PART 2
"Samantha, the very first wave of the first generation remembers. We weren't always witches. I mean, look at us."
Sam took a step back. Aunt Clara looked just like any other elderly woman. With light hair, a motherly warmth, a confused yet sharp as a tack mind… and Uncle Arthur looked like any man. Tall, brown hair, brown eyes, an infectious laugh…
And then it hit her. In a whisper, she acknowledged it,
"We're… we were once… human. We were once mortals. "
Arthur snapped, "Never!" But the room boomed of thunder, and he instantly shut his mouth.
Clara continued, "I remember… when I was a little girl. I could recite the alphabet from Alpha to Omega."
Arthur just couldn't accept it, "I don't believe it. How can I? I don't remember being a little girl! I-I mean, boy."
Clara continued, "Does not change facts, Arthur. We were recruited as agents of chaos and forces of darkness. Those that survived the rituals were granted powerful gifts by the darkness, and all it requested was that we lead man astray, that we prove his creation was flawed… by joining the darkness."
Clara seemed so solemn, and quiet. Arthur asked her, "Why would we join it? We're not bad people. We're good inside… right?"
The old witch shrugged, "I don't know why you joined, Arthur. We all have different reasons… all I know is that very few of the first wave survived. Those that did, all had one thing in common- fear of death. We were all afraid, young things. And we remembered our lives before. I don't think we were supposed to. It seemed to anger The Darkness. When it tried once more to create new soldiers for its army, it had learned from its mistakes. The first person from the second wave that I had met was a young a man. He remembered nothing at all from his previous life, other than he felt he had been extravagantly wealthy. But when I saw his hands, with light scars and callouses, his rough English accent and his subconscious knowledge on how to fend for himself, I suspected he was in fact a poor, orphaned youth. Perhaps that was how The Darkness lured him in, with the promise of wealth. So, a few from the first wave, now with hundreds of years of experience, took him under our wing. He called himself… Maurice."
"My daddy?" Samantha asked, overwhelmed, "He's such a gentleman."
"Do you remember Endora?" Arthur asked.
Clara nodded, sighing, "Oh, yes. Young, and angry, full of rage. She had an instant distrust of men, and an unparalleled disdain for women. She enjoyed the suffering of others and for that The Darkness rewarded her with great powers, far greater than anyone in her class."
"Why was mother like that?" Samantha asked quietly, the thunder surrounding them slowly ebbing away.
Clara thought for a moment before allowing herself to say, "I believed Endora may have been an abused youth. Others that were converted with her stated that she had nightmares when she slept, and would awake, weeping. She had bruises all over her body, terrible scars. And when Enchantra asked her if she ever wondered if she had a mother, Endora responded that she knew she never had one. But for some reason, I feel she did, but the woman didn't defend her daughter the way she should've been defended."
Samantha didn't know what to say. This was a revelation of her mother she never suspected. Her mother, strong willed and powerful, ever present and resourceful, a force to be reckon with, was once a frightened, mistreated, little girl.
Her thoughts were silenced with Arthur's hopeful voice, "Well at least some good came out of this revelation- I may not really be Endora's little brother."
Clara told him instantly, "I wouldn't think that if I were you. The Darkness reveled in luring misplaced youths, the desperate, and the wayward souls over to it's side. And then he asked them to turn around and recruit others. They usually started with those they already knew, such as friends, lovers, sisters… brothers."
Arthur stomped his foot, "Nothing but bad news today!"
"They returned to old stomping grounds subconsciously. And it was strange, watching them pass by with absolutely no recollection of their own, united in their shared love in wanting acceptance- even from Darkness."
"Aunt Clara," Samantha started, unsure of how to proceed, "I don't… I don't remember darkness. I only remember happiness, and warmth, and love." Love from her parents, who she was slowly learning were a young man who never saw a dime he earned as probably lived out in the cold streets, and a teenaged girl with boiling anger in her belly as she covered swollen bruises along her thin body. Happiness from magical abilities she always thought of as a gift from heaven, not from the other side. And warmth, warmth from all the endless aunts, uncles, and cousins her heart could desire. Growing up in such a magical community was just that- magical.
