A/N: I know this kind of story has been done before, but I really needed to get my post-finale feels out. I'm not a native speaker so I apologize for any strange sentences and things like that. I know this chapter is quite long, but it's all build-up for the plot, so please bear with me. I don't own anything except my OC's.
It starts with the dreams. Almost every night now, no matter what she does, she sees him; the man who used to live in the house next door. In her dreams she's standing behind him, looking over his shoulder at a scene that constantly repeats itself. She sees a small red car with a brown-haired woman behind the steer and a truck, blowing black smoke and approaching rapidly. The man in the truck is on the phone with someone and laughs, and she recognizes him; it's the same man who's standing before her. Then, even when she sees it coming so very clearly, the strained sound of metal against metal takes her by surprise as the truck and the red car collide. Fear and guilt suddenly drown her in a tidal wave of emotion, then she blinks and it all starts over again.
Julia hasn't had a good night's sleep in months as she walks into the living room where her mom's watching tv.
''Look at this, they're starting a boarding school for witches now,'' her mom said, laughing, ''I can't believe they're seriously broadcasting this.'' She reached for the remote but Julia beat her to it and grabbed it from the table as she went to sit in the couch.
''It seems pretty interesting, though?'' she remarked, as she read the address at the bottom of the screen. ''It's not even 60 miles from here, in New Orleans.'' Her mom got up with a sigh.
''Better hope they don't go all crazy about that kind of superstition here,'' she said, ''I'm going to start dinner.'' Julia nodded absentmindedly as she concentrated on the blond-haired woman on the screen.
''There are so many young witches who have resisted their calling because they're afraid, of how they may be perceived, of what's expected of them,'' the woman explained. Julia yawned. She was thinking about her strange dreams about the neighbor, a man she'd maybe met twice before he died. But people have weird dreams about random shit all the time, right? Nothing to do with witches.
''Call us, email us, or just come to New Orleans, there is a home and a family waiting for you.'' The blond-haired woman, Miss Cordelia Goode, according to the bar at the bottom of the screen, smiled sweetly into the camera before they changed the topic to Liza Minnelli and her hip. Julia turned off the tv and put her earbuds in, searching for some Styx on her phone. She settled for Suite Madame Blue and closed her eyes.
She was there again, at the side of the road, and an anxious feeling of dread was building up in her stomach as the truck and the red car were quickly approaching the point where they eventually would collide. Even though Julia knew all of it was going to happen, she was still not prepared for the accident and jumped as the two vehicles crashed. Something changed, though. Instead of staring at the smoking mess in front of them, the man turned around and stared at her with pitch-black, empty eyes and tear-streaked cheeks.
With a jolt Julia woke up, eyes opened so wide they might as well have fallen out of their sockets. With a few deep breaths she felt her heartbeat even out again and she leaned back into the couch.
The dreams have almost become a normality in Julia's life, something she's learned to live with, because there's really not much to be done about her subconscious pestering her. She thought that perhaps it might hold some meaning, but then again what could a dream about an accident that her dead neighbor was apparently responsible for possibly mean, except that he had been a reckless fool when he was still alive? No, the dreams were not so special, it was only 4 weeks after she'd watched the story about New Orleans newly acquired witch school that things really begun to change.
It was a rainy Tuesday afternoon and as every student at the age of sixteen, Julia was seated at her desk, staring at her math homework every five minutes or so before checking her phone again. She was bored out of her mind and she knew that no one was going to actually make those exercises, but at the same time there wasn't much else to do except to stare at the rain and wonder about the meaning of life, in-between texting friends.
The sound of Patrick Stumps voice was blaring out of her speakers and after a while her mom came barging into the room with a ''turn that down, now,'' so Julia sighed exasperatedly and looked around for her earbuds, which were laying on a stack of books in the corner of her room. With a grunt, she stretched out her arm, telling herself how childish this was but nonetheless reaching out in the hope that the earbuds would just come flying into the palm of her hand.
When you estimate the chance of something happening to be zero and when all scientific research in the world tells you that something happening is just not possible within nature's laws, the event of that certain something happening goes accompanied with a really big shock. This is how Julia practically falls off her chair when said pair of earbuds indeed land in her hand.
