His Dark Howl

House of Witches

    Monday morning arrived with a crack of thunder. Bria glanced at her phone, and saw little rain-cloud icons stretching all the way into the evening. She smiled. Rain brought fond memories. She opened the window facing west, which looked out over the back lawn, and watched the water run off the roof-line, splashing into the rain-barrel below.

    She whispered into the air, calling for the Spirit of the Water to assist her. Small beads of rain rose out of the rain barrel, forming a larger shapes over its surface. Butterflies made of water burst forth, fluttering upward, gathering falling drops into themselves as as they traced loops in the air outside of Bria’s window.

    Bria laughed, remembering when her grandmother had taught her such tricks as a little girl, playing in the little pond in front of their cottage. Together, they had made fish formed of water leap from the pond, eating lazy water flies that buzzed over its surface.

    She brought the iridescent butterflies together, and formed the shape of a great horned owl, flying circles over the empty lawn behind the Group Home. She made the owl dip low, as if snatching a mouse from the grass, and then return to soar high above the house. She ran to the eastward facing window, as she flew the owl in her mind, around to the front of the house. No one would be out in this pre-dawn gray, and she was having fun, on her last morning at the Group Home, and the first morning of her spring break from school.

    Bria let her mind wander, as her owl made lazy circles in the sky above the house, and the sky lightened from dark gray, to a lighter gray, as the rain continued. She thought of her strange dreams, and the tea leaves at the bottom of her cup. She didn’t notice when her raindrop owl suddenly crashed onto the street, joining a large puddle that had pooled in the bottom of the driveway. She didn’t notice, when very briefly, the puddle began to roll about, as if alive. She didn’t notice as it began to reform, a shape of a lounging wolf rising from the ground. First, ears and a snout poking up, then the rest of the body. The water wolf stretched, and shook its coat, droplets of water flicking off of it, only to reform at its paws. The wolf rose to a sitting position, looking up into the sky in search of a moon that was not there. Then, a silver SUV came down the road, and the wolf collapsed back into a puddle, just as Bria watched Katie and Lara pull into the driveway.

    After a farewell pancake breakfast, Katie and Lara helped Bria carry her suitcase and cardboard to the trunk. They were chatting excitedly about how much Bria was going to love their house, and how well she would get along with Jade and Opal, Katie’s younger, twin sisters. Then, they piled into the SUV, puled out of the driveway. Bria glanced back at the group home, and up to her attic window, now just an empty room.

      “It’s a houseful of free-spirited women, and we’re so glad you agreed to come and be a part of it all.” Lara told her. “Katie and I are building a beautiful family.” Lara reached over, took Katie’s free hand, and kissed it gently. “I’m sure you know, but Katie and I were foster kids, too, Bria. That’s how we met. In a group home like this.”

    “Well, it wasn’t nearly as nice as this one. We couldn’t wait to leave. And as soon as we were eighteen, we took custody of my sisters, and moved here, starting our lives together in a wholesome, small town.” Katie smiled at her partner, her eyes shining with love and admiration.

    Bria looked at the two of them, and couldn’t help but smile. They were meant for each other, anyone could see it. Bria wondered if she’d ever find that with anyone, and she felt her mind wandering back to the stranger from the bookstore. Marcus. Could someone like Marcus ever be interested in someone like her? Probably not. She felt her cheeks burn red, and hated the lack of control she felt over her body, since seeing Marcus the other day.

    She stared at her reflection in the window, as Katie navigated the SUV through the suburban neighborhood the Group Home was in, out to the countryside. Katie and Lara lived a few minutes outside of town. The reflection of Bria’s grey eyes danced across trees as they pulled onto a shady, forested, back-road. The rounded a turn on the quiet road, and came to an iron gate stretching across the bottom of a gravel driveway, that wound its way up a wooded hillside. The house was not visible from the road.

    As the silver SUV approached, the gate swung open, and closed behind them as soon as they were through. The driveway was steep, and winded pleasantly through newly budded spring trees and patches of tightly furled ferns. Then, the terrain evened out, and a house came into view, a house that Bria recognized from the photos on Katie’s desk at the Group Home. It was a largely, rambling, gingerbread Victorian house. It was painted in shades of coral and mint and cream, and Bria couldn’t help but smile. Of course, this was where bubbly, pink-loving Katie lived. It suited her so well.

    “Welcome home, Bria!” Katie turned to her and smiled. “So, what do you think?”

    “It is beautiful, Katie.” Bria couldn’t help but grin. Ever since the iron gates at the bottom of the driveway had shut safely behind her, she felt a weight disappear from her shoulders. She felt a lightness that she hadn’t felt since her grandmother had passed, and she had to move out of their cottage and into the Group Home. Maybe, this colorful house could be a home to her, while she figured out her place in the world.