So how could she take Clara's news that perhaps not all was what it seemed?
She honestly didn't know. She still loved everyone she ever loved, she just wished that they hadn't come to be like this.
"What now?" She asked, her voice slow.
Clara turned to the tiniest book ever, "It says that The Eternal will lift the veil that the witches had kept hidden around the mortals for so long. Mortals will suddenly know all the witches they had ever come into contact with-"
"Yes, yes, yes," Arthur interrupted, "And ay spells we casted over them, we know this, Clara!"
Sam quickly recapped, "So we constructed the siren song as a warning to us, so we could flee-"
Clara blinked at her disapprovingly, "The word is 'regroup', Samantha! A witch never flees!"
"What else does that speck of dust we call a book say?!" Arthur pleaded, with a genuine sense of urgency.
"It speaks of four warning signs that will lead to the mortal's sudden awareness."
"What are the four signs that we should've seen coming?!" Samantha asked, her own sense of urgency picking up as her voice croaked.
Clara thought for a moment before saying slowly, "The first sign: 'A New World Found; An Old World Lost.'"
Arthur blinked, "What in the blazes is that supposed to mean? The only world mortals have been on is the moon!" He then snapped his fingers, "Oh wait- is that it?"
Sam rolled her eyes, "A moon is not a world, uncle."
Arthur then nodded, as if remembering something, "Oh that's right, and besides, the whole thing was shot on a soundstage with Kubrick."
"Uncle Arthur!" Samantha cut it, "Honestly! Mortals really did land on the moon! If you go there right this second, you will see the American flag!"
"You've been to the moon, have you seen it?" He challenged.
"Well no," Sam said slowly, "But then again, I haven't gone since I was married."
Clara shrugged, "I assumed the book is speaking of a couple hundred years ago."
Arthur turned to Samantha, saying seriously, "This old witch is really losing it, Sammy. She thinks mortals discovered the moon a few hundred years ago!"
Clara rolled her eyes at the pair before her, "Not the moon, America."
Arthur shrugged his broad shoulder, "So the Europeans discovered America, so what? I was there, and it wasn't all that exciting. They didn't have a Sears yet or anything! Just a bunch of trees and natives."
Samantha snapped her fingers, her eyes twinkling, "Arthur!"
"Uncle Arthur to you!" He corrected her, but she smiled broadly, "I know what Clara means! The Europeans called the Americas the New World! Don't you get it? A New World Found; An Old World Lost!"
"But the 'Old World' didn't go anywhere! In fact, I still live there, or I did- before all this mess! Now let's see, I have a tiny flat in England- wonderful place, with all the castles! And I have a little cottage in the rural area of France- so peaceful! And I have-"
"Arthur, we're not trying to talk about your vacation homes!" Samantha whined, turning to her aunt, "What does it mean?"
"It means Arthur has good taste. You know, I myself have a little bungalow-"
"Aunt Clara! I meant the text!" Samantha threw in, exhausted.
"Oh! Yes, yes! Now let me see…" Clara continued, snapping on the giant glasses, thinking hard. After a moment of Sam and Arthur leaning over her, Clara backed off, shrugging her aged shoulders, "Oh I can't tell what the last part of it means. Old World Lost? It could be plagues, war, government… it is all so difficult to make heads or tails of such vague warnings."
"Then we will take it as the discovery of the Americas and move on!" Samantha said with a tone of finality. She then asked hurriedly, "What is the next warning sign?"
Clara soon babbled out, "And Man Shall Touch the Skies, Turning the Planet Small."
"I hate that ride!" Arthur blurted out, above them, a new star forming in the cosmos.
"What ride?" Samantha asked, puzzled.
