The Vera Manor, Hilltowne
Maggie was both thankful and annoyed to hear someone knock at the door of the manor, interrupting her argument with Mel. She looked to Mel, only to see her glaring a hole into the wall, and rolled her eyes as she went to go open the door.
As she opened it, she saw that the visitor was a tall, beautiful woman who had an air of familiarity to her. Caught off guard by the sense of knowing her, Maggie stared at the woman dumbfoundedly.
"Um… hi," greeted the woman as she gave Maggie an awkward smile and began to scramble for words. "I'm… I'm Macy Vaughn."
"Yes?" asked Maggie as she forced herself to stop staring at the woman and glanced over to Mel to see if she knew what this was about. "How can we help you?"
"I'm sorry…" apologized Macy as she tried to find some way to communicate her reasoning for being at the manor. "It's just that I just moved to Hilltowne and I learned about what happened to your mother, Marisol-"
"I'm sorry but this isn't a great time to come digging for details on our mother's death," snapped Mel who immediately became furious. She moved towards the door and prepared to slam it in the woman's face. "Go read about what happened on the internet like everyone else, lady!"
"Wait. Please!" pleaded Macy as she stopped the door with her arm, surprising the two Vera sisters. She began to reach into her coat pocket and pulled out an old photograph, holding it up for the Vera's to see. In it was their mother (who looked to be in her twenties) who was sitting out on the front steps of the manor. In her arms was a beautiful newborn baby girl. "I think I'm your sister."
"Excuse me?!" asked Mel as she glared at Macy, not believing what she just hard.
Maggie, on the other hand, was curious and scanned the photo. She reached for it to further examine it when she accidentally brushed a couple of her fingers against Macy's. Suddenly, lightning shot through the night sky of Hilltowne and a roll of thunder followed quickly after, causing the trio of women to release a shared scream. The lights and electronics within the manor started to go haywire when all of a sudden, all of the lights within the manor went out.
The manor was eerily quiet as Macy and Maggie stood in the foyer and used the flashlights on their phones to look over the photo.
"It's her, right?" asked Macy, wanting to make sure she wasn't mistaking the woman in the photo for someone else. "That's your mother?"
"Yeah, definitely," answered Maggie as she looked in disbelief. Her mind was racing, trying to understand whether or not it was possible for her to have a long lost sister. "And that's definitely our house…"
The two girls stood next to each other awkwardly as they tried to figure out what to do with this new information. Realizing that she never introduced herself, Maggie turned to Macy and said, "I'm Maggie… and it's Macy, right?"
"Yeah… what's your sister's name?"
"Mel…" replied Maggie as she realized something else. "We all have names that start with 'm'..."
The two were looking for something else to say to each other when Mel returned to the foyer and announced, "Well, it isn't the circuit." She held her flashlight up into Macy's face, blinding her a little bit.
"Mel, you need to look at this," said Maggie as she tried to hand the photo to Mel.
"I saw it," stated Mel as she ignored her sister's hand and glared at Macy. "Where did you get it?"
"I found it after my dad died…" explained Macy as she tried to adjust her eyes to the harsh light from Mel's phone. "I just got a job at the university. I was walking by this morning and recognized your house from the picture."
"So our mom gets murdered and, three months later, you just happen to walk by?" questioned Mel.
"Murdered?" asked Macy in surprise at the same time that Maggie stated, "Ohmigod, she wasn't murdered!"
"What do you want?" Mel asked as she continued her interrogation.
"I don't want anything-"
"Because we don't have any money."
"Mel!" snapped Maggie.
"Money? I don't want money-"
"Then why are you here?"
"Because I just found and I thought... I thought maybe…" Macy stuttered as she began to ask herself that very question. Feeling defeated, Macy released a small chuckle and said, "You know what… it's whatever… I can see now that this was a mistake."
Macy turned to exit the manor when she was stopped in her tracks by a loud noise coming from upstairs. The three women looked up the staircase as a series of bangs began to echo throughout the house.
"What the hell?" whispered Maggie while Mel pointed her flashlight to the second story of the house, trying to see where the commotion was coming from.
"I think it's coming from the attic…" speculated Mel as she went towards the stairs and began to ascend.
"I have to get out of here," whispered Macy to herself as she began to open the manor's door, starting to feel overwhelmed by everything that was happening.
"Wait! Macy, wait!" begged Maggie as she stopped Macy from opening the door any wider. "Please, stay. I want to figure all of this out. And I can tell you want to, too, otherwise you wouldn't even be here."
Macy froze in the doorway as she took in Maggie's words. Going against her better judgement, she closed the manor door and decided that she would stay.
"Just give us two minutes to figure out what's happening upstairs and then we'll come back down and we'll all talk. Okay?"
Macy nodded and decided to get comfortable in the foyer. Maggie gave her a soft smile before rushing upstairs to go find her sister. She followed her sister's path into the attic and found Mel combing through the attic with her flashlight.
"Did that poser leave?" asked Mel while looking through a pile of stacked boxes in one corner.
"That 'poser' is waiting for us downstairs," answered Maggie as she began to help investigate, too. "Once we make sure there's not a serial killer up here, we're going back down to figure all of this out."