Julia carefully stood up again, clutching the earbuds, as she looked at the stack of books, still sitting there, unmoved, some five feet away. Taking in a deep breath, Julia laid the earbuds back on her well-read copy of 'A Horse and His Boy', and went to sit back down again. Time to see if she was still sane or not. She stretched out her arm again, glaring at the earbuds and willing them into her hand. After a few seconds of intense focusing, the earbuds do indeed fly into her hand again.
''Shit.''
Cordelia looked over the file once more before deciding to put it on the 'denied' stack. There were more letters arriving each week and it was exhausting. Of course Zoe en Queenie were great helps, but it was still such mindless work that it was driving her insane. The fact that sorting out the real witches from the fake ones didn't require all that much thinking didn't help. Cordelia caught herself thinking about the closest friend she had ever had more often every day and even though it hurt her in the most painful way, she couldn't set the swamp witch out of her mind. Guilt overpowered her in those moments, guilt because she should never have told Misty to take part in the Seven Wonders. The girl had told her herself that she didn't want to be the Supreme, that she didn't feel powerful. Cordelia, blind then in more ways than one, had written it off as nerves. She couldn't have possible been more wrong. Misty had always been so proud, proud of where she came from and proud of her powers to heal and bring people back to life. If she had been the Supreme, she would've felt the power surging through her veins and she would've been proud of that newfound power, too. Cordelia could see it all now and continued to beat herself up about it, because no matter what anyone told her, she knew that in the end it all came down to her.
With so many new witches, Miss Robichaux's Academy for Exceptional Young Ladies had become quite the bustling place. Cordelia almost felt bad about not remembering each student's name, but she figured that would come with time. The halls of the big house were almost never completely deserted, like how Cordelia knew them. The only place where she could find solitude and calm now was the greenhouse, which never actually resulted in Cordelia being calmed down because of all the memories she associated the place with.
Even with the knowledge that she was doing well and that the coven was thriving, Cordelia's days as reigning Supreme were tiring and unmerciful on her.
Several days after 'practicing telekinesis', or whatever it was that had moved her earbuds, Julia made a decision. She had dug up everything shady about the witch school in New Orleans and decided that despite the fact that there had been weird crap going on there in the past, she might give it a try. Besides, if she really was a witch now, she didn't have to be afraid of monsters, right?
Julia also decided not to tell her mom when she skipped school the next Monday to take a bus to New Orleans. She had no idea whether she could just barge in asking if she could see the headmistress or if she actually had to schedule an appointment like she imagined it worked on other fancy schools. It was still a school for witches after all; she doubted anyone who came there knew what to expect.
After one and a half hours of traveling, she set foot on the gray pavement in one of the more wealthy neighborhoods in New Orleans. The tall fence was impressing, the massive white building behind it even more so. Feeling incredibly nervous and excited, Julia pushed open the fence and walked to the front door. She took a deep breath and then rang the doorbell. The door opened almost instantly and Julia wondered if the blond-haired boy in the butler costume at the other side of the threshold had somehow known she was coming.
''What can I do for you?'' he asked, not unkind but not overly welcome either.
''I'm here to see Miss Goode,'' Julia said, ''does she have time to see me?'' A slight smile appeared on the boy's face as he turned to let her in.
''Of course,'' he said, ''I'll get her right away. You can wait in her office, the last door on the right.'' Julia nodded curtly and waited until the boy had disappeared.
Miss Cordelia Goode's office was not really what she had expected it to be. Its interior was light and spacious, and there were a lot of books. It looked pretty ordinary, with no strange symbols or spells as far as she could see. Julia played with the hem of her t-shirt and prayed that the woman wouldn't take too long because she wasn't really great on the patience field, but just as the thought swirled into her mind, the door creaked and a tall woman she registered as the headmistress walked in. She sat down behind her desk before Julia could get up and smiled at her tentatively.
''What can I do for you?''
Julia decided to get straight to the point. ''I think I might be a witch.'' And, after a short silence that felt also a bit awkward on her part, she added: ''you probably get this all the time, but I'm pretty sure.'' There seemed to appear a little glimmer in Miss Cordelia's eyes at that.
''Okay, well, why don't you start at the beginning?'' she said, ''everything that seemed even remotely strange can be related to your abilities as a witch.'' Julia nodded and swallowed the nervous lump in her throat.