" 'It's a Small World' at Disneyland!" Arthur nodded, "Gives me the creeps!"
Clara agreed, "I don't like Disneyland either. Those lines should be a crime within themselves! And there's so much security, popping ahead soon gets you caught and thrown out! Like I remember-"
"Everyone! Focus!" Sam shouted out, "I highly doubt that this next warning has anything to do with Disneyland-"
"It has to do with planes." Arthur interjected calmly.
"What in the world?" Sam asked him as he told her energetically, "Well, y'see Sammy, when the invention of planes was a hip new fad with the mortals, I took the liberty of befriending the Wright Brothers! Now, neither one had a particularly good sense of humor, so the friendship didn't really go nowhere but-"
Sam, who was half listening to Arthur and half trying to solve the sign in her head nodded, "I think I see where you're going with this! The invention of planes made for 'man to touch the skies', and by doing so, he 'turned the planet small', because now what would've originally took months to find by sea now only takes a few hours! Uncle Arthur, you're brilliant!"
Arthur shrugged, "Not so brilliant, Sammy. See, I slept with the sister and Wilbur tried to punch my teeth out, only," he started giggling, "I returned the favor!" He then whispered to Clara, "Ever wonder why they never smiled in their photos?"
"No," she started off slowly, "But I do wonder why Samantha tells everyone you're her funniest uncle. You haven't said one joke I think is funny."
Arthur's face fell, "Everyone's a critic."
Samantha urgently asked her aunt, "What's the third warning, Aunt Clara?"
Clara nodded affirmatively like a woman on a mission. After reading through the tiny text, she said seriously, "Mars Kills in Two Acts, Venus Kisses in Between."
Arthur paced the floor, rubbing his chin, "Mars kills in two acts? What does the planet have to do with this?"
"Or perhaps it's the a god, after all the planet was named after the Roman God of War- Mars."
"Funny," Arthur said in mock seriousness, "I never took Mars as a theatre man." He then busted out laughing, "Get it? He kills in two acts! Ha! Aren't I a laugh?!"
Clara rolled her eyes, her agitation of the warlock apparent, "Only at yourself…"
Arthur looked up, "Huh?"
Clara shook her head, "What?"
"Please you two!" Samantha pleaded, "Let's break this down now. Why would Mars kill in two acts?"
"Obviously because Venus is kissing him in between." Arthur threw out before busting out laughing.
"Oh that Venus, always one for trouble!" Clara agreed, "I-I remember one time, in the land of ancient Rome, my friend Diandra and I were-"
"Oh my stars!" Sam sighed, rubbing her temples, "We are never going to get through this, are we?"
"Now, now, now, Sammy," Arthur walked over to his favorite niece draping a protective arm over her, "Clara and I are just getting through this the best way we can! Me with my jokes, and Clara with happy memories of happier times!"
Clara blinked, "My memory with Diandra was anything but happy! She was a snake in the grass that girl! Stole my beau I believe…"
Arthur snapped at her, "Clara just go with it! Look at the poor kid here! She's irritated with us!" His head jerked to Samantha who by now had knelt to the ground, her eyelids drooping and her chin facing the ground.
Clara shrugged, "I-I just know that I had a feud with that girl and we hit the pause button, but 8 years later, it was the exact same trouble! The only difference was that we were older."
Sam suddenly snapped her head to look at Clara, her eyes wide, "That… that's it!" She then stood to her full height, explaining, "I've been going over all of it in my head and that's it!"
Arthur asked her, confused, "Clara and Diandra?"
"No!" Sam excitedly explained, her hands jumping, "Don't you see? Earlier, with the first warning, you said something about plagues, war, and government right?"
Clara nodded, but still as confused as ever, "Why yes, but I don't see how that has anything to do with anything!"
Sam then turned to her uncle, "And you said you didn't know Mars was a theatre man! But he's not!"