Mel sucked her teeth before stating, "I can't even believe that you're even considering that she might be our sister-"
Mel's thought was interrupted as the series of bangs came back again, causing both Maggie and Mel to release a scream. The sounds were coming from a dark corner of the attic, coming in sets of three.
"What the hell is that?" whispered Mel as she began to inch towards the corner.
Maggie followed her close behind, staying behind her sister for protection. The two made it over to the corner to see that there was an old chest of their mother's in the corner, shaking as something within it banged around the inside, trying to get out. Mel leaned over to touch it when a voice from behind them said, "Are you two okay?"
Mel and Maggie screamed again as they flipped around to see Macy in the doorway of the attic.
"What are you doing up here?" questioned Mel, clearly annoyed by the intrusion. "You can't just go walking through people's houses."
"I heard you two scream and I wanted to make sure you were okay," explained Macy as she stepped into the attic and began to take a look around. "What is all this stuff?
"Our mom collected a lot of this stuff-"
"Maggie!" snapped Mel, effectively cutting off her little sister.
The three women then jumped when the knocks came back, rattling the chest in the corner.
"Jesus Christ!" exclaimed Maggie while Mel went over to the chest and looked it over.
She moved her flashlight over it and saw a strange symbol on top of the chest. Growing impatient with curiosity, she reached down and unlatched the chest, opening it.
"What is it?" asked Maggie as she stood a couple feet back, clearly scared by what might be inside.
"It's a book."
"A book?" asked Macy, confused by how a book was making the chest moved like that.
Mel reached into the chest and pulled out the huge book. It was a dark leather bound book with gold detailing on the sides. On its cover was the same strange symbol that was on top of the chest that it was in.
"Have you ever seen this before?" asked Mel to Maggie as she showed her the book.
"I've never seen it."
Mel began to open the book and turned to its front page, only to discover it being empty. She started flipping through the pages only to find out that they were all empty.
"There's nothing here. It's empty," said Mel as she looked to Macy and Maggie, gesturing them over to come look at it.
The two came over to Mel's side but were surprised to see writing on one of the pages in front of them.
"Mel, look," said Maggie, pulling Mel's attention back to the book.
Mel looked back down at the book to see the writing sprawled out on the page. "How did I miss this?"
Maggie came over and read the top of the entry: "Dominus trinus... What does that mean?"
"It's Latin. It means the 'three masters'," explained Macy.
"Masters of what?" asked Maggie.
Mel decided to keep reading but spoke out loud so Macy and Maggie could hear. "Hear now the words of the witches… the secrets we hid in the night. Witches? As in, broom-riding, black cauldron witches?"
"Keep reading it," said Maggie, wanting to know what the rest of the page said. Mel continued:
"The oldest of Gods are invoked here. The great work of magic is sought. In this night and in this hour, we call upon the ancient power. Bring together we sisters three. We want the power. Give us the power."
Suddenly, a soft rumble began to move throughout the house, causing the three women to freeze in their spots. When it passed, the trio gasped as a brilliant light emitted from the pages of the book. Mel dropped it in shock but as it hit the ground, a wave of white energy flooded out and blasted towards the girls. The three were hit by the energy and thrown to the floor as the white energy dissipated.
"Maggie?!" asked Mel as she recovered herself and sat up, trying to make sure her sister was all right.
"I'm okay," groaned Maggie as she sat up, too. "Macy? Are you okay?"
"This can't be happening…" whimpered Macy who was crawling backwards, trying to put distance between her and the book.
"What the hell was that?" Mel asked as she looked to her sister.
"That was impossible!" snapped Macy as she got up from off the floor. "That shouldn't have happened. It must have been a hallucination or a trick-"
Maggie turned to Macy and tried to console her, saying, "Macy, it's okay. Breathe."
"Leave me alone!" snapped Macy as she turned to exit the attic. "I don't know what I was doing by coming here but I don't want any part in this."
Maggie watched as Macy ran out of the attic and made her way out of the house. A part of her wanted to chase after her but the other part of her was still too confused by what just happened.
"Did you feel that when it hit you?" asked Mel as she began to look herself over. "Like, it went inside of you or something?"
"We should call someone, Mel," stated Maggie as she stood up. "Maybe the police."
"You want to call the police?" asked Mel as she rose up from the floor, too. "What are we even supposed to say? That we found a book about magic and witches and it hit us with some white light? They'll think we're insane."
"Maybe we are," said Maggie. "What just happened isn't normal. I don't even think it's possible! Maybe there's a gas leak and we're all just hallucinating like Macy said-"
"It wasn't a hallucination," said Mel as she turned to the book. She began to walk on over to it to see if anything weird would happen.
"Mel, stay away from that thing," warned Maggie.
Mel slowly bent down next to the book and poked it gently. But when nothing happened, she resumed to pick it up. "It's okay. I think whatever it was doing before is done now."
"Get rid of that thing before it does something else!"
"Woah…" murmured Mel as she opened the book again. The book was now filled with writing on the pages, containing beautiful handwriting and drawings. "This is TOO freaky."
"I can't do this," stated Maggie after seeing the newly filled pages within the book. "I can't do this. I'm going to Kappa. You can figure out what to do with the magic book."
"Maggie!" called Mel as she watched her sister rush out the attic just like Macy had. She wanted to stop her but something about the book was grabbing her attention. She flipped back to the first page and read the title: "The Book of Shadows."