''It started about six months ago, when I got this weird dream that has been coming back ever since. It's about my neighbor, a man who lived next door to us for maybe two years before he died of a heart attack. He was in his sixties, I think. So in this dream, I'm standing behind him and I'm looking over his shoulder at an accident he caused. At the end of it, I feel all these emotions of guilt and sadness, and then it all starts over again. An endless loop of that particular accident, until I wake up again.'' She looked the headmistress in the eyes, feeling a little more comfortable now that she can actually tell someone this without getting told to 'get over it, it was only a bad dream'. Miss Cordelia nodded thoughtfully, then said:
''This sounds interesting, but it wasn't what convinced you that you were a witch, or was it?'' Julia shook her head.
''Something changed, about a week back. I can do this now-'' she decided to immediately demonstrate her new power, and lifted a couple of pens off the desk with only so much as a glare. She dropped the pens again and Miss Cordelia smiled at her. ''It's called telekinesis, right? Like Jean has in the X-Men.'' The headmistress' smile widened a bit.
''Yes. It is one of the seven abilities of which witches are able to do at least one or more. What was your name again?''
''Julia Newport.'' Julia answered.
''Well, if you decide in any event that you want to learn about your abilities, you are very welcome here, Julia.'' The headmistress stood up and Julia did the same, but it wasn't until she touched her arm that Julia looked up again. ''I don't suppose you've asked your parents yet?'' she asked with a knowing smile. Julia chuckled.
''When my mom saw the interview she just saw it as a load of bulls- ...um, well, you know,'' she said, telling herself internally not to screw up her first impression with cursing. ''She probably thought it was just a joke or a call for attention, I don't know. She surely doesn't believe witches exist.'' Julia frowned as she wondered about how the hell she was supposed to convince her mom to send her off to witch boarding school. Miss Cordelia seemed to sense her uneasiness and said,
''I truly believe we can help you master your abilities here, Julia. If she doesn't want you to go, there is of course nothing I can do, but you might just convince her with that power of yours. And if that doesn't work, you can always bring her to see me.'' She smiled. Julia grinned in return as she imagined the look of shock that would probably appear on her mother's face if she suddenly saw objects flying around the house. ''Have a safe trip back home, Julia,'' the headmistress said, ''I hope to see you soon.'' Then the butler boy entered to accompany her back to the door.
Her mother was furious. Immediately after she got back from work, her mother demanded an explanation for the school's call when she hadn't turned up. Then when Julia told her she'd gone to see the headmistress of the infamous witch school, she exploded. A seemingly never-ending rant about the media's impact on society and how the television was apparently slowly brainwashing everyone followed, and after her mom had calmed down to an extent, Julia spoke up.
''Mom. Can you just listen to me for a sec? I didn't go there without a legit reason, okay?''
Her mom scoffed. ''Oh, please enlighten me then. What reason could possibly make it okay for you to skip school to go visit a cult school-''
''It's a school for witches. It's not a cult,'' Julia bit back. She took a deep breath. It was sink or swim now. ''Wanna hear my reason? I think it's better if I'd just show you.'' She focused on a piece of paper that was laying on the table they were both sitting at and carefully folded it into an airplane with her mind. When it was finished, she lifted it in the air and let it float there for a moment, before dropping it again. She crossed her arms and leaned back. Her mom had gone completely white and kept looking at her, then at the airplane and back again. They didn't say anything for a long while and Julia felt the tension rise. She leaned forward again and put her arms on the table.
''Look, I didn't choose this, okay? It just happened. I thought it'd be nice if I could actually get an idea of what's happening to me.'' Her mom visibly sobered up and swallowed.
''Very well. You have this... power, now, you'll just have to learn how to live with it. I don't have to ship you off to New Orleans for that.''
Julia sighed. ''Well, the best place how to learn to control witchcraft is to learn from other witches, right? Besides, it isn't that far away. I could just come home for the weekend.'' Her mother didn't seem too convinced. ''C'mon mom, the headmistress is real nice and I bet the other girls are too. Can't I at least try it out, for the first month or so?'' Her mother sighed in defeat.
''If you're sure this is what you want, then it's fine with me. I have to see this headmistress myself first, though.'' Julia stood up with a big smile on her face.
''Great! Thanks, mom!'' And with that, she ran up the stairs to her room.
Julia noticed she was getting stronger over the course of mere days when she let her guitar float towards her, carefully as not to let it bump into anything. It was the biggest object she'd lifted with her telekinesis yet and it didn't even cost her that much trouble. Deciding that experimenting was more fun and interesting than school work, she dropped the guitar on her bed. She stretched out her right hand and concentrated. She smiled as the strings moved. With her other hand stretched out, too, albeit this proved to be more difficult, she proceeded to press down the strings, creating a pattern of chords that turned into Pink Floyd's Time. Julia smiled as she started to sing along softly.