"I know," Arthur said, his face fixed with worry about how energetic Sam seemed all of a sudden, "That was the joke, Sammy. He loved war!"
Sam snapped her fingers, her head whipping around to both of them, "Exactly! War- in two acts! But the whole thing was like with Aunt Clara and Diandra! It was the same feud but with a pause button! And what war in recent history is like that?"
"Good heavens!" Clara blinked, "How could we have forgotten the World Wars!"
"Then if it's that, answer me this, Samantha: What's with the whole Venus kissing in between business?" Arthur asked, folding his arms across his chest.
"It was The Pause between the wars, Uncle Arthur." Sam continued, "Acts go on right after another, but this one didn't. It had a gap separating them. It's symbolic more than anything."
"Obviously." Arthur sarcastically quipped, "Now Clara, what's the final sign that we should've seen coming?"
After a few seconds of Clara reading and re-reading the text, she finally looked up, bewildered, "I get this one less than the others!"
"We'll figure it out Aunt Clara." Samantha assured, "Now please tell us."
Clara said gravely, "The Blending of Blood in the House of Crowned Wreaths."
Arthur shouted out to a fictional audience, "Has anyone been blending blood lately?!" He then turned to his niece, "What about you Samantha? Play with blood?" He then turned to Clara, "You? Anyone?"
Sam herself seemed befuddled, "I… don't understand."
"Maybe it's vampires." Arthur threw out, genuinely trying to be helpful, "Like those pesky neighbors of Clara's."
Clara shook her head, "Oh no, this is our war, not theirs. And besides… Crowned Wreaths… I know those words. I've heard them before… when I was a girl…" She paused trying to figure it all out in head despite the distraction of Arthur's constant strange guesses. As she tuned him out, she whispered, "Crowned Wreaths…" She then jerked her head up, her face white and her eyes full of knowing, "How could we have been so blind?!"
Her instant change in demeanor spooked both Arthur and Samantha.
"Aunt Clara, are you alright?!" Sam asked, as Clara jerked off her glasses and dropping them inside her magical bag, her old eyes zeroing in on Samantha, "We must go, Samantha! Especially you! And we must hide the book! Nobody must know what we have just discovered!"
"Aunt Clara!" Sam cried out desperately, "What's going on?!"
"Give me the book!" Arthur shouted with half a grin, "I'll eat it and no one will be the wiser!"
"Now's not the time for your bad jokes, Arthur!" Clara snapped, her stuttering gone in a blaze of anger, "Samantha is in danger!"
No. She's not.
All three stopped and looked up high to the cosmos above them.
"Did anyone else hear that omnipresent voice or I am I just cracking under all this stress?" Arthur hoarsely whispered.
From the side of the rotundus hall, the dark red curtains swerved as if a giant wind had suddenly overtaken them, and each and every one fell pathetically onto the stained marble ground. Without the curtains to shield them, Clara, Arthur and Samantha were transfixed by the darkness that now surrounded them. And between a certain two Greek-like pillars, stood a pair of glowing blue eyes, filled with hate and anger, craving revenge and destruction.
The omnipresent voice rang out, "No one will dare hurt my Samantha."
Slowly, Samantha stood a bit straighter, a familiar feeling coursing through her, one of protection and love. And then the blue eyes moved forward to reveal the face of the creature that had terrified them so, and from the shadows, emerged Endora, in all her wicked glory.
Her voice boomed out, "Not while I'm around."
"Mother!" Sam cried out, "Why didn't you just say it was you?"
"I'll say!" Arthur snapped, wiping his sweaty forehead, shouting at his sister, "I nearly wet myself!"
Clara blinked, her usual confused look slowly letting her initial panic recede, "Endora! You scared me… almost had a heart attack…" She then told her firmly, "Don't ever do that again."
"This amazing suit was almost ruined! Did I mention that?!" Arthur shouted, trying to calm down his pulsing nerves, shrieking to no one in particular, "Just my luck! My sister be one for theatrics!"
