The Possession of Anna Drake

My name is Lizbeth Marie Dupree, daughter of High Priestess Larissa and Donald Dupree. I was born and raised in Evergreen Falls, a small town hidden amongst the midwestern forests. It’s quaint, with a gas station, grocery store, hairdresser, and one restaurant owned by Marshal Weatherby. We don’t go to public school; instead, we assemble at the meeting hall and are taught our basic knowledge by the elder families. Those who are not part of the Coven are bused to the nearest town about twenty miles away. My mother comes from a well-to-do family and is the Coven’s highest appointed officer. This honor has been in her family since her great-great-great-grandmother. My father’s family is well off, and he comes from another Coven across the border of Evergreen Falls and Winterwood River. Nobody seems to remember the town’s name, nor did we ever visit any family associated with my father. Most families would find it odd, not mine. We were known to keep to ourselves. I don’t even have any memories of my grandmother, though there are pictures of the two of us together all over the house. As a child, I only had one friend; her name was Anna Drake. She was the daughter of Jason and Patricia Drake, two of the lowest-standing members in our Coven. While my father paid no mind to who my friends were, my mother was more than opinionated on the subject. She felt I had disgraced the family by making friends with such a lowly child. Anna would never rank higher than her parents in the council, nor would she be favored amongst the elders. The High Priestess felt I needed to socialize with the more proper breed of witch.  Before anyone can ask, my parents are not related, and I am not the product of some backwoods voodoo spell. However, my parents did great putting on the show of being high society socialites with the perfect marriage, but it was a whole different world behind closed doors. My mother drank heavily, and my father chose to hide in his study, where he consumed volumes of magic-based literature to be better versed in the ancient arts of witchcraft. As my mother would say, he was high-quality breeding, but he was about as gifted as a broom. According to my grandparents, the only thing good to ever come from Donald Dupree was me, the future High Priestess of the Evergreen Falls chapter. Again, this revelation was relayed to me by a reliable source, my mother. The first ten years of my life were just like any other girls in our Coven. We follow our mothers around and try to learn as much magic as possible before our powers are gifted to us. We take classes in potions and charms, putting what little magic we possessed into the work. According to our ancient text, what magic we possess as a child will determine what kind of gift is bestowed upon us when we hit the age of ascension. In fact, with the age of technology, our Elders found ways to make a profit from our works. Websites were erected selling our final products with a promise of satisfaction guaranteed. We never had complaints, so I can only assume there were never any issues with the wares. The money funded from the sales was enough to keep the school running. Nobody had to pay for tuition, uniform, or supplies; the sales covered everything from the previous year. It was one of the many reasons my mother was ranked highest in our region. An honor that my family had held for generations. My mother was a sixth-generation High Priestess, and her power was to be handed down to me. Honestly, growing up with that kind of pressure was enough to make me question running away. I’m pretty sure my mother wanted me to after what happened two weeks after my tenth birthday. Anna and I got ourselves into serious trouble, enough so that it changed the course of our lives. Little did I know, everything in my life was going to change in ways completely unimaginable. Twists and turns, along with secrecy and magics not capable by human hands, all led me down a road into a world I was not too ready for.