    Opal and Jade, who had been sitting in rocking chairs on the front porch when they pulled in, came down the front steps and helped Lara unload Bria’s things, while Katie took Bria by the hand, excitedly pulling her toward the house. “This is Opal, she has the red hair, and this is Jade, blonde like me.” Katie grinned, “They are identical otherwise, the Goddess knew what she was doing when she gave them different hair colors, otherwise they’d get away with too much mischief.”

    The Goddess? Did Bria hear her correctly? Katie had never spoken about religion before, but she supposed it wasn’t unheard of for a couple of feminist lesbians to prefer to speak of a female Goddess, rather than a male God. Maybe it was unprofessional and inappropriate to talk religion at work, but now that she was family, Bria would get to know a new side of Katie. And there were human pagans and the like, maybe Katie was one of them.

    Katie stopped before the front door, and Bria took in the multicolored stained glass and the brass doorknocker, shaped like the head of a lion. “House,” Katie said, “This is Bria. She’s going to be living here, she’s family now.” The door swung open, inward, without Katie touching it. Bria felt a soothing warmth, a feeling of safety, exude from the house.

    “Katie…” Bria stammered, “You’re a…you’re a…”

    “I’m a witch, yes.” Katie squeezed her hand, “Just like you, Bria. That’s why I knew you’d fit in here, with our family. You’re safe here.”

    Bria stepped into the house, and knew it was true. She was safe. Katie lead her through the foyer, into a sitting room. Bria sat down next to Katie on an old, velvet settee, and sank into it gratefully. Her world was spinning. Tears had come unbidden to her eyes, and she felt the rest of her stress melt away. Katie put an arm around her, soothing her.

    “I’ve been hiding so long, from everyone.” Bria sobbed, “I didn’t know how lonely it was, until now.”

    Katie nodded, “I understand, Bria. I really do. I know what its like to live a lie, to hold who I really am so tightly curled inside myself, that it sits like a rock in the pit of my stomach. I wanted to get you here, sooner, but it took a long time to get everything approved. The system was worried that if I took you in myself, it would look like favoritism to the other teens at the Group Home, that it would cause resentment. But, I was finally able to persuade the right people, and here you are. And you can be yourself here, Bria.”

    This was a lot for anyone to take in, all at once. Bria sat quietly for a while, with Katie’s arm around her, and they just breathed together. Lara and the twins came down from bringing Bria’s things into her room. Lara sat herself in a wingback chair, Opal lounged on a pouf next to the fireplace, and Jade perched on a leather sofa across from the settee. Bria looked from one face to another, and found smiles on all of them. They all knew, and they all accepted her.

    “How did you know?” Bria asked, turning to Katie, “I hid it pretty well, I think.”

    “Hid it well from the humans, yes.” Katie smiled, “But a witch learns to know another witch. You also had a powerful protection spell around you, something I suspect your grandmother put in place to keep you safe. At first, I didn’t realize what you were, but as you got older, the spell began to fade. Now, its all but gone. I wouldn’t be surprised if it disappears altogether when you come of age.”

    Bria looked surprised. Her grandmother had never told her about such a spell, but then, Ruby had always been secretive and protective. After losing Bria’s mother, Charlotte, Ruby had sequestered Bria and herself away from society, living quietly in their tiny cottage. After Ruby died, Bria had been ripped from the only home she had ever known, and thrown into the strange world of humans. She had no idea that another witch had been looking after her, all this time.

    “If you’re a witch, then you, Opal, and you, Jade?” Bria looked at the twin girls curiously. Jade simply nodded, while Opal opened her palms in front of her, and made tiny red sparks fly from one hand to the other, in answer. Bria turned to Lara, “And, you?”

    Lara grinned, showing Bria her perfectly white teeth in a large smile, “No, Bria. I’m…something else entirely.”

    Katie rolled her eyes and shoved her partner in the shoulder, “She’s being dramatic again, Bria. She does that. She isn’t a witch, but she is family. Even if she is a vampire.”

    “A vampire? For real?” Bria didn’t realize that vampires actually existed. Witches and humans, yes. And the fae folk her Grandmother told her stories about. But vampires, she never imagined were anything more than    the fodder of human stories.

    “For real, yes.” Lara chuckled, “But don’t worry, I don’t drink witch blood…or human blood for that matter. I’m a civilized vampire, and you’re safe with me.”

    Bria glanced up into the large, silver mirror that hung over the fireplace, and indeed, she couldn’t see Lara’s reflection in it, just an empty chair and a needlepoint throw pillow. “I’m sorry, I just didn’t realize that vampires were real.”

