. Maybe I'm still too sleepy. Where did you get that coffee from?"

She was about to answer when their teacher, Ms. Marie Favre, a small, slightly chubby, freckled, and always smiling lady in her forties, came to the front and started greeting them and giving some instructions for the trip before they'd proceed to board.

"You'll have to buy your coffee on the train, I think we're leaving soon."