Timeline: Two years after the events of 4.15
Samhain is Here
Bonnie and Lucy pronounce it Sam-hain. Abby and Sheila say Sow-in. Ayanna says Sah-vin.
It is a spirit night.
/
Bonnie stared out of one of the living room windows of the two bedroom townhouse she'd been renting for seven months now and played with the talisman hanging around her neck. She paid her share at five hundred dollars per month. Or rather...her dad paid most of her share. The townhouse belonged to one of his friends. The woman had heard from Rudy that Bonnie was done with the on-campus living experience and wanted a place in town, and she had offered her townhouse.
The first thing Bonnie had done after she'd moved in was cleanse the place. She's been focused on energy, good and bad, since Abby's friend Aja helped her get rid of her connection to Expression two years ago, a connection that had been forged in large part by Shane.
Expression symbolized a weird time in her life. She's categorized all of the magic she has used as a period in her life.
She'd been in flux for the longest time. Natural magic symbolized a time in her life when she was lost, scared, and afraid. A time when she was grasping for as much power as her mind could dream up, even if her body couldn't handle it. Dark magic symbolized a...well, a dark time. She had found her place, but she had been shaken when the Salvatores had treated her life, as well as that of her mother's, as a solution to a problem. Not her magic, not their magic. Their lives. The moments leading up to her using Dark magic, she had felt more and more like a walking, talking mass of power. Everyone wanted a piece of her. The Salvatores, Elena, Klaus, the spirits. There hadn't been a person there. No. She'd been an avatar of magic. A manifestation. There hadn't been a person there. Only a solution, only an opportunity.
Expression was strange. She hadn't been looking for power. She hadn't been lost, or angry, or scared. She had been looking for a solution, a simple solution to a problem that was entirely hers. And before she'd realized it she'd become a solution. Again. The power had felt good. There had been betrayal, but it still hadn't felt like her world had gone off-kilter. Shane's betrayal wasn't entirely what tainted the magic. It was also the source. Twenty-four deaths with twelve more on the plank. Bad energy. Shane had known how dangerous the magic was: his wife had died using it. Bad energy. She'd needed supervision in order to continue using it successfully, and her supervisor was an anguished man who'd made himself into an opportunist who, she had decided in the aftermath, cared more about the ends than the means, the means being her. Bad energy.
She now thought of most things in terms of energy. What kind of energy is attached to it? What kind of energy does it attract? What kind of energy is it trying to attract?
Expression was the time in her life when Jeremy died.
She twirled his ring on her right thumb, a habit she'd developed in the two years since he died. She twirled it to help herself think; she twirled it to let her mind drift; she twirled it for fun; she twirled it to remember. The enchanted ring sat heavy on her thumb, but she barely noticed its weight anymore. Its enchantment was impotent on her.
Its enchantment wasn't needed anymore.
She had burned incense the night before, the eve of Samhain, in order to prepare for the celebration that was going to take place tonight. She had cleansed her house so that any poltergeists, different from spirits, that planned on passing through on Samhain wouldn't have anything to grab on to and feed on.
The dead were another thing she focused on. How could she not? She's used magic born of the deceased. She was once incredibly willing to let twelve die to get what she wanted, and she knew she would still do it if need be. She's killed two men, mortals. She's walked on the OtherSide twice.
There was a relationship between her and the world of the dead. And this night would be the first time she celebrated it as a witch.
The doorbell rang, and she jumped out of her thoughts.
"The night hasn't even started yet," Abby commented cheekily as she set a silver bowl full of pineapples in the center of the coffee table.
Bonnie turned to her and shook her head in embarrassment. She kept her hair short now, collarbone-length, and she'd put waves in it for the night's festivities.
She knew Abby wanted the night to get scary. She'd shared with her that she loves it when Samhain gets scary. Bonnie wasn't sure she was ready for all of that.
Abandoning her place in front of the window, she went to open the door.
"Samhain is here," Lucy said in greeting.
It was the greeting Bonnie had exchanged with Abby when the woman had shown up an hour earlier. Bonnie smiled wide. "Samhain is here," she greeted, and she let Lucy through with her package.
Lucy's hair was still the same length as when she'd met her. This night, though, she wore it in a ponytail. Abby had cut her hair completely and dyed it jet black.
Bonnie took a deep breath and let her musings fall away when she expelled it.
"What did you bring?" she asked Lucy.
"Candles," Lucy answered as she took them out and placed them around the circle Bonnie had created.
"Black candles. You brought black candles. You know, we could've used those at the Witch House. Abby said a quick spell and we could've made them absorb the cold so the house would be warm."
"Honey, I don't not want to hold the celebration at the Witches' House because of the cold, though that's part of it; I don't want to be in that house because of everything that's gone down between you and those spirits. I mean, love the ancestors and everything, but no. Besides, I wanna talk a little shit tonight."