    “As real as witches or werewolves.” Opal told her, in a serious voice, still toying with her red sparks “Rare, of course, but we share Mother Earth with all of her creatures.” Opal blew the red sparks from her palm, and they arced across the sitting room, into the stone fireplace. Instantly, a fire sprang to life.

    Jade playfully shoved her sister, “You’re such a showoff, Opal.”

    Opal returned the shove, “You’re just jealous that you can’t control fire.”

    “Who would want fire when they could have the Spirit of the Earth guide them?” Jade gestured around the room at all the greenery, and Bria noticed for the first time all the plants arranged around them, springing up from pots and spilling out of hanging planters. “I can grow things, all you do is burn things.”

    “Easy, girls.” Katie laughed, “We all have our own gifts! The Goddess has been generous with each of us, and no gift is more important than another.”

    “You’re just saying that because you’re an Earth Witch, too.” Opal teased her, “If you could manipulate flame, you’d think otherwise.”

    “Earth Witch?” Bria asked, curious.

    “Yeah,” Opal told her. “Katie and Jade are Earth Witches, I’m a Fire Witch. What kind of witch are you?”

    “Easy, Opal.” Katie warned her younger sister, “She’s only just gotten here. She hasn’t been around a coven in a long time.”

    “I’ve never been around a coven, actually.” Bria told them, “It was just my grandmother and I, and she never introduced me to other witches.”

    “A solitary practitioner, then.” Katie smiled, “That’s fine, too.”

    “What element did your grandmother work with?” asked Jade, “You must miss her a lot.”

    “Water, mostly.” Bria told her, “My grandmother loved water the most. And yeah, I miss her a lot.” She thought back to sunny days when she was very small, when Ruby would read to her next to the pond, illustrations from the books appearing in shimmering detail, hovering above the water’s surface.

    “Oh, so she could manipulate more than one element?” Opal leaned in. “That is pretty rare, she sounds cool to me. What about you, Bria? You work with water, too?”

    Bria furrowed her brow. Apparently, most witches only used one element in their magic? Maybe these witches were different from her grandmother and her. She couldn’t remember a day when she couldn’t feel the pull of all four elements. They all called to her, and she to them, when she needed them. She felt their balance through her, and couldn’t imagine favoring one above the rest. Then, even her grandmother had favored water, using the other elements only minutely. Maybe a witch settled with age, and she would, too?

    “I do.” Bria said, still puzzled. “Doesn’t everybody?”

    “It’s okay, Bria.” Katie told her, “We are all different. Using water or fire, or earth or air. All are blessings from the Goddess.”

    “So, she’s a Water Witch.” Opal nodded.

    “Not really.” Bria said. To call herself a Water Witch felt incorrect, “I mean, I don’t feel a pull to water more than to the rest.”

    “The rest?” Jade gaped, “You can manipulate more than one element?”

    “I didn’t realize that other witches didn’t.” Bria explained, “They’ve all sort of always been there, inside of me.”

    “I don’t believe it.” Opal said. “Spirit Witches are basically impossible. Most witches have one element, maybe two, depending. But all of them? That’s unheard of.”

    “Not unheard of,” Katie corrected her. “Just very rare.”

    “Spirit Witches?” Bria asked. This name felt right, though.

    “The fifth element of the pentagram, Bria, is Spirit. Witches who are equally balanced between the other four elements, have the power of the fifth as well.” Katie told her. “Your grandmother never mentioned that?”

    “No.” Bria felt her mouth grow dry. Her grandmother had said that she was special, and that she needed protection. Maybe this was why? Still, she had no idea what powers this fifth element could have given her, she had never used any magic that wasn’t based in one of the other four elements. If only her grandmother were still alive, there were years of lessons she was never able to pass along.

    “I can’t believe you’re a Spirit Witch, Bria. I mean, we’re going to have to test out your powers…” Opal was interrupted by a sharp look from Lara.

    “It’s okay.” Katie said, quickly, “Let’s all change the subject! Time to show Bria to her room! Jade, can you do that? Opal, help me prepare some lunch. Lara has to get to work, and we have to settle Bria into her new home.”

    Bria was relieved that Katie dispersed the family, as clam and in charge here as she always had been at the group home. She was a natural leader, who could make anyone feel at home, even someone as introverted as Bria. Jade was a lot like her older sister, only quieter. Bria was happy that Katie hadn’t asked Opal to bring her upstairs. Opal was…intense. She followed Jade up the stairs, and felt the house settle and sigh around them, as if happy to welcome her further inside.