Chapter 1

Amanda awoke with a start. Sweat covered her body and made her brown hair stick to her cheeks. Eris, her familiar, crawled on top of her and gave her little kitten mew. It was dark in her room, which was unusual. Amanda did not fear the dark, just what was in it. She held her palm up and let a ball of fire manifest itself there. The room brighened and welcomed the light.

Mew

"A power outage, huh? That's odd, especially for here." Amanda lived in a small town in Washington. The name was odd, but it got the point across. She lived in the town Whitchville. She always wondered why a town full of witches would name their town something as unimaginative as that. But Eris had told her that it was for other witches who might be traveling.

Mew

"Experiments, huh? And how would you know that?" Amanda got up to find her stash of candles.

"Because Sandy told me." The voice was melodic. Amanda glanced over her shoulder and saw a girl her age sitting on her bed. Like Amanda, she had a slim figure, nicely toned muscles and long brown hair, as well as similar facial features. The only real differences were that Amanda had curly brown hair while the girl had straight brown hair and blonde highlights. Amanda had hazel eyes and the girl had steel grey eyes.

"Ah, what took you so long to change into your human form, Eris?"

"I like being a kitten. Anyways, Sandy told me that Celine was doing some experiments with her powers."

"And so now, because my dear Celine wanted to screw around, we're in the dark." Amanda smiled when she finally found her large pillar candles. She took her time placing them around her room, making sure they were placed in the correct positions for maximum light achievement.

"You play with fire, Celine plays with electricity."

"And you play cat-and-mouse with Sandy." Eris regarded her for moment, then looked away. Amanda lit the candles with a sweep of her arm. "Does Celine know?" Amanda came and sat next to Eris.

"I honestly don't know. Sandy said she was going to talk to her, but I don't think she has." Eris stared off into space. "Let's not talk about this right now. Your dream, was it the same?"

Amanda nodded. "Yeah, fire and all."

"You know what today is?" Eris asked her with a sad smile.

Amanda groaned. "Exactly one month from my seventeenth birthday." Amanda covered her face with her hands. "How many times have I been 17, again?"

Eris thought for a moment. "Five times. Well, that's including this time."

Amanda ticked off the names. "Georgia who was burned at the stake, Chloe who was stabbed, Penny who caught cholera, and Suzie who was shot."

"That's pretty much it, yeah." Eris said with a small yawn.

"And yet I'm no closer to breaking the curse. Why is that, do you wonder?" Amanda sprawled out on her bed, and Eris quickly curled up beside her.

"Because you're too nice to kill anyone. And you're too afraid of rejection." Eris rested her head on Amanda's stomach.

"Do you think she still loves me?"

Eris sighed. "I don't mean to give a negative response, but I doubt she remembers you." Amanda scratched Eris' head. "I mean, she probably feels like something important is missing from her life, but she doesn't know what it is."

"That was when she was alive." Amanda sighed.

"It's true, her heart stopped long ago. She has yet to be reborn, but by that time..."

"I'll be dead." Amanda fell silent as she watched the light from the candles dance across the walls and ceiling. "Eris, let's get out of here."

"What, do you want to go to the movies or something? I'm sure the gang'll be game for that."

Amanda shook her head. "No. Let's get out of town. I don't want to die here. I want my last month and two weeks alive to be spent meeting new people."

Eris propped herself up on her elbows and looked down at Amanda. "Where would we go?"

Amanda smiled up at her. "Let's just get on my broom and see where it takes us."