''Ticking away, the moments that make up a dull day...''
Cordelia, known for being absurdly invested in her students (or almost-students) well-being, was sipping a cup of tea in the drawing room. She was thinking about Julia and her dreams and what they could possibly mean. Maybe the spirit of her deceased neighbor had somehow latched himself onto her, appearing in her dreams because she couldn't see him when she was awake. Still, that didn't make a lick of sense. Why would he do that? From how Julia talked about him, she gathered that she didn't know him very well.
There was another thing about the dream that made Cordelia feel uneasy. What the girl had described, an accident on a loop and the man feeling sad and guilty, it could only be one thing. Somehow, she had found herself in the personal hell of a man that had once lived next door to her. Maybe it had something to do with the location? But before she could think more about it, Kyle wandered in with a small smile on his face.
''The girl that visited two days ago is back,'' he told her, ''I think she brought her mom. I referred them to your study.'' Cordelia smiled and nodded at the boy.
''Thank you, Kyle.'' She stood up and straightened her dress. The prospect of a possible new student was always really exciting for Cordelia and she walked to her office with a hint of a smile on her face. Inside were Julia and a woman that did bear some resemblance to the girl, but not as much as Cordelia herself did to Fiona.
''I see you have brought your mother this time,'' Cordelia said as she sat down in front of them, and she silently hoped that the woman wasn't too spooked.
Julia nodded. ''Yes, we... uh, we agreed that I can go here but my mom still has some questions, so...''
''Naturally,'' Cordelia said and she looked at the woman in front of her who didn't seem so much at ease as she and Julia did.
''Yes. I was wondering about what exactly my daughter gets taught during the time she spends here. And whether she'll be able to come home during the weekends.'' Cordelia nodded.
''The subjects we teach here are mainly history or lore, to teach you more about where you originally come from,'' she looked at Julia for a moment, ''we also teach basic knowledge of the Latin language, which will be useful for practicing spells, and Julia here will of course also learn how to control her newfound abilities and explore them. We have multiple witches at the school who, together, are extremely proficient of the abilities that witches are able to do. There are also multiple classes concerning your interests,'' she looked at Julia again, ''like botany, spells, potions and voodoo. Now I know that all this might sound a little scary, but as headmistress I can assure you that this school is the safest place for Julia.'' Julia's mother nodded and was still calm, so Cordelia continued. ''The girls are basically free to do what they want in the weekends and some girls whose families live close enough do also go home for two days. Julia can do the same if she wants.'' Julia's mother looked at her daughter, who had gotten a little glimmer in her eyes after Cordelia's explanation of all the things she would get to learn if she did get to go to school, and it made Cordelia feel a little warmer inside.
''If all this is really what you want then... Yes. You can try it out.''
Julia smiled. ''Really? Thanks mom, you're the best,'' she said, after which she turned back to Cordelia, ''so, when can I start?'' Cordelia laughed softly at the girl's eagerness.
''I think it's for the best not to rush,'' she said, ''how does next Saturday sound? That way you can say goodbye to your friends at school and maybe explain the situation to them. And Mrs. Newport, you don't have to worry about deregistering from your daughter's current high school, I'll take care of that.'' Cordelia stood up, indicating the end of their conversation, and Julia and her mother did the same. They shook hands and Cordelia walked them to the front door.
''I'll see you on Saturday, then,'' she told Julia as her mother walked away to get the car. The girl's smile looked like it could lit up New York City for at least a year, Cordelia thought to herself and she chuckled. ''I'd say we managed to convince your mother just fine, right?''
Julia nodded. ''Yeah, we really did. See you Saturday, Miss Cordelia.'' She smiled at Cordelia one last time and then walked to where her mother was waiting for her with the car.
Cordelia felt this unexplainable light feeling as she watched the car drive away and she chuckled to herself for a moment. The coven just acquired a very interesting new student. She closed the door and found Kyle wandering in the hallway.
''Could you prepare a room before next Saturday?'' she asked him, ''We're getting a new student.'' Kyle smiled and nodded before he ascended the stairs. Cordelia went back to her study and sat down behind her desk with an air of satisfaction. Time to make preparations.