"Crap," Abby corrected. "Or trash."
Bonnie let her head hang a little bit as she stared at Abby, who wasn't paying attention to her. She knew Abby was correcting Lucy for her benefit, but she wasn't thirteen. Then again...Has she heard Abby curse since she met her?
"And if you're going to talk trash," Abby continued as she unveiled the mountain ash berries, allspice berries, mugwort, and rosemary she'd collected for the night, "Being here isn't going to help you. The spirits are wandering tonight." She placed the herbs inside the circle.
"Yeah, but at least I'll know for sure there won't be one hundred of them conglomerating here."
Abby smiled and inclined her head in acknowledgment of Lucy's point.
"I haven't celebrated Samhain in so long," Lucy shared.
"I haven't celebrated it in ever," Bonnie deadpanned as she left the living room to fetch a deep purple cloth from the kitchen.
"Samhain is my favorite witch holiday. Actually, it's my favorite holiday period. Never failed to celebrate it since mom started to do it with me, not until...well, not until I became a vampire." It's been a year and it was still hard for her to refer to that period of her life.
Bonnie returned from the kitchen and gently took the pine cones and acorns from the cloth and set it in the circle.
"That's all you brought?" Lucy questioned.
"All you brought were candles," Bonnie pointed out defensively. "And I had classes."
"Candles complete the circle. And we're also gonna use them to scry, remember?"
"Oh, speaking of scrying." Abby jogged to the kitchen.
"I bought the food," Bonnie continued with Lucy. "That Abby prepared," she admitted a little quieter. "Well I bought the fruit. She brought the cake."
"Come get it from the kitchen," Abby's voice drifted to them.
Lucy looked at the separated fruits: pineapples, green apple slices, and cherries. "Why didn't you prepare the fruit?" Lucy asked as she watched Bonnie head to the kitchen.
"Because I bought them," Bonnie waved off.
Lucy chuckled and shook her head.
Bonnie returned with Abby. She carried the cake while Abby branched away from her and headed toward the other window in the living room. Bonnie set the cake on the coffee table and watched Abby unveil a medium-sized mirror. "What is that?" she asked.
"A marcasite mirror," Abby said reverently.
"Silver," Lucy clarified, helpfully.
"My second most prized possession."
Bonnie watched Abby handle the mirror as if it was a delicate relic. And it was silver. Old, faded silver. It looked like an antique. Bonnie wanted to touch it. "What's the first?"
"A bigger one. Oval and made of copper."
"The huge mirror in your bedroom? I've seen it. Why is it-it's magical?"
"Mmm-hmm. I use it, and this, for scrying."
"It's hard," Lucy added. "Very hard. I'd love to learn, but I never...have. I stick to regular scrying: precious stones. Oh, and water."
"I love water scrying," Bonnie said. She'd learned it from Aja.
"Mirror scrying is hard if you're looking for something serious. It's...well, it's not easy, but it's less hard if you're just messing around," Abby said. She placed the mirror on a side table she'd moved beneath the window sill and made sure the mirror caught the moon. Satisfied, she faced her daughter and her younger cousin.
"Only someone who practices catoptromancy would say anything about it is easy," Lucy said with an unimpressed roll of her eyes.
Abby grinned.
"Did you learn from grams?" Bonnie asked.
"No, actually. I learned it from my grandmother: Ernestine. Mom never mastered it. Gran used to say that I have a gift for it."
Where Bonnie had had no one and had taught herself the craft, Abby had had her mother and grandmother (not to mention a father had never once shut her out because of her heritage). Abby had had everything that Bonnie had lacked. And the magic, their world, had still been too much for her, and she'd left. This difference had been the first thing Abby had needed to acknowledge before she'd been able to make headway with Bonnie. Realizing everything that this difference meant had helped her in approaching Bonnie with regards to what she considered were the young woman's mistakes and risks. The main thing she'd learned from Bonnie was: they weren't mistakes, not in the way that Abby had initially thought of them. They were still wrong in her book, but Bonnie had been trying to keep her head above water. She'd been trying to survive. And Abby was glad for that. It hurt at times, knowing the part she'd played, but she was glad that Bonnie had survived despite her harmful absence and despite Rudy's harmful mistakes. She was proud and in awe of Bonnie for making a way for herself.
"I can teach you if you'd like," Abby offered.
"Maybe," Bonnie answered. She was reluctant to try any new powers, though she supposed mirror scrying was more of a skill than a power.
"Okay!" Lucy said with a clap of her hands. "Are we ready?"
"Yep!" Bonnie said. Her hair swung when she turned to face the altar. She'd placed it in front of the fire place, which remained unlit.