"Just my luck my brother be one for bad comedy!" Endora snapped back before turning to Samantha, "I have been speaking to the witches' council, and we have decided that we must end this situation once and for all."
Samantha smiled a smile of relief, "Oh good! We're going back to Earth and try to get everything resolved with the mortals-"
"Not exactly." Endora paused, her eyes scanning the room before settling on the tiny book.
"Then how will we settle it?" Sam asked, her voice suddenly small. Now all of a sudden, she felt like a young little witch with all the adults around as a knowing look came across Clara's face, and finally Arthur's. While Clara looked deeply distressed, Arthur simply turned away, twisting his lips together in agitation.
And finally a bad thought occurred to Sam, "Oh mother no… you don't… you can't! You can't kill them!"
Endora stood firm, "Samantha, we must. Or, our race will die out. Together we must stand, firm, with the council and our roots."
"no." Sam whispered, unable to believe her own ears and eyes that the woman who was proposing mass genocide was the same woman who she looked up to and admired as a small child.
"We will wipe them out, every single last mortal. We have decided that it will be quick and painless-"
"No!" Samantha shouted, "I will not simply stand by and let you do this! Have you forgotten mother that I am in love with a mortal?! A mortal sired my daughter, your granddaughter! That's half of Tabitha's family tree-"
Endora said sharply, "Now it is my turn to interrupt, Samantha! We are dying here! Some of the warlocks have already reported experiencing power drains, and it won't be long before we all suffer from the same problem, and then we die here. We must go back to earth-"
"Yes!" Sam nodded.
"But we are at half strength now. And it is a long, tedious journey back home. By the time we make it to the mortal plane, our powers will be completely tapped out. And I don't doubt that by the time we reach earth, The Eternal will tell the mortals we are there. In our weaken state, they will have the jump on us, and annihilate us. What we are doing is simply surviving, Samantha, beating them before they beat us."
"NO!" Sam shouted, "Mother, this is all wrong! This is The Darkness talking! But we are more than what we came from! We are good people! We can make the choice to not do this! We can help bridge the gap of misunderstanding between us and the mortals-"
Endora's face was fixed finality, "Samantha- we are ending them. We should have done it long ago, but there was never a real reason for it. Now we have one."
Desperately Sam turned to her relatives, "Please!" She pleaded with them both, "One of you! Talk some sense into her!"
Arthur tilted his head sideways, his face unreadable. It was almost as if he were mulling something over in his mind.
Finally, Clara dared ask, her voice drained of all happiness, "You said it will be quick and painless, correct?"
Sam turned to her loveable aunt in disbelief. To hear such a statement from her beloved Aunt Clara was a nightmare within itself.
And then it got worse.
Her uncle's voice, reasoning that what was illogical was logical "Well, I suppose… it makes sense. Darwin did say, 'survival of the fittest'; and natural selection and all that… right?"
Sam turned to Uncle Arthur, her face the picture of shock, "What is going on with all of you? This isn't right!" She whipped around to face all three of them, tears threatening to spill from her eyes, but she would not have it, "We are not creatures on an island! We are people! We have a conscious! How could we live with ourselves if we do this?!"
"Well we won't live at all if we don't!" Arthur replied, his voice heavy and thick, "Besides, you don't think they're not doing the same thing right this instant? They tried killing my son with their bullets, Samantha! Right before we left, Henry told me! And now that our magic is leaving us, they can! And I will not let my boy die!"
Hearing these words, Clara flinched as Endora stood, silent and observing.
"They threw smoke bombs at Brunhilda." Clara stated quietly, "As soon as we regrouped here, I swear, I've never seen her so frazzled."
Samantha stared at them all in shock. Finally she spoke, directly at Clara, "You told me that witches don't flee, they regroup, right? Well, you're wrong. They do flee, like what we're doing right now. We're running away from what is right, for fear of death. Instead, we should be running toward what is good, because that is the right thing to do. Now I suggest you all regroup your thoughts and join me in this cause."