Abby hurried over and joined them.
"I want us to do this together," Bonnie said. "Not as individual witches."
Witches chanting together didn't necessarily mean they were combining their powers, no matter if they were holding hands, and Bonnie wanted them to combine their powers.
She held out her hands and Lucy and Abby joined her in order to make a circle. Bonnie's breath caught when she felt Abby start to channel her. She smiled when she felt Lucy. Closing her eyes, she reached out and touched Lucy and Abby's power bases. When she opened her eyes, she could tell by Lucy's working of her throat and Abby's hiking brow that they felt her reach, and they felt each other, too.
"Ready?" Bonnie quietly asked them.
The single word charged the room. Linked with Abby and Lucy, every word she spoke was potential for magic, every word was a potential spell.
The women nodded. In unison, they thought of the light switches in the living room and kitchen. Bonnie smiled when the lights turned off, and they were shrouded in darkness. Together, the three started the chant they had planned for the celebration.
"Samhain est!"
They gripped each other tight when the candles spurred to life, completing the circle.
Lucy's voice rang out, reverent and excited, "Nos invitare Bennetts / Est Samhain."
The candles' flicker turned violent, and Abby imagined they brushed against the veil that separated their world from that of the dead.
Bonnie's hands were clammy and hot when she whispered, "Animae possunt numquam morereteur / Est Samhain."
The windows in the living room went up of their own accord, stealing her attention. She heard the one in her bedroom throw itself open, and she hoped the glass didn't crack. Most of the drapes in the living room blew inward. One of them was blocked by the table containing Abby's mirror.
Abby watched the table shake as the drape struggled to come free, and she hoped it wouldn't topple the table and send the mirror crashing.
Lucy hoped only Bennett spirits showed up. Just to make sure, she repeated the first part of her spell. "Nos invitare Bennetts."
In order to keep things balanced, Bonnie repeated the first part of her spell. "Animae possunt numquam morereteur."
Abby completed the spell, solo and sure, "Phasmatis Bennett in ceterus pars, nos veneratio quod invite vos!"
The temperature lowered to an unnatural chill. A legion of whispers invaded the house, tongues with tales that date back to before the common era, voices that had fled and migrated; they wailed, and cried and yelled. A sharp scream pierced the living Bennetts' ears and they flinched.
Lucy almost broke the circle to scratch her skin. Just because these spirits were definitely dead as opposed to half dead like vampires didn't mean she couldn't feel them. On Halloween, with the veil at its thinnest, a witch came closest to feeling death without the experience being completely debilitating and off-putting. Still, one who wasn't used to the sensation could be left feeling so uncomfortable that they wanted to jump out of their skin.
"Are we lighting the fireplace?" Lucy asked, and she swore she got even colder in that moment. She wanted to roll her eyes at herself for how her voice trembled out. She didn't miss Abby's smile.
"Yeah," Bonnie answered. "Together."
"But using different spells," Lucy said suddenly. "Wait, do you guys know spells for creating fire? Abby, I know you know."
"Thanks," Bonnie dead-panned.
"I'm just saying," Lucy said by way of apology.
Bonnie really didn't take much offense. It was only within the past two years that she'd started coming up with spells to create fire. Before then, she usually used her innate ability, no words necessary. But her favorite fire spell was the one fire spell she'd had for the longest time. It was one of the fire spells in Emily's grimoire.
"Ready?" Abby asked. When Bonnie and Lucy nodded, all three stared sharply at the hearth.
"Incendia!"
"Excipio lux!"
"Combustia!"
"Nice," Lucy commented on Abby's spell. "Commanding the wood to burn. I like that." She herself had commanded light into existence while Bonnie had commanded fire. Bonnie's spell could've gone awry were it not for serious concentration, which Bonnie had been pulling off for a long time now without realizing how valuable that was in witchcraft. Calling fire: anything can burn. Were Bonnie less disciplined, the couch would've caught fire, or maybe the whole house.
Her spell called into existence something that wasn't there. She created light out of nothing, no crutch. She had to concentrate on where she wanted that light to be; she created and focused it. Out of the three, her spell required the most skill.
Abby's spell was the easiest to pull off. She'd commanded the wood, something already combustible, to burn. She'd used a crutch of sorts, another element.
"Stop runnin' or you 'gon throw up!"
"Damn it!" Abby used her shoulder to block her left ear. The warning had no doubt been spoken for a child, but her ancestor had seen fit to come right up to her ear and scream it.
"Okay, we should break this circle, now," Lucy said.
They gently let go, slowly, ritualistically. The circle now existed symbolically, which, when it came to magic, was just as good as physically existing. The circle was still in place and they weren't going to close it until the end of the celebration when they wanted to signal to the spirits that it was time for them to disperse.