Both Clara and Arthur looked down ashamed, but Endora didn't even blink. She stayed firm, her cold eyes on her only daughter, and arguably her greatest love. With unreadable eyes, she said tonelessly, "Stephanus."
Samantha shook her head, "What?"
"It's a Latin word." Endora explained, but while Arthur looked up, genuinely confused, Clara turned her head to look away in disgrace. Endora continued, "It means 'wreath' or 'crown'."
Before Samantha could speak, Endora beat her to it, "For centuries, I have tried desperately to decrypt the warnings. I even helped construct the siren song to be the beacon for our sisters and brothers, so we could all escape safely when the time came. I could somewhat tell what the warnings were, but I was never one hundred percent sure. And then, you married the mortal."
Clara gasped in pain, her thoughts being voiced by Endora, "You are a target, Samantha. You were a part of the final warning."
"How could I have been?" Samantha asked, lost. She thought back to her marriage, her family, her home, for any clue if what her mother was saying had any grain of truth.
And then Endora said grimly, repeating the final warning sign, "The Blending of Blood in the House of Crowned Wreaths." She took a step toward her daughter, her eyes letting only a sliver of sympathy cross them, "It might as well read, 'The Blending of Blood in the House of Stephanus.'"
It was obvious that the truth dawned on Samantha as she said slowly, "The blending of blood… in the house of Stephens…" Her eyes widened in concern, "Tabitha! Mother would she be a target for witches looking for someone to blame in this predicament!"
Endora raised her hand, "She's safe. You kept her with Hagatha and Mary, good choice. If they could raise Serena, they can watch her like a hawk. Luckily, most witches have never even glanced at the ancient text to know she is a warning sign, but precautions must be taken."
Arthur sucked in his breath, "Holy Beegeezus! How the heck did we miss that?! Blending of Blood?"
Endora turned to Clara, "Not everyone missed it."
Clara handed the tiny ancient text to Endora, "Hide it. Destroy it. I don't care, but we must keep Samantha and Tabitha safe."
"For once," Endora said calmly, "We are in total agreement, Clara." With a wave of her hand, the ancient text was gone.
Endora then turned harden eyes to her daughter, "Come, Samantha. We must prepare ourselves, for in moments, we will descend upon the mortal plane in a vengeance, and take what is rightfully ours."
"It was never rightfully ours." Samantha mumbled, her sense of self shook by the recent revelation.
Endora placed a protective arm around her daughter, looking up, "Well, now it will be."
Soon, Arthur placed a hand on his sister's shoulder, Clara mirroring the action with a hand on Samantha's shoulder. Endora said loudly as the room began to spin, "We must accept our roots, so we can grow that much more powerful!"
Wind picked up in every direction, causing the red curtains on the ground to almost dance like heaving ghosts, celebrating the corrosion of their souls. Above them, the planets whirled wildly, and Endora said the chant of ancient times, something she hadn't uttered since Samantha's birth and now said again to protect her only daughter, "We are the forgotten. We are the hated. We are the nothing. We find acceptance only through The Darkness! Long Live The Darkness! Long- Live- Evil!"
On cue, as if they were now turning possessed by something completely alien from their characters, Clara and Arthur chanted, "We are the forgotten. We are the hated. We are the nothing. We find acceptance only through The Darkness! Long Live The Darkness!"
Samantha sucked in her breath, as if bracing herself for a killing blow when her relatives chanted, "LONG-LIVE- EVIL."
She couldn't deny the power of the darkness, she did feel a surge of wild energy and anticipation course through her very blood, but unlike everyone else, she could at least resist it.
And slowly Samantha looked up, her eyes full of despair and hope, as she murmured low enough so not a soul could hear as the wind whirled around them even more, surrounding the four in a tornado-like funnel.
If anyone would have heard her angelic voice, they would have heard, "Long Live Love."
